Deliverance: Commentary on the Book of Daniel

About a year after completing his second PhD, "The Abomination of Desolation in Biblical Eschatology," under the supervision of Professor F. F. Bruce at Manchester University, Desmond Ford wrote his commentary on the Book of Daniel in 1973. Daniel is the first properly apocalyptic book in the Old Testament Bible. Eschatology means the study of the last things, and apocalyptic means "describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world." The books of Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation (or the Apocalypse) in the New Testament are often linked together as 1. prediction and 2. fulfilment. Ford wrote commentaries on both, the one on Revelation was called Crisis: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation. Much of the first six chapters cover aspects of history affecting the Babylonian Empire between the time Daniel was taken to Babylon after the first Babylonian invasion of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar to the moment the City fell in the time of Belshazzar to the Medes and Persians in 539 BC. At its heart is the fate of his people the Jews taken to Babylonia after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the ultimate fate of the world and the nations mapped out in a schema that predicts the rise and fall of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and an unnamed empire, which can be identified as Rome. This fourth empire the most terrible of all in its turn falls and divides, never to be reconstructed, despite attempts to do so, before the entry and imposition of the Eternal Kingdom of God bringing the old order of evil to a dramatic and devastating end. All this is laid out before the reader. Daniel also predicts what will happen to his people as they return rebuild Jerusalem only to face trial and persecution, the defilement of a sanctuary yet to be rebuilt and its triumph and vindication over evil at the hand of God. It is also a Book that identifies the Messiah as the Son of Man receiving and restoring the Kingdom as well as being cut off with nothing before the Temple is finally destroyed. His last chapter describes the resurrection of the dead and end time judgement as the faithful rise to eternal life and the rest to face eternal disgrace. It ends with a warning that tribulation persecution in the present order will always follow the Saints of the Most High in one form or another till the very end of time, but that in the great panorama of the continuing crisis between God and the Adversary, God always wins in the end. Dr Desmond Ford explores Daniel's themes and revelations in a unique way widening their meaning as understood at the time and throughout history to our own age. Central foci of the book are on the meaning of the theme of vindication in Daniel 8:14 and the portrayal of the Messiah who will vindicate his people in Daniel 9:24-27 and bring to pass the last days. Long out of print, this new edition is published under the title: Deliverance: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel.