[Peter Eddington] Have you ever watched a movie and the opening scene runs for two or three minutes showing some event or scenario, and then the actual movie begins and it seems like the introduction you just watched has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie? It's a different time of the year, there are different actors, or they're different ages, or they're in a different country. And you say to yourself, "What on earth did that introduction have to do with the movie?" However, at the very end of the movie, it all makes sense and you know why they put that at the beginning and it comes full circle. Well, here's my introduction that will probably, at first, seem to have nothing to do with the sermon, but, hopefully, it will come full circle at the end.

On November 10 of 1982, Pope John Paul II went to Spain where he gave an impassioned speech. Here's part of what he said in the presence of King Juan Carlos and representatives of European organizations and universities. And these words actually became the high point of the papal tour. Here's part of what he said. "I, Bishop of Rome and pastor of the Universal Church, from Santiago issue to you, old Europe, a cry full of love. Find yourself, be yourself, discover your origins, give life to your roots, revive those authentic values that gave glory to your history and enhanced your presence on the other continents." So, that's a quote from the New York Times of November 10, 1982, that same day. And you can read… you know, lots of newspapers quoted him saying this. The Pope said, "Europe, give life to your roots." Remember, this was said in 1982 by the figurehead of what used to be the Holy Roman Empire.

There's also another interesting event that took place in that year, but this time with President Ronald Reagan. His tear down this wall speech was not the first time he had addressed the issue of the Berlin Wall. In the visit to West Berlin in June of 1982, he stated, "I'd like to ask the Soviet leaders one question. Why is the wall there?"

As we know, seven years later, November 9th of 1989, the Berlin Wall then fell. And at that point, we saw the very rapid end of the Soviet Empire and the opportunity for Europe to be reunited and for those roots to be revived.

So, what does this all have to do with today's sermon? That was the introduction. Now, we're going to go back 2,500 years, actually more than that, to the book of Daniel. And the sermon is titled, "Dissecting an Important Prophecy." "Dissecting an Important Prophecy."

The book of Daniel is like an Old Testament version of the book of Revelation. It deals with judgment and the destiny of mankind, including the end-time prophecy. There's a link between Daniel and Revelation, particularly Daniel 2 and Revelation 17, and Daniel 7 and Revelation 13.

Daniel has become quite popular lately in a number of churches because Kanye West produced an opera that was performed seven weeks ago in the Hollywood Bowl. It was on Sunday, November 24th. And it was simply called "Nebuchadnezzar." And West covered the first four chapters of Daniel in this opera at the Hollywood Ball. And so, kind of as, you know, it had people in various churches go look at it and see, you know, what on earth was in the book of Daniel that they hadn't really thought about before.

We're going to look at Daniel chapters 4 and 5 today. What Kanye West did help more people get their noses into the book of Daniel. In Daniel, the fourth chapter, we see Nebuchadnezzar, a critically important figure in biblical history. And in this historic story, the people of God were first occupied by the Chaldean Empire based in Babylon. It was known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, but then later by the Medo-Persian Empire, and then by the Greco-Macedonian Empire, and finally by the Roman Empire.

The people of God were kind of subjugated by these various empires. The Roman Empire later interacted with the New Testament Church itself. Of course, you know at the time of Christ that the Romans ruled the Middle East.

And the Roman Empire has had various resurrections over the centuries throughout history, and will actually yet have another revival. The final end-time world empire actually has its origins in the Tower of Babel. That's where the name Babylon even comes from. The Revived Roman Empire is also called Babylon, the Final Babylon.

So, look at Daniel 4:24. Nebuchadnezzar has become a type of that final empire. And in Daniel 4, we see the prophecy of what would happen to him, his punishment. God would make him like an animal.

In Daniel 4:24, Daniel said, "Here's the interpretation of your dream, O, King Nebuchadnezzar, and this is the decree of the Most High," capital M, capital H. This is God speaking, "which has come upon my lord the king."

Verse 25, "They shall drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men," you know, not you, "and God gives to whomever He chooses."

