Let’s move on to Dan. 7. No matter what viewpoint a student of prophecy starts with, we mostly all have one thing we believe in common and that is the identity of the beasts from Dan. 7. We know that the lion-like beast was Babylon, the bear-like beast was the Medo-Persians and the leopard-like beast was Greece and the fourth terrible beast is an offshoot of Rome. Admittedly, some try to put a modern spin on it and want to believe that the lion is England, the bear is Russia and the leopard is either an African-Indian alliance, various parts of the Middle East or some even believe it’s the USA! The description of the 4th beast in Dan. 7:19 depicts two of the clay combined nations, Iron teeth for Rome and nails of Brass for Greece.
Where we depart from that common ground is in the identity of the ten toes from Dan. 2 and the ten horns of the fourth beast from Dan. 7. Historicists and many futurists believe they are made up of some of the remnants of the western part of the Roman Empire. I believe they’re looking in the wrong direction. The picture of the beast from Rev. 13 tells us where to look for these nations to come from. Rev. 13:2 – “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, (Greece) and his feet were as the feet of a bear,(Medo-Persia) and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: (Babylon, but the focus is on the mouth) and the dragon (Satan) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” (words in parenthesis mine). Most of us are in agreement that this is the a/c rising to power. The mouth in this description isn’t about sharp teeth or a strong jaw. It’s about boastfulness as exampled by the king in Daniel 4:30 – “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty.” See also Dan. 7:25, Dan. 11:36-37 and Rev. 13:5-6. These show that the a/c will have this same type of arrogance.
It seems plain to me that we should look in the areas that these four kingdoms had in common which means we should concentrate on Rome’s eastern empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) and not the western. I found at least eight modern countries that they, at various times, controlled. They are Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. There is one more that Greece, Medo-Persia and Rome shared and that is Libya. The Medo-Persians and Greeks had Afghanistan and Pakistan in common and Rome and Greece had Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Armenia and Romania in common. Individually they each held territories the others didn’t so I will list them as possibilities as well. They consist of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Georgia and Albania. I believe at least the eight they all had in common may be part of the ten kingdoms controlled by the dragon, and the last two may be Libya and Greece. If, in the near future, Palestine receives nation status, they could be one of the ten as well. On a map they are all connected and if united would make one heck of a fearsome enemy, similar to a caliphate but on a grander scale.
Consider Rev. 12:3 – “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” This verse is closely associated with but not the same as the beast in Rev. 17:9-11 – “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”
Now we know that the dragon is Satan, but the seven crowns and kings portray the nations that Satan has used throughout history to thwart God’s plan for Israel and the salvation of mankind. These nations are, in historical order: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, (five are fallen) Rome (one is) and the kingdom of the a/c (the other is not yet come). I believe the seven mountains in my dream represent the seven nations that have historically had it out for Israel. I think it is not a coincidence that the ten nation of the a/c confederacy will include all of these historical enemies of Israel. “He must continue a short space” ties in with Rev. 12:12 – “…he knoweth that he have but a short time.” See the part of verse 10 that goes: “even he is the eighth, and is of the seven” The reason he is the 8th is because we need to include Satan in the list as he is the ruler of the world. It’s my opinion that Satan will possess the body of the a/c when one of the heads is “wounded to death” and raised again, so the world will associate him w/ Christ, when he is cast out of heaven knowing he has but a short time, so we count the a/c as seven and the Satan possessed a/c as a different leader equaling eight.
Let’s look at a different pairing of verses. Dan. 7:24 – “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Rev. 13:1 shows us a beast with seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns, this is the same beast as Rev. 17. Rev. 17:12 tells us the ten horns are ten kings, hence the ten crowns and they give their power to the beast. However, to fulfill Dan. 7:24 and to understand the description in Dan. 7:5 – “And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh” since Medo-Persia is depicted as the bear, in my opinion, the three subdued kings should come from nations not originally part of that empire which could be Greece and Libya but I’m unsure of the third. This could also be the start of the fulfillment of Rev. 6:4.
A lot of people seem to believe that Babylon and the a/c’s kingdom are the same. They are not! They overlook Rev. 17:16 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” And vs. 18 – “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Why does the beast hate the whore? They seem to share the same lack of values and hatred of Christ to the point of blaspheming. The reason is because she is “riding” the beast which means she is exercising control and reining in their desires for world domination. She can do that because she is vs. 18 and in my opinion that can only fit the USA/NYC, at this time. Could things change? Sure, and if it does, I’ll revisit my conclusions. Another question we should ask ourselves is, what is Satan’s/ac’s end goal? What do they want to accomplish? If you answered the destruction of Israel, you are way off base! Their goal is to steal the worship that is due God and have the earth worship them instead. That is what the “anti” in antichrist means, not the opposite of but instead of! That’s why the first thing Satan does when he is cast down to the earth is to go after believing Israel and when that fails, the church. Rev. 12:13-17. In my opinion, the a/c will accomplish this by making Israel believe he is their long awaited Messiah and Islam’s 12th Imam (the Mahdi) and the second coming of Christ for non-educated “Christians” all at the same time and thus deserving of the world’s worship.
