Discover the meaning behind Daniel’s vision of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 — a kingdom unlike any before it. Explore how this prophetic image reveals future world powers, end-time events, and God’s ultimate triumph.
This morning we want to continue our study through the book of Daniel. And we come to, we’re in Daniel chapter , so if you have your Bibles, then we’ll turn with me to Daniel chapter . Last Sunday when we read the whole chapter, one of the things that we saw is that Daniel, when he was given this vision from God, of four terrifying beasts. And then he saw a fifth kingdom that was an everlasting kingdom that came and was able to destroy the beasts.
And he was gravely troubled by all that he saw. This morning I want us to look at the fourth of the four beasts that he saw. And then, if time allows, we will get into the everlasting kingdom a bit.
But if you would turn with me to Daniel chapter 7, verse 7. And this is after he’d seen the first three beasts. He saw the lion, he saw the leopard, he saw the bear.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. 8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. 12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. 17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; 20 and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22 until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. 28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart. Daniel 7:7-28
Just bow in prayer. Dear Holy Father, as we come before you, Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word tonight and help us to see that we’re living in the time in which Daniel saw. Events that are occurring in our world today are very likely the beginning of the establishment of this horrid, ten-horned beast that shall rise again. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word this morning. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
It’s interesting as you begin to read this, that Daniel was greatly troubled.
Who Wins? God Wins
And we say, why should he be troubled when the Lord revealed to him who wins? God wins. And the Lord comes and the Lord will judge in his power and he ultimately will judge the fourth kingdom and this small horn that shall rise up to be the leader of this great kingdom and they shall be judged. And the Lord shall give the victory and then he’s going to give the spoils of the victory to his people and they shall rule and reign forever, it says.
Roman Empire
So why should Daniel be disturbed? Because he saw the events that were going to come upon the earth, some of which I believe you’re seeing today as you live. We very well could be living in the day in which the fourth beast is rising again. Daniel referred to this fourth beast when he saw the statue as the Roman Empire.
And it first manifested itself in legs of iron, two legs of iron. Well, there’s two parts to the Roman Empire. There’s the Western Roman Empire, which is in Rome and there’s the Eastern Roman Empire, which is in Constantinople.
During the time of Constantine, he ruled from Constantinople, not Rome. We also know that there are two churches that came out of that empire. The Eastern Orthodox, which came out of the Roman Empire in Constantinople and the Roman Catholic Church, which is the remnants of the Roman Empire out of Rome.
As you look at this, it says in the statue when we studied that, that there’d be ten toes, but they’d be mingled with clay and iron or pottery and iron. Those of you who’ve ever tried to do artwork or you’ve tried to put two different forms of material together that are so different like clay and iron, it’s hard to get them to work properly. And especially the clay or the pottery would be much more fragile than the iron.
There’d be two parts to this kingdom that would come again. And Daniel said when he saw the statue that the kingdom was going to come, but then it was going to be gone, but it would be reestablished. He now sees it as a beast that is so terrifying, it is more terrifying than the other three beasts combined.
And Daniel is living during the time of two of those. Because Daniel lived during the Babylonian Empire, and he also lived during the Medo-Persian Empire. And as horrible as Nebuchadnezzar was before he came to acknowledge God, and as powerful as the Medo-Persian Empire was, and as unforgiving of their laws as they were, nothing could be compared to the Roman Empire that was coming.
He said that this empire, this beast, was so terrifying, it could stamp out anything that would get in its way. Those of you who study history and studied about the Roman armies and the Roman legions, Rome was not defeated from the outside as a culture and as a nation. It fell from corruption within.
Its armies could never have been conquered if its political leaders and generals hadn’t been corrupted. When Rome would go in, nations would be in terror. If you read Paul’s armor of God, it’s modeled after the Roman soldiers’ armor.
And if you look at that, it’s got protection for the head. It’s got protection for the chest. It’s got a shield to protect.
It’s got a sword to defend. It’s got shoes that will give you solid footing. But you’ll notice there’s one area that isn’t protected, the back.
