A significant aspect of the Abrahamic covenant is the promise of a special Land: Gen 13:14,15,17. This Land is specifically defined: Rev 15:18. It was (and this may be of real consequence in the study of Bible prophecy, esp of Rev) a land of ten peoples and therefore ten kings (Rev 15:19-21).

Elsewhere this Land is defined similarly — ie, as basically stretching from the borders of Assyria/Babylon to the border of Egypt (Exo 23:23; Deu 1:7; 11:24; Jos 1:4; Psa 72:8). It was within this extended Land of Promise (the full territory of which the people of Israel have never yet occupied) that much of Bible history has been played out. It is within this same extended Land that much of Bible prophecy has been set: it is a Land, for example, of ten kings and peoples (slightly more or less at different times) who have almost always been the enemies of God’s people.

This same Land — the Middle East in general — is the arena in which the Book of Rev is to be fulfilled; a Land where Israel is today surrounded by approximately ten Arab nations or kingdoms intent on her destruction (cp Rev 12:3; 13:1; 17:12,16; etc). Coincidence? Or something more?

The ten nations of Psa 83 occupy today the same area, generally, as the ten peoples of Gen 15:19-21. Thus, the extended “Land of Promise” (Gen 15:18) is a land, prophetically speaking, peopled by a (reborn) Israel and ten “kings”. (Did Jesus refer to this when he prophesied of the sprouting forth of the “fig tree” “and ALL the trees” in Luk 21:29,30?) Does all this sound familiar?

The ten nations of Psa 83, however, are different peoples than the ten nations of Gen 15. Those of Psa 83 are for the most part relatives and descendants of Abraham; those of Gen 15 were the earlier occupants of Canaan and the Middle East. Is there some continuity or connection between these two different groups, each of ten peoples?

Remember that “Arab” means “mixed”; a very similar word occurs — four times — in Dan 2:41-43, re the (presumably ten) toes of the Great Image: “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 [ereb] with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron MIXED [ereb] with baked clay, so the people will be a MIXTURE [ereb] and will not remain united, any more than iron MIXES [ereb] with clay.” [See Lesson, Arab/”mixed”]

What evidently has happened is that, since the beginning, the (Arab) descendants of Abraham have intermarried with the Canaanitish peoples so as to create, over time, a mixed or mingled peoples. There are in fact Biblical cases of this very sort of intermingling:

“While he [Ishmael] was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt” (Gen 21:21).

“He [Esau] married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite [cp Exo 23:23; Jos 1:4], and also Basemath daughter of Elon the HIttite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen 26:34,35).

Other instances of the word “ereb” — signifying “mixed” or “mingled” — related to peoples are:

• 1Ki 10:15: “all the Arabian kings”.
• Jer 25:20,24: “the foreign (or ‘mingled’: AV) peoples… the Philistines… all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign (mingled) peoples… in the desert”.
• Jer 50:37: “all the foreigners (or ‘mingled people’: AV) that are in the midst of her [Babylon]…”
• Eze 30:5: “Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all Arabia (or ‘the mingled people’: AV)”.
• Neh 13:1,3: “Ammonite and Moabite… all who were of foreign descent (or ‘the mixed multitude’: AV)”.

So the “mixed peoples” of the Middle East are the “Arabs” — with blood ties to the original Canaanitish peoples and the corrupted descendants of Abraham. Both these groups of peoples have had, historically, intense hatred for the Jews.

Now, with the admixture of a unifying religion — Islam — these Arabs view the Jews as great “infidels”, who have no real claim to the Land of Palestine.

Certainly the stage is set for a battle between Israel and the ten “kings of the earth (or Land)”! And, as Daniel describes, it is in the days when these mixed/mingled (Arab) peoples trample down Israel (and that may be very soon!) that the God of heaven will set up His everlasting Kingdom (Dan 2:44)!

Assyria emerged as a territorial state in the 14th century BC. Its territory covered what is now the northern part of modern Iraq. From the beginning, Assyria was a strong military power bent on conquest and expansion. By the 9th century BC, Assyria had consolidated its control over all of northern Mesopotamia (the land “between the rivers” — ie the Tigris and the Euphrates). Then the Assyrian armies marched beyond their own borders — in brutal and efficient waves — to expand their empire, seeking booty to finance their plans for still more conquest. By about 850 BC, the Assyrian menace posed a direct threat to the small Jewish states to the west and south — Israel and Judah, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of the Old Testament.

During the period from 850 to 700 BC, the Assyrian empire reached its zenith. During part of this time, the kings of Assyria, ruling in Nineveh on the Tigris, also exercised dominion over ancient Babylon on the Euphrates about 200 miles to the south; they were quite pleased to refer to themselves as “kings of Babylon” (much as Queen Victoria of England claimed the additional title “Empress of India”).

It was also during the latter part of this period (approx 720-700 BC) that king Sargon of Assyria conquered and occupied the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2Ki 17:1-6). His successor Sennacherib carried many thousands of captives away to Nineveh and Babylon (Mic 4:10; Psa 137:1-4), defeated 46 fortified cities of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Isa 8:7,8;10:5,6), and finally threatened even the city of Jerusalem — before meeting a titanic defeat — at the hand of the Angel of the Lord (Isa 37:1-36).

This might seem like so much dry-as-dust history, except for these facts:

1. The modern-day Iraq of Saddam Hussein occupies the same territory as the OT Assyria. Its leader behaves in the same brutal fashion as did the ancient kings of Assyria — his mind ever set on the acquisition of land, wealth, and power. His lack of concern for human life allows him to use threats other world leaders would shrink from — and, when provoked, to carry out such threats. He styles himself the head of the whole Arab world, and he demonstrates an intense hatred for the Arabs’ common enemy Israel. And he is perhaps the greatest threat to the peace of the Middle East and the world.
2. A number of OT prophecies, about the coming and work of the Messiah, were written by prophets (most notably, Isaiah) who lived in Jewish lands under the long shadow of the Assyrian threat at the time of its greatest expansion. It is clear that many of their prophecies had immediate (but incomplete) fulfillments in:

• The deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, through the faith of righteous king Hezekiah;
• The destruction of the Assyrian oppressors by the power of God;
• The return from captivity of many Jews whom Sennacherib and his predecessors had carried into slavery; and
• A new period of peace in a regenerated nation of Judah.

But it is even more clear that a number of such prophecies still await their final (and perfect) realization at the return of Christ.

It is possible that the development of a modern-day “Assyrian”, with avowed designs to expand its territory and, in the process, annihilate the people of Israel, is a precursor to a coming divine deliverance. This last deliverance will be so stupendous as to dwarf all previous revelations of God, for it will be none other than the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory to vanquish the “Assyrian” and all his allies, to save his people Israel, and to establish God’s millennial (1,000-year) Kingdom on this earth.

A summary of Bible references to Assyria helps us to develop a fuller picture of the Last Days:

(1) Gen 10:8-11:	The first great rebel against God, after the Flood, was Nimrod, “a mighty one in the earth”. This great “hero” led an early apostasy from the One true God, and was probably instrumental in the building of the tower of Babel (Gen 11) — the first great symbol of man’s pride and worship of himself. It is interesting, then, that the beginning of his kingdom was in “Babel… in the land of Shinar”, and that “from that land he went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh”. So one of the earliest instances of man’s defiance of God and His will is to be traced to a builder and ruler of Babylon and Assyria. One cannot help but feel, upon reading today’s headlines, that sinful man has now come full circle — when another power centered in the modern-day land of old Babylon and Assyria prepares to stretch out its hand against the nearby land of God’s people Israel.
(2) Isaiah:	The first half of this lengthy book, especially, is concerned in large part with the threat of ancient Assyria against the twin Jewish nations of Israel and Judah. And that ancient Assyrian, Sennacherib, with all his mighty host — an army of 185,000 — was defeated by the Divine Hand (Isa 37). But, when he predicted and described this soon-to-come colossal overthrow of Israel’s enemies, much of Isaiah’s language was plainly Messianic… so much so that the careful Bible student will conclude that these prophecies of Isaiah (like so much of Bible prophecy) have dual fulfillments:
	a)	First, the overthrow of Sennacherib the Assyrian through the prayers and faith of the good king Hezekiah and his counselor Isaiah; and
	b)	Second, the overthrow of an even greater latter-day “Assyrian ” through the prayers of Israel’s faithful (and spiritual “Israel”, of all races), and the divine intervention led by Jesus Christ upon his return to the earth.
(3) Isa 7; 8:	“the Lord shall bring upon thee (ie the land of Israel), and upon your people… days that have not come” — ie the worst trials the people of Israel have ever faced, through “the king of Assyria” (Isa 7:17,20). In this context the land is referred to as the land of “Immanuel” (Isa 8:7,8). The introduction of Immanuel (cp Mat 1:23 and Isa 7:14) lifts this and similar prophecies out of a merely OT situation and points the way to a greater and more momentous final fulfillment in the Last Days.
(4) Isa 10:	A new and modern “Assyria” will at first be used by God to punish His own people Israel (Isa 10:5). But such punishment will be carefully measured (cp Jer 30:7,11), and when Israel has endured the proper duration and severity of God’s chastening, then see Isa 10:12.
	Possibly this carefully measured period of trial for Israel is the familiar 3 1/2 years / 42 months / 1,260 days of Dan 12:7 and Rev 11:1-3; 12:6,14; 13:5. This period will be sufficient for the final subjugation and captivity of Israel by an “Assyrian”-led coalition of Arab nations, and for the development of a remnant out of Israel who believe in their Messiah Jesus and who call upon him to deliver them from their enemies — which he will be only too glad to do (Psa 83:9-13; Zec 14; Rev 11:11,12,15-19; etc).
(5) Isa 11:	The march of the Assyrian upon Jerusalem, which is carefully detailed in Isa 10:28-32, is divinely countered (but only after the previously-mentioned period of great tribulation) by the coming of the Lord Jesus, a rod out of the stem of Jesse (Isa 11:1), upon whom God’s spirit rests (vv 2,3), who will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth (v 4; cp Rev 1:16; 2:26,27; 11:15; 12:5; 19:15,21). And so when Israel is delivered and God’s Kingdom is set up (Isa 11:9), then the Lord will recover his people from Assyria (Iraq), Egypt, Elam (Persia, or Iran) and Shinar (Babylon, Iraq again) (Isa 11:11,16). This Last Days deliverance of Israeli believers — who have evidently been carried into captivity by the invaders — is also alluded to in Isa 19:23-25; 27:12,13; 35:1-10; 43:1-7; 52:1-10; Jer 3:18; 16:14,15; Joe 3:2-7; Zec 10:9-11; 14:2; and prob Rev 13:10.
	The drying up of the Euphrates in its seven streams referred to in Isa 11:15, a part of the deliverance of the Jews from captivity, is probably the subject of Rev 16:12. This drying up immediately precedes the battle of the great day of God Almighty, called “Armageddon” (vv 15,16).
(6)	Isa 13-23: The nations, together with the already-mentioned Assyria and Egypt, who are responsible for the defeat of Israel, and the carrying of many Jews into a new “captivity”, come in for individual castigation in a series of “Woes” or “Burdens” beginning in Isa 13: Babylon/Assyria (Isa 14:25); Philistia/Palestine (Isa 14:28-32); Moab (Isa 15; 16). Damascus/Syria (Isa 17); Egypt (Isa 18-20); Dumah or Edom (Isa 21:11); Arabia/Kedar (Isa 21:13-17); and Tyre or Lebanon (Isa 23).
(7) Isa 30:31.
(8) Isa 31:8,9.
(9) Micah:	Micah a contemporary of Isaiah speaks of the Kingdom of God being established in Jerusalem, in a kingdom of peace and righteousness (Mic 4:1-4). Thus, a “Babylonian” captivity in the Last Days. How will the redemption be accomplished? By the child to be born in Bethlehem (cp Mat 2:1-6 and Luk 2:1-7). He will be “the Peace” when the Assyrian comes into the Land (Mic 5:5).
(10) Nahum:	The burden of “Nineveh” (Nah 1:1) — capital of ancient Assyria. Why? Because the wicked had passed through Judah (v 15) and dashed in pieces the people of Israel (Nah 2:1).

