Identifies the "beast" of Daniel chapter seven as a future dictator arising from a revived Roman Empire, which will consist of ten states. This figure, distinct from the Antichrist, is a political ruler who will emerge from one of these ten states, subduing three of them and persecuting God's people. The sermon further connects this to Daniel chapter eight, explaining that the "little horn" in that passage, Antiochus Epiphanes, serves as a historical type for this future dictator, who will emerge from the northern division of the ancient Greek Empire, specifically the region of modern-day Iran and Iraq. Ultimately, this dictator will be broken by the Lord Jesus Christ at His second coming.
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I couldn't very well disguise my voice this morning. I picked up a cold and it'll loosen up a little bit and I'll turn, I'll get into first gear and then second and third. I made a phone call to my wife and I stood in the draft between the two buildings And so she kept on talking and talking. And I kept on talking, although I usually keep on listening. So I got a cold.
Now I'll go home and give it to her. Can I announce, I go into third year once in a while, can I announce a couple of books? I'm very careful about the books that I announce. I know there's so many books that say the same thing, but here's one that doesn't. A shepherd looks at the good shepherd and his sheep. His first book was on the shepherd, the shepherd's psalm and so forth. This man was a shepherd. He spent many years in East Africa and served as a shepherd.
He's a tremendously educated person. And I believe that this book has sold, or that is the other book he wrote, has sold four hundred thousand copies. And it's been put into fourteen languages. Now this one promises to be just as good. The other one was on Psalm twenty-three. And believe me, you'll get a blessing from that book. and from this one. I tell you, they're precious. They're good to read at night, you know. And they're good to read if you have had a bad day. And most of us have one of those at least once a year.
And so there's the book. John Walboard is one of our finest theologians of the day. He doesn't deal in knick-knacks. He's a solid theologian. Know him personally. I've worked with him many times. And this one is one of his best. Jesus Christ our Lord. Talk about a book that magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ. This is it. And so we announced them. Last night you bought all the Bibles that I announced.
And now... I don't know how many of these are there, but do your best. Count your money. And if you're a little short, just tell them you need a discount. I think that's what Laman Strauss would tell them. He needs a discount. By the way, I think he's coming, isn't it? Oh, by all means, hear him. He's an old schoolmate of mine. And we love him. And his dear wife. And we thank God for their ministry. Now I'd like you to turn tonight to Daniel chapter seven. When I said something about my throat this morning, I got a whole pocket full of life or lozengers.
I'm going to say lifesavers, but they're not that. I think you took too many of these to be life losers. But there's one. I guess the person took the other two out of here because I didn't. Here's a blue one. I must have thirty green ones. Then I have some real flat ones. I got some licorice ones. And if you need a light, a lozenger, see me after the meeting. Just name the color and I have it. But I hope you don't have a cold.
in Detroit. All right. Now, I believe in the teaching of the prophetic scriptures. I am not a prophet. And I don't believe that it's becoming to a teacher of the prophetic scriptures to turn prophet. I think he is limited by what God has to say. and to attempt to improve upon what God says with what I think is, I believe, an affront to the Word. Now, I want to look at chapter seven, just as certain facts, and then turn to chapter eight, and with these two passages, discuss certain facts concerning the Middle East, which I believe to be very important at this present time.
If you have studied the Book of Daniel at any time, I think you'll remember that Daniel was given a vision in chapter seven and a vision of world empires, if you please. He had the task of unfolding the truth concerning the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter two. But now God covers something of the same ground with a vision that he gave to Daniel. And he gave this vision to Daniel that he might, and you might, and I might understand what the nations are at heart.
Because in this passage, the nations revealed are all world empires, and they are brute beasts at heart. I'm going to pass over some of these verses because Bob Maginior wanted this message to be entirely on the tape tonight so he could hear it all. He had to go to Jacksonville. And I'm going to try to get it into the time that I have. I'm not just sure when I started, but I'll have to play it close to the best. All right. In chapter seven, Daniel saw four great beasts emerge from the sea.
This is the Mediterranean sea. The beasts do not come forth all at one time. They come forth successively, not simultaneously. The reason I know that is in six and seven. Those two verses begin with after this. And in the Aramaic language in which this chapter is written, those two words in our English, the translation of a word that means instead of.
