SRR 100 The Danielic Imperative, Episode 19 — The Feet and the Toes of Daniel 2

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I do a podcast. I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone.
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When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield exposing the air and combating the air.
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We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so, the next few statements that I'm going to make,
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I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.
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We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing.
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It's not hate. It's history. It's not bashing. It's the Bible. Jesus said,
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Woe to you when men speak well of you. For their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
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As opposed to, Blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is on.
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We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle. Welcome back to all of our listeners.
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This is Timothy F. Kaufman and you're listening to the Danielic Imperative. So named because we believe that it is imperative for all
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Christians to understand the timeline that the Lord laid out in his visions to Daniel. In order to understand the eschatology of Jesus and his disciples.
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They referred repeatedly to Daniel's visions in order to lay out a future timeline for the people of God.
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And the people of God cannot understand the revelation of their own future. Unless they understand the timeline that was established for us in Daniel.
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And in fact, I should say that the people of God cannot understand the revelation of their own past. Unless they understand the timeline that was established for us in Daniel.
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The fact is much of what was foretold to take place in the future has already taken place. Because we are future to Daniel and to the book of Revelation.
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As we discussed last week, the Jews wanted to make Christ king. Because they were expecting that the kingdom would be set up during the fourth empire in Daniel's visions.
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As he prophesied. And the apostles in various ways and in many circumstances expressed that they were living at the end of all things.
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Or the end of the world. The reason the Jews wanted to make Christ king by force. Was because they thought he would be the one who would establish an earthly kingdom.
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And crush all the other empires in accordance with the vision of Daniel chapter 2. After all, the end of the world was upon us because the fourth empire had in fact arrived.
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And so had the Messiah. That being the case, they expected that Jesus would set up his kingdom.
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And in the book of Acts, before he departed, the apostles asked Jesus, When will you restore again the kingdom to Israel?
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They were asking for similar reasons. The end of all things was at hand. And all that remained was for Jesus to set up his earthly kingdom.
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Right? Well, at least that's what some of the Jews thought. They thought that after four earthly empires, the messianic kingdom would be the fifth earthly empire in succession.
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As we discussed last week, our modern eschatologies, whether they be dispensationalist, futurist, preterist, or Roman Catholic, generally assume that the stone struck the feet of the statue in Daniel chapter 2 only once and destroyed the entire statue and all the preceding empires at once.
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And then grew up to be a large mountain that filled the whole earth. Even our reformed eschatologists assume that the ascendancy of Christ's church to political power after only three centuries was the historical fulfillment of the prophecy that the kingdom of heaven would be the fifth earthly empire after Rome.
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Calvin himself assumed that the nations must submit to and obey the church. And E .B. Eliot believed that Christians were authorized to coerce the heathen with the pointy end of the civil sword.
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But that, I believe, is based on the misunderstanding that the stone struck the statue only once. As we showed in our previous episode, the stone actually strikes the statue twice.
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The evidence is right there in chapter 2. The stone strikes the feet alone, breaking the feet alone, dashing only the iron and clay feet to pieces.
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And then the stone strikes the entire statue, breaking in pieces the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron and clay together, grinding them to dust.
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Those are two different strikes. In any case, we went through all the evidence for this last week and we won't go through it again in this episode, but the traditional timeline is this.
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There are four empires, Babylonian, Medo -Persian, Greek, and Roman. And during the
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Roman Empire, Christ comes and sets up his kingdom. And essentially, over time, the Roman Empire falls and the church takes over the world.
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So Christ's kingdom was established and then it grew up and gained civil power and authority and filled the whole earth.
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But the problem with the traditional timeline is it leaves out something very important. It is true that during the period of the feet,
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Christ set up his heavenly kingdom. But there is another kingdom that is set up during the period of the feet.
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In fact, from among the toes of the feet, a diabolical antagonist is also supposed to arise.
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And he, too, is supposed to have a kingdom. So two kingdoms get set up during the period of the feet.
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But under the single -strike theory, we look back and find only one kingdom established during the period of the feet, the
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Christian church, with all of its ecclesiastical and civil power. But where was that diabolical antagonist that we call
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Antichrist, the little horn of Daniel 7 or the sea beast of Revelation 13? That's where things got fuzzy.
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That is precisely why the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of Antichrist are so easily confused, even by believers.
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Well, the timeline that results when we understand that there are, in fact, two strikes against the statue actually clears up the confusion.
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There are four earthly empires. And during the fourth empire, the Messiah comes announcing that the kingdom of heaven is approaching.
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And then he sets up his heavenly kingdom, denying explicitly that it had any earthly civil power.
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According to Daniel 2, that kingdom is set up in the period of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's statue. The fourth empire then divides into toes in chapter 2 or into horns in chapter 7.
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And from among those fragments of the fourth empire arises a diabolical fifth earthly empire and tramples on the saints and speaks arrogant words against the
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Most High God. Then, only after the little horn's earthly power is destroyed in accordance with Daniel 2 .35
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and Daniel 7 .26, does the stone of Christ's kingdom grow up to fill the whole earth.
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According to Daniel 2 .35, or as revealed to Daniel in chapter 7, the saints receive a kingdom under the whole heaven, becoming not the fifth earthly empire of Daniel's visions, as Calvin thought, but rather becoming the sixth earthly empire of Daniel's visions.
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Christ and his saints do not receive an earthly kingdom with civil power until after Antichrist is destroyed.
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And as we said last week, for the Christian to long for civil power for Christ's church prior to the second strike of the stone is to long for Antichrist, which is the mistake that many
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Protestants have made. And they convert to Roman Catholicism, believing that there was only supposed to be one strike of the stone.
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But in order to avoid their error, we need to know when the statue of Daniel 2 made the transition from iron legs to iron and clay feet, and then when it made its next transition from iron and clay feet to iron and clay toes.
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Those transitions are absolutely critical to understanding the Danielic timeline. So, when do those transitions happen?
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The answer is contained for us in the scriptures, and we will turn to them now. What we are going to do is discuss the scriptural testimony of the transition from the legs of iron to the feet of iron and clay.
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And how we can recognize that transition. We will need to have a brief side conversation on the dating of the book of Revelation, something we can extract from the scriptures.
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And then we will go on to discuss the transition from the period of the feet to the period of the toes. What we will find is that the very specific prophecies of the scripture about what was to happen at the transition from iron legs to iron and clay feet, namely the setting up of the heavenly kingdom of Christ, all coincide clearly with that specific identifiable historical transition.
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And then the very specific prophecies about what was to happen at the transition from the iron and clay feet to iron and clay toes, namely the setting up of the earthly kingdom of Antichrist, also coincide clearly with that specific identifiable historical transition.