Is all this the fate of an Iraqi coalition led against Israel by that modern-day “Assyrian” Saddam Hussein (or some even-more-powerful successor)?

In the OT, “Babylon” and “Assyria” are sometimes used interchangeably of the same political power:

• The two powers spoke essentially the same language. The cultures, religions, economics, and ambitions of these two cities were practically identical.
• In the time of Isaiah, Assyria conquered Babylon, and then in the time of Zedekiah Babylon destroyed Assyria.
• Sennacherib had captured and subjugated Babylon. “King of Babylon” = one of titles of kings of Assyria. Names are switched in Ezr 6:22; Lam 5:6; Zep 10:10,11; Isa 14:4,25; Mic 5:5; 4:10. Cp 2Ch 33:11; Amo 5:27 with Act 7:43.
• Nahum read Isa 47 as prophecy of Assyria, not Babylon. He was Isaiah’s contemporary: cp Nah 3:5,4,16 with Isa 47:2,3,9,15; Nah 1:15 with Isa 52:7; Nah 1:13 with Isa 47:6; Zep 2:13,15 with Isa 47:8; and Zep 2:14,15 with Isa 13:21,22.
• Nahum also alludes to the “whoredoms, witchcraft, etc” of “Babylon” (Nah 3:4,5,16 = Isa 47:3,9,15) when his subject is still the end of Nineveh.
• In the reign of Josiah, Pharaoh-necho went against “the king of Assyria” at Carchemish (2Ki 23:29) — actually Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
• Stephen interchanged “Damascus” and “Babylon” in Act 7:43.
• In Isa 13:19 and often in Isa 14, “Babylon” is represented as the supreme world-power, exercising a cruel tyranny over many nations and esp over Israel. But in Isaiah’s day, Babylon was either a conquered state of the Assyrian empire or was making sporadic attempts at rebellion from the Assyrian yoke. Thus the “Babylon” here must be “Nineveh/Assyria”.
• The kings of Assyria took special pride in their domination of Babylon. Sargon records as one of his royal titles: “Viceroy of the gods of Babylon”. Tiglath-pileser proudly called himself “King of Babylon”.

The first great rebel against God, after the Flood, was Nimrod, “a mighty one” and “a mighty hunter”. Nimrod (the name in the Heb means “rebel”) was prob responsible for the building of the tower of Babel (Gen 11) — the first great symbol of man’s pride and worship of self. In fact, the building of Babel, in Shinar, and the building of Nineveh, in Assyria, are both attributed to this “great” (?) man.

Gen 14 gives a brief but interesting account of a confederacy of four kings from the east which attacked five kings in the land of Canaan, in the days of Abram — ie approx 2000 BC. The four kings were headed in Gen 14:1 by Amraphael of Shinar, which is the land of Babylon. (Some think “Amraphael” is simply another name for Hammurabi, the almost-legendary ruler of early Babylon, who promulgated civilization’s first great law code.) This army defeated its enemies and carried away spoils and captives, among which was Abram’s nephew Lot, but Abram and his servants mounted a daring raid to recover his nephew and other captives.

The kingdom of Assyria established a dominance over the ancient city of Babylon during much of the period from 850 to 700 BC. But in the 7th century BC Babylon began to rise again, and finally the tables were turned and she came to surpass Assyria as the dominant power in the whole of the Middle East. This empire is called by historians the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In a series of campaigns, King Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar pushed back the Assyrians to the west and north and controlled the heartland of Mesopotamia. In 612 BC the Babylonians, aided by the Medes and the Scythians, destroyed the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (cp Nah 3). The retreating Assyrian army, bolstered by the armies of its former enemy Egypt, tried repeatedly to stem the tide, but in vain. In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar, now at the head of the Babylonian forces, won a decisive victory at Carchemish on the northern Euphrates.

Judah, the southern Israelite kingdom with its capital at Jerusalem, now fell under the sway of Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:1; 2Ch 36:1-10). From 605 to 586 BC Jewish kings continued to reign as “puppets” of the Babylonian overlord. But when the last, Zedekiah, attempted to reassert Jewish independence, Jerusalem was besieged and crushed by the Babylonians, assisted by legions from the neighboring Arab nations of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Syria, and the Philistines (2Ki 25:1-8; 2Ch 36:11-17; cp Jer 47-49). The city fell, the glorious Temple of Solomon — which had seen the very Presence of the Almighty — was left in ruins, some of the Jews were enslaved and carried away to Babylon, and others were scattered to the four winds (2Ki 25:9-17; 2Ch 36:17-20).

Babylon continued as the dominant power in the area, and as the oppressor and “treader-down” of Israel, until 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Medes and Persians of Cyrus. But the city itself was not destroyed; it became one of Cyrus’ capitals, and he appropriated to himself the coveted title “King of Babylon”. More than 200 years later, it was still a trading center of great importance when visited by Alexander the Great (IBD 1:246).

In fact, the city of Babylon was never really destroyed, but rather fell victim to a sort of benign neglect — sinking bit by bit, century by century, further into decay. There were, however, both Jews and Christians living in Babylon in NT times and beyond (cp 1Pe 5:13 and Josephus, Ant 15:2:2 and 18:9:5-9). A Jewish traveler of the 12th century reported, for example, that there existed an active synagogue within a mile of the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s temple of Marduk [M. Allen, “Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary of”, Jewish Quarterly Review 17 (1905), 514-530]. It is historically confirmed that, from its beginnings, Babylon has never totally ceased to exist. This simple fact has tremendous impact on the interpretations of certain Bible prophecies.

Such prophecies speak of the fall of Babylon as one of the great events of the Last Days, and an event seemingly associated with the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on the earth again. To a certain extent, some prophecies (such as Jer 50 and 51) have already been fulfilled with the defeat of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BC. Sometimes it is even proposed that Cyrus himself, as the conqueror of Babylon, was AN “Anointed One”, or “Christ”, sent by God to destroy evil Babylon (cp Isa 44:28; 45:1; Dan 6:28). There is certainly some merit in this idea. Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon did fulfill Bible prophecy. However, certain of the relevant prophecies may have a further fulfillment, since the NT prophecy about the fall of Babylon necessitates another fall of the city — a fall that is demonstrably yet future.

Some of the relevant OT prophecies are discussed in light of possible further fulfillment, and the Rev passages are examined for the best interpretation possible:

