The four great monarchies

At what time was Daniel’s second vision
given?
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of
Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of
his head upon his bed: then he wrote the
dream, and told the sum of the matters.”
(Daniel 7:1)

What effect did this dream have upon
Daniel?
“I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the
midst of my body, and the visions of my
head troubled me.”
(Daniel 7:15)

What did Daniel ask of one the heavenly
attendants who stood by him in his dream?
“I came near unto one of them that stood
by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he
told me, and made me know the
interpretation of the things.”
(Daniel 7:16)

What did the prophet see in this vision?
“Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by
night, and, behold, the four winds of the
heaven strove upon the great sea.”
(Daniel 7:2)

What was the result of this strife?
“And four great beasts came up from the
sea, diverse one from another.”
(Daniel 7:3)

What did these four beasts represent?
“These great beasts, which are four, are four
kings, which shall arise out of the earth.”
(Daniel 7:17)

In symbolic language, what is represented
by winds?
Strife, war, commotion. (Jeremiah 25:31-
33; 49:36, 37)
“As the result of the blowing of the winds,
kingdoms arise and fall through political
strife.”
(The Prophecies of Daniel and the
Revelation, p. 106).

In prophecy, what is symbolized by waters?
“The waters which thou sawest, where the
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues.”
(Revelation 17:15)

What was the first beast like?

“The first was like a lion, and had eagle's
wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were
plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth,
and made stand upon the feet as a man, and
a man's heart was given to it.”
(Daniel 7:4)

“Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have
driven him away: first the king of Assyria
hath devoured him; and last this
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath
broken his bones.”
(Jeremiah 50:17)
“The king of Babylon….shall come up like a
lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the
habitation of the strong.”
(Jeremiah 50:43-44)

“For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter
and hasty nation,…they shall fly as the eagle
that hasteth to eat.”
(Habakuk 1:6-8)

“But there came a time when the wings
were plucked. It no longer rushed upon its
prey like an eagle. The boldness and spirit of
the lion were gone. A man's heart--weak,
timorous, and faint--took the place of a
lion's strength. Such was the case with the
nation during the closing years of its history,
when it had become enfeebled and
effeminate through wealth and luxury.”

By what was the second beast symbolized?

“And behold another beast, a second, like to
a bear, and it raised up itself on one side,
and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it: and they said thus
unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.”
(Daniel 7:5)

“The character of the power is well
represented by a bear. The Medes and
Persians were cruel and rapacious, robbers
and spoilers of the people. This Medo-
Persian kingdom continued from the
overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus to the battle
of Arbela in 331 B.C., a period of 207 years.”
Revelation, p. 108)

“The bear raised itself up on one side. The
kingdom was composed of two nationalities,
the Medes and the Persians. The same fact is
represented by the two horns of the ram in
Daniel 8. Of these horns it is said that the
higher horn came up last, and of the bear
that it raised itself up on one side. This was
fulfilled by the Persian division of the
kingdom, for although it came up last, it
attained the higher eminence, becoming a
dominant influence in the nation.”
Revelation, p. 108)

“The three ribs doubtless signify the three
provinces of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt,
which were especially oppressed by Medo-
Persia. The command, "Arise, devour much
flesh," would naturally refer to the stimulus
given to the Medes and Persians by the
overthrow of these provinces.”
Revelation, p. 108)

By what was the third universal empire
symbolized?

“After this I beheld, and lo another, like a
leopard, which had upon the back of it four
wings of a fowl; the beast had also four
heads; and dominion was given to it.”
(Daniel 7:6)

“In the spring of 334 B.C. Alexander crossed
over to Asia Minor at the head of an army of
some thirty-five thousand Macedonians and
Greeks….Four years later – he had
overthrown the Persian empire founded by
Cyrus the Great, and set himself up as its
ruler by right of conquest. Another four
years were spent in the subjugation of the
wild tribes of the Iraninan Plateau and the
more civilized peoples of the Indus Valley.
In this short space of eight years Alexander
had annexed an area of little less than two
million square miles, containing a population
of more than twenty million persons.

The amazing rapidity of his conquest, a feat
all the more remarkable in view of the small
force at his disposal, was due in large part to
the superior organization of the Macedonian
army, the excellence of Alexander’s
generals, trained in the school of his father,
Philip, and his own superlative qualities as a
general and leader of men.”

“The beast had also four heads.” The Grecian
Empire maintained its unity but little longer
than the lifetime of Alexander in 323 B.C.
Within twenty-two years after the close of
his brilliant career, or by 301 B.C., the
empire was divided among four of his
leading generals.

