A COMMENTARY ON DANIEL TWO & SEVEN

Daniel 2

31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” 

Daniel’s Interpretation

36 “This was the dream; now we shall tell its interpretation before the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory; 38 and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. 

39 And after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. 41 And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43 And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. 44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.” 

Daniel 7

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. 2 Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

4 The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ 6 After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

7 After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts.

9 I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. 10 A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened.

11 Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. 12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. 

13 I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

15 As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. 16 I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: 

A Brief Explanation:

17 ‘These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’ 

19 Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet, 20 and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates. 

21 I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them 22 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. 

The Angel Elaborates:

23 Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. 24 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. 25 And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. 26 But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’ 28 At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself. 

The Terrestrial Kingdom Of God

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Da 2:44). The interpretation of the dream is to be compared to the dream itself. “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (2:34,35).

(1) The above comparison shows that the kingdoms crushed in verse 44 refer to all the kingdoms in the entire image and not, as is commonly supposed, to the divided kingdom of the ten kings. 

(2) In unanimous agreement with the expectations of all the OT prophets, “the kingdom of God is presented here as an earthly kingdom, not an intangible kingdom in some elusive celestial sphere.” Recall Micah 4, Isaiah 2:1-4, 25:6-10, 49:23, Zech 14:9-21.

(3) The terrestrial kingdom of God comes in the days of the ten kings. This is exactly what Dan 2:44 says. So immediately at the fall of the fourth beast, the last dominant world power, “the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven are given over to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and ‘all the peoples, nations, and men of every language’ and all the dominions serve and obey Him” (Dan 7:14,27). We see in the more detailed prediction of chapter 7 (vss. 11&12) that it is only the oppressive fourth beast that comes to an immediate end. The other nations it has dominated are granted an extension of life so that they may serve the One like the son of man and His holy ones until the new kingdom, in its expansion, would completely cover the earth.

(4) The idea that God’s kingdom was to gradually expand until it eventually enveloped the entire planet is clearly taught in OT prophecy. The Messianic kingdom might have begun with the birth of the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6,7); no doubt if there was a proper response. It could have come if the chosen people yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit at any time in the distant past. See Isa 60 for an excellent example. The kingdom of God in Zech 14:12-19 expands with the gradual destruction of enemy nations after a supernatural defeat of their armies (Zech 14:1-11). Hence, excluding the many variations, the physical and spiritual kingdom were to coincide, originally, as expected by the disciples (Acts 1:4-7). Not so in Christ’s eschatology. When Jesus borrowed the imagery that once represented the growing strength and majesty of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom (Mt 13:31,32 cf. Da 4:11,12,19-22), it was to illustrate how the spiritual kingdom of God would grow from a tiny seed of faith. He separated the physical and spiritual kingdom by an indefinite span of time — just as Daniel presents two advents, the first at the end of the Greek kingdom, the second at the end of the Roman.

(5) Christ updated all previous eschatons by introducing a revised eschatology that went far beyond anything else in the OT. The physical kingdom (to be established gradually on the earth) now comes instantly and immediately follows a catastrophic end of the age; at His second coming! But even this plan was modified slightly by Christ just a few days before His crucifixion. Jesus, then moved by a moment of deepest love for His followers, told His disciples these comforting words:

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Soon after this, in a prayer to His Father, Jesus expressed this same longing: “Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, in order that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me; for Thou didst love me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

Until now, a home in heaven was never before expressed. Jesus here altered the long established prophetic view of a glorious reign forever on earth. In this section, we explore the way events were to occur before this change took place. We read several well known passages in context, notice that nothing is said of heaven, and imagine what the words originally meant without the later revision.

Speaking of assembling all the righteous, Jesus said that: “He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Mt 24:31). Mark recorded the extent as: “From the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven” (Mk 13:27). This is an up-date on Isa 11:11,12; 27:12,13; 43:5-7; 49:10-12; 51:11. “And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out” (Lk 13:29,28 Mt 8:11,12). Picture the saints being gathered to Jerusalem as all the wicked are being gathered outside for judgment: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right side, and the goats on the left.” ... “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mt 25:31-33,46)... “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to His deeds” (Mt 16:27).

