Daniel 12

At that time Michael arises, the great prince who stands for the children of Daniel’s people. Trouble such as never has been—and deliverance for everyone written in the book. Wesley: after Antiochus the Jews had some deliverance; a greater remains when Michael your prince, the Messiah, appears for your salvation. A time of trouble he reads at the siege of Jerusalem, before the final judgment; “at that time” probably includes all the time of Christ, from his first to his last coming.

Arminian hope is shared here: the Messiah stands for the people, and the names in the book are not a scare-word. Deliverance is promised to those the Lord knows as His. Wesley does not pause to pit “written” against a general call; he preaches a greater salvation when the Prince appears. Trouble is not softened; so is the standing of Michael. The verse is comfort in anguish, not a cue for later party charts.

Calvin will allow Michael as an angel, yet he embraces those who refer this to the person of Christ, standing forward for the defense of his elect people. The great prince: immense power, sufficient without the slightest doubt for their protection. John 10 is near him: the sheep given by the Father, none plucked out. The promise is then limited: not all Israel after the flesh, but those found written in the book—the eternal counsel whereby God elected and adopted before the foundation of the world.

The Church is exposed to grievous calamity and still safe under Michael. The book is not pomp of outward profession. Shared with Wesley: Michael stands; the people written are delivered in a trouble like none before. The names are the Lord’s, and the Prince is enough.

Many who sleep in the dust will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Wesley writes no separate note on this verse; he will close the chapter with Daniel resting till the resurrection of the just. The hope is not thin. Sleep in the dust is death; waking is God’s act, not nature’s rebound. Two ends are named without apology: life that does not run out, and contempt that does not fade.

Arminian preaching here is the shared hope of the chapter: the dead shall rise, and the distinction is moral and eternal, not a puzzle about counting heads. Wesley does not fight Calvin over the word “many.” He simply does not pause on it. The pastoral weight is wake and walk toward life—the same gospel that will tell Daniel to go his way till the end.

Calvin: “many” seems here clearly put for all—not in contrast with all or few, but only with one. If this concerned none but the Church, none would rise to disgrace. The angel treats of the last resurrection, common to all, without exceptions. Dust and earth name putrid carcasses; they are no obstacle to God’s raising both elect and wicked. The prophets have no clearer testimony to this waking.

Everlasting life for the elect, everlasting disgrace for the ungodly. Present miseries are temporal; Paul is near (Rom 8:18). Shared with Wesley’s silence and with Wesley’s later “resurrection of the just”: the dead in the dust shall awake. Calvin’s “many” as all is a linguistic observation, not a feud Wesley joined. The fork is not here. The hope is.

The wise shine as the brightness of the sky; those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever. Wesley is again silent on the verse; the shine belongs with the waking of v. 2. Wisdom here is not a private lamp. Turning many to righteousness is the church’s ordinary work: pointing neighbors toward the life just named.

The stars are a promise, not a ranking of celebrities. Grace enables a turning of many; the worker does not justify the sinner, yet the worker truly labors. Shine is gift and calling together. Forever and ever answers the trouble of v. 1: the wise are not finally dust. Stay with the verse.

Calvin: those endued with understanding—who do not depart from the true knowledge of God—shall shine as the light of the firmament, heirs of a glory no earthly splendor matches. “Those who shall justify many” transfers God’s property to his ministers: not that a man justifies another, but teaching that brings faith is a means, as faith itself directs to Christ. Every child of God should interest himself in his brethren’s welfare.

God has deposited the teaching of salvation with us, not to keep privately. Shared shine: the wise and those who turn many are not two gospels. The sky and the stars are figures for what the world cannot equal. The Lord who raises the dust makes the wise bright.

Daniel must shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge shall increase. Wesley: the book was commanded to be sealed because it would be long before the words would be fulfilled, whereas those shortly to be fulfilled were forbidden to be sealed. “Will run”—shall diligently search these prophecies, know the signs of the times, and wait upon God in the way of his judgments; he means chiefly in gospel-times.

Sealing is delay, not cancellation. Search is a diligence the church may actually give. Knowledge increases as the Lord opens what He shut, not as a slogan for modern information. Wesley keeps the prophet waiting and searching in gospel days. The end is God’s; running to and fro is the saints’ work under that wait.

Calvin: closing the book is not hiding it from all men, but consoling the Prophet when few reverently embrace the teaching. If the majority pass it by contemptuously, shut it up and seal it as a treasure among disciples. Companions will be added who treat this prophecy with true piety. God will prove by the event that He has not spoken in vain. “Many shall investigate, and knowledge shall increase”: not erratic spirits, but a period when God collects many disciples, though at first they are few.

Scarcity of hearers does not cheapen the word. Shared with Wesley: sealed until the time of the end; knowledge will grow. Wesley hears length of time and gospel search; Calvin hears a treasure laid up among the few until God gathers a multitude.