192 - The Kingdom of Man - Early Stages [B]

The Kingdom of Man: Early Stages; Rev. 13:1; Dan. 7,8

Two things are depicted in the statue of Daniel chapter two. From the human perspective these kingdoms that are viewed as being valuable, as being made of the important metals, have an attractiveness to them that appeals to men. In contrast, we look at the image of the kingdoms of man in Daniel chapter seven and they are pictured as being bestial, and so they are bestial from God's perspective. They are pictured by these man-eating animals that destroy humanity, even though they talk a lot about valuing mankind and doing all that they can for the people, and all the other slogans that we hear. They ultimately destroy humanity. All kingdoms tend to be costly to true liberty and true freedom.

But the other thing that we should notice from the image in Daniel chapter two is that the kingdoms of man are represented as one image. That is because there is a continuity that extends throughout the kingdoms of man, they are all just different manifestations of that same kingdom of man that seeks to establish himself back in Genesis chapter eleven with the tower of Babel, man setting himself up over against the kingdom of God. So the Bible always presents this contrast and this conflict between the kingdoms of man and the kingdom of God. In Daniel 2:44 at the end of Daniel's interpretation of that image he writes, ^NASB "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and {that} kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." "The days of those kings," i.e. in the future because what the verse describes is that God's kingdom will destroy this kingdom. It is speaking of the collection of the kings represented by that statue, showing that from God's perspective characteristics and elements of each of these empires contribute to the future kingdom of the Antichrist. All of these elements will then come together and will be destroyed.

Daniel 7:23 ^NASB "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'." In verse 17 it said that these four beasts are four kings, but in verse 23 the fourth beast is not called the fourth king, it is called the fourth kingdom. Then v. 24, "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." The point is that kings and kingdoms are used interchangeably. This is important, especially when we get to the section in Revelation dealing with the head wound of the Antichrist. People are doing some strange things today with some of this. They will say it is a king or it is a kingdom and if they interpret the head as a kingdom as opposed to a king then the head wound is not interpreted to be a personal fatal wound but it is interpreted to be the death of a nation or kingdom and the resurrection of a kingdom. That is one of the things that is part of this view called the Assyrian Antichrist because they are arguing that there is going to be a resurrection of the Assyrian kingdom that will be part of the revived Roman empire and that the Antichrist will come out of this area that was part of the ancient Assyrian kingdom. This view has become more and more popular over the past ten years or so, especially since 9/11, because we all have the tendency of interpreting the Scriptures in light of current events.

Daniel chapter seven is the vision of the four beasts. Daniel chapter eight is going to narrow the focus a little and we see a vision of two animals, a ram and a goat. The ram represents the Medo-Persian empire and the goat represents the Greek empire. Daniel 8:3, 4 ^NASB "Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns {were} long, but one {was} longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last. I saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, and no {other} beasts could stand before him nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified {himself.}" Horns represented power in the ancient world. These two horns were high, representing tremendous power and energy, but one is higher than the other. The bear in chapter seven was lopsided—for the same reason. One horn is higher, representing the Persians, the other represented the Medes. The higher one came last. The Median empire was established first and then Cyrus came along and developed the Persian empire and began his conquests.

There is a further development of this in the interpretation, vv. 19-21 ^NASB "He said, 'Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation, for {it} pertains to the appointed time of the end. The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat {represents} the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king'." This "indignation" is dealing with the indignation that Israel suffers during their Babylonian captivity and their restoration. The restoration occurs under the Medes and the Persians. The "time of the end" is not talking about end time prophecy, it is talking about the end of that first fifth cycle of discipline. The kingdom is specified. God doesn't leave it up to people to guess. The three ribs of chapter seven represent the Lydian empire, the Median empire and the Chaldean empire. The Scriptures are quite precise as to what is going to happen. Cyrus conquered the Medes in 550 BC, eleven years before the decline and destruction of Babylon. He conquered the Lydians in 545 and the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean empire in 539.

Daniel 7:6 ^NASB "After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it." It is the leopard, a fast moving animal, and the four wings, that depict the speed of the conquest of Alexander the Great. The four heads are going to represent the fourfold division that occurs in the Greek empire when Alexander dies and four of his generals split the kingdom. Ptolemy took control of Egypt. Seleucus took control of north Syria and Turkey. This was the area that was also part of Assyrian empire. In the view of the Assyrian Antichrist there are those who say that Antiochus Epiphanes was the type of the Antichrist in Daniel, the one who desecrates the temple, and is the original abomination of desolation. So people say that because he controlled Syria and Turkey he is a type of the Antrichrist and the Antichrist is going to be Asssyrian. But we have the same problem with Seleucus and his line, as we do with Ptolemy and his line. They are not Assyrian or African, they are all Greeks. And they married Greeks, they were not intermarrying with the local population, they maintained a strict Greek bloodline. Antigonus took over the part of the Greek empire from the area of Persia all the way over to the Indus River. Then Lysimachus took over Thrace, Macedonia and Greece.

Daniel 8:5 ^NASB "While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west [Alexander] over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat {had} a conspicuous horn between his eyes. [6] He came up to the ram that had the two horns [Media-Persia], which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. [7] I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. [8] Then the male goat magnified {himself} exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous {horns} toward the four winds of heaven. [9] Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful {Land.}" This is where start to look to the little horn, Antiochus Epiphanes, the type of the Antichrist. [10] "It grew up to the host of heaven…" A picture of the angels, indicating his enormous arrogance in thinking he can rule over the angels. "… and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down." This parallels what we have seen in Revelation chapter twelve where halfway through the Tribulation Satan casts down a third of the angels to the earth. Here we are talking about Satan who is the power behind Antiochus Epiphanes. [11] "It even magnified {itself} to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down." So the human leader is exalting himself. He is empowered by Satan and he is exalting himself to be as great as Satan. [12] "And on account of transgression the host will be given over {to the horn} along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform {its will} and prosper. [13] Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, 'How long will the vision {about} the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?' [14] He said to me, 'For 2,300 evenings {and} mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored'." That relates to historical fulfillment under Antiochus Epiphanes.

Daniel 8:21 ^NASB "The shaggy goat {represents} the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king." This is the interpretation of the vision related to the ram. [22] "The broken {horn} and the four {horns that} arose in its place {represent} four kingdoms {which} will arise from {his} nation, although not with his power." None of them were as great as the original Greek power.

Illustrations