By Bob Barney
Daniel, a prophet of God, lived over 2,500 years ago. He was a Jewish captive, living in Babylon, and during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, he was given the meaning of a dream, by God, laying out before him the last four great empires that would rule the earth. One night during the second year of the king's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had some disturbing dreams that neither he nor his “wise-men” could decipher the meaning. He was told about the man named Daniel, and of his God, the God of the universe, who had the ability to interpret anyone's dreams.
Upon meeting the king, Daniel said: {NLT version Daniel 2:29} “While Your Majesty was sleeping, you dreamed about coming events. He who reveals secrets has shown you what is going to happen.
30. And it is not because I am wiser than anyone else that I know the secret of your dream, but because God wants you to understand what was in your heart.
31 “In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was a frightening sight.
32 The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze,
33 its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay.
34 As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits.
35 The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.
36 “That was the dream. Now we will tell the king what it means.
37 Your Majesty, you are the greatest of kings. The God of heaven has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and honor.
38 He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited world and has put even the wild animals and birds under your control. You are the head of gold.
39 “But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. After that kingdom has fallen, yet a third kingdom, represented by bronze, will rise to rule the world.
40 Following that kingdom, there will be a fourth one, as strong as iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires, just as iron smashes and crushes everything it strikes.
41 The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay, showing that this kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron.
42 But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay.
43 This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix
44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a ki ngdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.
45 That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will h appen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.”
This is one of the most important warnings in all human history, hardly understood by anyone! Before getting into world history, you must ask yourself two basic questions. #1 Is the God of the Bible real, and #2, do you believe that God can predict the future? These two questions are really the most important questions you will ever ask yourself; your very life depends on the knowledge that God Almighty has revealed what is going to happen in the world. The statue made in four parts represents the last four empires that would rule the earth. God says so right here: “During the reigns of those kings (the last and 4th empire), the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. We know, from these few scriptures that the fourth great kingdom after Daniel would be the one that Jesus Himself destroys, and then sets up His own millennial kingdom.
World history actually proves these scriptures to be accurate. The first empire of Gold, the one Daniel said was superior to all of the others to come, was the empire he was living in– Babylon. The second great world empire mentioned: “But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. That kingdom (of silver- which is lesser in value than gold, but actually stronger) was the silver breast and arms empire of – Medo-Persia (538 to 330 BC) .
The third empire with the brass belly and thighs is Greece (333 to 31 BC), mainly under Alexander the Great. Like before, bronze is worth less than silver and gold, but is the next hardest metal. The bronze age, as it is come to be known, was able to dominate those people who only knew how to weaponize silver and gold armaments. A little known and reported fact is that Alexander himself, when coming to the Temple in Jerusalem, was shown this prophecy of Daniel, and he actually read about himself, from one of God's prophets who lived 300 years earlier! I bet it would be safe to say he was amazed, to say the least.
The last and fourth worldwide empire is made of: “Strong iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires, just as iron smashes and crushes everything it strikes. The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay, showing that this kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron. But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay.” This fourth empire is Rome (Established 31 BC.and God states that it will exist until the end of the age.) Well, you ask, how can that be? Rome is no longer a world empire? Has God made a mistake?
To understand the fourth beast, and God's absolute unbreakable word that it would be the final empire and that during it's reign, Christ would set up His kingdom, we need to understand the beast of Revelation that describes this fourth beast. Revelation 13 talks about a beast coming from the sea. The word "sea" simply means 'out of the masses'. The kingdom would me comprised of many people, from all over the world. Look it up in any good Bible commentary. The beast is NOT a man! It is a government that comes up out of the world population; simply-A one-world government! This beast having seven heads and 10 horns also has a blasphemous name.[ Blasphemy is the disrespectful use of the name of God.] In Revelation 13:1{NLT} we read: Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.
This beast is the Roman or fourth empire of Daniel. The seven heads has dual meanings. One is the seven hills of Rome, where the beast is located, and also seven revivals of that empire until at last, the last or seventh revival comes at the time of the end. You see, the Roman Empire will have had seven revivals. The first were the Caesars. The second was Constantine, and the beginning of Catholic Church's power in the Roman Empire. The third was Charlemagne, who was crowned the Holy Roman emperor on Christmas Day, in 800 A.D., in Saint Peter's, the pope crowned Charlemagne emperor by placing a gold crown on his head. This was the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire and the last phase of the fourth beast- which would go through some four more revivals before the return of Christ. This date, by the way, is the date that Sir Isaac Newton used to determine the beginning of the 1260 and 1290 year countdown to the Tribulation! Newton, the father of modern physics, was well aware of the identity of the fourth kingdom in Daniel.