So, the problem with Nebuchadnezzar was his arrogance. He was a megalomaniac, obsessed with his own power, and was doing one of these self-aggrandizing speeches that God finally said, "That's enough," and took basically his human spirit from him, and he became like an animal. He went from being the ruler of the Babylonian Empire to nothing. He, in fact, lost his mind and was literally like an animal for seven years, for seven times. And then, his sanity was restored. He repented of his former attitude. Nebuchadnezzar was restrained for those seven biblical times or years.

Let's go back a verse to verse 23, from where we started, and look at the important symbolism of a tree and what he's done with it to restrain it. Verse 23, "And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying…" And this is repeating the prophecy from earlier in the chapter that is being interpreted. "Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave it's stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field; let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beast of the field," Nebuchadnezzar, "till seven times pass over him."

So, if we look at this tree stump and its roots as a dual prophecy of the end-time Babylon and not just Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, we see that a restraint occurs for seven biblical times, which are longer than just simple years now. It's a restraint upon Nebuchadnezzar and upon the entire empire.

It's interesting you see here, in verse 23, the band around the tree stump is made of iron and bronze. The iron is the more dominant, stronger metal binding it. And as we understand from prophecy, the final empire of our world, the Roman Empire, is represented by iron. It has various resurrections, and it's the one found at the end time. And it'll have 10 toes of iron and clay.

Now, these prophecies of the Bible all fit together in an amazing way. The Romans, the Iron Empire, preserved much of the Greek civilization when they took over. The Greek is for the bronze people, the Bronze Empire in the prophecies. Those two metals are restraining the tree for seven biblical times, and this is all part of the historical picture as it unfolds.

Now, look at verse 36. At the end of the chapter, Nebuchadnezzar comes back into sanity. Verse 36, "At the same time my reason returned to me," says Nebuchadnezzar, "And for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me."

Verse 37, "Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven." So, “I don't have such a big head anymore.” "All of those words are truth, and His way is justice. And those who walk in pride, He's able to put down."

No kidding, Nebuchadnezzar learned his true place before God. And he could be grateful here that his counselors and staff remained loyal to him during those seven years so that when he returned, they were still there to support him when he resumed control.

When we get into the fifth chapter, we find that his grandson, Belshazzar, had not learned that lesson. Belshazzar was a son of Nebuchadnezzar's, but more literally his grandson. Here it calls him his son or his father. He was actually a grandson. Nabonidus was Belshazzar's actual dad but Nabonidus was not in Babylon when it fell. When Babylon fell, Belshazzar was the one who was in charge.

Look at Daniel 5:1. And Belshazzar was kind of acting like his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar before he was humbled. Daniel 5:1, "Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine in the presence of the thousand. And while he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them." What a great idea, huh? We'll see. This was evidently, by the way, around the time of the new moon of the seventh month, around the time of the Feast of Trumpets on, you know, as we would think of it today, you know, September, October.

Verse 3, "Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king, Belshazzar, and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine; and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze and iron, and wood and stone."

So this was obviously a terrible, ungodly use of these temple artifacts. And it's interesting here that gold, silver, bronze, and iron are the same metals that represent the four empires that would rule the world up until the coming of Christ, very symbolic. The wood and stone may simply represent other nations of less biblical importance.

Verse 5, "In the same hour that Belshazzar did all this, the finger of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." So it's like a dismembered forearm, right, writing on the wall. There's no body behind it, an arm floating in space. "Then the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other." This is a no-kidding, right? I mean, you can imagine it if it happened here, we'd think something serious was going on, wouldn't we? If this was happening on our wall right now, you'd realize, "Uh oh. We've either done something really bad or God's trying to tell us something." Belshazzar had done something really bad.

Verse 7, "So, the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke, saying to the wise men of Babylon, 'Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.'" The third ruler, yes, because Belshazzar had a father, Nabonidus, who was still alive, but may not have been there at that moment. Belshazzar was king in the area but his father was over him. So, whoever will be next in line in the throne to the kingdom will be the third in line.

