Shortly thereafter, the Christian world leveled a significant blow to Islam in 1924, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Office of the Caliph was abolished. So while it was the Islamic Empire that ultimately succeeded the Roman Empire, it was the Christian West that offered Islam a series of defeats that led to the severing of its head, the office of the Caliph in 1924. The only empire that fulfills the patterns necessary to be considered the seventh empire is the Islamic Empire that culminated with the Turkish/Ottoman Empire.
This, of course, corresponds perfectly with Ezekiel’s list of nations with such a heavy emphasis on Turkey.
On the following pages are eight maps; a map of the Promised Land and the seven Biblical world empires as they relate to the Promised Land. Each map also has modern national boundary lines.
THEY FIT LIKE A GLOVE
By super-imposing every single literal reference discussed in Part III onto the allegorical picture of the seven mountains, we find that they match perfectly. Here are but a few examples:
The Egyptian Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights against them in Isaiah 19.
The Assyrian Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights against them in Micah 5, Isaiah 14.
The Babylonian Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights against the King of Babylon in Jeremiah 49-51.
The Persian Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights them in Ezekiel 38, 39.
The Greek Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights them in Zechariah 9:13, 14 and Ezekiel 38.
The Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire—today is Muslim. Christ fights against these regions in Zechariah 9:13, 14 and Ezekiel 38.
The Muslim Empire – encompasses all the above.
Now consider the following maps:
The Promised Land
The Egyptian Empire: 3100 BC - 1070 BC
The Assyrian Empire: 1800 BC – 609 BC
The Babylonian Empire: 1764 BC – 689 BC
Medo-Persian Empire: 550 BC - 330 BC
Macedonian Greek Empire: 350 BC - 64 BC
Roman Empire: 27 BC – 1453 AD
Islamic Empire: 700 AD – 1924 AD - Present Day
We see that, with each succeeding empire, the areas controlled grew larger. Eventually, the Islamic Empire came to control the entire region pictured in the map. This is a somewhat accurate portrayal of the eighth and final Antichrist Empire.
The literal and allegorical all fit together—like a hand and glove.
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Unlocking Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue
As the famous Bible story goes, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream about a massive statue that was made of various metals. The king was determined to understand the meaning of this dream, but none of the Babylonian priests, astrologers or wise men could help him. Finally, Daniel, one of the Hebrew exiles, was called before the king to do what no one else could. Not only did God supernaturally reveal to Daniel the meaning of the dream, but he enabled Daniel to understand its meaning. Our examination of this passage begins with Daniel explaining to the king the meaning of his dream: “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:31-35)
Daniel goes on to explain to Nebuchadnezzar that each component of the statue represents a kingdom or empire that will succeed his. “You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory…you are that head of gold.” But after Babylon, other kingdoms followed. By far, the predominant position throughout history by both Jewish and Christian interpreters has been that this dream portrays the following four kingdoms: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
While the first three in the sequence are accurate, there are some very serious problems with seeing Rome as the fourth. Below I will explain why. It is crucial to understand that the statue represents past kingdoms that are all destroyed together when Christ returns: “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.” The stone is Messiah.
Yet, the Bible teaches without question that Messiah destroys all parts of the structure (gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay) together when He comes. “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:33-35)
THIS IS THE FUTURE, NOT HISTORY
The stone, at this point, establishes the Kingdom of Messiah; it becomes a great mountain (kingdom). When Jesus returns, he will destroy all these empires—at the same time, as the text literally states. (v. 34) This would be Iraq and Arabia (Babylon), Iran (Persia), Turkey and the Middle East (Greece), and, of course, the Islamic Empire, which includes all of these.
If the statue represents ancient Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome as commonly thought, then why do we see all these empires destroyed in the end when Christ returns? If Daniel 2 speaks of history, how is the gold, strictly representing ancient Babylon, now destroyed by the Messiah when He comes? The Biblical statement is clear: “[He] crushed all at the same time,” (v. 34).
Then you have the iron. The text insists that the iron crushed all the previous metals. Yet, it is understood by many westerners that the iron is Rome. Did the Roman Empire crush ancient Babylon/modern Iraq? No. Only for a few months in A.D. 116 under Emperor Trajan did the Roman Empire ever extend its territories toward Babylon. But they were almost immediately beaten back. The Roman Empire and the Babylonian Empire really do not overlap. The Roman Empire is significantly west. Did the Roman Empire ever extend it control over the regions of Persia/modern day Iran? The answer is never. Thus, if the Roman Empire were utterly destroyed, much of the other empires would be left unscathed. Yet the text is clear that when the fourth Empire is destroyed, this will include all of the others as well.