(1)	Isa 13: “The burden of Babylon” (v 1): Babylon will be destroyed by God’s “sanctified ones” (v 3) in “the day of the Lord”: “it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty” (v 6): “Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonian’s pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there” (vv 19,20).
	It is true that, as v 17 states, God would stir up the Medes against Babylon. But history confirms that even after its defeat at the hands of Cyrus, Babylon continued to exist and to be inhabited. And so the precise prediction of vv 19, 20 has not been fulfilled as yet! Is it not likely, then, that the Medo-Persian conquest of Babylon, in the 6th century BC, was only an initial (and not a complete) fulfillment of this prophecy? And if so, that complete fulfillment yet remains for the last days.
(2)	Isa 14 continues in the same vein: At the time when Babylon falls, and when a taunt is taken up against the king of Babylon (vv 4,12) — at that very time — Israel will be especially blessed by God: “The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. On the day the Lord gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage…” (vv 1-3). It is true that the defeat of Babylon by the Medes and Persians led, after another few years, to the return of some Jews to Jerusalem. No doubt the return and rebuilding under Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest was A fulfillment of this and similar prophecies. But is it the ONLY, or even the FOREMOST, fulfillment? Or does a greater fulfillment await us in the Last Days? Notice the language: “they will… rule over their oppressors” (v 2) — that was not at all true of the Israel of Ezra’s day, who continued subservient to successive regimes of Persians and Greeks and Romans long centuries after Babylon’s defeat. And again, in v 3, “the Lord gives you relief from suffering… and… bondage” may point to more than the limited and temporary OT restoration of Israel.
(3)	Isa 47 and 48 picture a fall of Babylon: “The Lord… will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans” (Isa 48:14). At the same time the Lord will deliver His people who have been held captive there: “Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out” (Isa 48:19,20). Fulfilled in the days of Nehemiah? Surely. Totally fulfilled then? Maybe not. Because a last-days (and miraculous) deliverance and return of Jewish believers — who will have evidently been carried into captivity by the Babylonian invaders — is alluded to in Isa 11:1-16; 19:23-25; 27:12,13; 35:1-10; 43:1-7; 52:1-10; and elsewhere.
(4)	Jer 50 and 51 is the most detailed prophecy of the fall of Babylon. And again, this passage was certainly fulfilled in 539 BC. But a number of verses suggest a future fulfillment: ” ‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten’ ” (Jer 50:4,5). When in the past has Israel bound itself in a perpetual covenant to the Lord at Jerusalem, a covenant that cannot and will not be broken? Never. So these verses have yet to be fulfilled.
	” ‘But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare’ ” (Jer 50:19,20).
	Israel will experience true forgiveness only when they accept Jesus as their Messiah. That event is yet future.
	“Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And who is that shepherd who will stand before me?” (Jer 50:44). Only by a real stretch may such words be applied to Cyrus, the Old Testament conqueror of Babylon. But they are quite appropriate to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:9,10; Rev 5:5; 10:3), the Good Shepherd (Isa 40:11; John 10:11), and the One “like God”!
(5)	Rev: The Apostle John wrote Revelation at least 600 years after the fall of the original city — so plainly there will be another fall of Babylon at the time of Christ’s coming (which is of course the main theme of Rev). Since the days of Luther, a common interpretation of Revelation has been to see in “Babylon” a mystical, or hidden, name for Rome. Thus the fall of “Babylon” is interpreted as the ultimate overthrow of the Apostate Church system centered in Rome. Roman Catholicism is demonstrably a corrupt system that, along with all other equally wicked systems, deserves to be, and will be, destroyed by Christ at his coming. But is that the best way to interpret “Babylon” in Revelation? It was the drying-up of the Euphrates River that led to the fall of ancient Babylon — this is suggested in Jer 50:38; 51:36 and confirmed by secular history: After the waters of the river were secretly diverted in the dead of night, enemy troops made their way along the empty river-channel right into the heart of the city, and Babylon fell. In Revelation, surely there is again a geographical and a cause-and-effect connection between the drying-up of the Euphrates River and the fall of Babylon in the Last Days (cp Rev 16:12 with Rev 16:17-21; 14:8)
	Consider that the Euphrates River and the historical Babylon were connected geographically. The drying-up of the one led, in the past, to the fall of the other. And there is only one “Babylon” through which the Euphrates River flows! So the case is strengthened for a more literal interpretation of the Babylon of Revelation — ie that it applies to the real city being rebuilt today, and to the nation occupying the ancient territory of Babylonia. And so the last chapters of Rev picture the defeat of a vicious and depraved Babylon, the hateful and cunning enemy of God’s people — coinciding with the complete victory of a spiritually renewed Jerusalem. The age-old conflict between the two cities — the one standing for sin and rebellion from practically the beginning of time, and the other standing for peace and righteousness — will come at last to a soul-satisfying conclusion. “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird… for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes” (Rev 18:2,5). “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem… It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Rev 21:10,11).

The modern-day Iraq of Saddam Hussein occupies the same territory as the OT Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar. And the links between Saddam’s Iraq and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon are even more pronounced, since for some time the government of Iraq has been involved in a massive archaeological reconstruction of ancient Babylon. The modern restoration of Babylon began in 1978 and was, at least until the gulf war began, scheduled for completion in 1994. There is no information about damage to the project from allied bombing of Iraq; but ancient Babylon, 40 miles of so south of Baghdad, is not known to be near any major strategic sites and so may have been spared.

As of February 1990, over 60 million bricks had been laid in the reconstruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s city. Despite the objections of archaeologists, Saddam Hussein has insisted on rebuilding directly over the most ancient ruins. His reconstruction includes the Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, a Greek theater, many temples, Nebuchadnezzar’s Throne Room, and a model of the famed Ishtar Gate. He plans also to rebuild the legendary Hanging Gardens and several artificial hills, including one to be called “The Tower of Babel”. Why such infatuation with an idea? It has been said: “President Hussein’s decision to rebuild Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace… is the centerpiece of a campaign to strengthen Iraq’s nationalism by appealing to history… Mr. Hussein’s campaign also serves subtler ends; it justified Iraq’s costly war with Iran as the continuation of Mesopotamia’s ancient feud with Persia. And it portrayed Saddam Hussein as successor to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s mightiest ruler” (Paul Lewis in the New York Times, April 19, 1989). And Saddam himself has referred to: “Nebuchadnezzar, the national hero who was able to defeat the enemies of our nation in the land of Canaan [Palestine, or Israel] and to take them as prisoners of war to Babylon. What we need now is to increase awareness in this regard” (quoted in the Babylonian International Festival brochure for September 22, 1987).

And so a rebuilt Babylon is Saddam’s way of conjuring up the magic of Arab unity and greatness, and authenticating his call for the Arab nations to help him accomplish what his hero Nebuchadnezzar accomplished before him: i.e. the destruction of a Jewish Jerusalem.

“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up… The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air… God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath” (Rev 16:12,17,19).

“With a mighty voice he shouted: ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ ” (Rev 18:2).

The whole prophetic narrative of the Bible is in many ways a tale of two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem. There are times when Babylon masquerades as Zion — a false city of God with a false Messiah leading her. And there are times when Zion in her apostasy has appeared as Babylon. But in the final conflict of the last days, these two cities will be literally pitted against each other. Zion will briefly succumb under the might and pride of Babylon, to rise again in eternal glory. It was in Babylon where Nimrod first built the tower of Babel, the first organized rebellion against God; and it was there that God first entered into open judgment of flesh and humanity en masse. And it is here likewise that His purpose with sin and His true people will likewise be fulfilled. Babylon was also called Su-anna, “the holy city”. Yet “the holy city” is Jerusalem, thus making Babylon a fake Zion. Herodotus says the city was square, just as new Jerusalem.

Unfulfilled Prophecies: “Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isa 13:19). And yet Babylon was never suddenly overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah in their fiery destruction. It was conquered by the Medes and Persians and fell into decline, but it was not violently destroyed. Likewise: “The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and settle them in their own land… They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors… On the day the Lord gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!… All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing” (Isa 14:1-4,7).

When Babylon is ultimately destroyed, Israel will finally be at Peace and will dwell in safety. Israel has been a nation since 1948, but not for one day has the nation of Israel known real peace or ease. It has never been able to claim all the lands God promised the Israelites, and Israel’s Arab neighbors have been a constant threat and danger.

There is the assumption by many that all the OT prophecies about ‘Babylon’ were fulfilled in the overrunning of Babylon by the Medes. However, there are many details of those prophecies which did not have a total fulfillment, and thus what the Medes did as but a partial, incipient fulfillment of what is going to come in the last days. This also requires that ‘Babylon’ be understood as literal Babylon — for it was against her that the prophecies were uttered in the first place. And quite clearly, the prophecies of Revelation against ‘Babylon’ are extensions of those of the Old Testament. We therefore are encouraged to see the ‘Babylon’ of Rev as the Babylon of the prophets — ie literal Babylon.

Unfulfilled details, which require a latter day fulfillment:

• Literal Babylon decayed due to the ravages of time, whereas Babylon was to fall “suddenly” in her prime (Jer 51:8; Rev 18: “one hour”). This must be future in its fulfillment. Rev. 18:22; 14:8 both speak of “Babylon is fallen” as applying to a latter day scenario. And yet these words come directly from Isa 21:9 and Jer 51:8, prophecies about literal Babylon being destroyed suddenly — a destruction which is clearly future, seeing the city was never so suddenly destroyed in the past. The suddenness of the destruction is a keynote of these prophecies.
• It is not true that Babylon has been uninhabited “forever”. “The city of Babylon has never ceased to exist. Although its name was changed on two occasions, it has never been totally unpopulated. Hillah presently has 250,000 citizens and was built almost entirely of bricks from the parts of the old city of Babylon” (Joseph Chambers, A Palace For The Antichrist 146). Note too that the Babylonian Talmud was written by Jews living in Babylon in the 6th century AD. 1 Pet 5:13 implies there was even an ecclesia there in the first century.
• “For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them [the Babylonians], and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors” (Isa 14:1,2). This passage has never been fulfilled yet. It will be in the last days; and at this time, as Is. 14 goes on to detail, Babylon [literal Babylon, in the context] will fall.

Other prophecies about the sudden destruction of literal Babylon — which can only be latter day in their application — are also the basis for the words of Rev about latter day Babylon. Consider: (a) “Thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me: I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa 47:8), compared with: “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously…for she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (Rev 18:7). (b) “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood” (Isa 47:9), compared with: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning” (Rev 18:8). (c) “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up” (Isa 47:13), compared with: “For by thy sorceries…” (Rev 18:23).

The Babylon of Rev is the Babylon of Jeremiah and Isaiah, literal Babylon, which awaits her full punishment. This conclusion is strengthened once it is appreciated how the harlot Babylon of Rev 17, loud, gaudy, decked with jewelry and painted face, is replete with reference to Semiramis, the goddess / mother of Nimrod, and one of the patron gods of literal Babylon.

The antichrist is a mimic of the true Christ; his kingdom is a parody of God’s Kingdom. And the King of Babylon claiming “I am and none else beside me” are the very words of Yahweh — the King of Babylon is clearly to be identified with the man of sin, who sits as God in God’s temple (2Th 2). But the similarities run deeper. The Babylonian epic of creation is a parody of the Genesis account; the flood has its counterpart in the epic of Gilgamesh; and the Code of Hammurabi, an early ruler of Babylon, was clearly an anti-law of Moses. And Saddam Hussein’s supporters greet him as the Messiah of the Arab world (Chambers 45). Now Saddam may pass off the scene, but the point is that a similar charismatic leader could arise and be the antichrist.

