Familiar Stories, Deeper Questions
Good morning, I hope you are all ready for our twenty-seventh book as today we will read Daniel 1–3.
For most Christians, these are very familiar stories. As a preacher and someone who has been involved in children’s ministry for decades, the stories of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego are standards. They are easy to explain and understand. When you have faith, God protects you.
Still, they leave me with some questions I hope to answer for those of you who like to overthink everything the way I do. For instance, why did they change their names, why did they refuse the king’s food, and why did Daniel never agree to using the name Belteshazzar?
What’s in a Name?
In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (1) This is a good question.
As a child, my family and friends all called me Tommy. Then the rock band “The Who” came out with their rock opera Tommy about a deaf, dumb and blind kid, and I didn’t want to be associated with that name. Being Thomas was too formal. Then I saw a sportscaster who spelled his name the way I do, Thom, and I thought, no one would call me “Thommy” so I embraced it. Tommy just sounded like I was seven years old. Now that I am in my “golden years,” I don’t care what people call me, if they call me at all.
Babylon’s Strategy of Reprogramming
But let’s try to understand what was happening in Babylon. These four young men were handsome and had an aptitude, which Nebuchadnezzar saw as valuable. The Babylonians took 20,000 of the 150,000 Jews into captivity. These young men were the cream of the crop, and their intelligence meant they added value to the Babylonian society.
Their names, however, honored God. Daniel, for instance, in Hebrew means “God is my judge.” If you know God is your judge, live your life knowing that He sees all you do and will hold you accountable. As Christians, we believe this, but most of us live as if God is busy with the “bad people” or emergencies of the world.
God is omnipresent and omniscient. He sees and knows everything. God is a loving Father. Like a good parent, He may deal with many tasks, but He always has an eye on His children. We all will stand in judgment and need to give an answer. Daniel knew this, and we will see how he refused to defile himself.
Belteshazzar meant “Bel protect the king.” Each of their names was God-honoring, and so to strip them of that identity, Nebuchadnezzar changed them to names which would honor him or his gods. It was part of the brainwashing and oppression we saw when the British forced the young lady we call Pocahontas to change her name from Amonute, or her common name Matoaka, to Pocahontas, and later to Rebecca (2).
Renaming and Dehumanization
The same principle applied to the Nazis classifying the prisoners they had in concentration camps as the numbers tattooed to their arms (3). Tattoos were against their religion, and they didn’t want them to identify as anything human. A similar practice persists today when a Westerner converts to Islam and changes their name.
Even cults like that of Charles Manson would give their followers new “family” names (4). It is hard to hate someone named John if your name is also John. They had to make their own people into the enemy.
Control Through Conformity
Then it was a matter of control. Once you realize you can’t even stop your captors from changing your name, beliefs, and even your diet, it is only a few brief steps to training you to attack your previous culture. Changing the captive Jews’ diet would seem like it was for their own good. If they didn’t eat the king’s food and drink his wine, they would not look as healthy as those other people who did. In truth, holding onto their faith and standing on their morals made them look better!
Vaccines and Autonomy
I see a reflection of this in how governments around the world for decades have been forcing vaccinations on their people. In 1955, the early polio vaccines from Cutter Labs had live poliovirus in them and instead of curing the people, they were infecting them (5). This case led to the creation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
We now have documented cases of the COVID-19 vaccines being linked to myocarditis and pericarditis in young males. Most people experienced these issues after the second dose. An organization called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has been collecting thousands of reports, but has not yet established causality (7).
Discernment in Scripture and Life
This follows the pattern of controlling a population—through fear or intimidation, or promise of a benefit—to change their belief systems. A group that convinces you to compromise your values can push you to accept terrible actions, like what happened in Nazi Germany.
Appreciating the teachings on God’s care and support is an excellent aim. But delving into the underlying inquiries to decipher the biblical cautions about cultural influence, which God wants us to comprehend, is also crucial. There is nothing in the Bible that is filler. You should always ask, why did they make those people do those things? Was it just cultural, or was there something more diabolical behind it?
You must always be discerning in life and while reading the Bible.
Tomorrow, we will read Daniel 4-6.
Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II.
Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Touchstone, 1996.
Bugliosi, Vincent. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. New York: W. W. Norton, 1974.
Offit, Paul. The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. Yale University Press, 2005.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Myocarditis and Pericarditis After mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination.” Accessed August 2025.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).” Accessed August 2025.