IBIN EZRA—THE FOURTH IS MUSLIM
We cannot study prophecy without understanding the dual nature of its fulfillment. Daniel 2 can, and will, parallel ancient events, but the book is ultimately concerned with the End Times. Daniel 2 is regarding a rise of 10 toes in the ends of days that will come up from the 4 ancient empires that make up the Empire of Antichrist.
The four Empires described in this passage are not what western students think, they are:
1. Babylonian Empire
2. Medo-Persian Empire
3. Greek Empire, (or possibly the Greco-Roman Empire)
4. Islamic Empire.
By the Islamic Empire, I mean the various manifestations of the Islamic Caliphate, which culminated in the Ottoman Empire. The position I hold is not unique, but was first taught by classical Jewish sages and rabbis. Among the most well-known sages and rabbis who support this view are Ibn Ezra, one of the most distinguished Jewish writers of the Middle Ages, Rabbi Yechiel Hillel ben Altshuller, author of the famous Metzudos, and, in a somewhat modified fashion, by the revered Rabbi Saadia Gaon (who sees the fourth Beast as consisting of both the Arab and the Roman Empires). According to Ibn Ezra, “Rome is included in the third kingdom as relatives of the Greeks. The Romans are considered to be the Kittim mentioned in Numbers 24:24. In Genesis 10:4, Kittim are the sons of Yavan (Greece).”5
Ibn Ezra
, argues that while there are reasons to understand why Rome is not mentioned in the dream, the complete omission of the mighty and extensive Arab kingdom is simply too big of an oversight that needs to be explained by those who hold to the Roman interpretation. I agree.
The fourth kingdom, according to Ibn Ezra, is the Arab Muslim kingdom.
The notion that Rome is included in the third kingdom may be supportable by the view of many historians who see the Roman Empire as an extension of the Greek Empire rather than a different entity altogether. Keep in mind, the text insists that the thighs (the third entity), is bronze. This was the Grecian Empire and connects to the iron legs. The iron legs are an extension of the Grecian (bronze). In other words, the iron is of the bronze. This would eliminate Western Europe. Now, many define a particular nation by language, border, and culture. The Roman and Greek Empires in many ways shared all of these things as well as a common religion. However, it is also quite possible that the Roman Empire itself is not even considered in this passage.
BABYLON’S “FUTURE-HISTORY”
One reason to consider the idea that the Roman Empire is not emphasized in this passage is simply due to its context. While the Roman Empire followed the Greek Empire, this is only so if we view this passage from a Western perspective. We have already discussed the fact that the Bible is thoroughly Jerusalem-centric. However, we must remember the context of the Book of Daniel and, more specifically, this particular passage and this particular dream. This passage deals with a dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King, the ruler of all of ancient Mesopotamia. Once again, our Western-centric lenses have caused us to miss the obvious: the short-term application of the first part of this dual prophecy. God was not so much explaining to Nebuchadnezzar the “future-history” of the Western world, but rather the “future-history” of the regions that he ruled over; namely Babylon and greater Mesopotamia. This dream was a description of the future of the Babylonian Empire and the primary empires that would rule over it after Nebuchadnezzar.
While Rome was most certainly an important empire in world history, its real significance to the Mesopotamian region is, in fact, fairly minimal. Even during the period of the Roman Empire’s greatest eastward expansion, it was never able to fully secure control over the regions east of the Euphrates River. In the year 116 A.D. under Emperor Trajan, the Romans made some incursions into portions of Mesopotamia. But it was within months, in 117 A.D. at the death of Trajan, that the Romans lost southern Mesopotamia and completely retreated from the region. They were never able to secure control over the region east of the Euphrates in any substantial way. Because Nebuchadnezzar’s dream covered a thirteen hundred year period, dealing with only the significant conquering empires, the Roman Empire is essentially a mere footnote in Babylonian/Mesopotamian history, and, thus, it was not emphasized in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But the primary empires that would actually conquer and rule over Babylon were all laid out consecutively in the dream.
Rome never conquered the previous empires. Perhaps the most obvious flaw in this interpretation is the single description used to define this fourth kingdom: “There will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others,” (Daniel 2:40). When one is attempting to determine which Empire is the best candidate for the fourth Empire, this passage is the clearest criterion.
