The Final Stages of the Kingdom; Rev. 13:1-4; Dan. 7
What John is seeing in Revelation 13 is really the final form of the fourth beast that Daniel saw. Satan energizes and empowers the first beast, the Antichrist, and he is the one who has engineered history to bring this about. God is still in control even though Satan is bringing this into existence in history; Satan never does it apart from the authority of God. The interesting thing that we have to remember is that Satan is no more aware of when the Rapture is going to occur than we are. That means that in any given generation or decade Satan has to be working to be able to move at almost a moment's notice to be able to put his man into play and into power in such a way that he can engineer the rise of his final kingdom, the ten-nation confederacy. One of the things that will be seen in the end time is the speed with which the Antichrist pulls his kingdom together.
One of the things that has been noticed over the past ten or fifteen years is how quickly things move today, how quickly things change, how the chess board of the nations can move very rapidly, and how quickly a nation like the United States can change. An article in the English version of Pravda last week commented on how quickly the US has sped toward Marxism.
Some believe the Antichrist will be Muslim. One of the ways that events will unfold in the Tribulation in the way Revelation says they will unfold is that there will be a rebuilt temple on the temple mount. The location of the temple is believed to be where the Mosque of Omar is located in Jerusalem. If the Antichrist is the one who signs the peace treaty with Israel, according to Daniel chapter nine, and as a part of that there is a recognition of the Jews establishing a place of worship on the temple mount, it is difficult to see a Muslim doing that. When we look at a map of the Roman empire we must realize that it is Europe centered, but Europe is not all that was part of the empire.
The focus in Daniel chapter seven is on the fourth beast, not in its early manifestation but in its later manifestation. Daniel 7:7 NASB "After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." These are strong adjectives here in the Aramaic emphasizing the power of this animal. It is as if Daniel is struggling to find the right words to describe the power and the fear that is engendered by this fourth beast. The words "devour, crushed and trampled" are all participles and indicates ongoing action.
To be noted in the fact that it has these ten horns. One thing about that is that the ten horns weren't there historically. If we recognize that this beast is the Roman empire, which is what would naturally flow in history, what were the ten horns in the Roman empire? The horns represent power or kingdoms, but there were no ten nations in the historical manifestation of the Roman empire to date, so this has to be future. What that shows us is that this is another one of those verses, like Isaiah 61:1, 2, where there is a time gap in the middle of the verse.
We need to ask some questions: a) What is distinct about the fourth kingdom? b) How did this expansion occur? c) Since these ten kingdoms of Daniel 7 are yet future to our time then we are still within the time period of the kingdom even though it is in a dissolved state. What is distinct about the description here? Unlike the other beasts which can be identified because they have enough of the characteristics of the lion, the bear and the leopard to be identified as such, this beast has certain manufactured human qualities. There is bronze and there is iron and these have to be defined. It is thought that this implies something about technology, something about the technological development that man brings this manifestation of the empire that makes it even more bestial than it would otherwise have been. There is something about the technology of man that makes it even more bestial and more powerful, and perhaps in its final manifestation the revived Roman empire is much more deadly and destructive than the old Roman empire was simply because of the technology of weapons systems that we have for warfare today.
Daniel 7:8 NASB "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great {boasts.}" Out of the ten-nation confederacy another horn, a little one which is the eleventh horn, comes up among them. Then the explanation, Daniel 7:20 NASB "and {the meaning} of the ten horns that {were} on its head and the other {horn} which came up, and before which three {of them} fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great {boasts} and which was larger in appearance than its associates…. [23] "Thus he said: 'The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the {other} kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it." This isn't just a kingdom of Europe. The blend that we see in the statue, the legs of iron (Romans empire), and then the feet a mixture of iron and clay—iron would be elements from the old Roman empire and clay would be new elements and could include nations from the western hemisphere. Obviously the United States would be part of that, South America, Canada, other nations which were not in the old Roman empire, would be part of that clay that made up the mixture of the clay and iron that make up the feet of the statue. It devours the whole earth, so he is going to be able to extend his control to a true global empire. That is what we will see in Revelation 13 and it occurs only in the second half of the Tribulation. All of the things that we witness today simply move us in that direction. We have more and more of a global push in the world because of technology.
