The story of Alexander the Great is one that is both old and new. More than 23 centuries after leaping from Greece to conquer most of the known world, his story continues to fascinate modern audiences and inspire scholarly study. New books pore over the ancient chronicles of his conquests, and two new motion pictures will portray both the factual and romantic aspects of his fame. But at the end of the day, many questions remain unanswered.

How should we understand Alexander the Great today? Is there an overlooked source that refers to his exploits in the context of God's design for history and mankind? You may be surprised to know that Alexander's exploits are mentioned in Bible prophecies that are ignored by modern scholars in their quest to understand his historical significance. The Bible has a great deal to teach us about God's hand in history and why events transpire the way they do.

The beginning

Alexander was born at Pella in 356 B.C. His father, Philip, king of Macedon, had assembled the Greek states into a coalition that laid the foundation for the army Alexander would take to Asia. His mother was Olympias, with whom he had a close relationship. She was a devotee of the god Dionysius and is said to have astonished the royal court by bringing snakes into their presence. The marriage was stormy. When Philip was assassinated in 336, 20-year-old Alexander moved quickly to consolidate power and assume the kingly title.

Persia was the enemy of Greece, and there were old scores to settle. Alexander inherited his father's ambition and vision to be more than a regional monarch. Before taking on the empire to the east, he first had to consolidate his own power. He took his troops north, as far as the Danube, and south in Greece to neutralize any regional opposition. He was now ready for the invasion of Asia.

In one of the most remarkable junctures of history, the renowned philosopher Aristotle schooled Alexander. Part of the curriculum was the study of Homer's Iliad, the story of the Trojan War. Alexander styled himself after the great warrior Achilles and carried a volume of the story on his travels, quoting frequently from its pages. What began at Troy, a great struggle between Europe and Asia, was to be continued at the hands of this new Achilles. No more than 40,000 troops started on this most daring of all kingly expeditions. Over the next 11 years he traveled further and conquered more than any monarch before him. He would never again see his homeland.

Decisive battles

Speed and daring were the hallmarks of the major battles that decided the course of Alexander's reign. At three major engagements within four years, the Persian Empire was crushed.

In 334 B.C., at the Battle of Granicus, he met the first Persian army, quickly defeating it. Alexander was a soldier-king who often fought in the front lines with his men. At this first engagement his life very nearly came to an abrupt end. About to be struck from behind, the king was saved by the quick action of one of his men who severed the Persian's arm. Historians have been tempted to speculate how the whole course of history would have been changed had Alexander died at that time. Perhaps, as we will see, it might be better to seek understanding of the spiritual dimension of history so often ignored by secular historians.

Next, at Issus, the full force of the Persian army, more than half a million men, was gathered behind the standard of Darius III. By employing new tactics, slicing through the line at an angle rather than launching a full frontal assault, the Greek troops were able to get behind the enemy flank, routing the larger Persian force and sending it into chaotic retreat. Darius fled so quickly that his treasury and family were left at the mercy of Alexander. Darius offered to make Alexander his son-in-law and give him all of Asia west of the Euphrates. But nothing less than unconditional surrender would satisfy the Greek king.

For all intents and purposes this finished effective Persian resistance. There would be one more battle, in 331 B.C. at Gaugamela in what is today northern Iraq. Here Darius III was killed by his own men when he attempted to be the first to abandon the battle, as the Greek troops crushed the last vestige of the numerically superior Persian force.

Within four short years Alexander had defeated the massive Persian Empire. After 329 B.C. he had no major opponent. Alexander's empire eventually stretched from Greece to modern Pakistan, occupying the former empires of Egypt, Babylon and Persia.

"To the ocean"

The Greeks thought the world's land mass was surrounded by what they called "the ocean." To reach this point would be to come to the end of the earth. Once the area that is now Iran was secure in 327 B.C., there was no real need to go further east. But the allure of going to earth's end was too great. Alexander pushed his troops ahead to what one Roman author said was "all that a mortal man was capable of."

No army or power effectively stood in his way as he marched through Central Asia and what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. In Afghanistan he met the same kind of fierce nomadic tribal culture that endures to this day. He founded cities and struck alliances, which began to stretch his men and his ability to maintain effective control. Alexander's first real "defeat" was when his soldiers refused to go further. At the River Hyphasis (modern Beas) in India the long years of marching and privation came to a climax. "This far and no further" was their cry.

