Applying Daniel's Message To The Church Today Analysis

In the article “Applying Daniel’s Messages to the Church Today,” Sidney Greidanus discusses the reasons why churches do not usually preach out of the book of Daniel and how to overcome these challenges. Three reasons why Daniel is not often taught in church is because it is seen as the prediction to the end of the world, it is difficult to understand, and there is a lot of debate about who the author is and when it was written. Even if these reasons are worked through, the pastors still struggle with applying the narrative and apocalyptic genres in the book to people in today’s church. In order to teach out of the book of Daniel to a congregation, three main challenges must be overcome for both the narrative and apocalyptic chapters; avoiding

Greidanus gives some good examples of commentators who moralized in Daniel chapter four. They wrote that the moral of the chapter was to be like Nebuchadnezzar and look to heaven instead of ourselves, individuals should share what they have learned from God, and human pride is sinful. Rather, Greidanus believes, “it was not likely that King Nebuchadnezzar would be an example and/or model for Israel in exile, Daniel is a more likely character for Israel’s identification” (260). The goal is to preach about the purpose, aim, and intention of the original author to the original audience, not make it subjective to fit into a moral that has been created out of the text. It is also important to remember this for the apocalyptic section of Daniel as well. In applying Daniel’s visions to people in the church, it is important to remember that, “the most difficult task is to understand correctly the different times and characters” (267). Preaching about the dreams that Daniel had are best after determining their theme, goal, and the need that is being addressed. If the people of the congregation are not told these things before the sermon is in full swing, they will most likely be confused and unable to understand the point that the pastor is trying to get

It can be very frustrating when authors jump into different thoughts and information without having direction or flow to their papers. This frustration can come from the confusion that occurs while trying to follow the author’s thought and ending up confused because they are not able to do so. Unlike these other authors, Greidanus connects his thoughts and ideas in a way that is very reader friendly. He states the main idea for each paragraph in the first sentence and then goes more in depth as the paragraph progresses. Along with this, in almost every single one of his paragraphs, he uses sources to get his point across. This shows the reader that he has done research and found other authors who can either back him up on his thoughts, or prove to the reader why that author is incorrect. Following this, he concludes the paragraphs with a transition that kind of sums up what he was talking about, or with a transition to prepare the reader for another point or idea to come. This is especially helpful because it is easy to read and follow