The Prophesied Beasts of the Book of Daniel

I also mentioned welcome to those visiting. I look forward to getting to meet you and see you. And thank you, Mr. Tuttle, for that sermonette. We have such a fine group of men that spend so much time and effort in their preparation. And I let them know often how grateful I am for them. But thank you for that. Well, today we are in Daniel, chapter 7, and we're going to do a little heavy lifting today. So I hope you have your coffee. You've had your coffee already, or if you haven't, you're welcome to take a break during services and get that.

And if you'll turn with me to Daniel, chapter 7, we come to the book where our title today is, The Beast of the Sea. The Beast of the Sea. Not to be mistaken with the chicken of the sea. Okay, that's not a good start. We'll edit that out later. But here we find Daniel, who has been taken some 55 years before, and taken captive. So we find him here somewhere in his early 70s, I'd say.

And when the prophet Daniel receives this latest vision and this interpretation given to him by one of God's angels, he certainly must have recalled the explanation that he gave to King Nebuchadnezzar, we remember back in chapter 2 of that great big giant human statue at that time.

Again, that, though, being more than a half a century earlier. So now he comes to this subsequent prophetic dream and what seems to be those same empires being described.

We will see. So Daniel chapter 7, let's begin reading here, verses 1 through 8, as we come to these beasts of the sea here. Chapter 7 verse 1, In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed.

Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and it had eagle's wings. I watched until its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. Suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said, Thus to it arise, devour much flesh. Verse 6, After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard. And it had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in night vision, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful, terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth, and it was devouring, and breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouse speaking pompous words. So we'll stop there. What's not easy, is it?

We've only read about half of this chapter of chapter seven, and if you read even further, which we'll get to, you'll see it doesn't get much easier. We have these weird creatures, you know, mysterious symbols, perplexing images, horns there, horns being plucked up, a little horn that even has eyes and a mouth. So it's all quite daunting. And because of this perplexity, if you do just a little research, you will find that it is the occasion of great debate among biblical scholars, debates about everything really in this second half of Daniel that we're entering into. And as a result of that, many just vacate the notion of even trying to study this, and you know, they head for the hills. And it is quite daunting.

In preparation for this, I found myself gazing longingly for the hills a few times, you know, because where do you begin? Where does one start with all of this?

It's important to realize that as we enter into the seventh chapter here, there is a distinction. There's a distinction between the first six chapters and the last six chapters that we're beginning here. One distinction is that we'll notice that the first six chapters are mostly in the form of stories. And we've seen in those chapters, and as we've been studying this book of Daniel, it's been relatively easy to take a chapter, stand back, get the broader view of it, you know, take in what it's teaching us, move through those swiftly as the story is conveyed.

Most of the first six chapters are written in the third person, you'll notice, as reporting, as having taken place. But as you go into the second half, and here chapter seven, it immediately goes into the first person, you will notice. As Daniel says, I saw in my vision by night.

So, moves from the third person to the first person, that's one change. It's not so much in story form anymore, but really in reporting form. He's going to report now his dreams and his visions to us from the first person, you know, what he has seen in his bed at night. And you'll notice now, we're really going to move into what they call apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature here. And it's the genre that is really necessary. Because the Bible, you know, it employs this kind of literature when the drama of the thing is so perplexing, it's so overwhelming, that it really can't be captured by normal literary mechanisms. For example, how do you describe the indescribable? You know, how do you describe what he was seeing? And all that's going to take place at the end of days. You know, how could you use the language that was employed to these initial readers for us today? If it were written exactly their way, it would have been very difficult for us to make sense of it here all these centuries later. You know, just as if we were to write something from the 21st century perspective, it would have certainly been difficult for those in the first century to have the mechanisms, to have the language, to be able to understand it.

So God knows that. So he employs this apocalyptic literature here to help us with descriptions that fall beyond the natural boundaries of the language at the time. So you'll see lots of imagery. You'll see lots of imagery, and that's why. Imagery, it can be common to whatever century that you're coming to this text in. So we'll see imagery, lots of imagery, as we move into chapter seven here. And as far as the connection here, this is what I was mentioning earlier, the connection here. Here in chapter seven is fairly obvious. You'll see that it begins, and it says it's in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. In other words, chapter seven, in the event of chapter seven, take place and happened before the events of chapter five.

