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The Four Empires In Daniel Two and In Daniel Seven
Posted : 3 Apr, 2012 07:26 AM
The Four Empires In Daniel Two and In Daniel Seven
On a Christian forum a guy said of the kingdoms in Daniel 7 that:
"Lion is Babylon
Bear is Medo-Persia
Leopard is Greece
When we look at those kingdoms today we see that they are united spiritually by Islam."
You are assuming that the four kingdoms of Daniel 7 are the same kingdoms as Daniel 2. Why? Probably from dispensationalist theology.
But instead, look at the larger picture of the succession of kingdoms. There were two kingdoms before the set of four shown in Daniel 2, three of which are listed above. These two earlier kingdoms were Egypt and Assyria. So there were six kingdoms before the Cross. However, Daniel 2: 44 says in the days of these kings or kingdoms God would set his everlasting kingdom. Just as God rested on the seventh day after making man on the sixth day. so the seventh kingdom is the kingdom of God.
The fourth kingdom in Daniel 2 is the Roman empire, which followed that of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great. For some reason the guy on the forum forgot the Roman empire. Maybe because the European nations that made up the Roman empire are not now dominated by Islam. And neither is present day Greece dominated by Islamics, though there has been some migration of the Islamic peoples into Europe.
After the Cross, the first major kingdom was the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Catholic Spanish Empire. The Spanish Empire began to be diminished when the British Protestant Empire rose in power. The Spanish Armada ran into the "protestant winds," and Queen Elizabeth's Navy. For some time the British empire was dominant. Then, in 1917 the Russian or Soviet Union rose as an empire, and then Nazi Germany came along as a reaction against the Soviet Union and violent Marxism.
Lets see, the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Catholic Kingdom are parallel to the Egyptian and Assyrian empires prior to the Cross. We would expect that in parallel to the six kingdoms before the Cross, after the Cross, following the first two, a post-Cross quartet would appear, which we now know to be the British kingdom, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and guess who, America and/or the United Nations, but most likely both.
So we have six kingdoms before the Cross (with the seventh being the spiritual kingdom of God which began during the Roman empire), and after the Cross we have six parallel kingdoms, all representing man, as number six (666 in Revelation 13: 18)
We might think that following these last four kingdoms after the Cross, with America the world beater of the present era, the last of man's kingdoms (America, like England, was once a Christian protestant nation) there would appear God's more complete seventh kingdom.
The kingdoms of Daniel 7 are prophecy about four kingdoms beyond the Cross, and like Daniel 2, are kingdoms later than the first two, not a repetition of the same four kingdoms of Daniel 2.
Scripture does not spoon feed us, as when a baby being fed spits out some of the food and the mother spoons that back into his mouth. The Bible leaves some scripture to be figured out from other scripture. But when using man-made theologies, like dispensationalism, the older protestant idea of using scripture to interpret scripture has been lost to some extent.
The dialectic church tends to use theology to interpret scripture rather than other scripture because theology can be more easily bent to fit whatever group consensus one is operating from. Arriving at a group consensus rather than "it is written" is what the dialectic is about. The dialectic also operates on "what do you think, "what is your opinion," and "how do you feel."
The concept of parallel kingdoms is relevant to understanding the difference between the kingdoms of Daniel 2 and those of Daniel 7. There are parallel kingdoms before and after the Cross. You could say that the present dominating kingdom has grown from kingdoms that are parallel to the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman kingdoms, because the lion, bear, leopard and diverse fourth kingdom are parallel to those four pre-Cross kingdoms. But the literal, ancient Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman kingdoms have not been around in the last two or three centuries to influence the world beater empire of today. Their parallel kingdoms have been around, and the nations those three previous kingdoms grew from still exist, England, Russia and Germany (see Revelation 13: 2).
The 20th century parallel to the ancient Persian empire is Russia, the Greek empire's parallel was Nazi Germany, and the Babylonian empire's parallel was that of England. Finally, the 20th century parallel to the Roman empire is the United States. Like Rome, the U.S. began as a representative government, and later after the National Security Act of 1947 (Pub.L. 80-235), the U.S. became more of a dictatorship in which a small group of the ruling elite has power without effective constitutional limitations. That ruling elite, mostly the financial elite of Europe and the U.S., has remained hidden for the most part, maintaining the illusion that a "democracy" still functions.
