Content deleted Content added
Undid revision 624702573 by JudeccaXIII (talk)Nothing POV about that - restoring. |
→Influence: ce - can't figure out what 'nor' is in apposition to or what effect it has here |
||
Line 160:
Daniel remains one of the most influential apocalypses in modern America, along with [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]] and [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]]. For modern popularisers elaborating a traditional Christian interpretive framework, Daniel is a prophet who foretells the first coming of Jesus and a series of events that still lie in the future, when a ten-nation confederation (symbolised by the ten toes of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream), ruled by the [[Antichrist]] (the "little horn"), will be destroyed by Jesus (the "rock not made by human hands") as he returns (the [[Second Coming]] to rule the final and eternal kingdom.{{sfn|Boyer|1992|p=24,30–31}} The basic themes in apocalyptic belief as a whole include: America's destiny; Antichrist's identity and signs of his activity in current events; the precise sequence of end-time events; and the vision of a world far different from the present one.{{sfn|Boyer|1992|p=78}} Individual interpretations of the biblical texts have been ever-changing: in the first half of the 19th century, Daniel was found to have foretold the American [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], and the U.S. itself was the Danielic Fifth Kingdom.{{sfn|Boyer|1992|p=85}} In the 1980s the advent of the ten-member European Union was greeted as confirmation of the ten toes and horns of Daniel's visions, a new Roman Empire, "ready to install a modern-day Nero Caesar on the throne;" However, EU membership rose to 12 by the late 1980s and 28 by 2013, with several more countries moving towards membership.
Daniel belongs not only to the religious tradition but also to the Western secular heritage. Philosophers ([[Spinoza]]), psychologists ([[Carl Jung]]) and the physicist [[Isaac Newton]] all paid special attention to the book; it has inspired musicians from Medieval liturgical drama to the 20th century compositions of [[Darius Milhaud]], and artists including [[Michelangelo]], [[Rembrandt]] and [[Delacroix]] have drawn upon its imagery.{{sfn|Doukhan|2000|p=9}}
| |||