You remember chapter five? Belshazzar dies. He throws that final banquet for himself. He sees the handwriting on the wall, and he dies at the end of the events of chapter five. So here, what Daniel is experiencing happened before the events of chapter five there. So happened in the first year reign of Belshazzar's vision. And so, also, I take it that what has been described here, and what was described with Nebuchadnezzar's vision of that big statue, I take it that that statue and what was described there in chapter two, and the four beasts described here in chapter seven, are a description of the same kings and the same empires. I take it that.

That doesn't mean that you have to take it that. You know, it's important for each of us to come to the text and really prove it for yourself and see the connection here. But if you read chapter two, as we did, and we did that study weeks ago, and you come to chapter seven, it seems fairly straightforward that the four kingdoms identified in that great statue and the four in those metals, and then the four beasts that are coming out of the sea here, there is the connection there. And so what we can learn in chapter two, we can apply in chapter seven here.

So, in the time we have, let's get to this. So, chapter, verse two of chapter seven here, verse two again. Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

So, obviously there's more than four winds, but it's customary for people to talk in this way, we know. North, south, east, west, there. You might think, well, that's not too profound, but there may be a little hint here of something, and how this is these four winds from heaven. And I think it is a little bit of a hint of what we have been establishing through all of our Daniel study. What have we been establishing through all these these different chapters? Well, if you remember at the very beginning of our study, Daniel chapter one, I think it's verse two, the little detail that says, in the third reign of King Jehoakim, the Lord gave King Jehoakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

Very important. You know, we established that. What did we establish? We established that the sovereignty, there's a sovereignty, God's sovereign control over all the events. God was in sovereign control even over the exile of his own people. The Lord gave King Jehoakim.

Sovereign control. And so, and we've seen that throughout all the different chapters and the different stories, God is ultimately in control of it all. And so here, it's the same as these matters of chapter seven. As the winds blow from heaven, very important, the winds blow from heaven over this great sea with these terrible beasts emerge. The winds blow from heaven, stir up the sea. Okay, so the four winds blew as a result of blowing, then these four beasts come out of the sea. So we ought not think that somehow God's surprised by these beasts coming out of the sea. Where are these coming from? No. What winds are blowing over all these events? Very important. So, and so as we read these prophesied events, remember that God is in sovereign control over all the affairs, over all the earthly kingdoms, over all the earthly empires. It's a fact. Now, let's continue with these four beasts that come out of the sea. Each one is different. We ought not be any doubt that these beasts represent kings or kingdoms. Allow your eyes to fall down to verse 17 here.

Verse 17, very clear. Those great beasts, those four which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. So these four great beasts are four kings that arise out of the earth. And again, if we're correct in tying the vision of chapter 2 to chapter 7 here, we can safely assume that these are the same empires. What do we identify those as? First of all, the Babylonian Empire, and then the Medo-Persia Empire, the Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire. Those four.

Not everybody agrees with that. A lot told you lots of commentary. Some think it ends at the Greek Empire. Some think, despite verse 17, you shouldn't tie these at all to any kingdoms.

But be it as it may, we're going to start from the perspective that these beasts symbolize these nations just as America is symbolized by what? An eagle? Now, be thankful that Benjamin Franklin didn't get his way. Any of you know this? What would be the nation's symbol if Ben Franklin got his own way? The turkey? Yes. Can you imagine? It strikes fear. Here's this turkey that comes.

It's good he was overruled by that. But anyway, here we go. So these beasts are symbolic. Verse 17 says that these are kings. These are kingdoms. Vision one. Let's get to some heavy lifting here. Vision one. The four great beasts here. Verse three and four. Let's get to the first one here. The four great beasts. Verse three. Came up from the sea, each one different from the other.