Without support from his troops, he was forced to turn back to the west. What remained was the less glorious, more mundane task of consolidating and managing the world empire. Aristotle had once taught him that it was more difficult to organize peace than to win a war, that the fruits of victory in war will be lost if the peace is not well organized. But Alexander would not have the time, or perhaps the ability, to prove whether he could effectively manage all that he had conquered.

The march back to Babylon took a physical toll on the morale of the troops and the health of their leader. Trusted lieutenants abdicated for home, troops mutinied and his closest friend and confidant, Hephaestion, died. Grief, frustration and the long years of warring had taken their toll. By June 323 B.C., Alexander lay dying of fever and infection. His soldiers gathered around to ask what would become of his empire, and he reputedly replied that it should go "to the strongest."

It took two decades for the dust to settle, but when it did there were four divisions of the empire among four of his generals. The two most powerful sectors were the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and the Seleucid in Asia Minor.

Mentioned in Bible prophecy

The average person today viewing a major motion picture of the life of Alexander may not realize that this luminous ancient figure is mentioned in Bible prophecy. The prophet Daniel, writing first from the courts of Babylon and then Persia (long before Alexander defeated its empire), saw visions of the future that included the rise of this Greek empire.

In the second chapter of Daniel, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, dreamed a terrifying vision that none of his wise men could interpret. It was only when he called in the young Daniel that an explanation was given. The dream was of a huge four-sectioned image with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thigh of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay.

In verse 36 Daniel was inspired by God to give the interpretation. "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.

"But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others" (Daniel 2:36-40).

Through this dream, God was showing the progression of four empires that would arise and dominate much of the earth in their day. Students of Bible prophecy correctly identify these empires as Babylon (head of gold), Persia (chest and arms of silver), Greece (belly and thighs of bronze) and Rome (legs of iron and feet of part iron and clay). In the dream a "stone was cut out without hands" and struck the image on its feet (the fourth empire) and then "filled the whole earth" (verses 34-35). Verse 44 reveals that this is the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. The fact that the fourth empire is struck by the stone indicates a continuation of that system in some form until the coming of Christ.

Daniel actually lived during the first two of these empires. As a captive Jew in Babylon at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, he witnessed the workings and power of the head of gold. Later, during the reign of Belshazzar, God gave Daniel a vision, which expanded on the earlier dream of Nebuchadnezzar. It is recorded in chapter 7. Daniel wrote down the images of his dream, which must have left a troubled mood upon him. Notice what he saw: "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it.

"And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: 'Arise, devour much flesh!' After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns" (Daniel 7:2-7).

These four beasts again represent the four empires beginning with Babylon. The Greco-Macedonian Empire is identified with the third beast, which is like a leopard. Its attributes fit the historical description of Alexander's army and its tactics. As already noted, Alexander's army was small but powerful and quick, like a leopard. It tore at and easily defeated the massive bearlike (powerful, but less agile than a leopard) empire of the Persians.

Daniel had one other vision that includes a reference to Alexander's Empire. It fits in with history with remarkable accuracy. In this vision (chapter 8), he was by a river when he saw a ram with two horns, one horn being higher than the other. God's angelic messenger told Daniel the ram represented the Persian kingdom, composed of Persia and Media. The different lengths of the horns showed that Persia overshadowed Media. This ram advanced in three directions and no other power could withstand its advance.

It became a great power until a new power arose in the form of a male goat from the west (verse 5). This goat had a "notable horn" between the eyes. Notice the interpretation in verse 21, "And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king."

Clearly, this horn is Alexander. The prophecy even mentions the breakup of the kingdom upon Alexander's death into four smaller kingdoms. "As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power" (verse 22).

Daniel made one further reference to Alexander's empire in the very long prophecy of chapter 11. Verses 3 and 4 refer to a "mighty king" to arise and to do very much according to his will.

Of course modern scholarship utterly rejects the idea that Daniel wrote his book in the sixth century B.C. The idea that anyone could predict with such accuracy the coming of future kingdoms such as Greece and Rome is simply an academic heresy. Admitting such would require belief in a God who controls history and also foretells it in advance. It would require admission that the Bible is the true word of the one God who created the universe. No such admission is likely to be forthcoming.

