This morning I would like to begin, what will be at least a two part, maybe a three part, maybe a four part, I'm not sure, series coming out of Daniel chapter seven. I've entitled the series "The Great Panorama of World History." So if you will take your Bibles and turn to Daniel seven. In a few minutes, we will look closely at the first eight verses. You know, though our country is rotting from the head down, and that we find ourselves struggling under the corruption of all that we see in the world, especially the militant unbelief, that is fomenting more and more hatred towards Christianity, isn't it wonderful to know that our God reigns? And this is what we will see here. As we begin this study of Daniel seven, if you haven't been with us, we've been going verse by verse. We've been going through Daniel, verse by verse and now we're coming here to Daniel chapter seven. And I need to help you understand a bit of the context in the first six chapters of Daniel. Primarily, what we have is a lot of history. It's historic in nature with very little predictive prophecy. But now we're coming to the second half of Daniel, where we look predominantly at predictive prophecy, rather than history. So there will be very little history here. And once again in chapter seven, as you may recall, from our previous studies, we have what's called a "chiastic pattern" being used to create emphasis and repetition, clarification. It's from the Greek word "chi," which is their x. And in a caustic pattern, you will remember that elements one and four of the pattern, and that you will find in one or more verses or chapters, will parallel in thought with elements two and three and another part of that verse or another part of the chapter. So structurally, what we see is Daniel seven, parallels Daniel chapter two. And I want you to understand that and thus, Daniel seven completes that "chiastic" arrangement. For example, in chapter two, you have four Gentile empires symbolized by different parts of a colossal human image and in chapter seven, you have the same Gentile empire symbolized by four great beasts rising up out of the sea. And chapter two, we read of a 10-fold division of a fourth kingdom symbolized by 10 toes on the feet of an image, whereas in chapter seven, they are symbolized as ten horns on the head of a great monster. In chapter two, the 10-fold subdivisions of the fourth kingdom of Gentile domination will be smashed by the stone, which is Christ, and we see something similar in chapter seven. There, we learn that an 11th horn is also going to appear a little horn that comes up after them and grows to be larger than all of them. And that is a revelation of the final Antichrist. And what we see as well in Daniel seven is the rise and fall at the hands of the great stone, which is Christ. That will be the primary emphasis in Daniel seven. Moreover, in both visions, in chapter two and chapter seven, we see differences in perspective. The magnificent beauty of the human image in chapter two depicts, quote, "human achievement in government, culture, art and science," according to Whitcomb. He went on to say, "but in the seventh chapter, we see that same fourfold empire of man from God's perspective, and how does it appear as wild and ravenous beasts that is how a holy God views the sinful and satanic maneuverings of nations upon the earth. Men's achievements apart from and in opposition to him are not spectacular from heaven's perspective. In fact, they are far worse than the activities of wild carnivorous animals for no animal ever sins or, for that matter is ever cruel. What they do is done by genetically programmed instinct patterns that were warped from God's curse upon Adam and his progeny. There is no hell for the animal kingdom. But men are wicked and cruel in the sight of God, and are under his judgment," That Whitcomb says, is the emphasis of chapter seven. Now please remember, both chapters, as well as the entirety of the book of Daniel, are meant to encourage the exiled Jews, his Jewish kinsmen, and frankly, all of the redeemed by explaining the succession of four Gentile empires that will dominate Jerusalem that will dominate God's covenant people, yea dominate the world, until the Messiah returns and establishes His kingdom. In fact, Leon Wood says, quote, "When God's people were taken captive to Babylonia, it seemed from the human perspective that God was through with them." And certainly, I would add, that's what the Jewish people thought. We see it in Scripture, for example, in Jeremiah 33, beginning in verse 24, we read this, "Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, 'The two families which the Lord chose, He has rejected them'? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord, 'If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David, My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.'" What a magnificent promise of future restoration and blessing. Wood goes on to say "God was not through with them. However, and he desired that they know he was not. An effective way to do this was to reveal the historical future which God had in mind for them. They not only would return from this captivity, but would in due time see their Messiah, come to deliver them from spiritual bondage to sin, and later from physical bondage to a powerful earthly empire, this latter deliverance to be followed by a grand kingdom period on their own," end quote.

