16: World News & Prophecy - Modern Babylon

[Darris McNeely] All right, in this class, I'm going back to Daniel 4 and Daniel 5 to discuss a couple of possible interpretations of the handwriting on the wall and Nebuchadnezzar's seven years of insanity. But before I do that, there's one other little short point that I wanted to cover here that I meant to do at the beginning of our studies in the book of Daniel, and it has to do with prophetic interpretation. You see the slide on the wall dealing with this. And essentially, I just want to put before you three concepts that's important to understand regarding the interpretation of prophecy throughout the Bible as scholars look at it today. And the three are post-millennialism, a-millennialism, and pre-millennialism. And they have to do with how you interpret prophecy. 

Now, if you'll look at the words, you will see very clearly, and it's really this is not rocket science here, that you see the word millennial in there. Now, you know the millennium, we've just kept the Feast of Tabernacles as we talk about the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth mentioned in Revelation 20. That's the millennium, the thousand years. The word millennium comes from the Latin word mille, which means 1,000. And so 1,000 years is hence the word millennium. Now, the return of Christ and that prophecy is obviously central to all of Bible prophecy. In one sense, everything points to Christ's coming.

And so as people look at prophecy, there are three broad camps of interpretation regarding Christ's return, the millennium, and how people look at it as they read the biblical scriptures, not just Revelation 20, but also the others. And it comes down to this, that Christ returns after the conditions of the millennium are established by the Church, which is what post-millennialism is. Or a-millennialism, which means really the scriptures about the millennium are allegorical, metaphorical. They're spiritualized away. They're not literal. That's just talking about general conditions of peace and unity and harmony, the ideal world, but are not to be taken literally. That's a-millennialism. And then pre-millennialism is the idea that Christ comes before or pre-millenium, before the thousand years, and then sets up His reign on the earth. So those are essentially what they're talking about. 

The post-millennial idea is largely based on various interpretations, really an amalgam of interpretations of the Bible and of history and spiritual revelation. You could go back to the time of Augustine, the great fourth and fifth century father of the Church. Augustine essentially came up with the idea that the conditions of the millennium or the church age, or I think he more specifically looked at it as the age of the Pentecostal age with what we see was inaugurated at Pentecost, and that inaugurated the church age. And that the work of the Church in preaching the gospel and saving souls and reaching the world, etc., will gradually, cumulatively over a period of time build the world full of human beings to the point of the utopia of the millennium. And that idea is held in many different forms by Catholics, by other Protestants, more mainstream Protestantism. And that is that the Church will, by its work of good works and of salvation and preaching salvation, and will convert human nature more or less into a church age. Then Christ will come. Now, that's not taught in the Bible when you really do understand what the Scripture says, but that's the post-millennium, that Christ comes after the Church does its work, which, again, the interpretation is Christ is doing His work through the Church. But history, even current events in the modern world and certainly biblical interpretation, show that there are many, many fallacies in that idea of post-millennialism.

Now, then a-millennialism, as I've said, has to do with the idea that the Scriptures from the prophets beginning in Genesis 3:15, all the way to the end of Revelation, are metaphorical, allegorical, and should not be taken literally. I've met people who are Christian pastors who interpret Revelation in an a-millennial sense.

And they don't look at the seals, the plagues, and the return of Christ in that sense as literal. They have, again, varying types and degrees of interpretation on that. Now, we in the Church of God don't subscribe to post-millennialism nor a-millennialism. We would fall in the category of pre-millennials. The idea and the teaching, then, that Christ physically returns to the earth, the dead in Christ rise, and then inaugurates that thousand-year period. Now, we're not the only Church that believes that other evangelical Christian churches believe in a literal 1,000-year reign as well, and whole commentaries are written on that topic. But they look for the return of Christ. They may not have the full understanding of the scheme and the interpretation of the prophecies that we would, nor do they understand exactly the role of the Church and what will happen, but you will find smatterings of that.

I think I mentioned in one of our studies on one of the fundamentals of belief that I've got a book on my shelf by an Anglican scholar who puts forth the idea that when you die, you're not going to heaven, but Christ is coming here and He is going to establish His Kingdom on the earth and that this life is to be prepared, be in the process of preparing for that with Christ, ruling with Christ.And that's an Anglican scholar writing that. So He's premillennial, even though probably His Anglican church may not be officially premillennial in their thinking or certainly in their application. So you'll find differing bits of the truth and interpretations of that. 