The accounts of the latter day invasion of Israel all feature a single charismatic individual, who will be destroyed personally by the Lord Jesus at His coming. This is Paul’s “man of sin”, Daniel’s aggressive king of fierce countenance, Ezekiel’s Gog, the chief prince. It is also the person referred to by Micah: “And this man [Messiah] shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land” (Mic 5:1,2). The Lord Jesus will save His people in the latter days from an “Assyrian”. It has been shown that Assyria and Babylon are used almost interchangeably in Scripture. Gog was a Jew who apostatized and went to live in Assyria / Babylonia, according to 1Ch 5. This is why he has the appearance of spirituality; and he may even be an Arab Christian. 2Th 2 describes him as “the son of perdition”, exactly the phrase used about Judas, the false disciple of Jesus. Notice how Tariq Aziz [Iraqi foreign minister at the time of writing] and other leading members of the Iraqi cabinet are in fact Arab Christians, not Muslims.

(Adapted from LD, by DH)

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy… and the dragon gave him his power… and great authority” (Rev 13:1,2).

Introduction

They are such frightening pictures, aren’t they? Wild dragon-like monsters, with purple and red crocodile hides, fierce countenances, sharp claws, thrashing tails, and extra heads and horns sprouting out at odd angles? Did Daniel have terrible nightmares as a child which he could never put out of his mind? Did the apostle John use psychedelic drugs, as some cynics have suggested? Are twentieth-century readers supposed to take all of this seriously anyway?

Yes! There is rhyme and reason to these fantastic visions. It is not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to make sense of it all. Maybe none of us can expect, at the present time, to make sense of ALL of it. But the Bible does provide, both in its historical sections and in other more straightforward prophecies, guidelines by which we can begin the task of unraveling the apocalyptic enigmas.

“Beasts”?

The Bible tells us generally that men who know not God, or who treat other men in a brutal fashion, are no better than “beasts” in God’s sight, and that they will ultimately perish like beasts (Psa 49:12,20; Ecc 3:19,20). This is probably the rationale for Gentile oppressors of God’s people being characterized as “beasts” of prey, in Daniel and elsewhere. The great “Beast” of Rev 13, with its 7 heads and 10 horns, also is said to have the number of a man (v 18), perhaps indicating that it represents a particular man.

At least one man in Old Testament times was actually made by God to be like a “beast”. This was the great king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who recognized himself in the “head of gold” in the image of Daniel 2, and whose great pride and arrogance brought upon him an unusual judgment from the Almighty: see Dan 4:16,25,32,33.

Only a coincidence? Or does this suggest that the “Beast” of the Last Days will be Babylonian, as was the “Beast” Nebuchadnezzar?

Furthermore: is it another coincidence that the “Beast”, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, set up an image (of himself?) to be worshiped by all his subjects (Dan 3:4-6) — remarkably similar to the image (not to mention the overall circumstances) described in Rev 13?

Such “coincidences” may in fact be useful patterns — arranged by the Divine Hand — upon which the outlines of future events may be discerned. In other words, Old Testament history may point the way to the fulfillment of New Testament prophecy. For example, along with “Beasts” and images, Babylon and the Euphrates River (the great river that flowed through the heart of ancient Babylon) also appear as symbols in the Book of Revelation:

1. Rev 9 describes a great Destroying Power bound at the Euphrates River — the river which flows directly through modern-day Iraq (Rev 9:12-21).
2. Rev 16:12 pictures the Divine judgments poured out upon the Euphrates River, causing it to dry up; this leads immediately to the fall of Babylon (Rev 16:17-21; cp Rev 14:8; 17:5; 18:2,10,21).

All this makes sense if the fate of the Euphrates River and the fate of Babylon are closely connected in the Last Days, as they were in Daniel’s day — when the drying up of the Euphrates was the proximate cause of the capture of Babylon by Darius the Mede (Dan 5:31; cp Jer 50:38; 51:36). And all these details point to the greater Middle Eastern area as the scene of Revelation’s final fulfillment.

The Beast of Rev 13 combines the characteristics of the four beasts of Dan 7. Thus:

Beast of Revelation 13	Daniel 7
Like a leopard	3rd beast
Feet like a bear	2nd beast
Mouth of a lion	1st beast
10 horns	4th beast

The Apocalyptic Beast appears to be a composite of all four beasts of Dan 7. Furthermore, the four beasts have, collectively, 7 heads and ten horns, ie:

Beast	Heads	Horns
Lion	1	—
Bear	1	—
Leopard	4	—
Fourth Beast	1	10
Totals	7	10

And the one Beast of Rev 13 likewise has, all to itself, seven heads and ten horns! This is not random confusion and monstrosity for its own sake; there is pattern here, and in pattern there may be discerned divine inspiration and direction for our understanding.

“Heads”?

The idea that the great Beast of Revelation somehow combines and represents the four kingdoms of Daniel, which in turn trod down Israel, suggests the following analysis (names on the same line are equivalent):

The 4 kingdoms of Dan 2;7	The 7 heads of Revelation
1. Babylon	1. Iraq*
2. Persia	2. Iran*
3. Greece (a)	3. Greece* Turkey (c) Egypt (Ptolemy)* Syria (Seleucus)*
4. Rome	4. Rome (b)

* These five “heads” had ruled over Israel by John’s time. Egypt (the king of the south) and Syria (the king of the north) each ruled for only short periods during approximately 300-100 BC (see Dan 11).

• After the death of Alexander the Great, his vast empire was divided into 4 parts, ruled over by his 4 generals. Greece’s 4 “heads” (Dan 7:6; 8:8,22) — roughly equivalent to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Syria today — plus the 3 other kingdoms — Iraq, Iran, and Rome — (with one head each) = 7 “heads”.
• The 6th “head” “now is”: At the time of John’s writing, Rome ruled over Israel. Counting the five that had already ruled over Israel, and the sixth was “now is”, there is left only one other head, which is…
• The 7th “head” — which in John’s day “is still to come”. Of the seven “heads” as outlined above, this would leave only the Turkish/Ottoman Empire. Although it ruled over the Middle East for a long time, it ruled only for a “short time” over Jewish-populated Palestine. There may also be a place here for another Last-Days power (somehow related to all the others) which will rule for the very “short time” of about 3 1/2 years.

“Horns”?

In Daniel, the alignment between Dan 2 (the “Image”) and Dan 7 (the 4 “beasts”) suggests that the (10?) “toes” that arise after the fourth empire are equivalent to the 10 “horns” that grow out of the fourth “beast”.

In the first instance of fulfillment, the 10 “horns” were the mercenary armies of the Arabs and Idumeans (Edomites) which assisted the Roman legions in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state in AD 70 (cp the historian Josephus in his Wars of the Jews) [see Lesson, Ten toes, identity].

But Daniel also indicated that the 10 horns also exist when “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed” (Dan 2:44). Since the Kingdom of God has not yet been set up as predicted here (see also Dan 7:27), there must be a further fulfillment of the toes prophecy. This illustrates the dual-fulfillment feature common in Daniel’s prophecy (and other Bible prophecies): once in an immediate and preliminary and partial sense, and once again (in a more complete sense) at the time of the end.

With Israel back as a nation in their land again (since 1948), the stage is set for another fulfillment. Who are most likely to be the 10 “horns” of the Last Days?

Psalm 83 lists 10 nations — giving their ancient names — which will join together in their determination to destroy Israel as a nation in the Last Days.

Likewise, recent Middle East history has seen ten Arab nations — occupying generally the same territory as the nations of Psalm 83 — gain their independence during the same generation (1922–1971) that saw the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948. (This is probably the import of Jesus’ words in Luke 21:29: “Behold the fig tree [Israel] AND ALL THE TREES.”)

There are currently, in the area occupied by the old Roman Empire, exactly 10 such independent Arab nations. This scenario even allows for the infamous eleventh “horn” of Dan 7, which arises after the others and acts as a catalyst in the defeat and persecution of Israel — the incipient “nation” of Palestine. At this writing it is not yet independent, but it could become so soon. Will this be the eleventh horn which comes up among, and after, the former ten?:

1. Egypt (1922)
2. Saudi Arabia (1932)
3. Iraq (1932)
4. Lebanon (1943)
5. Syria (1946)
6. Jordan (1949)
7. Kuwait (1963)
8. Bahrain (1971)
9. Qatar (1971)
10. United Arab Emirates (1971)

and

11. Palestine (?)

Thus the following analysis (names on the same line are generally equivalent):

10 Nations of Psalm 83	10 (and then 11) Horns of Revelation (a)
1. Assur (Assyria)	1. Iraq
2. Hagarenes	2. Egypt (?)
3. Tyre	3. Syria
4. Gebal	4. Lebanon
5. Moab	5. Jordan
6. Ammon
7. Edom	6. Saudi Arabia
8. Amalek
9. Ishmaelites	7. Kuwait 8. Qatar 9. United Arab Emirates 10. Bahrain
10. Philistines	11. Palestine (PLO) (b)

• These nations (all Arab) are all remnants of the Roman Empire in the Middle East (thus justifiably considered the “extension” of Rome, and the “toes” of Dan 2). This criterion (ie being part of the old Roman Empire) would exclude other nations like Yemen, Oman, and Iran. In fact, the territory of the ten Arab kings, along with that of Israel, is the only area of the whole world where all of Daniel’s four kingdoms actually ruled (ie where the territories of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome at their furthest limits overlapped)!
• The eleventh “horn”? It seems to be similar to the other ten horns, yet it is somehow different, and it arises later and displaces three others (perhaps Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria?).

