Marilyn,

             This is the second letter that I attempted to Post on FiveDoves the other day, but it was not posted.

Let me know what you think, or perhaps what you disagree with.

                          Thank you,

                                       Gino

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Laurie, Marilyn & Bill,
         In response to the other letter, that I sent, about “How Many Thrones does the LORD sit on, in Heaven?”, there was something similar that used to confuse me.
That also had caused me to ask the following question:

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Who did Daniel see in chapter 7?

Over time, I had been asked, or shown, by people that they believe that in Daniel 7, Daniel saw both the Father and the Son as two separate men. I disagreed with them, and attempted to show them why I do not believe that this was Daniel seeing the Father. For one, no one had seen the Father, before:

John 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

The Theophanes, and in particular the Christophanes, were pre-incarnate appearances of the Son. So what did Daniel see then?

Daniel 7:1 ¶ In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and  told the sum of the matters.
 9 ¶ I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was  white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like  the fiery flame, and  his wheels as burning fire.
 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, 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.
 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is  an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that  which shall not be destroyed.
 22 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.
 26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it  unto the end.
 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is  an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
 
There are those who say that this passage shows the form of two men, one for the Father and another for the Son.  They say that the Ancient of days is clearly the Father, and the one like the Son of man is clearly Jesus.  That is why during the Dark Ages, the Father was always painted as an old man and the Son as a young man.  The question then is who is who?
            There is no need to wonder at who one  like the Son of man is,  this is the Son of man,  as it says. So, who is the Ancient of days?  The Ancient of days is the Son of God.  What? two Sons, one the Son of God and the other the Son of man?  NO!  There is only Son, who is both the Son of God and the Son of man at the same time.  This is true because he is both God and man at the same time, he is the God‑man, God manifest in the flesh.  So, when one sees God does he see the Son of God separate from the Son of man? No, these are only visions given to Daniel, revealing the two natures of Jesus Christ, God and man.  Daniel said, in lines 1 and 13, that these were visions, not an “actual” appearance of God.

The Ancient of days is not the Father:

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
 
The Ancient of days was seen.  Also it is clear that  one  like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven is a prophecy about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the greatest and most glorious event from the beginning of time until the end.

Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
 
Matthew 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
 
Mark 13:26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
 
Luke 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
 
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
 
Revelation 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one  sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
 
Even as late as the end of the tribulation, at the time of the battle of Armageddon, can the Lord still say, I come as a thief:

Revelation 16: 15  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is  he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Yet before all this, Daniel 7 says “Until the Ancient of days came”, and “and the Ancient of days did sit”.  Then “one  like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days” who was already here on the earth, sitting.  If the Ancient of days must be taken as the Father, then:

The Father comes to the earth before the Son.
The Father comes without the glory in his coming.
The Father comes without even being of much affect on the world,  as the Son still can come as a thief,  even after the Father has already come to the earth and is seated on the judgment throne.

The Ancient of days is not the Father, but the Son, because the Ancient of days comes to judge, and it is the Son,  and not the Father,  who judges.

Daniel 7:9 ¶ I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was  white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like  the fiery flame, and  his wheels as  burning fire.
 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
 26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
 
John 5:22  For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

           The Ancient of days is shown to be the Son by the very title “Ancient of days”,  and by his description:

Micah 5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though  thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet  out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is  to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been  from of old, from everlasting.
 
Daniel 7:9 ¶ I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like  the fiery flame, and  his wheels as  burning fire.
 
Revelation 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one  like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
 14 His head and his hairs were  white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were  as a flame of fire;
 
Psalm 104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with  a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
 
Matthew 17:2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
 
Mark 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

The passage in Daniel is not the Son coming to the Father’s throne on earth ‑ one  like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days ‑ but rather a revelation of the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As the Son of God he is shown as the Ancient of days sitting upon the throne of judgment.  As the Son of man he is shown coming with the clouds of heaven.  In Daniel 7:13, 14 the kingdom is given to the one like the Son of man, yet in line 27 it is shown that he is the most High,  the Ancient of days:

Daniel 7:13  I saw in the night visions, and, behold, 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.
 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is  an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that  which shall not be destroyed.
 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is  an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.