Daniel 7:28

Daniel indicated the end of the vision, and added that what he had seen and heard alarmed and terrified him. His pale face evidently resulted from his fear, as he contemplated the severe trials and persecutions awaiting his people. He originally kept this revelation to himself, perhaps because he realized that it might prove explosive if he announced it immediately.

There appear to be two specific sets of prophecies of the future in chapter 7, in addition to what would happen within Daniel’s lifetime. First, there are prophecies that deal with coming world empires that appeared (to Daniel) as regular nations. Then there are the predictions about the end of the fourth kingdom and the beginning of the fifth kingdom, which are still future events from our standpoint in history. The gap between these times was undoubtedly unclear to Daniel (cf. Isaiah 61:1-2; 1 Peter 1:10-11).

Culver summarized the evidence for the premillennial understanding of chapter 7 as follows.

"(1) Messiah’s kingdom follows Antichrist’s appearance (here described in personal rather than institutional terms), and destruction. The person has not yet appeared. This appears to make post- and a-millennial schemes identifying the Church with the Kingdom unfeasible. (2) The kingdom of Messiah here follows the Gentile kingdoms; it is at no time contemporary with them. It must, therefore, be still future. (3) The kingdom of Christ succeeds a final form of Gentile dominion which has not yet appeared. (4) The Messianic kingdom is external in aspect here, not a kingdom in men’s hearts, as Church-Kingdom theology require. (5) This kingdom is in some sense Israelitish (cf. Daniel 7:7; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:25; Daniel 7:27 with Daniel 8:24). The ’saints’ or holy people referred to here are Israel and no other. The Church is not a Jewish kingdom." [Note: Culver, "Daniel," p. 791.]