Missions in the Book of Daniel

Daniel as Missionary to the Heathen

The prophet Daniel is of double significance for missions to all nations. On the one hand, his book takes place among the heathen and reports that they have heard of the God of Israel on an international scale. On the other hand, he announces prophetically how God will deal with them and that His kingdom will one day include the whole world through the atoning death of His Son.

Daniel and his three friends are at the Babylonian Court (Dan. 1) and, in spite of Chaldean education , keep the commands of Israel’ s God (Dan.1:8-17), apparently with God’s blessing (Dan. 1:15- 20), so that Daniel becomes the third most powerful man in the government of three successive world empires (Dan. 1:21, 2:48- 49, 5:29, 6:3-29).

God reveals himself in a dream to the pagan ruler Nebuchadnezzar—even though the dream could he interpreted only by the Jewish missionary Daniel (Dan. 2; compare the dream in Dan. 4:7-24). The courageous testimony of Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace leads the King to an initial, wonderful confession of the God of Israel to all the world (Dan. 3-28-30) “because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort” (Dan.3:29). Even more wonderful is Nebuchadnezzar’s letter (Dan. 4:1-37) to all “people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth” (Dan. 4:1). in this letter, the most powerful man of his time confesses how God had humiliated him. He begins and ends the document with magnificent confessions and descriptions of the living God (Dan. 4:1-2, 34-36). “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation” (Dan. 4:1 and 34): “All his works are truth and his ways judgment” (Dan. 4:37).

In the same way, God reveals himself to Nebuchadnezzar’s heir, Belshazzar (Dan. 5) through a writing on the wall, and to the Mede, Darius, through Daniel’ s courageous testimony in the lions’ den. Darius also proclaims God’s power to the whole world in an official, international circular (Dan. 6:25-28). He commands that “in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel... for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his....dominion shall be even unto the end” (Dan. 6:26). Like Nebuchadnezzar, he emphasizes that Daniel’s God “delivereth and rescueth” (Dan. 6:27). (The final chapters of Daniel include the prophet’s own dreams during the reigns of Beshazzar, Darius and Cyrus).

During Daniel’s lifetime, therefore, the great world empires had heard at least twice from the highest rulers, that the God of Israel is the most powerful God, the Creator and the only real Saviour! Daniel was one of the most significant and successful missionaries of history!

God’s Worldwide Kingdom is Coming

We have assumed that the prophet Daniel was significant for missions to all nations for two reasons: 1. because the contents of his book take place among pagans and reports that heathen have heard of the God of Israel on an international scale, and 2. because Daniel prophetically announces how God will deal with the heathen nations, and that His kingdom will encompass the whole world through the atoning death of the Son of Man. We will now consider the second point.

The future of the world’s great empires and the coming of the Son of Man to save mankind are primarily described in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 and in the prophet’s visions in chapters 7 to 12. Although heathen nations play an important role in other prophecies in the book (Dan.8), we will discuss here only the prophecies which deal with the relationship between the kingdoms of the world and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Most Bible-believing theologians agree that the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2) and in Daniel’s vision of the four beasts (Dan. 7) represents a succession of great world kingdoms: the Babylonians (gold, lion) , the Medes and the Persians (silver, bear), the Greeks (copper, panther) and the Romans (iron, terrible beast). Both visions show that God will replace these human kingdoms in the period of Roman rule by his own eternal Kingdom—which has been realized in the New Testament church. The theme that God is the actual Sovereign of the world, and that His Kingdom, not those of human rulers, will last eternally, permeates the whole book of Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream ends when the figure is destroyed by a stone, which grows into a “great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan. 2:35 and 45). Daniel explains, “In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan. 2:44). The Age of World Empires will therefore end with the Romans, the Kingdom of God will he established during the period of Roman rule and grow, until it fills the whole earth. This kingdom will not be assumed by any other nation, either by those mentioned in the text or by the Jews—as the statement, “shall not be left to another people” is interpreted by many. Jesus—beginning with the disciples and the church—had indeed established His Kingdom during the Roman period, and in many parables had already announced that the Kingdom would grow until it filled the earth (for example, Mt. 13:24-35).

Daniel interprets the end of the kingdoms represented by the beasts in the same way (Dan. 7:9- 14; interpretation, Dan. 7:26-27). God decides from His throne to end the empires (Dan. 7:9-12). This occurs when the Son of Man, Jesus ‘own name for Himself, ascends to Heaven and there receives “dominion and glory, and a kingdom “from God, so that “all people, nations and languages, should serve him” (Dan. 7:14) This kingdom will be eternal (Dan. 7:14). “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Dan. 7:27).

The prophecy of the establishment of an eternal kingdom including all peoples (Daniel 9:24-27) is significant, although its interpretation is disputed. in my opinion, This concerns the time between There construction of Jerusalem (vs. 24, 25) and the crucifixion of Jesus (“to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy and to anoint the most Holy,” vs. 24, “shall Messiah be cut off,” vs. 26, the cessation of the sacrifices, vs. 9: 27) . The period of time between the events is set at 490 years (70 year-weeks of 7 years per week ) , which fits arithmetically, in any case. Not until the elimination of Messiah does a prince destroy the holy city (vs. 26), which initiates the “end” (vs. 26) of the Age of the Jews. This occurred in 70 B. C., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Emperor. (Vs. 27 repeats vs. 26 chronologically; “he” in vs. 27 would therefore be the Messiah, the “Abomination of desolation,” the destruction of the Temple; see Mt. 24:15).

1 Dispensationalists see Pentecost only as a “pre-fulfillment” of Joel 2 and do not expect the complete fulfillment until the Millennium. This interpretation is primarily directed against the Charismatics, who expect the fulfillment of the latter rain of Joel 2 in the form of a universal outburst of charismatic activity in the last days. In my opinion, neither interpretation adequately explains the fact that Peter is preaching an immediate fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy in the Pentecostal occurrence. He includes the miraculous signs of Joel 2:28-32 in his description of Pentecost—signs which, in the Old Testament always indicated overwhelming spiritual, mental and political upheavals, such as in my opinion, sufficiently accompanied the end of the Old Covenant. No stars must literally fall from Heaven, which would destroy the earth in any case, so that there could be no more history on this earth.