Daniel Five World Kingdoms Foretold
In the opening verse of chapter seven, Daniel speaks of his experience as a Dream and a Vision, apparently indicating that he had a vision in a dream. Here, for the first time in the book of Daniel a vision is given directly to Daniel, and in verse two Daniel is quoted in the first person, reciting this experience of the Dream and its Interpretation.
From the standpoint of world history, this has been revealed before, especially in the Vision of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2, and the outline of world history. In Chapter 7 the Vision is given through the godly prophet, Daniel, and world history is depicted as four horrible beasts, the last of which almost defies description. In chapter 7 an angel is the interpreter. Chapter 2 considers world history from Daniel’s vision given to him from God. Chapter 7 views world history from God’s point of view; the immorality, depravity, and brutality. In detail of prophecy chapter 7 far exceeds chapter 2.
In Daniel 2 God revealed to the King of Babylon the outline of the future history of the world from his own time to the setting up of God’s Kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon was wondering in his mind with troubled sleep, what would come in the future history of nations. God, in a dream made known unto him what should “come to pass hereafter.”
In Daniel 7 God gave Daniel a vision revealing the same outline of world history that was given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2: Four Gentile, (world), kingdoms and the Fifth: the Kingdom of God under Christ. In Daniel 7:2 Daniel saw, “And behold the four winds strove upon the great sea.” In Bible prophecy, the sea, (water), represents the people of the earth (Revelation 17:15). The winds represent wars and turmoil among the nations. The result was that Four Great Beasts, “came up from the sea, diverse one from another.”
In (Daniel 7:17), the Angel explains the symbols of these beasts, what they represented. “These great beasts which are four, are four kings, (kingdoms), which shall rise out of the earth,” the same as in Daniel 2. Then in verse 18 of chapter 2 are these words: “But the Saints of the most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.” Here again, as in Daniel 2 the next kingdom after the Four Beasts, (kingdoms), is God’s kingdom given to Jesus and His Saints.
The foregoing eight verses of the seventh chapter of Daniel are symbolic. This prophecy records the most concise history of the nations of the earth that was ever written. It carries us through all the ages, from the time that it was written, to the setting up of the Eternal kingdom of the Most High. Prophecy is history in advance. Only the Creator revealed it to His servants, (Isaiah 46:9-10; Amos 3:7; 2 Peter 1:21). See how this great prophetic outline of world history has been fulfilled to our time?
In the opening verses of chapter 7 of Daniel introduces his remarkable experience of having a dream and visions of a head upon his bed, which occurred in the first year of Belshazzar King of Babylon (Daniel 7:1). Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, was slain when Babylon fell to Medo-Persia on October 29, 539 B.C. The judgment was swift and inevitable. Belshazzar was slain and Darius took the throne.
Wind symbolic language is commonly understood to denote wars (Daniel 7:2) and turmoil among the nations as in (Jeremiah 4:10-13; 25:31-33; and 49:35-36). The sea or waters are likewise understood to denote people, nations, multitudes, and tongues as in (Revelation 17:15). The idea of strife is taken here from the effect that is produced where winds rise tempestuously on the great sea.
The four great beasts, therefore, would symbolize the four world empires, which were to rule the earth successively. These great beasts which are four, are four kings, (kingdoms), which shall rise out of the earth to rule the world (Daniel 7:4).
The beast like a lion is the kingdom of the Babylonians; and the king of Babylon is compared to a lion and is said to fly as an eagle (Jeremiah 4:13; Habakkuk 1:8). The lion is considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of the birds (Deuteronomy 28:49), and therefore the kingdom of Babylon, which was signified by the Golden Head of the great image, Dan. 2:32, was the first and noblest of all the kingdoms; and was the greatest of them all at that time. The wings of the eagle denote the rapidity with which the lion, (Babylon), made their conquest. The wings were plucked and it stood upon its feet as a man, “and a man’s heart was given to it.” Nebuchadnezzar was converted to worship the true God in Daniel 4, hence a heart like a man. A Godly King ruled for a time, he became humane, humble, and pious; and in this state he appears to have died. Nebuchadnezzar in 606 B.C. became the head of the New Babylonian Empire when it was at the height of its glory, which lasted until the Medes and Persians took over in 538 B.C.
