I apologize if my comments to Davy above were not clear... it is difficult to incorporate everything that one believes in such a brief response....
Since I was personally mentioned, that allows me to break down what CTK has said here. And one of the teachings of The New Testament is the idea for the Bible teacher to speak plainly, being brief. With so many with attention deficit problems today, we have to try and be even more brief when getting the Message of Bible Scripture across.
The book of Daniel was written for the Jews.
No, it was written ABOUT... the Jews and Jerusalem. The FACT that Christ's Book of Revelation which He gave to His Church directly parallels many of the events of the Book of Daniel reveals the Book of Daniel was written for the edification and learning of Christ's Church also.
I've seen that ploy often, "it was written for the Jews, and not for the Church," used by those who try to twist the Scripture away from its intended purpose for Christ's Church. It's a lead-in for deception.
But God would also give Daniel His prophecies that covered the period from Babylon to the end of time, with the majority of these events / prophecies to take place before the end of the 70 weeks of years prophecy or 3.5 years after the cross.
CTK is being very... careful to not spill the beans at this point by 'loosely'... applying that 3.5 years after the cross idea.
Fact is, per the Book of Revelation, that 3.5 years of the Book of Daniel, or 1260 days, or 42 months, is shown to happen at the very end of this world (see Rev.11 thru Rev.13). And that means, just a view isolated to Daniel's day means to omit Christ's Book of Revelation given later to the Church. And what would that mean about further understanding of many of the prophecies given Daniel?
I'll give a mechanic analogy, since I am a trained mechanic. If I tell you how to change a spark plug in your car, take you through all the steps, let that symbolically represent prophecy given in Daniel's day. But only afterwards having given those steps just to change the plug, unless I had revealed just how much spark plug gap to set, you won't know how to properly apply the use of your spark plug, and your car engine won't run properly. Let the spark plug gap represent the Book of Revelation updates about the Daniel prophecies. Both Books go together to help understand the Daniel prophecies.
Clearly, Babylon, Medes-Persia, and Greece came to power before Imperial or pagan Rome conquered the known world (before Christ). When we take a look at chapters 2,7 and 8, I think you might agree that it is fairly easy to identify those verses that speak specifically to the first 3 kingdoms. In fact, God does not spend much time talking about them.... but the 4th kingdom of Imperial / pagan Rome is spoken of more than the other 3 kingdoms combined. It really dominates the book of Daniel in the later chapters.... this is of course, when the Messiah arrives, is crucified and establishes His church on the earth.
That above is just a personal opinion. The Book of Daniel speaks a whole lot... about the Babylon kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. And the Daniel 2 Chapter with verses I have already covered, verses 34-35 and 44-45, that is showing a FIFTH BEAST at the end of this world in conjunction with the feet of part clay and part iron. Both Dougg and CTK fail to include those specific verses in their interpretation. Why? Because it obviously messes with their determined strategy to only recognize a fourth beast kingdom as the final one.
So the key is to be able to identify what kingdom, what actor, what time period are God's prophetic verses speaking to... and yes, most are speaking to this 4th kingdom. This is the time when the Jews are restored back in Jerusalem, they have reinstuted the Holy feast days, the Sabbatical cycles, the Levitical ceremonies.... everything is back the way it was prior to their exile.... with one exception - the Ark of the Covenant which was taken away and hidden by Jeremiah just before the Babylonians came to take the Jews away. This is critical because this is the only piece of furniture that was taken away or destroyed by the Babylonians that could not be restored by the Jews.
That in red above is about the Jew's religion, JUDAISM, not Christianity. And it is NOT about the 4th kingdom. Just who and when was... the 4th beast kingdom per the Book of Daniel? Let's see, No.1 was the head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylon empire; then No.2 was the breast and arms of silver of the Medo-Persia empire; and then No.3 was the belly and thighs of brass representing the Macedonia empire; and
then No.4 was the legs of iron represented by the Roman empire.
Thus the 4th beast kingdom was HISTORY with the old pagan Roman empire. It has never been revived either. The closest the Roman empire ever got to being revived was when Italy was a member of the Axis powers during world war two, on the side of Hitler and Japan.
So God provided Daniel with the 70 weeks of years prophecy which predicted their return to Jerusalem, the restoration of their life style, the streets and walls, etc. This was indeed fully and completely restored by the Jews by the end of th 69th week (483 years srom 457 BC). Meaning, the only piece of furniture yet to be restored is the Ark and that could only be restored by God - in the form of Jesus, and He would be baptized in the Jordan on the first day of the 70th week. This would be the start of His ministry and was set aside for the final 7 years of the prophecy.
Looks like CTK is confused about the timing of the end of the 69th week. It ended with Christ's crucifixion, which the Christian Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger set the date of Christ's crucifixion at 29 A.D. (See
The Seventy Weeks of Dan. 9:24-27. - Appendix to the Companion Bible).
Ask yourself brethren, if Lord Jesus was crucified to end... the 69th week, then HOW could Jesus have been baptized to START His Ministry to begin the 70th week???
That's enough to reveal CTK is on man's false Seventh Day Adventist's (SDA) false theory that Jesus fuliflled the 70th week of Daniel 9, when the final 70th week ONLY applies to the coming Antichrist at the end of this world.
CTK never got the spark plug gap setting from proper study of Christ's Book of Revelation that reveals this point about when the 70th week happens.
