Dear brethren,

I have revised and expanded an apologetic composition explaining the evidence for the Bible as the Word of God from the predictive prophecies in the book of Daniel.  The occasion for the expansion was my recent debate with Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in conjunction with our church’s campus ministry at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.  We debated “The Old Testament is mainly fiction, not fact.”  Barker was in the affirmative, while I (obviously) took the negative.  (I plan to say more about the debate in a future blog post, Lord willing; the video should be here if you would like to see it shortly after this blog post is published.)  I used the book of Daniel heavily in my presentation.  In any case, if you would like to have more resources defending Scripture as God’s Word available for your church, feel free to print out copies of my work and personalize the church information at the end.  Websites are also, of course, free to link to the work.  You can read The Book of Daniel:  Proof that the Bible is the Word of God by clicking here.  To personalize the work for your church, use the webpage here to get a Word document of the (short, c. 80 pages) book.  The outline of the book is as follows:

I. Introduction: Predictive Prophecy as Proof of the Truth of the Bible

II. Does the Book of Daniel Predict the Future? The Prophecies of Daniel Expounded

            A.) Daniel 2 & 7: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome

            B.) Daniel 8 & 11:  Medo-Persia and Greece

            C.) Daniel 9:  The Year and Day of the Messiah’s Coming to Jerusalem under the Romans

III. Has the Text of Daniel been Corrupted?  Evidence for the Preservation of Scripture

            A.) Introduction

            B.) The Book of Daniel’s Own Claims and their Reception

            C.) Early References to the Book of Daniel in Other Works

            D.) Manuscript Evidence Supporting Daniel’s Authorship

            E.) The 6^th Century Hebrew and Aramaic Language of Daniel

            F.) The Knowledge of 6th Century History Supporting an Early Date for Daniel

            G.) Miscellaneous Evidences for the 6th Century Date of Daniel

            H.) Weak Arguments for a Late Maccabean Date for Daniel

            A.) Daniel’s Fourth Kingdom: Rome, not Greece

            B.) Daniel’s 70 weeks Prophecy an Unavoidable Prediction

VII. Appendix: A Technical Linguistic Justification of the Translation of Daniel 9:24-27 in the Authorized Version (KJV) and of Related Questions Pertaining to the Coming of Messiah Jesus in A. D. 33.

VIII. Sources for Further Reading and Bibliography

            A.) Recommended Sources for Further Reading

            B.) Bibliography

May the Lord use it to tear down intellectual objections to the Bible and bring sinners to the new birth.

TDR