Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts

Transcript

GR1907
1/18/2015
Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts
Daniel 7:1-7
Gil Rugh

We are studying the book of Daniel together and we come to chapter 7 and we begin a major prophetic portion of the Old Testament because chapter 7 unfolds some of the details and framework for God’s plan for the nation Israel and for the establishing of a coming kingdom. We will be talking about that in some detail. Before we get to that I want to talk a little bit about the subject of prophecy in general.

It’s sad but among many people they think that prophecy is, well you know, a confusing subject and there are a variety of views. And there are good people with a variety of views so they just end up not bothering with it. They think it’s not that important. God wants me to live here and now. What He does in the future we will come to know in the future. But we have to realize that God has given us His Word and His intention is for us to know His Word.

Just a couple of passages as background. Come to the book of Revelation, that’s the last book in our Bibles. That was the last revelation given by God before what we call the cannon was complete. It is a book of prophetic truth unfolding prophetic matters. Let’s just look in chapter 1. This is a book that many people avoid because there is a lot in it that doesn’t seem clear yet. Jesus said in Revelation in addressing John in chapter 1, verse 3: “Blessed is he who reads; those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed (keep) the things which are written in it for the time is near.” And here the resurrected glorified Christ promises blessing on those who pay attention to the words of this prophecy and keep them, who live in light of them. Now if you don’t have any idea what He is talking about and it’s not clear, what’s the benefit in studying it, in reading it, in hearing it? Many in those days wouldn’t have had their own copy as we do so they would have heard a copy that had been written down and passed along and other copies made and they were expected to keep it. That means we are to understand what it says now and it affects and impacts our lives.

Come over to the end of the book of Revelation, the last chapter of this last book. Revelation chapter 22 and verse 7: “Jesus said, ‘And behold I am coming quickly.’” And we repeat what He said at the beginning of this book. “Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” That word ‘heeds’ keeps. You know, it is expected. They do have an impact on your life presently. 2000 years ago it was to impact the churches. Remember this was addressed to the seven churches. They were expected to pay attention to it, understand it and live in light of it.

Then they are reminded in verse 17 and 18, “The Spirit of the bride say come. Let one who wishes, who hears say come. The one who is thirsty, come. All who wish can partake of the water of life without cost.” That gracious invitation and then that warning: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away his part from the tree of life, the holy city which are written in it,” and then the reminder. Christ is coming again.

So prophecy is an important part of God’s plan for us. It is a great loss to the church and affects its life here and now when the church does not pay careful attention to prophecy. The foundational reason why, and I am only dealing with what we would call Bible believing Christians, they say evangelicals and I use that word without getting into all the details but people who claim to believe the Bible is the Word of God, that salvation is by faith in Christ and Christ alone and so on.

Why so many differences? It basically comes down to the matter of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is just a word for the rules of interpretation, how you interpret Scripture and for some reason even those who would interpret the Scripture literally, normally, at face value when it comes to matters relating to salvation, when it comes to matters of future things, they just adopt a number of strange ideas which leads to a variety of views bringing confusion.

I bought one book of hermeneutics and I was originally recommend this by a person who attended Indian Hills for many years but has moved on and is part of another ministry and has changed his view on how you interpret the Bible in prophetic matters and this book and it has been reviewed in theological journals. In fact, Bibliotheca Sacra which is the theological quarterly of Dallas Seminary says this book is recommended for pastors, church leaders as well as students and teachers of the Bible but it’s totally different than the way Dallas Seminary interprets the Bible. I don’t know why you would give that kind of a recommendation. It becomes a scholarly thing. You give a short review of a book and say something good about it even though it’s not good.

This writer identifies himself as an a-millennialist so don’t think I am being critical when I call him that because that is how he starts out, that he is a-millennial. It’s reviewed in other journals as well. Gospel centered hermeneutics simply means with the coming of Christ we now have authority to go back and re-interpret the Old Testament. I am not going to go into a lot of detail on this with you but let me just read for you what he says. He’s got a section in here criticizing different views, other views than his view of how you interpret the Bible and one of those that he criticizes is literalism. “It seems to make sense to say that we must interpret the Bible literally but if we believe that literalism” (and that is a little bit of a pejorative idea when he talks about literalism but you know what he is saying, interpreting the Bible literally.) “If we believe that literalism is the way to go just what do we mean by it?”