The Second Beast, (the bear), represented the second kingdom, or what is known as the dual empire, namely the Medes and the Persians. The three ribs, (tusks), in the mouth of the bear (Daniel 7:5), represent three kingdoms or territories. They seem to denote the three powers, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which were ground and oppressed by the bear. The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and thirst after blood. The Persians were notorious for the cruelty of their punishment. Shortly after Cyrus conquered Babylon he made a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom that the Jews in his realm might return to Jerusalem in Judea to rebuild the City and Temple. The Medes-Persia ruled from 538 B.C. to 331 B.C. when it was overthrown by Alexander the Great. With the swiftness of a leopard, Alexander the Great conquered most of the civilized world all the way from Macedonia to Africa and eastward to India. The Medes and Persians were also known as the ram with two horns, as depicted in Daniel 8:20.
The Third Beast; the leopard is symbolic of the Grecian Kingdom, which includes the four divisions of Alexander’s kingdom after his death (Daniel 8:22), represented by the four heads of the leopard. This was the Macedonian or Greek empire where Alexander the Great is King. Nothing in the history of the world was equal to the conquest of Alexander who ran through all the countries with rapidity conquests, that is symbolic of the four wings (Daniel 7:6). The four heads signify the empire after the death of Alexander, divided between his four generals (Daniel 8:8). The whole time of the Grecian Empire reached from about 331 to 168 B.C. The fourth beast, the Roman Empire, overthrew the Grecian Empire.
The Fourth Beast was the Roman Empire, it was dreadful, terrible, and exceeding strong; it devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue (Daniel 7:7), that is, the remains of the former kingdoms with its feet. Rome ruled the world, and it had ten horns. The Ten Horns, (kingdoms) into which the Roman Empire was afterwards divided. The Roman Empire was not divided in a day, nor in a year, but gradually over a period of a century. When western Rome at last lost her power, there were just ten independent kingdoms established upon her ruins: Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Spain, Portugal, Austria-Czechoslovakia, North Africa, Italy, and Hungary-Yugoslavia. The Roman Empire ruled the world from about 168 B.C. until 1806 A.D. when Napoleon refused any longer to recognize the existence of the Holy Roman Empire.
Daniel’s spirit was grieved, (sorrowful), in his body, and the visions in his head troubled him. Daniel was concerned, affecting spirit and body, caused by the “Vision of His Head.” Daniel inquired concerning what truth was being revealed by This Vision Daniel 7:15-16), and the Angel made known to Daniel the meaning and interpretation of his dream (Revelation 21:9). Almost exact parallels can be found in the Book of Revelation where frequently John in the experience of a vision is given the interpretation of what he saw.
The angel explains the symbols of the beasts; what they represented, the same as in Daniel 2. The “four kings” obviously refer to four kingdoms as the beast represents both a king and kingdom (Daniel 7:27). Babylon the first kingdom, the second kingdom Medo-Persia, Greece the third, and Rome the fourth. The Kingdom that is given to the Saints to rule with Jesus over all the earth is called the Millennium, the one thousand year period in which Christ will reign (Daniel 7:18). On the same just principle they who have suffered for Christ, or was killed and has not worshipped the Beast or the Anti-Christ shall come to life again and shall reign with Christ at His coming (Matthew 25:34). So our Lord declares “they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead cannot die any more for they are equal unto the angels, and are Children of God.” The kingdom possessed by saints of the most high (Daniel 7:27), (high ones or in high places), include the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Rule of God, which follows. Jesus Christ will establish God’s government of peace and justice in a rebellious hostile world and then He will be King of Kings and Lord of Lord, and “He that overcometh shall inherit all thing” (Revelation 21:7)
Daniel seven reveals that these “Beasts” or wild animals, symbolize civil governments or world Empires (Daniel 7:19-21). His first “beast” the Chaldean, (Babylon); the second: Persian; the third: Greco-Macedonian; and the fourth beast symbolized the Roman Empire as a world power, dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly strong; “and it had great iron teeth.” It devoured and break in pieces throughout the known world. The final breakup of the Roman Empire came after being ruled since the days of Julius and Augustus Caesar. True civilization was declining before the final breakup of the empire. The final fall of the empire began with the Barbarian invasion by the Huns from Asia in 376 A.D., and by 476 A.D. they took over the rulership of western Rome with no one left with power to rule. There were ten of them in authority ruling certain portions. Those ten kings were the Huns, Franks, Burgundians, Anglo-Saxons, the Visgoths, Suevis, Lombards, Vandials, Heruli, and the Ostrogoth-Pannonia, (see verse 7 for the modern nations). The Church of Rome survived the wreck of the empire, and seems to have snatched from its dying hands and re-established the old empire on a grander scale; called the “Holy Roman Empire” (Revelation 13:1-18). The Little Horn that made war with the saints (Daniel 7:7-8)), was none other than the Papacy, (Pope) after the Roman Empire fell to pieces between 376 and 476 A.D. This horn or king was a different kind of ruler, and religious ruler, who after the three kings were uprooted, (Heruli, Vandals, and the Ostrogoths); he was to establish his authority and would make War with the Saints (Revelation 11:17).
