Beast of Revelation.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

Chapter 2
four successive world-ruling empires. In each case the scenario
ends with the establishment of a fifth and final world-ruling
kingdom—the Kingdom of God. Clearly these two visions are
recording different details of the same set of events.
By comparing the two visions, we find that the first kingdom
in Daniel 2, the head of gold, is equated with the lion, the king of
beasts, in chapter 7. This represents the Babylonian Empire. The
second kingdom, the kingdom of silver in chapter 2, is the bear
in chapter 7—an apt symbol of Persia’s ponderous size and
might. Likewise, the third kingdom in chapter 2, that of bronze,
corresponds to the seventh chapter’s four-headed leopard. The
catlike stealth and quickness of Alexander’s Greek armies is pictured
well by a leopard. But why four heads?
At the height of his achievements, Alexander suddenly died
in Babylon at the age of 33. An initial attempt to hold his empire
together by a joint regency in the name of his nephew and his
unborn son failed. One of his generals, Antigonus, made a bid for
power. But within a few years, the empire ended up split among
four of Alexander’s other generals—Seleucus, Ptolemy,
Cassander and Lysimachus.
All four of these kingdoms, Greek in language and culture,
were a divided continuation of the empire Alexander had built
and maintained for less than a decade. This fourfold division was
specifically prophesied in Daniel 8.
Here Daniel foretold more details of the interaction of the
second world-ruling kingdom, Persia, and the third kingdom,
Greece. Daniel 8:3–4 describes a two-horned ram going out to
subdue everything in all directions. According to verse 20 this
ram represented “the kings of Media and Persia.” A powerful
male goat with one great horn coming up from between its eyes
then defeats the ram completely (vv. 5–7). According to verse 21,
“the male goat is the kingdom of Greece: and the large horn that
is between its eyes is the first king.” This certainly refers to
Alexander the Great. He died—“the large horn was broken” (v.
8)—and then what? “Four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation,
but not with its power” (v. 22). Amazing! These four kingdoms
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