You remember a number of years ago it all depends on what “is” is kind of view. Well to interpret the Bible. Well, what does that mean? Literalism raises all the questions about the hermeneutics of text, question about the way words can be used, literary genres, how language operates and the focus of meaning and so-on. It is often assumed that the literal meaning of a text is self-evident yet the term dies the death of a thousand qualifications once we address the matter of imagery, poetic forms, metaphor, typology and all the other non-literal linguistic devices. That’s a misunderstanding of literal. If that’s true how do we communicate to one another? It’s hopeless to be literal, take things at face value because language is filled with all kinds of figures of speech, similes, metaphors and so on. You know a football analogy. It has nothing to do with any local football team. It is just an analogy. If we would say how is the team doing? Oh, they lack consistency. Sometimes they do well, sometimes they don’t. You say, well what about so and so, a particular player? And you say, ‘Oh, he’s a rock.” Oh, I thought we were talking about football players and now you say he’s a rock? But nobody questions that but some day they are going to find me dead at my desk from a heart attack because I am reading another person who say literal interpretation you can’t be literal because Jesus said I am the door and nobody believes He became a literal door; therefore you don’t interpret the Bible literally. It’s nonsense. “Thus literalists claim to take the promises concerning the restoration of Israel, Jerusalem and the temple at their literal face value.” What can be wrong with that? Well for a start determining what the literal meaning is can be problematic. In other words when you come to the Bible you just can’t communicate like we do. I mean we do this all the time. You turn on the news and watch T.V. and you think we are communicating. You talk to someone, you are communicating and literal speech is normal speech. It includes the figures of speech that we pick up and they are just part of the flow and those figures of speech connect to a literal reality. When you say that person was a rock that can’t mean it may rain tomorrow. I mean there has to be some kind of literal tie even to the figure of speech or it becomes meaningless. To say you can’t determine what is literal when you come to the Bible how do you know what in salvation is literal? Was Jesus raised from the dead or wasn’t He? Paul had to deal with that at Corinth in I Corinthians chapter 15. Some said the resurrection wasn’t literal, physical resurrection. There is no reason for you not to understand this.

“On this basis the literalist asserts that God reveals through the prophets that His kingdom comes with the return of the Jews to Palestine, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the temple along with its Old Testament ministries.” Well, he seems like he understands. If you interpret the Old Testament literally you will believe those things. “The New Testament clearly does not support such a simplistic hermeneutic as literal fulfillment of prophecy.” I strongly disagree. I just don’t understand. You see if you have different rules you set down for interpreting the Bible and you change those now because you are in a prophetic portion naturally you are going to come to different conclusions. “The literalist must become a futurist since a literalistic fulfillment of the Old Testament has not yet taken place.” That’s right. I mean he understands what literal leads you to while he is saying you can’t be literal. That’s true. We believe that the kingdom is not yet here on earth. We take a literal understanding of what God promised for the kingdom. We believe that Jesus Christ will ultimately come to earth to establish the kingdom in power and great glory.

Now we are doing this because we are coming into a prophetic portion of Daniel. We want to understand. We go through it and we will say, “well why is there disagreement?” Because some people say you can’t take this literally. You shouldn’t take it literally. It’s more complicated than that. When the book was written The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by an evangelical got an award for evangelical publications his whole point was those who hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible have destroyed the evangelical mind. It’s too simplistic. But remember the Bible was written to what, scholars in universities someplace. No, there’s not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble. God has chosen the basic, normal people. So we want to be careful. I take in when we come to prophetic matters we will approach it the same way we do the salvation portions of Scripture, literally. And the figures of speech they won’t be so complicated. For example in chapter 7 much of that which Daniel found puzzling, the angel tells him what it means. But whoa, wait, we will get into apocalyptic literature particularly with the book of Revelation and he talks about that and you can’t take that. Well you know scholars have to do something to show they are more intelligent than the rest of us. So we create a complex approach to Scripture. Remember the rules of interpretation are the same. That doesn’t mean we don’t recognize figures of speech. I never read anybody who thought Jesus became a literal door but then I don’t know, you know we read Paul this morning if you were here for Corinthians. He said a door is open for me. We understand that figure of speech. Nobody thinks and nobody says literal interpretation means you have to say that is a literal door or you have to become non-literal. I mean we use these figures of speech. I get puzzled that people think you come to the Bible, once you abandon that you will end up all over the map on future things and why aren’t they confused on the doctrine of salvation? Because they interpret those passages literally but once you open the door to interpret parts of the Bible non-literally you are on the slippery slope. He doesn’t think so, but you are. Now he thinks other people are on the slippery slope but those who deny literal interpretation. So no, you don’t reinterpret all the Old Testament with the coming of Christ.