The New Testament describes Jesus Christ establishing God’s government of peace and justice in a rebellious, hostile world “Now out of His Mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations,” (until people learn the way to peace). Christ and the resurrected Saints will set about to teach the world the way to peace (Daniel 7:22): The Millennial World will be filled with happy, fulfilled people, guided, helped, protected and ruled by Christ and the Saints (1 Corinthians 6:2). Christ is returning with full authority to teach nations and individuals how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matthew 22:37-39). The 1,000 Year reign over physical human beings on earth will be by Jesus Christ and His Saints (Revelation 20:4). We have seen the new society, the Ancient of Days, (God), who will establish and make truly happy people who will then live in a peaceful, clean, healthful and well-planned environment. As in Revelation, the vision the destruction of the fourth beast and the inauguration of the Fifth Kingdom from heaven is described as the time when the Saints will possess the Kingdom (Daniel 7:27), a clear factor pointing to the end of the age and the second coming of Jesus Christ. And then shall that wicked be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
The interpreter of the vision states plainly in Daniel 7 verse 23 that the fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom; an earthly kingdom which will be different from the preceding kingdom and will devour the whole earth, that is, be worldwide. (Daniel 7:24-26). In the process, it will tread down and break in pieces the preceding kingdom.
The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings (Revelation 17:12) that shall arise, (see Daniel 7 verses 19-21), and three of them were uprooted and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. This horn, or ruler, was a different kind of ruler, a religious ruler, who after the three kings were uprooted was to establish his authority and would make War with the Saints (Revelation 17:6). “He shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws” (Daniel 2:21); and they shall be given into his hands until a time (1 year) and times (2 years) and the dividing of times (1/2 year) total of three and one half years (Daniel 7:25). In prophetic language a time signifies a year; and a prophetic year has a year for each day. Three years and one half, (a day standing for a year), will amount to 1260 years (Revelation 12:14), if we calculate 30 days to each month as the Jews do.
This was the rise of the papal power in western Rome. As the imperial crown in Rome weakened and ended in 476 A.D., the Popes were building a place of power for themselves. They became the most important persons in the west. And “power was given to continue forty and two month (Revelation 13:5-8).
However, they had one problem among those conquering Teutons. The Heruli, Vandals and Osttogoths were of Arian faith and not in accord with the Popes and the Roman Church. To establish the Pope’s authority over all western and eastern Rome; Justinian, the Emperor of the empire sent his army and conquered them and established loyalty to the Papacy. The Popes ruled at the head of the State religion for 1260 years fulfilling Bible prophecy.
The first official Pope was in 440 A.D. As the official head of the State Religion of Rome, and with unlimited power they built fast a spiritual monarchy.” “The Holy Roman Empire” with a world priest, (the Pope), and a world king; both claiming to have divine authority.
By the 13th century the Popes exercised all the power that the Caesars ever did. “He shall speak as if he were God.” To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the Popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. The Apostasy had begun even then and history tells that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries many heathen customs corrupted the Church until the Papacy was born, (2 Thessalonians. 2:1-10). “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, so that he as God setteth in the temple, (Church), of God, shewing himself that he is God.” They claimed power and authority that belonged only to God and His Son. “He (Pope), shall think to change times and laws,” was abundantly fulfilled, so that their Church Doctrine is more pagan than Christian: Sunday observance instead of the 7th Day Sabbath, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day, Good Friday; just to name a few.
The Papacy was given power to rule the Roman people in religious matters as head of the State Church, the Apostate Christian Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. All who refused to obey his Papal power and laws of the Church were heretics and treated as outlaws in Rome. This power to rule and persecute the true Saints of God was given unto him to continue 42 months, (1260 years). “And shall wear out the Saints,” by wars, crusades, massacres, inquisition, and persecution of all kinds. What has this Catholic Church not done against all those who have protested against their innovation, and refused to submit to their idolatrous worship? Over 75 Million have been killed because they refused to become Catholic during that 1260 years this Church ruled. Let us throw aside all that is heathen, all that pretend to be of God and which is only of man, all doctrines that are not in the Bible, and all rites and ceremonies which are not of Christ and His apostles, and serve Him in Truth and Righteousness.
