Ever since sin entered the human race there has been a problem with government. We
often hear the saying, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”14 The Bible records
that it did not take long for sinful decadence to set in. Adam and Eve sinned and were driven
from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). In the famous story of two of their sons, Cain and Abel,
Cain displeased God by the type of sacrifice he offered. He killed his brother Abel in a jealous
fit after God accepted Abel’s sacrifice. Then God sent him away from the rest of the family. But
as time went on15, Cain actually built the first city! He named it Enoch, after his son (Genesis
4:1-17). But was this city a great achievement, or was it something evil? Given his background,
and God’s will for him to be separated from others, it is clear that it was an act of rebellion.
There were evidently other rebels by then also who were attracted to his project.
The same thing happened after the Flood of Noah’s time. Once again, the survivors of
the Flood were told by God to spread out and replenish the earth. For some time they did what
God wanted them to do, but by the time of Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, there was a new
rebellion against God’s will. Nimrod was a mighty warrior and builder of several cities (Genesis
10:8-11). One of these was Nineveh, which would later become the capital of the Assyrian
Empire. Another of his cities was Babylon, which eventually became the capital of the
Babylonian Empire.
Rise of Satan’s Final Empire
Nimrod‘s goal was to gather people together and rule over them. He was called ―a
mighty hunter before the Lord‖ (Genesis 10:9). In the context of what he was doing, this was not
just a biographical note of his ability to hunt animals, but a condemnation of his desire to hunt
men and turn them from the Lord. He led them in rebellion against God‘s will to migrate and
repopulate the earth.
Nimrod was probably still governing Babylon when the people there built a great tower
(Genesis 11). It was a monument to their own achievements and evidently a place where
astrology was practiced and false gods were worshipped. The Lord confused their languages so
they had to stop their work and were scattered from that place.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and Daniel’s Visions
Hundreds of years later, Nimrod‘s kingdom-building vision was revived by
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and ruler of the Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar had a
mysterious dream and did not know what it meant. His magicians, astrologers and fortunetellers
could not help him interpret it (Daniel 2:31-35). Daniel was one of the captives who had been
carried off from Israel to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar called for Daniel to see if he could explain
the dream to him.
First God showed Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed about a huge statue made of
various kinds of metals. The head was gold, the chest and arms were silver, the waist and thighs
were brass, the legs were iron, and the feet were iron, mixed with clay. A stone came out of
heaven, landing on the feet, and causing the whole statue to topple and break into pieces. God
then showed Daniel what the dream meant.
Since Nebuchadnezzar was the head of the Babylonian empire (which virtually ruled the
then-known world), he was the head of gold. But the prophecy meant that another empire would
arise that would overtake them. There were scores of other, minor kingdoms. Some of them were
small empires that ruled over a certain number of countries for a period of time. But what
Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream were world empires. From the time of Nebuchadnezzar until
now there would only be four of them, including his Babylon. The second empire was silver,
meaning that it was inferior to the first in some ways, and it had two parts, like two arms (the
Medes and the Persians). Then there was another empire, symbolized by brass waist and thighs
(Greece), and a fourth Empire, described as legs of iron (Rome). The feet of the statue were
made of iron and clay. This fifth and final empire has not yet come to power. (See Appendix C –
Harmony of Prophecy Chart.)
The Babylonians gave way to the Medo-Persians, the Medo-Persians gave way to the
Greeks, and the Greeks gave way to the Romans. It was the Romans who were in power at the
time of Christ. There had been almost an unbroken succession of world empires from
Nebuchadnezzar until the time of Christ. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream indicated that one empire
would be replaced by another. There is still one empire that has not yet come.
After the Roman Empire ceased to exist, how many world empires have there been? Can
you think of any? Not really. There have been some serious attempts. Mohammed, Charlemagne,
Napoleon, and Hitler all tried to conquer the world in their times, but none of them succeeded.
The Bible says there are only four of these world empires, and then a final form of the fourth
one–symbolized by the feet made partly of iron and partly of clay.
What would the iron and clay mean? It is a Revived Roman Empire–partly of the old
iron of the ancient Roman Empire, and partly of clay, something weaker and brittle. It would
include some of the old areas, but it would not be as strong and monolithic as the old Roman
Empire. When the stone comes out of Heaven and lands on these feet they will break. The stone
from Heaven represents the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Kings. When he comes
he will destroy the final evil empire and set up the Millennial Kingdom.
Later, when Nebuchadnezzar was gone, and Belshazzar was king of Babylon, Daniel had
a dream of his own (Daniel 7). He called it a night vision. It was about four great beasts
representing the same world empires that Nebuchadnezzar had seen, but in a different form. This
dream was given to confirm what Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream: that there would be a
succession of four empires, and that they would become successively more fierce. The first one,
symbolic of Babylon, was a lion with wings of an eagle. The second was a bear. It would
correspond to the Medo-Persian period. A third beast was a leopard with four wings, prefiguring
the Greek Empire, and its dissolution into four parts. The fourth beast was a terrifying creature
with iron teeth. This one would represent powerful Rome. It had ten horns, symbolizing the
still-future form of the old Roman Empire in the End Times. Daniel also saw a brief sequence of
the rise of an evil world ruler and his overthrow by The Lord, the ―Ancient of Days.‖
A couple of years later Daniel had another vision featuring different animals (Daniel 8:1-
12). The activities of these animals added detail to the future existence of Medo-Persia and
Greece. In this vision there was also an individual who was extremely powerful. He came on the
scene at the end. This is a picture of the end-time dictator. The first specific teachings about him
are from Daniel, chapters 7 to 9. Chapter 9 gives details of his treaty with Israel, which he breaks
in the middle. He will then set up a statue of himself to be worshiped in the Temple (Daniel 9:20-
27).
The interesting thing to notice here is that, in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, there are ten toes
on the feet, and in Daniel’s dream, the final form of a world government had ten horns. So the
number ten is very significant in the last form of world governments that is still future.
We are looking for another empire that will come out of ten nations and then become a
world power.