Summary

The two charts may now be combined, and — for purposes of contrast — set alongside the list of the aggressor nations of Eze 38 (once again, an attempt is made to show equivalency from left to right):

The 4 Kingdoms of Dan 2; Dan 7	The 7 Heads of Revelation	The 10 Nations of Psalm 83	The 10 (and then 11) Horns of Revelation	“Gog and Magog” of Eze 38
1. Babylon	1. Iraq	1. Assur or Assyria	1. Iraq	—
2. Persia	2. Iran	—	—	1. Persia
3. Greece ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”	3. Greece 4. Turkey ” ” ” ” 5. Egypt 6. Syria	— — — — 2. Hagar 3. Tyre, and 4. Gebal	— — — — 2. Egypt 3. Syria, & 4. Lebanon	2. Meshech 3. Tubal 4. Gomer 5. Togarmah — — —
4. Rome ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”	7. Rome ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”	5. Moab 6. Ammon 7. Edom 8. Amalek 9. Ishmael ” ” ” ” ” ” 10. Philistia	5. Jordan ” ” 6. Saudi Arabia ” ” 7. Kuwait 8. Qatar 9. UAE 10. Bahrain 11. Palestine (PLO)	— — — — — — — — —
—	—	—	—	6. Libya
—	—	—	—	7. Ethiopia

General Comments on the Chart

A. While there are numerous points of connection between the nations of Psa 83 and the Beasts, heads, and horns — the nations of Eze 38 are largely a different group. Might they not (as Rev 20 suggests) attack Israel only after Christ and the saints have defeated the Arab powers and established the Kingdom in Jerusalem?

B. One of the 7 “heads” of the “Beast” is wounded with a “deadly” wound, but recovers — so that all the world gazes in awe at the Beast (Rev 13:3,5,6). At this date, it can only be speculation, but is the Iraq of Saddam Hussein that head? And is Saddam’s recent overwhelming defeat in the Gulf War the “deadly wound” from which he (the “Beast”, like Nebuchadnezzar) will rise again to dominate the Arab nations and threaten Israel once more?

C. The confederacy outlined above (in the first four columns) also includes the historical “kings of the north” (Syria) and “south” (Egypt). In Bible times, powers to the immediate north and south often put Israel into a pincers between them (cp all of Dan 11). Will they do so again?

D. The last element (and one of the most significant elements) of such a confederacy could be a newly-independent and vocal Palestine. Could PLO head Arafat be the second “Beast” of Rev 13 and the “little horn with a mouth speaking great things” of Dan 7:20 (ie great things against Israel)? Consider that Daniel’s beastly image had Babylon (Iraq?) for a head, but David’s beastly image — Goliath — was a Philistine, or Palestinian!

Conclusion

It is at least a possibility that such a confederacy as outlined above could arise in the near future, to threaten Israel (and, to some extent, the rest of the world). If it did, it would be at least one means of fulfilling the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and John. The great “image” of Dan 2, the 4 “beasts” of Dan 7, the 7 “heads”, the 10 toes and 10 “horns”, and the eleventh “horn” speaking blasphemous things may be seen to have their modern counterparts in such a pan-Arab coalition.

There may well be other scenarios that, at this point, are still possible — from both a Biblical viewpoint and a political one. Even at this late date, other changes could take place in the developing picture — new leaders rising up to displace old familiar ones, new treaties and agreements among the principals. Events have moved so rapidly in the last several years — so there is almost nothing imaginable which can surprise us any more. Or is there?

It is the business of all disciples to keep open minds as they study their Bibles in these turbulent and exciting times, and most especially to prepare themselves spiritually for the return of Christ.

It really was an astonishing dream which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had. No wonder he came out of it with a scream. And it must have a terribly important meaning, something to do with himself, for hadn’t he seen his own face in it?

Well, he had an entire trade union of sorcerers, soothsayers and magicians to be his interpreters in all mysterious matters. They’d tell him what it meant!

But could they? He was pretty sure that more than once they had “conspired to tell (him) misleading and wicked things” (Dan 2:9). So to test them he demanded that they tell him first the details of the dream. Then he’d be prepared to listen to their interpretation of it.

Of course, that stumped them completely. So, “Off with their heads!”

But in the nick of time, there stepped forward a young Hebrew prophet claiming that with the help of his God both the dream and its meaning would be made known.

An image of metal

Sure enough, next day Daniel began to spell out the dream, detail by detail, while Nebuchadnezzar sat there on his throne wide-eyed with astonishment.

What the king had seen was a great metallic image with:

1. A head of gold.
2. Chest and arms of silver.
3. Belly and thighs of bronze.
4. Legs of iron.
5. Feet of mixed iron and clay.

What did it stand for? Daniel explained that here was a succession of empires, beginning with the empire of Babylon — of course, for that face had Nebuchadnezzar’s own features.

Its meaning

The identification of these empires is easy to anyone who knows a bit of ancient history. Indeed, other places in the Bible provide simple clues to confirm that the sequence goes like this:

1. Gold / Babylon
2. Silver / Persia
3. Bronze / Greece
4. Iron / Rome

But why stop there? Since the time of Rome there have been quite a few other empires, most of them every bit as important as these. What about the Mongol empire of Genghis Khan? the T’ang and Ching dynasties? the Aztec and Mayan empires? Philip II’s Spain? Napoleon’s Imperial France? the British Empire? The British Empire of Queen Victoria encompassed fully 25% of the land mass and population of the whole world, considerably more than did any of the four “empires” of Daniel!

An important qualification

There is a simple explanation why these other empires are not part of the prophecy. The vision was not intended to be a prophetic history lesson about all future world empires. These four empires were the powers that would oppress the Jews, Daniel’s people, in their own Land of Israel. This qualification explains what would otherwise be two difficulties:

1. The third kingdom of bronze is described (Dan 2:39) as “(ruling) over the whole earth”. But the Greek empire of Alexander the Great, big as it was, did not cover all the earth, not even all known civilization. However, the Old Testament word eretz, translated “earth”, also very commonly means “land” — and quite especially the Land of Israel. Alexander incorporated Israel into his growing empire.
2. Secondly, the empire of Rome is described as “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” (Dan 2:40). Yet this “crush-and-break” description seems inappropriate to Rome. For wherever the Romans went, they took the blessings of law and order and settled government, the famous “Pax Romana”. But — once again — these words were grimly true concerning Rome’s relations with that little province of Judea. Unable to tame these turbulent Jews, the frustrated Romans eventually trampled down Jerusalem and leveled the land from end to end. Jews were deported everywhere, and a decree was issued that they must not return to their own land. So Daniel’s prophecy — when taken as relating to Israel — turned out to be marvelously exact in this detail also.

Bible students will readily recognize the importance of Israel, and especially Jerusalem, to God’s purpose. The Old Testament was written by Hebrews, for Hebrews, about Hebrews, in the land of the Hebrews, and in the language of the Hebrews. And the New Testament, though spread across the Roman world in Greek, was also written — predominantly — by Hebrews and about Hebrews, and in language rich with allusions to the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures.

So the image which Daniel saw and interpreted began with Babylon, not because Babylon was the first “world empire”, but because Babylon was the first Gentile power to rule over God’s people in Jerusalem. The Persians were the second, but they did not “conquer” Jerusalem — they inherited it from a distance, simply by defeating the Babylonians. And similarly with the Greeks: their rule of Jerusalem came with the defeat of the Persians at a place quite remote from Jerusalem, in what is now Turkey.

And then there was Rome. Jerusalem passed into the possession of the Romans in their annexation of the Seleucid portion (called ‘the king of the north’ in Dan. 11) of the Grecian empire, in what is now Syria.

In proportion?

If we assume that the components of the image refer to the Gentile kingdoms during the times when they ruled over a Jewish Jerusalem, then a remarkable proportion becomes apparent:

1. Babylon conquered and trampled down Jerusalem in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (c 609 BC.). The time during which Babylon was destined to rule over Jerusalem was scripturally designated, as 70 years (Jer 25:12; 29:10). The prophet Daniel, while in captivity in Babylon, understood by reading Jeremiah’s writings that the period of “70 years” was coming to an end (Dan 9:2).
2. True to Jeremiah’s prophecy, Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC, ending the Jewish captivity in Babylon. Ezr 1:1 refers to this event as the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy. Some Jews returned to their land, and Persian rule over Jerusalem continued until Alexander crushed the Persian army at Issus, and moved southward through Jerusalem in 332.
3. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, control of Jerusalem alternated between the Seleucids of Syria (the “king of the north”) and the Ptolemies of Egypt (the “king of the south”) for another 160 years. Eventually, a revolt broke out among the Jews because the Grecian “king of the north”, Antiochus Epiphanes, deliberately desecrated the Jewish temple in 167 AD. In 161 AD the Jewish leaders, the Maccabees, sought a Roman alliance for protection.

Thus, the first three portions of the image endured, respectively, 70 (the head), 206 (chest and arms), and 170 years (belly and thighs) — give or take a couple of years! This is just about perfectly proportional to the human form.

Now comes the hard part! We can assign the Roman portion of the image a starting point of 161 BC, but where does it end? Some historians consider that the Roman Empire endured until 565 AD — a total period of 726 years. But such a period for the fourth portion of the image (the legs, from knees to feet) would yield, in proportion, legs almost twice as long as all the rest of the body: something like a circus clown on ridiculously long stilts!.

But consider the alternative, as suggested earlier: that the Roman empire should be of consequence only when it was ruling over God’s people in Jerusalem. This would yield a period of 230 years (161 BC through 70 AD — when Jerusalem was trodden down by the Romans, and the Jews were scattered); such a shorter period would restore the whole image to proper perspective .

The “gap” in the image

Finally, what about the toes of iron and clay? If we remain true to our assumption (ie, that the “kingdoms” enumerated in Daniel 2 are those that bore or will bear rule over Jews in Jerusalem), then — after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD — there can/could be no fifth and final part of the image until there are/were Jews back in the Land again. And so we are compelled, by this assumption, to allow for a sizable “gap” between the first four parts of the image and the last and most crucial part, the feet and toes.

Such a gap certainly appears to work against the congruity of the image in its time perspective, and might be construed as a point against this view. However, it must be admitted that a similar “gap”, of almost 2,000 years, is by far the most reasonable interpretation of the Olivet prophecy (Mat 24; Mar 13; Luk 21), which clearly contains elements already fulfilled in 70 AD and elements yet to be fulfilled in the Last Days. And, likewise, the Book of Revelation (with its oft-repeated ‘I come quickly… shortly… or soon’, but also with prophecies plainly about the Last Days) is most easily reconciled by a “gap”, or “deferment”, hypothesis.

