Daniel the Prophet

In high school in 1976, I had signed up for a course in eschatology because the name sounded like it would be neat. We used that book. When the priest told us that this meant that the world was going to come to an end, a bunch of the girlie-men told their mom's, who told the office and had the course cancelled. I did finally read it on my own in 1986. I found it to be a very good book. Later I did my own inductive study on it. The Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar adorned the cover when I once owned it. Later I read that the Berlin Museum has the gate reconstructed in their museum. I remeber something about the ABOMINATION THAT CAUSES DESOLATION from Daniel which DeHaan described as the pagan Greeks sacrificing a swine to Zeus on an altar in God's Temple in Jerusalem. I was so impressed at how he as a layman found this little bit of history. But when I did my own studies I think I found it in my Bible Dictionary, too. I remember the line from an angel who had told Daniel that he was a man known by god; and I thought wouldn't that be darn impressive if God thought so highly of me, too?! To be know by God. That caused me shivers. The Jews were prisoners in a hostile pagan land and Daniel had won religious liberty for the Jews by his service to Nebuchadnezzar. Was there anyone in communist countries likethat in the Soviet Union whose witness won freedom for Russian Christians? I liked the part about Daniel receiving extreme genius intellect from God for refusing to compromise his moral standards with those of the Babylonians. I liked the part about Daniel receiving prophetic dreams from God like I do from time to time. But I don't like the part about the government trying to make a psychologically castrated eunuch out of me-after all, this is a democracy. We are not living under occupation from a foreign power. I belonged to Mensa. I guess I immersed myself in Bible Study instead of getting my PhD in Chemistry for the government. HA! HA! HA! Daniel was described as a indepenant student of the Bible. He had studied the scroll of Jeremiah and had deduced that Israel's 70 years of captivity in Babylon were coming to an end. Jeremiah had prophesied 70 years of captivity in Babylon for Israel. I almost read THE GREATNESS THAT WAS BABYLON because of this book. I almost had ordered it from England. What also built my faith in the factual nature of the Bible is that so many historical empires of the past are prophesied about it it: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Syria, Greek Egypt, Rome and even modern Europe. I was so impressed when I had went to the Toledo Museaum of Art's archaeology room and had seen an ancient Greek coin with the likeness of the evil Antiochus Epiphanes from Greek-Syria on it. He was the one who defiled the Temple of God in Daniel's prophecies. The Bible is for real!