“Cassander had Macedonia and Greece in
the west; Lysimachus had Thrace and the
parts of Asia on the Hellespont and the
Bosphorus in the north; Ptolemy received
Egypt, Lydia, Arabia, Palestine, and Coele-
Syria in the south; and Seleucus had Syria
and all the rest of Alexander's dominions in
the east.… These division were denoted by
the four heads of the leopard.”
Revelation, p. 109)

How was the fourth kingdom represented?

“After this I saw in the night visions, and
behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly; and it had great
iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces,
and stamped the residue with the feet of it:
and it was diverse from all the beasts that
were before it; and it had ten horns.”
(Daniel 7:7)

“Inspiration finds no beast in nature to
symbolize the power here illustrated. No
addition of hoofs, heads, horns, wings,
scales, teeth, or nails to any beast found in
nature will answer. This power is diverse
from all the others, and the symbol is wholly
different from anything found in the animal
kingdom.”
Revelation, p. 110)

What was the fourth beast declared to be?

“The fourth beast shall be the fourth
kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse
from all kingdoms, and shall devour the
whole earth, and shall tread it down, and
break it in pieces.”
(Daniel 7:23)

“How accurately Rome… answers to the
beast before us! In the dread and terror
which it inspired, and in its great strength, it
answered admirably to the prophetic
description. The world had never seen its
equal. It devoured as with iron teeth, and
broke in pieces all that stood in its way. It
ground the nations into the dust beneath its
brazen feet.”
Revelation, p. 110)

What was denoted by the ten horns?
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise.”
(Daniel 7:24)

What change did Daniel see take place in
these horns?

“I considered the horns, and, behold, there
came up among them another little horn,
before whom there were three of the first
horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold,
in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man,
and a mouth speaking great things.”
(Daniel 7:8).

What inquiry on the part of Daniel shows
that the fourth beast, and especially the
little-horn phase of it, constitute the leading
feature of this vision?

Daniel 7:19 Then I would know the
truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse
from all the others, exceeding dreadful,
whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of
brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and
stamped the residue with his feet;
20 And of the ten horns that were in his
head, and of the other which came up, and
before whom three fell; even of that horn
that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very
great things, whose look was more stout
than his fellows.”

When was the little horn to arise?
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise: and another shall
rise after them.”
(Daniel 7:24)

The ten horns, as already been shown, arose
when Rome, the fourth kingdom, was
divided into ten kingdoms.
This division was completed by A.D. 476.
The little-horn power which was to arise
after them and before whom three of the
other kingdoms – the Heruli, the Vandals,
and the Ostrogoths – fell, was the Papacy.

What is said of the little horn as compared
with the ten horns of the fourth beast of
Daniel 7?
“He shall be diverse from the first, and he
shall subdue three kings.”
(Daniel 7:24)

“From the historical testimony above cited,
we think it clearly established that the three
horns plucked up were the powers named:
the Heruli, A.D. 493, the Vandals, in 534, and
the Ostrogoths finally in 533 though
effective opposition by the latter to the
decree of Justinian ceased when they were
driven from Rome by Belisarius in 538….”
Revelation, p. 128)

What attitude of rivalry was the Papacy,
represented by the little horn, to assume
toward the Most High?
“And he shall speak great words against the
most High.”
(Daniel 7:25)

How does Paul, speaking of the man of sin,
describe this same power?
“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, shewing himself that he is God.”
(2 Thessalonians 2:4)

“Hence the pope is crowned with a triple
crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of
the lower regions. . . . Moreover the
superiority and the power of the Roman
Pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly
things, to earthly things, and to things under
the earth, but are even over angels, than
whom he is greater. . . . So that if it were
possible that the angels might err in the
faith, or might think contrary to the faith,
they could be judged and excommunicated
by the pope. . . . For he is of so great dignity
and power that he forms one and the same
tribunal with Christ. . . .

“The pope is as it were God on earth, sole
sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief king
of kings, having plenitude of power, to
whom has been intrusted by the omnipotent
God direction not only of the earthly but also
of the heavenly kingdom. . . . The pope is of
so great authority and power that he can
modify, explain, or interpret even divine
laws.”
Revelation, p. 129)

How was the little horn to treat God’s
people?
“And shall wear out the saints of the most
High.”
(Daniel 7:25)

“Can anyone doubt that this is true of the
papacy? The Inquisition, the 'persecutions of
the Waldenses;' the ravages of the Duke of
Alva; the fires of Smithfield; the tortures at
Goa--indeed, the whole history of the
papacy may be appealed to in proof that his
is applicable to that power. If anything could
have 'worn out the saints of the Most High'--
could have cut them off from the earth of
that evangelical religion would have become
extinct, it would have been the persecutions
of the papal power.