The first was like a lion and it had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it. So let's stop there. So here we are saying that we're coming to the kingdom of Babylon. That head of gold, do you remember in chapter two? It's described here, though, as a line with eagle wings. The wings are plucked out. Instead of flying, it stands like a man and a man's heart is given to it. So does this line up with Nebuchadnezzar's reign? Absolutely. Absolutely. Very clear what these symbols are referring to. If you remember the period of time in which King Nebuchadnezzar was reduced to that of a state of an animal. You remember he lived seven seasons as if he was an actual animal. Let's refresh our memory. Go back to, just briefly, to Daniel chapter four in verse 32. King Nebuchadnezzar actually ate grass, his hair grown like eagle's feathers, he had nails like bird claws. So Daniel four, you'll remember, tells us this. Daniel chapter four verse 32 and 33, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with great pride, wasn't giving God any of the credit, so he's exiled out like an animal. Verse 32 of chapter four, and they shall drive you from men, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen. Seven times you shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses. Verse 33, here it is, the very hour that that very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar, he was driven from men to live like an animal. He ate grass like an oxen, his body was wet with dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird claws. So back to chapter seven in verse four, the plucking out of these eagle's wings, symbolizing this reduction of Nebuchadnezzar's power. But we know, we remember, he was restored again. God restored him back to the kingdom. He was able to stand on his two feet once again. He came back to the state of that of a man from being like an animal. So verse four here of chapter seven, this first was like a lion. It had eagle's wings. I watched until the wings were plucked off and then it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it. Pretty clear, pretty clear there. And if you know anything about Nebuchadnezzar's reign at that time in Babylon, the lion was a prominent symbol of the empire. The gate Istar, I don't know too much about it, but it's cool to look at some of the pictures that it has online. The Istar gate entrance which Nebuchadnezzar constructed, there's this long procession of yellow lions. It's on this like blue enamel type of brick as the backdrop. Really pretty. The Istar gate was part of the initial list of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

So you have this lion connection with Nebuchadnezzar's empire and Daniel would have been familiar with this. So it's interesting as he's seen those visions, Daniel, as he moved around the city, he would have known that that was a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar. He would have remembered this. So I take it that this is a description of the Babylonian empire and it does line up with some of the other facts that we've learned as we've gone through Daniel. So that's vision number one. How are your muscles? Okay, we're going to continue to do a little heavy lifting here. Through the second empire in this vision, verse five. Suddenly another beast, a second like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and thus the command is given to it, arise, devour much flesh. So we said, and we've established in previous studies, that this looks to be the media Persia empire. Media Persia empire. So does this line up? Well, Persia, we could say, does have the characteristics of a bear. Big, frightening. Raised up on one side.

Raised up on one side. We do have a connection with this bear that's raised up on one side and that image there. And we're actually given this connection in the next chapter, Daniel chapter 8. It clearly identifies that the second empire is the media Persia empire. So just for a moment, if you'll turn with me one chapter forward to chapter 8, I want you to see this one side raised higher than the other concept, and you'll see that it is connected to the media Persia empire, the empire that followed Babylon. So chapter 8 verse 3 and 4, we're not going to spend too much time on here, but we see this concept of one higher than the other. So chapter 8 verse 3 and 4, then I lifted my eyes and saw there standing beside the river was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.

And I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, southward. No animal could withstand it, nor was there any that could deliver from its hand. It did according to its will and became great. So we have this one higher than the other description here with the ram's horns, and then look at this. Look at this. Go down to verse 20 just for a moment. Stay here in chapter 8. Go down to verse 20. The ram which you saw having those two horns, they are the kings of Mediacorpsia. Okay? So you have this image here, the one raised higher than the other here, and it identifies Mediacorpsia. So going back to chapter 7 now in verse 5, chapter 7 and verse 5, we have the ram's horns identified as Mediacorpsia, one raised higher than the other. And here in chapter 7 verse 5, we have this bear that's raised up one side higher than the other. And history shows the kingdom that followed Babylon. It was composed of the Medes and the Persians. So chapter 8 is consistent with history, and this bear would be one side higher than the other that is consistent as well. So it does line up that this is the kingdom, this is the empire that we're speaking about, the kingdom of the Medo-Persia empire. And if you follow that empire, you will know that the Persia side of that empire was, it came up last, and it was stronger than the Medes. It dominated the Medo-side of that combination. It kind of lines up. Now, the three ribs, well, you can kind of go cross-eyed a little bit reading some of the commentary.

Some say these three ribs do line up with the three major victories that this kingdom had.

