We say it is hazardous to attempt to link the seven kings to seven historical Roman Emperors in John’s day—five would then have had to have fallen, one would still be alive at that time, and one who had still to come.1 Where should you begin to count? Julius Caesar, the first real Emperor, although he himself rejected that honour, or Augustus, or Galba, or Vespasian or Nero, in order to arrive at Domitian as the eighth? No, the link between ‘kings’ and ‘mountains’2 makes it clear that these are kingdoms, world empires, not individual monarchs. God always looks at world history in connection with Israel, and even though there have also been the Inca Empire, the Chinese Empire, the African empires and so on, the Bible sees world-empires from the perspective of Israel and their interaction with Jerusalem. That will also be the case in the future. The comparison with Daniel 2 and 7 produces seven world empires – Egypt, Assyria, Babel, Medo-Persia and Greece—the five that have fallen; Rome in existence at that moment according to John as the sixth, and the seventh comes for a short while; and thereafter the ‘eighth’, which is the beast, that belongs to the seven however, that, as the eighth, will simultaneously be the climax of all the seven.
Everything that characterised the previous empires will be present in that last empire. Nebuchadnezzar’s whole statue is standing completely on its feet when it is struck and crushed by the ‘stone’, the Coming of Christ.3 We saw that the final empire has to remain for a short while of three and a half years,4 and the woman, the whore, has ridden on all the empires. All the empires ‘deified’ the ruler, the divine power of the state. The pharaoh of Egypt was considered to be a god, the sun god, Ra or Re, and worshipped as such. Everyone had to worship Assur, and ‘God’s scourge’- as ‘Assur’ is called in the Bible5 – introduced the Assyrian state religion into the Temple at Jerusalem.6 Everyone had to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue in Babylonia.7 King Darius of the Medo-Persian Empire issued a law forbidding all prayer to God, gods, anyone else than the king with non- compliance being punishable by the lion’s den.8 Zeus, the god of Greece, was introduced by Antiochus Epiphanes including in the Temple at Jerusalem.9 The worship of the divine Emperors of Rome has already been mentioned. The rulers of the post-Roman kingdoms, with the Pope of Rome (“Christ’s substitute on earth”) and the European emperors have also had idolatrous penchants. And what to think about ‘Heil Hitler’ shouted in the Third Reich. ‘Heil’ really means ‘salvation’, and in German used to be applied to the relation between man and God. Now the people in Nazi-Germany expect their ‘salvation’ from Adolf Hitler. And also “Victory” in his name, in German: “Sieg Heil”. The greeting ‘Sieg Heil’ was used in the Third Reich during the Nazi era and by neo-Nazis today.
Shortly, in the realm of the ‘beast’, the ‘whore’ will ride upon that ‘beast’, and the ‘false prophet’ will ensure worldwide ‘worship’ of the beast and its image.10 The sixth, seventh and eighth empires are therefore ‘Rome’, each in a different form. As the successor to the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic world Church with the Pope at its head, possessing the “worldly and the spiritual sword” represented a form of spiritual and political rule by “Rome”. Following the decline in influence of the Roman Catholic Church, European empires often with Germany as their centre of gravity – or the Germany-France axis – perpetuated the ”Roman Empire”. In the world today, the European Union has united the states in Europe to become an ‘empire’. It can be imaginable for European Union, together with other power blocs in the world, to form a global empire, meeting each other in the United Nations. The relationship with Israel of these worldwide power blocs will soon be the ‘measuring rod’ to understand the true nature of that final future anti-Christian empire!
• The continuation of ‘Rome’ is also suggested in the ‘statue’ and images of Daniel 2 and 7. There are two legs, (Eastern and Western Roman Empire), and two feet with ten toes. The fourth beast with ten horns. The eighth world empire, ‘Rome’—worldwide, with the anti-Christ at its head, will be formed by the ‘ten’.
• Isaiah 28:15 and 18 says about the ‘scourge’ Assur to Israel: “Because you have said, “We have made a Covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, for we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”…“Your Covenant with death will be cancelled, and your pact with Sheool will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you become its trampling place.
• On the 2nd of December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris. During the coronation he snatched the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, thus displaying his rejection of the authority of the Pontiff.
• Painter David was chosen to record four scenes, the best-known being Napoleon Crowning the Empress Josephine, now in the Louvre. In a preliminary drawing, David depicts an episode not eventually shown: Napoleon crowning himself, with Pope Pius VII seated behind him. The day of the coronation, Napoleon decided to crown himself, even though it had been intended that the Pope perform the ceremony.
• As the nineteenth century progressed, Napoleon turned the armies of the French Empire against every major European power and came to be known as ‘the scourge of Europe’. The Grand Empire of Napoleon replaced the ailing Holy Roman Empire which was basically a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire.
• Napoleon had crowned himself ‘emperor of the French’ in 1804 and in 1806, he ended the Holy Roman Empire once and for all by replacing it with the Confederation of the Rhine, a French protectorate.
• An admirer of Alexander the Great, Napoleon created a new system in Europe that in some ways mimicked the ancient Greek Empire of Alexander the Great. Napoleon had wanted to conquer Europe (if not the world) and said, “Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility.”
Bible References:
1.Revelation 17:6b–7 2.Revelation 17:9 3.Daniel 2:34–35 4.Revelation 13:5 5.Isaiah 28:15 and 18, 8:5–10, 10:20–27 6.2 Kings 16:10–18, 21:4–15, see also 2 Kings 18 and 19 7.Daniel 3 8.Daniel 6 9.Daniel 11:31 10.Revelation 13:12