In the year 1208, a crusade was proclaimed
by Pope Innocent III against the Waldenses
and Albigenses, in which a million of men
perished. From the beginning of the order of
the Jesuits, in the year 1540, to 1580, nine
hundred thousand were destroyed. One
hundred and fifty thousand perished by the
Inquisition in thirty years. In the Low
Countries fifty thousand persons were
hanged, beheaded, burned, and buried alive,
for the crime of heresy, within the space of
thirty-eight years from the edict of Charles V
against the Protestants, to the peace of
Chateau Cambreses in 1559.

Eighteen thousand suffered by the hand of
the executioner in the space of five years
and a half during the administration of the
Duke of Alva. Indeed, the slightest
acquaintance with the history of the papacy
will convince any one that what is here said
of 'making war with the saints' (verse 21),
and 'wearing out the saints of the Most High'
(verse 25), is strictly applicable to that
power, and will accurately describe its
history.”
Revelation, pp. 130-131).

“That the Church of Rome has shed more
innocent blood than any other institution
that has ever existed among mankind, will
be questioned by no Protestant who has a
complete knowledge of history. The
memorials, indeed, of many of her
persecutions are now so scanty that it is
impossible to form a complete conception of
the multitude of her victims, and it is quite
certain that no powers of imagination can
adequately realize their sufferings. . . .”

What else does the prophecy say the little
horn would do?
“And think to change times and laws.”
(Daniel 7:25)

“Q. Have you any other way of proving
that the Church has power to institute
festivals of precepts?
“A. Had she not such power, she could
not have done that in which all modern
religionists agree with her; - she could not
have substituted the observance of Sunday
the first day of the week, for the observance
of Saturday the seventh day, a change for
which there is no Scriptural authority.” –
Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal
Catechism, … p. 174.

“Q. How prove you that the Church
hath power to command feasts and
holydays?
“A. By the very act of changing the
Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants
allow of; and therefore they fondly
contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday
strictly, and breaking most other feasts
commanded by the same church?

“Q. How prove you that?
“A. Because by keeping Sunday, they
acknowledge the Church’s power to ordain
feasts, and to command them under sin: and
by not keeping the rest by her commanded,
they again deny, in fact, the same power.” –
Rev. Henry Tuberville, D.D., An Abridgment
of the Christian Doctrine, p. 58.

“Is not every Christian obliged to
sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day
from unnecessary servile work? Is not the
observance of this law among the most
prominent of our sacred duties? But you
may read the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation, and you will not find a single line
authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.
The Scriptures enforce the religious
observance of Saturday, a day which we
never sanctify.” – James Cardinal Gibbons,
The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 ed.), pp. 72,
73.

THE CATHOLIC RELIGION CHANGES THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS!
• Some man might ask me, “If the Catholic
religion deletes a commandment how do
they still come up with ten
commandments?
• Let’s compare the Catholic ten
commandments to the real ten
commandments from the good ol' King
James Bible.

• The following list on the Catholic side is
taken from a textbook used in a Catholic
school. It is titled, “Growing in Christian
Morality” by Julia Ahlers, Barbara Allaire,
and Carl Koch, page 40. It has both nihil
obstat and imprimatur which are official
declarations that a book or pamphlet is
free of Catholic doctrinal error. The
authors of this book know these
commandments are deceitful. Look at
what they say:

• ...These are the Ten Commandments, from
Exodus, chapter 20, in the traditional way
they are enumerated by Catholics They did
NOT use what THEIR NRSV said, they
“enumerated” them the traditional way
enumerated by Catholics.

The Catholic
Deception
First Commandment
I, the LORD, am your
God...You shall not
have other gods
besides me.
The King James Bible
First Commandment
I am the LORD thy
God...Thou shalt
have no other gods
before me.

The Catholic
Deception
Second
Commandment
You shall not take
the name of the
LORD, your God, in
vain.
Second
Commandment
Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness
above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that
is in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt
not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve
them.

The Catholic
Deception
Third Commandment
Remember to keep
holy the sabbath day.
Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take
the name of the
LORD thy God in
vain.

