Four empires are described in Daniel 2 and 7, plus the ‘fifth’ Kingdom of the Son of Man ”the stone that fills the earth like a mountain”. Daniel mentioned ten horns, three of which are broken off and one comes in place of the three. What are these seven heads and ten horns that John sees – seven heads that are seven mountains and that are seven kings? John sees ten horns that are ten kings. The ‘beast’ John sees is itself the eighth king. How are we to make of all this and how do they connect up? It looks like an unsolvable puzzle! Let’s begin at the beginning and try to create order from chaos. And because this is my book, you are going to get my opinion, and I know that there are a thousand and one others! Daniel’s four empires2 are the Babylonian Empire (head of gold and lion with eagle’s wings), the Medo-Persian Empire (chest and arms of silver, bear with three ribs in its mouth), the Greek Empire (belly and thighs of bronze, and a panther with four wings on its back and four heads, successors to Alexander the Great), the Roman Empire (legs of iron and feet of iron and clay, the fourth beast with iron teeth and crushing feet and ten horns, of which three have to make space for one,3 the anti-Christ). Then there are the seven heads on John’s beast—the seven ‘kings’ or seven world powers, and the realm of the beast, the eighth.
Here are these eight: Egypt, Assur, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, the Rome of the Roman emperors, then the post-Roman kingdoms, amongst which ‘Rome’ survives, with Hitler’s terrible, German empire as the seventh kingdom, and, finally, the eighth kingdom – the resurrected Roman empire represented by the ‘beast’, with seven heads and ten horns, led by the false ’trinity’, the dragon, the beast/anti-Christ and the false prophet. The ‘ninth’ kingdom comes after this, under the ‘ninth’ king, our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him comes Daniel’s ‘fifth’ empire, the one that will know no end. So, I’ve given my view! What we have already had of this perspective of history is:
We are on the way to Rome III therefore, under the ‘anti-Christ’, which will be brought to an end by Kingdom 9, the Kingdom of the Lord and His Anointed One.
These seven heads are also seven mountains according to the Apostle John. We have already heard that besides the literal meaning of ‘mountain’ there is also the meaning of power, might—royal power—like the ‘stone’ that becomes a mountain that fills the whole world. Jeremiah calls ‘Babylon’ the “destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth.”4 David calls his kingdom and kingship a mountain.5
The woman sits on all those seven ‘mountains’, those seven world empires – on Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, and on Rome-that-is-not and yet has been in a hidden form, and will be again. Finally, she sits on that ‘Rome’ that is coming, the eighth kingdom led by the anti-Christ as its evil source of inspiration.
• The idea of seven world empires is supported by the Jewish tradition that Israel has experienced a total of six exiles, i.e. in the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires.
• The Bible always looks at world history from the perspective of Israel and Jerusalem. So that is how the Lord sees world history, and the prophets of Israel look at it from a prophetic perspective.
Bible References:
1.NIV 2.Daniel 2:31–35 and Daniel 7:2–8 3.Daniel 7:8 4.Jeremiah 51:25 NIV 5.Psalm 30:8