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Okay, so let's move into an examination of what the iron legs period means, what the iron and clay feet period means, and what the iron and clay toes period means.
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But before we do that, we should acknowledge something important about the whole book of Daniel. It is just as much about the succession of empires as it is about the transition that takes place between and within them.
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Bear with me on this because it is important. Daniel focuses as much on transitions as he does on succession.
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What we mean is that Daniel indeed provides abundant imagery of the succession of kingdoms,
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Babylonian, Medo -Persian, Greek, Roman. Gold, silver, bronze, iron, iron and clay in chapter 2.
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Lion, bear, leopard, an indescribable beast in chapter 7. Ram and he -goat in chapter 8.
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That much is so well known it hardly needs repeating. But Daniel is also about transitions too, and we must not miss it.
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For example, Daniel starts with Nebuchadnezzar, who is the head of gold in Daniel 2 .38. But upon the conclusion of the gold period, the
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Lord says simply, Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That's Daniel 5 .28.
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And the first to receive it is Darius the Mede. That's Daniel 5 .30. Then, after the incident in the lion's den, we are informed that Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius the
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Mede and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. That's Daniel 6 .28. Notice the passing reference from the dominance of the
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Medes to the dominance of the Persians, a transition that occurs within the period of silver. And also the transition from the period of gold to the period of silver, which happens when the
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Babylonians forfeit the kingdom and the Medes and the Persians take over. We notice as well that in chapter 7, we are looking not just at a succession of empires, but also at a succession of transitions.
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As we have noted in our very first episode, each beast in Daniel's vision in chapter 7 is depicted in its final configuration before the rise of the next empire.
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The lion is depicted as standing on his feet as a man, notably after Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation.
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The bear is already lifted up on one side, indicating that the period of the Medes has passed, and it is the period of the
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Persians, who came up last, according to Daniel 8 .3. The leopard has already been divided four ways, and there is no mention of the period of Alexander's dominance at all.
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The fourth empire, as we noted previously in our first two episodes, has already lost three of his horns, and now only has ten remaining, which is the configuration in which the fifth empire, the empire of the little horn, takes over, having removed three of the first horns.
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But there is more. In Daniel 7 .11, we have described for us the transition from the
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Roman Empire to the empire of the little horn, as the beast dies and the preceding empires are given a prolongation of life in the form of the little horn.
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And in Daniel 7 .26 -27, we have the transition from the fifth earthly kingdom of the little horn to the sixth earthly kingdom of Christ and his saints.
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And again in Daniel 8, we not only see at the beginning the transition from the Babylonian Empire to the
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Medo -Persian Empire in the form of the ram, but we also see the transition from the Medo -Persian Empire to the
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Greek Empire in the form of the he -goat. But again, there is something more. Even within empires, we see transitions taking place.
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Within the Medo -Persian Empire, we see the transition from the lesser horn of the ram to the greater horn of the ram, that is, the transition from the dominance of the
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Medes to the dominance of the Persians. And within the Greek Empire, we see the transition from the notable horn, that is,
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Alexander the Great, to the dominance of the four smaller horns that replaced him. Over and over in every chapter, we are not only seeing a succession of empires taking place, but we are also seeing momentous transitions taking place, transitions of monumental significance from one empire to the next, and also, within empires, from one configuration to the next, from the
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Medes to the Persians, or from Alexander to his successors. Even in chapter 10, there are transitions in view.
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The chapter is narrated during the period of Cyrus, king of Persia, in verse 1. But the period of the
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Greeks is not far away, as the narrator says. But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when
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I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. And in chapter 11, we have one of the most interesting transitions in the entire book narrated for us.
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We are told in verse 1 that we are in the period of Darius the Mede, and in verse 2, we are told that three more kings shall arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer, and will stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.
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In other words, we are being told not only of the transition from the Medes to the Persians, within the Medo -Persian
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Empire, but also the transition from the Persians to the Greeks, that is, from the ram to the he -goat of chapter 8, or from the bear to the leopard of chapter 7, or from the silver to the bronze in chapter 2.
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And not only that, Alexander the Great is mentioned in passing, both his rapid rise and sudden fall, and then we have described for us the transition to his four successors, and even a description of the fact that some of these will be even plucked up for others, and the remainder of the chapter focuses on the succession of kings within that divided empire.
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As we discussed in a prior episode, that is, episode 4 of the Danielic Imperative, the entire chapter from Daniel 11, verse 3, until verse 45, describes in detail the period of the
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Greeks in the wars of the successors of Alexander, concluding in the great eschatological battle that takes place between Pompey of Rome, who occupied
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Asia Minor, north of the Taurus Mountains, and the pirates of Pamphylia, who occupied a thin crescent of land in Asia Minor, south of the
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Taurus Mountains. That final narrative in chapter 11 concludes with the death of Pompey just a year after Julius Caesar crossed the
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Rubicon to become the first bona fide dictator or king of the Roman Empire. That was when the
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Roman nation transitioned from a republic to an empire to occupy its place in history as the fourth empire of Daniel's visions.
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And then chapter 12 begins with events that are distinctively Roman in nature, referring to the time of trouble and the delivery of the people of God, something that was to occur, of course, during the fourth empire.
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So, let me first thank our listeners for trudging through that with me. That is a lot of transitions and probably hard to listen to, but it is important and revealing to us.
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My guess is that not very many of our listeners have ever heard a lecture about imperial transitions in Danielic eschatological literature, and yet it is plainly obvious that it is one of the most important things
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Daniel talks about. Our point in dwelling on all these transitions is that when we arrive in the
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New Testament, we are transported to the time prior to the most important transition in all of Danielic eschatology, the transition from the iron legs to the feet of iron and clay in Daniel chapter 2.
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Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was near. The apostles said that they were in the last times. And the
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Jews wanted to make Jesus king. And the apostles wanted to know when Jesus would restore the kingdom to Israel.
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Why? Because the period of defeat was almost here. There was a huge transition about to take place and everybody wanted to know about it.
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That is what Peter was talking about when he said Joel had prophesied about these last times.
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This is from Acts 2 verses 16 -17. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet
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Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
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The last days had come. And consider these striking verses as well. In Matthew 16 -3,
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Jesus rebukes the hypocrites saying, You can discern the face of the sky, but can you not discern the signs of the times?
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Elsewhere when he is encouraging the sheep, in Luke 21 -28, Jesus says, And when you see these things come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
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And also a couple verses later, So likewise when you see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
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The book of Revelation starts with the admonition to John that the time is at hand.
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The New Testament was written at a time of transition and something big was about to happen.