Daniel 7:24 NASB "As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings." This is future and nothing in the past fits this. There is nothing in history where we see ten kings reigning simultaneously in a confederacy. These aren't successive kings; they are ten kings at the same time.
Verse 24 brings up the question of the uniqueness of this kingdom. It points out another—after the ten kingdoms. First of all there is this movement towards a confederation/association of the ten kingdoms and then after that develops, which probably occurs in the period between the Rapture and the Tribulation and may still be continuing after the Tribulation begins. Then we are told that another king rises up "after them." This will be the Antichrist. He is not identified prior to the Rapture. This is the little horn mentioned in Daniel 7:8; and he is arrogant. Arrogance is the prime characteristic of the Antichrist, but arrogance can camouflage itself in pseudo-humility that will deceive the masses. Jesus said that he is going to be so deceptive that if possible he would deceive even the elect. This is what is so dangerous about the Antichrist. He is going to have an ability to lie, deceive and manipulate that will get past everybody.
Daniel 7:25 NASB "He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One…" He is going to be anti-God, anti- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the same kind of thing that we see applied to the first beast of Revelation 13:1. He had on his head a blasphemous name, indicating that at the very core of his character there is this hostility toward God. We have to understand that the basic orientation of the kingdom of man is towards self-sufficiency apart from God. The orientation of the kingdom of man in all of its different manifestations, nations and policies is to solve man's problems apart from God—the government can be the ultimate solution. We live today in an era where the people believe that government is to solve problems, and that is what the Antichrist is going to do. The orientation of the final form of the kingdom is to set up government that is completely independent from God, promising to provide to the world that which only God can provide. This is the culmination of the major battle between Satan and God and between the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God, the battle between Babylon and Jerusalem which goes back to the early chapters of Genesis.
We have also seen that this kingdom is also depicted in Revelation chapter seventeen. There we have another image of the kingdom as the great harlot who sits on many waters. The waters represent the nations, so the great harlot represents the final form of the kingdom over all the nations of the earth. God is going to judge that final form of the kingdom. Revelation 17:1-3 NASB "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
A comparison that we see between Daniel 7:25 and Revelation. Daniel 7:25 NASB "He will speak out [pompous words] against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time." He will come along and try to change the calendar. Man in his arrogance thinks that he can come along and change these movements that God set up in the creation. There will be a three and a half year period of tremendous persecution of believers. [26] "But the court will sit {for judgment,} and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever." At the end there is going to be judgment on him. In Revelation 12:6, 14 we see that "time, times and half a time" equals 1260 days or three and a half years. This is equivalent to the last half of the Tribulation period. Cf. Revelation 13:5 where 42 months equals a time, times and half a time. The little horn is waging war against the saints in Daniel 7:21, and in Revelation 13:7 he is given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them—same focus, same agenda. In Daniel 7:11, 26 God will interrupt the reign of the little horn in order to establish His kingdom. In Revelation 19:19, 20 God will also interrupt the reign of the Antichrist when Jesus Christ returns and establishes His eternal kingdom. The conclusion is that the little horn in Daniel must be identified as the first beast of Revelation.
Summary
1. He rises to power from within the fourth empire, an empire made up of ten nations, a revival of the Roman empire.
2. He comes up after this ten-nation confederacy has come together. When he arises the ten kings are already in place.
3. There is some unique quality about him, as indicated in Daniel 7:28. He is able to bring people together and this is what concerns Daniel.
4. He is arrogant and challenges the Most High with great or boastful words.
5. He persecutes the Tribulation saints. He will pursue Israel (the woman) into the wilderness.
6. He is given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. Revelation 13:7, 8. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.
7. In Revelation 13:16-18 he forces everyone to receive his mark—showing his economic control.
8. He gains control of the world for only three and a half years. The first three and a half years is his rise to power and then he tries to consolidate it during the second half of the Tribulation.