Claiming to be as God

Late in his life Alexander actually made the claim to be a god. In 324 B.C. he sent word back to Greece that he claimed descent from Zeus-Ammon and wished to be considered divine. This was not a sudden change, for it began during his days in Egypt. While there he made a trek into the desert to Siwa where there was a shrine to Ammon, the chief Egyptian deity. There he inquired about his divinity and received assurances from the priests that he was of divine parentage. Whether the Greeks believed this or not, it is important to understand it as a key to how he brought Egypt under his dominion. Egyptians were used to looking to their pharaoh as divine.

Kings and emperors commonly reigned as divine rulers, virtual incarnations of gods, in the ancient world. Roman emperors would also make such claims. (Later the dynamic would change as church and state came to be represented by two rival, yet interdependent, leaders during the Middle Ages.)

When a man makes such claims of divinity, he often is near the end of his time and suffers a reversal. Alexander was dead within years of his public boast.

In his assertion, Alexander was like a religious leader prophesied to come in the end time, claiming to be divine. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul states in chapter 2:4 that this person "sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Revelation 13 speaks of a system to arise at the same time, which will have both civil and religious power (a ruler called "the beast," backed up and supported by "another beast"—religious in nature—that has the power to deceive and work miracles). Working together for a time, they will enslave men and defy the power of God in one last human effort to achieve a one-world system apart from God.

Alexander wanted to bring together the peoples of Europe and Asia into the same system—one-world government. He came closer than any man, before or after, to accomplishing this goal. This fusion of peoples into one system did transform the world. After Alexander's death, there was the continued struggle for power, but the world he touched was transformed. Greek ideas and culture were spread.

A new world was created that eventually settled under the uniform yoke of Rome. The ideas of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates were spread and became a foundation for Western civilization. It was into this hellenized world that Christ was born and founded His Church.

To this very same world that Alexander molded, the Church took the words of the true gospel about Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Yes, the true story of a God who would become man—the reverse of Alexander's ambition. Yet, where a man who claimed to be a god failed, the One who was God and became man succeeded.

What different yet contrasting stories! One man was born in a royal court and died in Babylon. Another as a baby was laid in a manger and died in Jerusalem. Yet Christ, who died almost at the same age as Alexander, laid the foundation for God's eternal Kingdom.

Alexander sought by cruel force of arms to forge his vision of one world. Ultimately his attempt failed, just as all other attempts have failed. He fought and traveled over a part of the world where peace is still sought.

The Middle East is still the stage where civilizations clash. The final clash will ultimately include the city of Alexander's death, spiritual Babylon, vs. the city of Christ's ascension—"Jerusalem above." The story of kingdoms is not yet over! The God who became a man, Jesus Christ, is coming to extinguish and crush the system symbolized in part by the man who would be a god. —WNP

Four Beasts From the Sea

The first six chapters of Daniel's book concern events and episodes in his and his companions' lives. The last six relate a series of visions the prophet experienced—all of which came late in his life. For the sake of chronological flow, we are skipping over the events of chapters 5 and 6 and reading chapter 7, which contains the first of these visions.

The date is "the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon" (verse 1). Evil Merodach, who assumed the Babylonian throne upon his father Nebuchadnezzar's death in 562 B.C. and then released the Jewish king Jeconiah from prison, reigned only a very short time. "In 560 he was assassinated by Neriglissar, his sister's husband.... His tenure was [also] brief however (560-556). [Then] his young son Labaši-Marduk, who succeeded him...reigned only one month [before] he was beaten to death" (Eugene Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, 1987, p. 476).

"This revolt placed its leader Nabonidus...on the throne. He does not seem to have been related to the royal house by blood but [as we will later see] apparently married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar...[possibly using this fact] to legitimize his seizure of the throne. He may have been a member of the wealthy merchant class, therefore being cordially supported by the commercial leaders" (Expositor's Bible Commentary, note on Daniel 5:1-4).

In any case, as the neighboring Median Empire grew in strength, Nabonidus was beset with political confrontation at home over religious disputes with the Babylonian religious hierarchy. He may also have suffered from health problems and seems to have become more interested in scholarly pursuits than in administration. Whatever the reason, "the situation became so uncomfortable for Nabonidus that in his sixth year (550) he went into a ten-year self-imposed exile at Tema, the great oasis of the Syro-Arabian desert east of the Red Sea. Nabonidus did not abdicate by any means, however, but left the everyday affairs of government in the hands of his son Bel-šar-usur (= Belshazzar)" (Merrill, p. 477).

