John Lennox: Witness of Daniel in a Pluralistic World (Part 1)
<This video has been removed. If I find it again I'll put it back up.>
This guy is the man. I cannot recommend his material more adamantly. I'll enjoy interacting with this three part series from 2011.
@2:20: Cultural eisegesis is becoming a pulpit norm. And it really could become dangerous in the hands of Biblically illiterate pastors. A faithful approach to the book of Daniel sounds exciting. And focusing on what the text says and not what it "mean" is even better. Because we actually can't talk about what a text means before we have sweat, bleed and cried in study over what the text says.
@4:25: Dr Lennox wants our judgment of his compression of the book of Daniel. Well fine. I'll judge away...yeah I don't really have any problems with his content of Daniel. Even his assertion that not all of Daniel was written by Daniel is hardly something I'm able to argue against.
@11:00: What is the thought flow and logic? 1) Introductory court scene, 2) Description of two images, 3) Comparison of two kings, 4) The end of Babylonia, 5) Another court scene refusal, 6) Two animal visions, 7) Two explications and 8) The end
@18:00: This gets good. Do we believe God is the God behind global and personal history? Do we remain faithful to God in our public devotion and public testimony? Do we expect Daniel to be faithful because God does some colossal? No. Daniel's faith is built up because the suffering was predicted to fulfill Israel's disobedience.
@21:00: And it gets better. Why would Daniel mention the vessels of God? What significance could be held here? The whole literary element here is excellent. This is a common Jewish practice and simply screams "this is important read me"! I hope you're getting excited to re-read the book of Daniel! The evaluation of importance to these vessel will come at a later date!