Then why did God give this contrary prophecy of coming on the clouds in addition to the one that he would come in the flesh? Jesus indicated that "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man" (John 3:13), pointing out that he came from heaven. As we well know, Jesus was born on earth from his mother Mary; but why, then, did he say he came from heaven?

The word "heaven" is frequently used in the Bible. It is consistently used as a metaphor to evoke a sense of great sacredness, goodness and value. Thus, we can interpret what Jesus said to mean: "I was born like all of you, but I am very different in the motive and origin of my birth; I am born of God."

With this understanding, it becomes unmistakably clear what the prophecy really means concerning Jesus' coming down to earth on a cloud as described in Dan. 7. The true interpretation is quite matter-of-fact, yet by sticking to the literal meaning, the people were wrong