Many true Saints refused to receive the mark or honor that wicked image of the beast, (the Catholic Church). They kept the Seal of God in their foreheads during those hundreds of years of Papal rule, and they sealed their faith by a martyr’s death when tried. The inquisitions were used to hunt down those “heretics” and exterminate them. This all was fulfilled under the Papal rule of that Holy Roman Empire. To refuse allegiance to the Church or to question its authority or teachings was reputed treason against God and punishable by death. The Pope was the all powerful and absolute head, the supreme lawgiver. Heresy was the supreme crime at that time.
This was the fourth and last world empire before God’s kingdom under Christ. Daniel saw this beast “slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames.” Napoleon finished the death of the Holy Roman Empire. The final destruction of the Catholic Church, (Babylon), will come at the time of Her judgment; she will be utterly or completely destroyed.
The time when judgment shall sit and destroy the papacy, as mentioned in Daniel, is the same as that mentioned in Revelation; namely that Her Judgment will come with the Seventh Plague. And when it does it will then be that this system will be utterly destroyed.
The next immediate occurrence following the taking away of the dominion of the Papacy is the setting up of the Kingdom of the Most High, and that dominion will then belong to the Saints. It will be in the days of the ten kings, (Rev. 17:12, the ten toes), of the revived beast, when the God of heaven will set up His Kingdom.
God’s Remnant Church has two marks of identification. They “Keep the Commandments of God, and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ.” These are the people that Satan is angry with and waging war with. The Ten Commandments with the two great Commandments of love are the central moral code of the entire New Testament Scriptures. “The kingdom of this world are become the kingdom of the Lord” (Revelation 11:15), "the kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" (Psalm 145:13), "which never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44), "and the kingdom will be given to the saints" (Daniel 7:27) "and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33).
Millennium is a Latin word for “Thousand Years.” It comes from Rev. 20:1-15 where a certain period of a “Thousand Years” is mentioned. During this period Satan is “bound” with a “great chain,” “locked up” and “sealed,” so that he cannot “deceive the nations.” Persons designated as “Martyrs” who have been “Beheaded,” and those who live and died for Christ in this life will live and reign with Christ. The Saints is declared to be in the “first resurrection,” that is the resurrection of those that are in Christ.
The reigning of the Saints with Christ after His second coming is predicted several times in the Lord’s teachings, (Matthew 19:28). During the Millennium the Heavenly Jerusalem, having the glory of God shall descend on earth, and the Saints will reign on earth with our Lord. The Saints shall be God’s city and Bride, God causing His glory to shine out through them; the wife of the Lamb, for the elect Church of God shall help rule throughout eternity, because she alone shall have witnessed for Christ in the face of an opposing world and the prince of darkness continue.
The Saints are the Church (1 Corinthian 1:2). The Church comprises people called out of the world by God’s electing grace (1 Corinthian 15:23). All who are in a covenant relationship with Him through repentance and faith in His Son are regarded as Saints. They are separated from all defilement and sin through the blood of Christ, and partaker of God’s own Holiness. Throughout the Bible but especially in the Epistles of the New Testament the Saints are urged to live lives befitting their position.
Daniel expresses again how his thoughts troubled him, his countenance changed, but he kept the matter in his heart (Daniel 7:28) that is, he did not reveal it to others. Thus ends one of the great chapters of the Bible with a view of future events revealed to Daniel by the angel of God but he understood not the words: " for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end,"(Daniel 12:8-9).
There is nothing in Chapter 7 of Daniel to alter the conclusion that the fourth empire is Rome, that the little horn is the Pope, and the final state of the Catholic Church has not yet been fulfilled, and that it is a genuine prophetic revelation of God’s program for human history.
The Roman Empire swallowed and absorbed all the others, and embodied the strongest Physical and Military characteristics of all its predecessors, Notice, the “Dragon” gives this Empire its Seat and Power, and Great Authority, (Revelation 12:9 and 20:2). Both tell us in plain words this “Dragon” is Satan the Devil. It is, then, the political instrument of Satan in ruling and deceiving the world in which the great whore, (Catholic Church), rode upon in Revelation 17:1-6.
We are pilgrims in this present world. Our hope is for a better future life. Every decision, every act should be made in the light of eternity as well as of time. We should be concerned about our present life and surrounding, but our concern should not be limited to these. The future hope means that our labour now is not in vain.
Our devotion to Christ should not waver because we do not understand all about the future life. We know enough now to meet our spiritual needs. Other things will be made clear later. If you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, now is the time to do so.