So once again, the Spirit of God speaks through His servant Daniel, and in so doing, he provides a magnificent panoramic view of world history, including the future events that culminate in the inauguration of the future and final kingdom and eternal kingdom of God. And we know that the prophecies herein, parallel other, not only Old Testament, but New Testament prophecies. For example, descriptions of a future abomination, committed by one who makes desolate. That's prophesied in Daniel 9:27, as well as chapter 12 and verse 11, are also predicted by Christ Himself, in Matthew 24 and verse 15. Also, the final stage of Daniel's fourth empire, prophesied in Daniel chapter seven, and eight, and nine and 11, where a beast is seen rising up out of the sea, parallels Revelation, chapter 13, is a description of the coming out of antichrist that will emerge from Satan's world system. And we will look closely at many of these parallel passages as we continue to make our way through Daniel's prophecies.

I might also add that as we approach the sacred text this morning, it's important for you to realize that there is a time gap that exists between the close of the fourth kingdom of Rome and its powerful future emergence under the rule of the Antichrist, and we now anticipate this. And I might also add that this is not coincidental. What man calls coincidence God calls providence. It was no twist of fate, that Christ at his first appearing occurred during an ancient period of Roman domination. And dear friends, it will be no twist of fate, that he will come again during a second period of Roman domination, the final stage of what Jesus called in Luke 21:24, "the times of the Gentiles." So these and many other astounding truths await the diligent student of Bible prophecy, especially here in Daniel. No wonder so many conservative scholars agree that Daniel could be called the revelation of the Old Testament, of which the Lord promised in Revelation one, three, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near."

You know, it's sad, many Christians have very little understanding of the prophetic literature in Scripture, and frankly, many are indifferent towards it. They're more interested in who the Titans are playing than the second coming of Christ. But this was certainly not true of Daniel, when he received the special revelation of God, to give to his people, it deeply impacted him. And that's why as we read earlier, in Daniel seven, in verse 15, we read, "'As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.'" Then he says, "'I approached one of those who were standing by,'" referring to one of the angelic beings, "'and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.'" And then we go on to read how the inspired angel gave him the interpretation of the intervening verses. In verse 28, he says, "'At this point, the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me, and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.'" Oh, child of God, please hear me, a day is coming when God is going to judge this world, and Christ is going to return in power and great glory. And he will establish his millennial reign upon a renovated earth. And today, the world mocks at all of this, they mock Christians, they consider all of this to be the ravings of some lunatic fringe, but a day is coming for them. And I say this with great regret, when according to Revelation six and verse 16, they will cry out to the mountains into the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" So I trust that your heart is prepared to hear these things. And that you will be animated to further praise, knowing what God is up to, and that you're a part of this. And what a joy to know that our God will prevail, that He will reign supreme upon the earth. To know that one day at the name of Jesus according to Philippians 2:10, "Every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

All right, so hang on, here we go. Let me give you the context here of Daniel seven. Daniel seven is a flashback to the reign of Belshazzar. He reigned around 553 BC. Nebuchadnezzar by this time has been dead for about nine years, Daniel would have been 67 years old when he received this vision, this dream. And so this also, therefore took place for years prior to the miraculous handwriting on the palace wall on the night of Belshazzar's death, and the fall of Babylon that's described in chapter five. So the events of chapter seven occur chronologically between Daniel four and Daniel five.

Now let's examine what God has revealed to us. Verse one, "In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Daniel said, 'I was looking in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.'" Stirring up could be translated, bursting forth upon. Now we know that the word wind is used about 90 times in the Old Testament, and 30 times in the New Testament and over half of the time, it is used to describe the sovereign power the unassailable rule of God. And of course, that's the dominating theme of Daniel. And the sea typically represents the mass of a fallen humanity, or the nations of the world. So the symbolism here seems to indicate the sovereign power of God, striving against sinful humanity, probably through the use of angelic forces, coming at them from the four winds of heaven, in other words from every direction, stirring up a storm of strife, and trouble and turmoil in order to ultimately accomplish God's purposes. And of course, we see these winds gaining strength in our day and the destruction of our own nation. Frankly, we should fear the godless rulers over us more than we fear COVID or anything else. COVID is a great distraction to the real enemy.