According to Daniel 7, a judgment involving books of record begins in heaven just before the close of time. We see here that the final act of judgment was to be at the return of Christ. Notice too that Christ was to take His seat immediately upon an earthly throne. Revelation updates this scenario and involves a 1000 year reign in heaven first. Then the New Jerusalem descends to earth. Before the resurrected wicked are judged, they attempt to attack the city.

Jesus repeatedly affirmed His plan that the terrestrial kingdom of God was to be established at His second coming. The wicked were to be removed by death from this kingdom on earth and the righteous were to remain. We continue to study Christ’s words in their context to give additional proof to this thesis.

Jesus likened the end of the world to a harvest in His parable of the wheat and the tares (Mt 13:24-30,36-43). Both the wicked and the righteous grow together until that time. The angels are the reapers and at the time of the harvest Christ gives them the command: “first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn” (vs. 30). So the wicked are ‘gathered out of His kingdom’ and cast into the furnace of fire (vss. 41-42). Then the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father (vs. 43). 

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth, and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:47-50). “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt 24:37-39). The parallel passage in Luke is quite illuminating: ... “they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Lk 17:27). Clearly, those taken away are the ones who are destroyed.

“I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left” (Lk 17:33-36). The disciples ask the expected question: Taken where Lord? Jesus replies: “Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered” (Lk 17:37). Again, those taken are taken by death. (Or perhaps taken away to death. See Prov 24:11).

Jeremiah records the Lord speaking of the wicked as grapes on the vine and as figs on the fig tree. Notice what happens to them. “At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,” declares the Lord, “I will surely snatch them away” (Jer 8:12,13). The wicked are also snatched away in Amos 3:12 (see NASB). We find these terms employed exclusively to describe death: either the death of men or of birds and animals — as in Jer 12:4.

THE FOUR BEASTS IDENTIFIED

The four world kingdoms symbolized as beasts (Dan 7) are the same four symbolized by metals (Dan 2). We now identify these kingdoms. This is easily done by comparing their descriptions with the two kingdoms specifically identified on the partial list of Dan 8. The comparative analysis that follows confirms the summary given in the table below.

RAISED BEAR
The bear, which is raised up on one side, corresponds perfectly with the two horned ram of chapter 8 which has one horn longer than the other. The symbolism employed clearly indicates a lopsided kingdom or a duality of powers. The ram is identified in 8:20 as the kings of Media and Persia. According to Daniel 5:28, Babylon was to be conquered by them. The symbolism also reflects the conquests of this dual empire. The ram is seen butting in three directions. The bear has three ribs in its mouth. Historically, the chief conquests of this twofold kingdom were three; Babylon (west), Lydia (north), and Egypt (south).

LEOPARD
The successor to Medo-Persia is identified as Greece in 8:21. Greece therefore is the four headed leopard beast.

There was no room for Greece to be a world power under Plan “A.” Instead, the people of God, if faithful to the covenant, would have conquered Greece. Zech 9:13 clearly tells us this, as R. Lucas paraphrases it: “The sons of Zion will be beating-up the sons of the Greeks.”

The representation of Greece by the third metal in the visionary statue is appropriate for two reasons:

1. Greeks were known for their bronze armor, and Ezekiel mentions Javan, (the Ionian Greeks) as merchants trading “vessels of bronze” for the merchandise of Tyre (Ezk 27:13).

2. Greeks became boastful of their knowledge and culture. They, thinking themselves as gold are here said to be like brass, a cheap imitation.

Fifty years after this glimpse of Greek supremacy, Greece entered their ‘Golden Age.’ They could have easily continued in the glory of that era and eventually become the dominant world power. Considering the great decadence that developed in Greece, and the conditional nature of prophecy, perhaps God was compelled to appoint another nation in their place (Jer 18:7-10). It would seem fitting then that when the time finally came for Persian control to end, God chose a people whom the Greeks dispised.

