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up out of the sea. The first [Baby–
Ion] was like a lion ... a second
beast, which looked like a bear
[Persia] ... after that ... was an–
other beast, one that looked like a
teopard [Greece] ... and there be–
fo re me was a fourth beast
[Rome]-terrifying and frighten–
ing and very power ful. ...
It
was
different from all the former
beasts, and
it had ten horns"
(Dan.
7:2-7).
Here are the same four world–
ruling kingdoms, but the fourth
kingdom was different. It had 10
horns.
After Rome fell in
A.D.
476,
three Arian kingdoms occupied the
West under the banner of Rome–
the Yandals, the Heruli and the
Ostrogoths. But they soon disap–
peared. They are described in Dan–
iel 7:8, "Befare me was another
horn, a little one, which carne up
among them; and three of the first
horns were uprooted befare it."
"Another horn, a little one"–
what was that one?
In the early part of the fourth
century
A.D.
the Roman emperor
Constantine had given official rec–
ognition to Christianity. It was lat–
er made an official state religion.
After the fall of Rome, the bish–
op at Rome gained great impor–
tance. Through land acqu isition,
the Church began to play a much
more prominent role.
In
A.D.
554 the Church commis–
sioned J ustinian, the Eastern
Roman emperor at Constantinople,
to restare the empire in the West
by uprooting the last of the three
Ar ian kingdoms, the Ostrogoths.
Religion, then, is the little horn
of Daniel 7:8. Since the Imperial
Restoration the Church has played
an important role in the develop–
ment of European culture and civi–
lization.
The first three horns were out–
side kingdoms that only temporari–
ly held power in Rome between
A.D.
476 and 554. They were "swal–
lowed up" by the Imperial Restora–
tion.
Since Daniel's vision foretold 1O
horns (we might call them resur–
rections of the ancient empire),
after
A.D.
554 there must follow
seven kingdoms.
There indeed have been six g reat
restorations in Europe since that
November/December 1985
time. First was the Imperial Resto–
ration of Justinian beginning in
554. Next carne the Frankish king–
dom under Charlemagne in 800.
Then followed the Holy Roman
Empire of the German nations
beginning in the 1Oth century.
After that the Habsburgs led the
Austro-Hungarian empire. Napa–
lean led a French
reviva! of the empire
in the early 19th
century.
J
ustinian led the 1mperial Restora–
tion.
Later Western restorations exist–
ed side by side with the Eastern
Empire. Even the Axis powers of
World War
JI
had two capitals- at
Rome and Berlín.
With that clue we might look for
the seventh and final stage to also
be made up of Euro–
pean nations partly
from the West and
partly from the
East.
In addition to the
two legs, the image
had 1O toes. Those
10 toes reveal the
c.
final form of the
~
empire will be made
~
up of 1O nations or
~
groups of nations.
And in our cen–
tury one of the brief–
est attempts to revive
the empire was pro–
claimed by Benito
M ussolini in t he
t930s. With Adolf
Hitler joining forces
to form the Axis
powers, the sixth of
the final seven horns
rose and fell.
Where are we in
the course of pro–
phetic events today?
11
/t is my hope . . .
that .. . Europeans,
from Moscow to
Lisbon, wi/1
be
able
to travel wlthout
I n January of
1986 Spain and Por–
tugal officially be–
come part of the
European Economic
Community.
We now await the
seventh resurrection
of Rome. Events now
taking place are lead–
ing to the formation
of what well may be
called a "United
States of Europe."
a passport and the
free flow of people
and ideas wi/1
include the other
half of Europe."
T his culminates
years of struggle and
negotiation. Portu–
guese Prime Minis–
ter Mario Soares
signed the treaty of
accession on J une 12,
1985. In describing
the event as one of
the most significant
moments in Portu-
The potential of
such a union is even
greater than either
U.S. President
Ronald Reagan at
European Parliament
of the superpowers- the United
States and Russia.
As sorne Europeans view it, why
should 235 million Americans on
the West have to protect 300 mil–
lion Europeans from 275 million in
the U.S.S.R. on the East?
Who Will Form the Final Union?
1n the prophecy given in the book
of Daniel, the image was in the
form of aman. Aman has two legs,
and on the feet 1O toes.
We should not pass over the sig–
nificance of this. The two legs
depict an empire divided.
From befare the Imperial Resto–
ration in 554, the empire was
divided in two. The Western capital
was often at Rome, with Constanti–
nople the capital in the East.
lt
was
from Constantinople that Constan–
tine the Great ruled in the fourth
century. And it was from here that
guese history as quoted in a Reuters
press release, he said: "We have
made it! ... From here we will be
setting off ... on a new enterprise
which will return Portugal to the
unity of Europe, to fully participate
in its dynamism and progress."
ln another Reuters release, staff
writer Youssef Azmeh, comment–
ing on the entrance of Spain and
Portugal into the Eu ropean Com–
munity, observed, "The dream of a
United Western Europe draws a
little closer tomorrow when Spain
and Por tugal sign a treaty to join
the European Community."
In J anuary there will be 12
nations making up the combine.
But they are all Western nat ions.
Since Daniel's image pictures
the two feet each with five toes, we
would do well to anticípate that the
ultimate European union will
change today's map dramatically
17