But notice what Daniel sees next in verse three, "'And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.'" We know from verse 17, there's an indication there that these four great beasts are four kings, who will arise from the earth. So verse four, "'The first was like a lion, and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; the human mind also was given to it.'" And of course, we know this is a reference to Nebuchadnezzar, who Jeremiah described as, quote, a "lion from the thickets of the Jordan," Jeremiah 49, verse 19, as well as chapter 50 and verse 44. You see, every year the Jordan River would flood in the spring, it would, it would flood all of the thickets and that would cause the lions to leave the valley of the river and go into the villages and destroy many people. And so that is how Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were described here. Moreover, because of the great speed in which deadly competitors, armies, could operate, and conquer their enemies, Ezekiel describes him as having the wings of an eagle; Ezekial 17 three as well as verse seven. But as Daniel witnessed in his dream here, this eagle's wings were plucked. I don't know if you've ever seen a bird with all of its feathers plucked, but it's a pretty humiliating, kind of a ghastly sight. And that's what we have here. There's a prophecy that the proud feathers, of that majestic king of all the birds, would be removed. And we know that God humbled Nebuchadnezzar, during the seven years of his insanity. And his beastly character was tamed, ultimately, by God who transformed the nature of the beast, you might say, into that of a human, and eventually he surrendered to the will of the Most High God.

But then Daniel goes on and he sees something else in verse five, "'And behold, another beast, a second one resembling a bear.'" Now, it's interesting here, unlike the first beast, here, the empire alone is symbolized not its ruler. And we know biblically that the bear symbolizes the Medo-Persian empire that was mentioned repeatedly in chapter six. And then it says something interesting here, "'It was raised up on one side;'" it's a very curious description. And as I studied the original language and studied different commentaries, frankly, I never found anything that really satisfied my conclusion as to what this means. And frankly, what I'm going to tell you, I'm not real sure about, but I can give you what some think. Some believe this is a reference to the Persian dominance. At first we know that the Medes the Midian influence, dominated the empire under the reign of Cyrus and his son Cambyses, but, but 50 years later, the Persians gained the dominance under the rule of Xerxes. And during that time, the Persians basically absorbed all of the Medes into its empire. And we also know in Daniel's second vision, recorded in chapter eight, the Medo-Persian empire is symbolized in verse three by two horns of a ram, and then the second horn comes up last and grows higher than the first. So you know, when it says "this bear was raised up on one side," some think it may have something to do with that. I'm not sure. But I do know this, having experienced grizzlies in the wild, I'll tell you a very brief story. I was in the middle of Alaska on a hunting trip, I had been bow hunting caribou, I'd killed my caribou and I had another older gentleman with me that had never been in the bush before. And I had a frightening experience with probably the same grizzly that I'm about to tell you about the day before. So he wanted to go with me. He had a rifle. I had my 300 Magnum with me as well. We go up, we're taking pictures, I'm taking pictures of an eagle, I say, "Adrian, put this in my backpack." So he puts it in my backpack, and all of a sudden he goes, "Dave." And I turned around, and here was this grizzly. And he ran up to us and stopped about 15 feet away. And so I just stood there with my gun, not knowing what he was going to do. But I will never forget what he did. He raised up on one side. What he did is he raised up on one side like this with his paw like this. And he started grunting, going back and forth looking at me. And then he would stop and just stare. And then he would put his paw down and he would move a little bit. I knew what he was trying to do because I could see his nose. He was trying to get wind, he moves over about five or six feet, gets up on one side again, and starts at grunting and going back and forth looking at me and then he would stop and his nose would go up. He did that about five or six times until he got at about a complete semicircle around me. And all of a sudden, he made this loud noise and spun around and took off like a scalded dog in the opposite direction. I'll never forget he threw gravel all over us, he took off so fast. What happened is he got wind of us. Okay? By the way, the one thing that's predictable about a grizzly bear is that they're completely unpredictable. Thank God for guardian angels, and 300 magnums, right? But my point is, I know from firsthand experience, that when a grizzly wants to intimidate you, and is in a position to strike, he's going to raise up on one side. And that is a very intimidating position. And that very well may be the meaning of what the Spirit of God is saying here, that this second bear resembling a bear, or the second beast that resembles a bear was raised up on one side. Notice also, we read that "'three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, 'Arise, devour much meat.'" And this probably represents the three great conquests of the Medo-Persians that we know historically, where they conquered Media, in Asia Minor in 546. Then they conquered Babylon in 539 BC and then Egypt in 525 BC. And we know that this powerful bear of the Medo-Persian Empire absolutely dominated the world for over 200 years until Alexander the Great came on the scene. And we see him here in verse six. "'And 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.'" In other words, it was granted to him by the providence of God that he could rule. Now frequently in the Old Testament, we see leopards used to symbolize that which is swift, that which is ferocious, that which is cunning. For example, in Jeremiah five six and Hosea 13 and verse seven, it speaks of how they will lie in wait for their prey, and anyone who encounters them will be torn to pieces. And that is certainly an apt description of the Grecian army under Alexander the Great. You will recall that they were the ones that invented the Greek phalanx, a single rectangular mass of military formation, interlocking shields, with spears and spikes. The spikes were the long ones were called "sarissas." Had long spears, they were about 13 to 20 feet long. They had a sharp iron head shaped like a leaf and a bronze plate and that they would anchor that into ground to stop chargers and so on. They were basically an unstoppable force. These spears could penetrate the armor of the enemies. And it's interesting as well in verse four, Nebuchadnezzar is described as having the wings of an eagle, an eagle has two wings, right? But Alexander has four wings, doubling Nebuchadnezzar's speed and his agility, and thus his ability to invade and conquer. And we know that history proves this. He conquered Asia Minor, the entire middle Persian Empire, including Syria and Palestine, and all of Egypt, and all of the eastern territories, all the way up to the borders of India. He did this in 10 years, and he died at age 33. It was said that his army of around 40,000 could move at such speed and agility that they were able to defeat much larger armies like the Persians; vastly outnumbered them some three to five times more.

