Daniel: already fulfilled?
PROPHECY IN DANIEL -- ALREADY
FULFILLED?
C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), of unforgettable stature
in Christian history, referred to a commentary on the book of Daniel as setting
forth the "absurd
hypothesis" that all of Daniel's prophecies were
fulfilled in the period between the Old and New Testament -- that is, the years
between Malachi and Matthew (See Spurgeon's Commenting and
Commentaries, page 126, review #770).
A good friend and customer, a former missionary to
Honduras, was in my book store recently, and I raised the question of his views
on the prophecies in Daniel.
"They have all been fulfilled," he said, and
indicated they were fulfilled before the coming of Christ.
I then asked, in as gentle a manner as I could muster,
"If they have all been fulfilled before Christ, what did Jesus mean in Matthew
24:15 when He referred to the 'abomination of desolation, spoken of by
Daniel the prophet,' as being yet in the future?"
He instantly replied, "I have got to go,"
and immediately left the store.
The theory that Daniel's "abomination of
desolation" had a pre-New Testament fulfillment by Antiochus
Epiphanes is a Jewish idea first alleged in the Jewish book of First
Maccabees 1:54, which appears in the Apocrypha. Later,the first
century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, bought into
this alleged past fulfillment, and the idea has since gained a place in many
subsequent sources. No one knows what the "abomination of desolation" is, and it
is not defined in the Scriptures. Certainly, Josephus, a Pharisee priest, did
not know.
Also, Josephus apparently is the "father" of the idea
that Daniel also prophesied of Rome's destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70. Quite a number of
sources have passed this idea along, but these ideas about Daniel's
prophecies cannot be substantiated by Scripture or
history.
Although we find these alleged
fulfillments often accepted and perpetuated in commentaries and notes in
so-called "study Bibles," there is nothing in Daniel about Antiochus Epiphanes,
Rome, or A. D. 70; Daniel's prophecies are about the
end-time.
-- Bob L. Ross
(713) 477--2329
posted by Bob L. Ross @ 3:42 PM
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