In other words, instead of the third beast, came the fourth beast. As one comes and disappears, another comes and takes its place. Now in the fourth verse, the first beast is like a lion. A lion here is a symbol of Babylon. And Daniel lived through a great segment of the Babylonian Empire's reign on earth. The second beast, the one that followed Babylonian is a bear, and the bear is raised up on one side.
It is a tremendous portrait. of Medo-Persia. The third beast is a leopard. A leopard that is a symbol here of the Greek Empire. These are successive empires on earth. And any student of history knows that Alexander the Great was the great king of Greece. and pushed his powers eastward, southward, and into the Middle East in particular. And of course Greece became the great power that ruled the known world.
Then Alexander the Great's empire passed into oblivion, and in its place came the empire of verse seven. The empire is not named Rome, but I believe it is Rome, because after this, or in the stead of the Greek empire, the next world empire is the Roman Empire. And there are no empires of world stature between the Greek and the Roman. So here we have four powerful kingdoms.
Each one a world empire. Each one a Gentile kingdom. And each kingdom had some relationship to God's people, Israel. And each of the empires had sovereign claim over the land of Palestine. Now, when you come to verse seven of the chapter, you will notice the prolonged description of the Roman Empire. Rome deified power. The Greeks deified wisdom, but Rome deified power.
That's why power was in the word of Paul to the Roman church. He said, You Romans deify power, but if you want to see power, look at the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, said Paul, unto salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so to this empire of verse seven, we assign a powerful heartless devastating period of reign but now nations do not reign forever and you will see that there is a semicolon after the word it toward the end of the chapter if I like to make that a colon or a period because the truth concerning the ancient Roman Empire stops at the word it and
then it says and it that is the Empire had ten horns I like photography and anyone here tonight that knows anything about some of the finer points of photography, knows that you can do a fade in and a fade out as a very interesting and beautiful technique of photography. You can do it with smoke. And I would suggest to you that at this particular point, the word it, the old Roman Empire fades out.
And then immediately, when the last vestige of the empire is seen, out from the screen of inspiration, there comes forth another empire. But it is a renewal or a revival of the ancient Roman Empire itself. What we're saying is that the old Roman Empire is history. But there will come a day when ancient Rome will be revived.
And it says it had ten horns, which indicates that the empire of the future will be comprised of ten individual sovereign states. In Europe tonight there is the EEC. European economic community is presently comprised of ten states. Egypt was the last of the ten to be added. It's very interesting to take their magazine called Europe and to leap through the pages and see the reference to ten states. It says, and the ten, and the ten, and the ten.
And I would remark tonight that if man can politically arrange matters so that ten states come together in Europe and constitute a viable group of states, God can do the same thing. That I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that God promises a revival of the ancient Roman Empire. I cannot name the states. I don't think it's becoming to a prophetic teacher to name the states. I remember back in the middle of the eighteen hundreds when brother B.W.
Newton named the states. And then he had to spend the rest of his days rescuing his reputation. Because you cannot be wiser than what is written. and God has not named the ten states. But it is reasonable to believe that those ten states will be related to the general contour of the ancient Roman Empire. And it was a mighty empire from Britain into the Middle East and as far east as the Indus River. It reached north to the Danube, and south into Egypt and over the lip of Africa.
It was a powerful empire. I believe that there is every reason to think that since it is the Roman Empire which is being revived, that its boundaries will in the future be somewhat the boundaries of the past, though we can't dogmatize on that. Now something happens in this passage, which is so important, I want to underscore it. And it appears again in chapter eight. I want to underscore that when we come to it. Look with me at verse eight, because it says, I considered the horns.
Daniel had never seen a beast with ten horns. But notice. Behold, there came up among them another little horn. This is an eleventh horn. A little horn, because he arises, perhaps, out of an unforeseen part of the empire, and his state is probably a small state, and yet it becomes a mighty state. and the time comes in the Revelation chapter seventeen when the whole ten give him their power and he becomes ruler over the ten but notice his character in his activity it says before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots he conquers three of the ten states and since he is from one of them He is king then over at least three and quite possibly four.
