Here they are, beginning with Daniel's day.
The Lion - Babylon, The Bear - Medo-Persia, The Leopard - Greece. The Terrible Beast - Rome.
Lets Examine each one:
Babylon, represented by the two-winged lion, ruled the world when Daniel was alive. In the ruins of ancient Babylon, broken statues of lions with two wings can still be seen in modern times.The lion - a fit symbol of Babylon. It was the greatest of all the ancient kingdoms. The two wings tel lus of the swiftness in which the "golden kingdom" conquered the civilized world of that time.
What about the next kingdom?
Medo-Persia took over on that terrible night when King Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, halfdrunk, threw a party for a thousand of his lords and tossed the sacred vessels from the temple of God about the floor. That was the last straw. His knees knocked together in fear as he watched a bloodlesshand trace his doom upon the palace wall.
"And this," Daniel declared, "is the writing that was written, MENE,MENE, TEKEL, UP HARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it, TEKELE Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES:Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Daniel 5:25-28.
"In that night was Belshazzar the king of the,Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom,being about three score and two years old." Daniel 5:30,31.
The two-winged lion was dead. The year - 538 B.C. Medo- Persia under Darius had taken over right on schedule! The bear of Daniel's dream had conquered the world. How is the "beast" of Revelation 13 like Medo-Persia?
It was a rule with the Medo-Persians that once they made a law - it stuck, and could never be reversed. The government was considered infallible. You'll see shortly that the "beast" power takes this same policy.
It was October 1, 331 B.C. At the head of his armies Alexander met the Persian forces head on and defeated them in the battle of Arbela. His military genius made Greece to emerge as the third worldempire.T he leopard with four heads and four wings of Daniel's vision had replaced the Medo-Persian bear.But why the four heads?
Alexander died with a raging fever at the age of 33.
The year 323 B.C.
His will had declared that the kingdom should go "to the strongest." His four generals, Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleuchus and Ptolomy took over the empire and divided it into four parts. These divisionsare represented by the four heads of the leopard beast.What about the four wings? They represent swiftness. Greece had conquered the world -in only 13 years. Such a feat has never been equaled.
(For more information on the four divisions of Greece, see Funk and Wagnell's New Encyclopedia on"Alexander III," pg. 390,391)
Who is the fourth "terrible" beast of Daniel 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 had ten horns." "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth."
Daniel 7:7,23. The fourth kingdom, represented by this terrible beast is Rome. Rome conquered Greece in 168 B.C.and eventually gave its power to the "beast" of Revelation 13. Out of the fourth "terrible beast" comes a "little horn." Now here's something amazing. The beast of Revelation 13, and the "little horn" of Daniel 7, are one and the same power!
God wants to make sure that there's no mistaking who this power is, so He describes it in both prophetic books.