[The “deferment” theory — put simply — differs from the “gap” theory in this: The “deferment” theory is of an initial but partial fulfillment of the whole of a prophecy, to be followed by a final and complete fulfillment of the whole — thus involving some repetition. (For more information, see WRev 259-273.)]

And, in each case, the gap (or deferment) in prophetic fulfillment is for the same reason: During that period, the Jews were not in their Land or in possession of Jerusalem. It is not stretching the point too far to say that the Divine “clock” seems to stop when the conditions in the Middle East are not immediately favorable to the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

Who are the toes?

These “toes” must refer to ten powers, some strong, some weak, who oppress the Jews when they are finally back in the Land of Israel, and who subdue Jerusalem once again. Daniel provides the clue for their identification: “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 [ereb] with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed [ereb] with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture [ereb] and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes [ereb] with clay” (Dan 2:41-43).

The “mixed”, or “ereb”, peoples are of course the Arabs of the Middle East (cp also the same Hebrew word in 1Ki 10:15; Jer 25:20,24; 50:37; Eze 30:5; Neh 13:1,3). These are peoples of mixed ancestry, descended variously from Ishmael, Esau, Lot, the Philistines, and others. They have never “remained united”, always quarrelling and falling out among themselves… except in one particular: they are almost always solidly united in their hatred of Israel!

Thus, Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, fully authenticated so far, suggests an Arab conquest of Israel in the not too distant future. This is exactly in line with what is evident in many other Bible prophecies.

However, just as the toes take up only a small amount of space in the human figure, so also it may be expected that the Arab domination will last for only a very short while. And the Bible gives us that time period also: 3 1/2 years… 42 months… 1,260 days (Dan 7:25; 9:27; 12:7,11,12; Rev 11:2,3; 12:6; 13:5). Such a period — if taken literally — would preserve the perfect proportion of Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

Roman, or European, “toes”?

There is, of course, another and very different view of things held by some prophecy students, as follows: The feet and toes of Daniel’s image, being extensions of the legs, have often been equated with the “divided Roman empire” that followed the decline and fall of Rome herself in the sixth century AD. It is suggested that this “divided” state of Europe corresponds to the feet and toes of the image, the last part of the image.

Beginning in the late 1950s, it was for some time popular to interpret the “ten toes” as the European Economic Community. The nations of the EEC were, according to this view, the last vestige of the old Roman Empire, and would be the final part of the Kingdom of Men. (It is generally forgotten that there are about 50 nations in existence today, many of them not even in Europe — including most of the Arab nations — that occupy territory formerly held by the old Roman Empire. So any of these other nations could also be considered “successor nations” to Rome.)

But, as the member nations in the EEC climbed to 12 and then 14, and with more almost certain to be admitted as of this date, this interpretation has fallen on hard times.

There is another problem with the “European toe” interpretation. If all the divided states of Europe, from approximately 565 AD to the present and beyond, are represented by the feet and toes of the image, then our image is grossly out of proportion. Not only does the image look like a man on ridiculously tall stilts, but he is standing on “feet” with seven or eight toes each, which are now more than half again as long as the rest of the body, including the greatly elongated legs!. The absurdity of this figure is a good reason for rejecting the interpretation which suggested it.

Sudden destruction

In the vision a stone cut out of a mountain without human hands (ie, a divinely-appointed “stone”!) comes flying through the air and crashes into the feet of the image, completely pulverizing them; the image crashes to the ground, and every bit of it is similarly ground to powder; then a mighty wind blows the whole out of sight, while the stone grows and grows until it becomes a mighty mountain filling all the earth (Dan 2:34,35,44,45).

The “stone” is clearly Jesus: the Son of God is the precious stone, the stone which the builders rejected, the stone of stumbling, but also the stone which God will make the chief cornerstone in His eternal temple (Psa 118:22; Isa 8:14,15; 28:16; Mat 21:44; Mar 12:10,11; Luk 20:17; 1Pe 2:4-8).

A different kingdom

This “great mountain” which grows from a little stone will be a Kingdom set up by God Himself, which will last forever (Dan 2:44). When the Arab “toes” overrun Israel and trample down Jerusalem once again (as did the Babylonians and the Romans before them), then they will themselves be smashed swiftly by the coming of Christ in power and glory.

Where will this kingdom begin?

Hoping not to belabor an obvious point, we must nevertheless ask the question: Where will this eternal Kingdom begin? All Scriptures point to Jerusalem (Psa 2:6; Isa 2:2-4; 24:23; Jer 3:17; Mic 4:1,2; Joel 2:32; Oba 1:17; Zec 14:1-4; etc, etc).

So, working backward, if Jerusalem is where the Kingdom of God will begin (ie, where the “little stone” will begin to grow into a “great mountain”), then Jerusalem must also be the place upon which that stone falls in the first place.

And if this is so, then where will the feet of the image be standing when they are struck by that little stone? Jerusalem again. Jerusalem, the center of Bible prophecy — not Rome or Europe!

Author: Daniel

Time: 605 – 535 BC

Summary: The book of Daniel predicts the destiny of two opposing powers: The Kingdom of Men and the Kingdom of God, stressing that “the Most High rules in the Kingdom of Men”. Daniel’s prophecies generally deal with the nations that control Israel, from Daniel’s day until the return of Christ.

Key verse: “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 for ever” (Dan 2:44).

Outline

1.	Prologue: the setting: Dan 1
	a)	Daniel and his friends taken captive: Dan 1:1-7
	b)	The young men are faithful: Dan 1:8-16
	c)	The young men are elevated to high positions: Dan 1:17-21
2.	The destinies of the nations that rule Israel: Dan 2-7
	a)	Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a large statue: Dan 2
	b)	Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image: Dan 3
	c)	Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an enormous tree: Dan 4
	d)	Belshazzar’s and Babylon’s downfall: Dan 5
	e)	Daniel’s deliverance: Dan 6
	f)	Daniel’s dream of four beasts: Dan 7
3.	The destiny of the nation of Israel: Dan 8-12
	a)	Daniel’s vision of a ram and a goat: Dan 8
	b)	Daniel’s prayer and his vision of the 70 “sevens”: Dan 9
	c)	Daniel’s vision of a man: Dan 10:1-11:1
	d)	Daniel’s vision of the kings of the south and the north: Dan 11:2-45
	e)	The end times: Dan 12

Background

In 605 BC Prince Nebuchadnezzar led the Babylonian army of his father Nabopolassar against the allied forces of Assyria and Egypt. He defeated them at Carchemish near the top of the Fertile Crescent. This victory gave Babylon supremacy in the ancient Near East. With Babylon’s victory, Egypt’s vassals, including Judah, passed under Babylonian control. Shortly thereafter that same year Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadnezzar succeeded him as king. Nebuchadnezzar then moved south and invaded Judah, also in 605 BC. He took some royal and noble captives to Babylon including Daniel, whose name means “God is my judge” or “God is judging” or “God will judge” (Dan 1:1-3), plus some of the vessels from Solomon’s temple (2Ch 36:7). This was the first of Judah’s three deportations in which the Babylonians took groups of Judahites to Babylon. The king of Judah at that time was Jehoiakim (2Ki 24:1-4).

Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah and Coniah) succeeded him in 598 BC. Jehoiachin reigned only three months and 10 days (2Ch 36:9). Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah again. At the turn of the year, in 597 BC, he took Jehoiachin to Babylon along with most of Judah’s remaining leaders and the rest of the national treasures including young Ezekiel (2Ki 24:10-17; 2Ch 36:10).

A third and final deportation took place approximately 11 years later, in 586 BC. Jehoiakim’s younger brother Zedekiah, whose name Nebuchadnezzar had changed to Mattaniah, was then Judah’s puppet king. He rebelled against Babylon’s sovereignty by secretly making a treaty with Pharaoh Hophra under pressure from Jewish nationalists (Jer 37; 38). After a two-year siege, Jerusalem fell. Nebuchadnezzar returned to Jerusalem, burned the temple, broke down the city walls, and took all but the poorest of the Jews captive to Babylon. He also took Zedekiah prisoner to Babylon after he executed his sons and put out the king’s eyes at Riblah in Aramea (modern Syria; 2Ki 24:18 — 25:24).

Scope

Daniel, the main character from whom this book gets its name, was probably only a teenager when he arrived in Babylon in 605 BC. The Hebrew words used to describe him, the internal evidence of Dan 1, and the length of his ministry seem to make this clear. He continued in office as a public servant at least until 538 BC (Dan 1:21) and as a prophet at least until 536 BC (Dan 10:1). Thus the record of his ministry spans 70 years, the entire duration of the Babylonian Captivity. He probably lived to be at least 85 years old and perhaps older.

Writer

There is little doubt among conservative scholars that Daniel himself wrote this book under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Probably he did so late in his life, which could have been about 530 BC or a few years later. Several Persian-derived governmental terms appear in the book. The presence of these words suggests that the book received its final polishing after Persian had become the official language of government. This would have been late in Daniel’s life. What makes Daniel’s authorship quite clear is both internal and external evidence.

Internally the book claims in several places that Daniel was its writer (Dan 8:1; 9:2,20; 10:2). References to Daniel in the third person do not indicate that someone else wrote about him. It was customary for ancient authors of historical memoirs to write of themselves this way (cf Exo 20:2,7).

Language

Daniel is written in two languages, not just one. The Book is written in Hebrew and in Aramaic:

• Dan 1:1 through 2:4a: Hebrew language
• Dan 2:4b through 7:28: Aramaic language
• Dan 8:1 through 12:13: Hebrew language

There are a number of theories why two languages were used. One reason may be that the Spirit of God was indicating that the message of this book was for both Jews and Gentiles. Thus, the Hebrew portions would get the attention of the Jews, while the Aramaic portion would have the attention of the Gentiles.

Does the “day-for-a-year” principle pass the Scriptural test?

