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Christian Chronicles, May 2002 - Volume 5, Issue 79

| The Editor's Pen | Perspectives | Mid-East Update |
| Fruit of the Vine | On the Horns of a Dilemma | Daniel's 70 Weeks of Years | Dreams & Visions |

The Editor's Pen

David had his Bathsheba. Samson had his Delilah. Moses struck the rock twice. Paul went to Jerusalem when he was told by the Holy Spirit not to go. Peter denied his Lord three times. Jonah ran from God. Job finally understood that he was a vile sinner. Mark balked at traveling with Paul. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit.

Every person named in the Bible was declared to be a sinner, and was accused of some specific sin. Every one, that is, except the prophet Daniel. Other than Christ, he is the only person to whom no particular sin is ascribed. But Daniel knew that he was a sinner also, for in his prayer in chapter nine he identifies himself with the sins of the nation of Israel.

What a wonderful testimony to Daniel’s faithfulness that he should not be called a sinner or to have his sins revealed. For it was not his goodness that garnered for him this great privilege, but it was because every time his faith was tested, he stood. He trusted God, and not reason; his Lord, and not the decrees or edicts of pagan kings, even upon the threat of certain death.

As it was with Abraham, so was it also with Daniel. His faith was accounted to him for righteousness.

God did not choose Daniel because he was young and rich. He did not choose him because he was smart or pretty, though he may well have been both. No, God, foreseeing that Daniel would be faithful even in the Gentile royal courts, chose that young man to become His representative in both Babylon and Persia.

Mid-East Update

As of this writing, Arafat has been freed from the siege at Ramallah, and talks have broken down in the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. While Prime Minister Sharon was in Washington, talking with President Bush, Hamas terrorists exploded a bomb in a billiards parlor near Tel Aviv, killing at least fifteen and injuring scores more. The world is waiting to see how Israel will react to this latest provocation.

What we are seeing are the opening disagreements in the struggle that will eventually lead the nation of the beast to abrogate his treaty with Israel and determine that she must finally be utterly destroyed. This will not happen without some perceived provocation, but will be a part of the natural political process during the tribulation period.

Even after a peace treaty is negotiated and ratified by the signatory nations, there will be groups among the Arabs who will not accept the Israeli presence among them. When they attack, Israel will retaliate. However, there will be a difference from today. Today, Israel is not retaliating against a sovereign nation, whereas during the tribulation period, Palestine will have been granted that status, so that when Israel retaliates against those terrorist groups, she will have to strike at the heart of the nation of Palestine.

Since the terrorist groups will be considered rogue groups, not a part of the “official” government of the Palestinians, it will be deemed far more improper then for Israel to strike Palestine. It will be Israeli retaliations against terror attacks that will become the catalyst for the change in heart by the world powers that leads them to seek her destruction. The Jews will be considered intransigent, refusing to bow before those powers (like the Hebrew youths in Babylon), but striking back fiercely when attacked. So incensed will Israel become at being attacked viciously, even after she has ceded all or most of the “occupied territories” to the Palestinians, that her retaliations will be severe. This will lead the nations who are seeking peaceful commerce in the region to at last reach the conclusion that Israel will never be willing to live at peace with her neighbors. Even today, Israel is seen as the main antagonist in the region because of the severity of her retaliations. The world will expect Israel to rein in her military after a Palestinian state is created, accepting meekly the attacks against her. Being the pragmatists that they are, the Jews will understand that they cannot continue to absorb the assaults upon their women and children, and their retaliatory strikes will become more and more pronounced.

One must suspect that the terrorist strikes will become greater and greater, the more support they receive from the rest of the world, until some climactic event is perpetrated against God’s chosen people that leads Israel to strike back in a most significant way, perhaps even to the extent of letting the genie out of the nuclear bottle. Perhaps Hamas or some splinter group will get its hands on a chemical or biological weapon and will seek to wipe out the masses of the Jews. It is impossible to know precisely how things will unfold, but it is increasingly clear that the tension is rising in the world’s attitude toward Israel, even as she steadfastly defends herself against the growing militancy that opposes her presence in the region.

