Daniel The Man who Feared God 2016

32 For further analysis, see: Daniel B. Wallace, Who is Ezekiel's Daniel? http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1576

33 Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop—America’s Forgotten Founding Father (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 311.

34 Amy Dockser Marcus; The View From Nebo (UK: Back Bay Books, 2001), p. 23. However, some of her methods and conclusions are suspect; so this may also be the case with her conclusions about the dietary use of pig meat.

35 For example, Elizabeth C. Stone, Paul Zimansky, “Mashkan-shapir and the Anatomy of an Old Babylonian City,” The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Dec., 1992), pp. 212-218.

36 “Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning, the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

37 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice

38 James R. Hughes, Why Did God Permit Man to Eat Meat? 2004; http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Why_Meat.htm

39 See: Chapter 6 – “Elements, Modes and Circumstances of Worship” In: James R. Hughes, In Spirit and Truth: Worship as God Requires (Understanding and Applying the Regulative Principle of Worship), 2005; http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Publications_JRHughes.htm

40 James R. Hughes, The Sabbath: A Universal and Enduring Ordinance of God, 2006; http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Publications_JRHughes.htm

41 See: Appendix J – “Tithing vs Free-Will Offerings” in: James R. Hughes, Nehemiah the Church Builder: Instructor’s Guide, 2006; http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Publications_JRHughes.htm

42 See: Chapter 9 – “The Psalter: the Hymnbook of the Church” in: James R. Hughes, In Spirit and Truth: Worship as God Requires (Understanding and Applying the Regulative Principle of Worship), 2005; http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Publications_JRHughes.htm

43 The search for a justification for inductive reasoning has confounded non-Christian philosophers. David Hume, for example, noted the problem that everyday reasoning depends on patterns of repeated experience rather than deductively valid arguments.

44 The movies in the Matrix series explored this philosophical problem.

45 Theories of the mind fall into three basic categories: Monistic Materialism (Raw Materialism which holds that nothing but matter exists or Epiphenomenalism which holds that matter configures into ‘mind’), Monistic Idealism (Absolute Idealism which holds that nothing but mind exists or Moderate Idealism that holds that matter emanates from mind), Dualism (Parallelism which holds that mind and matter exist but do not interact or Interactionism that holds that mind and matter exist independent of one another and interact in some way)

46 When considering God’s providential control over all events, someone might ask why God would plan, decree, and permit (i.e., not restrain; Gen 20.6) evil such as a person being born blind or a terrorist attack. David Hume, quoting Epicurus, in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779) says: “Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?” This analysis has been re-stated by many atheists since Hume. However, there is no ‘problem of evil’ unless evil really exists. Without God’s moral standard, there is no evil. All other definitions of ‘evil’ are purely subjective. One man’s evil can be another man’s good. The ‘problem of evil’ turns out to be a problem for Hume, all atheists, and all unbelievers. In order to argue that something is evil they must first show that something can be evil (i.e., that the existence of evil is meaningful) and not just inconvenient, unpleasant, or against their own wills. Moral indignation against atrocities is inconsistent within their materialistic naturalistic philosophy. The unbeliever has to work from a Christian presupposition to declare something as evil. The real problem of evil is a logical problem for the unbeliever.

How then, as Christians, can we answer Hume’s challenge? We can set out the following presuppositions:

• God is completely and only good.(Ps 25.8; 119.68)

• God can do anything except what is against his nature (e.g., deny truth)

• Evil exists by definition (against God’s law) and actually (evil happens).

• God plans, decrees, and permits evil (such as man being born blind) for reasons which are morally commendable and good.

The final presupposition is the one missed by Hume. As a set, there is no logical contradiction in these four statements.

47 A. N. Wilson, "Why I believe again", New Statesman, 2009-04-02; http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2009/04/conversion-experience-atheism

48 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instanton

49 Science News, vol 113, no 15, 1978; quoted in Larry L Zimmerman, Truth and the Transcendent, p. 45.

50 Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams) is a book (in five volumes) on dream interpretation that was written by the Greek Artemidorus in the 2^nd century AD. It explains the meaning of visions such as animals in dreams (such as a fox indicating a hidden attack and a wolf indicating an open attack by an enemy). He claims that his interpretations are based on empirical validation from dream fulfillments.