In the opening verse of chapter seven, Daniel speaks of his experience as a Dream and a Vision, apparently indicating that he had a vision in a dream. Here, for the first time in the book of Daniel a vision is given directly to Daniel, and in verse two Daniel is quoted in the first person, reciting this experience of the Dream and its Interpretation.
From the standpoint of world history, this has been revealed before, especially in the Vision of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2, and the outline of world history. In Chapter 7 the Vision is given through the godly prophet, Daniel, and world history is depicted as four horrible beasts, the last of which almost defies description. In chapter 7 an angel is the interpreter. Chapter 2 considers world history from Daniel’s vision given to him from God. Chapter 7 views world history from God’s point of view; the immorality, depravity, and brutality. In detail of prophecy chapter 7 far exceeds chapter 2.
In Daniel 2 God revealed to the King of Babylon the outline of the future history of the world from his own time to the setting up of God’s Kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon was wondering in his mind with troubled sleep, what would come in the future history of nations. God, in a dream made known unto him what should “come to pass hereafter.”
In Daniel 7 God gave Daniel a vision revealing the same outline of world history that was given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2: Four Gentile, (world), kingdoms and the Fifth: the Kingdom of God under Christ. In Daniel 7:2 Daniel saw, “And behold the four winds strove upon the great sea.” In Bible prophecy, the sea, (water), represents the people of the earth (Revelation 17:15). The winds represent wars and turmoil among the nations. The result was that Four Great Beasts, “came up from the sea, diverse one from another.”
In (Daniel 7:17), the Angel explains the symbols of these beasts, what they represented. “These great beasts which are four, are four kings, (kingdoms), which shall rise out of the earth,” the same as in Daniel 2. Then in verse 18 of chapter 2 are these words: “But the Saints of the most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.” Here again, as in Daniel 2 the next kingdom after the Four Beasts, (kingdoms), is God’s kingdom given to Jesus and His Saints.
The foregoing eight verses of the seventh chapter of Daniel are symbolic. This prophecy records the most concise history of the nations of the earth that was ever written. It carries us through all the ages, from the time that it was written, to the setting up of the Eternal kingdom of the Most High. Prophecy is history in advance. Only the Creator revealed it to His servants, (Isaiah 46:9-10; Amos 3:7; 2 Peter 1:21). See how this great prophetic outline of world history has been fulfilled to our time?
In the opening verses of chapter 7 of Daniel introduces his remarkable experience of having a dream and visions of a head upon his bed, which occurred in the first year of Belshazzar King of Babylon (Daniel 7:1). Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, was slain when Babylon fell to Medo-Persia on October 29, 539 B.C. The judgment was swift and inevitable. Belshazzar was slain and Darius took the throne.
Wind symbolic language is commonly understood to denote wars (Daniel 7:2) and turmoil among the nations as in (Jeremiah 4:10-13; 25:31-33; and 49:35-36). The sea or waters are likewise understood to denote people, nations, multitudes, and tongues as in (Revelation 17:15). The idea of strife is taken here from the effect that is produced where winds rise tempestuously on the great sea.
The four great beasts, therefore, would symbolize the four world empires, which were to rule the earth successively. These great beasts which are four, are four kings, (kingdoms), which shall rise out of the earth to rule the world (Daniel 7:4).
The beast like a lion is the kingdom of the Babylonians; and the king of Babylon is compared to a lion and is said to fly as an eagle (Jeremiah 4:13; Habakkuk 1:8). The lion is considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of the birds (Deuteronomy 28:49), and therefore the kingdom of Babylon, which was signified by the Golden Head of the great image, Dan. 2:32, was the first and noblest of all the kingdoms; and was the greatest of them all at that time. The wings of the eagle denote the rapidity with which the lion, (Babylon), made their conquest. The wings were plucked and it stood upon its feet as a man, “and a man’s heart was given to it.” Nebuchadnezzar was converted to worship the true God in Daniel 4, hence a heart like a man. A Godly King ruled for a time, he became humane, humble, and pious; and in this state he appears to have died. Nebuchadnezzar in 606 B.C. became the head of the New Babylonian Empire when it was at the height of its glory, which lasted until the Medes and Persians took over in 538 B.C.
