u/Card_Pale

(Edit: unfortunately, Truechristian doesn't allow external links so all citations have been removed)

Christians and jews have been debating for nearly 2000 years on whether if Daniel 7's son of man is Israel or a divine messiah. Interestingly enough, Rashi (one of rabbinical judaism's medieval pre-eminent rabbis) affirmed that it is a reference to THE MESSIAH:

>That is the King Messiah.

In this article, I will further lay out textual evidence that Daniel 7's son of man speaks of a divine being, and thus cannot be Israel.

Let's proceed to the text of Daniel 7:

>I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. > >And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

1. according to JA Emerton , the cloud rider imagery was used 70 times in the Old Testament. 69/69 times outside of Daniel, it was used for God alone (see Isaiah 19:1). 
2. the word "serve" (pelach) was used internally in Daniel to refer to divine worship. See Daniel 3:12, 3:17, 3:18, 6:16 & 6:20.

The top two points destroys the notion that it's Israel. Just about no jew will use such highly-exalted terms to refer to his own people, or you are interpreting that ALL JEWS are "mini-gods". A major heresy lol.

Also, Daniel himself differentiates between "people of the most high" (Israel) from the son of Man:

>And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him

In aramic, people of the saints of the most high is plural. Whereas his/him is singular. If Daniel's SOM is Israel, why the random shifting from the plural to the singular to refer to the same subject? That would be grammatically awkard.

So Daniel himself does not seem to think that the Son of Man is the same as "people of the most high"

> Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.  And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you (Zechariah 2:11)

As everyone here can tell, the speaker is God: he's saying he will come and dwell in the midst of his people. Then it goes on to say... God sends God.

It really does sound like Jesus speaking from his pre-mortal incarnation, because it says many nations will join God when God sends God- a fact that all of us can foresee.

Isaiah also said:

>Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last. (48:12) > >My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them, they stand forth together. (48:13) > >Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. (48:14) > >I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. (48:15) > >Draw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. (48:16)

So a few things we can tell:

• God is clearly the speaker here, as Isaiah says "I am the first and the last... my hand laid the foundation of the world
• For an especially airtight argument, verse 14 is a reference to Cyrus the Great.
• 48:15 then affirms that God is still the speaker, because it's saying that God has called him, and he will prosper in his way
• It naturally follows that all the first person pronouns (I/me) in verse 16 is still God... so God sends God, and God sends his spirit.

Are there any other trinitarian verses out there that you know of?