The struggle in the Middle East is not between Israel and the Arab peoples, but between God and the devil. Make no mistake about that. If the devil can destroy Israel, Christ will have no nation to which to return. Paul said that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph 6:12). If it is true of the Church, it is equally true of Israel and her adversaries. We are witnessing the opening shots in the final drama that will usher in the kingdom of our Lord upon the earth.

Though the tribulation period is not yet upon us, the fight has already begun. All that remains before that fight turns into all-out war is for the Church to be raptured and some sort of comprehensive Middle East peace to be agreed upon. As is often the case, the terms of the treaty may already have been agreed upon for the most part, but the politicians are slowly turning public opinion in such a way that they will see no reasonable alternative to both partitioning the land God gave Abraham and finally to destroying that tiny nation altogether.

Fruit of the Vine

Perspectives

Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of God.

(Dan 3:25)

It is strange to hear Daniel’s words preached. Some preachers focus on the first six chapters and some focus on the second six chapters. The first six are primarily historical whereas the second six are primarily prophetic. The first half of Daniel is where the great stories are found — Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions’ den, Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like a beast, the handwriting on the wall, and more. In the second half of that remarkable book, the visions that Daniel received are described and interpreted. Those preachers who focus on our blessed hope often preach from the second half of the book, although they do include chapter two, where Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation are found. Preachers who rarely focus on prophetic themes preach almost exclusively from the first half of the book, usually drawing some moral theme from the stories that are found there.

Most preachers focus on their brief section without putting anything into the context of the whole book. Few seem to understand that it was the many tests of faith found in the first half of the book that qualified Daniel and his friends to receive the great visions and dreams of the second half. That is, it was because those Jews were found faithful that Daniel was entrusted with the visions that follow in the second half of the book. It was not Daniel’s righteousness that qualified him so serve in the honored role he filled, but his great faith was accounted to him for righteousness, and God used Daniel as He used no other prophet.

It began in his youth, when he was tested in regard to the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law. He and his friends refused their portions of the king’s choice foods, requesting and receiving vegetables instead. That was a greater test than most realize, for the captain of the guard feared that the king would lop off his head for changing the diet that he had decreed. But Daniel feared God more than the king, made his request and was tested.

Those were the days of the Oriental despots. If someone displeased the king, he was likely to say, “Off with their heads!” and his soldiers would pull out their scimitars and obey the king’s whim. When the wise men could not reveal the king’s dream, he gave just such an order. But Daniel’s faith was in his God, and he requested time to pray. When he and his friends had prayed, God revealed the dream to Daniel. His faith was rewarded.

When the youths would not bow before the golden image Nebuchadnezzar had made, they were thrown into the fiery furnace. But Christ was with them in that furnace and they were not harmed. Their faith saved them, even as faith saves us eternally today.

When Daniel was in the lions’ den, God stopped the mouths of the beasts so that he was not harmed. He was not afraid, but calm and trusting, willing to be eaten alive if God willed it to be so.

Every trial that Daniel and his friends endured in their years at Babylon was a trial of faith. Would they steadfastly trust God or would they cringe in fear before the rigorous onslaughts of the world? That was the issue of their testing.

And so it is today with God’s children. The world hates Christians, and Satan uses the unsaved to persecute the saved. He has always done so, and has not today changed his tactics, except perhaps to become somewhat more subtle.

Those Hebrew youths in the furnace were accompanied by the Lord. We, on the other hand, are indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead. They had more reason to fear than we do, and they had God with them whereas we have Him in us. As we are faced with dangers and pitfalls, we ought to turn surely to our God, trusting that He will accomplish His will in us, whether through deliverance or suffering (see Dan 3:17-18). We are not on this earth to seek luxury or power or wealth, but only to serve the same living God that Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-nego served so faithfully all their lives.

On the Horns of a Dilemma

Or, balanced on the tip of a sword. That is how Daniel spent much of his life. From the time that Nebuchadnezzar’s armies came and carried him and his friends captive to Babylon, those fellows faced a series of crises. Youthful men, teenagers probably, they confronted death and persecution with a measure of calm and equanimity that belied their ages.

