Overview
The ultimate purpose of this article series is to identify the Beast of Revelation and the Mark of the Beast. The Beast cannot be identified from Revelation alone. One article identifies the Beast as the evil horn in Daniel 7. Therefore, it is mainly identified from Daniel.
Daniel 2 does not mention the Antichrist, who is so prominent in the later visions, but it provides a broad outline of history, which serves as the framework for interpreting Daniel’s later prophecies. Daniel’s visions are parallel, meaning that Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 11 describe the same events with different symbols and emphases. Daniel 2 divides history into six ages:
It identifies the first (the head of gold) as the ancient Babylonian Empire but does not identify the next three Silver, Bronze, and Iron kingdoms.
The fifth is a divided kingdom, a period when multiple kingdoms exist concurrently.
The sixth age is Christ’s eternal kingdom, in which not a trace of the current world order will be found. The stone, which becomes a great mountain, describes Christ’s return.
Purpose
| The ultimate purpose of this article series is to identify the Beast of Revelation and the Mark of the Beast. |
Revelation symbolizes the Antichrist as a Beast coming up from the Sea (Rev 13:1-2). It cannot be identified from Revelation alone. As this article series will show, Revelation’s Beast and Daniel’s evil horn in Daniel 7 symbolize that same Antichrist. Therefore, we are able to identify the Antichrist from Daniel’s prophecies.
| Daniel 2 gives an outline of history that serves as framework for interpreting Daniel’s later prophecies. |
The prophecy in Daniel 2 does not mention the Antichrist but provides a broad outline of history, from Daniel’s time until God’s eternal kingdom. Daniel’s later prophecies say less and less about that outline but focus more and more on the Antichrist. Daniel 2, therefore, serves as the framework for interpreting Daniel’s later prophecies.
The vision in Daniel 9 is an exception, for while the other prophecies in Daniel deal with all nations and all time, Daniel 9 deals only with the nation of Israel and the 490 years allocated to her. (see here).
| Daniel 2’s vision divides history into six ages. |
In a dream, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of the statue of a man consisting of different metal parts (Dan 2:32-33), dividing history into six ages: The first is the Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC), followed by three empires that will rule one after the other. Then will follow a divided kingdom, a period when multiple kingdoms exist concurrently. In the sixth and final phase, the world will again be ruled by a single king, but it will be God’s eternal kingdom, ruled by Jesus Christ.
| The first is the ancient Babylonian Empire, but Daniel 2 does not identify the next three empires. |
1. Head of Gold – Daniel identifies this first kingdom as Nebuchadnezzar’s. However, since it will be followed by “another kingdom” (Dan 2:37-39), it symbolizes the entire Babylonian Empire. [Show More]
2. Breast and Arms of Silver – Another but inferior kingdom will follow after the Babylonian Empire (Dan 2:39).
3. Belly and Thighs of Bronze – “Another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth” (Dan 2:32, 39).
4. Legs of Iron – “A fourth kingdom as strong as iron … will crush and break all these in pieces” (Dan 2:40).
Daniel 2 explicitly identifies the first kingdom as the Babylonian Empire, but none of the others. Daniel 7, which describes the same four empires, followed by the divided kingdom and the eternal kingdom, also does not identify any empire by name. On the other hand, Daniel 8 uses two animals (a ram and a goat) to symbolize two of the empires and names them explicitly as “Media and Persia” and “Greece” (Dan 8:20-21). One of the later articles in this series identifies the four kingdoms by comparing the animals in Daniel 7 and 8 (see here).
| The fifth is a divided kingdom, a period when multiple kingdoms exist concurrently. |
The statue’s iron legs are followed by its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay, symbolizing “a divided kingdom” (Dan 2:33, 41). In other words, during the first four empires, a single supreme king rules, but during the “divided kingdom,” different kings rule different parts. They will attempt to “combine with one another” through intermarriage but will fail (Dan 2:43).
| The iron parts symbolize strength, and the clay parts weakness. |
Some propose that the clay represents a spiritual authority. But the prophecy says: “Some of the (divided) kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle” (Dan 2:42). Therefore, while the iron parts will be strong, as iron symbolizes “toughness” (Dan 2:41), and as the fourth (iron) kingdom will be as “strong as iron” (Dan 2:40), the brittle clay symbolizes weakness.
| The ten toes emphasize that many kingdoms will exist during this phase. |
When Daniel recited Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he said nothing about toes. He only mentioned the feet. But he referred to the toes when he explained the dream (Dan 2:33, 41-42). He said that “the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery” (Dan 2:42). That seems to make the toes equivalent to the feet.
Daniel 7 also predicts that a divided kingdom (symbolized by ten horns growing out of the fourth animal) will follow after four kingdoms (symbolized as four animals). The ten toes in Daniel 2 are parallel to the ten horns in Daniel 7.
| The ‘divided kingdom’ continues the fourth kingdom in a fragmented form. |
In both Daniel 2 and 7, the fourth kingdom continue into the divided kingdom, but in a fragmented form:
Daniel 2 symbolizes the fourth kingdom as iron, and the divided kingdom contains iron fragments.
