As I referenced earlier, the Sabbath being a key part of the seal of God is an involved topic because it is the result of our whole understanding of prophecy in the scriptures. In other words, for Sunday to be the mark of the beast (a simplification anyway as I already stated in my opinion above) we have to first know what the beast is. To understand that we must look at the references to the beast power. The first is in Daniel 7. But the backdrop for Daniel 7 is Daniel 2 (no I am not being needlessly difficult, just that it is an involved topic you asked about! ) So we will start by laying out the foundation with Daniel 2. Then when I get time I will delve into Daniel 7 and show how it outlines clear guidelines as to who the antichrist/beast power is. ( Incidentally, many t Christians recognize the general outlines of of Daniel 2 and 7 here though not necessarily the final conclusions to our view. )
Then we will finally look at Revelation 13, 14to see how it all ties together. Due to time constraints this could take a few days, so bare with me
Daniel two begins with the record of Nebuchadnezzar's dream:
DA 2:1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, "I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means. "
Dreams being very important to the Neo-Babylonian people, as often being a portent of the future, Neb. Wanted to understand this one. Perhaps he could not remember the details, or perhaps he simply wanted to test his wise men. But he asked them to tell what it was that he had dreamed. Of course they could not. So he threatened them with death. To make a long story short Daniel was shown by God the interpretation and I now want to look at the details of the dream for a moment.
First the dream is obviously prophetic, as it describes" the days to come." And was intended for the purpose to impress upon Neb. The reality of God's working in history and especially the point that Neb. was NOT indeed the ruler of his ultimate destiny.
DA 2:27 Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come.
The particulars of the dream are as follows:
DA 2:31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue--an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
(I have a nice little picture of the statue here, but I don't have enough posts to put it ...ah well. )
The chief aim of any expositor then is, of course, to identify the different metals in the statue. Daniel begins this task for us in his explanation starting in vs. 36
DA 2:36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
Clearly Daniel says that Nebuchadnezzar himself is the head of gold. Therefore we see that the metals represent monarchs...and more specifically as we shall see, kingdoms. At first glance, one might think that if Neb. is the head of gold, then the silver, etc. are other kings. But the next statement of Daniel shows that this is not the case:
DA 2:39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
Daniel is not simply implying a succession of kings within the Neo-Babylonian empire, but in fact a new kingdom. This must have greatly troubled Neb. As flattering as it was to be the head of gold, it was even more depressing to hear that his kingdom would not last forever as he had hoped and planned. In fact, it was perhaps because of this disappointment that Neb. later erected an image COMPLETELY of gold on the Plain of Dura, as if to say to God "we will just see about your prophecy." Of course, God did show Neb. through different events that God's will in the end will be done.
So we can conclude that the first metal in the image represents Babylon, the empire that Neb. hoped to establish forever. After his death the empire declined quickly, and another came on the stage.
The book of Daniel clearly identifies the successor to the Babylonian Empire, and certainly history agrees with that. In fact God predicted the rise of Cyrus and the Persians and Medes long before it even happened. It is a fascinating story how it occurred of course, one which you may be familiar with, but which is outside the scope of this post.
The second metal, that of the Medo-Persian Empire, later identified as Media and Persia in Chapter 8:20, is represented by silver. Silver is both less precious than gold, yet more enduring. This is the trend we see in the empires, that in some way the following kingdoms are less wealthy, or perhaps cultured, but more militarily strong.
The next kingdom to come on the world stage, which took over the empire of the Persians (the Medes eventually faded in significance, till the empire became simply known as the Persian Empire) is also equally well known in history. Daniel says this about it:
DA 2:39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth
And in fact it is mentioned in 8:21, as the king of Greece, or Grecia. (By the way I should point out that chapters 2, 7, 8 and to some degree 11 are most likely parallel, telling the same story, or parts of the story, but focusing on different details. The first vision, that of chapter 2 starts out with a broad sweep, and then the details are provided.) The king of Greecia, as history bears out, is none other than Alexander the Great. Alexander united the people of Greece under the banner of his country, Macedonia, and quickly dispatched the largest empire to rule the world to that point, though greatly outnumbered. Again this is another great tale, but too long to place here. Nonetheless, a providential hand was involved.
After the belly and thighs of bronze we have a new metal legs of iron.
