1

Layout of ’s Chapters 1 2 5 3 6

4 7 10

8 11

9 12

2

1 3

Chronological Order of Daniel’s Visions

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2 Kings of

SINSARISKUN (killed in Battle of in 612 B.C.)

ASHUR-UBALLIT II (defeated at 609 B.C.)

5

612 BC

Pharaoh Necho II, who had come to aid Assyria, marched on to conquer Harran. His army entered it, but the garrison which the king of Akkad () had left there defeated them.

6

3 NEO- PERSIANS Cyaxares 690-584 BC Achaemenes 700-675 BC Nabopolassar 626-605 BC 675-640 BC

Nebuchadnezzar Amytis 630-565 BC Astyages 605-562 BC (Dan. 1-4) 620-554 BC Cyrus I 640-600 BC Ariaramnes 640-615 BC Evil-Merodach 562-560 BC (2 Kings 25:27) Mandana 584-559 BC Cambyses I 600-559 BC Arsames 610-615 BC /Labashi-Marduk (:13) 560-556 BC 559-530 BC Hystaspes 588-521 BC / () 556-539 BC (Dan. 5) (2 Chr. 36:22-23; Ezr. 1:1-4, 7-8; 5:13-17; 6:3; Is. 44:28; 45:1; Dan. 1:21; 5:30; 6:28; 10:1)

Cambyses II Smerdis () Darius I the Great 522-486 BC 530-522 BC 522 BC (Ezr. 4:5; 5:6-7; 6:1; Hag. 1:1; Zec. 1:1) Pseudo Smerdis (Gaumata) 486-465 BC

Artaxerxes I Longimanus 465-424 BC (Est. 1:1-4; Neh. 2:6)

Darius II 424-404 BC (Neh. 12:22)

7

The Kings of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

8

4 Lineage of the Neo-Babylonian Kings NABOPOLASSAR 627-605 B.C.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR 605-562 B.C.

AMEL-MARDUK Daughter married Daughter married 562-560 B.C. NERIGLISSAR NABONIDUS 560-556 B.C. 556-539 B.C.

LABASHI-MARDUK BELSHAZZAR 556 B.C. 553-539 B.C.

9

Ruins of Ehulhul, the temple of the moon god Sin in Harran

Priestess Addagoppe of the moon god Sin, mother of Nabonidus

10

5 Mood god Sin on a Chief god Marduk’s symbol, the temple-like throne mušḫuššu or “snake-dragon”

11

The Akitu festival was dedicated to the rebirth of the sun god Marduk (Chaldean new year)

12

6 Rising above the city was the , the Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, south of the huge ziggurat Etemenanki that seemed to reach to the heavens.

13

Nabonidus conquers and Edom but was Nabonidus chose to exile himself from the city in not celebrated by Babylonians who despised him the north Arabian desert oasis of Tema or Tayma. because he was displacing Marduk. He appoints his son Belshazzar rule Babylon.

14

7 485 Miles

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Nabonidus Chronicle Stela of Harran Nabonidus delegated rulership of Babylon to Nabonidus conquered his son Bel-shar-usur in 552 BC six oases in while settling in Tayma Northwest Arabia for ten years. including Tayma

16

8 Cyrus defeats Nabonidus in . was captured without battle. Gubaru, governor of Gutium, entered Babylon without a fight.

17

I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which used to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned them to their habitations. ~

18

9 Cyrus decrees return of Jews to Nebuchadnezzar invades Jerusalem three times

Babylonian Rule begins 587 B.C. 609 B.C. 562 560 556 553 606 B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. 536 B.C. 539 B.C. 597 B.C. Amel- Nerig- Belshazzar Darius Nebuchadnezzar Marduk lisser Nabonidus Cyrus

Rise of Seventy-year prophecy Babylon (:11)

19

This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ~Jeremiah 25:11

20

10 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia ~2 Chronicles 36:22

21

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” ~Ezra 1:2

22

11 23

Daniel’s Historical Chiasm Vision of kingdoms (God’s) >Chapter 2

Trial of God’s People (furnace) >Chapter 3 Juicial Exaltation of God (conversion) >Chapter 4

Exaltation of God (judgment) >Chapter 5 Confrontational Trial of God’s People (lions’ ) >Chapter 6

Vision of kingdoms (Son of Man) >Chapter 7

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12 Exaltation of God through the Judgment of a King

25

Inviolable

26

13 In DECADENCE

27

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. ~Daniel 5:1

28

14 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. ~Daniel 5:2

29

Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. ~Daniel 5:3-4

30

15 30 gold dishes 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver pans, 30 gold bowls, 410 duplicate silver bowls, 1,000 miscellaneous items. All told, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles ~Ezra 1:9-11

31

~Malcolm Muggeridge

32

16 Why do Americans feel so bad when they’ve got it so good?

It’s a moral mess, a cultural mess!

