Donna Danna (7 Jan
2024) "TO
EAR: The Beast of Dan. 7 &
Rev. 13 Doesn't Have 10 Toes On 1 Foot"
Hi
Donna, Re your
letter above, there seems to be something missing in your
understanding of
Daniel’s two major visions relating to the Roman Empire, re:
1)the
legs, feet and toes on the metallic man statuein Daniel 2:31–45, which describe a kingdom
of iron that devolves into iron plus
clay… that don’t adhere to one another.
2) the 10 horns
on the dreadful and terrible,
exceedingly strong 4th
beast,
in Daniel 7:7–8, 11, 19–26, refer
to Europe (where Rome originated), and its
colonising sub-empires. (N.B.
Daniel chapter
7 slots into Daniel’s record at the end of
chapter 4).
The extremities on
these two entities are not the same;
that is why the appendages on the metallic man statue (Dan.
2:42) are called toes,
and the appendages on the ‘different’ 4th beast
(Dan. 7:7–8) are
called 10 horns
(after its nature)! Also
there is no number
given for the toes… they are only meant to represent the
continually multiplying
smaller divisions of the declining Roman Empire. Thus, history
tells us it went
from ONE, to TWO administrative areas, and then into many
nations, kingdoms (mixtures
of strong iron and fragile foreign
clay), in both divisions, but not at the same time.
Although
different
parts of the two visions seem to cover the same subject
matter, i.e., the Iron
legs, and iron/clay feet and toes (Roman Empire), and the 4th beast (European bloc) that
produced 10 horns plus a
little horn that would persecute the Jews toward the end of
the Gentile age,
these two visions should not be combined if you want
to make sense out
of them! However, they can be compared…
NB. These two quite separate visions, took
place 50 years apart!
Daniel’s first
vision:(Daniel
2:31–45), took
place in the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign during
his first foray
into Jerusalem (c. 605
BC — 2 Kings
24:1a), and this vision was primarily meant for
Nebuchadnezzar: to provide him
with a general preview of what lay ahead of the
Babylonian Kingdom—via a
succession of conquering kingdoms—each being of lesser value;
it also informed the
captive people of Judah (Jews) about their future oppressors
(presuming Daniel
[a youth at the time] told his elders about this dual-vision).
NB. Nowhere in this
vision is the word
‘beast’ mentioned—just kings and kingdoms!
The
statue vision is
simply a general
picture of the
Roman Empire showing the deteriorating and weakening nature of
any succeeding and
future empires as they declined from gold, silver, bronze, to
iron, and then to
a mixture of iron and foreign clay (a process that
would destabilise
both legs of the Roman Empire, and eventually bring each of
them to an end). Afterward,
in the days of the last European and Asian kings, God will set
up his own everlasting
kingdom which would never be destroyed.
As
you rightly
state, the Roman Empire was split into two political and
administrative areas by
Diocletian who established a tetrarchy after AD 285: these
became the Western
Roman Empire based in Rome, Europe; and the Eastern
(Byzantine) Empire
based on the Bosporus city of Byzantium, called New
Rome, and later
renamed Constantinople.The one
thing that proved to be true—from the statue vision regarding
both legs—is that
both of the strong (iron) territories deteriorated after the
split, and they were
each invaded by foreign clay
forces: (i.e., by the Huns, Barbarians and Germanic
tribes in the West
during the 5th
Century,
and by a mixture of Crusaders and Islamic Caliphates in the
Eastern/Byzantine
era leading up to the 15th
Century). As a result, several invasions weakened
both the western and
eastern ex Roman areas, which fell into disunity when the iron
and clay people
groups mingled, but did
not adhere to one
another. (Dan. 2:41–43)
In
fact, it is here
that there seems to be something missing from your historical
understanding of the
Roman Empire that is not enlarged upon in the ‘Metallic Man
Statue
vision.’Rome did
not proceed into
history on two equally sturdy legs after it divided. It was
more like one good strong
leg that proceeded via the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire,
while the other leg
on the Western Roman side was cut off and ceased
to exist in AD 476, when Odoacer (Germanic
barbarians, Huns etc.),
invaded from North of the Rhine and Danube Rivers, and he
became the Ruler of
Italy.‘Colonising Europe’ (4th beast)
eventually came into
being after a period of political instability and social
upheaval called ‘The
Dark Ages,’ until the Holy
Roman
Empire (800–1806) appeared, and numerous European
sub-Empires were
born. This was an entirely new entity!Migration
period | Dark Ages
| Migration, Barbarian Invasions, Decline | Britannica
The
details given for
the statue vision in Daniel 2 can therefore only be regarded
as a general overview
regarding the fourth kingdom’s future mixture of iron and
clay, as foreign
influences invaded and permeated the post-division stage of
Europe that had once
been the Roman Empire. Eventually both parts would break
up into multiple
kingdoms of disparity, being partly strong and partly fragile,
but not at the
same time. The Western Roman Empire came to an end in AD 476,
and the Roman Imperial
insignia went east to
Constantinople until 1453!The toes were
never seen again!