Rome never retreated. They would march man by man. They had two types of shields.
One that they would put over their head next to one another, and you could shoot all the arrows you wanted to at them all day long, and you’d never hurt them. They had other shields that were little shields that would fight, that would prevent the daggers and swords of the enemy from striking them. And literally, Rome, when they established their kingdom, pulverized the nations.
There was nothing left of the Babylonian Empire. There was nothing left of the Medo-Persian Empire. There was nothing left of the Grecian Empire.
They were all incorporated into Rome. Mario comes from what used to be part of the Roman Empire, whose family does. They conquered all of that area of Europe.
But that was the most terrifying thing Daniel saw. He saw this ten-horned beast, and these ten horns were ten kingdoms. I want you to know right now, the World Economic Forum, the Club of Rome, and other world organizations that are promoting a one-world government have already put in place a ten-region world order that will be governed and ruled by ten individuals who will be responsible for each one of these orders of these areas.
When George W. Bush was president of our nation, one of the things that he was pushing really hard for was to have a superhighway going from Winnipeg all the way down to Mexico. And he also pushed very hard for NAFTA and the North American Treaty. He wanted it to be one organization, one, in essence, one country, even though they’d be still at that time separate countries.
That idea has not died. You don’t hear about it because there’s a lot of other things in the news. What you saw happen during COVID, I personally believe, was a test run to see how they could control the people of the world.
Because they want a one-world government, just as Daniel said. And it’s terrifying. Because when they establish this one-world government, it says that the leadership, and especially this one little horn that rises up after the ten horns are there, and he conquers three of the ten.
In other words, this individual has great power. So much so that we aren’t given the specifics in this portion of Daniel. But it’s appearance that perhaps these three heads rose up in disagreement with him, tried to maintain their authority.
He wanted their authority, and so he defeated them. But Daniel said, this is no ordinary man. This man speaks with great, flowing words that impact people, and they listen.
You know, some people have said, how come the German people follow Adolf Hitler? I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at videos of Adolf Hitler when he’s giving speeches to literally thousands of Germans. And he’s going ranting and going on and on and on. And the people just are mesmerized by what he’s saying.
I want you to know that there were very interesting things going on during the Nazi regime during World War II. Most people don’t know that. Hitler’s SS were deeply involved in the occult, in Satan worship, in demonic guidance.
Hitler himself listened to demons that would tell him how he was supposed to orchestrate his battles and run his government. It’s interesting, Mein Kampf is written about the thousand year reign that would come to Germany if Hitler had his way. Where did they get these ideas? A thousand years? Well, Jesus says he’s going to return and establish his kingdom upon the earth and he will rule and reign for a thousand years.
Satan wants to do the same thing. Satan has always had his person that could be the Antichrist. Hitler was a type of the Antichrist, but he wasn’t the Antichrist.
Stalin, a type of the Antichrist, but not the Antichrist. I believe the Antichrist is going to be much more smoother than either of those guys. Because he’s going to deceive the whole world.
The Bible talks about the fact, and we’ll be getting into this in greater depth, but he’s going to reign over the world for seven years. The first three and a half years, which spoke of in the portion that we’re reading here, a time, times, and half a time, that’s three and a half years. As he reigns, the first three and a half years, everybody’s going to think he’s the Christ.
Did you know that the major religions of the world are all looking for their Christ to come? The Indian religion, Hindus, are looking for their Christ. The New Age movement is looking for its Christ. And sadly, there are many Christians who, not reading Bible prophecy, and not reading what was so disturbing to Daniel about this man, are looking for the wrong Christ.
Satan’s got his man, and the world’s being set up. God is going to allow them to do this because of the deception of men’s hearts and their rebellion against him. If you are looking at what’s happening in the world today, this whole thing was orchestrated and planned out by Satan thousands of years ago.
