Notes on Daniel -- Part 2 -- Why A Preterist View is Needed
By Jay Rogers
One of the reasons why futurism became popular in the 1800s was because of the liberal conjecture of the higher critics. The Second Coming of Jesus was debunked by the liberals who saw in Mat. 24 (and elsewhere) a promise of the Second Coming in the first century. Since Jesus had not returned bodily to the earth by AD 70, according to the liberals, then this prophecy is obviously wrong ...
... Or it means something else.
Most fundamentalists of the 20th century decided to twist the plain meaning of Matthew 24 toward a future fulfillment. But it is very difficult to explain the passage, "This generation will not pass away until all these things come to pass." This is one reason why some conservative scholars have turned to preterism.
Premils, Postmils and Amils all agree that some of Mat. 24 was fulfilled in the first century. (Even Hal Lindsey!) And all agree (except for full preterists) that parts of the Mount Olivet passage (Mat. 24, 25) have eschatological significance as well. Therefore, all conservative views of Matthew 24 are partial preterist views. But once we accept preterism to any degree we are constrained to use this paradigm to interpret other passages of scripture.
Liberal scholars up until the time of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls liked to assign a later date to many Old Testament prophecies, because so many of the prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled to the letter by Jesus Christ. Since liberals reject the supernatural in scripture, they thought these texts must have been of a later date than the events described.
But with the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947, there is the entire Old Testament, which proves that these books existed at least as far back as the 2nd century B.C. (and some say the third). All of the books of the Hebrew Bible are represented in the Dead Sea Scroll collection except Esther.
Archaeological and historical evidence indicates that Qumran was founded in the second century B.C., during the time of the Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family that ruled Judea in the second and first centuries B.C.
-168 B.C. Antiochus IV Epiphanes captured and pillages Jerusalem.
-167 B.C. Antiochus IV Epiphanes built a statue of Jupiter Olympus in the holiest part of the Temple in Jerusalem. Beginning of Maccabean War of Liberation against Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
If Daniel first appeared at Qumran during or shortly after the time of Antiochus IV, then it must have existed earlier than that in order to have been copied and distributed so widely. (We find it in a desert commune!)
Since we have extant copies of Daniel from this time, it is certain that the book existed much earlier than that.
Further, some archaeologists date Qumran from the 3rd century B.C.
The fact that Daniel was not accepted by the Jews until after his prophecies were fulfilled, does not mean that the book did not exist prior to that. Once it became accepted by some Jews, it enjoyed a wider reading. But it was copied by those at the community of Qumran even before it was accepted as canonical.
How do we explain that?
One thing that would almost prove with certainty that Daniel existed prior to the second century B.C. would be to research whether there are any extant commentaries on Daniel kept at Qumran. That would almost guarantee an earlier date.
That is what I find so ridiculous about so much of the Higher Critical Method. Many of their assumptions are merely 19th century conjecture first designed by those with an agenda to debunk the authority of the Bible. Strangely, these opinions are held to even though 20th century archaeology has refuted many of their claims.
And this is why a preterist view of Daniel is needed.
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The Real Jesus: Who is the Real Jesus? Ever since the dawn of modern rationalism, skeptics have sought to use textual criticism, archaeology and historical reconstructions to uncover the "historical Jesus" -- a wise teacher who said many wonderful things, but fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and certainly did not rise from the dead in triumph over sin. Over the past 100 years, however, startling discoveries in biblical archaeology and scholarship have all but vanquished the faulty assumptions of these doubting modernists. Regretably, these discoveries have often been ignored by the skeptics as well as by the popular media. As a result, the liberal view still holds sway in universities and impacts the culture and even much of the church.
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