DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF WORLD EMPIRES

Daniel 2

GOLD

BABYLONIAN EMPIRE (Dan 2:38)

SILVER

MED-PERSIAN EMPIRE (Dan 2:39)

BRONZE

GRECIAN EMPIRE (Dan 2:39)

IRON

ROMAN EMPIRE (Dan 2:40)

IRON AND CLAY

(Dan 2:42)

THE END SHALL BEAT

THE TIME APPOINTED

THE recent events in Iraq are a clear prelude to the revelation of the antichrist and the dawning of the great tribulation. Not only does Iraq take the initiative in the final revival of the Babylonian/Assyrian Empire, but it also divides the Arab world into two camps and stirs up tremendous hatred against Israel. In order to see the Iraqi power struggle and the present rebuilding of the city of Babylon in the correct prophetically perspective, one must fist look at the Biblical scenario of the antichrist and end-time events in the Middle East:

A POWER-HUNGRY DICTATOR '

THE description of the antichrist is clearly that of a power-hungry dictator who will burst on the scene at the end of this dispensation, and can best be described in terms of the worst characteristics of the past world empires. John says the following about him:

“I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast, which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:1-2). The symbolism of the different animals composing the beast of Revelation 13 is explained by Daniel who looked ahead from his situation within the Babylonian Empire to five wicked and tyrannical empires. They are as follows:

The Babylonian Empire

The Medo-Persian Empire

The Greek Empire

The Roman Empire

The end-time empire of the antichrist, which is a combination of the preceding four world empires.

(According to Rev 17:9-10, the seven heads of the beast symbolise seven kingdoms. In the time Daniel, two of them, the ancient Babylonian Empire of Nimrod and the Assyrian Empire, had already fallen. Daniel lived in the time of the neo Babylonian Empire, and many of the features of that empire are being revived in our time.)

Nebuchadnezzar sees these empires in his dream as majestic and illustrious. He also finds much reason to boast of his own greatness. In the impressive seen by him, the head of gold represents the Babylonian Empire, the chest and arms of silver represent the Medo-Persian Empire, the belly and thighs of bronze represent the Grecian Empire and the legs of iron the Roman Empire, while the weak mixture of clay and iron in the ten toes represent the loose alliance of the end-time empire of the antichrist.

The pomp and pageantry of these world empires, as seen by Nebuchadnezzar, are in stark contrast to the way in which God depicts them as angry and ferocious beasts of prey fighting, destroying one another. Through visions, God depicted the Babylonian Empire to Daniel as a winged lion, the Medo-Persian Empire as a hungry bear with three ribs in its mouth, the Greek Empire as a winged leopard with four heads and the Roman Empire as a fearsome beast with iron teeth and ten horns on its head. The kingdom of the antichrist arises from the ten horns: “I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words” (Daniel 7:8). However, the antichrist is not only described as a ruler emerging from the revived Roman Empire. From the perspective of the other empires, specific features are attributed to him as he is, in fact, a combination of all four of the beasts mentioned. The most obvious similarities between the antichrist and the previous world empires are the following:

BABYLONIAN: He has the mouth of a lion. In this capacity he becomes a modern Nebuchadnezzar who will rise to a position of undisputed world-leadership. He will also deify himself, have an image of himself made and force people to bow before the image and worship him. Those who refuse will be cast into a furnace of tribulation and be executed. He will elevate Babylon to the position of a famous world city and revive the religious system of ancient Babylon which was based on astrology, contact with cosmic forces, occultism, magic, the deification of people and the worshipping of the sun-goddess of heaven and her child.