Summary and Introduction to Daniel

Reading through the Book of Daniel leaves one feeling a sense of awe, both for the volume of prophetic content and the nature of that content. It also has its challenges. Daniel is full of tricky near-far passages and typology, and that can make it sometimes difficult to determine who the scripture is referring to, the type or the antitype, the near or the far. Fortunately in the case of the Antichrist, Jesus tells us that the book of Daniel, especially chapter 9 refers to the future Endtimes version of Antichrist.

“the following elements of a type are manifest: In a type there must be a genuine resemblance in form or idea between the Old Testament reference and the New Testament counterpart.” – Ramm, Bernard. 

That is exactly what we find in Daniel. The Antiochus IV character from history, around the time of the Maccabean Revolt (165 BC), and still future to the writing of Daniel, acted out and did some of the exact same things that will happen through the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation. So the historical King Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a type of the Antichrist. 

Matthew 24:15 – (Jesus) “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”

Objective

The objective here is not to try and write a commentary, but to only include the prophecies from the Book of Daniel that are relevant to our study of the Endtimes. 

Foundation

The book of Daniel is one of the key foundational OT book for Endtimes prophecy, containing an amazing prophecy foretelling the future world gentile empires from Daniel’s day to the Second Coming and Millennial Kingdom. The point in this is to show God’s sovereign control over all things. He knows the future and architects his plan for the Endtimes.

Daniel Chapter 9 is where we learn that there is a previously unknown gap between Jesus first coming and the second – That gap is the Church Age. 

The Messiah

The book also introduces us to the Messiah in a unique way that we will show in the Seventy Weeks Prophecy page.

The Context of the Book

The context is found in the first chapter and verse.

Daniel 1:1 – In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, ⁴youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans

Daniel, a faithful Jewish youth meeting the requirements of the King is taken into captivity by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. The Captivity was the judgment from God against Israel’s southern kingdom of Judah. (The northern kingdom of Israel was previously exiled by the Assyrians.) Nebuchadnezzar also carried away objects from the Jewish Temple (Isaiah 39) that would make their way back to Jerusalem many years later. According to previous prophecy from the prophet Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 25) the captivity would last 70 years.

Seventy Years Captivity

It is important to keep in mind that Daniel knew the prophecy of Jeremiah, and that 70-Years would always be in his mind. This will be important later when we look at Daniel 9.

The King’s Dream: The Prophecy of the World Empires

In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The dream is a prophecy about the future Gentile world kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar and ending with the final Messianic Kingdom, an amazing prophetic timeline of  history.

“Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision…. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. “

Daniel 2:31-35 – “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. ³²“The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴“You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. ³⁵“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This is key to the book and it lays out the framework for the rest of the prophecies. God used this opportunity with Daniel to give us a kind of Timeline for the future. 

• The Head of Gold was King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire.
• The Breast of Silver would be the Medo-Persian Empire.
• The Belly and Thighs of Bronze would be the Greek Empire
• The Legs and Feet of Iron and Clay would be the Roman Empire.

Before the return of Christ, the final world empire will be somehow related to the Roman Empire, with the Antichrist as its head. When the Antichrist sits in the Temple in Jerusalem, he will do so as the leader of the Major Empire of the world. As we will see, he is empowered by Satan.

Key Endtimes teaching from Daniel

• The Purpose of the Endtimes
• The Antichrist
• The timeline of world empires
• The timeline of God’s dealing with Israel (70 weeks)
• The gap in that timeline to allow for the Church (still a mystery at the first coming Ephesians 3:4)
• The timing of the Tribulation periods
• The details of the AntiChrist
• The Son of Man prophecy