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After
this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth
beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and
it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled
down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from
all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
(NASB) Dan. 7:7 |
It is a monster with ten horns. Now that is a bad dream. This monster
symbolizes a world empire which causes great terror on earth. We
will see later in this chapter that the ten horns are ten kings.
It is a union, or coalition, of ten nations. This monster started
as the Roman Empire which defeated the empire of Greece. But the
ten horns add new meaning to this beast. They symbolize a future
form of the Roman Empire - the Revived Roman Empire.
Dreams
of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. These four beasts and the four metals
in King Nebuchadnezzar’s statue of Daniel 2 represent the same four kingdoms.
The nation symbolized by the winged lion is the same nation symbolized by the
head of gold in Daniel 2 - the Babylonian Empire. The bear in Daniel 7 and the
chest of silver in Daniel 2 both represent Medo-Persia. The leopard and the statue’s
waist of bronze symbolize Greece, and finally the dreadful and terrifying beast
of Daniel 7 and the legs of iron in Daniel 2 are the same kingdom. It is the
Roman Empire (see Appendix B for other
views of this kingdom). These four kingdoms are past history.
Of these four kingdoms only three of them were
defeated by another empire. Rome died from within. Yet, there is also a future
for the Roman Empire. It is called the Revived Roman Empire.
Did you notice that Daniel 2:41-42 talks about
the toes of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue and Daniel 7 refers to ten
horns on the monster? This is the future empire which will be a coalition of
ten nations. It will control the world. This coalition of ten nations will come
to power during a time we call the Tribulation. It will be a terrible time in
which to live. Jesus spoke of this future empire during his last recorded sermon,
the Olivet Discourse. He warned those who were listening and He warns us today
about the misery this empire will cause.
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But
pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath;
for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not
occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor
ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no
life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect
those days shall be cut short. (NASB) Matt. 24:20-22 |
New
Details. God gave both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel dreams
about the future, but Daniel’s dream has more details.
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