“The
Ancient of Days”
(Dan.
7:9, 13. 22).
F.G.C. writes:—Who is “The Ancient of
Days” of Daniel’s prophecy? Some say he is God the Father and others say he is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you enlighten me?
Answer:—In a sense both are right,
because the Lord Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the Father. And whatever
difficulty may attach to the understanding of the phrase, is really due to lack
of clear understanding and recognition of this fact. In our Hymn No. 42 we
rightly use the expression with reference to the “Almighty” Creator of all
things. In Dan. 9:9 we read “I beheld till the thrones were set (R.V.) and the
Ancient of days did sit . . .” Here there is obviously a plural Theophany in question. It is God’s throne (compare Ezek. 43:7; Rev. 20:4); but it is God the Father,
manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ and the redeemed, who occupies the thrones. In Dan. 7:13 the expression
obviously means God the Father:—“One like the Son of Man came with the clouds
of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before
him. And there was given him
dominion.” With this agrees Christ’s own parable of the nobleman concerning
“the Kingdom of God” (Lu. 19:11–27). And his declaration: “I ascend unto my
Father” (John 20:7). In Dan. 7:22 we read that the little horn “made war with
the saints until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time
came that the saints possessed the
Kingdom.” Here obviously the expression covers the manifestation of God the
Father in Christ and “the saints” agreeably with the parable of Lu. 19., where
Jesus says he will give them “authority” over “cities” in proportion to their
faithful service during his absence.
Nothing could be clearer than Dr.
Thomas’ remarks in the Exposition of
Daniel (p. 14):—
“The Little Horn prevailed against them,
until the Ancient of Days came.” Here is a point of time beyond which the
misfortunes of the Holy Ones do not extend. It is the turning-point in their
career in relation to the “dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong”
dominion that makes such dreadful havoc on the earth—a dominion which no
earth-born power can subdue.
The coming of the Ancient of Days is a great
event in this prophecy. He is said to sit, and one like the Son of Man to be
brought to him, after which he is said to come. When the prophecy was
delivered, He had not manifested himself in the flesh—the Son of Man had not
been born; hence that peculiar representative mode of expression: but he has
since been born, or manifested, and gone into a far country, where the
manifested Son has appeared in the presence of the Ancient of Days, or the
Father, for the purpose of receiving from him “Dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him; and all
rulers obey him.”
Though these things are promised to him,
and though he is the heir of them all, he has not received them; as is manifest
from the fact that “all people, and nations, and languages” serve the rulers of
the Gentiles, and especially that system of governments represented by the
Greco-Roman Dragon. But when the time appointed arrives, as the Ancient of Days
embodied in the holy spiritual nature, he will come, having received power and
authority to take the dominion, glory, and kingdom, promised him. Thus the Ancient
of Days comes, and “sits in Jerusalem, the Holy City, to judge all the nations
round about”—there he sits, “his throne being like the fiery flame, and his
wheels as burning fire”; and sends forth from before him a stream of fire.
(Charles Curwen Walker, “The Ancient of Days,” The Christadelphian 66,
no. 786 [December 1, 1929]: 547)
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