Da 2:40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron--for iron breaks and smashes everything--and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.
Here we see again the ascending strength of the metals emphasized. Each empire becomes larger and more powerful than the one before. Each one also lasts longer than the one before, a sign of its strength. The Hellenistic, or Greek/Macedonian empire established by Alexander had a more varied history than the kingdoms before it. In fact, after Alexander died suddenly, the empire went to his son, who was really a figure head. Then the generals basically divided power. There will be more on this in Chapter 7 as it alludes to this. Still, despite the fact that the empire was divided, and that the generals fought among themselves, a common culture dominated the world scene until the next empire came along and smashed these lands to pieces. This empire, according to history was Rome. Rome gradually conquered each of the General's kingdoms, and became truly iron in power, spanning a great deal of territory and time. Amazing that God would foresee all of this! No earthly mind would have picked the little settlements in Italy to rule the world in the time of Daniel... but as Daniel said, God is the one who throws down nations and sets them up.
Now lets say for a moment that I were making up a prophecy. I had one kingdom, then another, then another, each one getting stronger... four in all. What would I do next? A bigger kingdom! But not so in Daniel. Next Daniel says will be a time where no empire dominates.
Da 2:41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
History indeed bears this out. Who conquered the Romans? What empire followed them? Well you can read that big book, "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" if ya like to find out. But I don't suggest it ,cause as long as it is, you might still be reading when the end of this prophecy occurs! But history indeed tells us that Rome fell partly from internal problems, and partly from outside forces. Obviously one of the big factors was the invasion of Rome by Barbaric tribes. None of these tribes gained dominance over the others for long. In fact, these tribes form the basis for the nations of Europe today, though of course this is in some ways a generalization. There were scores of tribes, but some major ones that shaped the world following this. There were also three large tribes that disappeared, and this also is alluded to in Chapter 7. The major tribes, and their corresponding nations are as follows:
Visigoths Spain
Anglo-Saxons England
Franks France (hehe, you knew that one didn't you? )
Alemani Germany
Burgundian Switzerland
Lombards Italy
Suevi Portugal
Heruli, Ostrogoths, Vandals - disappeared, see later posting on chapter 7
Now the prophecy predicted that power would be divided, some of the nations being strong, some weak.
41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
Indeed the latter part was also fulfilled. There have been many attempts to unite the nations that came about from the fall of Rome. Hitler, Napoleon, Charlemagne, Charles V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, etc. Some attempted military, some intermarriage, but whatever happened the prophecy rings true. The nations though they may try to unite have not been successful.
The next part of the prophecy is the most significant. It is still future.
DA 2:44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands--a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."
What an amazing prophecy! God himself will establish an everlasting kingdom. Kings had built there empires, trying to make them eternal, but in the end, history has played just as God foretold. And it is almost up. The prophecy says that "in the time of those kings" God will set up His kingdom. Folks we are at the very end of Neb. image. We are in the Toenails of time, so to speak. In this time we should realize that the God of history is also the God of every individual, and He is coming soon.
Now I want to address a couple of questions that might be asked about the identifications of these metals. As I said it is important to understand them, because much of Daniel parallels this image. Therefore when we get to chapter 7, which discusses the blasphemous little horn power, we will see that it is giving more detail on this vision.
First, some ask why very prominent world Empires are not mentioned in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. For instance, what about China, or the Americas? This is a fair question. But the answer is simply that God was showing Nebuchadnezzer what would happen in the future from HIS point of view. He wanted Neb. to see what would become of his kingdom, and how eventually God's would reign supreme. Moreover, the prophecy deals with the nations that would influence the Israelite people throughout history. Now by the way, Revelation, I believe, brings the U.S. into the picture too, but we will have to look at that later. Suffice to say that these are the nations that were in direct line from Neb. and that would influence God's special people.
Second, some may object by saying that the nations WILL be united in the last days. This is true to a degree, but just as in former times, though the nations seem about to join for good, God intervenes, and it is not successful. In the end times, again, God will intervene, this time by setting up His own kingdom, though for a time it will appear that the world will be united. Now certainly we do see one world worship, and it is supported by political leaders, but this is only allowed to proceed for a short time before God steps in.
This all sets the scene for chapter 7 which expands on the last part of this prophecy, especially the beast.