Anyway, I just wanted to kind of lay that out here kind of officially before we got any further. Should have done that at the beginning and kept putting it off.But obviously, the book of Daniel and Revelation, we look into in this mainstream of a premillennial teaching and interpretation of the Scriptures in regard to that. Now, I want to move on to something else. So let's go back to chapter 4 of the book of Daniel. And I'll just give you a brief recap. Remember that Daniel 4 was the account written by Nebuchadnezzar of his work in building Babylon and the boasting that he did, the image that he dreamed of a large tree that grew up to the heavens and the birds came down and made their nest within that tree.

And then a watcher comes down, a very powerful, significant angel of perhaps a unique class of angels. We're not told much more than just that it is a unique word used there for that angel that comes down and cuts down that tree that Daniel later interprets to be Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar as the head of state. But a band of iron is put upon that tree in Daniel 4. The tree is chopped down, its branches are cut off, but they're told to leave the stump and the roots in the earth. Now again, Daniel comes along and he gives an interpretation of this later than to Nebuchadnezzar and tells him about it. And you know the story, how that Nebuchadnezzar then about a year later is walking on the roofs of his palace and he's boasting about Babylon and he's negating what really Daniel advised him to become more humble, more a servant of the poor from God's instruction.

And God strikes him down with a madness that puts him into seven years of insanity where he looks like possibly something like this. The famous William Blake portraiture of Nebuchadnezzar as a beast with his hair growing out, his nails and his toes kind of looking like the claws of a beast and eating grass of the field and living like a beast for a seven-year period. Then he comes back. All right. And I did at the time tell you that there is a gap of about seven years in the Babylonian Chronicle that we have that is unaccounted for in Nebuchadnezzar's reign. However, Daniel 4 is the only location in any source for this seven years of insanity of Nebuchadnezzar. Now, Nebuchadnezzar writes about all of this and then he gives a final praise of God to end out chapter 7. But I want to go back then to the idea of this tree and cut down and then an iron band put upon it. But the roots are still there. And what Daniel 4 tells us is important to note. 

There's a stump that is left and the roots are left in the earth. Now, again, I pointed out that all of us know that if we cut down a tree and we don't grind that stump out, those extensive roots will still generate life and shoots will come out from them. That's well known. And that's why you cut a tree down. I just had a tree fall down in a recent windstorm before the feast this year and I decided to have two other trees cut down in my yard to eliminate any future danger to my house, my neighbor's house. And so I also had to have a guy come in and grind out the stump. Once the tree was cut down to the ground, it looked like this, but you got to grind that stump out as well and then reseed it to remove all evidence of it. I didn't want to have to go out there next year and start cutting off shoots that would be coming up out of those stumps. But this tree in this prophecy is to be left, the stump, and an iron band meaning to impede the growth while the implication could be that there is still life within the root system.

All right? And then that would be lifted. It would be lifted. Now, there is a possible interpretation of this that we should at least consider as we look at Babylon which this tree through Nebuchadnezzar represents. We are looking at Babylon in our study of Daniel and Revelation. In Daniel we have Babylon of the ancient world. All right? The city and the kingdom. There was a city called Babylon and obviously it was the Babylonian Kingdom. We've been through all of this with the first beast of Daniel 7 and the head of gold of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. And we've talked extensively about this Babylon which we know did fall in the year 539 BC to Persia under Cyrus the Great. When we come to Revelation, we're going to also talk about Babylon when we come to Revelation 17 and 18. And we are going to talk about Babylon in a modern setting. It's called Babylon the Great.

It's called the mother of harlots. We'll talk more about all what that means when we come to it. But it is a final end time pre-return of Christ, pre-Second Coming, revival of this ancient city system and whole system called Babylon. And in our studies, we have been talking about that Babylon is the big story. Though Persia, Greece, and Rome come on and Rome is important, when we come to Revelation 17 and 18, it is the name of Babylon that is put on this final revival of yes, the Roman Empire as we talked about in chapter 7, but it has this name of Babylon. And we'll come back to all of the details of that off of our beast chart and everything at that time. And so this is yet to come. Even though I think that it's developing and we can also say, we do say that we live in a modern Babylon of confusion, of spiritual apostasy, etc. And there are many, many applications to our modern world that tell us that we are living in a Babylon, but not yet the Babylon of chapter 17 and 18. But that represents a revival of the system. We talked about that that system will be revived out of the area of Europe. I'll go ahead and I think I can turn to that here, put this map up. Europe, from this point up here, as the migration of the whole system moves to the west, this is going to come out of a system that is based in Europe rather than the ancient system, although that system is going to be involved in a different way. We'll talk about that in chapter 11. 