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And Jesus believed that they had sufficient knowledge to know this. The time was about to come upon them, and the kingdom was almost here.
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They were approaching the period of the feet of the statue when the Messiah was to set up his kingdom, according to Daniel 2 -44.
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And when we read the New Testament, we are transported to an era that was on the cusp of that great transition.
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We mentioned several other apostolic references to the last days and the end of the world in the episode last week.
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It was all true. The end of the world was upon them, and the period of the feet was fast approaching. The culmination of all eschatology was about to begin.
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Something big was about to happen. So let's take a look at this, the most important transition in all of Danielic eschatology.
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The transition from the iron legs to the iron and clay feet. A remarkable amount of New Testament narrative is occupied with the approaching transition.
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In fact, the gospel John went about preaching, and the gospel Jesus went about preaching, and the gospel his apostles and disciples went about preaching, was all about that transition.
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They went all throughout the land saying, the kingdom of heaven is nigh. And when
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Jesus sent out the 70 to preach, the King James says in Luke 10 -9 that Jesus told them to say, the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you, making it sound like the kingdom had already arrived, and they were just announcing it.
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But the English word come is not there in the Greek. In the Greek, Jesus sent the 70 out to preach, not that the kingdom of God has come nigh to you, but rather, the kingdom of God is nigh to you.
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We do not want to dwell unnecessarily on the obvious, but it is important to know that nigh does not mean here.
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It does not mean the kingdom of heaven has arrived. It simply means the kingdom of heaven is nigh, or near.
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It is about to arrive. They were saying that the kingdom of heaven is approaching. They may as well have said, the period of the iron will soon end, and the period of the iron and clay will begin, or the period of the legs will soon end, and the period of the feet will begin, because the period of the feet is when the kingdom of heaven will be established, and the kingdom of heaven is what they came announcing.
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It is almost here. In other words, the New Testament was written during the period of the iron legs, and the constant warning of Christ and His disciples is that the period of the feet is almost here.
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A huge transition was about to take place, and all the signs were pointing to it. What did
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Daniel say about that transition from legs to feet? Daniel dwells briefly on the significance of the transition from iron legs to iron and clay feet, when he says that the legs are iron, because the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron.
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That is Daniel 2 .40. But the feet and toes are part potter's clay and part iron, because the kingdom shall be divided.
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That is Daniel 2 .41. And again, whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
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That's Daniel 2 .43. It is important to note here that by divided, Daniel is not referring to the division into toes or into horns in chapter 7, because both the feet and the toes are divided somehow, which is to say, the feet are divided and the toes are divided because they're made out of iron and clay that do not mix well.
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Thus, divided here does not refer to the fragmentation into toes. It only refers to the fact that the whole kingdom is somehow mixed like iron with clay after the period of iron.
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So, in what way is the kingdom mixed? Well, let's rule out at the outset the ESV interpretation which renders it as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage.
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That is not what the text says. If you look back on the preceding empires, we have a series of kingdoms that are solid gold, solid silver, solid bronze, and solid iron.
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And throughout all those empires, they marry and are given in marriage. In fact, the book of Esther has a king in the
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Medo -Persian empire marrying the Jewish maiden Esther. And chapter 11 of Daniel depicts intermarriage between the successor kingdoms of Alexander.
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And the king's children are marrying each other there in that kingdom. And in no way does
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Daniel depict the silver or bronze periods as mixed, even though their kings were clearly marrying outside of their own people.
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So, the iron and clay period cannot be a reference to mixing with one another in marriage as the ESV would suggest.
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It is clear from the passage that the iron and clay is weak in a way that the preceding empires were not weak.
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So, we cannot conclude that the fourth empire was weak through marriage since the preceding empires engaged in mixed marriages too.
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That is obviously not what Daniel was talking about. But we can figure out a way that the later Roman Empire at some point became substantively different in a way that set it apart not only from the early part of the
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Roman Empire, but also set it apart from all the preceding empires. To figure that out, let us revisit those preceding empires and take note of what the scripture tells us about them.
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In spite of their constant internal and external warfare and plenty of debauchery and intrigue, all the preceding ruling families were undivided in the sense that they were not mingled outside of royal, kingly lines.
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All the kingdoms were ruled by royal lines of kingly men. The Babylonian Empire was ruled by a succession of royalty descended from Nebuchadnezzar, for his son was king after him, according to Daniel 5 .2,
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and his son's son was king after him, according to Jeremiah 27 .7. Then the
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Medes reigned, passing the kingdom from father to son, for Darius was the son of Hagiwaris, of the seed of the
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Medes, according to Daniel 9 .1. And then the Persians passed the kingdom from father to son within royal lines as well, so you can see that in Ezra 4 .5
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-6 and check that against the historical records. The Greek Empire was then ruled by Alexander, and notably he serves as the sole exception to this rule, and the scripture pauses to point it out for us.
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It says, he left his kingdom not to his posterity, that's Daniel 11 .4, that makes him the sole exception, and Daniel pauses to point it out for us.
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But even then his kingdom was left to his generals and to their descendants, most visibly to the warring
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Ptolemaic and Seleucid families as each king left his portion of the fragmented kingdom to his son, and each to his son after him.
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Even when the fragments of Alexander's empire were then plucked up for others besides these, as foretold by Daniel 11 .4,
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the northern kingdom went first to Attalus of Pergamum, who having no son, bequeathed it to Rome.
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And the eastern kingdom went to King Tigranus of Armenia. And the southern kingdom, along the southern coast of Asia Minor, went to the pirate king of Pamphylia.
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They were still in the hands of royalty, or in the case of Rome, the aristocracy. Throughout this whole period, from Nebuchadnezzar to the division of Alexander's empire, none of these kingdoms are characterized as mingled with the seed of men.
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There was a tremendous amount of internal wrangling between family members and their descendants, and some territories even got plucked up by people who were not successors of Alexander.
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And yet none of those empires or kingdoms are characterized as divided the way the iron and clay feet are considered divided.
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And when Rome was in its ascendancy from Julius Caesar onward, that is, during the period of the iron legs, it exceeded the preceding empires in military prowess, according to Daniel 2 .40,
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but certainly not in political intrigue and turmoil. And even then it remained unmixed.
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From Julius Caesar through most of the first century A .D., the Roman Empire simply appears to be in the phase of the iron legs.
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It is not in any way or any sense a divided empire. It is iron to the core and is still just reaching its stride.
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And the first seven emperors followed the same pattern that we saw from the preceding empires. The kingdom was held and maintained by a royal line of Caesars who were related to each other.
