Bible Truths: “Daniel-The Precise Prophet”

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…” Matthew 24:15

Many of us are familiar with the person of Daniel in the Bible.  During our childhood, many of us learned only one thing about Daniel’s life: he was thrown into a lion’s den.  The account of the lion’s den, however, fills just one chapter out of an amazing twelve chapters in the Book of Daniel.  Daniel, as Jesus Christ testified above, was a prophet of God.  Daniel wrote some of the most precise prophecies recorded in our Bibles.  Many of these prophecies have been fulfilled perfectly.  These fulfilled prophecies are another important proof of the supernatural inspiration of the Bible.

God raised Daniel to become an important leader in both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires.  It was during the reign of the Medes and Persians that Daniel would pass away as an old man.  This would have been around 530 years before Christ.  Daniel was given prophecies, however, that would be fulfilled many years after his death.  One such prophecy is found in Daniel, Chapter 8.

Daniel received a vision from God during the third year of the reign of Babylon’s last king, King Belshazzar (Dan 8:1).  In this vision, Daniel saw a ram with two horns destroyed by a goat with one large horn. He then saw the large horn broken and replaced by four smaller horns (Dan 8:3-8).  By itself, this vision is difficult to understand and could be fulfilled by any number of scenarios that man could dream up.  God did not leave this prophecy vague, however.  We are given the interpretation of this vision in no uncertain terms.  We are told that the ram with two horns was the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, hence the two horns.  The goat is specifically named as the kingdom of Greece.  The large horn is the first king of Greece.  This king, at the height of his power, will have his kingdom taken from him and given to four smaller kings (Dan 8:20-22).  This prophecy specifies exact names of future empires along with exact events that were to take place.  If this prophecy turns out to be wrong, we could rightly call Daniel a false prophet, he obviously did not get his words from God.  If Daniel was a false prophet, however, Jesus was unaware of it (Mt 24:15), He believed that Daniel was a true prophet of God.  That would make Jesus wrong.  But, Jesus claimed to be God.  God cannot be wrong.  Jesus could not, therefore, be God.  Jesus, then, is made out to be a liar, or, at best, a lunatic if Daniel’s prophecy is incorrect.  A lot rides on the exact fulfillment of this prophecy.

Well, as it turns out, the Medo-Persian Empire conquered Babylon 11 years after this prophecy was written, just as Daniel predicted.  Daniel was 100% correct about the ram with two horns.  The Medo-Persian Empire would dominate the landscape for another 200 years.  Then, in 331 BC, 219 years after Daniel had given his prophecy, a country named Greece defeated the Medo-Persian Empire, led by its first king: Alexander the Great.  This followed, to the letter, the prophecy given by Daniel.  Alexander the Great, while just 33 years old, while he was strong (Dan 8:8), suddenly passed away.  His kingdom, the kingdom of Greece was then divided four ways among four lesser kings, exactly as predicted by Daniel.

Precise prophecies, fulfilled perfectly, are an important proof as to the inspiration of the Bible.  Fulfilled prophecies such as these show us that we can trust the Holy Scriptures.  The Bible is not just another good book.  It is unlike any other book on earth.  It was supernaturally inspired by God.  As such, it is incapable of error and is absolutely true in everything that it says.  We may trust every word of God.  I encourage you to read and apply the Bible to your life today!