Historically, the successor of the Medo-Persian empire was the Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great and not Greece. Macedonia was another country just north of Greece. Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, united the various tribes of Macedonia and later, by long bloody battles, conquered most of Greece. Greece was not a conqueror but was conquered by a people the Greeks considered barbarians.

Although not the primary intent of the vision, Alexander the Great, a Macedonian, proclaimed himself to be the king of Greece and went on to fulfill the vision. All commentators over-look the most natural meaning of the text because of the close proximity between Greece and Macedonia and the remarkable fulfillment of so many details in this portion of the vision. For example, I quote one commentary on Daniel 7:6:

“Although the leopard is itself a swift creature, its natural agility seems inadequate to describe the amazing speed of Alexander’s conquest. The symbolic vision represented the animal with wings added to it, not two but four, denoting superlative speed. This symbol most fittingly describes the lightning speed with which Alexander and his Macedonians in less than a decade came into possession of the greatest empire the world had yet known. There is no other example in ancient times of such rapid movements of troops on so large and successful a scale.”

Notice the agreement between this symbol and the implied swiftness of the he-goat. The goat was able to move across the surface of the whole earth, and he did so without even touching the ground.

THE LEOPARD’S FOUR HEADS
That the third empire would enter a divided phase is seen in 8:22. Four minor kingdoms represented by the four horns of the he-goat were to arise from that empire. This too obviously parallels the four heads and four wings of the leopard.

The emphasis on the number four suggests that these four smaller kingdoms would continue to exist until the little horn power came on the scene. See 8:8,9,22,23. The accuracy of this part of the prediction fails terribly. When Alexander the Great died, his empire was ultimately divided into four major kingdoms. This took twenty years, a relatively short time. But within another twenty years, these were quickly reduced to three principle kingdoms plus a group of smaller states. If we reckon the much smaller Pergamum as the fourth kingdom, as is usually done, then we must also include the other fragments as well, thus increasing the total number beyond four. The emphasis of the prophecy therefore is here seen to elude the facts of history — All agree that the four kingdoms existed for a mere seven percent of the Hellenistic era.

It is interesting to note how the Interpreter’s Bible tries to explain this discrepancy. They write: “Since there were actually more than four divisions after Ipsus in 301, the number possibly comes from a stylistic preference for fours....Only four out of the many divisions were of any importance however and these do roughly represent the four quarters.” This attempt to minimize the problem is both amusing and instructive. An examination of the history and any map of the division reveals their gross approximation to be pure illusion.

THE NONDESCRIPT BEAST
The iron strong fourth kingdom in Daniel 2 clearly corresponds to the extremely powerful, exceedingly ferocious beast of Daniel 7. This nation is not identified within the text but has an impressive fulfillment in the Roman empire — if a careful examination of the symbols and its precise explanation is ignored. We now look closer.

Four heads and four horns represented the divided phase of Greece. Similarly, the ten horns on the nondescript beast is a division of Rome. Daniel 7:24 states that “out of this kingdom ten kings will arise.” In this stage, Daniel 2:41,42 refers to it as a “divided kingdom” where “some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.” Notice that the divided phase of this kingdom is always referred to in the singular. Though fragmented, these kings try to keep it from splitting (2:41-43). Daniel 2:44 gives a specific time for the setting up of the kingdom of God as “in the days of those kings.” According to Daniel 7:11, time ends at the end of the reign of the terrible fourth beast.

Thus, according to the prophecy, the Roman empire was to continue until the end of time. Then God was to bring it to an end on the day of final Judgment. We hold that what really occurs historically is not to be confused with what the text actually says. For this reason, we emphasize exact Biblical exegesis and historical discrepancies, leaving all inexact historical parallels and coincidences to other writers.

The way history worked out is counter to what the prophecy foretells. Rome was not divided from within by ten kings; it was over-run by barbaric tribes that came from distant territories.

Our view of the partitioning of Rome by ten kings and a Roman Antichrist was the orthodox position in the early Christian church before Rome actually fell. Irenaeus, the honored Church father and champion for truth in those early centuries, wrote about it with great confidence in his Against Heresies, 185 AD. This particular position was of course abandoned when history forced a reinterpretation of the text.