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Julius Caesar reigned from 49 to 44 B .C. There were civil wars from 44
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B .C. to 27 B .C., and then his grand -nephew Augustus took over. And then
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Tiberius, who was the stepson of Augustus, took over, reigning from 14 to 37
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A .D. And then Caligula, who was Tiberius' grand -nephew, took over, reigning from 37 to 41.
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Claudius was Caligula's uncle. He reigned from 41 to 54. Nero, who reigned from 54 to 68, was
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Claudius' grand -nephew. And Galba, related by marriage and adoption to Julius Caesar, reigned from 68 to 69.
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The succession of these first seven rulers of the Roman Empire bears a resemblance to the succession of kings of Babylon, Medo -Persian, and Greece, in that the succession was kept within a kingly family line.
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Galba, the seventh king of Rome, was of noble birth and very wealthy, but related only distantly to the preceding six, and his wife,
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Amelia Lepida, was also related by marriage to the Julio -Claudian dynasty. After this, the
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Caesars began to come from much more diverse and frequently common lineage. Otho reigned from January to April of 69
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AD. He was of Etruscan lineage, and we notice that the Etruscans were not of Roman descent, and they were the people the
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Romans had overthrown to establish the Republic long ago. Vitellius took over, reigning from April to December of 69.
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He was of Latium descent, another group the Romans had overthrown to establish the
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Republic, or he was possibly of common lineage. Vespasian, from 69 to 79
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AD, was a commoner. Titus, 79 to 81 AD, was Vespasian's son.
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Domitian, from 81 to 96, was Titus's brother. Nerva, from 96 to 98
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AD, came from the Coquet family, distantly related to the Julio -Claudian dynasty.
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Trajan, from 98 to 117, was of Hispanic or Italian stock. Trajan, from 98 to 117
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AD, was of Hispanic and Italian stock. Hadrian, from 117 to 138, was of Hispanic, possibly
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Italian stock. Antoninus, from 138 to 161 AD, was from southern
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France. We will leave it to our listeners to research the family lines of the rest of the Roman emperors, but it was with Otho in 69
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AD that the Roman emperors began to come from non -Roman lines. There were some who came from royal lines, and those were mixed in with commoners and foreigners.
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Our point here is simply that the first seven emperors of the Roman Empire followed the pattern of the preceding empires, and that the succession was kept within the family, in a distinguishable royal line, civil war and political intrigue notwithstanding.
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After the first seven emperors, the rulers began to come from much more diverse lineage. This is what we believe
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Daniel had foreseen when he said, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, in Daniel 2 .43.
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They, referring to these kings of the Roman Empire. According to Daniel, there would be a significant and observable transition from legs to feet, and that transition took place in 69
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AD, when Galba was assassinated. The succession beyond that point was mingled.
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We also believe that this is the significance of the angel's reference to seven kings in Revelation 17, which reads,
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And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.
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And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. That's Revelation 17 .10.
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This leads us to a rather reasonable and penetrating question. What is the point of the reference to the seven kings of Revelation 17 .10?
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Well, there is a good reason for such a listing of kings. The point of listing a succession of kings in Revelation 17 is to highlight a significant eschatological transition that was approaching, just as the angelic narrator did for Daniel in chapter 11, where the listing of a series of kings was intended to convey a significant eschatological transition and his particular place in the
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Danielic timeline. Listen to Daniel 11 .1 -3 Also I in the first year of Darius the
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Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And now I will shew thee the truth.
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Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than they all.
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And by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will.
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Again, that's Daniel 11 .1 -3 He is listing a series of kings in order to help
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Daniel understand where he is on the Danielic timeline. And remember, the Danielic timeline is as much about the succession of empires as it is about the transitions between them.
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In this case, the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream is about to transition from legs of iron to feet of iron and clay.
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The revelation to John thus far has been rigidly Danielic, in that the beasts, heads, and horns in chapters 12, 13, and 17 all derive from Daniel's visions.
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John's angelic interpreter has been speaking in Danielic terms for a significant portion of the book. The significance of the reference to seven kings therefore, is that the angel was describing the iron period of the
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Roman Empire, the period defined by the iron legs of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The angel's message is to inform
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John of the looming transition to the period of the feet of the statue, a period fraught with eschatological significance, as Daniel had foretold, and what is quite simply the most important transition in all of eschatology, because of what was supposed to happen during the period of the feet.
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The fact that John was writing this under the sixth king, Nero, and that there would only be one more after him who must continue a short space, referring to Galba, is not suggestive of the end of the
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Roman Empire, but rather the end of the iron period. Rome was about to move out of its iron period and into the iron and clay period, defined by the statue's feet, when they shall mingle themselves with the seat of men.
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Now, along those lines, as long as we're talking about the first seven kings of the Roman Empire in Revelation 1710, we should pause here and interact with the next verse,
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Revelation 1711, which says that the Antichrist is the eighth Roman emperor after the seventh.
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Here is Revelation 1711. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
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That is actually a mistranslation. It does not actually say even he is the eighth.
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The Greek does not have the definite article there. It uses the indefinite article. The verse should read, and in fact was written in Greek, and the beast that was and is not, even he is an eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
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In other words, the Antichrist's little horn of Daniel 7, and the sea beast of Revelation 13, is like the
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Roman emperors of the iron period. They are the first seven emperors constituting the iron period, and he comes later, but is an eighth, and is of the seven, in the sense that the first seven were
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Roman, and the little horn of Daniel 7, which is the sea beast of Revelation 13, would also be
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Roman. As it says in Revelation 17, the woman who rides the beast is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth, which of course, in John's day, was the city of Rome.
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The iron period ended with the seventh Roman emperor, but the beast of Revelation 13 was an eighth, but was one of the seven, and that it was also an irresistible
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Roman power, just like the emperors of the iron period. But what Revelation 17 11 does not say is that the
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Antichrist is the eighth Roman emperor. Okay, with the iron period identified in the first seven emperors of Rome, the period of defeat is now upon us.
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The transfer of the kingdom that Daniel had prophesied cannot be far away, nor can the impact of the stone.
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In fact, as we noted in our previous episode, Jesus confirms this understanding in his discussion on the stone striking the statue, and repeatedly points forward to the destruction of Jerusalem as the sign to us that the transition from legs to feet had finally happened.
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So let's listen again to Jesus' reference to Daniel 2 in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The chief priests, scribes, and elders were pressing
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Jesus to identify who had given him authority to teach what he was teaching. That's Matthew 21 23 and Luke 20 verses 1 to 2.
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He would not answer their question, but he took the occasion to speak the parable of the husbandmen.
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In this parable, the husbandmen were entrusted with the stewardship of the vineyard. But when the time of the fruit drew near, the husbandmen beat and stoned and killed the master's servants.
