This Will Change Your Mind About The Bible And Prophecy
Channel: Bible Files
Date: 30/03/2024

The book of Daniel, is crucial to help to solidify the message and authenticity of the bible. It could be considered the Revelation of the Old Testament.  In Daniel Chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar had a very intense dream which he demanded interpretation for without even revealing what the dream was. Daniel, his trusted advisor, a man of God, after fervent prayer, provided the answers. Sure enough, in Daniel 7, God gave Daniel himself a vision at night, and showed him the exact same sweep of time from Babylon to the second coming of Christ. This time though, God gave to Daniel different symbols for the world’s kingdom’s than Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream. Watch these parallels between the haunting dream of the king and the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel.

The first of the four kingdoms Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream – the one in power in his and Daniel’s time – was Babylon, the Head of Gold – the Babylonian empire. In Daniel's vision, instead of Babylon being represented by the statue’s head of gold, Babylon was symbolized by a lion with eagle’s wings. According to history, the kingdom of Babylon reigned supreme on earth from 605 B.C. to 539 B.C. Just as Daniel prophesied, of course, a time came when the great kingdom of Babylon ended. Daniel lived to see it happen – the silver kingdom replacing the gold. On October 13, 539 B.C., the golden kingdom of Babylon came to an inglorious end.

Rather than the chest and arms of silver, in Daniel’s vision, now was a bear with three ribs in its mouth. Medo-Persia ruled from 539 B.C. to 331 B.C. So a new superpower ruled the then-known world - Greece – the belly and thighs of brass - but like the golden kingdom of Babylon that went before it, the reign of Medo-Persia, the silver empire, would not last forever. The brilliant young Greek general, Alexander the Great, defeated Persia’s Darius III at the battle of Arbela in 331 B.C. At the age of 23, young Alexander became ruler over the most extensive empire the world had known to that time. In Daniel’s vision, Greece, instead of the belly and thighs of brass, was now a four-headed leopard with four wings. Interestingly, when Alexander the Great died, his empire was divided between his four top generals. This kingdom ruled from 331 B.C. to 168 B.C.  On June 22, 168 B.C., at the battle of Pydna, the empire of Alexander the Great perished, 155 years after his death. The Roman empire, the legs of iron, succeeded the Greeks, this becoming the fourth world empire. In Daniel’s vision, instead of being the legs of iron, was now a fearsome beast with iron teeth and ten horns. The great kingdom of Rome ruled from 168 B.C. to A.D. 476. Rome was a ruthless nation that ruled with a “rod of iron.” Her Caesars called themselves gods and demanded worship and obedience from everyone. Rome ruled the longest and reached the farthest of all empires. When it then ended, the kingdom divided into ten parts. In Daniel chapter 2, those parts were represented by the ten toes of the image. The feet of iron and clay. In Daniel 7, they are represented by the ten horns of the fourth beast. 

The ten horns of the fourth beast represented the ten pagan, godless fragments of the Roman Empire that became today’s nation of Europe. After more than 600 years in power, God accurately predicted, ancient Rome would not be followed by another world empire but would disintegrate into smaller kingdoms. Through unparalleled luxury, political corruption, and moral decay, Rome lost its stability and strength. It became easy prey for tribes of barbarians that began to invade the empire during the fourth century A.D. By A.D. 476, Rome had divided into ten parts, mentioned here with their modern counterparts: Alemanni (Germans), Frank (French), Saxons (English), Visigoths (Spanish), Burgundians (Swiss), Lombards (Italians), Suevi (Portuguese); and the Heruli, Vandals, and Ostrogoths (now extinct). The current nations of Europe developed from these tribes of the divided Roman Empire. Some were strong, some were weak. “Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Daniel 2:43).  According to scripture, no effort to unite the divided kingdoms of old Rome – of current Europe – can ever succeed. Charlemagne tried and failed. Charles V and Louis XIV tried and failed. Napoleon Bonaparte tried and failed. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in 1914 tried and failed. Later, Hitler tried and failed, and today, efforts continue to bring Europe together, but every such effort fails. But, here’s where the prophecy makes a heart-wrenching jab into the future – our present. Daniel 7 moves the prophetic panorama forward into new territory. There’s this “little horn” power. These symbols of the statue and beasts in Daniel's visions foreshadow the rise of the anti-Christ and the descent into darkness foretold in Revelation and in the book of Daniel.