They had victories over Lydia and Babylon, of course, and Egypt. So three major victories. Maybe that's the three ribs coming out of the bear. It could just mean also that it just shows that the bear was devouring, you know, as well. Certain things we don't know, and if we don't know, we should say we don't know. You know, we can look and say, well, this might seem to indicate this, but we need to keep stay mostly with the plain things, you know, the main and the plain things.

So it might just represent that the bear was hungry.

Teddy bears are nice. This is presumably not one of those. This is a Syrian bear, you know.

Syrian bears, I get off in my study sometimes, and I have to come back, you know, it's like the squirrel syndrome, you know, and you go off. Syrian bears get up to 550 pounds, and they are just very ferocious, ferocious animals, the real brutes of a thing, so a horrible thing. So you can imagine, this was pretty scary for Daniel to see, you know, this bear coming, he's got these ribs hanging out, and he's kind of awkward with one side, you know, higher than the other. You know, often in these visions, we see Daniel is getting sick to his stomach a lot. That might be why, you know, these visions were very vivid, I'm sure. So, hope we're doing okay so far. Third vision, third vision. Now, we're gonna get to the fourth one. That's the one to spend a little time on. So, but this third vision, the third beast described here in verse six, after this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads.

Dominion was given to it. So, does this line up with Nebuchadnezzar's statue, you know, that third empire? Four is mentioned here a couple of times. Four wings, four-headed leopard. You know, with chapter two, we said, well, and with history, we see that the Grecian Empire followed the Medo-Persia Empire, and who was leading the Grecian Empire was none other than Alexander the Great, just a powerful leader. So, can this be linked with Alexander the Great and his Grecian Empire? Well, once again, the vision in chapter eight helps us out a little bit with this, with this number of four, four heads, four wings. It's a leopard here. So, let's see the Grecian Empire identified here. We're going to turn just one more time to chapter eight and verse 20 through 22 this time, just to see that the Greece is identified here. So, chapter eight, verse 20 through 22, and the number four mentioned here, this connection. So, chapter eight, verse 20 through 22, this was a subsequent vision that we're going to get to later. The ram, which you saw, so speaking about a different vision, having two horns, they are the kings of Medo-Persia, we got that, and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. So, this male goat we'll see in a later study comes and takes care of the ram. So, you see there, Greece is identified. The large horn that's between its eyes is the first king. That would obviously be Alexander the Great. And for the broken horn, so the horn broke off, and four horns stood up in its place. Four kingdoms shall arise out of this nation, so out of the Greek, Greece nation, but not with its power. So, again, my purpose is not to go into chapter eight here, but you see the media, Persia Empire identified, and now you see this Grecian Empire identified. So, if we go back to chapter seven and verse six again, we also see that four again. You know, this leopard had four wings on its back, like a bird, and four heads demanding what's given to it. They're in chapter seven, verse six, and we saw now this four referenced here, there in chapter eight vision. And if you look at, it's very fascinating, a little dry, I admit, so we're not spending too much time, but if you look at history, when Alexander the Great, when that great horn was broken off, when he died, four generals came to replace him and to head over the Grecian Empire. And they were four generals. They were never as powerful as Alexander, as it said there, but they arose out. I won't bore you with their names, but we do see there that those four generals came and they helped continue to run the Grecian Empire there. And again, we'll get a little bit more into chapter eight in a different study, but I just wanted you to see the Medo-Persia Empire identified, the Grecian Empire, this leopard, four heads, four wings. You know, a leopard is signified as being swift, you know, very fast. Did Alexander the Great, did he move swiftly?

Absolutely. Boy, if you read, if there's one characteristic of his empire and his army was, it was fast moving. History records that when he came up against this Medo-Persia Empire, the Medes and the Persians sent at him 150,000. Then they sent 400,000 in their army against Alexander the Great. And then 800,000, Alexander the Great, defeated them all, every time. And this was a big, bare, Medo-Persian Empire. No one could have ever thought that Alexander the Great could have done this, taken over this empire. How could he do that? And he was young. He was very young.

How is that possible? Well, the answer is there at the end of verse 6, B's, foreheads, and so on, dominion was given to it there at the end of verse 6.

Dominion was given to this third empire. Given by whom? Who gave this dominion? What winds? What winds are blowing over all these events? Winds from heaven. God gives dominion.