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The master then sends his own sons, saying, They will reverence my son. But when he came, they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.
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That's Matthew 21 33 to 39 and Luke 20 9 to 15. What then would become of the husbandmen?
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What would the lord of the vineyard do to them? The answer is in Matthew 21 41 and in Luke 20 16, citing from Matthew, He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
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Jesus had just informed the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders that they were the unfruitful, unfaithful husbandmen of the vineyard.
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That his father had repeatedly sent his servants, the prophets, only for them to be rejected.
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And now he had sent his beloved son, and he too would be rejected and killed by them.
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For this reason, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
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That's Matthew 21 43. As the Matthew account reveals, those other husbandmen to whom the kingdom would be given were the harlots and tax collectors.
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Matthew 21 32 and the Gentiles of Matthew 22 9 to 10. Those are the saints of the
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Most High. It is in the midst of this confrontation with the Jews that Jesus invokes Psalm 118 and Daniel 2 together, not only to identify himself as the stone, but also to identify the period during which the kingdom of God shall be taken from you.
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Now citing Matthew 21 42 to 44 Jesus saith unto them,
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Did you never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected, the same as become the head of the corner?
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This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. That's a quote from Psalm 118 22 to 23.
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Now continuing, Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
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And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
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That's referring to Daniel 2 34 to 35. Over the course of just a few verses,
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Jesus invoked the imagery of the stone, as well as the statue of Daniel 2. Not insignificantly, Jesus here separates the two strikes of the stone that we discussed in the previous episode.
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But more importantly, he invokes this imagery in the context of the kingdom of God being taken away from the
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Jews and given to the Gentiles, which is what Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 had foretold. In both chapters, the saints are depicted as receiving a kingdom during the
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Roman Empire. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.
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That's Daniel 2 44. These great beasts which are four are four kings, but the saints of the
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Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. That's Daniel 7, 17 to 18.
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Both of these passages refer to the kingdom of heaven being given to the saints during the Roman Empire, and according to the parable of the husbandmen, it is from the
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Jews that the kingdom is taken, and to the harlots, tax collectors, and Gentiles that it is given.
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It was to be taken from the Jews and given to the saints, and this time the kingdom shall not be left to other people.
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When Jesus interprets Daniel 2 for us, he shows the saints of the Most High receiving the kingdom from the
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Jews in the days of those kings, that is, in the period of the feet. This is the heavenly kingdom that John, Jesus, his apostles, and the
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Seventy had been commissioned to announce. As Jesus said, Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
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Luke 12, 32 This bears significantly on the looming transition from the iron legs to the iron and clay feet of Daniel 2, because Jesus invokes the imagery of the stone striking the statue, and the transfer of the kingdom in regard to events that are yet future to him and to his audience.
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At the time of the parable, the Jews have yet to reject the stone, and they have yet to catch him and cast him out of the vineyard and slay him.
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That's referring to Matthew 21, 33 -39, and Luke 20, 9 -15. And the
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Lord of the vineyard has yet to miserably destroy those wicked men, according to Matthew 21, 41. And he has yet to take away the kingdom from them.
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Matthew 21, 43. In fact, the language of taking away their kingdom and giving the kingdom to another nation is yet future to Jesus and his audience, and is a reference to the destruction of the temple in 70
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A .D. It is only then that their kingdom is officially taken away. Jesus and John's ministry of announcing the kingdom of heaven was in anticipation of this very thing, for the phrase, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, literally means the kingdom of heaven draweth nigh, or the kingdom of heaven approacheth.
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And as Jesus said, so likewise, when you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
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The kingdom of heaven had not been given to the saints yet. The transfer had not taken place. In sum,
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Jesus has described the destruction of the Jewish nation in terms that place the event chronologically in the period of the iron and clay feet that we have identified above.
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As we noted in our analysis of the emperors of Rome, the period of the iron legs ends with Galba in 69
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A .D., and the period of the iron and clay feet immediately follows with Otho. Within a year,
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Jerusalem would be destroyed, a destruction that Jesus connected to that period of the feet, and the arrival of the heavenly kingdom.
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The short story on the kingdom of heaven that would be set up during the fourth empire then is that it cannot occur except in the period of the feet, and the period of the feet cannot begin until 69
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A .D., after the first seven emperors of Rome have come and gone, Nero himself being the sixth.
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The seventh emperor lasted only seven months. Jesus' visible return on the clouds as we discussed in episode 16, the end of the
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Julio -Claudian dynasty as we've discussed, and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem were all visible signs of the transition from the iron legs to the period of iron and clay feet.
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That the kingdom of God had arrived, and that the kingdom of God had been taken away from the Jews and was given to another people, more in keeping with the fruits.
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So that's the end of the iron period, and the beginning of the period of the iron and clay feet. We want to highlight the fact that the visible return of Christ on the clouds suggests
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Jerusalem, as stated in Revelation 1 -7, and the end of the iron period, as indicated by Revelation 17 -10, and the destruction of Jerusalem as the sign of the transfer of the kingdom from the
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Jews to another people, as taught in Matthew 21 and Luke 20, all happened in rapid succession.
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By the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A .D., it was plainly obvious from the scriptural testimony that the period of the feet had begun.
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That is an awful lot of things to happen right around the time the Roman Empire transitioned from legs of iron to feet of iron and clay.
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But sure enough, in accordance with prophecy, Jesus appeared on the clouds, the period of the legs ended, the period of the feet began,
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Jerusalem was destroyed, and the kingdom was transferred. The feet had finally arrived, and the very much anticipated transfer of the kingdom had finally taken place.
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Now, we will get into this in a lot more detail, but we only want to highlight here that the destruction of Jerusalem is not the first strike of the stone.
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Remember, the stone strikes the Roman Empire in Daniel 2 .34. We talked last time about two judgments in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 and the book of Revelation, and it is important to note that the first judgment is directed solely against the
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Roman Empire, while the second judgment is directed explicitly against Antichrist or the Little Horn.
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Jesus' references to the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 21 and Luke 20 were not to indicate the first strike of the stone, but rather that the destruction of Jerusalem was to indicate that the kingdom of God was being transferred, or to put it another way, his reference to the destruction of Jerusalem was to indicate that the period of the feet was about to begin, and the destruction of Jerusalem would show that it had arrived.
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We will have much more to say about the judgment against the Roman Empire, how it manifested, particularly in the breaking of the seals in Revelation 5.
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When we return to that, we will identify each of the seven seals in history and how the seals contributed to the fragmentation of the
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Roman Empire, forming the toes of the statue of Daniel 2. But before we move on to the period of the toes, we know that we are opening a can of worms here, but it is not the first can we have opened, and it will not be the last.