But notice also what Daniel sees, "this beast also had four heads." Now, that these four heads are mentioned, after the four wings, indicates that something happens that occurred after these rapid conquests. And no doubt this points to the four major sectors of Alexander's vast Grecian empire that were ruled by his four generals after his death. Babylon in in North Syria was ruled by Antigonus. Egypt was ruled by Ptolemy, the first Soter, and then Macedonia was ruled by Cassander, Thrace and Bithynia by Lysimachus. It's important to note that these four heads, conformed to the four horns of the male goat, that we will read about in chapter eight.

But then notice what else God reveals to Daniel in verse seven, "'After this, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, the 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 of course, this is a reference to the Roman Empire with its Roman legions. This is the most dreadful and terrifying and the strongest of all of the preceding empires. Daniel somehow sees its ferocious teeth as it growls violently at anyone that would dare stand in its way. And unlike Alexander, who seldom crushed the people that he conquered, the Roman Empire, this beast was very, very different. As it says "they devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet." They were absolutely ruthless. When you read the history, they were brutal in their subjugation, they would torture people and, and kill hundreds of 1000s, then they would take them into slavery and sell them as slaves. But notice also in verse seven, it says, "'and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.'" Now, as I said earlier, this parallels Daniel chapter two. And there we even read the same substance it was of iron and the 10, toes of the feet, and so forth. We'll address that more in a moment. But historically, we know that in 241 BC, Rome began by occupying Sicily, and then it moved in the second century BC to conquer Spain. When we've been in Spain, we saw lots of remnants of a Roman rule there, then on to Carthage, at the Battle of Zama in North Africa in 202 BC. It gradually turned the Mediterranean Sea into its own private lake, frankly, it conquered everything all around it. And after subjugating the lands of North Italy, it moved eastward to conquer Macedonia and Greece and Asia Minor. And then the Roman General Pompeii conquered the remnants of the Seleucid Empire, which was Syria, and then it went on to subjugate Jerusalem in 63 BC. And so little by little they continued this massive expansion; decade after a decade gaining control eventually of southern Britain and France and Belgium and Switzerland and Germany west of the Rhine River. Dr. Wolvoord says, quote, "The Roman Empire continued to gradually grow for more than four centuries reaching its height in AD 117, in contrast to the sudden rise of the preceding empires. It likewise declined slowly beginning In the third century. The decline became obvious in the fifth century AD when the Romans leaving Britain in AD 407 and suffering a sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths. It was not until AD 1453 that the last Roman or Byzantine ruler was killed in battle. And that was when the Sultan Mehmet conquered Constantinople." Now, I want you to understand that Rome's influence in our world today and in our country can still be seen, especially in Europe and in the United States. Not just physically but socially and religiously, legally. Our art and architecture, science, technology, farming, literature, on and on it goes. We know that Latin for example, is the basis of French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and Romanian and Catalan languages. And many of our English words have Latin roots. Latin words continue to influence our western justice system. Our court proceedings mimic the proceedings of ancient Rome, the curved roofs that we see and large scale arches that are used to support our enormous buildings and bridges came from Rome. The amphitheaters and sports stadiums with tiered seating came from the Roman Colosseum. And religiously, after the early persecution of Christianity by the Roman government in 65, to about 300 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine came along and he established himself as the head of the church. Instead of Christ, he was the head of the church, and around 313, he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. And of course, that gave birth to the apostate religious system that we see today, known as Roman Catholicism. The first actual Pope in Rome was probably Leo the First in 440 ad. And we know that Constantine embraced his version of Christianity, he granted its special status. He formalized and centralized its doctrinal discussions, and he imposed those decisions on quote, "an official church." And they believe, for example, that the church then permanently replaced Israel; that God was finished with the Jews. Augustine was around that time he rejected Chiliasm, which is Millenarianism, or the idea that Christ would reign upon the earth for 1000 years. There was a strong hatred of Jews in that day. Monasticism and asceticism scandalized the notion of any kind of physical delights in an earthly kingdom. And so they believe that all of that was gone. You have Origen who implemented spiritualizing the text of Scripture; Augustine came along, did the same type of thing. So you have an allegorizing method, or hermeneutics, of interpreting scripture. And this produced what's called supersessionism, replacement theology, sometimes called amillennialism, as well. And this basically became the doctrinal eschatology of the Roman Catholic Church. They basically believe that the kingdom is the Roman Catholic Church. And so all of that came out of that. But bottom line, what I want you to see is that Roman Catholicism came out of that beast, and we still have remnants of it today. And that ushered in the darkest period of history. In all of history, rightfully called the Dark Ages, between about 500 and 1500 AD. There Satan rules supreme through his popes and bishops and priests, and throughout Europe; biblical Christianity became illegal. My point is, to this day, Europe and the United States bear the marks of this ancient fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.

