The Basic prophetic timeline

Understanding how Daniel and Revelation work together is a crucial part of understanding Bible prophecy and who is the antichrist, and in the following studies you will see how Daniel helps unlock the book of Revelation. It would be advisable to read Daniel 2 before beginning as this gives the basic prophetic timeline from Babylon to the second coming of Christ. In the book of Daniel, the principle of repetition and enlargement is used. Daniel 2 gives the whole basic prophetic timeline of history in brief and then each chapter enlarges with more detail and information etc. Unlocking Daniel’s symbols makes the prophecies of Revelation come clear.

In Daniel 2, we find a king who dreamed of world events that spanned over 2,500 years. Those events have come to pass with such precision that only the hand of God could have been involved. It is a prophecy that’s almost been totally fulfilled. Daniel 2:1 says: “In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.”

This was the king who ruled the great Babylonian Empire 600 years before Christ and who built the Hanging Gardens which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which seemed of great significance, but when he awoke, he could not remember what he had dreamt. So he called his wise men who claimed to see into the future and asked them to tell what he had dreamt. When they admitted that they could not, Nebuchadnezzar condemned them to death.

Young Daniel, though a prisoner in Babylon, was counted among the “wise men” for his gifted intelligence and understanding. When the king’s captain came to execute Daniel, he asked for time to pray for God to reveal the dream which of course God did. Then Daniel, taking no credit to himself, went before Nebuchadnezzar and told the king that no mortal man could reveal the dream. “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has revealed ... what will be in the latter days.” Daniel 2:28. The dream starts with Nebuchadnezzar and marches through history to God’s final kingdom.

The visionSo Daniel told the king what he had dreamed: “You, O king, were watching: and behold, a great image! This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35.

Head of Gold - BabylonThe King was excited. “That’s exactly what I saw! But Daniel, what does it mean?” Daniel continued: “You, O King ... are this head of GOLD.” Daniel 2:37-38. The Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar (which made more lavish use of gold than any kingdom since) was secure as the dominant world power from 605 B.C. to 538 B.C., but he was to be overthrown by a kingdom represented in Daniel 2:32 as “the breast and arms Chest of Silver - Medo-Persiaof SILVER.” In Daniel 5:28, the next world ruling power is named, the joint empire of the Medes and the Persians. Again a fitting symbol, the two arms joined at the chest to show two kingdoms being the Medes and Persians. They ruled the world for two centuries, from 538 B.C. to 331 B.C., but they also were overthrown by a third kingdom.

Belly of Brass - GreeceThis third kingdom, depicted in verse 32 as the “belly and thighs of BRONZE,” was the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great which was taken over by his four Generals after he died. And what did Alexander’s men wear into battle? Bronze - Bronze breastplates, bronze helmets, bronze shields, bronze swords. Once again, God chose a fitting symbol to describe the kingdom that would rule the world from 331 B.C. to 168 B.C.

Legs of Iron - RomeBut history doesn’t end with this third kingdom. Greece did not rule the world forever, for there was a fourth metal after the gold of Babylon, and the silver of the Medes and Persians, and the bronze of Greece. The next kingdom is represented by IRON. Daniel 2:40 says, “The fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron.” The iron monarchy of Rome was the last world kingdom, which in 168 B.C. overthrew Feet of Iron and Clay - Divided Europethe Greeks. Just as legs form the longest part of the body, Rome had the longest reign of any other of the world powers. For more than 500 years, half a millennium, Rome was invincible. But what did the Bible predict would happen next? Daniel 2:41-43 says, “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom.”

History confirms that this seemingly unconquerable Roman Empire crumbled from within and without. From within wealth poured into Rome through taxes collected from all over the world and the simple Roman life was replaced with luxury and pomp. The political world brewed with corruption, crime infiltrated the streets, the work ethic was lost, sexual immorality was rampant. And as the mighty Roman Empire weakened from within, Rome was attacked from without and divided into ten smaller kingdoms.

Second coming and the Final KingdomToday we are living right down in the toenails of history! Every part of this prophecy has come to pass except one. Daniel told the king in verses 34 and 44, “You watched while a STONE was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ... The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. ... It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” That Rock cut out without hands symbolizes Jesus Christ who will come to establish His everlasting kingdom.

