Daniel 7

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=35 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Daniel 7</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Beast of Revelation">Beast of Revelation</A>   |   <A HREF="id13.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction">Introduction</A>   |   <A HREF="id14.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 2">Daniel 2</A>   |   <B>Daniel 7</B>   |   <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 8">Daniel 8</A>   |   <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Antiochus Epiphanes">Antiochus Epiphanes</A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 9">Daniel 9</A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 11 12">Daniel 11 & 12</A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Revelation 13">Revelation 13</A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Revelation 17">Revelation 17</A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Revelation 18">Revelation 18</A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wrath of the Lamb">Wrath of the Lamb</A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Assyrian">The Assyrian</A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chart of the Beast">Chart of the Beast</A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bibliography">Bibliography</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=445 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> "Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other" (Daniel 7:2-3).</div> <bR> <div> The first beast <I>was</I> like a lion (Daniel 7:4) - corresponding to the Neo-Babylonian empire. The second was like a bear (Daniel 7:5) - corresponding to the Medo-Persian empire. The third beast was described as being:</div> <bR> <div> "...like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it" (Daniel 7:6).</div> <bR> <div> The third beast is a symbolic overview of the Greco-Macedonian empire-system. Alexander the Great swiftly, implied by the wings, created the largest territorial empire of the ancient world. Shortly after Alexander's death his realm was divided into four separate parts, under his generals - implied by the four heads of the beast. Gleason L. Archer, Jr points out that:</div> <bR> <div> "The initial arrangement involved the area of Greece and Macedon (under Antipater and then Cassander), Thrace and Asia-Minor (under Lysimachus), all of Asia except Asia Minor and Palestine (under <B>Seleucus</B>), and Egypt-Palestine (under <B>Ptolemy</B>). Even after the breakdown of Lysimachus's kingdom, a separate realm was maintained by Eumenes of Pergamum and others, so that the quadripartite character of the Greek empire was maintained, despite the determined efforts of the more aggressive <B>Seleucids</B> and <B>Ptolemids</B> to annex each other into a single realm" (<I>Daniel</I>, EBC, Vol.7, page 86).</div> <bR> <div> The Ptolemids and the Seleucids are important players in the history of Israel. Palestine was first under Ptolemid and then Seleucid control.</div> <bR> <div> These four Greek kingdoms provide a definition for a 'head'. A 'head' may be a kingdom or empire which comes out of the 'great stage' of the empire and may reign for twenty years, as with Lysimachus kingdom, or hundreds of years as did the Ptolemid kingdom, which lasted for 274 years from 304 BC to 30 BC.</div> <bR> <div> From 190 BC to 30 BC these 'Greek' realms were, one by one, annexed by Rome with Palestine becoming a province of Rome in 64 BC.</div> <bR> <div> The Roman Empire the next kingdom to appear is symbolically described by Daniel as:</div> <bR> <div> "...a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron <the metal of the legs of the image> teeth; it was devouring, braking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It <I>was</I> different from all the beasts that <I>were</I> before it, and it had 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, <I>were</I> eyes like  the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words... I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast <the horn is now addressed as the beast, as he represents the fourth kingdom in its most God-defying extreme at the end of the age> was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame...</div> <bR> <div> "I watched... And behold, <I>One</I> like the Son of Man...came...to the Ancient of Days, And...to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion...which shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:7-11).</div> <bR> <div> A bystander explains to Daniel that the four beasts are four kings that shall arise out of the earth (Daniel 7:17). In Daniel 7:23 the fourth beast is addressed as a kingdom which therefore implies that a king may be used interchangeably for his kingdom, as was the case with Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:38).