Now, with all of this in mind, we can better appreciate some of the new elements that God reveals to Daniel in this dream, new aspects of predictive prophecy, the likes of which we've never seen; the end of verse seven, so this fourth beast, he says, "'was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns.'" Now, what we will see as we look at other Bible prophecies and consider them all together, is that this is a reference to 10 actual kingdoms that will one day exist simultaneously during Daniel's 70th week of judgment, during the time of the tribulation, the future tribulation, the pre-kingdom judgments upon the earth, just prior to the Lord's return what many, rightfully I think call, a revive Roman Empire yet future. Leon Wood says, quote, "As this will be a time when 10 contemporary kings will rule, among whom another will arise, uprooting three in the process and they move on to become the head of all." Let me stop there for a moment. We see this elsewhere in Scripture. Let me give you an example. In Revelation chapter 17, and verse 11. There is a reference to this beast, the antichrist that will appear with 10 horns in verse 12, symbolizing 10 kings who had not yet received power in John's day in the first century AD. In Revelation 17, we read this beginning in verse 12, "The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast." Now, Revelation was written in the last decade of the first century between about AD 94 and 96. Near the end of Emperor Domitian, which was from AD 81 through 96. And obviously, none of what John describes here in Revelation 17 had happened in his day, therefore, it has to happen later on, and we've never seen anything like it either. He goes on to say, in Revelation 17:14. To tell us when this revive Roman Empire will appear with the beast, the Antichrist, he says there, "These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful." This of course is a reference to the battle of Armageddon just prior to the Lord's return.

