This article opens a series, spanning four successive issues of The Watchtower, designed to familiarize you with one such ancient prophet, whose name was Daniel. You may know of him. He was a Jew of noble birth. While still a youth, Daniel was transported to Babylon, where he was educated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This was at the end of the seventh century B.C.E., before the destruction of Jerusalem. Daniel remained in captivity until Babylon’s fall in 539 B.C.E., after which he served in the court of the early Medo-Persian rulers. During his exile he interpreted dreams and had inspired visions that affect our day. Yes, you and your family are involved in what Daniel foretold.

An Authentic Prophet

Christ himself bore witness that Daniel was a prophet. Interestingly, Jesus did so in his own prophecy on the sign of his “presence and of the conclusion of the system of things.” He thus projected the complete fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy down to our day, when we are witnessing the various elements of the sign, such as international wars, food shortages, earthquakes, and worldwide pangs of distress.​—Matthew 24:3-8, 15.

Jesus stated: “Many false prophets will arise and mislead many; . . . this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come. Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. . . . Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.”​—Matthew 24:11-34.

The fact that Jesus warned that there would be false prophets just before he referred his disciples to “Daniel the prophet” proves that he held Daniel to be a true prophet of God.