51 Found in Jewish Kabbalah, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam in different forms. In Islam, Abu Hurayrah, who narrated Muhammad, said, "There are three types of dreams: a righteous dream which is glad tidings from Allah, the dream which causes sadness is from Shaitan, and a dream from the ramblings of the mind."

52 The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud, first published in German in 1899/1900. Freud believed that dreams were the "royal road to the unconscious" and were ‘wish fulfillment’ attempts by the unconscious to resolve psychological conflicts, usually repressed in the past. He states in chapter one: “In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique, every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or co-operation is responsible for our dreams.”

53 Andrea Gordon, Working with depression: Canadians say they get acceptance, awareness for their depression while on the job in the country's largest poll of workplace mental health, Toronto Star, 2007-11-20; http://www.thestar.com/living/article/277845

54 E.g.: Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything; Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion; Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon; Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation; Victor Stenger, God: The Failed Hypothesis.

55 See for example, Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005).

56 Note: the Babylonian years began in first day of the month Nisannu (March/April) on the vernal equinox (the first day of spring), so Julian calendar year reckonings are approximate.

57 Section: 7.2.1.

58 Louis Berkhof, Principles of Biblical Interpretation (Ann Arbor: Baker, 1950), pp. 131-132.

59Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1; http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.mb.txt

60 As above.

61 As above, Book 7.

62 Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, Chapter XIII – “Of the Great Country of Persia; with some account of the Three Kings,” http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10636/10636-8.txt

63 Peter J. Gentry, ‘Rethinking the “Sure Mercies of David” in Isaiah 55:3’, Westminster Theological Journal, 69, Fall 2007, p. 284.

64http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/images/blackob.jpg

65 William L. Moran, The Amarna Letters, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992., pp. 368-69 as cited in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten#_note-12.

66 http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/edwards/pharaohs/pharaohs-6.html

67 Josephus, Antiquities, book 10; chapter 10, paragraph 3; http://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/files/ant-10.htm

68 “The Islamic conquest of Persia (633–656) led to the end of the Sassanid Empire and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_conquest_of_Persia

69 Wil Durant, “Our Oriental Heritage,” The Story of Civilization, Part 1 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954), p. 240.

70 Morris Jastrow, “The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria,” Handbooks on the History of Religions, Vol. 2, (Boston: The Athenæum Press, 1893), pp. 601, 602. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20758.

71The treasury of scripture knowledge: Five hundred thousand scripture references and parallel passages. 1995. Introduction by R.A. Torrey. (2 Ki 10:27). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

72 Even though they knew that there is one supreme God, they still believed in intermediaries between God and man, whether angelic in form, gods with human traits, or jinni (genies).

73 A. T. Clay, “Bas-Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Apr., 1912), pp. 72-73.

74 Christina Tyler, “Clay Tablets Reveal Accounting Answers.” The Gazette 10, no. 36 (October 1, 1999). http://lcweb2.loc.gov/intldl/cuneihtml/gazette.html

75 David K. Moore, “The Brick of Shalmaneser - Library Artifact from Ancient Assyria Translated,” Library of Congress Bulletin, November 1999 - Vol 58, No. 11.

76 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu

77 Self-existence (aseity) is existence that is self-caused, derived from self, and having no other source.

78 Athanasius, “Letter to Marcellinus, “ in Athanasius – The Life of Antony and The Letter to Macellinus (Translation and Introduction by Robert C. Gregg), Paulist Press, NY, 1980, p. 108.

79 Athanasius uses the terms ‘psalms, ‘ ‘hymns, ‘ and ‘songs’ or ‘odes’ interchangeably, as Paul does in Col 3.16; Eph 5.19 to refer to the compositions in the Psalter; see the discussion above: Apostolic Command.