Scholars like Eugene Merrill say that Nabonidus spent 10 years in Arabia, actually, during this time. His enemy, Cyrus, was busily amassing the Persian Empire over to the east, and soon all that was left was for Cyrus to incorporate into his vast realm, Babylon. So, Cyrus set his sights on it. Because of the absence of Nabonidus, Babylon began to deteriorate very rapidly under the incompetent rule of Belshazzar, as we see from this lavish party.

Verse 8, "And all the king's wise men came, but they could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, his countenance was changed, and his lords were astonished." So the way it was written meant you had to be somewhat innovative in order to make sense of it. Even if you could actually read the words, what did they mean? You wouldn't necessarily know what the interpretation was.

Verse 10, "The queen, because of the words of the kings and his lords, came to the banquet hall. The queen spoke saying, 'O king, live forever!’" You got to be respectful here or you lose your head, "Live forever! Do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance change." Now, this is most likely Belshazzar's mother, not his wife, especially since his mother was more familiar with the important history of the empire than was Belshazzar.

Verse 11, "There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God." You see, so she remembers his past when Nebuchadnezzar was king. "And in the days of your father," actually your grandfather, "light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father— your father the king— made him chief of the magicians, chief of the astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers." So, Daniel had a position like Joseph did in Egypt as an Israelite ruling over the Gentiles. But by now, Daniel is over 80 years old. This is towards the end of Daniel's life.

Verse 12, "Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now, let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation."

So, Daniel was named by Nebuchadnezzar, given the name Belteshazzar. It's actually the same name as Belshazzar who is the king now. But Daniel and his friends, when they first arrived in Babylon as captives, had Hebrew names, like Daniel. The conquering empire gave them Aramaic names with pagan significance. And so, Daniel's name was changed by the king to Belteshazzar meaning Bel or Bal, protect the king. It's the same name as Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, as I mentioned, and Bel or Bal was the Babylonian god. So, Daniel was given his name named after Babylonian god by Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 13, "Belteshazzar or “Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, 'Are you that Daniel who's one of the captives from Judah, who my father the king brought from Judah? I've heard of you, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known to me it's interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing.’” And so, verse 16, "And I've heard of you, that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." As we all know from the story, Daniel was not really interested at all in this game of thrones. There was a much higher purpose and plan about to be exposed.

So, verse 17, "Daniel answered, and said before the king, 'Let your gifts be for yourself, and give you rewards to another; but I will still read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.'" And now, just by doing this, Daniel was being very courageous because he was not about to tell the king anything that he would really want to hear when the interpretation is given.

Verse 18, "O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your grandfather a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. Because of the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him." So we read about that, you know, in the previous chapter, chapter 4. After that, Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to resume his throne after being made like an animal, like a beast, but not until a period of seven times had passed.

Verse 21, Daniel's telling Belshazzar, "Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like an oxen, and his body was wet with a dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses."

Verse 22, "But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this." So evidently, Belshazzar should have known what happened to his grandfather, should have been impacted by that to make sure he didn't repeat the same mistakes because if the king goes insane, loses his mind for seven years, you got to think the family knows about it. I think his grandson would have known the story, but he chose to ignore that history.

Verse 23, "And you've lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven," you know, just kind of like your grandfather did. "They've brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, your concubines have drunk wine from them. You've praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified." I love the way that's put at the end of verse 23. God holds our breath in His hand, and it doesn't take much to take that breath away.

Verse 24, "Then the fingers of the hand was sent from Him, this writing on the wall just so you know Belshazzar comes from God. And this is the thing that was written. This is the inscription that was written:” verse 25, "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." So, now, Daniel translates and interprets the four words on the wall. The people could read it, but they didn't know what it meant or it didn't make any sense to them. They couldn't interpret it.

Verse 26, "This is the interpretation of each word. MENE:” M-E-N-E, or MINA, “God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it." 27, “TEKEL: You've been weighed in the balances, and found wanting." 28, “PERES:” And peres is the same Chaldean root word as upharsin mentioned in the previous verses. Upharsin and peres are from the same Chaldean word, which means “Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” So that's the enemy, Cyrus's kingdom, right, to the east, and Cyrus sure wanted Babylon.