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But let me first just say that if the first seven emperors of the Roman Empire constitute the Iron Period, because they were all related in some way to the
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Julio -Claudian dynasty, then that means Nero cannot possibly be the Antichrist of prophecy.
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Why? Because Nero was in the period of the Iron Legs, and the Antichrist of prophecy must come from among the toes.
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Any emperor who comes during the Iron Period is disqualified from the identification as Antichrist because he came too early.
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That is one matter. The identification of the Iron Period eliminates Nero from consideration as Antichrist, and thus the preterist view is disqualified.
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But there is something more, and that has to do with the date of the writing of the Book of Revelation. Traditionally, it was held to be written in 95 or 96
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A .D. So how is it possible that John in 95 A .D. was prophesying events in 69
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A .D. or earlier? Well, the answer is that he wasn't. If the Book of Revelation was written during the period of the sixth king of the
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Iron Period of the Roman Empire, that is, under the reign of Nero, then it obviously wasn't written in 95 or 96
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A .D. Nero's reign as emperor was from 54 to 68 A .D. The Book of Revelation must have been written between those dates, and actually well before 68
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A .D., as we will show later. Now here's the can of worms. Historicists and dispensationalists typically reject such an early dating, in part because the early date lends too much credence to the preterist position that identifies
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Nero as the Antichrist. But that concern disappears once the significance of John's Danielic language is understood.
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In the end, an early dating of the Book of Revelation does not lend credence to preterism at all, but rather disproves it by assigning
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Nero to the period of the Iron Legs, a period during which it was impossible for Antichrist to rise.
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Now, the dating of the Book of Revelation has been a matter of no small controversy throughout the history of the Church.
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Some writers placing its authorship during the reign of Claudius, from 41 to 54 A .D. Others placing it during the reign of Nero, from 54 to 68
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A .D. And others placing it in the reign of Domitian, from 81 to 96
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A .D. In the realm of eschatology, preterists choose an early date, while dispensationalists and historicists generally have chosen the later.
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It is not a matter that can be resolved by external testimony, because the external testimony itself is contradictory.
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So let us briefly touch on a small sampling of that external evidence, starting with Irenaeus, who died in 202
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A .D. Irenaeus appeared to assign the date of John's vision to the reign of Domitian.
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Describing John's apocalyptic vision, Irenaeus said, "...for that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, toward the end of Domitian's reign."
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That's Irenaeus, Book 5 of Against Heresies, Chapter 30. Jerome, too, understood that John had seen the revelation during his banishment under Domitian.
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This is Jerome against Jovinianus, Book 1, Chapter 26, saying, "...for he saw in the island of Patmos, to which he had been banished by the emperor
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Domitian as a martyr for the Lord, an apocalypse containing the boundless mysteries of the future."
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But other writers have suggested or claimed much earlier time frames. Tertullian, who lived from 155 to 240
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A .D., for example, while not explicitly dating the apocalypse, appears to place
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John's exile in the reign of Nero. According to legend, John was said to have miraculously survived what would have been a martyr's death when he emerged unharmed from a vat of boiling oil.
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In relating the incident, Tertullian seems to place the boiling oil incident chronologically prior to Paul's martyrdom under Nero, just as Jesus' passion was chronologically prior to Peter's.
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That's from Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 36. The Muratorian canon, dated in the late 2nd century, places the apocalypse of John chronologically prior to Paul's epistles, and has
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Paul imitating John's pattern of writing in Revelation. The Muratorian canon says, The blessed apostle
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Paul, following the rule of his predecessor John, writes to no more than seven churches by name.
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There are other writers who explicitly place John's exile to Patmos earlier than Nero. Epiphanius, who lived from 320 to 403
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A .D., dates John's gospel to his old age, but has his apocalypse written under the reign of Claudius, from 41 to 54
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A .D. That's Epiphanius, Pan -Aryan, Book 2, Heresy 51. Thus we can see that the external evidence of the date of the apocalypse is far from unambiguous.
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We can hardly blame renowned historian Philip Schaff, therefore, for changing his position in his revised edition of the
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History of the Christian Church. In his preface to the revised edition, he acknowledged that he had changed his position.
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He used to hold to a late writing of the date of Revelation, and he'd switched his position to an early writing.
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Were we left with no other devices, we might suppose that the date of Revelation simply could not be determined. The diversity of the evidence and the wavering of a great church historian hardly bodes well for such an endeavor.
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But there is a way the date can be narrowed down to the reign of a particular Roman emperor, and it is provided for us in Revelation 17.
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The answer lies in the iron legs of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Revelation was written during the reign of Nero, the sixth emperor of the
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Iron Period of Nebuchadnezzar's statue. We understand that our Preterist brethren will object to us ruling out
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Nero, based on the fact that he reigned during the Iron Period, and some of our Historicist and Futurist brethren will object to our dating the book of Revelation to the period of Nero.
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But remember, the later first century dating of the book of Revelation is just a tradition, based on the opinion of a couple early writers.
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Other early writers disagreed with them. Okay, so let's move on to the period of the toes.
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We want to say in passing, and we will return to this in much greater detail when we discuss the seals, trumpets, and vials of Revelation, that Daniel 2 does not mention toes at all until after the first strike of the stone.
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Until the first strike of the stone, all that is mentioned is iron and clay feet. We will show in a future episode that the first strike of the stone actually broke the feet into pieces, forming the toes.
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But for now, the first strike of the stone is chronologically prior to the emergence of the toes, because the stone strikes the statue in the feet, not in the toes.
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And only after the first strike of the stone are the toes even mentioned. Daniel 2 .34 says the stone struck the statue, breaking the iron and clay feet into pieces.
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And then Daniel 2 .42 says, As the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken.
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When did the fourth kingdom become broken? The fourth kingdom became broken when the stone struck the feet, breaking them.
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The stone struck the statue in the feet prior to the formation of the toes, breaking the feet into pieces.
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And that's when the toes were formed, when the fourth kingdom was partly strong, but now is partly broken because of the first impact of the stone.
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Now we mentioned this in our first couple episodes, but it is important to restate it here. Every final configuration of the
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Roman Empire shows Rome divided ten ways, and every relevant configuration of either serpent or beast in Revelation 12, 13, and 17 has ten horns.
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And the final battle in chapter 17 is between the lamb and the beast and the ten horns.
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We are thus driven to conclude that a ten -way division is not the original configuration of the divided
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Roman Empire. It is its final configuration. You can't have ten horns come up and then
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Antichrist uproot three and still have ten at the end. There must have been thirteen originally.