80 Athanasius, “Letter to Marcellinus, “ in Athanasius – The Life of Antony and The Letter to Macellinus, cited above, p. 109.

81 Athanasius, “Letter to Marcellinus, “ in Athanasius – The Life of Antony and The Letter to Macellinus, cited above, p. 126.

82 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

83 “Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.” http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/faqs.aspx

84 See, for example: 1) Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion—Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can be Done About It, Oxford, 2007. 2) Alec Brandon, “Hurting the third world one latte at a time,” Chicago Maroon, 2007-02-07; http://www.chicagomaroon.com/online_edition/viewpoints/2007/02/27/hurting-the-third-world-one-latte-at-a-time/ 3) Alex Singleton “The poverty of Fairtrade coffee, “ Telegraph, 2008-02-22; http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/brassneck/feb08/fairtrade.htm

85 Zinc is rarely found naturally in its elemental state. In the ancient world it was alloyed with copper through smelting the copper with calamine—a zinc ore.

86 Hesiod, Works and Days, 106-80; http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm

87 Hesiod lived in the 8^th century BC, probably about the same time or shortly after Homer.

88 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LXI.html?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=34#v.LXI-p15.1

89 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad

90 “The Sumerians and the Akkadians 2371–2190 [BC],” The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001; http://www.bartleby.com/67/84.html

91 John Malcolm Russell, Sennacherib's Palace Without Rival at Nineveh, (University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 244.

92 Cyrus, Charter of Freedom, 539 BC; http://www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus_charter.php

93 Joshua Berman, Created Equal (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 5.

94 For example, Phil J. Botha, The Reception of Daniel Chapter 2 on the Commentary Ascribed To Ephrem The Syrian Church Father; http://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/2800/1/Botha_Reception(2006).pdf

95 View supported by: Josephus, some Jewish scholars (Japet Ibn Ali, Saadia, Rashi, Abraham Ibn Ezra), Irenaeus, Chrysostum, Hippolytus Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther , Calvin, E. J. Young, Leupold, etc.

96 Some have suggested that the alliance between the Medes and Persians is represented by two arms, meeting in the breast. However, this form of symbolism introduces difficulties since there is no representation of the four kingdoms into which Alexander’s empire disintegrated. Also, the supposed division of Rome into two parts represented by the legs/feet is problematic—does it represent the period of Roman civil wars or the later eastern and western empires?

97 http://www.watchmanbiblestudy.com/biblestudies/HIStoryOurFuture_RRE.htm and http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/studies/quick/daniel2p2.htm

98 http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/ScofieldReferenceNotes/srn.cgi?book=da&chapter=002

99 http://www.raptureready.com/abc/Roman_Empire.html

100 Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel – A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), p. 41.

101 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar's_statue_vision_in_Daniel_2

102 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar's_statue_vision_in_Daniel_2

103 H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel, (Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1961). p. 122.

104 H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel, (Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1961). p. 120.

105 According to Wikipedia, William Ewing, 1910, The Temple Dictionary of the Bible, p. 514 equates Sargon to Nimrod (Gen. 10.8, 9); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod

106 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Assyria

107 Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology (Oxford University Press: 1999), pp. 26-29.

108 http://www.northvegr.org/lore/anglo_saxon_dooms/002.php#alfred

109 A. J. Robertson, ed. and trans., The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I (Cambridge University Press, 1925), p. 119.

110 “JOHN, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to ... his faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment of our Realm, by advice of our venerable Fathers ...” (Magna Carta, June 15, 1215)

111 King Edward I, Magna Carta, 1297; http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/histprof/legacy/magna2.html

112http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups

113 http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-myths-fastest-growing.htm quoting from David A. Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, (Oxford University Press, 2001), p 4. However, see: Jennifer Riley, “Christian Population Growth Rate Higher than World; Less than Muslims, Hindus,” Christian Post, 2006-01-06; http://www.christianpost.com/article/20060106/christian-population-growth-rate-higher-than-world-less-than-muslims-hindus.htm

114 Augustine, Confessions, book 11, chapter 18.

115 “Of the Holy Scripture,” Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, para. 1.