Verse 29, "Then Belshazzar gave the command, and 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." So this is the straightforward, reasonable explanation. Belshazzar's reign is about to suddenly end. The Babylonian Empire is about to be conquered by Cyrus, by the Medes and Persians. But we can further dissect this important prophecy. There's more underneath the surface here to study.

Mene, tekel, and upharsin are also monetary weights or, you know, dollar amounts, shall we say. These words here have double meaning. Now, recall that Daniel said Babylon had been weighed in the balance like weights on a scale at the marketplace. When you consider these as monetary weights, it's interesting to see and note that they add up to a surprising total.

Now, tekel is the translation of shekel, and in Israel, they still use shekels today, right? A mina or mene in Babylon has been shown to be 50 shekels, and 50 was the standard number of Hebrew minas for shekels too.

Upharsin or Peres denotes a half mina, which would be 25 shekels. So, you notice the tally. We've got a mina, 50 shekels, another mina, 50 more shekels, a shekel, and upharsin or a half mina, 25 shekels. That adds up to 126 shekels, 50 plus 50 plus 1 plus 25, 126 shekels.

The smallest monetary weight measurement unit, like the penny for us today, were gerahs, G-E-R-A-H-S. Their pennies were called gerahs, and a shekel is 20 pennies or 20 gerahs. And you can read about that in Exodus 30:13 if you want to. Exodus 30:13 says that a shekel has 20 gerahs. So, 126 shekels would be 126 times 20, which is 2,520 gerahs, 2,520 of these pennies. Remarkably, this parallels the explanation of the seven times of Daniel 4 in the previous chapter with the tree stump roots and Nebuchadnezzar's insanity as meaning a 2,520-year judgment on Babylon from its ancient fall to modern times.

So stay with me here. We'll look at the meaning of seven times here in a moment in a bit more detail. But here's what's important. Babylon fell that night. It fell in the autumn of 539 BC, probably at the time of the new moon of the seventh month, which is the Feast of Trumpets time for us. It was dark, no moonlight, which greatly helped Cyrus and his army to conquer. And it's an amazing story of what happened. We can read it some other time. But humanly speaking, this didn't seem possible. Babylon was the greatest city of its day, like Imperial Rome at its height centuries later. It was the most important trade center and the greatest cultural and tourism center with its renowned Hanging Gardens, right? You've heard of them, and other remarkable works. And the enormous city with its towering and impregnably thick walls, endless fortifications, great troop strength, and vast population seemed unconquerable. And indeed, Babylon had many years of food stored within its walls, along with an endless supply of freshwater with the Euphrates river, which went right through the middle of the city

As the Medo-Persian army advanced, there was no real concern within the city. Belshazzar was having a big party. And given Babylon's unparalleled defenses and staggering prosperity, the idea that the city could fall was absurd. But guess what? The handwriting was on the wall. And, of course, Daniel 5 is the origin of that very popular statement even used today. The impossible was going to happen. Babylon, the greatest national power the world had ever seen, was about to fall. And, of course, it's a great lesson to all nations, including the leading nation on earth today, the United States, for when God says it's over, it's over. And if God wishes, that can be almost in an instant.

The Iranians of today are the descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Persia that conquered Babylon that night in 539 BC. And then they ruled the world of the Middle East for a period of several hundred years until they were conquered by Alexander the Great of Greece in 333 BC. And, of course, then, later on, the Romans overtook the Greeks.

Getting back to mene, mene, tekel, and upharsin, we'll see that number of days represents seven biblical times. Seven biblical times adds up to 2,520 days. And with a day-for- a-year principle, that adds up to 2,520 years.

Let me show you. Let's go back to the book of Genesis 7. I'm going to read Genesis 7:11. Here we have the captain's log for the flood. We have Noah's captain's log here. And these are not stardates. These are deluge dates, okay? There's a lot of water going on right here right now.

