A study in governments (part 1)
Kingdom of Israel........... Reformation....................... Theocracy
Babylonian Empire......... Colonial America.................Monarchy
Medo-Persian Empire..... Constitutional America....... Republic
Greek Empire.................. 20th Century America........ Democracy
Roman Empire................ Post WWII America.....Corrupted Republic
Holy Roman Empire....... Christian America................ Papacy
Reformation.................... Latter Rain..........................Theocracy
“That which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Eccl. 1:9
In the book of Daniel exists two dreams that parallel each other. They both show world events down to the end of time. They delineate the overall world situation as the Great Controversy takes place at the world’s center stage.
King Nebuchadnezzar woke with a start. It was an alarming dream that he believed to portend evil. In his dream he saw a statue of a man and his attention was drawn to it from the top of its crown down to its toes. Its head was of gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of part iron and clay, as it were crude iron ore. Then after studying this statue, he saw a boulder, as if dislodged from a mountain, hit the metallic man at the feet. The statue disintegrated into dust and blew away like dust in the wind and the boulder became a mountain that filled the whole earth. The king had to know what this was all about.
Daniel had a different vision, yet describing the same events. The wind was fearful and the surf was rough and four strange-looking wild animals crawled out of the sea. The first animal was a lion that had eagle’s wings, the second was a bear raised up on one shoulder, the third was a leopard with four heads and wings of a bird. Afterwards came out a fourth beast, extremely powerful, and so ugly and frightening that Daniel could not describe it except that it had brass claws and iron teeth. It had ten horns until a little horn uprooted 3 horns as it grew taller than the others and had eyes and a mouth like a man. It was fearful and terrible and what it didn’t devour it stomped into the ground. It was the scariest thing Daniel had ever seen in his life.
The angel in Daniel’s dream, without foretelling any names, said the beasts represented four empires that would rise to power in the earth. In the king’s dream, Daniel explained that King Nebuchadnezzar was the statue’s head of gold. He continued to say that following Babylon would come an empire inferior to it. After that a sequence of increasingly inferior empires as seen by the metals that grew less and less precious and simultaneously stronger and less flexible. A later vision to Daniel shows that the Medo-Persian Empire was chosen to follow, and then Grecia, and after Grecia that “fierce” empire (chapter 8).
Using Daniel’s visions and history books, we can fully interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and understand that the chest and arms of silver foretold the Medes and Persians, the thighs of brass indicated the Greeks, and the legs of iron represented Rome.
(To be continued.)
Babylonian Empire......... Colonial America.................Monarchy
Medo-Persian Empire..... Constitutional America....... Republic
Greek Empire.................. 20th Century America........ Democracy
Roman Empire................ Post WWII America.....Corrupted Republic
Holy Roman Empire....... Christian America................ Papacy
Reformation.................... Latter Rain..........................Theocracy
“That which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Eccl. 1:9
In the book of Daniel exists two dreams that parallel each other. They both show world events down to the end of time. They delineate the overall world situation as the Great Controversy takes place at the world’s center stage.
King Nebuchadnezzar woke with a start. It was an alarming dream that he believed to portend evil. In his dream he saw a statue of a man and his attention was drawn to it from the top of its crown down to its toes. Its head was of gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of part iron and clay, as it were crude iron ore. Then after studying this statue, he saw a boulder, as if dislodged from a mountain, hit the metallic man at the feet. The statue disintegrated into dust and blew away like dust in the wind and the boulder became a mountain that filled the whole earth. The king had to know what this was all about.
Daniel had a different vision, yet describing the same events. The wind was fearful and the surf was rough and four strange-looking wild animals crawled out of the sea. The first animal was a lion that had eagle’s wings, the second was a bear raised up on one shoulder, the third was a leopard with four heads and wings of a bird. Afterwards came out a fourth beast, extremely powerful, and so ugly and frightening that Daniel could not describe it except that it had brass claws and iron teeth. It had ten horns until a little horn uprooted 3 horns as it grew taller than the others and had eyes and a mouth like a man. It was fearful and terrible and what it didn’t devour it stomped into the ground. It was the scariest thing Daniel had ever seen in his life.
The angel in Daniel’s dream, without foretelling any names, said the beasts represented four empires that would rise to power in the earth. In the king’s dream, Daniel explained that King Nebuchadnezzar was the statue’s head of gold. He continued to say that following Babylon would come an empire inferior to it. After that a sequence of increasingly inferior empires as seen by the metals that grew less and less precious and simultaneously stronger and less flexible. A later vision to Daniel shows that the Medo-Persian Empire was chosen to follow, and then Grecia, and after Grecia that “fierce” empire (chapter 8).
Using Daniel’s visions and history books, we can fully interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and understand that the chest and arms of silver foretold the Medes and Persians, the thighs of brass indicated the Greeks, and the legs of iron represented Rome.
(To be continued.)
posted by David | 3:16 AM
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