Page 192 - Daniel

the Romans leaving Britain in A.D. 407 and suffering a sack of Rome in
410 by the Visigoths. It was not until A.D. 1453 that the last Roman or

Byzantine ruler was killed in battle and Mehmed II conquered
Constantinople. The question facing the expositor is whether Daniel is
here describing the Roman Empire, clearly the greatest of all empires of
history. The interpreter is forced to make a decision as the evaluation of
the supporting evidence, the theological implications, and the resulting

prophetic program depend almost entirely on this question. 34

Illustration of what the fourth beast in Daniel 7 might have looked like in Daniel’s dream.

On this issue the question of whether the book of Daniel is a genuine
sixth-century writing or a second-century forgery is determinative.
Rowley objects strenuously to the accusation that the liberal view—that
the fourth kingdom is Greece—stems from prejudice, and he attempts to
turn the argument against the conservative as unfairly accusing the

liberal. Rowley quotes Charles H. H. Wright: “Wright imports prejudice
into the question by saying: ‘the real objections of the modern school to
the Old “Roman” interpretation arise from a determination to get rid at
all costs of the predictive element in prophecy, and to reduce the
prophecies of the Scripture, Old and New, to the position of being only
guesses of ancient seers, or vaticinia post eventa.’ That the Greek view

commanded so long and respectable an array of names among its
supporters, prior to the establishment of the modern school, is a
sufficient refutation of this unworthy remark. That since the
establishment of the critical school, the Greek view has continued to be
held by scholars of unimpeachable orthodoxy, is ample proof that the
case for that view rests on a far more substantial basis than prejudice.” 35