Where we depart from that common ground is in the identity of the ten toes from Dan. 2 and the ten horns of the fourth beast from Dan. 7. Historicists and many futurists believe they are made up of some of the remnants of the western part of the Roman Empire. I believe they’re looking in the wrong direction. The picture of the beast from Rev. 13 tells us where to look for these nations to come from. Rev. 13:2 – “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, (Greece) and his feet were as the feet of a bear,(Medo-Persia) and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: (Babylon, but the focus is on the mouth) and the dragon (Satan) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” (words in parenthesis mine). Most of us are in agreement that this is the a/c rising to power. The mouth in this description isn’t about sharp teeth or a strong jaw. It’s about boastfulness as exampled by the king in Daniel 4:30 – “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty.” See also Dan. 7:25, Dan. 11:36-37 and Rev. 13:5-6. These show that the a/c will have this same type of arrogance.
It seems plain to me that we should look in the areas that these four kingdoms had in common which means we should concentrate on Rome’s eastern empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) and not the western. I found at least eight modern countries that they, at various times, controlled. They are Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. There is one more that Greece, Medo-Persia and Rome shared and that is Libya. The Medo-Persians and Greeks had Afghanistan and Pakistan in common and Rome and Greece had Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Armenia and Romania in common. Individually they each held territories the others didn’t so I will list them as possibilities as well. They consist of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Georgia and Albania. I believe at least the eight they all had in common may be part of the ten kingdoms controlled by the dragon, and the last two may be Libya and Greece. If, in the near future, Palestine receives nation status, they could be one of the ten as well. On a map they are all connected and if united would make one heck of a fearsome enemy, similar to a caliphate but on a grander scale.
Consider Rev. 12:3 – “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” This verse is closely associated with but not the same as the beast in Rev. 17:9-11 – “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”
Now we know that the dragon is Satan, but the seven crowns and kings portray the nations that Satan has used throughout history to thwart God’s plan for Israel and the salvation of mankind. These nations are, in historical order: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, (five are fallen) Rome (one is) and the kingdom of the a/c (the other is not yet come). I believe the seven mountains in my dream represent the seven nations that have historically had it out for Israel. I think it is not a coincidence that the ten nation of the a/c confederacy will include all of these historical enemies of Israel. “He must continue a short space” ties in with Rev. 12:12 – “…he knoweth that he have but a short time.” See the part of verse 10 that goes: “even he is the eighth, and is of the seven” The reason he is the 8th is because we need to include Satan in the list as he is the ruler of the world. It’s my opinion that Satan will possess the body of the a/c when one of the heads is “wounded to death” and raised again, so the world will associate him w/ Christ, when he is cast out of heaven knowing he has but a short time, so we count the a/c as seven and the Satan possessed a/c as a different leader equaling eight.
Let’s look at a different pairing of verses. Dan. 7:24 – “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Rev. 13:1 shows us a beast with seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns, this is the same beast as Rev. 17. Rev. 17:12 tells us the ten horns are ten kings, hence the ten crowns and they give their power to the beast. However, to fulfill Dan. 7:24 and to understand the description in Dan. 7:5 – “And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh” since Medo-Persia is depicted as the bear, in my opinion, the three subdued kings should come from nations not originally part of that empire which could be Greece and Libya but I’m unsure of the third. This could also be the start of the fulfillment of Rev. 6:4.
A lot of people seem to believe that Babylon and the a/c’s kingdom are the same. They are not! They overlook Rev. 17:16 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” And vs. 18 – “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Why does the beast hate the whore? They seem to share the same lack of values and hatred of Christ to the point of blaspheming. The reason is because she is “riding” the beast which means she is exercising control and reining in their desires for world domination. She can do that because she is vs. 18 and in my opinion that can only fit the USA/NYC, at this time. Could things change? Sure, and if it does, I’ll revisit my conclusions. Another question we should ask ourselves is, what is Satan’s/ac’s end goal? What do they want to accomplish? If you answered the destruction of Israel, you are way off base! Their goal is to steal the worship that is due God and have the earth worship them instead. That is what the “anti” in antichrist means, not the opposite of but instead of! That’s why the first thing Satan does when he is cast down to the earth is to go after believing Israel and when that fails, the church. Rev. 12:13-17. In my opinion, the a/c will accomplish this by making Israel believe he is their long awaited Messiah and Islam’s 12th Imam (the Mahdi) and the second coming of Christ for non-educated “Christians” all at the same time and thus deserving of the world’s worship.