The day-for-a-year principle is one of the foundation stones for much of traditional Christadelphian prophetic interpretation. The continuous-historic viewpoint of prophecy that our pioneer brethren endorsed is especially dependent upon this principle. It is therefore incumbent upon us to test this principle against Scripture.

The day-for-a-year principle presumes that the word ‘day’, when found in a prophetic passage, should be interpreted as representing a literal year. For example, the 1,260,1,290, and 1,335 days of Daniel and Revelation are read as 1,260, 1,290, and 1,335 years (Dan 7:25; 12:7,11,12; Rev 11:2,3; 11:6,14; 13:5). In short, prophetic ‘days’ represent literal years.

There are passages that are quoted in support of this day-for-a-year principle. Do they prove it? Let us look at them one at a time.

1. Numbers 14:34: “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, and ye shall know My breach of promise.”

This verse apparently supports the principle, especially the phrase “each day for a year”. But, if we pay closer attention, we immediately notice two things about the passage. First, both phrases, “forty days” and “forty years” are in the text. Second, both time periods are literal.

There is a correspondence between the two time periods in the use of the Scripturally significant number forty (that is, “after the number of the days”). But there is absolutely no evidence that the phrase “forty days” is to be interpreted as “forty years”. The facts, as plainly declared in the passage itself, are that the spies searched the land for forty literal days and the nation wandered in the wilderness forty literal years.

In short, though initially this passage might seem to support the principle, after a more careful analysis we find that it actually does not.

2. Ezekiel 4:4-6: “Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”

Again, at first this passage seems to teach a principle that prophetic days are to be interpreted as representing years. But we must read carefully.

The passage actually says that Ezekiel was to lie on his left side for 390 literal days and on his right side for forty literal days, each representing the corresponding number of literal years of the iniquity of Israel and Judah. Here, as before, we find that, in the text of Scripture itself, “days” means literal days and “years” means literal years. Let us suppose that, instead of what is written, Ezekiel had been told: “Lie on your left side 390 days, and on your right side forty days. For I have laid upon you the time of Israel’s punishment.” (Note that the word ‘years’ does not occur in this hypothetical text.) Now let us suppose that the corresponding punishment of Israel’s iniquity was shown to be a Scripturally-attested 390 years and forty years. Such would be Biblical precedent for a day-for-a-year interpretation. However, this is not the case.

Both passages (1) and (2) use the same method: a certain number of literal days for individuals corresponding to the same number of literal years for the nation. In each case all the Scriptural time periods are literal periods.

3. Daniel 9:24: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city…”

This passage is used as support for the day-for-a-year principle as follows: 70 weeks = 70 x 7 days = 490 days; then, 490 days = 490 years, this last equality being supported by the principle in question. The problem with this analysis — and it is a fatal problem — is that the Hebrew word “shabua” (translated “week” in the AV) means nothing more than ‘a seven’. This explains why John Thomas used the anglicized Greek word ‘heptade’, meaning ‘a group of seven things’, in his translation of this passage given in his “Exposition of Daniel”. Eze 45:21 emphasizes that it cannot be simply read as “seven days” because in that verse the same Hebrew word “shabua” is combined with the word for days. In short, the “seventy weeks” of Dan 9 stands for a group of ‘seventy sevens’ of something to be determined [“seventy ‘sevens’ ” (NIV), “seventy weeks of years” (RSV, Roth)].

From the context, we discover that Daniel was asking (in v 2) about the seventy years prophesied by Jeremiah. Gabriel then gives him a prophecy concerning seventy times seven years. The result of 490 years is the same as that derived earlier, but now it is on a much firmer basis. The point can be set out graphically as follows:

Wrong formula:

70 weeks = 70 weeks x 7 days = 490 days = 490 years

Right formula:

70 x 7 (what?) = 490 (what?).

The variable (what?) becomes ‘years’ only after consideration of the context. There is no need for application of a day-for-a-year principle.

4. Luke 13:32,33: “And he [Jesus] said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.”

We would never have suspected that these verses would be quoted in support of the day-for-a-year theory until a well-respected speaking brother did just that at an American Bible School.

There are at least four problems in taking the passage to be a prophecy indicating that our Lord’s ministry would last three years.

First, his ministry lasted longer than three years. Second, these verses were spoken in the fourth year of the ministry, making them too late for the purpose indicated. Third, there is nothing at all in the passage itself to suggest that the day-for-a-year principle should even be applied. Finally, his interpretation ignores the most likely basis for Christ’s expression. The idiomatic phrase “yesterday, the third day” is used about two dozen times in the Old Testament to indicate an indeterminate period of time.

Whatever the correct interpretation of this passage, by itself it does not support the hypothesis.

As far as we know, these are the only passages that have been quoted as direct support for the principle that prophetic days represent literal years. As we have seen, these passages do not actually support this hypothesis. On the other hand, we have seen that in the two strongest passages (Num 14 and Eze 4) the words ‘day’ and ‘year’, when used in the text of Scripture, mean precisely day and year, even by the admission of those who would find support for their theory here.

Are there any passages that support the hypothesis that prophetic time periods should be taken literally? The answer is definitely yes. The following are several examples in which prophetic time periods are necessarily literal:

1.         On many occasions Jesus predicted that he would be raised the third day. These are all quite literal.

2. Genesis 15:13: “And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”

3.         Genesis 41:29,30: “Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine.”

4. Isaiah 38:5: “Behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”

5. Jeremiah 25:11,12: “And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.”

6. Jeremiah 29:10: “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

7. Daniel 9:2: “In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalern.”

These examples are sufficient. They provide conclusive evidence against the theory of a day-for-a-year. However, there may still be those that argue against this result on the basis that the passages to which the principle is applied are symbolic, whereas the passages cited against it are all literal. But, when we go through the passages, we see that making such a distinction does not save the theory.

Before we examine the passages, we ask the question: Did John, for example, apply the day-for-a-year principle when interpreting his own visions? If he did, then certainly he would have passed this much along to Polycarp, Irenaeus and others of the first and second centuries. But “it is admitted that, for the first four centuries, the days mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel and in the Apocalypse were interpreted literally by the Fathers of the Church” (“Literary History of the New Testament”. as cited in “Tregelles on Daniel”: The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony, Chiswick, 7th ed, 1965, p 112.)

On the other hand, Tregelles wrote: “As far as I know, the first who spoke of a period of twelve hundred and sixty years was the celebrated Abbot Joachim of Calabria at the close of the twelfth century. But he did not excogitate this as a prophetic period by using any year-day theory, but he formed it from the designation of ‘a time, times, and the dividing of time’, thus: he assumed a time to be the largest measure of time in use amongst men, a thousand years; times to be two of the next smaller measures of time, two hundred years; the dividing of time he assumed to be part of the last-named measure. He probably adopted sixty precisely (instead of fifty which he should have done as it is properly ‘half a time’) from the analogy of the 1,260 days. I ought to inform the reader that Abbot Joachim considered himself to be inspired. The year-day theory of two centuries later seems to be only a carrying out of the supposed revelation to Abbot Joachirn” (“Tregelles on Daniel”, footnotes on pp 123,124).

Now to the passages.

1. In Dan 4:16,23,25,32 Nebuchadnezzar was told that he should be driven from men “till seven times pass over him”. The “seven times in these verses is generally taken to be seven years, a conclusion that is most likely correct. (The Hebrew word for “time”, moed, is the same as that used for the yearly feasts of Israel, especially the Feast of Passover.) This period of seven years must be taken literally. In fact, vv 28-37 detail the fulfilment of the dream, recounted by Nebuchadnezzar in vv 10-18, precisely as interpreted by Daniel in vv 19-27. Verse 28 is emphatic: “All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.”

Application of a day-for-a-year principle in this passage results in nonsense. But that does not stop some expositors who tell us that the seven times represents 2,520 (7 x 360) years.’ However, their interpretations of the prophecy are completely unrelated to the details given in Daniel 4. The prophecy deals specifically with Nebuchadnezzar, with no implication otherwise.

This example is particularly important with regard to our discussion. The primary application of the day-for-a-year principle is to the various time periods in Daniel and the Apocalypse. One of these periods is the “time and times and half a time” (RV) of Dan 7:25; 12:7 and Rev 12:14. This corresponds to exactly half the period given in Dan 4. Because the seven times in Dan 4 must be seven literal years, the three-and-a-half times in the other passages should reasonably and consistently be interpreted as three-and-a-half literal years, in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary.

2.         “Time and times and half a time” (RV) in Dan 7 is not found in the symbolic part of the prophecy, but in the interpretation given to Daniel. The rest of the interpretation is literal, so the time period should be also. In Dan 12 “the man clothed in linen… sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half.” The fact that the time period was part of an oath would seem to emphasize that it is literal. There are three methods used to describe this same period of time: the “time, times, and an half” we have been discussing; “a thousand two hundred and threescore” in Rev 11:3; 12:6; and “forty and two months” in Rev 11:2; 13:5. It is as though God intended there to be no room for confusion. He was saying it would be three-and-a-half years; that is, forty-two months; in short — 1,260 days. Simply put, if an inspired apostle, in this case John, tells us exactly the same thing in three different ways, it ill becomes us to insist that he did not really mean what he said!

3. The “thousand two hundred and ninety days” and the “thousand three hundred and five and thirty days” in Dan 12:11,12 are both associated with the 1,260 days, in that the 1,290 days would end one (thirty-day) month after the 1,260 days, and the 1,335 would end 45 days later. These particular numbers are most likely to be connected with the Jewish calendar. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the passage in Daniel to suggest anything but a literal interpretation of these time periods.

4. The “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” of Rev 9:15 surely refers to a specific and precise point in time and not a period (that is, the very hour, day, month, and year).

5. There is no reason why the “three days and an half” in Rev 11:9 should not be taken literally. The 31/2 days that the two witnesses are dead corresponds to the 31/2 years that the holy city is trodden under foot. This parallels the method used in the Num 14 and Eze 4 passages discussed earlier: a certain number of literal days for specific individuals corresponding to the same number of literal years for the nation.

