7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. Daniel 7: 7-8 ESV
Daniel 7: 7-8 Final Kingdom and Antichrist
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.…
…4He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.… 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-6
4Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.… Matthew 24: 4-6
A fourth beast - Now we know from the description here and in Daniel 2 that this is something that Daniel has not yet seen, and he is looking far off, even past Greece, which he has not seen. This is the kingdom described in Daniel 2 as the legs of iron and feet mixed with iron and clay. This is Rome, which will become not only a military might, but live on as a cult, hence the so called "Holy Roman Empire", which has it's own city/country within a city, the Vatican. Rome won't come till much later, but they will stamp out roads all over Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Ironically, though men want to be atop empires, on pedestals, and lay claim to other parts of the globe, all in the name of the progress of their country, and the Caesar's wanted honor and worship as well, yet every road became a transport. They held up the feet of Paul and so many other missionaries on their journeys to the pagan world. God used Rome to spread the gospel, as Martin Luther liked to say, "Even the devil is God's devil."
40 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. 41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” Daniel 2: 40-45
So now this is the kingdom, Rome, and we need to understand something, this chapter is leading us up to the second coming of Christ. Christ does not come back till the end of all these gentile kingdoms and the end of the final gentile kingdom which is under Antichrist. I want you to see something too, no one was so designated or symbolic, synonymous with their kingdom as was Nebuchadnezzar with Babylon, and this is what the world wants to return to, One World Government, One World Religion, under One World Leader. Now many have made their plays for power, and men like Hitler would be synonymous with Nazi Germany, yet he was unsuccessful in bringing what was once the Roman empire under his rule. The Gentile age started with Babylon and much like the dispersion from Babel, the image grew stronger in tensile strength and from technology, but weighed down with bureaucracy, confused and in the end always leaving a vacuum that begs for tyranny. It's looking for that special someone, a problem solver, a dynamic speaker, spiritual leader, economic genius, that can bring everyone in the world under a common flag, building a common tower. Neb was an absolute monarch and this is what the world will want again.
…37You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. 38Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. 39But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule the whole earth.… Daniel 2: 37-39
As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. Revelation 17: 11-13
I considered the horns - Horns represent power in the Bible just as mountains represent nations, and here Daniel will make it very clear, within the context of the chapter even, that these horns represent 10 kings. The final world empire will have 10 divisions. Note in the verses above, even in the Apostle John's time, they had not yet come, and when they do it will only be to hand over their power to the beast. Again, history repeats itself, men are going back to Babel, building roads and bridges to it, pushing for conformity, and these kings will set the example by bowing to the beast, just like Neb's governors, satraps, politicians, "wise men", all bowed to the image. King Darius's wise men and governors gladly lifted him up on a pedestal as deity in order to get rid of Daniel, and I have heard it often in my day, that if only this individual were given more power then they could fix everything. People want to believe, just not what's true.
…2She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.… Revelation 12: 2-4
…2The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” 3And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.… Revelation 17: 2-4
6I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her. 7“Why are you so amazed?” said the angel. “I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. 8The beast that you saw—it was, and now is no more, but is about to come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. And those who dwell on the earth whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet will be.… Revelation 17: 6-8
There is a gradual development of this ten-fold division after it first appears. There are first ten kings who share power together in a confederation of sorts. Then an eleventh comes up, who is rather obscure and unpretentious at the first, but, by this eleventh, three of the first ten are overthrown or amalgamated, and finally all ten unite in giving their power and authority to the eleventh, the "little horn" mentioned here. (The Coming Caesar)
1Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast.… Revelation 13: 1-3
There came up among them another horn, a little one - Another kingdom besides the 10. So among the 10 horns, which are as the 10 toes in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of Daniel 2, there comes up a king that takes the place of 3 of the original kings.
Little horn - The size of this horn distinguishes it from the other 10 horns, but in Da 7:20 we see that "was larger" implying that it grew in size/stature. Do not confuse this “little horn” with the “little horn” of Da 8:9, 10, 11, 12 which describes Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175BC until his death in 164BC) and who arises from the third Gentile kingdom of Greece not the fourth Gentile kingdom of Rome. - Precept Austin
Were plucked up by the roots - In Revelation 17: 13 above, we don't see a violent take over but rather that they were of one mind in giving their power to the antichrist, so he could be a modern Nebuchadnezzar of Nimrod. This guy is a politician first.
Now, how can he do this? Let me show you how. First of all, he’s a political genius. He is literally a political genius. Go back to verse 8, “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn” – watch – “before which there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.”
Now, the language here sounds violent in the authorized, but in the original text, it is not nearly so violent. It expresses rather a pushing out as if three are growing. And as one comes up, it just gradually squeezes its way through until it becomes prominent. It actually refers to a gradual replacement as the new pushes out the old, and the old gradually fades away. It is not a catastrophe, it is progressive.
Now, what does that mean? That means to me that somehow this individual is so subtle in his genius politically, that without an upheaval, and without a revolution, he subtly moves himself up the political ladder to dominance.
Revelation chapter 6, for example, says that he comes riding on a horse with a bow to conquer. It’s always fascinated me that he had a bow but no arrows. Apparently, he can do more with a threat than he needs to do with a war. In his subtlety, he conquers without fighting. - J Mac from Daniel 7 sermon
In this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man - Just like Neb was told he was the head of gold, so closely will this kingdom be associated with it's king. He is the front man, a flatterer, a genius, but a flash in the pan.
It says in verse 8, “He has eyes like the eyes of a man.” In verse 20, “He had eyes” – and the eyes refer to insight. They refer to intelligence, mental ability. He will be clever. He will be shrewd. He will be knowledgeable. He will be able to give advice. He will be able to solve problems. Oh, for someone like that today who could solve problems; the world is so set up for somebody who could come in. America can’t even solve the problem we’ve got with Iran. And there are multiple problems. Imagine a man who arrives on the scene, who can solve the problems of the world.
Thirdly, he will be an oratorical genius. Not only will he be politically powerful and subtle, not only will he be a mind perhaps greater than any other, but he will be able to articulate in marvelous ways. In verse 8, it says, “He has a mouth speaking great things.” Verse 20, “He has a mouth that spoke very great things.” And some of them, verse 25, are “great words against the Most High God.” But he has some kind of oratorical ability. In Revelation 13:5, it says – John says the same thing, “He had a mouth speaking great things. - J Mac
…4They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?” 5 The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months. 6And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven.… - Revelation 13: 4-6
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