The Fourth Beast

CHAPTER 7

7:1 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.

7:2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by

night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven

strove upon the great sea.

7:3 And four great beasts came up from the sea,

diverse one from another.

7:4 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.

7:5 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.

7:6 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.

7:7 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.

7:8 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.

7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and

the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was

white as snow, and the hair of his head like the

pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame,

and his wheels as burning fire.

7:10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from

before him: thousand thousands ministered unto

him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood

before him: the judgment was set, and the books

were opened.

7:11 I beheld then because of the voice of the

great words which the horn spake: I beheld even

till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed,

and given to the burning flame.

7:12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they

had their dominion taken away: yet their lives

were prolonged for a season and time.

7:13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one

like the Son of man came with the clouds of

heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they

brought him near before him.

7:14 And there was given him dominion, and glory,

and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and

languages, should serve him: his dominion is an

everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom that which shall not be

destroyed.

7:15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the

midst of my body, and the visions of my head

troubled me.

7:16 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.

7:17 These great beasts, which are four, are four

kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

7:18 But the saints of the most High shall take

the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever,

even for ever and ever.

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;

7:20 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.

7:21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with

the saints, and prevailed against them;

7:22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment

was given to the saints of the most High; and the

time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

7:23 Thus he said, 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.

7:24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are

ten kings that shall arise: and another shall

rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the

first, and he shall subdue three kings.

7:25 And he shall speak great words against the

most High, and shall wear out the saints of the

most High, and think to change times and laws:

and they shall be given into his hand until a

time and times and the dividing of time.

7:26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall

take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy

it unto the end.

7:27 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.

7:28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me

Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my

countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter

in my heart.


According to Daniel and John, in the book of the

Revelation, there will be a man, not a woman, who

rises to prominence in the latter times, who is

described as 'the beast' by John in Revelation

13:1-10 and 'another little horn' by Daniel in

7:8. This is the person who will be given power

to rule at the end of time.


In keeping with modern fads, this passage shows

that 'diversity' has a place in scripture. In

verse 24 it says that the beast 'shall be diverse

from the first'. I'm not sure what kind of

diversity Daniel saw, but we can see all around

us that the populace is being programmed to

accept odd theorys about 'diversity'. As I see

it, this fits well with what is in store for the

future. Over the course of many years there has

been an effort to convince people that the

prominence of Western Civilization and its

association with Judeo-Christian ideology was

just a freak accident, and without merit. It

appears to me that once upon a time, there was,

at least in Western Europe and the U.S., an

influence of this ideology, but it's been mostly

mischaracterized and discarded as a guiding

ideology. It has been replaced with strange

ideas about multi-culturalism. All I can say is

that there is no such thing as multi-culturalism,

there is only one dominant culture, and we have

chosen it. Oh, and it's not traditional Western

Civilization that we have chosen. It's time has

passed. I won't weep over the demise of Western

Civilization. It is determined by Divine

authority. However, I do find that it's amazing

how quickly and easily people will be fooled.

From my perspective, as I look at these notions

of 'diversity' and 'multi-culturalism' all I can

see is the substitution of something that has

value -- the rule of law, being traded for junk

-- the rule of men. The native population traded

Manhattan Island for a few trinkets, and people

haven't changed much since then. They still like

trinkets.


Again in verses fifteen and sixteen, Daniel says

that he is troubled about this vision, and he

asks to be given the interpretation. It is

strange symbolism that Daniel sees, and seems to

have nothing in common to what he knows about the

world of his day. If you recall at the end of

the book, Daniel is reminded again that these

events are 'sealed' until the time of the end.

He's given assurance that he doesn't need to know

any more about these visions, just to write them

down. It's not until now, recent times, that we

see prophetic events falling into place. Again,

scriptural prophecy is focused on Jerusalem and

we live in the days of the revival of the ancient

nation of Israel. It's not something that men

have planned. If you will look at scripture, you

see that it was all determined before we ever got

here. All that we can do is watch events unfold

according to the script, across the world stage.


It seems that these visions were a recurring

event in Daniel's life. If he held reservations

about writing them down over the years, maybe

with a suspicion that it was something that he

ate, the fact that it was recurring over the span

of his lifetime, with the final episode recorded

in chapter twelve, toward the end of his days,

had to be convincing enough for him to do exactly

as he had been told and record them for

posterity. In the passage of the seventy weeks

he was able to see that there is a specific

timeline advancing toward the end of time and

that he was being given a view of things that

reached far beyond his immediate time and place.


In verses one and two, we see that Daniel is

telling someone else about his visions, and they

are writing out the passage that's recorded here.

So we have this list of four 'kings' who will

come 'up from the sea' v.3 and 'arise out of the

earth' v.17. They are all different from each

other v.3. In verses 17 and 18 we see that these

kings who are given prominence for a short period

of time, will all be replaced by the 'saints of

the most High' upon his arrival. For whatever

reason, time will wind down under the rule of

these 'beasts' that Daniel sees. It seems to me

that this represents a sequence of world rulers

(horns) who originate in three separate

geo-political or national entities (beasts), as

Daniel uses the phrase 'after this' in verses six

and seven. Then, at last, the fourth beast with

ten horns. I'd have to imagine that the word

'beast', also described using the word 'king' is

a political entity or nation, and 'horn'

represents the leader of that political entity or

nation. The first three beasts, have only one

leader each, but they are also part of the

confederation of the ten horns plus 'the little

horn' that compose the fourth 'beast'. In this

beast, this political or national entity, the

three prior 'beasts' and their representative

'horns' are displaced by the 'little horn' in the

fourth 'beast'. So out of all this, 'the beast'

seems to be a (global?) political organization,

being dominated by one man. There are only the

ten horns plus the little horn, who appear to be

dominating world politics. Then, in verse 21,

it's the little horn, who takes control of the

fourth 'beast'. He is the eleventh member

(little horn), and latest arrival, to the

political confederation that rules the world in

the last days (the fourth beast). Verse 23 says

that it's the 'fourth beast' that is the 'fourth

kingdom upon earth' and 'shall devour the whole

earth'. Yeah, this fourth beast is the political

system that we now see taking shape under the

modern theory of 'globalism'. And they appear to

be right on schedule.


It's verse 21 that mentions the eleventh horn

making it part of his agenda to make 'war with

the saints'. I guess he doesn't like the idea

of pluralism, or the notion of freedom of speech,

and acts under the mistaken idea that he is going

to be able to stamp out 'religion' and

'religious' influence. You are left up to your

own to decide the particular flavor of ideology

that this leader prefers. Seems to me that he

could come out of almost anywhere, since

traditional ideas of liberty and rule of law are

foreign to modern political agendas.


So, here we find a little introduction to the

interpretation of what Daniel means when he

writes about 'the beast'. If you stop and think

about it for a couple minutes, you can see that

over the course of human history, there have been

any number of 'great beasts' v.3. You know, in

modern times the third reich is one right off the

top of my head, and then the various communist

dictatorships. It might be that the beast

mentioned here in verse four, the one given 'a

man's heart' refers to the U.S. or another

'democratic' political entity. Notice that 'the

wings thereof were plucked'. Are we being

'plucked'? Hmmm. Makes you wonder.


In the days ahead, we can take a closer look at

the symbolism recorded here and see if there is

any way to identify who these great beasts

represent. It's my suspicion that the horns are

not given much detail because of the fact that

these positions are open to whomever will desire

to fill them. Any willing accompliss will do.

The thing to keep in mind is that 'all's well

that ends well'. Daniel was shown that the

saints of the most High may lose some battles,

but they will be given final dominion by the

Ancient of days.