Apologetics Ministries
The Skeptics' Overrated Bible on Daniel
as analyzed by
Sheila Rangslinger

Not surprisingly, SAB blows out a host of objections that we have covered here. For these we will just put "551" after the entry.

  • 1:1-2 The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be 606 BCE, at which time Nebuchadnezzar was not yet king of Babylon. It was 597 BCE that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem for the first time (without actually destroying it). By that time Jehohiakim was dead and his son, Jehoiachin, was ruling. 551.
  • 1:1 When did Nebuchadnezzar come to Jerusalem? 551.
  • 1:8 Daniel refused to be defiled by eating meat or drinking wine. So is it, or is it not, OK to drink alcohol or eat meat? See here on wine. In terms of meat, this was a matter of ritual purity superseded at the time of Christ when the symbolic barriers were erased.
  • 2:35 The stone became "a great mountain" that "filled the whole earth." This could only be possible on a flat, disc-shaped earth. The word here, like many here, is flexible can refer to areas of land of many sizes.
  • 2:4 The Governing Body's Theocratic rule will last forever. JW complaint. We pass.
  • 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar built a statue of gold sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. Taking a cubit to be 18 inches and assuming the depth to also be six cubits, this would give a total volume of 270 cubic yards -- which would have been more than all of the gold that King Nebuchadnezzar possessed, and probably more than all of the gold in all of the kingdoms of the world at that time. Me, McTill, and Everette Hatcher have been running over this -- it's more likely gold plate. See 551 plus here.
  • 3:29 Nebuchadnezzar, after first trying to burn to death the three Hebrews, now decrees that everyone who says anything against the Hebrew god "shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill." This is an example of the loving kindness and tolerance that supernatural belief inspires in humans. Yes! For more loving kindness and tolerance, be sure and look up "Stalin" and "Mao".
  • 4:10-11, 20 Daniel's tree is tall enough to be seen from "the end of all the earth." Only on a flat earth would this be possible. See link above.
  • 4:32-33 Nebuchadnezzar eats grass, lets his hair grow like eagle feathers and his nails like bird claws. Of course, there is no record in secular history that Nebuchadnezzar suffered any such strange sickness. Yes, there is. 551.
  • 4:34-35 After going through a rather bizarre ordeal, inflicted upon him by God, Nebuchadnezzar heaps praise upon God -- in whose eyes "all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing." This is certainly a being worthy of our praise. Darn straight. And SAB counters with, what? Visions of modern self-esteem fantasies?
  • 5:2,11,18,22 Apparently, the author of Daniel know of only two Babylonian kings during the period of the exile: Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, who he wrongly thought was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. But Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BCE and was succeeded by his son, Awil-Marduk (referred to in the bible as "Evilmerodach" [see 2 Kg.25:27 and Jer.52:31]). In 560 BCE, Amel-Marduk was assassinated by his brother-in-law, Nergal-shar-usur. The next and last king of Babylon was Nabonidus who reigned from 556 to 539, when Babylon was conquered by Cyrus. It was Nabonidus, and not Belshazzar, who was the last of the Babylonian kings. Belshazzar was a the son and viceroy of Nabonidus. But he was not a king, and was not the son (or any other relation) of Nebochadnezzar. 551. This BTW is a story of Daniel, not the kings he was under! Plus one of these kings was a baby! See here.
  • 5:5-6 A detached hand writes upon the wall, and when the king sees it "the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against the other." That's nice. And the problem is?
  • 5:31 Darius the Median is a fictitious character whom the author perhaps confused with Darius I of Persia, who came to the throne in 521 BCE, 17 years after the fall of Babylon. The author of Daniel incorrectly makes him the successor of Belshazzar instead of Cyrus. 551.
  • 6:24 King Darius, after trying to feed Daniel to the lions, orders those who accused Daniel (and their wives and children) to be cast into the lion den. "And the lions ... brake all their bones in pieces." And the problem is? This was a typical Persian punishment.
  • 6:26 Darius makes a decree, "that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel." Typical Persian political correctness. Just check the Cyrus Cylinder.
  • 7:3, 8:3-6 Despite the knowledge that the writer of Daniel most likely lived well after the events he writes about, modern day Armageddonists, or Endtimers, use the vision of the four beasts to bolster their claim that the end is near. I don't. See here.
  • 7:13 Jesus returns in 1914 to rule forever over everyone on earth (through the GB). JW issue. We pass.
  • 8:10 To Daniel, the stars are small objects that can fall from the sky and then be "stamped upon." Duh ah -- SAB doesn't know any more than any other Skeptic that celestial objects represent ruling powers. Think of Old Glory. Symbolism, not cosmology.
  • 8:23-25, 11:21-45 To many endtimers, these verses describe the coming Antichrist. Not to me. See link above.
  • 9:25-27 If you want to be confused out of your gourd, check out The 70th. week of Daniel; Revelation Unsealed, By James D. Shade. This tries to link the time frame and descriptions in Daniel to the same type of passages in Revelation. SAB would be confused out of his gourd by a coloring book. Meanwhile we as noted above don't hold such a view.
  • 10:16 Daniel is literally "Touched By An Angel." And the problem, is...?
  • 11:31 The Watchtower claims that the abomination (or "the disgusting thing" as the NWT puts it) spoken of in this verse is the United Nations. That's their problem.
  • 12:2"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life..." But, I thought death is final? Dunno where he gets that idea. See here.
  • 12:7 "It shall be for a time, times, and an half." From this and a few other equally cryptic bible verses, the Jehovah's Witnesses Oh, do be real! SAB apparently used to be a JW, hence the obsession.
[Apologetics Encyclopedia of Bible Verses -- get your answers here! Look up by person's name, Scripture cite, or keyword search]
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