He even believes; I have to do one more for you. We are going to get to chapter 7 but we have till the Lord comes. Let me read you about the land. He takes the Old Testament promise, promises of a land, people, a great name and blessings to the nations given to Abraham and his descendants. “Prophetic eschatology, the people of God will return to the Promised Land and be great. The nations will come to share in the Kingdom of Zion. How it was fulfilled in Christ. The land is to be the new Eden, the dwelling of the people with God. Jesus is that place as well as being God and the people. In other words the land promise is fulfilled in Christ because it’s in Christ that we come to dwell with God.” So you see, there is no literal fulfillment. Now somehow he had it right when what was said and what a literal interpretation was. “The land is the new Eden the dwelling of the people with God.” And it’s true. In the kingdom we will dwell, you know, Revelation 22. Jesus is that place and He’s God. So that promise of a land we reinterpret now. There is no physical fulfillment of it because we have a relationship with Jesus now and He’s God. So we are in the fulfillment of the land promises. So you see you go back and redo. I don’t know how you make sense of that.

Okay, come back to Daniel chapter 7. It ought to be some kind of heads up. All the prophecies of Scripture that have been fulfilled like in connection with the first coming of Christ have been fulfilled literally just as they would be expected if you read them down to all the details. He was born at Bethlehem. Where did He have to be born? Bethlehem. He’s even critical of the Jews of the New Testament because they interpreted the prophecies literally. They didn’t have any problem. When Herod asked the Jewish leaders, where’s the Messiah going to be born? He will be born in Bethlehem. That’s what Micah the prophet said. Do you think Bethlehem means Bethlehem? I mean, of course it means Bethlehem.

Alright, come back to Daniel chapter 7. Now let me say something and then we will come back to it. The focus of Biblical prophecy in the Old Testament now where we are focusing is on the nation Israel and the coming of the Messiah to establish an eternal kingdom. The church age is not in Old Testament prophecy.

Why don’t you put that chart up, Steve, for everybody to see? This is the resurrections but we keep using it. Old Testament prophecy, I’ll just use this chart and we’ll be looking at other charts coming up to the crucifixion of Christ and the events surrounding that. It sees nothing in here about the rapture of the church. Then Old Testament prophecy picks up here with this seven year period. We will be talking about that in Daniel chapter 9. So in Old Testament prophecy you can move this to here. The Old Testament prophets saw the suffering and death of the Messiah and events leading to His reign but they didn’t see that period in between. So when we are talking about Old Testament prophecy anybody who finds things in here in Old Testament prophecy is not interpreting it literally or correctly. So we will be talking about that.

Alright let’s look at Daniel chapter 7. Let me set aside some charts I have here. We are going to get to in a little bit, alright, Daniel 7. We are in the first year of Belshazzar. Now we’ve gone backwards in time because back in chapter 5 Belshazzar the king held a great feast and that’s the fall of Babylon, remember, the writing on the wall. And in verse 30 of chapter 5: “That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain.” So what happens with chapter 7 now we are going to go back and pick up some information.