There is a painting (http://www.e-grace.net/faith.html) of Daniel standing before a window, gazing placidly out, hands clasped behind his back in peaceful repose, human bones littering the floor he stands upon, hungry lions pacing the ground behind him restlessly. It is a remarkable illustration of faith. Daniel surely was not cowering in a corner of the den, hoping that the lions would not find him. Dead or alive, he intended to become a living illustration of faith in God, and this he determined repeatedly throughout the decades of his long life.

Oh, Daniel was not constantly in peril. For the most part, though he was a captive in a heathen land, he did serve in the royal court, and was a highly honored member of the Babylonian and Median governments. But the crises he faced were severe when he was confronted by them.

We may not serve in any royal courts, and our lives might not be as dramatic as Daniel’s, but it is certain that each of us must face our crises in life. Nothing insulates a person against the ordinary dangers and trials that occur from time to time, whether it is the death of a loved one or some crippling injury, or financial ruin or professional scandal. Everyone faces his own share of catastrophe. The issue is not if or when we shall face these things, but how we shall do so. The unsaved have precious few resources to sustain them other than money or power, but every Christian has at his disposal all of the power of the great God who delivered Daniel time after time from the perils he faced.

It is incumbent upon us to look to our God with eyes of faith when we are confronted with trials, knowing that whether He delivers us or not, all things work together for our good.

Daniel's 70 Weeks of Years

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people
and your holy city,
to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement of iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the most holy place.

(Dan 9:24)

Let us begin our study of Daniel’s seventy weeks with a look at a passage in Genesis. This, in order to show that the period of time that Daniel refers to above is not seventy periods of seven days, but seventy periods of seven years. This is an important consideration in the study of prophecy, and must be understood if one is to comprehend the framework of the prophetic writings. It is often said that the writings of Daniel are the key that unlocks the understanding of John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ. If that is so, then this prophecy of seventy weeks of years is the key that unlocks our understanding of the book of Daniel. Scofield says, “Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks (vv 24-27) provides the chronological frame for Messianic prediction from Daniel to the establishment of the kingdom on earth and also a key to its interpretation (New Scofield Study System; Oxford, 1998; pg 1081). Let us examine the Genesis passage to see that certain “weeks” in Scripture may be composed of seven years rather than seven days.

(Gen 29) Jacob had gone to his maternal uncle’s house to marry Rachel. He worked for his uncle, Laban, for seven years in order to marry Rachel, but those seven years seemed only a few days because his love for Rachel was so great (Gen 29:20). He was happy to prove his devotion to her by toiling seven full years in order to claim her as his bride. But Laban tricked Jacob, sending Rachel’s older sister, Leah, into Jacob’s bed chamber on their wedding night. Laban’s excuse for the deception was that it was not their custom to marry off the younger daughter before the elder, and so he sent Leah in instead of Rachel. Jacob complained about the deception, desiring to marry Rachel, and not Leah. Then Laban said to Jacob, “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years” (Gen 29:27). That is, if Jacob would serve Laban for an additional seven years, which he called “her week,” he would have both Leah and Rachel for his wives.

Thus, in the very first book of the Bible, the principle is established by which a seven year period is referred to as one week. The “week” was composed of seven years rather than of seven days. This is the usage we find in the passage quoted at the opening of this article. In fact, the Hebrew word in Dan 9:24 (shabua) is not even seventy weeks, but seventy sevens. That is, what the angel told Daniel is that seventy “sevens” are decreed, etc. Thus, the period that the angel was referring to was not a period of four hundred ninety days (70 x 7), but four hundred ninety years.

The Jews were required to let their farm lands lay fallow every seventh year according to the Law of Moses. But they had failed to observe the land sabbath (from the same root word as shabua) for seventy sabbaths, or a period of four hundred ninety years, farming the land instead of letting it rest. God proclaimed through Jeremiah (25:11-12) that those seventy sabbaths would be given the land while the Jews were captive in Babylon. Over a period of four hundred ninety years, seventy sabbaths had been violated. Rather than observing those sabbaths once every seven years, God would recoup them all at once, by driving the Jews out of the land for seventy years. But when those seventy years were near their end, God revealed to Daniel another period of four hundred ninety years in which he would deal with Israel as a nation. It is this latter four hundred ninety year period that is referred to as Daniel’s seventy weeks of years. For seventy periods of seven years equals four hundred ninety years. In Daniel 10:2, the expression used is “weeks of days,” in order to distinguish that period from the seventy weeks of years in chapter nine.