The fourth revival was probably highlighted by the Crusades and around Jun 10,1190, when Frederick I van Hohenstaufen, Barbarossa (1123-1190), king of Germany and Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, drowned crossing the Saleph River while leading an army of the Third Crusade. Frederick struggled to extend German influence throughout Europe, maneuvering both politically and militarily. He clashed with the pope, the powerful Lombards and fellow Germans among others throughout the years. He joined the Third Crusade in the Spring of 1189 in their efforts to free Jerusalem from Saladin's army. The crusades are also predicted in Daniel as the wars between the King of the North (Holy Roman Empire) and The King of the South (Muslim empire).
The fifth, I believe was Napoleon. In 1804 he took the title of emperor Napoleon I. He took the crown from the Pope and placed it on his head himself, thereby directly challenging the authority of the church and declaring that he was the Holy Roman Emperor!
The sixth, I believe was Mussolini, who was never officially crowned, but I believe to be the sixth. Rev 17:8 says that "The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction." What this means is that this end time world power which was formerly great, then fades away for a period of time, and then again becomes great one last time. Believe it or not, Benito Mussolini used these exact words to describe himself in 1929 when he became the new emperor of the Roman Empire! From 538AD to 1798AD the Papacy and it's empire was supreme among all of the powers on earth, just as was prophesied by John. Incredible isn't it? Even more incredible however is the fact that this fulfilled prophecy happened over exactly 1260 years! During this same time, the true Church of God was hidden by God from world view as the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire ruled. (see Revel 12:6) for those 1260 years .
You see, in Revelation 12:6, we read, “Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”
A day equals 1 year in prophecy.
CLICK TO VIEW FULL PAGE IMAGE OF THE 4 WORLD EMPIRES
During these dark ages, the papacy exercised both political and ecclesiastical power over everything and everyone. It is "the woman that rode the beast." The papacy lost its political power in 1798 with the capture of Pius VI by the armies of Napoleon, and it further lost its papal states in 1870, when they were seized by Italy. The Catholic Church had lost her political power and sovereignty. Consequently, the beast was not. In John chapter 17, he sees the harlot (false church) in her final phase, once again a part of the final beast government mentioned in Revelation.
So, we have had at least five or six revivals of the Holy Roman Empire. God says there will be seven, and during the seventh revival, Jesus will be that rock…. 44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.
45 That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.”
God is saying, “you can take this to the bank!” If we believe God, then we know where to look for the end time world power predicted in Daniel, where it is located, and what it will do. We also have a clue on the form of government, it will adopt.Communism is the result from the head wound.
Revl 13:3: And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. The wound the beast recovers from and amazes the whole world is the form of government the end time world-ruling government will follow. The government, says Daniel would redistribute the wealth of the world to just a few members of the ruling class.It is a special form of communism, socialism or whatever else you want to call it! This is the reason why this world-ruling government doesn't last long! Just three and one-half years to be exact! The reason for the rapid decline is that communism just doesn't work! The people stop producing, become lazy and soon are overtaken by God's people and Christ Himself. Communism was considered dead by 1989 with the fall of eastern Europe. All media outlets proclaimed that fact, remember? We all thought we saw capitalism conquer communism. We thought that it was just a matter of time before China would fall as well and merge into a capitalist member of the new world order. [Check this news article: Communism's resurgence: Communism is not dead in Latin America. In fact, the dominoes are falling south of the border, but no one seems to be noticing. ]
Sir Issac Newton once said that prophecy is just “the news of the future.” He was right. To fully understand what is happening in today's world, we need to understand that God has a plan, and that planned has been revealed to us, if we take the time to study it. We might not know the time of Christ's return, but we do know a great deal concerning the identity of the last world empire; The one Christ is coming to conquer.
It is important to your existence on this planet to understand 'who is who' in Biblical prophecy. However, it should be pointed out that this knowledge has only PHYSICAL BLESSINGS and not SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS! If you know Christ, love Him and obey His Commandments, YOU ARE SAVED and FORGIVEN whether you know the particulars of prophecy or not. Understanding prophecy has nothing to do with your eternal life – it will come in handy if you are around during the Tribulation and want to know what will happen and who will be the good guys and the bad guys. It's a knowledge that will save your physical life, not your spiritual one. JESUS CHRIST is the LORD of the Old Testament, who wrote the Ten Commandments with His very own Finger! Love and obey Christ first, then learn the rest!