116 “Of the Holy Scripture,” Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, para. 6.

117 Louis C. West. “Imperial Publicity on Coins of the Roman Emperors, The Classical Journal, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Oct., 1949), pp. 19-26.

118 Das Dritte Reich (The Third Empire) with the Holy Roman Empire as the first and the 1871-1918 monarchy as the second.

119 Mark Grimsley, What If Hitler Had Won World War II?; http://warhistorian.org/grimsley-hitler-wins-what-if.pdf

120 Thomas F. Madden, “America's Days Aren't Numbered,” Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2008, p. A11,

121 Kenneth Gentry, The Beast of Revelation (Tyler, Tx, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989).

122 William Hendrikson, More than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book House, 1982).

123 Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception – The Struggle to Control World Population (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard, 2008) p. 380.

124 Josephus, Antiquities, book 11; chapter 8, paragraph 5; http://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/files/ant-11.htm

125 http://eawc.evansville.edu/essays/howard.htm and http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/royalcults.htm

126 Claimed to be Xerxes I (486-465 BC) by most commentators; however, See, “The Identity of Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther” in Floyd Jones, The Chronology of the Old Testament (Green Forest, AK: Master Books, 2009), pp. 199-205.

127 Claimed to be Xerxes I (486-465 BC) by most commentators; however, See, “The Identity of Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther” in Floyd Jones, The Chronology of the Old Testament (Green Forest, AK: Master Books, 2009), pp. 199-205.

128 R. B. Hughes & J. C. Laney, Tyndale concise Bible commentary. Rev. ed. of: New Bible Companion. 1990. The Tyndale reference library (316), (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale House Publishers, 2000), Daniel 3:1-7. See also: David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck; Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000), p. 359.

129 Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Book 2, chapter 9, p. 383; http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/2A*.html

130 Herodotus, The Histories, Book I, paragraph 183; http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.mb.txt

131 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes

132 William H. Shea, “Daniel 3: Extra-Biblical Tests and the Convocation on the Plain of Dura,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 20. Spring 1982:29-52.

133 From Sargon’s Prism, quoted by: H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel, (Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1961). p. 140; Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel – A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), p. 86.

134 William H. Shea, “Daniel 3: Extra-Biblical Tests and the Convocation on the Plain of Dura,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 20. Spring 1982:29-52.

135 Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel; http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom24.i.html

136 “Of the Civil Magistrate,” Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 23, para. 3.

137 Andrew Erskine, A Companion to the Hellenistic World, (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), p. 435.

138 Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary; http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trigon

139 Edwin M. Yamauchi, “Daniel and Contacts Between the Aegean and the Near East Before Alexander,” Evangelical Quarterly 53.1 (January-March 1981) pp. 37-47.

140 Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel – A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), p. 87.

141 http://www.psyk.uu.se/hemsidor/musicpsy2/

142 http://www.audiotreasure.com/mp3/Music/index.htm

143 Josef A. Jungmann, Tran. Francis A. Brunner, The Early Liturgy: To the Time of Gregory the Great (Notre Dame, IN: Univ. Notre Dame Press), 1959, p. 124.

144 The Ark was transported to Jerusalem in two stages, separated by a three-month interval (2 Sam 6.11). During the first stage, musical instruments are mentioned (2 Sam 6.5) without specific reference to sacrifices. In the second stage, musical instruments (2 Sam 6.15; 1 Chron 15.24, 28) are explicitly associated with sacrifices (2 Sam 6.13,18; 1 Chron 15.26). It is not unreasonable to assume that: 1) musical instruments and sacrifices occurred together during the first stage, or 2) if musical instruments and sacrifices were not used together during the first stage, they were associated during the second stage because David was concerned about doing everything correctly—even as he corrected the way the Ark was transported (compare 2 Sam 6.3, 4 with 2 Sam 6.13).

145 Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel; http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom24.i.html

146 Brian Schwertley