In the second place, it says, Behold in this horn were the eyes like the eyes of man. Eyes in Scripture are symbols of intelligence. In the case of God, they are symbols of his omniscience. For his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole of the earth. This man is a man of great intelligence. Furthermore, he has a mouth speaking great things. He is a boaster. If you read the rest of the chapter, you'll find he's a blasphemer, and he belches for threatening for Christians who are saved in the tribulation period at that time.
This man is the future. ruler, the dictator of the revived Roman Empire, yet future. Now I want you to notice down at verse twenty-four, the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise. That makes it a divine commentary upon verse eight and verse seven. And another shall rise after them. That's the little horn who becomes great. And he shall be diverse from the first. That is, he'll be different from the ten.
And he shall subdue three of the ten, you see. And he shall speak great words against the most high. He's a blasphemer. And he shall wear out the saints of the most high. He's a persecutor of Jewish people. and Gentile Christians in that period. And he shall think to change times and laws, and they, that is the times and laws, shall be given into his hand until the time and times and the dividing of a time were three and a half years. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
And then we have a portrait. Notice, and the kingdoms, the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. And all dominions shall serve and obey Him, calling attention to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who will reign over all the earth. Dominion. will be his in that day. Now just to review, we have kingdom number one, Rome.
It is marked by a great king, a king who is a very intelligent person as a ruler, a king whose antipathy is clearly against God and God's people. a king who becomes a great military person. And I believe it's right to call this one the future dictator of the revived Roman Empire. I do not call him Antichrist. I do not believe that there is any evidence that this man is the Antichrist.
The Antichrist is a religious figure. This man is a political figure. He may say later on, worship me as God. But bear in mind, he is a political figure like Nero or Diocletian who demanded that man worship him as God. He deifies himself. He comes out of the Roman Empire. Now watch this. And this is something that I want you to look at carefully. because the average student of the prophetic word misses this point.
God in chapter seven tells us that this man emerges from one of ten states. The old Roman Empire, no, revived. Chapter eight, what does it do? Watch it. It tells us that this man emerges from one of four states. The Gospel of John is the book of the Christ. Daniel is the book of this man, the future dictator, who emerges in chapter seven out of ten states, and now the Holy Spirit is going to be more definitive and show us that he comes out of four states.
And in chapter eleven, which we have in time for tonight, God tells us that he emerges from two states. Keep that in mind. Ten, four, two. Don't study Daniel seven only. Or seven and eight alone. But study at seven, eight, and eleven if you want the sequence of these events. Chapter eight. Will you do this with me? Chapter eight, one and two, has for us an introduction to a vision. I won't deal with that, but we will look at the vision in verse three.
Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, said Daniel. And behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns. And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. This is a portrait of the of the Medo-Persian empire that followed upon the heels of the Babylonian kingdom. If you want proof of that, take a look with me at the twenty-th verse. God gives us a divine commentary.
The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. You see, there's no doubt about it. But why is one horn higher than the other? Because God means to teach us that in this dual empire, one element is weaker than the other. The median element of the composite empire was not by no means as strong as the Persian. And so the Persian horn was higher. The medium portion of the horn was lower. Now notice. I saw the ram pushing.
He's making war. You see, he's rising to power. He pushes westward. Oh, yes. Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Media. But Cyrus was not a destroyer, as some kings were. He amalgamated the Medes with the Persians, but he's king over all. He allows a king of Media, but he is the king over both elements. Now notice, he pushed westward. He conquered Media. And he pushed northward. He conquered what is today Assyria. And then Syria. And then he pushed until he conquered all of Asia Minor.
And then notice that he also pushed southward. He conquered Palestine. And he bore his way into Egypt. So this man is a powerful, powerful king, and his was a gigantic empire. That's why in chapter seven he's pictured as a bear, a great animal. And here he's pictured as a ram with two horns, so much for Peter of Persia. Now notice in verse five. where we begin to hear a little bit about Greece.
Because you know that Greece followed Rome, or followed the Median Persians. It says in verse five, as I was considering, behold, an he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth. Alexander the Great was a swift leader. His powers to conquer were tremendous. startling. It seems that this he-goat came from the west and he was moving eastward and it seems he moved so fast he hardly touched the ground.
