Although the book of Daniel was written thousands of years ago, it is brimming with vital information for today’s world. The prophet Daniel received words from God about the kingdoms that shaped world history. As a result of these dreams and visions, Daniel also learned the key identifying characteristics of the Antichrist. Daniel 2 and 7 speak of two prophetic dreams that can help us identify the Antichrist.
THE PROPHETIC DREAM OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR IN DANIEL
2. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a disturbing dream that, upon waking, he could not remember. Daniel was an advisor to the king, and with God's help was able to tell Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation. The prophetic dream of Daniel in Daniel 7. Daniel had a prophetic dream himself. This prophecy colors in the rough outline provided in Daniel 2.
It parallels Nebuchadnezzar’s dream using different symbols. Daniel 7 provides such an accurate description of the Antichrist at the end of time that the conscientious student is left without a doubt as to the identity of this power. In Daniel 2, the king of Babylon was given the vision, but God revealed its meaning to His prophet Daniel so that the king could become acquainted with the true creator God.
The vision concerns the progression of earthly political powers through time culminating in God's Kingdom. The vision of Daniel 7 is given by God directly to His prophet. It is rich in symbolism and reiterates Daniel 2. It also emphasizes the battle between truth and error. Daniel’s dream also identifies the "Man of Sin," or the Antichrist.
In prophecy, there is a principle of expansion where one dream or chapter is expanded later on in another dream or chapter. This principle can be applied in this case. The prophecy of Daniel 7 repeats the prophecies of Daniel 2, but then goes on to expand this prophecy, and to highlight the final events surrounding the rise and fall of the Antichrist.
A KING'S DREAM FORETELLS THE FUTURE
Daniel 2 is a prophecy about events unfolding from Daniel’s time until the close of history. This short prophecy is fundamental to helping us unlock more complex prophecies in Daniel and Revelation that discuss the great controversy between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Over 2500 years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon had a disturbing dream. By the next morning he had forgotten the content of the dream, but was aware of its importance. None of his advisors could tell him the dream, or its meaning, so he decreed that all of his advisors should be killed.
Daniel and his friends, Israelites taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar during the destruction of Jerusalem, had become wise men in Babylon. They would have also been destroyed by this royal decree. When Daniel heard about the decree, he prayed that God would reveal the dream and its meaning. God answered Daniel’s prayer, giving him both the dream and its meaning. Daniel then went to the king to share what God had told him: But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days…thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed…what should come to us hereafter (Daniel 2:28-29).
Nebuchadnezzar saw a large magnificent statue made of different metals–a head of gold , an upper torso of silver , the lower torso of bronze, and legs made of a strange uncohesive mixture of iron and clay. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was actually a prophecy about the kingdoms of the earth that would shape history: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Because the statue was a representation of the future, we have progressed through all the kingdoms of the statue and are now living in the time of the ten toes–the last kingdom to ever wield power on Earth.
Some say we are living in the time of the big toe of that statue, and that era is about to be extinguished. Certainly, the signs of Christ's Second Coming that are mentioned in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and the entire book of Revelation are happening all around us. This statue prophecy shows us that God’s intervention into human affairs is coming soon. According to the prophecy’s timeline, we are waiting for the greatest event in the history of humankind: the overthrow of earthly powers, and the formation of a Kingdom that will never be destroyed. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come (Matthew 24:42).
DANIEL’S FOUR BEASTS
The prophecy in Daniel 7 is rich in Biblical symbolism, which is the key to its unraveling. We will use the principle that the Bible must be its own interpreter as we seek to understand this crucial prophecy. In Daniel's dream, he sees the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Scripture tells us that winds symbolize war (Isaiah 21:1-‐2; Jeremiah 25:32 and 49:36-‐37).
The sea represents the people, or a populated region (Revelation 17:15). By applying the Biblical definitions of these symbols, we can see that war and strife will be raging among the nations. There are also four beasts in Daniel's dream: The Lion, The Bear, The Leopard, and The Terrible Beast. In prophecy, these beasts represent four kingdoms. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other (Daniel 7:3 NKJV).
THE LION
The first was like a lion, and 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 (Daniel 7:4 NKJV). The lion is used in the Bible as a symbol of authority and power. The symbol is applied to Christ as the Lion of Judah, but it is also the symbol for Babylon, the destroyer of nations and the seat of the apostate religion, which would seek to entice God's people into idolatry. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied about Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem, using the symbol of a lion for this mighty power: I will bring disaster from the north, And great destruction. The lion has come up from his thicket, And the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your land desolate. Your cities will be laid waste, Without inhabitant (Jeremiah 4:6-7 NKJV). The lion of Daniel 7 has eagle's wings, a further reference to Babylon.
Archaeology has revealed that a lion with eagle's wings was a common symbol in Babylonian designs and sculptures. Moreover, the eagle often symbolizes the sun god. This means that the sun god powers the lion. This union of the human element with the sun god is in defiance of the true God.