The Catholic
Deception
Fourth
Commandment
Honor your father
and your mother.
Fourth
Commandment
Remember the
sabbath day, to keep
it holy.

The Catholic
Deception
Fifth Commandment
You shall not kill.
Fifth Commandment
Honor thy father and
thy mother.

The Catholic
Deception
Sixth Commandment
You shall not commit
adultery.
Sixth Commandment
Thou shalt not kill.

The Catholic
Deception
Seventh
Commandment
You shall not steal.
Seventh
Commandment
Thou shalt not
commit adultery.

The Catholic
Deception
Eight Commandment
You shall not bear
false witness against
your neighbor.
Eight Commandment
Thou shalt not steal.

The Catholic
Deception
Ninth Commandment
You shall not covet
your neighbor's wife.
Ninth Commandment
Thou shalt not bear
false witness against
thy neighbour.

The Catholic
Deception
Tenth
Commandment
You shall not covet
your neighbor's
house.
Tenth
Commandment
Thou shalt not covet.

Until what time were the saints, times, laws
of the Most High to be given into the hands
of the little horn?
“They shall be given into his hand until a
time and times and the dividing of time.”
(Daniel 7:25)

 “a time” = 1 year or 360 days
 “times” = 2 years or 720 days
 “half a time” = ½ year or 180 days
or
1260 days or 1260 years
“a time, and times, and half a time”

The period is also mentioned in the following
expression:
a time and times and half the time
(Revelation 12:14).
a thousand two hundred and threescore
days (Revelation 12:6).
forty and two months (Revelation 13:5).

In symbolic prophecy what length of time is
represented by a day?
“After the number of the days in which ye
searched the land, even forty days, each day
for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even
forty years.”
(Numbers 14:34)

“The edict of the emperor Justinian, dated
A.D. 533, made the bishop of Rome the head
of all the churches. But this edict could not
go into effect until the Arian Ostrogoths, the
last of the three horns that were plucked up
to make room for the papacy, were driven
from Rome; and this was not accomplished,
as already shown, until A.D. 538…. The edict
would have been of no effect had this latter
event not been accomplished; hence from
this latter year we are to reckon, as this was
the earliest point where the saints were in
reality in the hands of this power.

From this point did the papacy hold
supremacy for twelve hundred and sixty
years? Exactly. For 538 + 1260 = 1798; and
in the year 1798, Berthier, with a French
army, entered Rome, proclaimed a republic,
took the pope prisoner, and inflicted a
deadly wound upon the papacy. Though it
has never since enjoyed all the privileges
and immunities which it possessed before,
we are seeing a gradual restoration of its
former strength.”

What will finally be done with the dominion
exercised by the little?
“But the judgment shall sit, and they shall
take away his dominion, to consume and to
destroy it unto the end.”
(Daniel 7:26)

“The opening of this judgment scene is
located by the prophecy at the close of the
great prophetic period of 2300 years, which
terminated in 1844….
“Four years after this, in 1848, the great
revolution which shook so many thrones in
Europe, also drove the pope from his
dominions. His restoration shortly after was
through the forces of foreign bayonets, by
which alone he was upheld until his final
loss of temporal power in 1870.”
Revelation, p. 145, 146)

“In 1870 the armies of Victor Emmanuel
took away the temporal power of the pope,
the very year that the Twentieth Ecumenical
Council decreed the infallibility of the pope
when speaking ex cathedra, that is, when as
shepherd and teacher of all Christians he
defines a doctrine concerning faith or
morals.

But despite the increasing honors heaped
upon the office of the bishop of Rome by the
clergy, the pope's temporal power was
wholly taken away. Thereafter the popes
shut themselves up as prisoners in the
Vatican at Rome until the signing of the
concordat with Italy, in 1929, which
restored "his dominion" over the Vatican
City, a small section of the city of Rome.”
Revelation, pp. 146-147)

To whom will the dominion finally given?
“And the kingdom and dominion, and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the
saints of the most High, whose kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
shall serve and obey him.”
(Daniel 7:27)

“After beholding the dark and desolate
picture of papal oppression of the church,
the prophet is permitted once more to turn
his eyes upon the glorious period of the
saints' rest, when they shall have the
kingdom, free from all oppressive powers, in
everlasting possession.

How could the children of God keep heart in
this present evil world, amid the misrule and
oppression of the governments of earth, and
the abominations that are done in the land,
if they could not look forward to the
kingdom of God and the return of their Lord,
with full assurance that the promises
concerning them both shall certainly be
fulfilled, and that speedily?”
Revelation, p. 147)

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