To the challenge that we have coming from another site that where I dealt with their “response” to an earlier blog, I see there has been a response to my response. As I said, I am not going to play blog ping pong back and forth so if you want to come and push your, um, response, to what I said somewhere, then I invite you to come to TheologyWeb and I’ll be glad to meet you there.
Tonight, our passage is going to be Daniel 7:9-14. This is a vision of Daniel and I am not going to get into the eschatology as fascinating as that would be, but instead I want to focus on the Trinitarian aspect firstly, because that’s more important, and secondly, because I want this blog to be about mere Christianity and not my doctrinal stance on secondary issues provided those issues don’t become heretical, like the position of the hyper-preterists.
9 “As I looked,
“thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
If there was any place where I thought somehow a theophany was taking place, it would be this one, although it must be stated that this is a vision. When the Angel of the Lord shows up in the OT, we have no reason to think that that is a vision.
I’d like you to notice something. Thrones are set in place in the 9th verse. Not a throne. Thrones. There is more than one that is making judgment here and if we think to the NT, we can think of claims of Christ that he has the right to judge.
Now, we don’t need to pay attention to the part about the little horn in the middle. This is just him getting ready to be judged. Let’s instead look at what is going on in verses 13-14.
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Now let’s consider some things about this. First, it’s one like a Son of Man, so we can all tell through the lens of the NT that this is referring to Christ. Second, he is coming with the clouds and clouds are very often tied to deity in the OT giving us an understanding about the nature of this figure. We also keep in mind that he approaches the Ancient of Days and would seem to be the only one who can do so. That would tell us about the unique nature of this one as well in his relationship to the Father.
How does it end, we look at the things that he is given, which are characteristic of deity. Some of you might think this goes against a Trinitarian concept. Not at all and we will see this more in the NT, but basically, Christ came as the Messiah and set up his kingdom and based on your eschatology, he is given the kingdom at a certain time to rule based on what he’s done in his sojourn on Earth. It does not speak against his nature.
He is also worshipped, but no one is to be worshipped but God alone. God has even given sovereignty to this one. This is truly an exalted figure if he is to be sovereign and if he is to have dominion and receive worship.
When we get to the NT, we will see more about this kingdom, but for now, we know something more about the king and it is quite revealing.
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