What he has done in the first 6 chapters, he’s talked about something of the historical perspective, what has gone on in history. Chapter 2 with the kingdoms gave us a fore view of what would be taking place but basically an overview of the times of the Gentiles. Now we are going to focus on prophecies that particularly relate to the future of the nation Israel and there will be a change in focus because for example in chapter 2 the revelation of the image was given to Nebuchadnezzar. Now the visions are given to Daniel directly and we will see the distinction there now, clear focus on Israel’s future. It’s not just an overview of the kingdoms climaxing with the coming of Christ but focus more specifically on Israel’s part in all of this.

So in chapter 7, verse 1 we come to a revelation given to Daniel that will occur in 553 B.C. In chapter 5 we were in 539 B.C. That’s when Babylon fell, the Medo-Persian Empire, Belshazzar dies. Now we have gone backwards because we are getting other information. The first year of Belshazzar was the third year of his father, Nabonidus and so these things can be dated. So we are at 553 B.C. Daniel is operating here. He’s an older man, obviously. He was taken captive in 605 and so we are 50 years after his captivity. If he was 15 then, he’s in his mid-sixties here but just keep in mind so you read Daniel and all of a sudden you say, well we are in the first year of Belshazzar and then you come back to chapter 5 because we are not going chronologically here as far as time is concerned.

“Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and related the summary of it.” There may have been things in the dream that the Spirit does not direct him to write but he writes basically what we need to know out of that dream. It is written down and recorded. And really what he is going to see is the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar saw in chapter 2 but there will be some very important details added that help clarify things.

Verse 2: “Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.” And the four winds of heaven often can be used in prophecy, Jeremiah chapter 49, verse 36 picturing the heavenly forces of God at work. The great sea refers to the sea of people and we will see other uses of that like in Revelation 17:15 when we go there in our future studies where the sea refers to the people, the masses. He’s not talking about the Mediterranean Sea as some might take it but upon the great sea because he is talking about what comes out of the peoples, what is happening with the peoples of the earth, the nations and keep in mind the focus of Biblical prophecy is Israel throughout Old Testament history. That is what God is concerned about and he is going to talk about the other nations but it all connects to Israel so those are the empires we deal with. So God’s power is at work, moving among the peoples of the earth and “four great beasts were coming up from the sea,” kingdoms here now raised up by God for His purposes. “Four great beasts were coming from the sea, different from one another.

Now remember in chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar saw a great impressive image of a man and various metals, gold, silver, bronze, iron, a perspective from man. The empires of the world are attractive and striking. What Daniel sees here is more from God’s perspective, the nations of the earth pictures as ravenous beasts that tear one another apart, bringing destruction.

So the “first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human, a human mind was also given to it.” I take it here we have Babylon, the first nation that we had in chapter 2 and that was interpreted for us there. The picture here, “it was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle” picturing something of the speed of this lion and the Babylonians armies moved with great speed as it moved to conquer areas and places. “The wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.” This evidently refers to the transformation in Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian empire as we have noted had other kings beside Nebuchadnezzar but the neo-Babylonian Empire basically is all about Nebuchadnezzar. He’s the only king with extensive duration ruling there for so long and then he was transformed by the power of God. Remember that conversion experience of Nebuchadnezzar, so the transformation that took place in him.

We are going to have other beasts but let me put up some slides here. Start with number one and here you have a review of chapter 2. These slides came I believe from the Rose Publication. They have a book on prophecy with charts and that. They also do a CD you can get information so if you wonder where these came from. And you see the four things there. The head was gold, the chest was silver, the belly and thighs were bronze and the feet were iron mixed with clay. Then the next slide shows it goes on. The large rock struck the image in the feet you remember and Daniel interpreted that dream.

The third slide we are in chapter 7 and we are going to have four beasts so the comparison with the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, four parts of the statue from chapter 2, four empires. Here we have four animals, a lion with eagles’ wings, a bear, a leopard and then a non-descript terrifying beast and these will parallel. If you want to go ahead with the next one before we move on we are going to have the lion, the bear, the leopard and you will note here I mentioned this was taken from that book. The purpose of that book was to present the various views without him particularly identifying one as his. That’s why you have the lion may be Babylon, the bear may be Medo-Persia. That would be the view of those taking a literal interpretation of prophecy but he also presents other views that are there so if he puts it here it may be that because he’s not particularly taking a view but presenting the different views even including those that would not recognize the inspiration of Daniel but would put it later.