So let's go back to Daniel's prophecy. We can safely conclude that the 10 horns of verse seven, have not yet appeared in the panorama of world history. But notice what else the Spirit of God reveals to Daniel in verse eight. It says, "'While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one came up among them.'" Again, horn is frequently used in Scripture, as a symbol of power, especially powerful rulers. For example, in Psalm 132, beginning in verse 17, in the context, there's it speaking of Christ, the Lord Jesus establishing his earthly kingdom being installed by God on the throne of David in the city of God. And there we read there, "I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies I will close with shame, but upon himself, his crown will shine." So back to verse eight, we also see a little horn. Now the language here, in the grammar, indicates it starts small, but it gradually gains strength and size. It's like there's an seemingly insignificant ruler that begins to emerge. But by verses 24 and following, he overpowers them. There we read, "As for the 10 horns, out of this kingdom 10 kings will arise, and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones, and will subdue three kings. He will speak out 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 a half of time. But the court will sit for judgment and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever." On subsequent expositions, I'll explain more of that, but I might add that this also refutes the argument that this little horn is a reference to the ruler of the Greek Empire, Antiochus Epiphanes, that we read about in chapter eight. You see, this cannot be Antiochus Epiphanes, emerges from the third empire that was symbolized by the four wing, the leopard of chapter seven, that clearly responds to the four horned goat of chapter eight. And so the little horn mentioned in Daniel seven eight emerges not from that third horn but from the fourth beast, which is Rome. So again, "'While I was contemplating the horns,'" verse eight, "behold, another horn, a little one came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it.'" Now later on in verse 20, of Daniel seven, the interpreting angel amplifies this prophecy. There we read "The meaning of the 10 horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell.'" So in other words, someday, we don't have any idea what this is actually going to look like other than one day, the Antichrist is going to, to rise in power and prominence, and he's going to destroy three of the future kings. Verse 24, says "he will subdue three kings." Now we'll go back to verse 20, of Daniel seven. And who is this diabolical ruler to come? Well, namely, that horn, which had eyes and a mouth, uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates. So that's some of the interpretation.

Go back to verse eight of Daniel seven. Again, we read that, "this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth, uttering great boasts." So what do we have here? Well, we have a future revived Roman Empire, out of which another king is going to emerge, described as the beast, of for example, Revelation 17, as we've looked at, but also Revelation 13. So I want you to turn there and see the parallels in Revelation 13, with Daniel seven. Revelation 13, beginning in verse one. "And he," which is a reference to Satan, who's called the dragon in the previous chapter in chapter 12, verse nine and 17, and Satan "stood on the sand of the seashore." Again, this is symbolic of the nations of the world, over which now, Satan is standing as the self appointed ruler. And then we read this, and "I saw a beast." In Greek, "therion," it could be translated a monster, something that is ferocious and a violent creature. "I saw a beast coming up out of the sea," the same imagery. Once again, the metaphor of the sea is used to describe in the Old Testament, that realm of wickedness, the sphere of Satan, the source of satanic sea monsters, if you will. In fact, the ancients considered the sea to be the quote, "reservoir of evil." They likened it to the abyss. In fact, in Revelation 11, seven, and 17, the beast is seen coming up out of the abyss, that prison that incarcerates the most vile demons where Satan will be incarcerated during the final days of the millennial kingdom. So John sees this this monstrous man arising from this wretched penitentiary. The diabolical and desecrating nature of this future demon possessed man can be seen all in the epithets used to describe him in Scripture. For example, Daniel calls him not only the little horn, but the insolent King, the prince who has to come, the one who makes desolate, the despicable person, the strong-willed King. Zechariah calls him the worthless shepherd. Paul called him in Second Thessalonians two and verse three, "the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction." And in verse eight, "the lawless one." And again in where we are in Revelation, he's called the beast. So this man will be a charismatic demagogue, brilliant, persuasive, yet deceptive and deadly and cruel.

And next in Revelation 13, we see the likeness that he has to the one that empowers him, and in verse one, it says, "having 10 horns and seven heads." We have almost the identical description of Satan in chapter 12 and verse three, where we read "the great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his heads were seven diadems." As indicated earlier, horns is emblematic of strength and power. And in this symbolism, we see the beast, Antichrist, is going to rule over these 10 nations, these 10 kings. Again, Daniel seven in verse 16, we that we've that we're looking at the number 10 is emblematic of the political and military power of the Antichrist and in Daniel 7:23 we read that he will one day rule the whole world. And he there he is pictured as the fourth beast; there will be a fourth kingdom on the earth. And so this is again a description from Daniel that links the fourth kingdom of Daniel's vision, to the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel chapter two, the kingdom of Rome with "legs of iron, yet his feet partly of iron and partly of clay." And remember, this will be the one that quote, "a stone will cut out without hands," picturing Christ and it's going to strike it on the feet of clay and crush it, as we read in verses 33 and 34. So the Lord tells us through John's vision that this beast has 10 horns, again, symbolic of a coming revived Roman Empire and seven heads, representative, I believe, of the seven successive world empires that we read about in Revelation 17, which would have been Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then the final kingdom of the antichrist. These all make up once again, the times of the Gentiles. And notice on his tin horns were 10 diadems; "diadema" in the original language, a crown that marked the regal status of a subordinate king. And this is symbolic of the regal authority associated with these 10 rulers and their empires, all of which will be subordinate to the beast to the Antichrist.