Before we get too deeply involved in our study of the seventy weeks of years, let us also observe in the opening verse that these four hundred ninety years do not pertain to any but Daniel’s people, the Jews, nor to any other city than the holy city, Jerusalem. While four Gentile empires are discussed in the book of Daniel, this particular prophecy concerns only the Jews and Jerusalem. Six distinct purposes for this period are defined in Daniel 9:24: 1) to finish the transgression, 2) to make an end of sin, 3) to make atonement for iniquity, 4) to bring in everlasting righteousness, 5) to seal up vision and prophecy, and, 6) to anoint the most holy place. The first three of these were accomplished at Christ’s first advent. Crucifying their Messiah finished the transgression. An end was made of sin by the fulfillment of the Law at Calvary, at which place atonement was made once for all for iniquity. The remaining three purposes will be accomplished at Christ’s Second Advent, when He establishes a kingdom of righteousness, finally fulfilling all of prophecy as He is crowned and ascends His throne in the most holy place in the Millennial Temple.

Turning our attention then to the remainder of this prophecy, let us explore the 25th through the 27th verses in some detail, so that we might come to an understanding of the four hundred ninety years.

Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.

And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off,
but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,

Even until the consummation,
Which is determined,
Shall be poured out upon the desolate.

(Dan 9:25-27 NKJV)

The angel wanted Daniel to understand this prophecy (see 9:22-23). He explained that the four hundred ninety year period would not begin immediately, but would start with the command by a Gentile king for the Jews to begin rebuilding Jerusalem and its wall. Only one time in history has such a command been given, in 444-445 B.C., by Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Nehemiah records this command in 1:1-2:8 of the book of his writings. Daniel was told that the passage of time between the issuance of this command and the First Advent of the Messiah would be a total of sixty-nine weeks of years, or four hundred eighty-three years, which carries us to the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry.

An important facet of this prophecy must be explained at this point. It is after the four hundred eighty-third year (seven weeks and sixty-two weeks) that Messiah is cut off (but not for Himself — He died for all the sins of the world). The final seven years of this prophecy do not begin immediately after the end of the first four hundred eighty-three years. Several things are said to transpire between the four hundred eighty-third year and the beginning of the final seven years. First of all, Messiah is to be cut off. Then, the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The destruction of Jerusalem did not occur until 70 A.D., so that nearly forty years passed after the end of the sixty-ninth week of years, and still, the seventieth week had not begun. There was a gap in time between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks. We shall see that the gap did not end with the destruction of Jerusalem, but that it continues even until today. Essentially, what we see is that God stopped the clock on this four hundred ninety year prophecy with only seven years remaining. The clock was stopped at some point subsequent to the beginning of Christ’s ministry, and has not started again yet.

After the cutting off of the Jewish Messiah, God ceased dealing with Israel as a nation. The Church Age was begun. It is that mystery that Jesus spoke of in Matthew thirteen when He spoke the parables of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. For a thing to be called a mystery, enough must be known to let man know that there is something that he does not understand. It was this gap in the seventy weeks of years between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks that was the mystery. During this mysterious gap, we would come to learn that the entire Church Age would unfold. Israel was scattered amongst the nations of the world in 70 A.D., and would not again become a nation or have a homeland until shortly before the seventieth week begins. Never in the history of the world have any people retained their national identity for so long without actually being a nation. But God preserved the Jews as a separate people because He had promised that He would restore them to their land and make them a nation again (Ezek 36-37). From 70 A.D. until 1948 A.D., Israel did not exist as a nation, but the Jews retained their separate identity as a people. God had stopped the clock on His dealings with Israel as a nation, but He continued to preserve them as a people, for there were yet seven years to be fulfilled in the prophecy that He gave to Daniel. It would be impossible for God to fail to restore Israel to the land or to make them a nation again for two very good reasons. First, He promised that He would do so after their period of chastisement. Second, His word stands forever, and He had prophesied a four hundred ninety year period, of which only four hundred eighty-three have been fulfilled. If God said that four hundred ninety years must be fulfilled, then the final seven must be fulfilled. For that to happen, it is necessary for Israel to be in the land.