The Second Beast, (the bear), represented the second kingdom, or what is known as the dual empire, namely the Medes and the Persians. The three ribs, (tusks), in the mouth of the bear (Daniel 7:5), represent three kingdoms or territories. They seem to denote the three powers, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which were ground and oppressed by the bear. The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and thirst after blood. The Persians were notorious for the cruelty of their punishment. Shortly after Cyrus conquered Babylon he made a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom that the Jews in his realm might return to Jerusalem in Judea to rebuild the City and Temple. The Medes-Persia ruled from 538 B.C. to 331 B.C. when it was overthrown by Alexander the Great. With the swiftness of a leopard, Alexander the Great conquered most of the civilized world all the way from Macedonia to Africa and eastward to India. The Medes and Persians were also known as the ram with two horns, as depicted in Daniel 8:20.
The Third Beast; the leopard is symbolic of the Grecian Kingdom, which includes the four divisions of Alexander’s kingdom after his death (Daniel 8:22), represented by the four heads of the leopard. This was the Macedonian or Greek empire where Alexander the Great is King. Nothing in the history of the world was equal to the conquest of Alexander who ran through all the countries with rapidity conquests, that is symbolic of the four wings (Daniel 7:6). The four heads signify the empire after the death of Alexander, divided between his four generals (Daniel 8:8). The whole time of the Grecian Empire reached from about 331 to 168 B.C. The fourth beast, the Roman Empire, overthrew the Grecian Empire.
The Fourth Beast was the Roman Empire, it was dreadful, terrible, and exceeding strong; it devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue (Daniel 7:7), that is, the remains of the former kingdoms with its feet. Rome ruled the world, and it had ten horns. The Ten Horns, (kingdoms) into which the Roman Empire was afterwards divided. The Roman Empire was not divided in a day, nor in a year, but gradually over a period of a century. When western Rome at last lost her power, there were just ten independent kingdoms established upon her ruins: Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Spain, Portugal, Austria-Czechoslovakia, North Africa, Italy, and Hungary-Yugoslavia. The Roman Empire ruled the world from about 168 B.C. until 1806 A.D. when Napoleon refused any longer to recognize the existence of the Holy Roman Empire.
Daniel’s spirit was grieved, (sorrowful), in his body, and the visions in his head troubled him. Daniel was concerned, affecting spirit and body, caused by the “Vision of His Head.” Daniel inquired concerning what truth was being revealed by This Vision Daniel 7:15-16), and the Angel made known to Daniel the meaning and interpretation of his dream (Revelation 21:9). Almost exact parallels can be found in the Book of Revelation where frequently John in the experience of a vision is given the interpretation of what he saw.
The angel explains the symbols of the beasts; what they represented, the same as in Daniel 2. The “four kings” obviously refer to four kingdoms as the beast represents both a king and kingdom (Daniel 7:27). Babylon the first kingdom, the second kingdom Medo-Persia, Greece the third, and Rome the fourth. The Kingdom that is given to the Saints to rule with Jesus over all the earth is called the Millennium, the one thousand year period in which Christ will reign (Daniel 7:18). On the same just principle they who have suffered for Christ, or was killed and has not worshipped the Beast or the Anti-Christ shall come to life again and shall reign with Christ at His coming (Matthew 25:34). So our Lord declares “they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead cannot die any more for they are equal unto the angels, and are Children of God.” The kingdom possessed by saints of the most high (Daniel 7:27), (high ones or in high places), include the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Rule of God, which follows. Jesus Christ will establish God’s government of peace and justice in a rebellious hostile world and then He will be King of Kings and Lord of Lord, and “He that overcometh shall inherit all thing” (Revelation 21:7)
Daniel seven reveals that these “Beasts” or wild animals, symbolize civil governments or world Empires (Daniel 7:19-21). His first “beast” the Chaldean, (Babylon); the second: Persian; the third: Greco-Macedonian; and the fourth beast symbolized the Roman Empire as a world power, dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly strong; “and it had great iron teeth.” It devoured and break in pieces throughout the known world. The final breakup of the Roman Empire came after being ruled since the days of Julius and Augustus Caesar. True civilization was declining before the final breakup of the empire. The final fall of the empire began with the Barbarian invasion by the Huns from Asia in 376 A.D., and by 476 A.D. they took over the rulership of western Rome with no one left with power to rule. There were ten of them in authority ruling certain portions. Those ten kings were the Huns, Franks, Burgundians, Anglo-Saxons, the Visgoths, Suevis, Lombards, Vandials, Heruli, and the Ostrogoth-Pannonia, (see verse 7 for the modern nations). The Church of Rome survived the wreck of the empire, and seems to have snatched from its dying hands and re-established the old empire on a grander scale; called the “Holy Roman Empire” (Revelation 13:1-18). The Little Horn that made war with the saints (Daniel 7:7-8)), was none other than the Papacy, (Pope) after the Roman Empire fell to pieces between 376 and 476 A.D. This horn or king was a different kind of ruler, and religious ruler, who after the three kings were uprooted, (Heruli, Vandals, and the Ostrogoths); he was to establish his authority and would make War with the Saints (Revelation 11:17).
