Extraordinary Faith – A Study of Daniel
Daniel 1:1-6
Luke 21:9
Matthew 16:21
Matthew 24:6
Matthew 26:64
Jeremiah 22:3-9
You may be surprised to find out that in this book you will find
• The Lord Jesus Christ as the rock that will crush the earth’s kingdoms. (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45)
• The Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14)
• The coming Messiah who will be crucified (Daniel 9:25-26)
Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Oxford, John Lennox in his book: Against the Flow! makes the statement:
“The story of Daniel and his friends is a clarion call to our generation to be courageous; not to lose our nerve and allow the expression of our faith to be diluted and squeezed out of the public space and thus rendered spineless and ineffective. Their story will also tell us that this objective is not likely to be achieved without cost.
As political correctness stifles Christian witness, atheism seems to become more and more vocal in the public arena. Richard Dawkins in the GOD DELUSION, Sam Harris in his LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION, Christopher Hitchens in GOD IS NOT GREAT, and Michael Onfray in ATHEIST MANIFESTO have been rallying the troops behind them by heralding the dangers of religion and the desirability of eliminating it. In order to do this, these so-called New Atheists harness the immense cultural power of science. At a conference at the Salk Institute of Biological Science in La Jolla, California, in November 1994, Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg suggested ominously that the best contribution that scientists could make in this generation was to complete elimination of religion.”
Lennox goes on to say:
“If Daniel and his three friends were with us today, I have no doubt that they would be in the vanguard of the public debate, leading the counter-charge against the self-styled “four horsemen of the New Atheism” as Dawkins and his allies Dennett, Harris and Hitches call themselves.”
Os Guiness in his book titled: “A Free People’s Suicide” published 2012, writes:
“Nothing is more daring in the American experiment than the founders’ belief that the American republic could remain free forever. But how was this to be done, and are Americans doing it today?
The ultimate threat to the American republic will be Americans. The problem is not wolves at the door but termites in the floor.”
On page 29 under the sub-title: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING he writes:
“Another criticism from abroad is that American freedom is in danger of becoming too much of a good thing and that, as always, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Claims to rights and entitlements without duty are destroying the cultural soil in which all rights and freedom itself have to be nourished; unregulated free markets are destroying Americas social bonds; an excess of democracy is undermining the carefully crafted republic of the American founders; and an increasingly corrupt form of American freedom is causing a shift from constitutional liberalism to democratic illiberalism, and in the process damaging America itself.
In short, contrary to the founders – and in ways they do not realize themselves – Americans today are heedlessly pursuing a vision of freedom that is short-lived and suicidal.
Once again, freedom without virtue, leadership without character, business without trust, law without customs, education without meaning and medicine, science and technology without human considerations can end only in disaster.
When exported abroad, the same rampant American freedom often undermines the traditional ways of life in other countries through its licentiousness, permissiveness and passion to transgress.”