Now, if Babylon fell, we know it fell in 539 BC, and it's going to rise in the time of the end, what might we speculate or learn as we look at Daniel 4 and again in Daniel 5?One interpretation of this seven years of insanity of the time of Nebuchadnezzar, since he represents Babylon, is to look at this in regard to the idea of a timeline, a prophetic year, and a progression of time from the ancient period to the modern period. 

So let's digress for a moment and just review. I think Dr. Dunkle has covered this material with you as he's taking you through numbers, or he will, and the idea of a prophetic year in the Bible. We've already talked in Daniel 7 about…

Daniel 7:25 “the particular horn that speaks pompous words against the Most High, persecuting the saints of the Most High, intending to change times and law. The saints will be given into the hand, his hand for a time and times and half a time.” 

The idea of time, times, and half a time equates to a period of three and a half years in a prophetic interpretation and an understanding here. As we break down the Scriptures that talk about a prophetic year, we can pull together a few out of the book of Revelation. And we'll just note here Revelation 12:14-17, where it talks about the woman being given two wings of a great eagle, and this is a symbol of the Church here, “that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for time, times, and half a time.” So there we see that phrase again, where the woman goes to her place. She's nourished from the presence of the serpent, which is a symbol for Satan. The dragon, again, Satan was enraged with the woman, went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God, have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And that ends chapter 12. 

But if we go to chapter 13, we also see another reference, this time to a beast that rises up in chapter 13, “who's given a mouth, speaking great things, and blasphemies, and the authority to continue for 42 months.” That's another expression for three and a half years. The prophetic year is 12 months of 12, 30-day months, is how that is figured from the calendar of God and from the Scriptures. And so another three and a half year period there, we'll talk about that in Revelation 13. But then in chapter 11 of Revelation, as we look at the work of the times of the gentiles and of the two witnesses, we have other reference marks here. “Leave out the court, which is outside the temple, do not measure it for it has been given to the gentiles and they will tread the holy city under foot for 42 months.” So there again, a three and a half year period is marked out there. And I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.” That is the equivalent of 42 30-day months, 42 times 30, or time, times, and half a time. A time is considered one. All right. Times would be two and then half a time speaks for itself, you know, so you got three and a half years when you add that up, 3.5, three and a half years, or 42 months or 1,260 days to at least help us understand just the framework for these time periods that we're talking about. Now, in the idea of a day for a year, we go back to Numbers 14:34 where the spies who had spied out the land return and they give a negative report. You know that story. And as a result, Israel is cursed to wander in the wilderness for another 40 years. Well, they've actually gone more than a year at that point. So the time is extended on, but the total wandering is 40 years. And it is figured a day, the number of days you wish you spied out the land, 40 days. For each day you will bear your guilt one year, namely 40 years, and you will know my rejection. So God gives us the principle there in Numbers regarding the idea of a day for a year. And so if we have three and a half time times in half a time, three and a half years, or 42 months, 1260 days, then we're in, you know, to look at some of these numbers that pop up in front of us. 

And some might say, well, you know, it's a bit of a stretch, but not necessarily so. And I'm presenting it to you as a possible alternative. And when things are all kind of pulled together, which we will do here, we do come to some interesting things to consider. And I'll put it that way, at least. And my goal here is at least just to present this to you because it has been a part of our traditional teaching about prophecy. I was taught this at Ambassador College in the years that I was there. And while it might not always be known, might not always be emphasized, we haven't included it in our Bible reading program, and at least, you know, I think in an appropriate reference there. And it is something to consider. So with that in mind, we're looking at a prophetic year of 360 days and a biblical time then equals one year. And if we look at Nebuchadnezzar's seven years of insanity and the connection to this tree, and we would then multiply that out seven times, seven times 360, that would be 2,520 days or day for a year principle, possibly 2,520 years from the time of the fall of Babylon, all right, which was 539 BC. 