THE TIME OF FINAL JUDGMENT AND GOD’S TERRESTRIAL KINGDOM
The chronological details surrounding the last events are simple. As R.E. Neall puts it: “No two verses could be clearer and less subject to controversy, it seems, than Daniel 7:21 and 22:

“I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.”

Quite simply, the saints are overpowered by the horn until rescued by the judgment and given the kingdom. This simple theme is elaborated in more detail in three later verses:

25 ...”and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. 26 But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One.”

“We see here that it is the judgment that terminates the dominion of Antichrist and the persecution. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest in Dan 7 that the end of the 3 & 1/2 times would be marked merely by the wounding of the horn. Rather this period is said to end in his final demise, with no subsequent healing to follow” (Assize, Vol 1, No 1, p. 23). Neall’s observations are correct. His futurist conclusions however are cancelled by the 13th chapter of the final prophetic update: The book of Revelation.

To Daniel, ten kings were to arise at the end of the world and jointly rule the fourth world empire. The final end-time enemy was to overpower three of them and persecute God’s people during the last 3&1/2 years of world history. But, as we will later see in our study, (along with many other surprises), the book of Revelation has updated this prophecy magnifying the enemy to a line of blasphemous kings that reign for a much longer time, a figurative 3 & 1/2 years. There the end of this time period, without question, marks the time of a deadly wound that is subsequently healed. There, Daniel’s ten horns still receive a kingdom (Rev 17:12,17) but it is not the Roman kingdom. They still have one purpose: It is to give all their power and authority to the resurrected Antichrist. It is as if unforeseen and vastly new circumstances arise that call for the progressive revelations of God to suspend, redefine, and update earlier visions.

OTHER EXPLANATIONS OF DANIEL 7

PRETERIST
While this school generally has a good understanding of what Biblical texts say, they are completely misguided in this chapter. They ignore the parallels that identify the fourth beast as the successor to Greece and they reject the emphasis of the symbolism of the ten horns as referring to ten coexisting kings. Everything is reinterpreted so that Antiochus Epiphanes turns out to be the little horn.

FUTURIST
This school rightly sees that the little horn is a single individual that comes out of the Roman empire but betrays itself when they employ the term, “revived Roman empire.” To believe that the Roman empire will be restored is to believe that which has no support from the text. It is, in fact, a denial of the context and to reject context is to reject what the text says. Their demand that future events must return to a state where some “Roman antichrist” can literally fulfill the prophecy makes no sense whatsoever. It cannot be literally fulfilled! Rome fell centuries ago. So if we remove the invisible futurist gap — the notion that, for some reason, the prophecy just skipped over the initial end and eventual restoration of the Roman empire — then their interpretation is an endorsement of our position.

HISTORICIST
Both the appeal and contradiction of traditional historicism are testified to by the ever increasing awareness of historicists who find the long established position on Daniel 7 inadequate. Neall’s struggle to reconcile context with the facts of history serves as an excellent illustration of some of the deeper problems. He writes:

“The sequence of beasts, the ten horns, and then the little horn that supplants three of the ten all converge to identify that horn as the papacy of the middle ages and beyond. The 3 & 1/2 times would therefore have to pertain to those centuries”.....“Yet verses 21 and 22 state that the saints are overpowered by the horn until rescued by the judgment. Verses 25-27 say the same with one added detail: the duration of their subjection is 3 & 1/2 times. In other words, it is the judgment that terminates the 3 & 1/2 times of persecution. But the judgment of 1844 had nothing to do with the administering of the deadly wound in 1798, the end of the 1260 years of papal supremacy. Nor did the judgment of 1844 have anything to do with rescuing the saints from the papacy, which had already been rendered quiescent by its fatal wound. This is chronologically incompatible with a judgment that brings the 3 & 1/2 times to an end, an end marked by the final destruction of the horn. All told, the circumstances attending the start of this judgment differ significantly from those pertaining in 1844” (Assize, Vol 1.1 p. 23).

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