In the image from the Book of Daniel, the part of the statue that is in place just before Christ grinds it to powder, is the part made of Iron and clay, which many understand to be Rome.
Dan_2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan_2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Dan_2:40 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.
Dan_2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
Dan_2:42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan_2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan_2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
During the time of Christ's earthly ministry Rome controlled most of the known world through the leadership of the Caesars. Later after the reign of Constantine, Rome came to rule the world again through the Papacy.
Some have viewed this as a healing of a deadly head wound.
The Reformers identified the Papacy to be the antichrist system of scripture.
The pope was a man who sat in the Church and allowed Christians to bow down to him and claimed to speak for God.
A number of years ago author Dave Hunt wrote a book titled "A Woman Rides the Beast" in which he proposed the same idea.
At the Council of Trent the Papacy initiated the Counter Reformation in an attempt to take the focus away from the Papacy.
Two new systems of interpretation came out of the Council of Trent.
The Jesuit Riberra came up with a Futurist system that has evolved into modern Dispensational Futurism, which has overtaken the evangelical Church in America.
It claims there are Two Peoples of God with Two separate Plans.
Some even claim that Grace will end at a pretrib removal of the Church and propose that the Jews will go back to keeping the Law in a rebuilt temple with renewed animal sacrifices.
The Jesuit Alcazar came up the a Preterist system that has now evolved into Full-Preterism, which denies the future Second Coming of Christ and a future resurrection of the body. It is considered heretical by many Christians.
The current pope is attempting to heal the wound of the Reformation and reclaim the Papacy's lost daughters...
This videoclip comes from an SDA website.
This post is not meant to advocate for that organization.
The Beast is not a revived Roman Empire, it is currently manifested as Islam. Iran can be viewed as part iron and ISIS, part clay. Islam is not in total unity, but it's soul purpose is to convert the entire world - not by love, but by force. It is evident in the spread of their religions over the centuries and now.
Their signature is in Rev. 20:4, "...then I saw the souls of those who have been
beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,
who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads or on their hands..." The mark may very well be the symbol of Islam. ???
"When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? ... until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were, was completed." Rev. 6:9-11. Then the controversial verse in the news is next, Rev. 6:12 - the Blood Moon on Sept 28 and then a solar eclipse in March, 2016.
If you were a Christian living in any of these Islamic nations, you would think you are in the Great Tribulation, or at least the beginning of it. Revived Roman Empire -- not much time for that scenario, the fireworks are about to start.
All prophecies point to Israel as being in the center of troubles during this time. Many nations come against Israel as well - these being mostly Muslim nations. Many of the prophecies support this. The three horns that were plucked out and the little horn surfacing as the antichrist. Mubarek, Qudafi and Hussein were just plucked out were they not. They are working on Assad, but these nations reflect the nations in Ezek as well: Togarmah, Persia, Cush, Putt, Gomer, Meschec and Tubal, are all present day Islamic nations. Russia is also supporting Iran and Syria. Now they are setting up a base in Syria. Why can't people see this? They have always been 'antichrist" and anti-Semitic as well.
I suspect that since this Iranian Deal is going down, Israel will soon take matters in their own hands and then "all nations will come against Israel". Israel may have those 30 ton bunker busters (if the US recently sold them these) to do the job and that will certainly ignite WWIII. The EU will not produce any antichrist. However, Obama is a pawn in all this and I do not believe he is a Christian or a Muslim. He was just ordained to set the stage for all this that is about to happen.