And so the idea is if we're looking at what we're the story of Daniel 4 is Babylon of the ancient world. And as I've said, we have Babylon of the modern world, modern end time, a system called Babylon that will rise up. Then do we have an interesting connection? Then I'll leave it, you know, use that wording. It's possible. So 500, 2,520 years from 539 BC brings you to the year 1982 AD, all right? You add a year for going from BC to AD because there's no year zero. So you add a year and you come up with 1982. When you do that, and that brings you to the year 1982. Now, what happened in 1982? Did something happen in 1982 connected with the possible, you know, the rise of and the appearance of this end time Babylon? 1982 was before I think everybody in this class was born, except for one, two? Here. But how old was I? I was 31. I was 31 years old in 1982.Here we are in 2024, almost ready to turn the page to 2025. What's happened? What did happen? I'll come back to that. Hold that question in your mind. I know that you've got a bated breath as you're wanting that answer. 

Now, let's go to chapter five of Daniel. And let's look at that. As you recall, chapter five is the story of the handwriting on the wall. And Daniel is called in to explain that handwriting and to make it known. And so as we look at this, what do we have to understand? If you recall, when Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall, he came out with the idea, the interpretation was, Mani, Mani, Taeko, Lufarsa. And, you know, to go and read that very quickly, just to review, he said, this is the interpretation. This is verse 26 of Daniel 5. 

Daniel 5:26-31 “This is the interpretation. Mani, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. So there's a numbering that takes place. Taeko, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and to the Persians.” And so that's what he said. Well, “Bel-Shazar gave the command, they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. And in that night, Bel-Shazar, king of the Chaldeans was slain. Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62.” 

The Persians came in. So that night was the fall and collapse of Babylon that was in the year or in the month of October as we reckon our time in the fall of the year 539. But then there's this handwriting on the wall and Daniel is inspired to put a numbering to that. Now, we have a similar conclusion if we take this and break this down numerically, which can be done. Now, I'm not going to go into all the details of this numerical breakdown of Mani Mani Tekelufarsin, which is on the screen right now. And this will be in a handout. We'll put that on the web. I will say that this is documented in our Bible reading program on Daniel 5. And it's largely taken from a commentary in the expositor's Bible commentary, who no doubt took it from other commentaries as something that has been known or looked at, considered for a number of years by other prophetic interpreters of Scripture. All right? And the idea that by putting a number of these weight to these words, you can come up with an interesting combination. Now, I fully recognize that you can do this with all kinds of gymnastic permutations and combinations when it comes to anything, anybody in history. But we are talking about the Bible, and we are talking about, in this case, two unique events dealing with Babylon that are in the prophetic story of Daniel and should at least be considered and secondary or perhaps tertiary aspects of the entire topic. But my point is in our Bible reading program, we go through a lot of the details of this, and I'm not going to take the time to show you how this is broken down to come to 50 shekels times two, mani-mani.

If you look at your handout that I've given to you, mani-mani would be two manis. A takal would be one and a perez. And the equivalent of those that you would come up to would be 126 shekels by a Babylonian reckoning. But we're in the Bible, and we break those down to a biblical accounting. And the 126 shekels that you get to by having two manis, which 50 shekels to a mana by Babylonian reckoning. So you have 100, then one takal, and then the perez is equal to 25. That gives you 126 shekels. But we have a reference in Exodus 30, verse 13, that a shekel was worth 20 geras. All right? This is, again, another ancient measurement of monetary measurement. So if you take 126 times 20, you come up with, guess what? 2,520 geras. And that being the biblical equivalent gives us, then, another 2520, which we had in Daniel 4 with the 7 times 360 of Nebuchadnezzar's insanity down to 1982. And that brings us to 1982 once again, if we take 2520, just the same type of connection.

And you add a year for going from BC to AD. Both of these recordings, chapter 4, chapter 5, deal with Babylon, a collapse of Babylon, the tree being cut down, the handwriting on the wall, and the fall of Babylon literally on that night. Now, as we point out in the Bible reading program, Daniel did not interpret it this way, and that must be understood. So if you just look at what the Scripture says, that in itself is pretty powerful. And as we talked at the time I went through it, it gives us a great deal to personally think about in terms of our own accountability before God. I covered all of that. A national accountability that ultimately judgment comes.

It comes upon us individually, and judgment comes upon a nation because of sin and unrighteousness. That record is throughout the Bible, and it's focused here on Babylon, first Nebuchadnezzar, and his pride, his vanity, his cruelty. And then Belshazzar, his ignorance, his inattention to the vessels that he brought out from the storehouse that were robbed from the temple in Jerusalem. We talked about what those vessels can represent when we come into the New Testament as the individuals, the individual temples that God is building as saints, members of the body of Christ. A desecration, a destroying, a grinding in the dirt. And by drinking wine in this banquet that they had in Belshazzar's palace, they were just basically thumbing their nose at God. I'll be polite. That disrespect, and God brought judgment that night. And God will do that again in the future with this Babylon. We'll see that in Revelation. 

