Spiritually, the world’s individuals and their nations are, as the old saying goes: “headed to hell in a hand-basket,” to which I add, “and picking up speed exponentially.” In this series we will be studying the history of mankind from the time of the Prophet Daniel until the return of Jesus Christ. We will begin our journey with God’s dealing with Daniel and his “night visions” from the Lord Who tells him what will happen to mankind with the passage of time.

Many centuries later, after the ministry, life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ had taken place and the New Covenant/Testament had come into being, the glorified Christ would reveal to the apostle John what Daniel had seen in his vision, had recorded it and sealed it. As the end of the final age of world’s existence the seals would be broken and God’s people would come to know how she had become the spiritual, economic, social and political pariah into which she had made herself. Unbeknownst to him, Daniel would tell the interested world what would take place over the following centuries. However, Daniel would not understand what he was recording. Later, the Apostle John would also see a vision that would confirm what Daniel had seen. From these two visions God would explain what His two servants had seen and how the symbolic beasts applied to the history of mankind between those two visions and Messiah’s return to earth to gather His flock to Him.

Most church goers know about the tragedy that took place in the Garden of Eden, and how God had chosen Abraham to be the father of a group of people who were to be His light to the gentile world. As was the case in Eden, sin defiled everything God had planned for Adam and Eve, whose descendants became so vile that God had to kill them by drowning them while Noah and seven other people were saved due to Noah’s obedience. Over time Noah’s three sons and their wives began what would become a world filled with men and women. Now turn with me to the seventh chapter of Daniel where we find Daniel, a prisoner of the Babylonian nation, receiving symbolic information that he would record and seal for thousands of years. Upon receiving his visions, Daniel complained that he did not understand what he had seen and heard. God told him that he did not need to understand, that at the end of the age His people would understand what He had shown him through His servants–the prophets and apostles. And, true to His Word, God is now allowing those with hearts to understand what Daniel had written so many years ago to understand what had happened to mankind from the time of Daniel until this present day. The reader will soon learn that Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are two reports of the same happening. Each one explains the other. To learn what God wants us to know about man’s history and how man has arrived at where he is, we will return to the beginning, to the time when Daniel received the visions and recorded them. In this study we will be learning Truths that men have wondered about for thousands of years. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that man can understand anything in the spiritual realm.

Following the Holy Spirit’s lead, we will begin our search for the previously unknown and much guessed about information. In Revelation 13 where we find the Apostle John writing about what the Lord Jesus has revealed to him: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns were ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast,” (vss 1-3).

In Revelation 13 we find John gazing at a beast that is made of different parts of other animals. The leopard-like creature had feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion. Though Daniel’s vision was given 550 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and John’s vision was given approximately 70 years following His (Christ’s) death, the two visions mean the same thing and explain each other. Daniel’s beasts and John’s beast are one and the same.

Note that Daniel’s vision featured four beasts rising up out of WATER. In Revelation 17:15 John says: “And He said unto me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the whore sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.'” In Daniel 7:2 the prophet noted that the waters his beasts were standing on was being churned up by the four WINDS coming from four directions. Wind, in the prophetical sense, represents WAR. Daniel’s beast’s represented nations at war against each other. Winston Churchill once noted that the history of man is the history of war. How true is that statement? We need to go back to the first family to find the beginning of warfare. Here we find the first instance of one man killing another man. AND THEY WERE BROTHERS. In Daniel’s vision the winds were stirring up the people who made war with each other. Biblically, wind is used as a symbol of war (Jer. 51:1,4). Jeremiah calls war “a destroying wind” that God sends upon sinning man. Years ago I read an article that noted that at any time one chooses there are on average ten wars taking place on earth. Family against family, tribe against tribe, states against states, nation against nation–war comes natural for sinful man. The “seas” John and Daniel write about are people who are in a state of war, symbolized by the winds that have stirred them up and into conflict with each other.

Now let us turn to Daniel 7 and view his visions from his eyes. “And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the others.” ” Now we will determine exactly what these beasts represent . “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which will arise from out of the earth” (Dan. 17:7). Reminder: “seas” represent people/nations. But people do not live on water, but rather on land. So Daniel’s four beasts rose up from the earth’s land surface. Now we will examine each beast as seen by Daniel and learn what each one represented. Reminder: Man is not allowed to interpret the Bible (2 Pet. 1:20). The Holy Scriptures are self-explained, meaning that THE BIBLE EXPLAINS ITSELF TO THOSE WHO SEEK ITS TRUTHS WITH AN OPEN HEART. Let us do that.

Each beast seen by Daniel represents a period of time during which a nation ruled the world as far as that nation could control. Each ruling entity was different and each had its own style of warfare and rulership. “The first beast was like a lion with wings like those of an eagle. I watched as its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon its feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it” (Dan. 7:4). History records that this winged lion represented the Babylonian Empire which had come into being in 606 B.C. and became a force to be dealt with. Archeologists have found that the symbol of the city of Babylon was a winged lion. Having defeated the Jews and enslaved them, Babylon was the most powerful nation on earth at that time. But time changes everything. Jeremiah, God’s prophet to the Jews during their 70 years of forced servanthood, writes that God sent a more powerful force against Babylon and destroyed her (Jer. 50:42,44). The era of the Babylonian lion was over. Another era was about to begin.

Daniel 7:5 tells us that a second beast arose that looked like a bear having three ribs in its mouth which told it to “Arise, devour much flesh.” The nation symbolized by a bear did devour many people. This beast represented the nation of Persia which, after defeating Babylon, became the most powerful nation on earth. Persia (the bear) conquered its area of the world in 538 B.C. The three bones in the Persian bear’s mouth represented the three provinces that made up the Babylonian Empire: Babylon, Lydia and Egypt. Persia conquered all three provinces. It was during the time of Persia’s rulership that King Cyrus allowed 42,000 Jews to return to Jerusalem where they rebuilt the wall and began to rebuild their nation. L.J.

In Daniel chapter 7.