The Bible is not silent as to when the seventieth week of Daniel is to begin. Verse 27 tells us that the prince who is to come (not Messiah the Prince, but the prince whose people destroyed Jerusalem — a Gentile ruler) will enter into a treaty with many. It is the ratification of this treaty in the Israeli Knesset that will begin the final week (seven years) of Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks of years. We know that Israel’s security will be guaranteed under the terms of this treaty (Ezek 38:8,11), and that it will resolve the thorniest and longest-standing problem that has ever plagued civilization, Middle East relations between the Jews and the Arab states.

Then, three and one-half years after this treaty is ratified (“in the middle of the week…”), the antichrist will void it and seek to destroy Israel again and at last. The abrogation of the treaty marks the beginning of that period known to us as the Great Tribulation. Then will begin a persecution that would bring about the extinction of the Jews altogether if their Messiah did not return to stop the war and crush Gentile world dominion forever. A description of the Great Tribulation is not a part of this discussion, but may be addressed in a later edition of Christian Chronicles. For now it is only important to understand that the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week is the time in which the tribulation period unfolds. The first half of the week will be characterized by many profound and dramatic events, and the second three and a half years will begin the campaign that we call Armageddon, culminating in the return of our Lord to the earth to establish His kingdom by destroying the Gentile powers that have for so long oppressed His people, the Jews. God allowed the Gentiles to persecute the Jews, just as He first allowed Nebuchadnezzar to carry them away captive to Babylon, but He will fully repay them for their mistreatment of His people. When He pours out His wrath upon the nations of the world, the primary reason for His doing so is really two-fold: 1) because they have mistreated His chosen people, and 2) because they partitioned the land that He gave to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob.

The salient point in this discussion is that the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy begins with the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. This treaty will settle the age-old dispute that began with Isaac and Ishmael and continues even today. That is, its purpose will be to settle that feud. However, the fact that the governments agree to make peace for the sake of commerce does not necessarily imply that the peoples themselves will throw off their animosities toward one another. That feud will not truly be settled simply because their governing leaders have decided that they must make peace for the sake of commerce. While the governments will attempt to keep a lid on the simmering hatred that has characterized this fraternal jealousy throughout the millennia, the “suicide bombers” and other acts of terror will not cease. Pressure will likely become increasingly heavy upon Israel not to respond to the attacks, and Israel’s insistence upon responding in kind may prove to be the catalyst that causes the nation of the beast to abrogate the terms of the treaty and to seek to destroy the Jews. Even today we see that Israel is considered the “bad guy” in the Middle East for its attacks on the Jenin refugee camps and its sieges at Ramallah and Bethlehem. When Israel retaliates for the killing of its civilians, it is Israel, and not her attackers, that is castigated in the world press.

The editorial staff of Christian Chronicles does not wish to seem “sensationalist” in its continuing attention to this situation. However, given the fact that, for the very first time in the history of the world, the world leaders are seriously trying to address the issues that divide the peoples of the Middle East and bring about just such a treaty as that envisioned by Daniel the prophet, and seeing that virtually every other “sign” given for the events to follow the ratification of this treaty (see last month’s issue of Christian Chronicles) are already visible in dramatic measure around the world, and seeing that the political alignments prophesied to be in place when the seventieth week occurs, it seems foolhardy not to be aware of where we are on the stage of history. Whether the current atmosphere will continue or will evaporate in yet another prolonged period of warfare and hostility, we cannot say with any certainty; but we surely can say that every major power in the world is intently focused upon the Middle East, with a rising determination to find a solution that will carry the region out of the quagmire of violence and hatred that has characterized those peoples since Sarah demanded that Abraham throw Hagar and Ishmael out. It appears that a great movement is gaining speed and weight, and that the world will not rest until those issues are resolved. Thus, we must believe that there exists the very real possibility that we are standing at the brink of the Age, and that the times and the seasons are upon us when we might realistically expect to hear that shout and that trumpet that calls the bride of Christ off the earth and into the New Jerusalem for our seven-year feast.