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And not only have we highlighted the fact that each empire in Daniel 7 is depicted in its final configuration prior to the rise of the next empire, we have also shown in Daniel that he never writes that the original number of the first horns was ten, or that the little horn uproots three of the ten.
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Historically, eschatologists have simply assumed that to be the case, even though Daniel does not actually say it.
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In reality, if there are ten left after the little horn has uprooted three, and there are, according to Revelation 17, then there must have been thirteen to begin with.
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And thus the little horn uprooted three and came up among the remaining ten. And that is why
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Antichrist still has ten horns in his entourage, even when he engages in his final battle with Christ in Revelation 17.
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What that means is, instead of looking for a ten -way division of the Roman Empire as the harbinger of the rise of Antichrist, an assumption that has marked almost all of Danielic eschatology, we should have been looking for a thirteen -way division of the
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Roman Empire. But because we were looking for a ten -way division, we missed the rise of Antichrist that followed upon a thirteen -way division.
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In fact, the Roman Empire was finally divided into thirteen diocese in the latter part of the fourth century.
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And right on cue, the Roman Catholic religion immediately claimed three of those thirteen diocese as her own.
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That occurred in the Period of the Toes. So let's revisit the history. Early in the third century, with the rise of the
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Sasanian Empire to the east, Rome was facing something it hadn't faced since the days of the
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Pamphilian pirates in the first century B .C., namely a powerful enemy.
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The rise of the Sasanian Empire was only the beginning of Rome's troubles. The period from 235 to 284
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A .D. is called the Crisis of the Third Century, during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed from internal and external pressures.
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The crisis started with the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus by his own troops, followed by a fifty -year period in which there was a new emperor claiming the throne almost every two years.
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The period was complicated by a humiliating defeat in the east at the hands of the Sasanians at the
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Battle of Edessa in 260 A .D. By the end of the crisis, the empire had been split into three competing states with rival emperors and rival armies.
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Emperor Diocletian came to power in 284 A .D. and inherited an unprecedented military, economic, and political crisis.
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To stop the constant internal and external quest for power by rival emperors, he spent his first ten years reorganizing the empire, forming the
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Tetrarchy, under which four rulers, two Augusti and two Caesars, ruled over four quarters of the empire.
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This made it so that an invader would have to conquer four cities simultaneously in order to conquer the empire.
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Rome, of course, remained the titular capital of the empire, but the Tetrarchs themselves governed from the four
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Tetrarch capitals of Nicomedia in modern Turkey, Sirmium in modern Serbia, Mediolanum in modern
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Italy, and Augusta Treverorum in modern Germany. Diocletian took up residence in Nicomedia, from which capital he governed the eastern quarter.
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He then assigned three dioceses to each of the three Tetrarchs, dividing the empire into twelve dioceses.
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Now sighting from Diocletian and the Tetrarchy by Roger Rees. Under Diocletian, the empire was divided into twelve dioceses, each consisting of several provinces.
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A new position was created to head each diocese, the Vicarius. That's from Diocletian and the
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Tetrarchy, Roger Rees, page 25. The Tetrarchy hardly survived one generation, as Rees says on page 89, but the twelve -way division endured.
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But by the last few decades of the fourth century, some dioceses had been combined and others separated, resulting in a total of thirteen distinct geographical territories.
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Now sighting from Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 2, appendix 11.
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Three changes in his diocesan arrangement were made in the course of the fourth century, and by 400, we find thirteen dioceses.
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Egypt, which was at first part of the Diocese of the East, was promoted to be a separate diocese toward the end of the fourth century.
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Dioceses Moesiarum was broken up into Dioceses Daciae and Dioceses Macedoniae.
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On the other hand, Dioceses Galliarum and Dioceses Vianensis were combined to form a single diocese of Gaul.
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Again, that's Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The last of the divisions into thirteen dioceses actually took place upon the separation of Egypt from the
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East, forming the thirteenth diocese. That division would have occurred no earlier than 373
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A .D., when we have Roman administrative records that still had Egypt as part of the Diocese of the
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East, but would have taken place no later than 383 A .D., when we have the first official
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Roman document referring to Egypt as its own diocese. In fact, we can place it as early as 381
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A .D., because the Council of Constantinople recognized Egypt as its own diocese when it convened that year.
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So, by 381 A .D., the Roman Empire was divided into thirteen dioceses as follows.
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Diocese of the East, with the Metropolitan City of Antioch as its chief. The Diocese of Egypt, with the
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Metropolitan City of Alexandria as its chief. The Diocese of Italy. Originally, the
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Metropolitan City was Milan, but that changed to Rome at the Council of Rome in 378 A .D.
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As well as the Diocese of Asia, Pontica, Thrace, Macedonia, Dacia, Pannonia, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain.
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Thus, when the division of the Empire was complete, thirteen distinct geographical territories had been established, each governed and administered from its chief metropolitan city.
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The attentive listener will observe, as we noted in our first couple episodes, that of those thirteen dioceses, we have identified three metropoli of no small significance.
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Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These three cities each had a vicarious ruling over its respective dioceses.
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The Diocese of Italy, the Diocese of the East, and the Diocese of Egypt. And more to our point, each claimed to be one of the
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Three Seas of St. Peter, or what were called the Three Petrine Seas. Early in the history of the
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Roman Catholic Church, the three cities of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria tussled with each other for primacy, as each one claimed succession from Peter.
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Alexandria, because Peter's disciple Mark had settled there. Antioch, because Peter settled there first.
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And Rome, the city where Peter allegedly settled last. The Council of Rome in 382
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A .D. provides a description of those three seas of St. Peter. This is Bishop Damasus of Rome, the
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Council of Rome, in 382 A .D. Therefore, first is the seat at the
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Roman Church of the Apostle Peter, having no spot or wrinkle or any other defect. However, the second place was given in the name of the blessed
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Peter to Mark, his disciple and gospel writer at Alexandria. Indeed, the third place is held at Antioch, of the most blessed and honorable
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Apostle Peter, who lived there before he came to Rome. Pope Gregory the
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Great, who reigned from 590 to 604 A .D., also described these three Petrine Seas as a single entity, claiming that they were, in fact, a sea of one.
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This is quoting from Gregory the Great, Book 7, Epistle 40, to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria.
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Wherefore, though there are many Apostles, yet with regard to the Principality itself, the
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Sea of the Prince of the Apostles alone has grown strong in authority, which in three places is the
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Sea of One. For he himself exalted the Sea of Rome, in which he deigned even to rest and end the present life.
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He himself adorned the Sea of Alexandria, to which he sent his disciple Mark as evangelist.
