Are you Dan Daniel?

Last year, I realized something sobering: a good number of my friends either don’t believe the second half of Daniel or have never even read it. That discovery was both sad and eye-opening. Yet, it opened the door to some rich conversations.

Here’s a reality I discovered in 2024: there are men who have dedicated their lifetimes to trying to prove that the Bible is not what it claims to be. Many of their doctorates and scholarly works are built on this premise. And one of their favorite strategies is to take individual books of the Bible and argue that the authorship is false.

Daniel is one of their prime targets. Their reasoning? “It would be impossible for Daniel to describe future events with such precision. Therefore, this must have been written by someone else, centuries later, who simply used Daniel’s name.”

Their evidence usually points to:

* The presence of a few Greek words,

* Some Persian terms,

* And the fact that Daniel is written in both Hebrew and Aramaic.

But instead of disproving Daniel’s authorship, these very details confirm it! As a statesman and counselor in the Babylonian and Persian courts, Daniel would naturally have been exposed to Persians, Greeks, and representatives of many nations. His linguistic range reflects his context, not forgery.

Critics wrap all this under what they call “higher criticism,” but in truth, it is little more than an attempt to deny that God can speak before events take place. If prophecy is true, then God is real, sovereign, and active — and that is what they stumble over.

The irony is this: with every argument they raise, there is an equally strong — if not stronger — case for the reliability of Daniel. The very precision of Daniel’s visions, which critics attack, is the strongest evidence of divine inspiration. For no man could have written with such accuracy unless God Himself had revealed it.

So here’s where I land: we can acknowledge their scholarly efforts, but to me, it is a waste of energy to doubt what Jesus Himself affirmed. Our Lord quoted Daniel directly (Matthew 24:15), calling him “the prophet.” If Jesus, the Word made flesh, validated Daniel, then who am I to stand against that?

In the end, this is not just about scholarship — it is about faith. Daniel reminds us that history itself bends to the will of God, and His Kingdom will outlast every empire.

We read on.