The only thing is, God didn’t know about it, and Satan’s not pulling anything over on us. But Satan had his people, and during even the formation of our nation, we had many men that were Bible-believing Christians that were our founding fathers, but did you know that we also had those that were Deists, and those that were Masons, who believed in a different God, in a different direction for America. Many of these people that are against what God stands for have laid tremendous groundwork in our nation to turn people against the principles of God’s Word and to follow that which Satan would teach.
The public schools today, it just didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen overnight that you got Fargo Public Schools two years ago that were saying, we’re not going to tell the parents if a child comes to school and is a girl and wants to identify as a boy, or a boy and wants to identify as a girl. That just didn’t happen then.
It just didn’t happen that you have to take out just about every vestige of Christianity and the Bible out of the public school system in America today, but you can allow Islam teachings to be there. You can allow Hindu teachings to be there. You can study the Native American shamans.
You can study the Hindu shamans, but you can’t study the biblical Jesus. It didn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen that every one of you sitting here today, I can venture to say, does not have the same solid, absolute base that you would have had , , years ago.
Even if you’re a Bible-believing Christian, we do not realize the impact that our culture has placed upon us. And if you’re not standing in the Word of God, in the power of God, led by the Spirit of God, you will not understand. As Paul says, you need to walk circumspectly.
You need to realize what’s happening around you. And most Christians don’t even have a clue. They’ve allowed the Word of God to be replaced by things that aren’t even translations.
They’re not even biblical. Some of them are even filled with occultic sayings like Eugene Peterson’s The Message, where he talks about what’s above and what’s below, which is an occultic saying. And he puts that in Scripture.
We’ve got out on the table the influences, how it’s come into the church through yoga, through Eastern mysticism, through psychology. Today, most people will not go to the Bible for answers for their spiritual and mental being, but will go to a man who studied under Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Carl Maslow, or Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, all of whom had one degree or another of their feet into the occult. Some of them deeply.
And we’ll trust that. And we’ll send Christian kids off to schools so they can become Christian psychiatrists. You know how you’re a Christian psychiatrist? You take this book right here, and you follow God’s principles and teachings in this book, and then you apply those when you counsel.
It’s not by chance today that drugs impact just about every home in America in one way or another. The Bible said that in the last days, one of the things that would mark the last end times would be sorcery. You know what sorcery means? Pharmakeia.
Drugs. We’ve got a huge drug problem in America. We’ve got a drug problem in Fargo.
People aren’t preaching the Word of God.
Free means, pharmakia, drugs. We’ve got a huge drug problem in America. We’ve got a drug problem in Fargo.
People aren’t preaching the Word of God. I remember reading about the ministry of David Wilkerson in New York City. David Wilkerson went home to be with the Lord probably years ago, years ago now.
When he was a young man, God gave him a burden for the gangs of New York. And he went there. He went there with a Bible and preaching the fact that God had called him to give them a message of hope and salvation that would change their lives.
In Nicky Cruz’s account of David Wilkerson’s ministry, because Nicky Cruz got saved out of one of the gangs and became an evangelist, he’s talking about when David Wilkerson showed up at their gang headquarters and he came walking in to talk to them, they wanted to kill him. And the message he had was so powerful, it changed lives. Today, we don’t give that message.
We send them off to some type of program where they’re given psychological teachings. I had a young man that our church tried to help, him and his wife. He’d been through the alcohol program six times at Jamestown.
Know the biggest problem with the alcohol program at Jamestown? It can get you sobered up for a little bit, but it doesn’t deal with the heart. It doesn’t talk about the real problem. It talks about alcoholism as being a disease.
Oh, you can be addicted to alcohol, but the real problem is the heart. And no one can ever be set free completely without a transformation of the heart. And so today, you’ve got a whole culture in America that doesn’t acknowledge absolutes, and a culture that’s so confused.
You can slaughter young Jewish families and babies, and the ones that are the murderers are being held up as victims by the young people on many of our colleges. That’s confusion. Not only is it confusion, it’s opening up to a philosophy that’s going to be brought in by this one world government headed up by this one man that is totally anti-God.
And we sang some hymns this morning that I picked personally to give you hope. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord. We have hope! We have power! We have authority, not in and of ourselves, but through Christ.