God's sovereign over these events. And that's what we're supposed to take from this. You know, we're going through this. I want to remind you that we shouldn't ever have some kind of unbalanced preoccupation with trying to fit together all the jigsaw puzzle. That's not the purpose of this. The purpose of going through this is for us to stand back and see history play out and see how it was all predicted way in advance and step back and say, ah, God is sovereign over all these things.

That's what we take from prophecy. That's ultimately what we take from prophecy. God is sovereign even over these terrible beasts. Keep that in mind. It's very important to keep that in mind because we're about to come to the fourth beast. And it's horrific. It's terrible. This fourth beast. Look at this. Let's get to it. Verse 7 and 8. Daniel writes, Daniel writes, After this I saw in night visions and behold a fourth beast. This is a bad one. Dreadful, terrible, exceedingly strong, huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking into pieces, trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the other beasts that were before it. He says it has 10 horns and he's thinking about those horns. He's considering those. Then this other horn comes up. It's a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. There in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. What imagery there. Dreadful, terrible, devoured, broken. It's stomping. It's trampling things in its path. Different from all the other beasts before it. So what do we say in our chapter two study? History tells us what kingdom, what empire came after the Grecian Empire. We know, don't we? The Roman Empire. Roman Empire.

Boy, you could signify it as being iron. It's iron signifies toughness. It would crush any foe.

History records that Alexander the Great's kingdom was succeeded by the Roman Empire. And it was a major, mighty empire. Military might. Especially cruel. It would characterize being being especially cruel. And there's something different here about this one.

We're going to see as we read a little bit further, this empire actually rises up to challenge the very authority of God. And it looks to crush God's people. You see a little hint of this. It speaks pompous words here.

So verse seven here, it says that at the end of verse seven, it had ten horns. And he's considering verse eight, these horns. This little one comes up, before whom the first three horns were plucked out by its roots. So this little horn comes up after three horns and has eyes like a man speaking pompous words. So Daniel wanted to know more about this. This is very intriguing here. We want to know more about this, so let's find out. Luckily, we have the interpretation for us here. So go down to verse 15, if you will.

We're going to spend the rest of our time here on this fourth empire. So verse 15, let's go through verse 15 through 25. Verse 15, I, Daniel, was grieved. I'm sure he was. We're grieved by the image of this fourth beast. In my spirit, within my body, the visions in my head troubled me. I came near one of those who stood by. It's interesting. These are visions, but Daniel can participate in them.

It's very fascinating. And asked him the truth of this, he told me and made me known the interpretation of these things. Those great beasts which are four are four kings which shall rise out of the earth. But the saints and the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. We'll get to that in a moment. But verse 19, listen to this fourth about this fourth beast. Then I wish to know the truth about this fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured broken pieces, trampled the residue with its feet, and the ten horns were on its head.

And the other horn which came up before which three fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than its fellows. I get this. Verse 21, I was watching that same little horn, that same horn, was making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the ancient days came and judgment was made in favor of the saints of the most high and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.

Verse 23, thus he said, going back to the fourth beast, shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which shall be different from all the other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth. Trample it. Break it into pieces. Notice verse 24, the ten horns are ten kings which shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings.

He shall speak pompous words against the most high, shall persecute the saints of the most high, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given over into his hands for a time and times and half a time. Let's stop there. Fourth kingdom exceedingly dreadful and power. It'll rise up and think that it can rise up against the most high himself. Can you imagine? And come against God's people, persecute them. What do we have here? Well, we have these ten horns, don't we?

What are these ten horns? Well, it says pretty plainly there at the first part of verse 24, the ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. So it's describing ten kings which arise from this fourth kingdom. In other words, ten revivals, ten revivals of the Roman Empire, revivals at different times in history, ten revivals to and from prominence and power, and a new king with each revival of this empire. And we've seen this, the revivals of this fourth kingdom throughout history.

They continue today. And the most phenomenal thing we see here is that the final revival of this fourth beast, this empire, will be into power and will occur and will be in existence at Christ's return. The final revival of this empire and its king will come against the most high himself. And all this makes sense. If you look at history in the Roman Empire, you will see it come into great power and then seemingly it's almost defeated altogether. You think it would never come back, but then it does. And you have these revivals throughout history. And the first part of verse 24 is speaking of those revivals here. Now let's focus in on the second part here, this little horn.