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After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for. God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret. ~Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

34

17 It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God, and naturally, hope there is no God, I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. ~Thomas Nagel

35

“If there is no God, everything is permitted.” ~Fyodor Dostoevsky

36

18 He puffed out some smoke into the air and said: “God, that’s for you.” CAZUZA (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer and singer)

37

He died a horrible and painful death shortly thereafter at the age of 32 from AIDS.

38

19 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. ~Acts 12:22-23

39

In DECADENCE In DELUSION

40

20 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. ~Daniel 5:5

41

Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. ~Daniel 5:6

42

21 The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. ~Daniel 5:7-8

43

The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. ~Daniel 5:10

44

22 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods…and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father the king made him chief of the magicians ~Daniel 5:11

45

because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams… were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. ~Daniel 5:11

46

23 Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel… “Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be…the third ruler in the kingdom.” ~Daniel 5:13, 16

47

“Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make know to him the interpretation. ~Daniel 5:13, 16

48

24 “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty…But when his heart was lifted up …he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. ~Daniel 5:18, 20

49

“He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast…until he knew the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. ~Daniel 5:21

50

25 “And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted yourself against the Lord of heaven. ~Daniel 5:22

51

And you have praised the gods…which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. ~Daniel 5:23

52

26 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. ~Daniel 5:24-25

53

MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. ~Daniel 5:27-28 54

27 55

MENE God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end ~Daniel 5:26

56

28 TEKEL you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting ~Daniel 5:27

57

PERES your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” ~Daniel 5:28

58

29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. ~Daniel 5:29

59

“Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was alright, but His disciples were thick and ordinary. The Beatles are more ~John Lennon famous than Him.”

60

30 “I am more famous than John Lennon now.” ~Mark Chapman

61

“If I get 500 electoral votes from my party, not even God could remove me from the Presidency. .” ~Tancredo Neves

62

31 He fell gravely ill on the eve of his inauguration, March 14, 1985, and died 39 days after and never assumed his position as president.

63

“Not even God himself could sink this ship.” ~Employee of the White Star Line at the launch of the Titanic, May 31, 1911

64

32 The Titanic carried over 3,000 passengers when it was sunk by an iceberg. More than 1,517 passengers lost their lives on April 15th, 1912 and only 706 survived.

65

As Stalin lay dying, plagued with terrifying hallucinations, he suddenly sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens once more, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead.

66

33 67

In DECADENCE In DELUSION In DOWNFALL

68

34 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” ~:11

69

Cyrus the Great Nearly 150 years before Cyrus’ birth, God declared through the prophet that a man named Cyrus would be the anointed shepherd of his people and rebuild Jerusalem.

70

35 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’...Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: ~Isaiah 44:27; 45:1

71

“I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, ~Isaiah 45:2

72

36 “Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world.” ~Herodotus

Babylon had 53 temples, 955 small sanctuaries, and 384 street altars—all of them within the city confines.

73

Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow two four-horse chariots to pass each other.

74

37 The city also had inner walls which were “not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong.”

75

King Astyages dreamed that out of his daughter flowed a stream that flooded all of Asia. His interpreters told him that his pregnant daughter’s son would overthrow his rule.

76

38 King Astyages weds his daughter Mandana to Persian King Cambyses to isolate her from his kingdom.

77

King Astyages hands over his grandson Cyrus to his trusted servant Harpagus and told him to kill his daughter’s child.

78

39 Harpagus could not bring himself to kill the child and instead gives Cyrus to a shepherd, Mithridates, and his wife to kill. But they were also unwilling and decided to rear Cyrus as their own son.

79

Astyages placed Harpagus in command of the Median army to conquer Cyrus but Harpagus contacted Cyrus before eventually defecting along with several of the nobility and a portion of the army.

80

40 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together… ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ ~Isaiah 45:16, 24

81

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. ~Daniel 5:30-31

82

41 Ere Karjalainen Champion

83

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance ... It is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

84

42 Adrian Rogers

85

The strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history, tore through the Philippines at speeds of 195mph leaving more than 6,300 dead.

86

43 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? ~Hebrews 2:3

87

Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” ~Ezekiel 18:31-32

88

44 The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runs into it, and is safe. ~Proverbs 18:10

89

Inviolable

90

45