The religion of Babylon forms the basis of all pagan religions, making Babylon a fitting symbol for the end-‐ time confederacy of religious powers aligned against God and His people. This confederacy will control events at the end of time and is portrayed in Daniel 2 as the feet of iron and clay. In the closing stages of Earth’s history, a power resembling Babylon will once again control the planet’s events.
THE BEAR
And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh (Daniel 7:5). We know from the statue prophecy of Daniel 2 and from history that the Medo-Persian Empire would rise after Babylon.
This power is portrayed in Daniel 7 as a bear. The bear was raised up on one of its sides, referring to the initial inequality of the two powers of the Medo-‐Persian alliance that was to overthrow the Babylonian Empire. The three ribs in the bear’s mouth probably refer to the three main thrusts to control the Babylonian Empire: the thrusts into Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon by the armies of Cyrus the Great. The richness of the Biblical typology portrayed in this great historic event serves as a lesson for the great events that are to unfold at the end of time. Babylon, the ruler of nations, the head of gold, the seat of religious and political power had ruled the nations. It had destroyed Jerusalem and had taken captive the people of God.
The time had come for this power to be destroyed. Cyrus the Great Typifies Christ Cyrus is the one chosen by God to accomplish this great feat. Long before Cyrus’ birth, the prophet Isaiah called him the Lord's anointed: This is what the LORD says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut (Isaiah 45:1 NIV).
The same prophet, prophesying about the Messiah, wrote this: The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1 NIV). Cyrus serves as a type of Christ. He ended Babylon’s rule and set the captives free. The decree issued by Cyrus was that the Israelites were to be freed, that they could return to their homeland without cost. In the same way, Christ will overthrow spiritual Babylon at the end of time. He will set the captives free and take them to their heavenly home. Their redemption will be without cost.
THE LEOPARD
After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule (Daniel 7:6 NIV)
After the Medes and the Persians, a third power would arise to take control. Daniel 2 and history both tell us that the Greek Empire came after the Medo-‐Persian Empire. In Daniel 8, we read in a further prophecy that "Grecia" would subdue the Medo-Persian Empire, and that it also would be divided into four subkingdoms before succumbing to the Roman Empire. The leopard beast in Daniel 7 has four heads and four wings that symbolize the four subkingdoms. The symbol of the leopard is a fitting symbol for the kingdom of Grecia in view of the swiftness of its conquest. The “Grecia” referred to in Daniel 8 should not be confused with the Greece of the classical period that preceded the fall of Persia. That Greece does not match the timeline of Daniel 2.
This Greece must be a power that overcomes the Medo-‐Persians and establishes itself as a world dominating power coming from the Grecian culture. This is the semi-‐Greek Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great, who subdued revolts in the states of Greece and Thrace. Alexander then declared himself successor to the Pharaohs, and his troops worshiped him as if he were a god. One of Alexander’s aims was to spread Greek culture and philosophy throughout his realm. Greece added many refinements, rites, and ceremonies to the earthly systems of worship. The Bacchus cult, the mythologies of the battles of the gods, and the worship of female deities became entrenched in the very fiber of society.
THE TERRIBLE
Beast After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast— terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns (Daniel 7:7 NIV). The fourth beast defies description. It is terrifying, frightening, and very powerful. It would be the kingdom that would fill up the cup of God’s wrath. Although Rome would become divided, the iron would remain even to the time of the destruction by the stone.
Following the sequence of Daniel 2, the terrible beast of Daniel 7 represents Rome. Although divided into ten through the ten horns, it is still Rome that rules until the end of time. The iron does not change; it is just separated by clay. The fourth beast in Daniel’s dream had ten horns. The ten horns, according to the prophecy, are ten kingdoms that will come from Rome (Daniel 7:24 ). The ten kingdoms, which arose from Rome after its decline, are the same ones represented by the ten toes of the image described in Daniel 2 . They represent the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Alamani, Anglosaxons, Heruli, Lombardi, and Burgundians.
THE LITTLE HORN
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 mouth speaking pompous words (Daniel 7:8 NKJV). As Daniel watched, a little horn emerged from the ten, pushing out three of the other horns. The little horn power grows to become greater than all the others. In this verse, we again have the reference to a man, just as we had the reference to a man associated with the lion that had eagle wings representing Babylon. It was Babylon that deceived the ancient world with its system of worship (representing the type). The little horn power will have the same elements as Babylon but on a universal scale (representing the great antitype).
The little horn will blaspheme God and speak pompous words and deceive the nations at the end of time. The NIV study Bible identifies this power as the Antichrist, and the footnote in the Douay Version says, “This is commonly understood of Antichrist.” Anti has two meanings in Greek. It can mean “against” or, more commonly, “in the place of.” Nebuchadnezzar's dream and Daniel's subsequent dream revealed the future kingdoms that were to reign on earth and the Antichrist power that will seek to hold world dominion. But what exactly makes him the Antichrist?
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