Genesis 7:11, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life," he's been around a while, "in the second month," so in the second month," month number two remember, "the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." So, it's the second month, the 17th day of the month.

Now, we're going to go ahead 150 days to Genesis 8:3. Genesis 8:3, "The waters receded continually from the earth," so the flood was receding. “At the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters decreased." So, if you have 30 days in a month, and go 150 days, that would get you to the seventh month.

Verse 4, "And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat." So, it's exactly 150 days in 5 months. So what I'm showing here is that there are 30 days in a biblical month. We have some that are 28, some that are 29, some that are 30, and some that are 31 today, right? But on the Hebrew calendar, it's 30 days per month. And then they make adjustments every few years because you need an extra month every once in a while because they've got these 30-day months.

So, this is evidently how Noah logged time in his captain's log. And it's also how prophecy counts time, 30 days in a month. So, you'll then have a period of 360 days in a year, in a normal year, 360 days in 12 months of 30 days each, especially in terms of prophecy.

So, let's examine this further and go to Revelation 11. I'm going to tie this together here, Revelation 11:1. Revelation 11:1, "Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood saying…" Of course, this is John here, this being revealed to him, “…Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it's being given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." So 42 months is 3.5 years.

Verse 3, "And I'll give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth." That's also 3.5 years if you have exactly 30-day months. Twelve hundred and sixty days is 3.5 years exactly. So, in prophecy, three and a half years is also known as three and a half times as we'll see next.

Go to Revelation 12. Go across the page to Revelation 12:6. Here, we'll see times mentioned. "And the woman fled into the wilderness, which has a place prepared by God, that He should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days." That's three and a half years.

Jump down to verse 14, "But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle…" This is where we get the idea of a place of protection, right? “… that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and two times and a half a time… a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent."

So, we have a parallel of 1,260 days, which is 3.5 years and 3.5 times all the same period, all the same length of time. So, we're seeing a biblical time as a year of 12 months with 30 days each.

All of this tying together, we have 42 months, we have 3.5 years. We have 1,260 days. We have 3.5 times. A biblical time is 360 days. Seven times, like happened in the book of Daniel, then is 2,520 days. And there are many more examples in the Bible of the same thing, but that's enough there just to show the point.

We know from Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 that there are prophecies that project into the future where a day is equal to a year. And Daniel deals with end-time prophecy as well. And he deals with projecting out to the climax of human history.

If we look at the end-time Babylon, we can compare with the first Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was restrained for seven biblical times where he was turned into a beast. Two thousand five hundred and twenty days is how long he was like that. In the biblical day-for-a year principle, that's 2,520 years. Babylon fell around the time of the Feast of Trumpets of 539 BC. Project forward 2,520 years, and there's no year zero. You go from 1 BC to 1 AD. You don't count the year zero, and you come up with 1982. If you do a Google search to see what was going on in the world in 1982. It's very interesting.

We all know that a resurrected Roman Empire will be very powerful around the time of Jesus Christ's return. And so you would expect to see great influence based in Europe. And based on our understanding, we'd also expect it to be very heavily influenced by a church.

During the end time, Daniel's revelation shows us a final resurrection of the Roman Empire closely associated initially with Roman Catholicism. And, of course, you can go and study other parts of Daniel especially, Daniel 7, and go through all those resurrections of the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, and realize that just there's one left that still has not happened.

So keeping this in mind, let's go 2,520 years from 539 BC. We come to the Feast of Trumpets of 1982. And at that time, events began that culminated in the fall of the Soviet Empire. And there were certain personalities at that time that had a lot to do with it. There was President Reagan in the United States, Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and then, Pope John II as well. And these three figures were critically important in the fall of communism.

There's also a very important fourth one. That was Helmut Kohl, in what was then West Germany. And Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall, right? So, West Germany had Helmut Kohl as its leader. Around the Feast of Trumpets of 1982, in October of 1982, Helmut Kohl, his powerful Christian Democrat Party, took power in West Germany, which created a very powerful force in the German Senate, in the heart of Europe, that was able then to oppose the Soviets. And then seven years later, that wall came down.