And that's just about the way Alexander conquered. He moved out of Greece across the Hellespont into Asia Minor. He conquered that. He moved down the coast of Israel on down into Egypt. where he built the city of Alexandria, and then he moved up, well, he touched Palestine, he touched what would be the land of Israel today, but he had a respect for the Jews. He would not destroy them. He would not try to make them Greeks, as did another king. But he moved up over, what is today Syria, As Syria, he moved over what is today Iraq and Iran, and he moved down into the east.
And you know, he would have moved beyond the Indus River, but his men would not cross it. I say those men would have followed him to perdition because they served a great commander. Men were proud to serve under Alexander. They died to serve under that man. But they said there are evil spirits over there. We can't fight what we can't see. And so he turned back and made Babylon his capital. And he died there in . Conquered in . . . . . . died at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . that had two horns. Now you've got Greece in opposition to Medo-Persia. And of course there was a battle between these two animals, between the two kingdoms. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and smote the ram, and break his two horns. That means he did Medo-Persia in and they lost the crown of conquest.
Alexander now wears it, and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, and he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him, and there was none that could deliver the ram or Persia out of Alexander's hand. Therefore the he-goat was very great, and when he was strong the great horn was broken. He died in the city of Babylon. Alexander the Great is gone. And for it, or in the stead of Alexander, there came up what? Four notable horns or ones toward the four winds of heaven.
Now, let's go back. Chapter seven, we had ten kings. Out of the ten came a little horn who became great. The enemy of God. The enemy of the Jew. In chapter four, we have a little horn arising now out of the four. Alexander's empire was divided into four parts. And now we have a king coming out of the four. Ten, and now four. Let's see what this fellow's like. It says, he waxed exceeding great toward the south. Now who is this little horn?
Let's back up. Alexander's empire was divided into four parts. Lysimachus took Asia Minor. Cassander took Egypt, or they took Greece. Ptolemy took Egypt. And then Antigonus And he didn't last very long. But Seleucus came into power and took the north, which was Syria, Assyria, what is today Syria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and East Arabia.
That's what Seleucus took. Now watch this. I want to say class. Watch this. We must emphasize the point that the important facet of the four, this coalition of four states, the important part of that division is the North versus the South. And so far as the appearance of this awful creature of the future is concerned, it is the fact that he comes from the North. Now we'll see what happens.
He is a little horn, and he moved toward the south. This little horn is none other than Antiochus Epiphanes in history. It was prophecy to Daniel, but now it's history to us. We look back to its fulfillment. Antiochus Epiphanes stormed out of Syria and the Iraqi area. and he moved down around Palestine into Egypt. And he made war in Egypt, brought Egypt to its knees. Then he went back home to Syria in the north. Then he would move out again.
And this time he turned his wrath against the Jews. But he went on down into Egypt the second time. But this time he had a surprise, because the Egyptian leadership had appealed to Rome to protect them. And when old Antiochus got down there with his army, he saw the Roman navy out in the Gulf, out in the sea. And on the sands of the shore stood the Egyptian leadership, and the leader of that Roman power, the navy, the army, was on the shore with him.
And now here comes Antiochus Epiphanes. And the Roman leader took his spear and put a ring around Antiochus. And he said, by that, he said, Antiochus, this is as far as you go. Get along. Go home while you can walk. Otherwise you'll be carried home. This is as far as you go. And Antiochus was no dumbbell. You know, I had a friend who was saved. He was a prize fighter up in Britain or up in Michigan. And he said one time he met a big fellow.
Boy, he's bigger than he was on the street. And he said, I looked at him. I turned out and ran. He says, my legs weren't going to stand around and see my body abused. You know, smart man. Well, Antiochus Epiphanes turned and moved northward. But what did he do? He passed Jerusalem. He entered Jerusalem. He tore down a part of the temple. He tore down the altar of Jehovah. And he dedicated an altar to his God, Zeus. And he offered a sow on the altar of God.