So you can see we are getting the same material no changes in it. There will be additions. That’s important to keep in mind. We’ve talked about this when we talk about prophecy different than the book I read you from. He believes later revelation gives you authority to change prior revelation. Later revelation never changes prior revelation. It may add to it, it may clarify it but you cannot change it. He tried to show where the kingdom now that Christ has come had all of its fulfillment concerning land and so on fulfilled in Christ. We can go back and reinterpret that. No we can’t. Now with the coming of Christ and there is new additional information given about the kingdom particularly when we get to the end of the book of revelation that helps us understand things more fully but it doesn’t change anything about the kingdom.

Okay, why don’t you go on? We will talk about Babylon. Go to slide number five and you have here just Babylon which was the head of gold and it will be the lion also in a moment and the dates of that kingdom. It fell in 539. Began with Nabonidus when he established the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 626 but the fall of Jerusalem was in 605, our concerns really are.

The next slide just shows you the Babylonian Empire about what it covered and it’s not as expansive as some of the other empires but you see it comes over to Egypt and you will remember in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was taken down into Egypt by those who rebelled against his prophecy after Babylon had conquered Judah and the remnant were left there and Jeremiah had to prophesy. Then Nebuchadnezzar would plant the flag of Babylon down in Egypt and they would experience his destruction so you see something of the area of Babylon.

Alright, next slide here is where we are, the first of the four beasts from the sea is one like a lion with eagles wings which we just read in chapter 4 and in the prophecies Jeremiah and Ezekiel both prophesy in the context of the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah leading up to the Babylonian captivity and after but he’s never deported to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar gave him the choice of staying if he chose and he did in the land. Ezekiel will be taken and prophesies in Babylon, also taken in one of the captivities and you will note the prophecies there. Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as a lion and as an eagle; a lion in Jeremiah’s prophecy, an eagle in Ezekiel’s. Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 7, chapter 50, verse 44, Ezekiel chapter 17, verse 3 and chapter 12.

It is interesting. Put up the next slide. I took this one out of what was there. You know they have the ruins of Babylon and there they find this image in a variety of places on the walls, currency and things like that. So this is an image from the ruins of Babylon. And you can see it is a lion’s body, a man’s head and then they are faint but you can see the wings and that’s how they represented the famous Ishtar gate had this kind of representations on the walls there. So as Daniel has described it, it fit with how Babylon pictured themselves as the lion with wings.

Let’s read the next verse before we look at any other slides. Verse 5: “Behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’” And remember there is a deterioration in the quality of these kingdoms in the metals in chapter 2 but an increasing strength and here in these beasts that goes on. And here you have another beast, a bear, more of the lumbering, it does like the lion with the wings the swiftness. The Persian armies were those powerful armies not swift in that sense that is not the focus, just their overwhelming power. It’s raised up on one side. Now we start to get further details. In chapter 2 we got the silver, the head of gold, then the silver but here now we are told one side of this bear, the bear’s up on one side because remember it’s the Medo-Persian Empire and the Persians become the dominant power so the picture here and it had three ribs in its mouth, additional information.

Let’s look at the slide, number 9 on Medo-Persia and you have the dates here. Conquered Babylon in 539 and it will be an empire that has a significant length around 200 years down to 332. The bear raised up on one side as I mentioned indicating and you will note he always says “may” because those who deny Biblical prophecy have to try to make the book of Daniel written by someone using Daniel as a pseudonym. It wasn’t written by Daniel. It was written much later after Rome or down into the days of the Maccabees because you can’t have future prophecy. So they try to separate to make four empires. They say well the Medes were the second empire, the Persians were the third empire and Greek was the fourth empire because they wouldn’t have known the future. So he has his “may” in here. He’s not saying he would hold that. It seems the man that writes it is pretty conservative but he is writing the book reflecting the views so you have they “may” illustrate the dominance of Persia over Media if you taking the normal and literal interpretation of that you would.

