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terrible than the previous three, and
witb great
iron
teeth. Out of the
head of this fourth beast grew ten
homs.
Daniel was given the inter–
pretation of the dream. The lion was
Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean
Empire (Babylon). The bear was the
Persian Empire, and tbe leopard
represented the Greco-Macedonian
Empire with four divisions. The
fourth beast was the Romao Em–
pire. The homs were other govern–
ments which carne out of the
Roman Empire after its fall (A.D.
476). The fust three horos were up–
rooted between A.D. 493 and A.D.
554 by a smaller boro, representing
a religious kingdom. lt persecuted
"the saints" - people of God - un–
til
the establishment of the King–
dom of God, when "the saints" will
possess the Kingdom and rule.
Next carne a succession of five
kingdoms - or governments - car–
ried on in the 13th chapter of Reve–
lation. John, the apostle who wrote
the book of Revelation, saw in vi–
sion one wild animal - like a leop–
ard, with the feet of a bear, the
mouth of a lioo, with seven heads
and ten boros and crowns on the
horns (not beads). A dragon, inter–
preted in the 12th chapter of Reve–
lation to be the Devil, gave tbis
beast his power, and his seat and
great authority - a government.
This one beast, tbe Roman Empire,
is the one that had all the strengths
of Daniel's four beasts which had a
total of seven heads. But the crowns
on its boros depict a time of rule af–
ter the fall of the ancient Roman
Empire - wben the deadly wound
was healed. Five of the horns con–
tinued for 1260 years.
Now remember, there were,
in
the
book of Daniel, seven heads, but
only four wild animals. But Daniel 's
leopard had fou r heads. This leop–
ard was a symbol for the Greco–
Macedoniao Empire of Alexander
the Great. After Alexander con–
quered the Persian Empire, he died
from illness ten days after a pro–
longed banquet and drinking bout.
About ten years later,
his
vast ero–
pire was split up into four major di–
visions by his four top generals. The
Roman Empire absorbed all four.
So the animal John saw in the 13th
chapter of Revelation was tbe Ro–
man Empire, which dated from 3 1
B.C. to A.D. 476.
After the faU of the Roman Em–
pire, tbree smaller governments
ruled the West - the Vandals. the
Heruli and the Ostrogotbs. But they
were totally uprooted. Nota vestige
AN HISTORIC FIRST
- Chiefs of Stote of the nine member notions of the newly exponded Common Morket moke history
in their first Summit Conference, held in Poris in October 1972.
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