The Nelson Study Bible notes: "The date of Belshazzar's first year cannot be stated precisely. However, since Nabonidus appears to have spent at least ten years in Arabia and since Belshazzar reigned for Nabonidus in Babylon during that time, a date of 550 B.C. for Belshazzar's first year cannot be far off. This date coincides with the inauguration of the Medo-Persian Empire under Cyrus [when the Persians took over from the Medes], an occasion that may have prompted Daniel's vision" (note on verse 1)—that is, this signal event may have been the reason God gave Daniel the vision at this particular time.

Daniel had been taken captive 55 years before, so he was now in his early 70s. When the prophet received the interpretation of his current vision from one of God's angels, he must have recalled the explanation he gave to Nebuchadnezzar of his vision in Daniel 2 more than half a century earlier. Remember from that passage that the king had dreamt of a giant human image with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron. A great stone fell from heaven, struck the image on its feet and toes, causing the entire image to disintegrate, and then grew to fill the whole earth.

The four parts of the image represented a succession of four great imperial kingdoms: 1) the Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors; 2) the Medo-Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great and his successors; 3) the Hellenistic Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and his successors; and 4) the Roman Empire. The stone from heaven is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who takes over and sets up a world-ruling fifth kingdom, the Kingdom of God. The 10 toes of the legs of the image, extensions of the Roman Empire, are described as rulers who exist at the time of Christ's coming in power and glory—showing that the Roman Empire continues on in some form until the end time (as the Roman imperial system has been revived numerous times, the final revival to appear on the scene shortly before Christ's return).

Just the same, the four beasts of Daniel's vision represent four kings (Daniel 7:17) or the kingdoms they represent (Daniel 7:23). And like that of Daniel 2, this vision culminates with the time when "the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom, even forever and ever" (Daniel 7:18). Clearly the same succession of kingdoms is meant, and a more detailed look makes this even more obvious.

The beasts of Daniel 7 arise from the churning sea. Isaiah 57:20 states, "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Basically that would signify humanity in general. An even more direct parallel can be found in Revelation 13, where a "beast" comprising elements of those in Daniel 7 is described in vision as arising from the sea. And in another prophecy of the beast in Revelation 17, the waters of the sea represent "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (verse 15). So it would appear that each of these beasts arises from a conglomerate of various nations and peoples. Again, a succession of great gentile empires is intended.

Regarding the first beast Daniel sees, corresponding to the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, The Expositor's Bible Commentary states: "The first of these beasts is a winged lion, whose eagle-like pinions are soon plucked, so that instead of flying it stands on the ground. A human heart...is given to it. In the light of Nebuchadnezzar's career, it is clear that the plucking of the lion's wings symbolizes reduction of his pride and power at the time of his insanity (ch. 4). The lion symbol was characteristic of Babylon, especially in Nebuchadnezzar's time, when the Ishtar Gate entrance was adorned on either side with a long procession of yellow lions on blue-glazed brick, fashioned in high relief.... The final detail—‘the heart of a man was given to it'—may refer to the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar's sanity after his seven-year dementia. In any event, the correspondence between the winged lion and the Babylonian Empire is acknowledged by biblical critics of every persuasion" (note on 7:4).

The second beast, corresponding to the chest and arms of silver in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, is a hulking bear. Note that it is raised up on one side—so that one side is higher than the other. "The bear is...described in a way that very clearly suggests that it is to involve the alliance of two powers, one of which will dominate the other.... The symbolic action was altogether appropriate for the federated Medo-Persian Empire, in which the Persian element dominated the Median" (note on verse 5). Recall from the Beyond Today Bible Commentary on Isaiah 44-45 that the Persian ruler Cyrus overthrew his Median grandfather Astyages, who supposedly had tried to have him killed as an infant. Moreover, as we will see in the next chapter, Daniel 8, the imagery of one side of a beast being higher than the other is specifically used of Medo-Persia. "Daniel saw [the bear] devouring three ribs from some other animal it had killed. Indeed, it was divinely encouraged to feast on the ribs. This corresponds perfectly to the three major conquests the Medes and Persians made under the leadership of King Cyrus and his son Cambyses: [namely] the Lydian kingdom in Asia Minor (which fell to Cyrus in 546), the [Babylonian] Chaldean Empire (which he annexed in 539), and the kingdom of Egypt (which Cambyses acquired in 525)" (note on verse 5).