Go on to the next slide if you would. It had three ribs in its mouth and that seems by most who take literal interpretation on this agree on this. The three empires, Babylon, Egypt and Lydia were three major areas of Persian conquest of the Medes and the Persians to solidify their empire. We are familiar with Babylon and Egypt. Lydia is basically what we have today as western Turkey and in our Bibles it is the area including Asia Minor where churches like Ephesus, Colossae, and Sardis were where Paul spent some time, so that’s Lydia. That was important in the conquest because the king of Lydia, when it was conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire, was a man named Croes and he was the wealthiest man in the world at the time. The man credited with inventing coined money so he had vast wealth and so conquering his kingdom brought all those resources into the Medo-Persian Empire. So these three kingdoms, Babylon, Egypt and Lydia. I mentioned that because we are familiar with Babylon and Egypt but Lydia well sometimes, what is Lydia? This is very important because of the wealth that it brought into the Persian Empire.

So you see the details here now. The bear is lifted up on one side because the Persians come to dominate it. It has three ribs in its mouth. It has devoured three particular kingdoms to solidify and take its power and that’s exactly what you can read. I just jumped on an encyclopedia and called it up and there they even, not writing from a Biblical encyclopedia these three empires and it talks about Croes the ruler and information about him and his vast wealth. Also credited with being the first to establish permanent what we would call stores instead of just the temporary merchandise places, fixed merchandise places, some of those things rather interesting.

You see the details of Scripture. Those who deny Biblical prophecy just can’t accept that God can be giving all this detail before it ever happened.

Let’s go to the next empire in verse 6: “I kept looking after this and behold another one.” And so you see they are following. “Like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.” Well, we know the empire that followed the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece. We have the date of Greece going down because we come down 63 B.C. when Pompeii, the Roman General took over Jerusalem. But the Roman Empire was obviously developing before this but the final end of the Greek Empire.

So the belly and thighs in the image in chapter 2 of bronze pictured the Greek Empire. Now here we get some additional pictures. Here it is pictured as a leopard. Why don’t you put the Greek Empire there and you can see how extensive it is and it’s amazing. One man established this empire. You are familiar with him, Alexander the Great. He’s dead at 33, remarkable and you have the picture here of this beast. He is like a leopard. It is a beast that has strength and speed. You will note he has four wings of a bird on his back. Babylon had two and of course Alexander is famous for the ability to move his armies with such speed, catch people totally unsuspecting that he would advance like that.

It is said, whether it is legend or not for him to have cried finally that “I have run out of places to conquer” and died a miserable death of 33 years of age and what happened? His empire was divided among his four generals.

So go to the next picture there and you have that. You see you have the four wings illustrating the speed of Alexander the Great’s conquest and then go to the next one and you have the visions of Alexander’s empire. There was a period somewhat extensive I think that one of the writers said it took over 40 years for the battling back and forth among the generals. You can imagine Alexander is dead suddenly at 33 years of age. We have these military commanders. So the resolution when it is all said and done, was they divided the kingdoms into these four divisions, Egypt, Syria, Macedonia and Pergamum under the four generals that divided it up.

How specific is Scripture? It is remarkable. We are talking about events far in the future from Daniel and yet the details. This terrific empire pictured with this beast with four wings like a bird. I didn’t know that Alexander could move armies with that power and that speed and then that it would have four heads. What do you do with that? There were successors to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon but they are not ruling at the same time but there you have the empire now you have four heads over the Greek Empire. Remarkable details.

Look at the next verse here: “After this I kept looking in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong and it had iron teeth.” He’s not identified as a lion, a bear, or a leopard. This beast has its own appearance which is nothing like what has appeared before. It is an animal. It is a beast but it is dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong. It has iron teeth and we have Rome here. We just carry it through the time of Christ as there will be a break in that empire because Old Testament prophecy doesn’t include the time from the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ down until the seven years preceding His return to earth.

About 63 B.C. was when Pompeii takes over Jerusalem, interesting story. We don’t have time to go into how he in effect was invited and ends up coming into the area and into Egypt and things go on.

