Lesson 5: Daniel
The Old Testament prophets try to explain how their God can be supreme while other nations, who worship different gods, continually defeat and control the Israelites. Their attempts sometimes produce inconsistent pictures of God. In one paragraph, he brings judgment on all the people because everyone sins; in the next, he is saves them because he loves them so much. Much of this can be reconciled by noticing their arguments use the hyperbole of the day.
Daniel, on the other hand, creates greater problems that have haunted Christians to this day. His supernatural explanations often deny historical evidence.
That does not matter so much in the first part of his book, where he traces the success of four young Jewish men living in Babylonia. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to a golden idol, an angel protects them from the flames. Seeing their survival, the emperor Nebuchadnezzar supposedly praises their god and elevates them to the highest posts in his government.
The same thing happens when Daniel survives being thrown into a lion’s den for praying to the living God. The story claims that the Babylonian emperors and the Persian and Greek leaders gave him power over their own people.
There is no historical evidence for any of this. The intention seems to be to encourage Israelites to maintain their identity while living under foreign control, which will bring them prosperity in spite of the political situation.
That still has some value for Sunday School teachers trying to inspire children to live out their faith. Adults simply pass over the stories with a smile.
The problems develop over what to make of the esoteric visions Daniel presents in the second half. Some Christian groups throughout our history insist these must be regarded as essential doctrine.
The angels Gabriel and Michael appear in human form to interpret the visions as predictions of the future when it is far more likely they are self- serving interpretations of events that have already taken place.
God‘s people are no longer suffering because they refuse to obey God’s law. The visions credit this to living in an evil world that prevents them from doing so. In fact, the visions picture this evil increasing until a wicked emperor perverts the whole creation. A divine intervention ends human history. The dead are raised for a final judgment that assigns them to a blessed or a cursed eternal life. The everlasting kingdom is pushed into an other-worldly existence.
Daniel’s intention is to express the power of theHebrew God in spite of the calamities which happen to his people. However, resorting to these fictional constructs and supernatural explanations enables believers to avoid facing real historical needs.
For instance, Daniel’s bizarre imagery is used by Christian Nationalists to describe history as a spiritual war between good and evil supernatural powers. This then is used to justify using violence against those who oppose their positions.
On the other hand, it also has led to a fatalistic passive understanding of history in which humans are powerless to overcome great evil powers. The role of God’s people is confined to praying for the forgiveness of their own and their nation’s sins.
Quite frankly, I have no idea what these visions mean in the 21st-century and I very much doubt whether anyone else really does either. I do know that making them major elements in Christian doctrine greatly waters down, if not completely negates, Jesus and Paul’s call to overcome evil with love. I think that is easily understood today and is exactly what we need to follow in ministering for Christ to heal our broken world.
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