Remember, November 10, 1982, the Pope, the head of the Roman Church, an extension of Babylon, went to Spain where he gave his famous speech. The Pope said, "Be yourself. Discover your origins. Give life to your roots. Revive those authentic values that gave glory to your history and enhanced your presence on the other continents. Europe, give life to your roots."

Those roots were dormant for 2,520 years from that tree stump. The Pope's speech was almost 2,520 years to the day from when the prophecy of the tree roots was given to Daniel. Now, remember the other interesting event that took place that year, 1982. Ronald Reagan stated, "I'd like to ask the Soviet leaders one question. Why is the wall there?" And in many respects, this event, along with the Pope, set the stage for the restraints of 2,520 years earlier to be taken off Babylon. And seven years later, November 9, '89, the Berlin Wall did fall. And at that point, we saw the very rapid fall of the USSR, of the Soviet Empire.

New Europe has been given a chance to revive its power. First, it was the Economic Community, then it became the European Union. It takes time for these kinds of things to happen. It can take years, decades, but the door has now been opened. The restraints are off.

Now, I'm not saying the Pope's speech or President Reagan's proclamation are direct fulfillments of Daniel's prophecy. But it's interesting that 1982 signals the end of those 2,520 years of restraint. And the ancient Holy Roman Empire has now begun to reawaken. It's just a very interesting connection when you look at it prophetically.

The Bible shows an end time brief union of 10 kings, with 10 nations, or 10 groupings of nations in that final resurrection of the Romans. Ten important rulers will come together for a brief period. Right now in the news, there's a lot about China, a lot about Russia. China is building up its military, building aircraft carriers, new submarines. Don't forget that the 200-million man army from the east comes later. First comes a resurrection of the Roman Empire, in fact, the Holy Roman Empire where the church has backed it.

These 10 kings will have great success in the beginning. It'll seem like a great idea, but ultimately, we know it goes horribly wrong. And they're going to have serious problems, and be labeled as an animal too, be called a beast. And all this shows that if we dissect an important prophecy from the book of Daniel, we see Daniel chapters 4 and 5 having some very serious implications with prophetic duality of the tree stump, the handwriting on the wall, which both can be interpreted prophetically as 2,520 years from when that happened. And time will tell how this exactly works out, but it seems an end-time empire will ultimately form in Europe. That's what we've said for many decades. It has been restrained for seven biblical times, but the restraints are coming off, and at some time, we go to see a full revival.

Now, I can't tell you when, exactly when, but at the moment, we're seeing hints of it. And we'll have to see how God works out these prophecies, and respect the Word of God, and let history develop as God inspires it here.

Let's finish with Revelation 18 and 19. Revelation 18. This final end-time empire that's talked about here in Revelation can be shown through various other passages to be a resurrection of the Roman Empire, and then that 10th resurrection, the final one. And it's also called not just the Roman Empire, but Babylon. Revelation 18:1. "After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory."

Verse 2, "He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and it's become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’"

So, here we have the final gasp, the final fall of the Roman Empire, of Babylon, the final Babylon. As a side note, so notice at the end of verse 2, unclean food is mentioned. So, unclean food is mentioned in Genesis and in Revelation. So go figure. The Bible is consistent with its dietary laws from start to finish. Of course, that's a subject for another day.

Look at Revelation 19 now, the final passage. So, the last of the world's kingdoms has fallen. Babylon the great is falling. In Revelation 19:1, "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!” So here in Revelation 19, we read about the final, triumphant return of Jesus Christ, the triumph of Jesus Christ, who is our personal Savior. He's our Lord and Master, our High Priest, and our coming King. And that will be, you know, the final superpower will be Jesus Christ's Kingdom. And so, we can have a better understanding of end-time prophecy as we dissect this prophecy of Daniel. And what we've covered here today is very interesting information helpful for us. But let's respect that fulfilled prophecy is one of the proofs of God's word.