The New Testament describes Jesus Christ establishing God’s government of peace and justice in a rebellious, hostile world “Now out of His Mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations,” (until people learn the way to peace). Christ and the resurrected Saints will set about to teach the world the way to peace (Daniel 7:22): The Millennial World will be filled with happy, fulfilled people, guided, helped, protected and ruled by Christ and the Saints (1 Corinthians 6:2). Christ is returning with full authority to teach nations and individuals how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matthew 22:37-39). The 1,000 Year reign over physical human beings on earth will be by Jesus Christ and His Saints (Revelation 20:4). We have seen the new society, the Ancient of Days, (God), who will establish and make truly happy people who will then live in a peaceful, clean, healthful and well-planned environment. As in Revelation, the vision the destruction of the fourth beast and the inauguration of the Fifth Kingdom from heaven is described as the time when the Saints will possess the Kingdom (Daniel 7:27), a clear factor pointing to the end of the age and the second coming of Jesus Christ. And then shall that wicked be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
The interpreter of the vision states plainly in Daniel 7 verse 23 that the fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom; an earthly kingdom which will be different from the preceding kingdom and will devour the whole earth, that is, be worldwide. (Daniel 7:24-26). In the process, it will tread down and break in pieces the preceding kingdom.
The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings (Revelation 17:12) that shall arise, (see Daniel 7 verses 19-21), and three of them were uprooted and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. This horn, or ruler, was a different kind of ruler, a religious ruler, who after the three kings were uprooted was to establish his authority and would make War with the Saints (Revelation 17:6). “He shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws” (Daniel 2:21); and they shall be given into his hands until a time (1 year) and times (2 years) and the dividing of times (1/2 year) total of three and one half years (Daniel 7:25). In prophetic language a time signifies a year; and a prophetic year has a year for each day. Three years and one half, (a day standing for a year), will amount to 1260 years (Revelation 12:14), if we calculate 30 days to each month as the Jews do.
This was the rise of the papal power in western Rome. As the imperial crown in Rome weakened and ended in 476 A.D., the Popes were building a place of power for themselves. They became the most important persons in the west. And “power was given to continue forty and two month (Revelation 13:5-8).
However, they had one problem among those conquering Teutons. The Heruli, Vandals and Osttogoths were of Arian faith and not in accord with the Popes and the Roman Church. To establish the Pope’s authority over all western and eastern Rome; Justinian, the Emperor of the empire sent his army and conquered them and established loyalty to the Papacy. The Popes ruled at the head of the State religion for 1260 years fulfilling Bible prophecy.
The first official Pope was in 440 A.D. As the official head of the State Religion of Rome, and with unlimited power they built fast a spiritual monarchy.” “The Holy Roman Empire” with a world priest, (the Pope), and a world king; both claiming to have divine authority.
By the 13th century the Popes exercised all the power that the Caesars ever did. “He shall speak as if he were God.” To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the Popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. The Apostasy had begun even then and history tells that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries many heathen customs corrupted the Church until the Papacy was born, (2 Thessalonians. 2:1-10). “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, so that he as God setteth in the temple, (Church), of God, shewing himself that he is God.” They claimed power and authority that belonged only to God and His Son. “He (Pope), shall think to change times and laws,” was abundantly fulfilled, so that their Church Doctrine is more pagan than Christian: Sunday observance instead of the 7th Day Sabbath, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day, Good Friday; just to name a few.
The Papacy was given power to rule the Roman people in religious matters as head of the State Church, the Apostate Christian Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. All who refused to obey his Papal power and laws of the Church were heretics and treated as outlaws in Rome. This power to rule and persecute the true Saints of God was given unto him to continue 42 months, (1260 years). “And shall wear out the Saints,” by wars, crusades, massacres, inquisition, and persecution of all kinds. What has this Catholic Church not done against all those who have protested against their innovation, and refused to submit to their idolatrous worship? Over 75 Million have been killed because they refused to become Catholic during that 1260 years this Church ruled. Let us throw aside all that is heathen, all that pretend to be of God and which is only of man, all doctrines that are not in the Bible, and all rites and ceremonies which are not of Christ and His apostles, and serve Him in Truth and Righteousness.