</div> <bR> <div> With the four beast/kingdoms of Daniel 7 correspond to the four kingdoms of Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar, who is the 'head of gold', is therefore the first beast - the lion. This then implies that a 'beast' may refer to a kingdom and its greatest king. Therefore Nebuchadnezzar was the beast-person of the neo-Babylonian beast-empire - the <I>who</I> and <I>what</I> of the first beast of Daniel.</div> <bR> <div> Daniel then wanted to know the details of the fourth beast, its ten horns, "and the other <I>horn</I> which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance <I>was</I> greater than his fellows" (Daniel 7:20). The little horn is now said to be greater than the other horns. As Daniel was watching "the same horn was making war against the saints, and <B>prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came</B>, and a judgment was made <I>in favour</I> of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom" (Daniel 7:21-22).</div> <bR> <div> The bystander explained:</div> <bR> <div> "The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all <I>other</I> kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings <I>Who</I> shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall arise <B>after</B> them; <B>He</B> shall be different from the first <I>ones</I>, And shall subdue three kings. <B>He</B> shall speak <I>pompous</I> words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then <I>the saints</I> shall be given into <B>his</B> hand For a time and times and half a time.</div> <bR> <div>    "But...they shall take away <B>his</B> dominion, To consume and destroy <I>it</I> forever. Then...<Christ will set up>...an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him" (Daniel 7:23-27).</div> <bR> <div> Daniel's vision of the beast follows the pattern of Nebuchadnezzar's dream-image. The vision telescopes from the fourth kingdom of the ancient world to the kingdom in the "last days" - the period that leads up to and surrounds the return of Jesus Christ.</div> <bR> <div> As mentioned before, one-third of the Bible is prophecy, of which 90 per cent is focused on the "last days." Therefore, often in telescopic prophecy the initial event is introduced and then jumps to the end time event and focuses in on it.  Of the 28 verses of Daniel 7 nine deal with the four beasts of the ancient world while sixteen are allotted to the "latter days".</div> <bR> <div> Looking then at the fourth beast in detail:</div> <bR> <div> (1) The first three kingdoms were liken to three great predatory beasts. But the fourth is not compared to any beast to draw attention to how different it would be from the others. It would be so much more dreadful, terrible and stronger that it could not be contrasted with anything in the animal kingdom. It would incorporate within itself all the characteristics and more of those of a lion, bear and leopard. With its huge iron teeth it would be more crushing in its military power, exploitation and repression than its predecessors.</div> <bR> <div> "In trying to explain the Roman phenomenon one would have to place great emphasis on this almost animal instinct for the territorial imperative". Its psychological controls were "built on fear and punishment - on the absolute certainty that anyone or anything that threatened the authority of Rome would be utterly destroyed" (Norman Davies, <I>Europe: A History, </I>page 149).</div> <bR> <div> (2) Besides being greater than its predecessors, it would differ in its unity and organisation. Davies pointed out that "there is a quality of cohesiveness about the Roman world which applied neither to Greece nor perhaps to any other civilization, ancient or modern" (Davies, page 149).</div> <bR> <div> (3) <I>A fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms</I>. The Aramaic may be translated 'was acting differently' from all the others. This may also imply that after its fall in 476 AD it would continue to exist by reinventing itself through various revivals culminating in a final appearance as a ten-state empire.</div> <bR> <div> (4) Rome was to "devour the whole earth". As we saw in Daniel 2 this does not necessarily mean the whole inhabited world:</div> <bR> <div> "The whole earth" (<I>kol-'ar'a'</I>) refers, not to all known parts of the inhabited earth, but rather (as in general OT usage) to the entire territory of the Near and Middle East that in any way relates to the Holy Land. The word <I>ar'a'</I> (and its Hebrew equivalent, <I>'eres</I>) does not necessarily mean "earth" in the sense of "the entire inhabited globe" but - depending on context - might mean a single country...or a larger geographical unit, such as "territory" or "region"... here it is clearly tantamount to the NT <I>oikoumene</I> (the portion of the world included within the Roman Empire, or possibly the regions adjacent to it)" (Archer Jr, page 93).</div> <bR> <div> (5) In Nebuchadnezzar's dream there appear to be five gentile kingdoms, but what appears to be a fifth separate kingdom, is a federation of kings that comes out of the fourth - "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on this earth...The ten horns are ten kings <B>w</B><I><B>ho</B></I> shall arise from this kingdom" (Daniel 7:23).