The third beast, corresponding to the bronze belly and thighs of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, is a four-winged, four-headed leopard—powerful and swift. "This beast portrays the division of Alexander's swiftly won empire into four separate parts within a few years after his death in 323 B.C. The initial arrangement involved the area of Greece and Macedon (under Antipater and then Cassander), Thrace and Asia Minor (under Lysimachus), all of Asia except Asia Minor and Palestine (under Seleucus), and Egypt-Palestine (under Ptolemy). Even after the breakdown of Lysimachus's kingdom, a separate realm was maintained by Eumenes of Pergamum and others, so that the quadripartite character of the Greek Empire was maintained, despite the most determined efforts of the more aggressive Seleucids and Ptolemids to annex each other into a single realm. Very clearly, then, the four heads and four wings represent the Macedonian conquest and its subsequent divisions" (note on verse 6). We'll see further substantiation of this in Daniel 8, where the kingdom of Greece is specifically identified as dividing into four parts (see 8:21-22).

The fourth beast is a fierce creature unlike any known animal. Paralleling the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, this beast has iron teeth. Daniel 2 had stated: "And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others" (verse 40). Compare that with Daniel 7: "The fourth beast...was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue [of the previous empires] with its feet.... The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth [i.e., all the land, the known world], trample it and break it in pieces" (verses 19, 23). Obviously, the same power is being described. Over time, Rome took over each of the four political divisions of Alexander's kingdom (though not the full territory of the former empire).

The fifth and final kingdom is that of the Messiah, referred to in this chapter as "One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven" (verse 13). "Son of man" means a human being. God used this as a title for Ezekiel, the prophet-watchman being representative of his people. Jesus used the title as applying to Himself. Jesus is the ultimate representative man, who died in sacrifice for everyone and to whose life everyone's must be conformed through His living again within them. Yet, strictly speaking, He is here said to be "like" the son of man. While in the flesh 2,000 years ago, Jesus was human. But when He returns in glory, He will not come as a mere man, but as the Almighty God who had lived a life in the flesh as a human being. Interestingly, this chapter gives us one of the few Old Testament revelations of God the Father. "Ancient of Days" could refer to either the Father or Jesus Christ, but the fact that Jesus is clearly described here as the "One like the Son of Man" who comes to the Ancient of Days, the Ancient of Days must refer to the Father in this context.

The 10 Horns and the Little Horn

The Roman Empire fell in ancient times. Yet the empire was to continue until the end-time glorious coming of Christ, whose everlasting Kingdom would take over from it. How could this be? As already noted, the Roman Empire has experienced a number of revivals. This is where the "ten horns" of the fourth beast come in—symbolic of 10 kings or kingdoms. Notice the expression "three of the first horns" in verse 8. If some horns are "first," then others come later. This would seem to imply that the 10 horns of this vision are consecutive—unlike the 10 simultaneous kings represented by the 10 toes of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The phrase in verse 8 could even be rendered "the first three horns." This seems to indicate that there would be 10 revivals of the Roman Empire, the first three of which are uprooted or subdued by an additional "little horn" and the last of which would itself comprise 10 distinct powers.

Consider what has actually transpired in history. Late in the fourth century, the east-west division of the Roman Empire became permanent, with one emperor reigning from Rome over the Western Roman Empire and another emperor reigning from Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) over the Eastern Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire fell during the next century but the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire continued until 1453. It is the Western Empire, centered at Rome, that has experienced a number of revivals. As the Western Empire collapsed in the fifth century, three groups of barbarian invaders sought to succeed the Roman emperors. Indeed, these groups—the Vandals, Heruli and Ostrogoths successively—each sought and received official recognition from the Eastern Roman emperor as a legitimate continuation of Roman rule in the West. Yet there was a problem with these invaders from the perspective of the Western religious leader, the bishop of Rome or pope. These barbarians were not orthodox Catholic Trinitarians, having adopted a form of Christianity known as Arianism. At the pope's urging, the Vandals were eventually overthrown by the Eastern Roman emperor. The Heruli were also overthrown at papal urging—the Eastern emperor sending the Ostrogoths as his agents to carry this out. Then the Ostrogoths themselves were later overthrown by Eastern Roman forces—yet again at papal behest.