This is interesting. The ten horns, verse 24, we know this, who shall rise from the kingdom and another shall rise after them. He's going to be different from the first horns and he shall subdue three kings, it says. So let's talk about this a little bit. He shall subdue three kings. So after the first three revivals of the Roman Empire, a little horn comes up, plucks out the first three, subdues them, comes up here in the Roman Empire. And this little horn, it kind of has a different element about it.

It feels so eerie because it has this religious element about it, doesn't it? It begins to speak pompous words. It's speaking against the Most High and God's people. It's different. History helps us with this. We know from history that there were first three revivals of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. They were what they call those first three leaders. They call them barbarian leaders. And it just simply means a barbarian is just means they were non-Roman leaders.

So the first three revivals were non-Roman, non-Catholic rulers of the Roman Empire. But after the reign of those three rulers, guess what comes into prominence? The Roman Catholic Church. The papacy pushes up.

It begins to play a major role in the succeeding revivals of the Roman Empire.

The first three didn't involve the papacy. The subsequent ones did. But the following revivals of the Roman Empire would have, after the first three, had this new look about it. As the church now joins this dreadful empire, and they would have this unification join together, and the earth would never be the same. Never be the same. Once this little horn pushes up and joins itself with this dreadful beast. Now pushes up. It's described here as unifying, becoming an enemy of the Most High. Again, verse 25, speaks pompous words against the Most High, persecutes the saints. Looks to change times and law there. Soon this religious element pushed up. If you look back in history, the Roman Emperor Constantine, he would decide to make Christianity, as a false Christianity, the official state religion to unify his empire. So a state-sponsored church would evolve. It would grow. And the religious element of the empire had so much power that the pope could actually enthrone or even dispose of emperors. That's how powerful the religious element was of the empire. And he had this intimate relationship between church and state here. And extreme persecution. If you were a Christian and you weren't given your authority to this, extreme persecution, even deadly consequences. Verse 25 speaks of the power of this little horn. It's different. It's not a military might. Its power lies in its words, and it can change times and law. It has significant power in that way. So study Roman Catholic history. And you will find that in the centuries that followed Jesus Christ's death, you have these upheavals that happened. And they centered around some of the most significant upheavals, centered around changing the God-given day of worship, Sabbath, to that of Sunday.

Changing times. That's powerful. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the power to change the God-given day of worship? That's power. Also, the changing laws. The teaching that the law of God's done away with. It had that power. Changing laws. Doing away with them altogether.

Completely against Christ's message that he brought. If you look at Google, the Catholic's Ten Commandments, you'll find they're not the original Ten Commandments. You'll find the second one's gone. The idol, that's what, the second one's gone and they added one at the end. They turned thou shall not covet into two commandments. So they still have ten, but they've done away with the second one, added one at the bottom. It can even change the law. Can you imagine? Who has such power?

Well, this little horn does. It's, and we see it's the personification of evil.

Opposition to God. This is what John anticipates. When John was given the vision and revelation, and he begins to write of these things, John began to write of this final conflict, where this final revival of the empire comes and challenges the most high and challenges his son at his return.

And so, as we move to our conclusion here, I want to just, John helps us put all this together here. So turn with me to Revelation 13. You're going to find this fascinating here.

John puts it all together. Everything we've studied today. John is now going to bring it to the end time and give us this end time reality and this end time vision. So Revelation 13, let's look at verse 1 and 2 here. Revelation 13, verse 1 and 2. This is really going to bring it all together for us. And we're going to see that what is the supernatural power behind all these beasts.

You're going to see who's behind it all. Who's actually given its power. God may be sovereign, but He's allowing a certain supernatural force to have power for a certain period of time here. And we're going to see who that is. Revelation 13, let's read verse 1 and 2. John's going to bring it all together for us. So we're once again at the sea. Revelation 13, verse 1. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads, ten horns, and his horns ten crowns, and his heads a blasphemous name. Verse 2. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. Now notice, the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

We hear this end-to-end vision. Here's a composite. This final beast is a composite of all those three first empires. So it's almost as if as each empire took over the next one, it almost took in its characteristics, took in its evil characteristics. And so now we're at this final unrecognizable beast here, and its influence is from the dragon here. Satan the devil, of course, deceives the world, wields incredible power. John continues here, verse 3 in Revelation 13, verse 3, and I saw one of its heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. The Roman Empire, there were certain times in the revivals where you thought they are never coming back from that that wound, and they come back. Why? You know, God's sovereignly working out his purposes here.