</div> <bR> <div> (6) In Daniel 7 we are introduced to another event that will happen between the establishment of the ten-state federation and the return of Jesus Christ.  "And another shall arise after them" (Daniel 7:24). This implies that the ten contemporary kings will precede the arrival of the final king.</div> <bR> <div> (7) The implication from the vision is that the "little horn" starts out small and becomes greater than the other horns. If a horn is a king, then a "little horn" may be a prince. To be greater than a king would imply an emperor. The ten rulers may be reigning as kings with the "little horn" belonging to one of their royal families. From this position, at the opportune moment, he will launches his bid for power.</div> <bR> <div> (8) He shall be "different from" the ten kings. In the same way that Rome was more terrible than the former kingdoms this "little horn" will be more evil than his contemporaries (verse 20).</div> <bR> <div> (9) He will subdue three of these kings. These three kings may not be in favour of the "little horn" and he may replaced them with appointees who are. This would be similar to Adolf Hitler subjecting "Norway, Holland, and the Balkan countries to a leader of their local Nazi Party" (Archer Jr, page 93). Then with all these kings submitting to him he will be a king of kings - "the ten horns...give their kingdom to the beast" (Revelation 17:16-17).</div> <bR> <div> (10) In the latter part of his reign he will blaspheme against God and change times and law -  "changing not simply the sacred calendar of Scripture...but also the seasons and fundamental conditions ordained by God "for the life and actions of men" (Payne, page 379).</div> <bR> <div> The seven day week was ordained by God for man (Genesis 1). An attempt was made to subvert this order during the French Revolution:</div> <bR> <div> The "French republican calendar, dating system that was adopted in 1793 during the French Revolution and was intended to replace the Gregorian calendar with a more scientific and rational system that would avoid Christian associations. The Revolutionary Convention established the calendar on October 5, 1793, setting its beginning (1 Vendemiaire, year 1) on the Gregorian date of September 22, 1792.</div> <bR> <div> "The 12 months of the French republican calendar each contained three decades (instead of weeks) of 10 days each; at the end of the year were grouped five (six in a leap years) supplementary days" (EBritannica, <I>French Republican calendar</I>).</div> <bR> <div> Each tenth day was a holiday, with the five/six supplementary days celebrated as festivals.</div> <bR> <div> "<B>There were to be no more weeks, or Sundays</B>... The Republican Calendar was officially maintained for fourteen years; but it was eventually abandoned after six. The Gregorian Calendar was in wide-spread use again under the consulate, long before it was formally restored on 1 January 1806/11 Nivose XIV. <B>Nothing was better calculated to disrupt the nation's sense of orientation than the change of calendar</B>" (Davies, page 698).</div> <bR> <div> The 'little horn,' who will "do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god" (Daniel 11:36), will not tolerate any competing religions. Introducing a calendar along these lines would aid in stamping out traditional Christianity, with Sunday as it Sabbath and the Jews and the true church with the true Saturday Sabbath.</div> <bR> <div> (11) He shall persecute the saints for three and a half years - for a time (1 year) and times (2 years) and half a time (1/2 a year); and at the end of this period Christ will return to dethrone him and set up His kingdom.</div> <bR> <div> (12) <B>And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it for ever</B>. This is the interpretation of that part of the vision: "And I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame (Daniel 7:11) - "The beast...and...the false prophet...were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:19-20).</div> <bR> <div> Verse 23 of Daniel 7 describes the Roman empire but then at verse 24 it telescopes to the time of the "little horn", the end-time human representative of the fourth beast. This is the concept of a king representing his kingdom, as Nebuchadnezzar represented the neo-Babylonian kingdom. The head of gold symbolically pictured both Nebuchadnezzar and the neo-Babylonian empire. The fourth beast pictures both the beast-system and its end-time beast-representative.</div> <bR> <div> In Daniel 7 we were introduced to the 'little horn'/'beast' of the final kingdom. Now Daniel 8 provides more information on this person's career.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 8">Next Page</A>            <A HREF="id15_m.htm" TITLE="Daniel 7">Top of Page</A>            <A HREF="id14.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daniel 2">Previous Page</A>            <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Beast of Revelation">Beast Index</A>            <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Future Watch">Home Page</A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>