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He himself established the Sea at Antioch, in which, though he was to leave it, he sat for seven years. Since then it is the
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Sea of One, and One Sea, over which by divine authority three bishops now preside. Again, that is
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Gregory the Great, Book 7, Epistle 40, to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria. Now just think about that amazing convergence of events.
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The Roman Empire divides into thirteen dioceses, sometime after 373 A .D., but before 381
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A .D. Three of those dioceses are ruled from Milan, the Diocese of Italy, Alexandria, the
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Diocese of Egypt, and Antioch, the Diocese of the East. By 378
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A .D., at a council in Rome, Pope Damasus had successfully appealed to the emperors to make Rome the chief seat of the
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Diocese of Italy. By 380 A .D., Emperor Theodosius I declares that Pope Damasus is the new pontifex, and that Roman Catholicism is the new religion of the empire.
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By 382 A .D., Damasus explains in another council of Rome that Roman Catholicism is established upon the three seas of Peter, based in Rome, the metropolis of Italy, Alexandria, the metropolis of Egypt, and Antioch, the metropolis of Orients, Rome, of course, being the chief among them, essentially establishing
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Roman Catholicism, the little horn, upon the three chief metropolitan seas of three of the thirteen dioceses of the fragmented
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Roman Empire. The same year, Emperor Gratian formally renounces the title Pontifex Maximus, and just a few years later, the
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Roman Catholic religion takes up the civil sword and uses it to enforce ecclesiastical law. That is an awful lot of things to happen right around the time the
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Roman Empire officially divided into thirteen dioceses, but sure enough, according to prophecy, the
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Roman Empire divided thirteen ways. A little horn antagonist arose and claimed three of the thirteen, and came up among the remaining ten, establishing his earthly empire in the period of the toes.
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So there you have it, the remarkable period of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, of which the scriptures testified in advance.
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First, the period of iron legs, as depicted in Daniel chapter 2, and as depicted in Revelation 17, as the first seven emperors of the
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Roman Empire. Then the period of the iron and clay feet, depicted in Daniel 2 as the period starting in 69
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AD, when the royal lines of the emperors would be mixed with commoners, during which time
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Christ destroyed Jerusalem, took away the kingdom from the Jews and gave it to another nation, setting it up as the heavenly kingdom of God that would never be taken away.
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And finally, the period of the iron and clay toes, starting in 293 AD, after the first strike of the stone began to cause the
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Roman Empire to fragment into twelve dioceses, but over the course of the next century, arriving in its division into thirteen toes by 381
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AD, at which point Roman Catholicism arose, claiming three of those thirteen dioceses of Italy, Egypt, and Orient, in the three metropolitan cities of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch.
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The same year, 382 AD, the Roman emperors declared Roman Catholicism to be the new religion of the
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Empire, and transferred to Bishop Damasis of Rome the title Pontifex of the new religion. Having subsumed three of the thirteen dioceses unto itself, it was not until the last decade of the 4th century that Roman Catholicism took up the civil sword and started wielding it in order to coerce the heathen into submission.
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Put all this together with the sudden rise of Roman Catholic teachings at the end of the 4th century, and you've got a compelling argument that Roman Catholicism is indeed the prophesied little horn of Daniel 7, the sea beast of Revelation 13, and the great apostasy foreseen by Paul in 2
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Thessalonians 2, and that the pope of the new Roman religion is that wicked one, that man of sin in the same chapter.
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Just think about all the idolatrous and heretical teaching that arose in this very time frame at the end of the 4th century.
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Relic veneration, mixing water with wine during the liturgy, the sacrifice of the mass, transubstantiation, priestly celibacy, the perpetual virginity of Mary, the sinlessness of Mary, the primacy of the
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Bishop of Rome, veneration of the cross, use of candles in worship, and within another century, the use of incense and images in worship, and by the 11th century, adoration of the
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Eucharist. And you have the historical origins of Roman Catholicism, rising from among the fragments of the
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Roman Empire, and having its way at least from the perspective of wielding the civil sword from the last decade of the 4th century until the 6th decade of the 17th century, or to be more precise, for the next 1 ,260 years.
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And that's where we're going to leave off this time. Our objective in this episode was to show that using the scriptures, we can identify the period of the transition from the legs of iron in Daniel 2 to the feet of iron and clay, a transition that took place in 69
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AD, and the transition from the iron and clay feet to the iron and clay toes, a division that started in 293 and was completed as a 13 -way division by 381
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AD. And we showed that we can discern from the scriptures what Daniel was referring to when he said that the feet of the statue were a mixture of iron and clay, and with the help of Revelation 17, we identified the end of the iron leg period, and we could also discern by harmonizing
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Daniel 7 with Revelation 12, 13, and 17 that there must have been 13 horns to begin with if Daniel saw the little horn coming up among the remaining ten after removing three, quite simply because the
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Antichrist still has ten horns in his entourage after rising up and removing three of the first horns. And of course, during the period of the feet,
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Jesus set up a heavenly kingdom that was not of earth. And then in the period of the toes, Antichrist set up an earthly kingdom that was not of heaven.
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And unless we can identify the period of the feet and the period of the toes, we will not be able to discern between those two kingdoms.
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And if we cannot discern between those two kingdoms, the Antichrist will keep right on breaking in and stealing sheep, convincing them that Roman Catholicism is the stone that fills the whole earth, even as the scriptures warn us, rather, that Roman Catholicism is the little horn of Daniel 7.
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So where do we go from here? Well, the natural question that might arise is, wait a second, how do you know that the little horn was to reign 1 ,260 years rather than just 1 ,260 days as the scriptures teach us?
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After all, the little horn was only supposed to oppress the saints until times, times, and the dividing of time, according to Daniel 7, 25.
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And the Lord was supposed to nourish his bride for 1 ,203 score days, according to Revelation 12, 6.
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And the woman was supposed to be nourished for a time and times and a half a time, away from the face of the serpent, according to Revelation 12, 14.
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And the sea beast of Revelation 13 was supposed to have power to continue 40 and two months, according to Revelation 13, 5.
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That's three and a half years, and here you've made it into a 1 ,260 year reign of Antichrist, contrary to the scriptures.
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Well, actually, what we're going to do in our next episode is show that the time, times, and the dividing of time, and 1 ,203 score days, and a time, times, and half a time, and 42 months, can only refer to prophetic days of years.
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And yes, the scriptures actually require that interpretation. There is simply no way the scriptures would identify a three and a half year period as 42 months, or 1 ,260 days, unless the intention was to reveal them as 1 ,260 years.
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And that is what we're going to discuss in episode 20 next time. This is Timothy F.