It is interesting that the usual continuous historic interpretation of this time period does not use the day-for-a-year principle; otherwise it would signify three-and-a-half years, not 105 years as is often given. This inconsistency in the application of the principle is itself evidence against the principle.

6. The “thousand years” of Rev 20 provides another example of this inconsistency. This time period is always assumed to be literal by the continuous-historicists.

We could discuss other prophetic time periods but this collection should be convincing. We have concluded that the day-for-a-year principle not only lacks evidence to support it, but that it is actually contrary to many plain examples in which time periods must be literal. Given this result, it is urgent that we, as seekers of Bible truth and not men’s traditions, review many commonly accepted interpretations of prophecy. Specifically, all the standard continuous-historic results that depend so heavily on the day-for-a-year principle must be seriously questioned.

(Joe Hill and George Booker)

These words are quoted from the Lord Jesus as recorded in his Olivet prophecy:

“There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11; cp Mat 24:7; Mark 13:8).

The context of Jesus’ words tell us several things:

a. “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ ” (Mat 24:3). Great earthquakes will be one of the signs of Christ’s coming and the end of the age.

b. “Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down’ ” (Luke 21:5,6). This suggests that at least some of the “great earthquakes” will cause the “throwing down” of the great and beautiful stones of the temple mount in Jerusalem. That is what great earthquakes do! Although the stones of Herod’s temple itself were torn down and scattered by the Romans, the foundation stones of the Wailing Wall remain in place since the days of Jesus. Therefore, we could expect that there will be a “Last Days” earthquake in Jerusalem to finish the job.

California Shaking!

Recently [January 1990] an earthquake of more than moderate intensity struck the Los Angeles area. Local mountains rose as much as one foot. Nine highway overpasses snapped like twigs. An oil main and 250 gas lines ruptured, igniting untold numbers of fires. Over 3 million people were plunged into total darkness. 5,900 were injured. Twenty thousand were left homeless.

The toll in lost life (55 at last count)         has been quite small in comparison to other great quakes, due in large part to modern building codes. But the property damage (variously estimated at up to 30 billion dollars)         has been enormous, because the southern California area is one of the world’s richest and most developed. This quake follows by just over four years an earthquake of comparable intensity, and comparable loss of life and property, in San Francisco.

The scientists, called “seismologists”, who study earthquakes were quick to point out, in both cases, that these recent quakes — and aftershocks — were in no way “The Big One”. This, they warn, is still coming… any time within the next 25 years, give or take a few! “The Big One”, when it does strike, will be of an intensity many times greater than the most recent quakes. (An 8 on the Richter scale, by no means out of the question, would be 125 times more powerful than the recent 6.6!)         The consequent loss of life and property will be — probably — exponentially higher!

Such moderate earthquakes (although it is doubtful that they seem “moderate” to those who suffer through them!)         remind us of a couple of things: Firstly, that the very earth on which we stand, and which we take so much for granted, is a living, moving thing… controlled by a Power greater than man! And, secondly, that Jesus warned that “great earthquakes” will be a sign of the nearness of his return.

The causes of earthquakes

As a result of thermal energy within the earth’s interior, the outer layers are subjected to various elastic stresses and pressures which build over periods of years or even of centuries. When these stresses exceed some local breaking point there is a sudden deformation in the earth’s crust, accompanied by the release of vast amounts of stored-up energy. A fracture or rift occurs as portions of the earth’s surface move one against another. Shock waves, of great intensity and causing enormous damage, emanate from the seismic center and radiate in all directions. These tremors are recorded in observation stations all over the world. By collating this information, seismologists can determine the focus and intensity of the earthquake.

Volcanic eruptions are sometimes associated with earthquakes, and these can add a further horror.

There is nothing new in the phenomena of earthquakes. They have been going on all through history, and form a part of the natural processes by which the surface of the earth is changed and molded through the centuries. Thus mountain ranges are raised up, river courses and coastlines changed, islands created or destroyed, and — where human populations are involved — many lives may be lost or irrevocably altered.

Quakes in earlier times, and even now in other parts of the world where modern building codes are primitive or non-existent, have resulted in enormous loss of life, in contrast to those earthquakes which have occurred virtually under the eye of the camera in California. Some examples:

Year	Country	Estimated lives lost
856	Greece	45,000
1268	Asia Minor	60,000
1290	China	100,000
1556	China	830,000
1693	Italy	93,000
1737	India	300,000
1868	Peru	25,000
1898	Japan	22,000
1908	Italy	160,000
1962	Iran	12,000

These few examples demonstrate the worldwide distribution of earthquakes, and give some indication of the extent of damage and suffering that can result.

Are there more earthquakes today?

Some statistics indicate a sizeable increase in earthquakes in recent years.

The US Department of the Interior makes available publications such as Earthquakes and Volcanoes (bimonthly)         and Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (monthly). The latter publication lists all earthquakes recorded by some 350 centers throughout the world, listing details such as location and duration. These records show that up to 1948 (!)         the highest number of quakes reported in one year was 905. However, thereafter the annual totals (of all earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater on the Richter scale)         have increased markedly.

Year	Earthquakes recorded
1948	620
1948	1,152
1950	2,023
1959	3,186
1961	4,740
1964	5,134
1965	6,686
1975	7,190
1988	Over 13,000

It is possible, however, that some part of this perceived increase may be just that: a perception, caused by the continuing development and increasingly wider use of more sophisticated detection instruments.

While the increase of earthquakes worldwide, and the observation of earthquakes close at hand, may be serious reminders to us of the nearness of Christ’s coming, surely the greatest signs — including those involving earthquakes — are to be seen in the Middle East.

Earthquakes in Israel: Rev 6

It has been pointed out that there are very many parallels between the Olivet prophecy and the Seals of Rev 6. In the sixth seal (Rev 6:12-17), there is a “great earthquake”, bringing about signs in the sun, moon, and stars (cp Mat 24:29), and causing the “figs” to fall from the “fig tree” (cp Mat 24:32) — surely an indicator that this prophecy has to do with Israel — just as does the Olivet prophecy! And the result of the sixth seal is… “the great day” of the “wrath of the Lamb… who can stand?”

Isaiah 2-4

“The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted… for all the cedars of Lebanon… all the oaks of Bashan… Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth” (Isa 2:12,13,19).

That this great shaking is centered upon Israel is clear from Isa 3:1,8 (part of the same prophetic section, despite the chapter break), where Jerusalem (compared to wicked Sodom in v 9; note the parallel in Rev 11:8)         will stagger, and Judah will fall. It is the Israelis whose great pride will be brought down by this divine shaking!

But, after Israel’s pride is abased, then Jerusalem (with its survivors, by faith!)         will be made “holy” again (Isa 4:2-6).

Isaiah 24

This is one of those passages, quite common in the Old Testament, where the Hebrew eretz should be translated “land” (ie, of Israel) rather than “earth”:

“See, the LORD is going to lay waste the Land (eretz)         and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants — it will be the same for priest as for people… The Land (eretz)         will be completely laid waste and totally plundered… The Land (eretz)         dries up and withers… the exalted of the Land (eretz)         languish. The Land (eretz)         is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant” (Isa 24:1-5).

That such severe devastation is to be visited upon Israel is proven by v 5: what land in all the earth is special home to the people who have broken God’s everlasting covenant?

How is the devastation wrought? By a severe earthquake:

“The foundations of the Land (eretz)         shake. The Land (eretz)         is broken up, the Land (eretz)         is split asunder, the Land (eretz)         is thoroughly shaken. The Land (eretz)         reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind” (Isa 24:18-20).

But, once again, the final outcome, when the proud of Israel have been abased, is that the LORD Almighty will reign in His city, Jerusalem, in the presence of the holy ones of old (v 23).

Ezekiel 38

But the divine wrath of earthquake will be directed not just against God’s own nation Israel, but also and foremost against the enemies of Israel, led by “Gog”:

“When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground” (Eze 38:18-20).

Joel 3

Once again, the prophet Joel sees Arab nations (Tyre, Sidon, Philistia, Edom, Egypt: vv 4,19) gathered into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (near Jerusalem) in the Last Days (vv 2,14). But they will fall!

“The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble… But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel” (v 16).

Habakkuk 3

The language of this prophet is graphic, reminiscent of the pictures in Exodus, when God came down upon Mount Sinai in a cloud, with fire and lightning and thunder. In Habakkuk, God manifests Himself in judgment against the enemies of Israel and on behalf of His faithful people:

“He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed… the mountains saw you and writhed…” (vv 6-10).

Haggai 2

“In a little while,” promises God, “I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations — and… THEN… the desired (one) of all nations will come, and I will fill this house (the temple on mount Zion in Jerusalem) with glory” (vv 6,7). A great shaking in the Last Days, which will affect all nations, but which will also usher in the Day of the Desired One, who will return to his city and his temple, and will fill it with Divine glory!

Zechariah 14

And when he returns, that “Desired One”, he will confront a city that is captive, in Gentile hands. His feet will stand upon the mount of Olives, to the east of the Holy City, and there will be a “great earthquake”, causing the mount of Olives to be split in two from east to west (vv 3,4). And Jerusalem will be, literally, “raised up” (v 10), and figuratively exalted above all other “mountains” (cp Isa 2:2-4; Psa 48:2).

Revelation 16

Just as Jesus himself said, in the Olivet prophecy, the greatest of all earthquakes will be the prelude to the appearance of Israel’s King, who will come to rule over Israel and all nations in the Kingdom of God:

“Behold, I come like a thief!… Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon… Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake… and the cities of the nations collapsed” (vv 15-19).

Acknowledgements

1. Allan Dangerfield, “There will be great earthquakes”, The Christadelphian, Nov 1990, pp 412,413.
2. F. Russell, “The Bible and Earthquakes”, The Australian Christadelphian Shield, Nov 1993, pp 8-11.
3. Tony Benson, Stormy Winds Fulfilling His Will, pp 85-89,108-122.
4. Harry Whittaker, Revelation: A Biblical Approach, pp 85-89.