Why is it important to study the visions in Daniel?

1To appreciate the eternal spiritual kingdom of God, the church.

2 To keep Christians from being deceived by false prophets.

3 To deepen our faith in God’s word and fulfilled prophecies.

We must begin by going back to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue.

How do we identify these 4 kingdoms in the statue.

1) Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon is the head of gold (605-539 BC).

2) The Medo-Persians (539-331 BC) conquered Babylon in 539 BC and would be the chest of silver in the statue. Ch 8 will verify by name the Medo-Persians as the 2nd kingdom. They diverted the river flowing through Babylon and enterd secretly on the dry river bed and entered the city, conquering it as Belshazzaar (the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar) was hosting a fiest to honor the gods of wine and gold (Ch 5). It says that night Darius took the city.

3) Alexander the Great and the Greeks conquered the Persians in 331 BC and ruled the world till 168 BC. Ch 8 will verify the Grecian Empire by name as the thighs of bronze in the statue.

4) The Roman Empire (168BC-476AD) will be the legs of iron. We know this b/c Daniel 2:44-45 says that in this 4th empire that God would set up his kingdom. Jesus came preaching that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand” (the same kingdom predicted in Daniel 2:44-45). Mark 9:1 Jesus said that some of those listening to him would still be alive to see him coming in his kiingdom. Mt 16:18-19 Jesus told Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”. Peter used those keys to open the kingdom to those 3,000 baptized in Acts 2 and they were added to the church, the spiritual body of Christ. The kingdom at hand was the church kingdom established in the book of Acts in the 1st century. Rome was the world power when Jesus said that, so Rome would have to be the 4th kingdom legs of iron that was ruling the world when that prediction was fulfilled.

A stone would crush all the kingdoms. That stone is Jesus. He did not physically destroy Rome or the other 3 kingdoms that no longer existed when he was on earth. His kingdom of Daniel 2:44-45 was a spiritual kingdom, the church. He said that his kingdom was “not of this world”. But Jesus did destroy the demonic princes that control all worldly kingdoms. This fulfilled Daniel 7:13 ¹³ “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ¹⁴ And to him (Jesus) was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. .Revelation 11:¹⁵ Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 

From WVBS world video bible school

Ch 7: In the 1st year of Belshazzar of Babylon. A vision and dream of Daniel

Look at the statue image/chart to see this vision and what each animal represented. This vision matches the Daniel 2 statue perfectly. It also introduces that the iron beast had 10 horns, and a little horn coming up after the 10 horns. The iron beast is Rome, and the 10 horns would be the 1st ten emperors or kings (7:24) of Rome (from Julius Caesar, 63 BC, to Vespasian, 69-79 AD). Josephus says in a couple of references that Augustus was the 2nd king or emperor of Rome, so that makes Julius Caesar the 1st and Vespasian the 10th. Historians may record Augustus as the first emperor, but Josephus lived in the 1st century and he says that Julius Caesar was considered the first king of Rome, so we go with that. This vision also adds the throne scene (7:9-14) of the Ancient of Days sitting in judgment, with the Son of Man (Jesus) coming to Him in the clouds and being given a kingdom (7:13) which would never be destroyed (the same one a Daniel 2:44,45). Can you see why Jesus is called the Son of Man so many times in the gospels? Can you see why Daniel 7:13 is such an important prediction, as quoted by Jesus in Mt 24:30 with the Son of Man coming in the clouds to judge Jerusalem in 70 AD?