Following this, the Eastern Roman emperor, Justinian, reclaimed a lot of the western imperial territory and placed it under the management of the Roman Catholic provincial bishops. This is often referred to as the "Imperial Restoration." Yet it was not to last, the Eastern Empire eventually abandoning what it had recovered. A later revival of the Western Empire came under the Frankish king Charlemagne, who was crowned by the pope in the ninth century. Following the disintegration of his empire, another Holy Roman Empire was established the next century at the request of the pope by the German king Otto the Great. It continued for nearly 300 years until, rent by rival factions, 19 years went by without an emperor. This was followed by the election of the Hapsburg family to the imperial throne—a revival that reached its apex under Emperor Charles V in the 16th century. Eventually, this empire also diminished, the title "Holy Roman Emperor" becoming an increasingly empty distinction. In 1806, Francis II of Austria rejected the title in the face of the growing power of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had himself received the imperial crown from the pope two years earlier.

After the fall of Napoleon, another revival of Rome was still to follow. Benito Mussolini sought to restore the Roman Empire. In 1929, he signed the Lateran Treaty with the papacy, establishing papal sovereignty over Vatican City, Roman Catholicism as the Italian state religion and papal recognition of Mussolini's government. In partnership with Mussolini was Adolf Hitler, who sought restoration of the imperial Roman tradition in Germany. The Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler in 1933, protecting the rights of the Church in Nazi Germany and giving Hitler's regime an outward semblance of legitimacy.

That gives us nine revivals in all. The first three—1) the Vandals; 2) the Heruli and 3) the Ostrogoths—were, as appears to have been prophesied, uprooted at the behest of a "little horn," a smaller power emerging from Rome, which would, according to the same premise, certainly seem to be the Roman Church and its leader. Appearing to strengthen the identification is the fact that the last six revivals were all, by contrast, sanctioned by the papacy: 4) Justinian's Imperial Restoration; 5) Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire; 6) Otto the Great's Roman Empire of the German Nation; 7) the Holy Roman Empire under the Hapsburg Dynasty; 8) Napoleon's French Empire; and 9) the Hitler-Mussolini Axis. This listing shows that just one imperial revival yet remains to come on the scene—the final one, which will exist at the time of Christ's return.

The little horn is guilty of great blasphemy and wickedness. Observe what Adam Clarke's Commentary states in its note on verse 25, with phrases in the verse set in italics: "He shall speak great words against the most High [could be rendered] 'He shall speak as if he were God'.... To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than the kings of all the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them! And shall wear out the saints. By wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions of all kinds. What in this way have they not done against all those who have protested against their innovations, and refused to submit to their idolatrous worship? Witness the exterminating crusades published against the Waldenses and Albigenses.... And think to change times and laws. Appointing fasts and feasts; canonizing persons whom he chooses to call saints; granting pardons and indulgences for sins; instituting new modes of worship utterly unknown to the Christian Church; new articles of faith; new rules of practice; and reversing, with pleasure, the laws both of God and man."

Verse 25 concludes with this statement: "Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time." This expression occurs again in the book of Revelation 12 as the time during which a portion of God's Church is protected just prior to Christ's return. Some argue that the expression does not refer to a specific period of time, but such particular language would be a rather odd way to express something indefinite. Much more likely is that a "time" denotes a year. "Times," in the plural, would need to mean the smallest plural—two—for this to be at all comprehensible. This yields a total of three and a half years—a figure consistent with the 1,260-day work of the end-time two witnesses in Revelation 11:3 and the 42 months of Revelation 11:2 and 13:5. What the statement in Daniel is telling us is that all the awful blasphemy and evil of the false Christian system during the Middle Ages was only a forerunner of what is going to happen in the last three and a half years before Christ's return.

The dominion of the little horn is consumed and destroyed when the Kingdom of God is set up (verses 26-27). Indeed, the beast and presumably this horn emerging from it are both destroyed in burning flame at that time (verse 11), just as Revelation 19:20 explains that the final Beast and False Prophet will be cast into the lake of fire.

Finally, "the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom" (Daniel 7:18, 22, 27). This wording emphasizes the great honor God will shower on His saints. Though the Kingdom of God will always belong to God and Jesus Christ, this sums up the generous love of God in sharing the blessings of the Kingdom with the saints.

Yet dark days would precede that time. Daniel was deeply troubled about what was coming. His "face paled (...literally…‘my facial hue was changing on me') because of his inward concern about the severe trials and afflictions awaiting his people" (Expositor's, note on verse 28). Nevertheless, he continued to mull it over.