The prophetic chain part 1

To understand how infallible the word of God is you must be able to see that what it says is true, particularly when it deals with prophetic events.  This may not seem to have anything to do with the theme of this month’s posts, which are dealing with the reformers, but as the prophetic topic unfolds you will see clearly how it ties into the reformation.  It will more than likely take a couple posts but follow along for it is astonishing.
Why is it that the previous post was so important to establish God’s time?  The answer is because the Bible declares that there is an entity that thinks to change “times and laws”. (Daniel 7:25)  This change by man brings confusion when trying to study the word of God.  We must look into scripture and history to find out who this entity is.
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Daniel 2
Our prophetic chain will begin with Daniel 2 where Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has a dream.  Nebuchadnezzar was not only unable to understand the meaning of the dream but he couldn’t even remember the dream.  All he knew was that it troubled him greatly and after getting no answers from his wise men he orders them to be killed.  Daniel, who is among this number, is now sentenced to be put to death and implores Nebuchadnezzar to not act so hastily but give him and his companions time to pray to the God of heaven to reveal the dream and its interpretation.  God indeed revealed both.  The dream is thus revealed in Daniel 2:30-34, which depicts a large image with a head of gold, arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay.  Verse 38-41 reveals that the head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar which represents Babylon and after Babylon three other great kingdoms shall arise but when you get to the toes the iron and clay is mixed and the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

Daniel 7
The next link in the prophetic chain is Daniel 7, which is a repeat of Daniel 2 but enlarging on the information while linking it with different figures or symbols.  Verses 4-8 state:
The First Beast - a lion with eagle’s wings is depicted.  The wings are plucked though and the lion is lifted from the earth and made to stand like a man.
The Second Beast – a bear which was raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth and was told to devour much flesh.
The Third Beast – a leopard with four wings on its back and four heads, which was given great dominion.
The Fourth Beast – was diverse from all the rest it was dreadful with iron teeth and devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet.  It had 10 horns on its head.  Among these 10 horns a little horn came up and plucked out three of the existing horns.  This little horn had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great or pompous words.
The Bible reveals the answers to the code.  Daniel 7:17 declares that these great beasts are four kings and that the 10 horns represent ten kings in verse 24.  Daniel is then given more insight into the fourth beast, particularly the little horn that arose from it.
The Little Horn – in verses 21-25 we see that this little horn makes war or kills the saints, he speaks great or pompous words against the most high, thinks to change times and laws, and the saints will have to endure for, “time and times and the dividing of time”.

Both dreams are one and the same, four metals, and four beasts.  The metals represent kingdoms the beasts represent kingdoms.  When the images were shown to Daniel he was receiving a prophetic vision of the kingdoms to come.  Their characteristics were laid out before him and in turn for us as well.  Now let us take a trip into the past.  Much of what I am telling you can easily be searched and studied out using “google books” to search the history and characteristics of these kingdoms.  The Bible said in Daniel two that the first kingdom represented Nebuchadnezzar and thus Babylon.  This is paralleled to the lion in Daniel 7.  When you look into history the lion was a symbol for Babylon, great statues of the lion decorated the kingdom.  This lion stood as a man like that great Nebuchadnezzar.  The second kingdom that came after Babylon was Medo-Persia, which was represented by the silver arms of the statue or the bear with the three ribs in its mouth.  The three ribs represented the three geographical areas that Medo-Persia conquered; Greece, Lydia, and Babylon.  The reason why the Bear was raised on one side was because Persia had more authority and was higher or greater than the Medes.  Next came the thighs of brass correlating with the leopard with four heads and four wings.  This leopard represents Greece led by Alexander the Great who conquered swiftly like a leopard and devoured many kingdoms.  The four heads and wings represent the four generals that would divide his conquests and rule after Alexander’s sudden early death.  The fourth metal of iron connected with the fourth dreadful beast is undoubtedly Rome.  Rome devoured and stamped much.  Ruling with a rod of iron literally; by their technology of the new iron sword.

As for the toes and ten horns and the little horn that arises among them . . . well that will have to wait until another post.  For now study a little of history and go back to the word of God and test these things.  Do not take my word for it but search for yourselves.

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