And finally, we see that on his heads were blasphemous names. These names will demonstrate their allegiance to the beast, whom they will deify, rather than God himself. And this was practiced, by the way, in the days of ancient Rome, where emperors used various divine titles and put it on them, and obviously, such an inscription is blasphemous. And in verse two, we read, “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like those of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion." Well, obviously, you can see that the imagery here is rooted in Daniel seven, where Daniel portrayed the four beasts, the lion, the bear, the leopard, and then the fourth beast, which is a composite of the first three described as that dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong beast. By the way, I find it interesting here, that John lists these animals in reverse, because he is looking back into history, whereas Daniel was looking into the future. So these three animals, the leopard and the bear, and the lion symbolizes the ferocious, vicious power of these three successive worlds empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. But the fourth beast, representing the Roman Empire is emblematic of that future final kingdom of the antichrist that will incorporate all of the cruelty and all of the power of the first three. This empire will be unparalleled in human history.

You know, as we watch our presidential elections, and I've been able to see several of them over the course of my life now, it's amazing how people can completely utterly abandon all logic, all history and all common sense and end up worshipping a man. And it's fascinating that when people are desperate, when they're afraid, when they're unsure about the future, they will turn to man rather than to God. And that's what we will see here. And you know, every dictator in the history of the world has preyed upon people in such a way. They will, if there aren't any fears, they will create fears to somehow subjugate them. Adolf Hitler seized upon a depressed economy and the fears of the German people and he guaranteed quote, "peace with honor, peace for our time," and the people bought it. And the rest is history.

Well, dear friends, the rule of the Antichrist is going to exceed the deceptions and wickedness of Hitler 1000-fold and for good reason. Notice in verse two of Daniel 13, or of Revelation 13, "And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority." You know, it's hard to imagine what this world will be like when the church is removed at the rapture. But think of the utter freefall of morality when the Holy Spirit quote "steps aside" as he will, according to Second Thessalonians two seven, "when he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way," literally steps aside, which we know he will do in the midpoint of the tribulation. This will allow Satan's dictator to come onto the scene to rule without restraint for 42 months, according to Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 13 five.

Well as we close, back to Daniel, chapter seven, verse eight, we read that, "this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts." You know, he may be alive today, we don't know. But he's coming. You know, there's an old adage that says, nature abhors a vacuum. And indeed, whenever a vacuum is created, it is immediately filled with something, you know, whether it's water or air or some other form of matter. But our country, yea, our world, is experiencing a leadership vacuum, a vacuum of righteous leadership that's essential to our survival. The world needs a leader and, in their minds, they need a political hero. In fact, one prominent Belgian diplomat and astute European strategist by the name of Paul-Henri Spaak, put it this way, quote, "We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature, to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, be he God or devil, and we will receive him." Well, dear friend, Satan is going to supply this leader. And he is the beast of Daniel seven. That horn that "will possess eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth, uttering great boasts." But friends, let me encourage you, make no mistake, God is still in control. All of this is part of his plan. And we know that at the end of the seven-year period of Judgment, the LORD Jesus Christ is going to return and he is going to destroy all of those who oppose him. And he will put an end to the times of the Gentiles. My how I look forward to that day. And in the parallel account, that we read in Daniel two verse 44. We can be encouraged, there we read “'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. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands. And then it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king, what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.'" Oh, dear Christian, fear not. The Lord is on his throne, our King is coming. And a day is coming when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for these prophecies that not only encourage the hearts of the exiled Jews so many years ago but have encouraged the hearts of the redeemed down through the centuries. To know that you are the sovereign ruler of heaven and earth and that in unassailable power, you accomplish all that you have ordained in eternity past. Lord again, we thank you that we are part of this whole kingdom plan. We are the undeserved recipients of your favor. We are debtors to your grace. So we thank you. We give you praise, and we pray, Lord Jesus, that you will come quickly. And finally, Lord, I pray that if anyone is within the sound of my voice that really knows nothing of what it means to be reconciled to a holy God through faith in Christ, they know nothing of what it means to have the intimate fellowship and joy that's available to those who have been born again, I pray that you will bring conviction to their heart and that today they will confess their sin, and that they will confess that Jesus is indeed Lord, they will ask him to save them by his grace. So we thank you. We give you praise, and we commit these things to you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.