Daniel Chapter 7 Verse 1

1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, and told the sum of the matter.

Notice that chronologically this vision occurred before the events that we studied in chapter 6. In fact, this vision occurred prior to the defeat of the Chaldeans by Cyrus.

The first year of Belshazzar probably refers to the year 553 in the 6th century BC when Nabonidus left the city of Babylon for 14 years to live in North and Central Arabia. Thus, the first year of his reign would refer to the first year of his coregency.

This book states very clearly that this vision was given to Daniel in the 6th century BC. The late-date crowd states very clearly that this vision was made up in the 2nd century BC. Who are we to believe? To believe the late-date crowd requires us to believe that the author of Daniel was guilty of a deliberate lie. (If he lied he certainly had Jesus fooled! See Matthew 24:15.)