by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Daniel told the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, that “there is a God who reveals secrets<\/em>” (Daniel 2). All the false gods of Babylon and Egypt were no match for the true, living God. Daniel demonstrated the power of the true God by not only telling the king what he dreamed, but what it meant. He dreamed of an image with four precious metals, Gold, silver, bronze, Iron and clay, and Daniel told him these different metal parts of the image were four consecutive kingdoms of men.<\/p>\n Each would pass down until the fourth (Roman); then God would set up an everlasting kingdom, one that would not pass away like the four earthly kingdoms. The Babylonian would pass to the Medes and Persians, which in turn would pass to the Greeks, which in turn would pass to the Romans, and during that fourth kingdom, the kingdom of Christ Jesus would be established (Daniel 2:44f).<\/p>\n Jesus set up His kingdom at the right time (Acts 2:36; Colossians 1:13). How could Daniel have known beyond his time when the Messiah would come and set up His kingdom? How did He know that Jesus’ kingdom would be the kind of kingdom that couldn’t be destroyed? It is clearly a mark of divine wisdom. No other book possesses foreknowledge equal to the Bible.<\/p>\n Daniel also predicted the timing of the Messiah being “cut off<\/em>” for the sins of the world (Daniel 9:24ff) and that afterward the rebuilt temple would be destroyed again. So, basically Daniel prophesied the temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Babylonians that were holding him captive, would be rebuilt (it was during Ezra and Nehemiah’s time) and then after the Messiah came and was “cut off” (killed) the temple would afterwards be destroyed again. This goes far beyond Daniel’s time and shows that this prophecy came from God. It demonstrated God’s reality and His wisdom in seeing the distant future.<\/p>\n God in heaven reveals secrets. The Bible God is the true and living God. Jesus’ kingdom has been standing for about 2000 years. The four kingdoms of men have been in the dust of history, but Jesus’ kingdom is not earthly (John 18:36) and cannot be destroyed. You can kill some of its citizens, but the seed will germinate in another heart and produce other citizens. It cannot be destroyed. The church of Christ still exists today, proving that Daniel was guided by God to tell the dependable truth of the Almighty. Be amazed at God’s wisdom!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Daniel told the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, that “there is a God who reveals secrets” (Daniel 2). All the false gods of Babylon and Egypt were no match for the true, living God. Daniel demonstrated the power of the true God by not only telling the king what he dreamed, but what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-98849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-wisdom"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70094,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/of-daniel-of-dreams-and-nightmares\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":0},"title":"Of Daniel, Of Dreams and Nightmares","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Daniel, the prophet, is probably one of the most hated and attacked men of God to have written in the divine collection. This is because he defies the atheists and skeptics with proof of God, which is very unusual. When a robust case for God and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/materialistic-naturalism-is-there-really-a-spirit-realm\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":1},"title":"Materialistic Naturalism: Is There Really a Spirit Realm?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton To show that God has spoken (Hebrews 1:1-2) from His realm into ours, we would need words from Him that would demonstrate knowledge and power over our future. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar of such a God who reveals secrets. (Read Daniel 2). He told Nebuchadnezzar what he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60509,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-in-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":2},"title":"The Church in Prophecy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jerry C. Brewer Over the period of many centuries, the process of revealing God's eternal purpose in the church was gradual. As parents impart knowledge to their children in portions and parts from infancy to adulthood, God dealt with the human race in the revelation of His eternal purpose.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12737,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-daniel-was-the-third-ruler-in-babylon-who-were-the-first-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":3},"title":"If Daniel was the third ruler in Babylon, who were the first two?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question concerning Belshazzar and the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel was offered to be the third ruler of the kingdom if he could tell the interpretation of the writing on the wall. The question was asked, Were there two rulers in the kingdom at that time or was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90499,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/naturalism-is-an-illogical-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":4},"title":"Naturalism Is an Illogical Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Although naturalists claim to base their naturalist worldview on science, they actually do not and cannot do so. This is so because science is limited to the study of the natural world. Science tells us what the world is made of and how and why it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34737,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-a-seventh-day-adventist-claiming-that-daniels-vision-of-the-statue-is-still-being-fulfilled\/","url_meta":{"origin":98849,"position":5},"title":"I have a Seventh Day Adventist claiming that Daniel’s vision of the statue is still being fulfilled","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Jeffrey, I hope all is well with you and your family. As always I find your responses very insightful and logical. I have another question based on the book of Daniel. I know there are many who claim to understand the meaning and try to interpret what it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}