Rome – put up Rome’s Empire. You can see it is moved more west and involved what we call Europe of course, with Rome. Now some kind of problem here we are going to talk a little bit about this that you don’t see it over in Media where the Medes were and Persia. Well the Rome didn’t really conquer there. It didn’t have to. They have already been defeated by the Greeks and it’s not a problem. I mean just going out in the desert for something to do there is not an issue. Now I say this because there is some thinking among race and people that Rome is not the fourth empire. I will say something about that in a moment but as I look at this beast. It’s more powerful than all the others. The picture of the iron teeth connect with the metal of iron in chapter 2 which represented Rome and it is the most powerful of the empires. And that makes it different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. Now to that point it basically is the same as chapter 2. If you just want to come back to chapter 2. It doesn’t say in chapter 2 that the image of the man had ten toes but it does say in verse 2: “The toes and the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay.” Well you would assume everything else about this image of a man has conformed to a man. You wouldn’t think well he only had one toe on each foot. He had to have at least two toes because the toes is plural. So there are ten toes. I mention that because some people do write and say it doesn’t say ten toes. Well you get that clarifying if there was any doubt there are ten toes there. Here it’s ten horns. I take it this is the Roman Empire.

Now can you go back to the chart on the resurrections? Remember this period of time in here is not in view in Biblical prophecy, Old Testament prophecy. I say that because there is some thinking that has been popularized, some writers with some Muslim authority that has been picked up among evangelicals and here it is from the writing of one. Some of you are familiar with Walid Shoebat, somewhat of a Muslim expert. He even appears on news programs sometimes. He’s written some material that we have.

There is another writer. His pen name is Joel Richardson. He’s written a 350 page book and other writings. He says he can’t use his name because he gets threatening letters from the Muslims. Here’s what this Joel Richardson says, “In this chapter we will examine the evidence against the identification of the fourth empire of Daniel 2 as the Roman Empire. We also discuss why the historical Islamic Caliphate does meet the Scriptural criteria. The Islamic Caliphate is simply the historical Islamic government or empire which began with the Rashadan Caliphate in 632 A.D. and came to an end in 1923.” So he says, “The fourth beast of Daniel 2 is not Rome. It is the Muslim Caliphate that came into existence in 623 and went down to 1923.” Well number one with that would mean that we skip over from the Greek Empire all the way down into this period of time, 623. Approximately 600 years after Christ but Old Testament prophecy does not deal with this period.

The danger of these men, these are experts in Muslim literature, they read Muslim literature and then they go back and reinterpret the Bible through the Muslim literature. If we want to look at the world events through Scripture that is one thing. If we want to turn around and impose worldly events on Scripture now we’ve got it backwards. He’s written a book and he says the importance of the book “This book is first and foremost a study of Islamic eschatology and it shows how specific Islamic doctrines and practices seem to correlate in quite an astonishing way to the Biblical descriptions and prophecies of the last days.”

You don’t go to the works of the devil to shed light on the Word of God. It doesn’t surprise me that there is a lot of correlation. You know the devil served in the presence of God before he fell. I think he’s quite adept at eschatology. “It can be said that ignorance of Biblical eschatology is common.” And if you can say that consider how many people particularly in the west have any knowledge of what Islam teaches about the last days. I don’t particularly care what Islam teaches about the last days. Now if you are going to witness to Islamic people you may want to be familiar with their writings somewhat but I don’t go to other writings to find out what the Bible means. I am not the least bit surprised that a lot of what is in the Koran would parallel with what is in our Bibles. The devil knows what’s in the Bible. He could probably quote it without looking from Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. Do we go to the book of Mormon to shed light on Scripture? No. That’s another thing that is weakening my heart. So he goes through here for 350 pages. I say this because somebody passed on an article to me from a review from John MacArthur, an interview and he just is basically quoting verbatim from Joel Richardson. So we can understand that the antichrist is the person identified in the Koran. I don’t think so. So he says, “Don’t we have a revived Roman Empire? (This is MacArthur) Doesn’t that mean the west, you remember that the image in Daniel 2 the final world empire had two legs; the Roman Empire had the west and east. Those legs aren’t that significant. It’s just the metals, the empire and now he wants to say that the Muslims now control a large portion of what that region of the world where Rome was. That is going backwards.

