David Blackman – 8th June 2014 - Feet of iron and clay – PART 3
Hi David and Doves,
In your post regarding the feet of iron and clay you ask - “Could this be alluding to the Roman and the Muslims being this last empire.” It is difficult to know if you are asking whether they will be aligned as “friends” or opposed as “enemies”!
It is a complicated question, however, I think I emphasised strongly enough in PART 1 and PART 2 of these posts (EAR 29th June, 6th July 2014), that Daniel’s visions of the “metallic man statue” and the “4 beasts” both relate to the Babylonian, Media-Persian, Macedon-Grecian, and Roman Empires that subjugated the Jews during their Diaspora which ended in 1948; and that therefore neither of these two visions relate to what you call “this last empire”. Those two visions ended with the establishment of the State of Israel when self-determination and sovereignty was restored to the Jews; this being a necessary precursor to the coming of the Messiah’s millennial kingdom of righteousness. Ezekiel 37:21-28, Rev. 20:6.
Daniel’s two prophecies that we have examined, show quite clearly that the Roman Empire divided and disintegrated into smaller entities of mixed racial/ethnic origins and religious beliefs, and that these smaller “clay/iron” “feet and toe” entities will “not cleave one to another” (Dan 2:43). As a united force, ruled by a sole Emperor, the Bible shows that the Roman Empire and its last “little horn” manifestation are finished (Cf. Daniel 7:11). Of course the individual and separate nations of Western Europe remain, and no doubt they will feature in opposition to the “last empire” which is radically Islamic and is at this very moment raising its ugly head up in the Middle East in the form of a new terrorist based Caliphate.
I have just completed my major book which is called – “The Beast and the False Prophet – The Revival of Radical Islam” which is about “this last empire”, i.e. the Revelation 13 composite beast. The book is 318 pages long and I cannot condense it here, but it is registered and for sale at www.revelationredux.co.nz, or if you want to contact me – ear_nz@yahoo.co.nz
What the book shows is that Daniel gives an important clue to the origin of the “last empire” when he states in Daniel 7:11-12 that only the 4th “dreadful and terrible” beast empire and its “little horn” would be completely destroyed; but that although the other three beast empires (i.e. the lion (Babylon), the bear (Media-Persia) and the leopard (Greece) “…had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.”
It is therefore most interesting that Revelation 13 presents us with a leopard/bear/lion composite beast that arises out of the three dormant Old Testament Empires of Greece, Persia, and Babylon, (represented by these three animals) that previously existed in Asia and the Middle East. This singular Revelation beast that looks like a leopard with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion reappears in the end-times in a fresh tripartite configuration. When the geographical territories of these three ancient empires, are plotted on a map today, they cover the 10 modern Islamic nations of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Libya. These Islamic nations constitute the 10 “crowned horns” (sovereign countries) that lie within the beast’s territory as portrayed in Revelation 13. This is where “the last empire” will arise from and this is where we are in history!
The underlying territory of this rising beast empire does not come out of Europe from the Western Roman Empire, but from the Babylonian, Media-Persian and Macedon-Grecian Empires; eastern areas that were partially occupied by the New Rome/Byzantine Empire, and then conquered by the Seljuk Turkic Ottomans. In Revelation 17:11 John states that the beast empire (who is the 8th) comes out of the previous 7, which in my study are recognised as being Babel, Assyria, Babylon, Media/Persia, Greece, Rome and Ottoman empires; the last of which received its mortal wound in WWI. There is in fact, a “triple witness” to show that the “last beast empire” comes from the east, and is in fact a revived 7th head on the Revelation 13:1 beast, the Islamic Caliphate (Ottoman Empire). This Islamic beast rises up against the faithful people of God, i.e., those who keep His commandments (Jews) and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Christians) Rev. 12:17, 13:6-7, and it is given 42 months to “continue” what it was doing in its first manifestation, (Rev. 13:5), i.e., beheading the saints who find themselves under its dominion, (Rev. 20:4) just like todays media headlines.
[Apart from a foray into Spain/Portugal (Iberian Peninsula) in Medieval times (711 A.D.), the Muslims (as Moors from Morocco) have had no lasting political control within the Western Roman Empire as a whole, but they certainly had a great influence on the Eastern Roman Empire when the Turks conquered and sacked Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, and the Islamic Ottoman Empire became preeminent throughout the Balkans, Middle East, Asia and North Africa.[i] By 1920/24 the devolved Western Roman Empire was represented by the 10 “toe” nations of “Christian” Europe - Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, - and Eastern New Rome by the 10 “Muslim” “toe” nations populated by Arabs, Turks and Persians etc., that were carved out of the Ottoman Empire i.e., Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Hedjaz (Western Saudi Arabia), Transjordan, Nejd (Central Saudi Arabia), Yemen, UAE.]
Today, this mixture of entities that descended from Daniel’s “metallic man” vision comprising “gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay” elements; helps us understand the symbolism at the end of that vision where Daniel states that all of the former entities and elements would be present in some form or another during the “feet/toes” multiple nations of the World stage, when God’s great stone kingdom crushes them all “…like chaff from the summer threshing floors… and the stone….became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Cf. Daniel 2:35, 44-45.
See the attached charts –
Part One - sets out the history of empires based on the Revelation 13 vision of the “seven headed beast” and Daniel’s visions of the “metallic man statue” and the “four beasts”. It might seem rather complicated and repetitive of what I have written, but gives the information in another form. Through the use of coloured vision references, I have placed the relevant visions where they belong in history in relation to the progression of empires during the Jewish Diaspora. Daniel said the vision of the “metallic man” statue was given to Nebuchadnezzar because he was wondering about the future (“what would pass after this…” Dan. 2:29) and God made known to him “what will be in the latter days” Dan. 2:28, 45. However, it is also obvious that the vision was given to Daniel to protect his people in exile (through his new exalted position) and recorded for their understanding during the 2 millennia ahead of them in the Diaspora.
Part One - Middle Eastern Empires - Final.pdf
Part Two – Describes the future 8th beast empire in Revelation 13, 17, 18.