Monthly Archives: August 2011

Summary of Daniel

From the Geneva Bible:

The great providence of God, and his singular mercy towards his Church are set forth here most vividly, who never leaves his own destitute, but now in their greatest miseries and afflictions gives them Prophets, such as Ezekiel and Daniel, whom he adorned with special graces of his Holy Spirit. And Daniel above all others had most special revelations of such things as would come to the Church, even from the time that they were in captivity, to the last end of the world, and to the general resurrection, as of the four Monarchies and empires of all the world, that is, of the Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, and Romans. Also of the certain number of the times even until Christ, when all ceremonies and sacrifices would cease, because he would be the accomplishment of them: moreover he shows Christ’s office and the reason of his death, which was by his sacrifice to take away sins, and to bring everlasting life. And as from the beginning God always exercised his people under the cross, so he teaches here, that after Christ is offered, he will still leave this exercise to his Church, until the dead rise again, and Christ gathers his own into his kingdom in the heavens.

Americans Tend to Assume

“Though Americans tend to assume that all Middle Eastern immigrants are Muslim, perhaps three-quarters of Arab Americans are in fact Christians. The United States has become a popular destination for better-off Arab Christians from lands such as Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. And any likely Muslim growth through immigration will be far exceeded by the continuing Christian influx from Africa, Asia, and above all, Latin America. To adapt Professor Eck’s title, what we are seeing is How Mass Immigration Ensured That a Christian Country Has Become an Even More Christian Country (Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, pp. 123-124).