A boastful little horn comes up after the 10 horns who would wage war with the Jewish saints (7:21) for time, times, and half a time (7:25) until his dominion is taken away and “the sovereignty, dominion, and greatness of all the kingdoms of the world under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom (7:26,27; same as 2:45; )”. This little horn is Titus who waged war with the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. He was not an emperor at that time (Vespasian his father was) but he would be the next horn or emperor, (79-81 AD) thus “little horn”. 2 Thess 2:4 he exalts himself above every so called god and takes his seat in the temple of God (only Titus did this, not Nero). He is known as the “man of sin”. 2 Thess 2:7 ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. That verse shows that the man of sin was someone living at the time Paul wrote 2 Thess. Many call this man of sin the “antichrist”, but this man of sin is not one of the many men suggested to be him over the last 2,000 years. He is not some future antichrist man of sin to come. Daniel 7:²¹ As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, ²² until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. Titus destroyed the temple in 70 AD and killed a million Jews (according to Josephus). He was not physically destroyed in 70 AD, but the demonic prince that controlled Rome (as well as all the demonic princes of all world kingdoms) was judged and destroyed by Jesus (as well as all demonic powers and Satan) and the kingdom of God, the church, became the eternal all powerful kingdom (spiritually, not physically since Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world, John 18:36) with Jesus reigning as king forever (Dan 7:13). Rev 11:15 concludes the predictions of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD with these words: Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

So now we add the ch 7 imagery to the statue of ch 2. They match up as the same 4 kingdoms.

From Answersfromscriptureonline.com and oldkaptnk2

From rapturemyth.com

Image by oldkaptnk2

In Revelation 13 a beast with 10 horns arises out of the sea that has lion, bear, and leopard traits. Rev 13:1 “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. ² And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth.” That this was the same imagery from Daniel 7 would be obvious to the readers of Revelation, and the sea beast would be identified as the Roman Empire.

Rome was the world empire when Revelation was written and would be the one to fulfill the predictions in Revelation that were soon to happen shortly after the time of writing. Rome was the sea beast whom God would use to judge Israel and destroy Jerusalem.

As a side note, Rev 17 gives us the internal evidence on when the book of Revelation was written. Revelation 17:9 “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. 10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.
Revelation was written during the reign of the 6th emperor, Nero (54-68 AD). It had to be written before he died in 68 AD.
The only basis for the traditional date of 96 AD is an ambiguous statement by Ireneaus in the late 2nd century, who was a chiliast and did not understand the meaning of the book.

Ch 8: In the 3rd year of Belshazzar of Babylon. A vision and dream of Daniel.

Again, look at the statue. Gabriel even tells Daniel that the ram is Media/Persia (the 2nd kingdom) and the goat is Greece (the 3rd kingdom) with a conspicuous horn, Alexander the Great. The goat attacks the ram and tramples it under its feet. This vision speak of a “small horn” magnifying itself to be equal to the Commander of Hosts (God) and trampling the holy place (the temple) and the host (the Jews), which would fit Titus again, the little horn of ch 7. It also says that the holy place will be restored in 2300 evenings and mornings, which is the prophecy William Miller wrongly interpreted to be the return of Jesus in 1843 AD. The vision pertains to the “time of the end” which is the end of the Jewish Age at 70 AD. The small horn even opposes the Prince of princes, i.e. Jesus, in some way. Titus sought to destroy all Jews, Christian and non-Christian in 70 AD. Many try to say that this small horn of Daniel 8 was Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king who polluted the temple with pig stew and killed many Jews, but he can’t be the samll horn b/c 1) This vision was about the time of the end, i.e. end of the age in 70 AD; 2) Antiochus did not oppose the Prince of princes, i.e. Jesus. The small horn of Daniel 8 and the little horn of Daniel 7 are the same and fulfilled in Titus.

So now we can add the imagery of Daniel to the statue of Daniel 2 and the imagery of Daniel 7.

From LiamCherry

These are amazingly accurate predictions of the future made by Daniel in the 7th century BC. His predictions cover the next 4 kingdoms down to the 1st century AD. Especially amazing are the predictions about Alexander the Great conquering Medo Persia and then being divided into 4 smaller kingdoms (all happening in the 4th century BC). Fulfilled prophecy such as this proves that Yahweh is the only true God and that the Bible is the word of God. You can see why the agnostic Porphyry (2nd century AD) tried to discredit Daniel’s predictions by saying that they were written after the fact and not by Daniel but instead in the 2nd century BC. But the Jews who were entrusted by God with collecting the inspired writings of the prophets collected the book of Daniel as written by Daniel in the 6th century BC.