So verse 4, more of this religious dimension. So this church-state, powerful beast here. Look at this. It wants worship. All of it wants worship. Verse 4, so they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given the mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue 42 months. We may get to that in a later study too. The times, times and half of times, the last three and a half years, persecution, tribulation. Verse 6, then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, blaspheming the blasphemous name, his tabernacle, those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints to overcome them. So everything has to be granted to this end-time power. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him. All! We read that in Daniels. He'll conquer the entire world, whose names haven't been written in the book of life. All but a few, right? And those in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, we're not going to take on this mark.

Why? Why? We'll get to that in a moment. We have a certain confidence. We stand firm. We might feel fearful for a little bit, but inside, we know who's in sovereign control. We're not going to give it its worship, which it wants here. But this false prophet in this final state, religious, church-state combination here, it's going to be a modern-day Babylon. It's going to entangle everything. Spiritual, commercial, cultural. It's going to be a spiritual. It's going to take over everything. Terrifying. It would be terrifying almost too much. All this might be too much, except for the story doesn't stop here. Are there only four kingdoms? No, not quite. There's a fifth one. There's a fifth one. You see, this fourth empire, it will have its prophetic end. We're told that it'll be destroyed for a fifth government to come. We're going to conclude with this fifth government. I want you to know about it. So let's turn back to Daniel 7 one last time. We'll conclude this incredible vision of chapter 7.

The conclusion of it all. So let's turn back to Daniel 7, and let's read verses 9-14 about this fifth kingdom. This is what I want to just strengthen our legs here. Give us confidence.

Daniel 7 verse 9, I watched, so he's continuing to watch, thankfully, till thrones were put in place. In the ancient of days, that's God the Father, was seated. His garment was white as snow. His hair on his head was like pure wool. I love this description. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. And I watched them because of the sound of this pompous words which the horn was speaking. And I watched till the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I was watching in the night visions that behold one like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, came to the ancient of days. This is Jesus Christ coming to God the Father. They brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. This is the fifth kingdom. And all peoples, all nations, all languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. That's what I want us to know today. Which shall not pass away in his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.

That's the conclusion of it all. So we can fit together all the puzzle pieces we want. This is what's important right here. Christ is coming to establish his kingdom. It'll never be destroyed once it's fulfilled. And so we know Christ came and he stepped onto the stage of human history. And he said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he said, repent and believe the good news. I am the king and I've come to usher in my Father's kingdom. And he said, I invite you now to bow to me, your king. Bow now to me.

Bow under my throne now. Because, you know, it is possible for us to go through material like today.

Put it all together. You saw us put all the pieces together. This is the Grecian Empire, you know, Medo-Persia, all of it. Put it all together. Go through all this. Walk out and Christ then still doesn't reign in the throne of our heart. It's possible to go through all of this. You walk out and Christ still isn't reigning in your heart. And you're just intrigued by this. You know, it just itches our ears. Can't let that be the case. This has to change us. Fundamentally, change us. These truths, this prophecy, the history, the future, all of it, the proof, these are proofs given to us. So the real issue is this king who comes to reign must first rule and reign in us.

This king must subdue my rebellion. This king must forgive my sins. I must believe that.

This king can heal my broken heart and I can just glory in his wonder.

We have to internalize this so that when these little horns come up in our lives, and trust me, these little horns are coming up right now. These little horns are coming up in our lives every day, and it's looking to make us fearful, to challenge us, look us to get off track. These little horns in our lives, but we have to be able to say, no, no, I know who reigns in the end.

And that's the king I'm going to serve. None of these other little horns. Pseudo-kings.

And I know he's coming to replace all other kingdoms, and he will reign forever. Well, we'll move on to chapter 8 next time. But until then, may the king of this fifth kingdom rule in our hearts today.