Many true Saints refused to receive the mark or honor that wicked image of the beast, (the Catholic Church). They kept the Seal of God in their foreheads during those hundreds of years of Papal rule, and they sealed their faith by a martyr’s death when tried. The inquisitions were used to hunt down those “heretics” and exterminate them. This all was fulfilled under the Papal rule of that Holy Roman Empire. To refuse allegiance to the Church or to question its authority or teachings was reputed treason against God and punishable by death. The Pope was the all powerful and absolute head, the supreme lawgiver. Heresy was the supreme crime at that time.
This was the fourth and last world empire before God’s kingdom under Christ. Daniel saw this beast “slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames.” Napoleon finished the death of the Holy Roman Empire. The final destruction of the Catholic Church, (Babylon), will come at the time of Her judgment; she will be utterly or completely destroyed.
The time when judgment shall sit and destroy the papacy, as mentioned in Daniel, is the same as that mentioned in Revelation; namely that Her Judgment will come with the Seventh Plague. And when it does it will then be that this system will be utterly destroyed.
The next immediate occurrence following the taking away of the dominion of the Papacy is the setting up of the Kingdom of the Most High, and that dominion will then belong to the Saints. It will be in the days of the ten kings, (Rev. 17:12, the ten toes), of the revived beast, when the God of heaven will set up His Kingdom.
God’s Remnant Church has two marks of identification. They “Keep the Commandments of God, and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ.” These are the people that Satan is angry with and waging war with. The Ten Commandments with the two great Commandments of love are the central moral code of the entire New Testament Scriptures. “The kingdom of this world are become the kingdom of the Lord” (Revelation 11:15), "the kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" (Psalm 145:13), "which never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44), "and the kingdom will be given to the saints" (Daniel 7:27) "and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33).
Millennium is a Latin word for “Thousand Years.” It comes from Rev. 20:1-15 where a certain period of a “Thousand Years” is mentioned. During this period Satan is “bound” with a “great chain,” “locked up” and “sealed,” so that he cannot “deceive the nations.” Persons designated as “Martyrs” who have been “Beheaded,” and those who live and died for Christ in this life will live and reign with Christ. The Saints is declared to be in the “first resurrection,” that is the resurrection of those that are in Christ.
The reigning of the Saints with Christ after His second coming is predicted several times in the Lord’s teachings, (Matthew 19:28). During the Millennium the Heavenly Jerusalem, having the glory of God shall descend on earth, and the Saints will reign on earth with our Lord. The Saints shall be God’s city and Bride, God causing His glory to shine out through them; the wife of the Lamb, for the elect Church of God shall help rule throughout eternity, because she alone shall have witnessed for Christ in the face of an opposing world and the prince of darkness continue.
The Saints are the Church (1 Corinthian 1:2). The Church comprises people called out of the world by God’s electing grace (1 Corinthian 15:23). All who are in a covenant relationship with Him through repentance and faith in His Son are regarded as Saints. They are separated from all defilement and sin through the blood of Christ, and partaker of God’s own Holiness. Throughout the Bible but especially in the Epistles of the New Testament the Saints are urged to live lives befitting their position.
Daniel expresses again how his thoughts troubled him, his countenance changed, but he kept the matter in his heart (Daniel 7:28) that is, he did not reveal it to others. Thus ends one of the great chapters of the Bible with a view of future events revealed to Daniel by the angel of God but he understood not the words: " for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end,"(Daniel 12:8-9).
There is nothing in Chapter 7 of Daniel to alter the conclusion that the fourth empire is Rome, that the little horn is the Pope, and the final state of the Catholic Church has not yet been fulfilled, and that it is a genuine prophetic revelation of God’s program for human history.
The Roman Empire swallowed and absorbed all the others, and embodied the strongest Physical and Military characteristics of all its predecessors, Notice, the “Dragon” gives this Empire its Seat and Power, and Great Authority, (Revelation 12:9 and 20:2). Both tell us in plain words this “Dragon” is Satan the Devil. It is, then, the political instrument of Satan in ruling and deceiving the world in which the great whore, (Catholic Church), rode upon in Revelation 17:1-6.
We are pilgrims in this present world. Our hope is for a better future life. Every decision, every act should be made in the light of eternity as well as of time. We should be concerned about our present life and surrounding, but our concern should not be limited to these. The future hope means that our labour now is not in vain.
Our devotion to Christ should not waver because we do not understand all about the future life. We know enough now to meet our spiritual needs. Other things will be made clear later. If you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, now is the time to do so.