Daniel 7 symbolizes the divided kingdom as horns growing out of the fourth animal.
| The sixth age is Christ’s eternal kingdom, in which not a trace of the current world order will be found. |
Then “a stone was cut out without hands” (Dan 2:34; cf. Dan 2:45), meaning supernaturally. Similarly, in Daniel 8, the evil horn “will be broken without human agency” (Dan 8:25).
It “struck the statue on its feet” (Dan 2:34), symbolizing the very last part of the kingdoms of this world.
It “crushed” “the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold … all at the same time” (Dan 2:34-35). Although the first four empires dominate one after the other, remnants of each continue to exist until the eternal kingdom is set up. Only then will they all be fully destroyed at the same time and disappear without a trace. [Show More]
| The stone is God’s eternal kingdom. It will be on Earth and ruled by Jesus Christ. |
The stone “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan 2:35). It is sometimes said that the stone symbolizes Jesus Christ, but it represents the eternal kingdom:
“The God of heaven will set up a kingdom … it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms” (Dan 2:44). [Show More]
This kingdom “will never be destroyed” (Dan 2:44). The parallel vision in Daniel 7 refers to it as the “everlasting kingdom” (Dan 7:27). [Show More]
God will establish this kingdom on earth (Dan 2:35) and rule it through the Son of Man. [Show More]
| The stone, which becomes a great mountain, describes Christ’s return. |
Some argue that the “kingdom” that God will set up (Dan 2:44) does not refer to a physical kingdom but to “the kingdom of God” that Jesus often mentioned and which refers to a spiritual reality that always exists, also today. [Show More]
However, once the stone has crushed the statue, all traces of the previous age have been obliterated (Dan 2:35; cf. Dan 2:44), all people will serve Christ (Dan 2:35; Dan 7:14, 27), and the Antichrist will cease to exist (Dan 7:26). Since none of these are true today, that stone lies in our future.
Furthermore, Daniel 12 interprets the stone crushing the statue as “the end of time” and “the end of the age” (Dan 12:4, 13). At that time, the dead in Christ will be raised to life (e.g., Dan 12:13). Since the dead will be resurrected when Christ returns (e.g., John 5:25), “the end” in Daniel 2 is Christ’s return.
Therefore, the stone that becomes a great mountain describes God taking full control of the earth, including judging the dead and rewarding His bond-servants (Rev 11:18).
Principles from Daniel 2
The following are some of the principles we can take from Daniel 2 and apply to Daniel’s other prophecies:
| Prophecy describes the kingdoms as worldwide but this is relative to God’s people. |
In the Old Testament, these four empires dominated the world of the Nation of Israel. The prophecies of the Book of Revelation also seem to describe the whole world but could be interpreted as describing the Christian world specifically. For example, when Revelation says that the whole world will worship the Beast (Rev 13:4, 8), that might exclude the Muslim world.
| Visions are Parallel. Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 11 describe the same events with different symbols and emphases. |
For example, Daniel 2 and 7 both describe the kingdom that “will never be destroyed” (Dan 2:44; 7:14). This implies that the visions in the Book of Revelation are also parallel.
| Mountains symbolize kingdoms. |
The stone that struck the statue was cut out of a mountain (Dan 2:45) and itself “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan 2:35) (cf. Dan 2:34, 44). There are, therefore, two mountains in Daniel 2, both symbolizing kingdoms.
| Wikipedia’s page on Daniel 2 describes it as fiction, but Daniel 2 shows that God knows the future. |
In academic circles, which do not accept the possibility of miracles, such as knowledge of the future, Daniel was written after the ‘prophesied’ events that can be verified with history. Specifically, they say that Daniel was composed during the second century BC.
However, the accuracy with which the Book of Daniel foretells the events after the second century BC, as will be shown by later articles in this series (see here), gives great assurance that God knows the future. For example:
Daniel 9 accurately predicted the coming of the Messiah in the first century, two centuries after the Critics say Daniel was written.
Daniel 7 accurately predicted how the Roman Empire would fall in the fifth century after Christ (see here).
Other Articles
Articles in this series
Daniel 2: The foundation of all prophecy – Read [Show More]
Daniel 7: Four Beasts and Eleven Horns – Read [Show More]
Daniel 7: The fourth beast is Roman. – Read [Show More]
Daniel 7: What is the 11th horn? – Read [Show More]
Daniel 8: What is the evil horn? – Read [Show More]
Daniel 8: Where the horn comes from – Read [Show More]
Daniel 11: Who is the vile person? – Read [Show More]
Antiochus IV does not fit Daniel’s Antichrist. – Read [Show More]
The Dragon is the Roman Empire. – Read [Show More]
Revelation’s Beast is Daniel’s 11th Horn. [Show More]
The Throne of the Beast is Christian Religious Authority. [Show More]
The Beast’s fatal wound is its sixth head. (Rev 13:3-4) [Show More]