Mal Couch has a book (and he is a dispensationalist) “The Antichrist and Islam and he writes “I have been greatly impacted by Walid Shoebat and his views on these things.” Richardson says he “learned from Walid Shoebat.” And I get concerned because these are men that people read and pretty soon they say, “oh we turn this around.” Now we are redoing the Bible because of what people say the Koran says. I don’t get any light at all, zero, from non-Biblical literature on the Bible. I find out that there are individuals that seem to be similar things than what the Bible says the antichrist will do doesn’t surprise me a bit. The devil knows something about the antichrist.

So I mention that because it’s going around. Mal Couch’s material often good. He’s dispensational and of course John is. I’ve got to tell you one thing and then we have to end here.

There is an advertisement on T.V. I don’t do many of these and I don’t even remember what they are advertising, hope it’s not beer or something but remember, there are two people, husband and wife I guess sitting at a table, outdoor table like a café and there is a baby in a stroller and the mime comes up and starts to talk and when he goes away they make the baby’s lips move and say, “Doesn’t it bother anybody that the mime’s talking?” And I get that feeling. I say does it bother anybody that we are going to the Koran to find out the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy? Well, I will go home and take two aspirin and go to bed.

Now I think the fourth empire is Rome. You read secular literature. They talk about the power of Rome. He tries to tell us that Rome wasn’t that powerful. Rome really didn’t destroy other empires. We can pass over Rome. What is the view of Biblical prophecy?

Put up the chart again. I mean what is the most significant event to have happened in all history to this point, the first coming of Christ. Who is in power, who ultimately presides over the crucifixion of the Messiah, the Roman governor and we are just going to drop that out of history because I think that if we read the Koran and then massage that together….it’s absurd. I mean the most important empire is the Roman and they will be the ones, and we will see this when we get to chapter 9, who ultimately bring about the crucifixion of Christ because the Jews didn’t have the authority. It happens under Roman authority. To say that we are just going to skip over, we are going to go from back here, the end of the Greek Empire and jump all the way down here to the seventh century after Christ and that empire is the most important because look what is going on in the world today with the Muslims. That’s going back and trying to interpret the Bible through world events rather than interpreting world events through the Bible. And of course this Joel Richardson’s confused in a variety of ways because he’s got a chapter at the end on the gift of prophecy and it seems he believes he has the gift of prophecy which he says is just not interpreting and teaching what the Bible says about prophecy but the ability to understand what the Bible says but then to give prophetic insight and understanding of what’s going on as if the gift of prophecy is not present. So be careful. It is interesting. They know a lot about the Koran. Muslims do play a part in end time prophecy, Ezekiel 38 and 39 addresses that but we can’t go back now and redo things because then it will be, here we are, we just like the Koran said. No. The Koran may be right on some points. The devil is right on some points. He can quote Scripture. He can use Scripture but he uses it to the wrong end.

Alright we have to stop there which is where I intended we would stop because the crucial issue comes now with the details that are developed here which are not developed in chapter 2 and without this foundation you can’t understand the book of Revelation and that’s what happens when it comes to these men, like Richardson when he comes to Revelation 13 and John is all confused now on this from what is quoted here. They are in a world of hurt because they are trying to figure out this additional in the empire here and could this be the Muslims here and they are not in Revelation 17 but we will get to that as we move on to the angelic explanation of this fourth beast and the ten horns and then the little horn.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You Lord for Your Word. Lord every portion of Your Word it is Your Word. It is important, it is necessary for our understanding. You have given it so that we would know more about You, Your working in the world. Lord, thank You for what You have unfolded concerning the future and that You have unfolded the truth concerning the future not to confuse us but to enlighten us, to give us understanding, to shape our thinking and our behavior. Lord even as we look at the world around us today we count it a privilege to be looking toward the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ first to gather us into Your presence. Lord as we see the turmoil of the world and the increase of lawlessness, deterioration going on Lord, our hearts are calm, we are at peace and we maintain our focus. How important it is for people to hear the saving truth of Jesus Christ that they might be prepared to escape the judgments coming and to know the joy of the Savior will take them to glory. Bless our service to You this week we pray in Christ’s name, amen.