And the message we bring can transform lives. You are living in one of the greatest times and opportunities of anybody. The Apostle Paul, as he’s going about and facing many of the things that we face in our culture as far as belief systems, anti-God religions, the things that go along with them, the perverse sex, the drugs, the whole thing.
And the Apostle Paul was looking for the fact that Jesus could return at any time. But he never stopped. He went out because he knew if he didn’t preach the gospel, there would be people, if Jesus did come back, they weren’t going to heaven.
We have that burden for the lost. And not only that, the church today isn’t even looking for Jesus. Do we understand the rapture could occur at any time? You’re the bride.
You’re the one that Jesus is coming for. You should have this great anticipation as a bride would have waiting for her bridegroom to come when she didn’t know exactly what day he was going to come and take her to the wedding ceremony. She had an idea, but she wasn’t sure.
Oftentimes, we don’t even want to go to the wedding. And this was disturbing to Daniel as he saw this fourth beast with so much power and so much hatred for God. And it was different from all the other beasts because this one literally controlled the whole world.
That could have never happened during the time that Daniel lived, but it can happen today. Go back to COVID. I never thought a virus could literally shut down the whole world.
But it did. Every country in the world. And if you stood up and said something against it, depending on the country you were in, if you were in Australia, you were put into a concentration camp and your kids were taken away.
If you were in China and you wanted to get out of your apartment, they locked you in. And even if the fire broke out in an apartment, they didn’t let you out. That was our world.
And you know how quickly it happened? We came back on a flight on January th, or January rather, of . Because we’d been in Hawaii. And there was a woman wearing a mask on the flight.
And I commented to Roberta, that’s really weird. She’s wearing a mask. I wonder if she’s really sick or something.
She looked like she was young. And I was listening and her and her husband had just come back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. And I’m going, why is she wearing a mask? Well, it wasn’t more than about two and a half months later, and everybody was supposed to be wearing masks.
And if you didn’t, you were in trouble. What it did, it showed how quickly men can be manipulated and controlled by fear if they don’t have understanding of truth. And it also showed all the world leaders, what are those that are the rebels to a one world government? Because a lot of real Christians didn’t shut their churches, didn’t wear masks, and kept ministering.
Daniel was terrified of this beast, not because he was going to win, but he saw what he was going to do. He also saw what was going to happen, and we’ll get into that later, to Israel. And I just want to close by saying, it’s not by chance that you’re seeing anti-Semitism rise up all over the world, driven basically by three things.
One, a total lack of understanding of biblical truth, and who the Jewish people are. Not by the world, but by those that claim to be God’s people. Secondly, by a world system that hates everything that God loves.
And so they are going to try and destroy everything that God holds close to Him. The Jewish people are the apple of God’s eye. You know what the apple of your eye is? The spot right in the center.
They are literally trying to poke God in the center of His eye by coming against Israel and killing Jews. And the third thing is, world religion is going to rise up and promote it. Islam is, most people don’t know that in World War II, Roman Catholicism worked behind the scenes to support Hitler.
So they are not that far different from Islam. And the Pope wants all the world’s religions to come under the umbrella of Rome. My Bible tells me that’s exactly what’s going to happen in the end days.
A world religion that will be supporting a political leader who will be leading the world against God because he’s aligned himself and empowered himself by the power of Satan. And that’s what we have today. But I want you to know you do not have to be afraid.
God gives us the strength because we’re living for Jesus. And my faith looks up to Him. And faith is the victory.
Let’s just close in. Heavenly Father, as we come before You, Lord, I pray that You just help us to understand the situation that we’re in. Help us to realize that we are living in the last days.
We are facing the fourth beast. We are seeing it come to fruition in our lives. Lord, help us not to be afraid, but help us to be encouraged and realize that You have allowed us the great privilege of being able to stand for truth in the midst of all the lies that are around us.
And Lord, You’ve given us the opportunity to share the gospel that people may come to know You before You come and take Your bride home. Lord, now I pray that You just be with us and help us. This we ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.