And he desecrated that. And he killed Jews, Jews, Jews. He made his power felt. And it was an awful thing to Israel. And he went on back. The reason he was so enraged was that Jews had heard that he was killed in this... face-to-face confrontation with Rome and Egypt. They heard he was killed and they were having a holiday, a Jewish holiday. But he wasn't dead, and he proved he wasn't. At that time, Rome didn't care much what he did in Jerusalem. They were concerned about Egypt.
And so this man went back. Now, I want you to notice a few things about the man because we have to come to a close. Look with me at verse twenty-two. Now that being broken, that is the great horn, Alexander, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand out of that nation, but not in his power. They'll never reach the power of Alexander. and in the latter time of their kingdom. Now, this is important. Put a line under it. That shows that there will come an important period in history when these four parts of the Greek Empire will show up very important.
Now, do see this. Here is the great Roman Empire. From the Atlantic to the Indus River. From the Danube to Lower Egypt. That's the Roman Empire. In here is the Greek Empire, covering all Greece, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, down to the Indus River. And so now we have an empire that was once part of a great Roman Empire. God is narrowing down the prophecy, and we're looking here at four states, and out of the four states, of the Greek Empire comes a man.
And so many have said that this man must come from Rome. I see no proof of that. They fail to see that the man who comes down into Israel in the time of the end and desecrates everything in his track, this man, who would put Israel under his heel in the end time, has to come out of the old Greek Empire. And since his predecessor, Antiochus Epiphanes, is his type, this man in the future, I believe, would emerge from Iran or Iraq. And believe me tonight, beloved, time in the hands of God is very significant.
We're living in a day when all eyes of the world are not toward Rome. They're not toward France or England or toward the United States in this capacity. All eyes are toward Iran and Iraq. And it's out of that important part of the old Greek Empire that a man will come who would do this. Now look at it in verse twenty-three. when the transgressors are come to the full. He's a king of fierce countenance. He understands dark sentences. He's mixed up with the occult.
That's the future religion, not Rome. This man is mixed up with the occult. His power should be mighty, but not by his own power. Why not? Because Satan gives him his power. And he shall destroy wonderfully. He makes men stand agog at His powers of destruction. And He shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people, Israel. This is the man that's against Israel in the future. And through His policy, also He shall cause craft or business to prosper in His hand, and He shall magnify Himself in His heart, and by peace shall destroy many.
He magnifies himself. How? He demands to be worshipped as God. He deifies himself. And by peace he destroys many. He shall also stand up against whom? The prince of princes. Only one man stands up against the prince of princes. Only one for one character of a political background, and that is the future dictator from the Middle East. And he stands against the Prince of Princes, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he shall be what? Broken. Without hand. Why without hand? When the Lord Jesus comes in power and glory to reign, he comes with his blood-bought church. And he comes with the Old Testament saints and the angels of God. And the word shall go forth out of his mouth. And with that he destroys the leadership, the armies of that day. They would even magnify themselves against the King of Kings. But it says he shall be destroyed, broken without hands.
and Revelation twenty says he's cast into the lake of fire ultimately where he belongs so dear friends just this little glimpse there's so much more we've had to pass over chapter seven the revised Roman Empire and a king is supposed to rise out of that great expanse now chapter four the same person rising out of a more narrow sector out of the old Greek Empire which was part of the Roman and out of that northern division of the old Greek Empire this man sweeps down upon Israel and he's in league I believe with Russia and the full story is in Ezekiel thirty eight and thirty nine and what a story it is but then That would take three or four other messages.
And with this squeaky voice tonight, you can hardly take much more. So let's just close our Bibles, thank the Lord for his wonderful word, and we'll dismiss. Our Father, we pray tonight that thou will bless this message given with some distress. But Lord, may there be something in it that will understand. some way to grasp hold of the great truths of this wonderful, wonderful section of Scripture. So, Lord, help us, we pray, not to look as some look even to the United States for that day, but God help us to tie ourselves in to the revelation of Scripture and to see the Middle East as indeed the navel of the earth.
and that as the Christ of God came out of the Middle East, so will this beast of the future come, who will demand all that is due to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank thee that thine is the victory, the power, and the glory, and we gladly worship thee as the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. Through Jesus Christ, we thank thee. Amen.