Again, did Rome crush or even conquer all of the other empires? Did Rome crush the Babylonian Empire (Iraq), the Medo-Persian Empire (Iran), and the Greek Empires? The clear answer is no, it did not. It is almost surprising that such a wide range of interpreters has overlooked this fact for so long. The fourth empire would crush and break all three of the other empires.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MESOPOTAMIA
After his rule, Nebuchadnezzar’s Empire was first conquered by the Persians under Cyrus and then by Greece under Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., his empire was divided and the region of Babylon and Persia was given to one of his generals named Seleucus. Seleucus and his successors ruled the region for roughly 130 years until 190 B.C. when the Persian people (called the Parthians) arose again and took control of their former empire. Thus, after having been controlled by the Greeks for well over a hundred years, the Persians again controlled the region.6
Later, after the Parthian Empire, another Persian people—the Sassanid Dynasty—rose up and gained control over the region. Throughout the Partho-Sassanian period, the people maintained a strong mixture of both Hellenistic (Greek) and Persian identity and culture. For this reason, within Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, there was no distinction made between the Persian or the Greek Empires and the later Parthian or Sassanid period. It was not until the mighty Islamic Caliphate came and conquered the entire region that the dream describes the next phase of the statue.
During the period of Rome’s rule, the region to the east of the Euphrates River (Mesopotamia) was controlled by the Parthian Empire, not the Romans: “The wars between Rome and the Parthian Empire, which took place roughly from 53 BC to 217 AD, were a unique episode in classical history. Although Rome conquered nearly the entire civilized world around the Mediterranean, Rome could never conquer Parthia.”7
Consider the following description of the Parthians as recounted by Justin’s History of the World: “The Parthians, in whose hands the empire of the east now is, having divided the world, as it were, with the Romans, were originally exiles from Scythia… Being assailed by the Romans, also, in three wars, under the conduct of the greatest generals, and at the most flourishing period of the republic, they alone, of all nations, were not only a match for them, but came off victorious”8
While the Emperor Trajan did cross the Euphrates River and gain control over a small portion of Mesopotamia, within one year, Trajan had died and his victory and control dissolved.9
DID ROME CONQUER THE BABYLONIAN OR THE PERSIAN EMPIRES?
Again, the Roman Empire only controlled the ancient city of Babylon for a few months. While Rome did indeed conquer most of Western Europe and the region surrounding the Mediterranean it could never maintain any significant control of the regions that were the primary stronghold of the Babylonian Empire—namely the regions east of the Euphrates River, modern day Iraq and Iran. The guerilla warfare used by tribal peoples of Parthia simply proved to be too much for the Roman soldiers to withstand. Rome most certainly did not “crush” the Babylonian Empire, and really never even came within a few hundred miles of ever seeing the capitals of Persia.
DID ROME CRUSH THE GREEK EMPIRE?
While the Roman Empire did assume control of the some of the regions that were once controlled by the Alexandrian Hellenistic Greek Empire, it was, in fact, the Hellenistic/Greek culture that came to dominate the Roman Empire. The New Testament, which was written during the Roman period, was written in Greek, not Latin. In other words, the Roman Empire may have assumed control of some of the western regions once controlled by the Greek Empire, but it most certainly did not “crush” it.
Consider the following maps:
In the Medo-Persian Empire, notice the locations of Ecbatana, Susa, and Persepolis, the capitals of the Median and Persian Empires. Rome never conquered these cities.
The Roman and Parthian empires at the height of their eastward expansion the small finger extending toward the Persian Gulf was held for only a few months.
Nearly the entire region included in this map of the Middle East came to be conquered by Islam.
ISLAM CRUSHED ALL
While the Roman Empire did not fulfill the necessary requirements to be considered as the fourth empire of Daniel 2, there was an empire that did. The Islamic Empire fulfilled these requirements completely. Islam conquered all of the three previous empires—Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and the Grecian. Bear in mind, Islam also conquered the Roman Empire, which had ceased to exist in Europe. Revelation 13 insists that the fourth beast constitutes the three previous
empires. This must exclude Europe. Islam conquered the entire eastern Byzantine Roman Empire and large portions of what was the Western Roman Empire. That included Iraq (Babylon), and Iran (Persia). The Roman Empire cannot make this claim and thus only Islam meets the biblical criterion of Daniel 2:40.
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Arabization
It is crucial for Westerners to understand that the fundamental duty of Islam is to Arabize the world—to unite humanity under one language, one government, and one religion: Islam. It is an attempt to reverse what God did at the Tower of Babel.
In the case of the Islamic Caliphate, “crush” is most certainly an appropriate description for what occurred when Islam conquered any region. Remember: language, borders, culture. Islam ran rough-trod over all of these. That is what it means to “crush.” Babylon changed its language to Arabic and its religion to Islam. Persia also lost its religion, adopted the Arabic alphabet, and kept its language. Other nations, like Egypt, also completely lost their ancient religion and language, and adopted Arabic. These civilizations were all lost to Islam, and only some kept their language. In fact, it would require volumes to recount all of the history, culture, and religious influence that have nearly been erased by more than a millennium of Islamic dominance.
ARABIZM
Western students focus on Daniel 2:41 which points to the nature of the two materials (Iron and Clay) as being partly weak and partly strong, but verse 43 is rarely addressed in full: “And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.”
God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible Page 39