I
will explain
further below, but can I urge you to read my free book…
I have spent 20 years
sifting through Daniel’s visions in chapters 2, 7, 8 and 9,
and ended up
writing more than a thousand words in several books on these
different topics…
See my additional post – A History of kingdoms
–January 21,
2024.
Daniel’s second
vision(Dan. 7:3–8, 19–26) took place in the first
year of Belshazzar
King of Babylon (c.,
555 BC — Dan.
5:1–30) when Daniel was an older man, and it revealed details
regarding the ‘dreadful
and terrible’ 4th
Beast
that was different
[x 3, vs 7, 19,
23], because it was only
based inEurope (not in Asia). Thus (after AD 476), what
remained of the
western side of the Roman Empire morphed into the 4th beast in Europe; it
devolved into 10 horns,
plus a ‘little horn’ that came up among them at a later time,
(Dan. 7:8). This
is confirmed by history. After the world-wide colonisation period by the various European
Sub-empires during the 15th
Century to 1900’s—which shall devour the whole earth, trample it and
break it in pieces—(Daniel
7:23), many of the same colonising nations were involved in WWI: 1914–1918.
If
you read my
book (above) you will find that the 10
European horn/nations on the 4th
beasthave
remained hidden for the
last Century, within a larger international alliance
called the League
of Nations—valid from
January 10, 1920–April 20, 1946. These 10
European nations: England, Netherlands,
Belgium, France,
Spain, Portugal,Switzerland, Italy,
Greece
and Yugoslavia, were all ‘founding
members’ of the League, who joined in 1920; BUTThe Weimar Republic (German
Reich, 1918–1933) did
not join the League of Nations until 1926!And
after he came to power, Adolf
Hitler withdrew the Weimar Republic from the
League in 1933 to
prepare for World War II. Subsequently, the ‘little horn’
(Hitler) plucked up
three horns/nations, for
living space [Lebensraum]: i.e., Poland,Czechoslovakia
and Austria, (Dan. 7:8, 20–21, 24b–26). Then he went
on to persecute the
saints of the Most High,
by changing ‘events’
and ‘laws’ to
achieve his aims via the Holocaust, when for a time and
times and half a time they were given into his hand, to do as he liked via
group gassings: from
Dec. 8, 1941 – May 7, 1945!
However,
the
heavenly court was seated (Dan. 7:9–10 and 13–14) and his dominion was taken away to
consume and destroy it forever (Dan. 7:26).Subsequently, Hitler committed suicide on 30th
April 1945,
and his body and Berlin were consumed by fire in
April/May 1945. The 4th
Beast and its 10 horns and ‘little
horn’ have filled our history books, and Daniel’s second vision (for the Jews) has been
fulfilled!
As far as the New
Testament era is concerned… see thetransition
verses in Dan. 7:11–12 which indicate that after
the 4th
beast (3rd Reich) and its body (Hitler) were destroyed; the
rest of the beasts (leopard,
bear, lion), i.e., Beasts of Babylon, Media-Persia
and Macedon-Greece)
would have their
lives prolonged for a
season and a time—in Asia.(NB.
Parts of these beasts reappear [in reverse order] as a totally new and separate tripartite, composite,
seven-headed (Islamist)
beast in Revelation 13:1-2). If you have
not read about the
Islamic Conquest in New Testament times, I suggest you do.
They are having
another try now…