God through the prophet Daniel foretold the break-up of the Roman Empire into ten toes of the Image, representing the ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided when barbarian tribes carved up the empire.
The Ten Barbarian tribes and their modern day names
Anglo-Saxons: England Lombards: Italy Heruli: Destroyed
Alamanni: Germany Suevi: Portugal Vandals: Destroyed
Burgundians: Switzerland Visigoths: Spain Ostrogoths: Destroyed
Franks: France

These last three have no modern names for they originally took over parts of the Roman Empire but were eventually destroyed, “plucked up by the roots” as Daniel 7:8, 20, and 24 foretold. Daniel 2:41-43 says, ten toes, ten kingdoms, and just as IRON and CLAY won’t mix together, so the ten kingdoms will not be joined. No matter how many battles are fought, no matter how many Hitler’s or Napoleons or Charlemagne’s seek to conquer, the Bible says the world will never be united under one ruler again.

Only one kingdom is left to be established. Soon Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages, who paid a remarkable visit to this planet 2000 years ago, is going to pay us another visit. Jesus is going to make quite an entrance the second time. The heavens will rumble with a great shout as the trumpet blasts and angels sing. Then Jesus and the angelic host will swoop down in a cloud of glory to gather all His faithful ones!

Daniel 7 enlarges on Daniel 2
How do we know this? Remember that Daniel 2 gives us the whole basic time line from Babylon to beyond the second coming of Christ. Keeping that in mind, Daniel 2 informs us the fourth kingdom is the legs and feet of IRON with ten toes (divided Europe) and Daniel 7 says the fourth beast has IRON teeth and ten horns (divided Europe). In both chapters we have a consistent theme and we are most significantly told that these represent the “fourth kingdom” on earth and that they both “break in pieces.” The Bible is not inconsistent and therefore this fourth kingdom is one and the same. Starting with the iron legs:

Daniel 2:40 “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.”
Daniel 7:7 “…and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.”
Daniel 7:23 “…The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.”

So inescapably did Daniel’s prophetic portrayal correspond to its historical fulfilment that the great English historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), though not a Christian or Bible believer himself, wittingly or unwittingly used Scriptural language in his monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire when he wrote: “The images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the IRON monarchy of Rome.” Historians mark 168 B.C. as the starting point of the “IRON Monarchy of Rome.” On June 22 at the battle of Pydna, the Greeks fell to the Romans who ruled the then known world to about 476 A.D. Let’s give one more example using the first kingdom.

Lion on the Ishtar gate of BabylonSince Daniel 7:23 tells us “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth” and Daniel 7:17 says “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings…”, then the first beast is of course the first kingdom which Daniel 7:4 says, “The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings…” In Daniel 2:37-38, speaking of the metal man, Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, “You, O King … are this head of GOLD.” This lion on the Ishtar gate from the ancient ruins of Babylon is one of many and is not coincidence. The evidence is overwhelming from both the Bible and history that Daniel 7 is indeed enlarging on Daniel 2 and so on.

So what does this all tell us?
Again using the principle of repetition and enlargement, we now know from Daniel 2:37-38 that Babylon is the first kingdom. “You, O King … are this head of GOLD.” From Daniel 5:28; 8:1-7, 8:20, we know that Medo-Persia conquered Babylon. Daniel 5:28 “Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 8:20 “The ram which you sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.”

From Daniel 8:1-7, 21 we know Greece conquered Medo-Persia. Daniel 8:21 “And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” God did not name the fourth kingdom directly as He knew the Bible would be in the hands of a very powerful Church for a very long period of time and would be prone to editing if they knew that they were described in these prophetic books of the Bible. However, there is no mistaking that history reveals Rome conquered Greece and is the fourth kingdom and is described as having IRON legs (Daniel 2:33), IRON teeth (Daniel 7:7) and that Rome is known as the IRON monarchy that fell and was divided into ten kingdoms. (Daniel 7:23-24)

APOLOGY: If you belong to the Church we are about to discuss, please allow me to apologize up front for what may hurt or offend you. We very much love people from all denominations and have no vendetta against any Church as this would be contrary to Christian teaching, but this truth has to be preached. If it were not in God's Word we would be silent about it, but it is Bible truth and the truth of who is the antichrist must be revealed or many will perish in the end times.