How Long, O Lord?: An Introduction to the Book of Daniel

From the prophecies of Daniel flower all New Testament teachings about the future. Christ's final words about coming events (Matt. 24-25; Luke 21 and Mark 13) build on Daniel's predictions about "the abomination of desolation," "a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations," the "Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven," "the end coming like a flood," and the destruction of the temple and the end of the world. Our Lord's warning about nations in distress and perplexity (Luke 21:25) has its seed in the first great Apocalypse written by the captive seer in Babylon. No other book of the Old Testament had such tremendous influence on the New Testament and the early Christian church. Scholars acknowledge that "apocalyptic was the mother of Christian theology." Ours is an age desperately seeking a theodicy, a vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of evil and the wisdom and benevolence of his ways. This Daniel provides. His prophecies understood prove that the world is a ship and not an iceberg, and that human beings are not just the product of time plus chance plus mud. Here is an answer to existentialism, atheism, and post-modernism. Dr. Ford's book provides an interpretative summary of Daniel that will prove a key of untold value for all earnest Bible students.