So with that, and with the imagery that we have, the counting, and remember the imagery of the tree cut down, a band put upon the stump, but the roots remain. And in the roots are life. And so there is the obvious indication there that though the tree is no longer there, there is life to that system. And we're talking about Babylon. And as I pointed out, I'll do it again here, as we have studied the flow of Babylon to Persia, to Greece, to Rome, we have a continuity of a system that begins in Babylon. It is Satan's system, which is the antithesis to God's Kingdom.

Babylon, Jerusalem, the two cities, remember that we kind of have is the tale of two cities traced throughout the Bible, Jerusalem and Babylon. And Babylon representing Satan's city, and Satan's system that lives. Babylon, as the city and kingdom, fell to the Persians, but the system continued on. I did talk briefly about that in the economic, political, religious system of Babylon that migrated into Persia. Well, Persia fell to Alexander the Great, but that system didn't die. Alexander, in fact, took on and his succeeding kingdoms out of Alexander's reign, his generals and the kingdoms that came up after that, they cloaked themselves in the garbs and the ways and the customs that began in Babylon. The same thing happened when Rome came and took over all of that system. The Roman emperors that took on, became to be looked at as semi-divine, divine upon their death, and worshiped in this whole system, melded into the the Roman world and the empire, and then subsequently through the revivals of the Roman empire and Christianity that was centered in Rome, a Constantinian, Roman Christianity, not the Christianity of Christ, the apostles, and Jerusalem, perpetuated all of this and is prophesied to arise yet in the future. 

So what do we have here? What are we looking at? Let me take you to 1982. Here's a picture of a man. He's obviously a pope. This is Pope John Paul II. He is the most significant pope of recent years, since the end of World War II. This is probably arguably the most significant pope in terms of what he did, the length of his reign, his influence in Europe, and upon Catholicism. It's an interesting, fascinating story. I obviously knew, I was alive when he was made the pontiff.

Throughout his reign, he died a few years ago, maybe 20 years ago. I have to go back to the exact date. But this was a man who he was Polish, and then he became the pope. He was the first and only Polish pope. In 1982, Pope John Paul II made a speech, and it was before hundreds of thousands of youth that had come to him in Spain in a big outdoor setting. And he gave a speech to a group of youth, and he talked about Europe. And here's what he said.

“I, Bishop of Rome,” one of the names of the pope, “Shepherd of the Universal Church from Santiago,” he was in Spain, “utter to you, Europe of the ages, a cry full of love.Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Revive your roots.” 

This is his language.Roots. Daniel 4, a tree cut down. Roots are remaining. But a band of iron keeps those roots from growing and developing. Here, 2520 years later, from at least 539, a pontiff of the Catholic Church makes an interesting speech. I remember when he gave it and the coverage that was there at the time. And those of us in the Church, you know, studying prophecy, made a note of it. I've not forgotten it. He said, revive your roots. And he's talking to Europe. He went on to say, “Return to those authentic values of which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in the other continents.” Well, that's a, you could have a big argument as to the beneficence of Europe and Roman Catholic Catholicism throughout history. But that's another part of the story. And so he then went on to introduce a project of European consciousness and spiritual unity based on Christian values. 

Now, it's a speech. What came of it? Perhaps nothing that we could see. Europe has continued on. It has developed as a political economic system. Today, it's called the EU, the European Union. I think it's 25 countries. It was 26 until Europe left a few years ago. If I had those numbers wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected on that. But Europe today is nowhere near a world power that we look at and talk about in regard to Bible prophecy. I readily admit that and understand that. But we are looking at a system that has been in existence from the time of Babylon when we understand what Western Christianity, Roman Christianity is all about as centered there. And for the head of the Church who speaks and occupies a unique role politically, religiously in the world, but also from a, let's say, a biblical point of view, and we've already studied that in connection with the little horn of Daniel 7, and we'll see more detail about that in Revelation.

