The Coming Prince

Publisher's Note:

The course of study that led to the writing of this book began under the pressure of doubts about whether the Bible could withstand the attacks of the skeptical movement known as “the Higher Criticism.” Therefore, I took up the Daniel controversy. For whatever might be said on behalf of other parts of the Old Testament, the indictment of the Book of Daniel was supposed to be unanswerable; and, as a matter of fact, it appears at first sight to be overwhelming. No one with much experience of judicial inquiries will be surprised at the result. An utterly untenable case often appears complete and convincing when presented ex parte; and the apparent success of the critics is largely due to their abnormal capacity for one-sided statements. If any one of the visions of Daniel can be shown to be a Divine prophecy, the authority of the Book as a whole is established. In these pages, incontestable proof will be found. The elucidation offered here of the great vision of the Seventy Weeks may now be accepted without misgivings; for the searching criticism to which it has been subjected for so many years has failed to detect an error or flaw in it.* This is the special subject of the present volume. The general attack upon the Book of Daniel has been dealt with in the “Preface to the Fifth Edition,” and more recently in my Daniel in the Critics Den: a reply to Dean Farrar’s ‘Book of Daniel.’ I will only add that were I now rewriting these pages, I should express myself with increased confidence regarding the main predictions of unfulfilled prophecy, but with still greater diffidence and reserve regarding all minor questions and details of interpretation. R.A.