The world will be caught completely unawares by the rapture of the Church and the onset of the tribulation period. However, it is incumbent upon every Christian to recognize the times and the season, so that we are not caught doing what we ought not be doing, but that we might be found serving our Lord and our Groom properly and well when He comes for us.

Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Perhaps in a political sense it was so. Today, however, the words take on a wholly new meaning. There are Christians who will be found in the service of their coming King, and there are Christians who will be caught sleeping. This is a time for every Christian on the face of the globe to examine his walk in light of the times in which we live, in light of the season of our Lord’s coming for His bride. It is altogether too easy to get caught up in local or national issues, personal issues, social issues, economic issues, professional issues, relationship issues, family, educational or legal issues. The devil has a million ways to divert us from our purpose, and he is largely successful with all of us. However, it is now time to face the looming reality and get about the business of being ministers of the word of reconciliation. As chaos and crime, avarice and hatred swirl about us, it is high time for us to see that these are the days of our testing. It is the prayer of all at Christian Chronicles that all our subscribers — indeed, all the worldwide Church— will realize how very near the rapture must be, and will act in accordance with that realization. We have a Husband, and He has expectations of us that have little to do with our secular lives, but everything to do with the conduct of our spiritual activities. It is time to pray, read and minister to others.

Dreams & Visions

Of course, their perspectives differed considerably. The king saw the glory and splendor of human achievement, whereas Daniel saw that their power was gained through conquest. Nebuchadnezzar saw their unity and their diversity, while Daniel saw the hearts of the Gentiles who would rule the world from his own day until the millennial kingdom was established. Jesus referred to this succession of Gentile empires (Lk 21:24) as “the times of the Gentiles.”

The third kingdom that both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw was that of Alexander the Great of Greece. The belly and thighs of bronze were still less rich than the empires of Babylon and Persia. However, the swiftness of Alexander’s conquests are typified in the vision by Daniel’s portrayal of that kingdom as “like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird…” (7:6). Indeed, Alexander’s conquests took less than a decade, and extended the empire all the way into Asia, India and Africa. Though Darius, king of Persia was not captured when Alexander’s army crossed the Granicus River, that crossing marked the effective end of the Persian Empire. The four wings and the four heads that were ascribed to the Greek Empire in Daniel’s vision referred to the four “quarters” of the empire into which it was divided when Alexander died in a drunken debauch in 323 B.C., and to the four generals who served him who each took a portion of his kingdom.

The fourth empire is not named in Daniel’s prophecies, probably because it was to have both a former and a latter form, the first of which was clearly Rome, but the latter to be revealed in its own time. This fourth empire was the most vicious of all the Gentile powers who ruled, as depicted in the devouring, crushing and trampling of its victims under its feet. While it is the strongest of the four, as portrayed by the iron legs (two legs, representing both the eastern and western Roman Empire), in its final form, the feet and toes became the weakest by the admixture of iron and clay, which do not form an alloy. When iron and clay are melted together in a forge, upon cooling, the clay does not mix with the iron, but will crumble and fall out, leaving great weak spots in the iron.

In Daniel’s vision, this beast had ten horns. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, it had ten toes. Daniel’s vision expands Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Evidently, there will be a ten-nation coalition of states that will be engaged in the beast’s persecution of Israel during Daniel’s seventieth week (see center article). However, the notion that these ten form a single empire is not supported in the Scriptures. Rather, Daniel sees another horn, a little horn, arising up from among those ten, becoming great and defeating three of them (7:8). That little horn arises after the first ten. It is this horn that forms the nation from which the antichrist shall arise, and it is not one of the ten, but one that arises after them and becomes greater than them all. This little horn is the first beast of Revelation 13, in league with those ten from which it arose. The little horn is “greater than his fellows” (Dan 7:20 NKJV), and is able to subdue three of them.

The purpose of this article, however, is not to define the nation that constitutes this little horn. That has been done before. It should be noted that, contrary to prevailing opinion, it is clear that the little horn and the ten horns are not synonymous. The ten horns (or kingdoms) already exist when the little horn arises, and it is this little horn from which the beast arises.

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