Peter, Are You Serious? Daniel? — Part 2

In this series of posts, we’re verifying Peter’s words—all the prophets foretold his generation, its events, and the consequences of those events (Acts 3:24). In roughly chronological order, we have confirmed that Moses, Samuel, Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk did so. In our last post (here), I showed that Daniel also did so as he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. 

I have written other posts about most of Daniel’s remaining visions: Daniel 7 (here); Daniel 8, 9, and 12 (here); Daniel 10 and 11 (here); Daniel 9 and 12 (here); and Daniel 12 (here). 

I want to pick up on some observations I made in those places and add a few others to emphasize that Daniel spoke of Peter’s days.

We need a great deal of humility while interpreting these visions. Sincere and godly commentators often reach different conclusions. So, I want to acknowledge that I will use our inmillennial model of prophecy as a guide.¹

The Son of Man’s Kingdom

After Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that his dream was about four successive empires, he had his own dream to the same effect. He sees four beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard, and one that was “dreadful and terrible.” The last one had ten horns, and another little horn among them (Dan 7:1–8). Many commentators agree with John Gill:

These are the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; compared to beasts, because of the rapine and violence, cruelty, oppression, and tyranny, by which they were obtained.²

In my post on this chapter (here), I suggested that the “little horn” was Herod the Great and his successors and that the ten horns represented the first ten Roman emperors.

These identifications place the fulfillment of the prophecy in Peter’s generation, allowing us to identify other events from that period. Daniel says he saw “One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him” (Dan 7:13). Without getting into the theological weeds, I will assert that this is a vision of the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Matt 16:13), as He ascended back to heaven. Consider what the apostles saw forty days after His resurrection: “While they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). We soon read about Stephen seeing Him in heaven: “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56).

Daniel reported what happened after the Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days: “Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him” (Dan 7:14).

This bestowal fits the kingdom parables Jesus told. For example, He said, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.… And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom” (Luke 19:12, 15). Jesus went on to say His coming in His kingdom would occur in His generation (Luke 21:27, 31–32).

The aim of the kingdom—“that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him”—aligns with the goal Jesus gave us for prayer and preaching: that His will would be done on earth and that all nations would become His disciples (Matt 6:10; 28:19–20).

Daniel spoke about Jesus receiving His kingdom, an event that happened in Peter’s generation.

The Seventy Weeks

As the New Testament opens, why was there a general belief that the time for the Messiah and His kingdom had arrived? The Holy Spirit had told Simeon that he would not die before seeing the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:26). Anna “looked for redemption in Jerusalem” so intently that she “did not depart from the temple” (Luke 2:37–38).

I suspect these saints knew their Bibles and the history of their nation. They knew about Daniel’s seventy-week prophecy. He had set the time for the Messiah to appear: 

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. (Dan 9:25)

These sixty-nine weeks (of years) meant that four hundred eighty-three years would elapse. That time had elapsed, so Simeon, Anna, and others knew they were living at a key moment in history.

Daniel had said other vital events would happen after the Messiah appeared. He would “be cut off, but not for Himself” (Dan 9:26a). This, of course, refers to Jesus’ crucifixion for our sins. In addition, “the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Dan 9:26b). This is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, events Jesus said would occur in His generation (Matt 24:1–3, 34).

Daniel’s seventy-week prophecy clearly spoke about things in Peter’s “these days” (Acts 3:24). 

Daniel’s Last Vision

For our purposes, we can consider the last three chapters of Daniel to be his last vision (i.e., Dan 10:1–12:13). It was a vision of what would “happen to [his] people in the latter days” (Dan 10:14). Inmillennialism insists this timestamp does not refer to the “latter days” of history, or of planet Earth. Instead, it means the “latter days” of the Mosaic age; Peter’s generation.³

Daniel gives an amazing description of events that would transpire between his time and the coming of the Messiah. Daniel Farquharson explains the complex movements of armies, the rise and fall of rulers, etc., in his book on Daniel’s last vision and prophecy (here). He says the prophet’s reference to “the king” (Dan 11:36), like the “little horn” earlier in this book, means Herod.⁴ So, when Daniel said, “News from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many” (Dan 11:44), we should understand Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (Matt 2:16–18).

Two verses later, Daniel says,

At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Dan 12:1–2)

The rest of the chapter elaborates on these statements, speaking about “the time of the end” (Dan 12:4), “a time, times, and half a time … when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered” (Dan 12:7), and “the end of the days” (Dan 12:13). 

“Michael—which means ‘Who is like God?’”⁵—refers, I believe, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is “the great prince who stands watch over the sons of [Daniel’s] people” (Dan 12:1a). The superlative “time of trouble” (Dan 12:1b) is the same period as Jesus’ “great tribulation” (Matt 24:21). The “time of the end” and other such terms mean the end of the Mosaic age. Through the protensive use of language, Daniel places the bodily resurrection (Dan 12:2) in immediate proximity to these events, even though it will not occur until the end of history. 

All these events, except the bodily resurrection, occurred in Peter’s generation.

Conclusion

We have now traversed almost a thousand years of Jewish prophecy, beginning with Moses around 1500 BC and now at Daniel around 550 BC. We continue to see the truthfulness of Peter’s assertion: “Yes, and all the prophets … as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days” (Acts 3:24). His days. The “this generation” of which Jesus spoke (Matt 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32). 

Let us praise God because He alone “[Declares] the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (Isa 46:10)!

1. Please consider becoming familiar with the inmillennial view of prophecy. You can read a summary version here or tackle the full book-length version here. The title of the book—Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days—hints at the reason for my suggestion. This model says the “last days” are identical to Peter’s “these days”; both terms refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This perspective will shed light on the prophets as we work through them.
2. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments 9 vols. (1809–10; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 6:319.
3. Please see The Last Days in Hebrews, or any of the posts with the Last Days tag (here).
4. James Farquharson, A New Illustration of the Latter Part of Daniel’s Last Vision and Prophecy (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1838), 93f.
5. H. Daniel Zacharias, “Michael the Archangel,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).