The U.S. was created when the "eagle's wings" were "plucked" off the British Lion (Daniel 7: 4). The U.S. was first envisioned to be a constitutional republic, not a democracy, following the Two Treatises of Government of John Locke (1634�1704). However, our Constitution does not make this explicit, and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence is our only official founding statement that expresses a political ideology or doctrine. And John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were a kind of secularization of the early Calvinism of Scotland in the theology of John Knox and Samuel Rutherford, that Christians have the right of revolution against a tyrannical government.
The traditional church view of the four kingdoms of Daniel 7 is that they are the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires, the exact same empires as in Daniel 2.
Is there a reason why dispensationalists would want to stick to this traditional view of Daniel 7?
Dispensationalism has taught that almost all end time Bible prophecy will be fulfilled after the dispensationalist church is raptured off the earth, that there is to be a one man super world ruler anti-Christ, the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and this theology has in the past insisted on a Revived Roman Empire, probably involving the European Union nations.
Although there have been revisions of the classical dispensationalism of John Darby, C.I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer, for example, one revision is called Progressive Dispensationalism, still, the churches dominated by this theology tend to hold to most of its older doctrines and traditions. Revelation 13: 2 says "And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat and great authority."
There could be many different interpretations of the leopard, the bear and the lion. But to say the leopard is Nazi Germany, the Bear is Russia and the old Soviet Union and the lion is England and the British empire may, for dispensationalists, complicate their tendency to want simple end time prophecy, based upon their traditional one-man super world political leader as anti-Christ, when almost all end time prophecy is fulfilled after the dispensationalist church is raptured off the earth.. This interpretation might also tend to severely complicate or even demolish their traditional prophecy that there is to be a final Revived Roman Empire, made up of the nations of the European Union, the Ten Kings of Daniel 7: 24. If the world beater beast, who is like the leopard, the bear and the lion empires of the 20th century is the United States, how could this beast be a revived Roman empire in Europe?
If the first beast of Revelation 13 has the mouth of a lion, then in the view that the lion of Daniel 7 is England, the first beast, a composite of the United States, and the Little Horn as the nation of Israel, wounded to death in A.D. 70 and healed in 1948 (Revelation 13: 3) this is a prophecy saying the first beast speaks English. The dominant world language now is English.
A more recent interpretation of Daniel 7 is that the four kingdoms are those of England, Russia, Nazi Germany and a fourth one which is said to be dreadful, terrible and diverse from the other three. This fourth empire in more recent interpretations is said to be America or the United Nations.
The latter part of Daniel 7 goes into events of the very end time, for example, in verse 22, the Ancient of Days is said to come and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High. The implication is that the last of these four empires will exist on earth at that time.
Daniel 7: 21-23, 26-27 says "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces...But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."
Although Christ's spiritual kingdom, which is within his people Israel reborn in him, began at the time of the Cross and the Day of Pentecost during the Roman empire, believers do not now possess the kingdom on earth. Daniel 7: 21-23 and 26-27 is a prophecy of the second appearance of Christ and of his spiritual reign and total dominion.
The angel who gave Daniel the prophecies of Chapters 11 and 12 says in Daniel 12: 4 for him to "...shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end..."
This can apply also to the prophecies of Daniel 7, and we are closer to the time of the end now.
In a brief search on Google I found five Internet web sites which present this more recent view of the four kingdoms of Daniel 7, as The British Empire, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and that fourth terrible beast which was diverse from the other three. There may be more than these five:
http://www.samliquidation.com/fourth_beast.htm
http://endtime.ichthus.info/04/chap07.html
http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Beast-in-Revelation
http://kenraggio.com/KRPN-Four-Beasts-Of-Daniel.html
http://www.thelowestroom.com/Jason/MouthOfTheLion/lionsmouth.htm
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