We should take note when words like that are used by such a leader. His successor, when Pope John Paul II died, he was succeeded by another Pope who had been Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and he became Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI. This was the Pope that retired a few years ago to make room for the current Pope. And then this Pope here, Benedict, died, and has subsequently died. But he wrote a book when he was a Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, called Europe Today and Tomorrow. And it's an interesting book. I've read it, I've marked the parts of it, I need to reread it for some other work that I'm doing right now. But in his very beginning, he acknowledges the concept of Europe. And he actually quoted his predecessor, Pope John Paul, on this subject of the speech that he gave in 1982. But in this book, Europe Today and Tomorrow, in the opening pages, he acknowledges the very fact that Europe is a system that originated in the Mediterranean world, primarily with everything from Greece westward. While this is Asia, I think I did bring a map to illustrate that.

Can't find that just yet. But he talks about the concept of Europe as a Christian entity that is connected with theological interpretations of history. This is his words. And he says here, it connects with the book of Daniel. Europe connects with the book of Daniel, the Roman Empire, and a renewed and transformed by the Christian faith. He says this Europe was considered to be the final permanent kingdom. And he's talking about the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was considered to be the final permanent kingdom in the history of the world in general. And therefore, the Association of People and States that was taking shape was defined as a permanent Sacrum Imperium Romanum, which translates to Holy Roman Empire. And so here's what he's saying. The Europe that developed with the Roman Empire and has had many different resurrections and revivals, and we talked about that with Daniel 7, he says was considered to be the final permanent kingdom in the history of the world. Final, permanent. This is when when the Pope of the Catholic Church writes and talks like this, I'm pretty simple, but I think we ought to take notice. I think we ought to note this if we're going to really truly understand Bible prophecy. And he goes on to talk about how this from the time of Charlemagne, who was the first Holy Roman Emperor, every successive Holy Roman Empire from the time of Charlemagne down to the present presented itself as the power that was in charge of the future.

This is significant. There's another book that I've had for about four or five years now, and bears on this as well. And it is a book called The Empire and the Five Kings, written by a French intellectual named Bernard Henri Lévi. So I'll hold it up for those watching this later to look at. And to cut to, he covers a number of things dealing with Iraq, the Iraq War, the persecution of minority groups in Iraq, the Kurds, and others. But he talks about five empires.

He calls it the empire and five kings. The five kings that he defines are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and that's four. What's the fifth? Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia, Russia being the fifth. Five kings and one empire. And basically he says these five kings, all are currently vying for it to be the king of the world. And he says they won't make it. China won't make it. Russia won't make it. Iran won't make it. Saudi Arabia won't make it. And Turkey won't make it. He says the only king of the world that's ever existed is Europe, the Roman Empire, he says. And he quotes certain odd prophecies about Rome being the final, being in existence at the end of the age. And he says the only empire that in the ashes of its collapse had the seeds of its rebirth, let me repeat that, the only empire in history who in the ashes of its collapse had the seeds of its rebirth, he said the only one is Europe or the Roman Empire centered in Europe.

Now, that's significant too. It fits in with our received prophetic narrative and our framework of Bible prophecy. And it's important to at least note, I'm preparing this, I've had it on my mind because I'm going to be going to Europe here in December. We have a major conference in December of our European work and churches. And I'm going to give a specialized talk on what we've been talking about to our churches in Europe at that conference. So these are things that a pope, a French intellectual, I mean, they see as they look at history, they look at culture, politics, society, geopolitics, and come to certain conclusions that match up with what we have understood from Daniel in Revelation about Babylon. What happened in 1982? A man gave a speech and he talked about Europe recovering its roots. And this particular pope repeated it as well. Here's a quote from the current pope, Francis. He said, I am convinced that Europe, which is capable of appreciating its religious roots, will be immune to extremism. As he was commenting upon terrorism and the problems in Europe. Europe today has a lot of problems. And they're in the midst of this Ukraine-Russia battle and they're right on the front line of it. And they know that they could be next. 

And it is forcing some change and reconsideration, a lot of discussion in Europe, but still there's one superpower in the world right now. It's the United States of America. Europe is not. Europe, as of today, does not have the ability to do what Bible prophecy indicates that a power will do whose roots are in this entire system. But things can change dramatically very quickly. We'll talk more about that in Daniel 11 and in Revelation. So I'll conclude this with at least, you know, these are possibilities as we look at Daniel 4 and Daniel 5. The further details of the counting of this is within the Bible reading program. And so you can go into that as much as you want and fill in the details. I've given you just the broad outline, which is about, I think, appropriate for the class here. So that will take us down to the end of the class. We'll pick up with our next topic in the next class at this time.