So it was written for the age of crisis the pseudonymous author found himself in, not as a book of prophecy about some far off kingdom of God to be "set up" many centuries later.
I know some people will simply not believe the Bible, regardless. But in Daniel's defense, the chronology is what comes through as confirming how accurate Daniel's prophecies are about the future. Daniel has three chronology prophecies that have to match up to the same year for the second coming. But they are based on actual events:
1. The "7 times" prophecy, which is what 1914 is based on dates the 2nd coming 2520 years after the fall of Jerusalem. This is based on that date being 607 BCE. The original date for the fall of Jerusalem is 529 BCE. That means the 2nd coming would be in 1992 rather than 1914. But that date has to match two other prophecies.
2. The "seventy weeks" prophecy requires the messiah to fulfill the 70th week. The first time he fulfills the first half; the second time he fulfills the second half. The 70th week of the first coming was 29-36. We only have to count down to our time. 70 weeks is 490 years. 4 x 490 = 1960. 1960 + 36 = 1996. So the 70th week of the second coming ends in 1996 and begins in 1989. That means the messiah would arrive within less than 1 year of the mid-week passover on April 6, 1993. That means he must arrive in 1992-1993. That matches #1! So this dating is based on the appearance of Christ in 29 CE. It is not related to ancient events with distorted dates.
3. Finally, the "1335 days" reflects the 2nd coming after the return of the Jews to their homeland which ends 1290 days. November 30, 1947 is when the official Jewish exile ended as well as the so-called "gentile times." This ended the 1290 days. In that case, the messiah was to arrive 45 years later to fulfill the 1335 days. 1290 + 45 = 1335. 1947 + 45 = 1992. Now 1947 is a modern event prophesied by Daniel that links to the 2nd coming year. Yet it is the same year you get in #1 and #2.
#1 is a bit complex because of revisionism during the Persian Period. But that is easily observed and confirmed. The apocryphal book of "Esdras" compared to Ezra/Nehemiah points to where the revisions were made. Even so, astronomy helps us to recover the original timeline. The VAT4956 thus independently dates year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II to 511 BCE in 2 lines. The other lines match 568 BCE, which is the current popular revised timeline. But note what happens when year 37 is dated to 511 BCE? That means year 19 falls in 529 BCE. Is that a coincidence? No.
Now I'm not promoting this interpretation here for your acceptance. I'm just noting that depending upon your interpretation one is impressed or not impressed with whether Daniel actually prophesied about future events or just events occurring around his own time, even though, his own time was during the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian Period and not much later during the post-exilic times of Epiphanes.
If someone doesn't want to believe and don't want anything to be fulfilled, then nothing anyone can say will change their minds. But for others of us, we're very impressed how what was prophesied by Daniel has come true in modern times.
Of course, I'm critical of those who go out of their way to discredit the Bible without knowing how to interpret it correctly, but who don't apply the same intensity to the pagan records and pagan history. Few want to discuss issues of pagan historical revisionism but automatically assume the Jews just made up things and that their history is chronically inaccurate. So I say, let's look at both with the same critical eye and see what we come up with.
