Global SITREP E9-21: End of the Road Part IV

28 April 2021: It would be quite the task to accurately count the number of times Eschatology Today has made reference to the ḥălôm or dream of prophetic meaning that so obsessed Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. It was an obsession so much so that that the Nebuchadnezzar issued an edict to his royal guards to kill all of the magicians, sorcerers, soothsayers and false prophets in the Babylonian Empire because they could not complete the utterly impossible task of telling the king what it was that he had dreamed and the meaning of that dream. 

There is doubt God had caused this dream to come upon Nebuchadnezzar because it served His purposes in any number of ways, but importantly, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 46:10 - "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'" 

Daniel 2 is where the prophet Daniel begins to tell us the end from the beginning. It's all right there in plain text what the end will be in these latter days. Daniel asked Nebuchadnezzar for some time and time was given to him. Immediately returning to his house and informing his Judean companions Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah that they all join in prayer in asking God in heaven to reveal what was unknowable to them about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. God's response was immediate and given to Daniel in a vision that night, to which Daniel awaoke afterwards and began thankfully praising God for His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience and for making known to him what was unknowable to any man.

And Daniel rose and approached the commander of Nebuchadnezzar's guard, saying don't kill the wise men of babylon, take me to Nebuchadnezzar and I will tell him his dream and its meaning. Fortunately for us, the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's prophetic dream has a bit more meaning for us than it did for that ancient king, aside from assuaging his king-sized ego. So Daniel began telling Nebuchadnezzar that the one God in heaven had revealed to the king details about the future, even into the last days of the rule of men on the earth and that none of the wise men of the empire could possibly know what God had given to Nebuchadnezzar in his vision.  

From Daniel's description artists have long drawn representations of the human-form statue seen at the head of this SITREP. But the representation has always been a simple, static image, whereas what Nebuchadnezzar had actually dreamed was like a video of the future after him. Again, this vision came from God so we can only imagine how awesome it must have been. The conclusion was an illustration the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, as a stone cut without human hands to establish the Kingdom of God that would endure forevermore afterwards. Daniel also told Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the great statue he saw in his videographic dream about the future, that it was one of both great splendor and of terror. The terror was such that Nebuchadnezzar would have slaughtered all in searching for its meaning.

Daniel's interpretation revealed the head of gold kingdom (Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire) was followed by an inferior kingdom represented as a chest and arms of silver (Medo-Persian Empire), which was followed by a third kingdom represented as a belly and thighs of bronze (Alexander's Macedonian-Greek Empire), and followed further by a fourth legs of iron (Roman Empire), and finally a fifth consisting of feet and toes as a mixture or iron and ceramic clay.

A Fifth Kingdom

Daniel's interpretation details how the Roman kingdom would divide ("that kingdom will break in pieces"), and as we know from history the Roman Empire indeed broke in two halves, Rome in the west and Byzantium in the east. Yet even this while represented as two legs is still the fourth in the line of succession of earthly gentile kingdoms. 

Daniel then focuses on the mixed iron and ceramic of the feet and toes and how ("the kingdom shall be divided") which represents both Rome and Byzantium further divided into individual countries and kingdoms that exist where Rome and Byzantium has previously existed. Collectively, the iron and ceramic toes are a fifth kingdom; the ultimate and last human-ruled kingdom of consequence in Scripture. 

In a further detail Daniel reveals about the feet and toes, "they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with ceramics." This, for us, is an exquisitely important detail. It describes a society in each these countries of different ethnicities which will not adhere to one another. What is this saying about the elites in the European Union who have sought a unified super-state since the end of World War II. Will their efforts succeed in such a creation? No, according to the Lord's prophetic word, that continuing effort will not ultimately succeed. 

The so-called revived Roman Empire will not be. What will be is what Scripture found in Daniel 7:7-8 foretells will be. The ten toes representing ten kings or nations, three of which will be absorbed in the sudden rise of an eleventh king or nation, the Antichrist's kingdom, and to whom the other seven will pledge their kingdoms. 

These are the sum of the seven heads and ten horns foretold in Revelation 13:1. Are these ten the descendants of ancient Rome and Byzantium? Yes, there is no doubt about that, otherwise the consistency of a single human form from a single head down to ten toes in Nebuchadnezzar's vision would be erroneous, and there is no error in the Lord's revealed prophetic word.