I don't accept the view that the great statue represents the times of the gentiles. I think the purpose of the vision is to show us
the area and people who will bring the Lords return. Why do I say this? Because more is said about "the iron and clay" than the four kingdoms themselves. The iron and clay could be the ten horns elsewhere. I say....TWO DIFFERENT CALIPKATES, i.e. the king of the north and south of Daniel 11. One is Sunni, the other is Shia.
Daniel 2 isn't a progression of empires culminating up to today. I don't accept that and I don't approach understanding the heads and horns of any beast as a progression of anything. Daniel 2's gold, silver, bronze, and iron represent ANCTENT word empires. They are...
Babylon = Head of Gold
Mede's = Arms of silver
Persian' s = Thighs of brass
Greeks = Legs of iron.
That view goes back to before Josephus.
Daniel said to Neb...
2:28 "But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."
What shall be in the latter days? The only thing in the vision that represents the 'latter days' is the iron and clay, but people don't seem to tald about it much.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Iron and clay describes the Arabs and the people of Islam. There's over 100 words that describe the iron and clay in Daniel 2, so we should get a pretty good picture of the people it describes. The iron may represent the Sunni sect of Islam. The clay may represent the Shia sect of Islam.
Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar much more about the iron and clay than all of the other kingdoms combined. They’re the people of an end-time kingdom and religion that the Lord returns to destroy. Written for those who are convinced that the iron and clay represent Rome.
The legs of iron are Greece, the toes mingled with iron and clay, come from the geographical area of the ancient Grecian empire.
This is a description of the people of the final kingdom that will bring us to tribulation and Armageddon. Every kingdom of the statue is a Mid-East kingdom and the iron and clay are none other than the Arabs and Muslim's. These are the people who have evolved into Babylon the Great and who want to dominate the world and see Israel destroyed. ISLAM
"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise."
Besides being divided, the toes of iron and clay are said to subdue (to subdue, crush, shatter, the only place the word is used) all things. The Arabs and Muslim's have subdued nearly every religion in the Mid-East region. How can this be Rome when the word "mingled" used to describe the iron and clay is the Aramaic word 'arab' and denotes an Arabian or Arabia.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/...H6151&t=KJVand
Verses 41-43 say the kingdom will be divided, so the iron and clay is a kingdom....and not cleave to one another, and mixed with the seed of men, partly strong, and partly broken. A perfect description the Arabs and Muslim’s and not true of Rome or the EU. The Arab Mid-East Region and ISLAM has always been divided and 'not cleaved to one another.' History, and especially today's world, proves they are divided. Islam have also divided themselves into several different sub-divisions. How can this apply to today's Rome, Italy, or the EU who today are united?
MIXED WITH THE SEED OF MEN
Arab tribes and clans are heavily married into their extended family. The Arabs are among the most intermarried people in the world. The New Living Translation actually uses the word intermarried. Today, the word Arab is a variation of the word 'crossed. The NLT words verse 43 this way....
This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix.
Northern Africa has about 250 different Arabic tribes and many clans within them. Iraq has/HAD well over 200 tribes.
The word "mixed" always implies an Arabian or Arabia. It describes the religion of the Mid-east, Islam, and the Arabic people. The ‘little horn’ of Daniel 7 and 8 who takes his stand against the Prince of princes comes out of Alexander’s splintered kingdom and no where else. Specifically, the area of Ninevah. And the ‘king of the north" in Daniel 11 and 12, who exalts himself in the time of the end, comes out of the root of Antiochus, again a fragment of Alexander’s empire. Why then do so many prophecy experts continue to tell us that Rome is somehow the origin of the beast!?
The iron and clay are Islamic, the toes mingled with iron and clay are probably kings…
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.