The other meaning of this riddle in this verse needs to be noted; the underlined words “mixed” and “combine” are actually the same words translated differently from the Aramaic, the original language of much of the Book of Daniel. The word is actually “Arab.” Strong’s Concordance confirms this:
“mArab {ar-ab’}; from ‘`arab’ (6150) in the figurative sense of sterility; Arab (i.e. Arabia), a country East of Palestine: --Arabia.” “or mereb (1 Kings 10:15), (with the article prefix), {eh’-reb}; from ‘`arab’ (6148); the web (or transverse threads of cloth); also a mixture, (or mongrel race): --Arabia, mingled people, mixed (multitude), woof.”
And thus this passage can read: “And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be mixed (Arabized) with the seed of men (through intermarriage) and will not remain united, any more than iron does not mix with clay.”
Within Daniel 2:43, “the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.” The Aramaic phrase la Muta’arreb also means, “does not Arabize.” This Arab-mixed kingdom would not become totally Arabized. This duality in meaning and interpretation (mixing and Arabizing) is not mine alone—Ibin Ezra, one of the foremost respected Jewish writers, supported it: “Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that the Greek Kingdom represented by the leopard includes the Roman Empire, for ethnically the Romans were related to the Greeks. The Kittim, identified as descendants of the Romans were related to the Yavan (Greece)…The fourth animal then represents the rule of the Arabs.”10 “Rabbi Saadiah Gaon [believes that] the fourth animal in the vision includes both the Roman and the Arab empires.”11 “Ibn Ezra is troubled by the absence of the kingdom of Ishmael, viz. the Arabs and the Turks, who were very powerful in his time. He therefore concludes that the…fourth kingdom is the kingdom of Ishmael. Mezudath David follows this view.”12
If one insists on the single usage of Muta’areb to only mix without Arabize, and the analysis of our duality of usage must be rejected, then another common example of a play on words in the Book of Daniel must also be rejected—the divine handwriting on the wall. In Daniel 5, Belteshazzr the final Babylonian king was told that his empire would be divided (peres) to the Medes and the Persians (Aramaic: Paras). Reading the word peres (meaning divided): “Peres—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians,” (Daniel 5:28).
So who divided the Babylonians? The Bible tells us Peres (Persia), which literally meant also to divide, “To mix with the seed of men.” if one still rejects the meaning of the word Muta’arreb as to Arabize, but insists that it only mean “to mix”, we would still conclude that mixing the seed of men would mean losing ethnicity by intermarriage. (RSV, ESV, NTL) The attempt to mingle the nations through intermarriage is an attempt to unite the world and reverse the Tower of Babel account through Islam has been fruitless. It partially worked in the Middle East where Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, and many others consider themselves Arabs and spoke Arabic, while Turks, Persians, Indonesians and others still hold onto their language, culture, and ethnicity. No other empire has done this.
Islam’s attempt from its earliest days has been to Arabize the whole world through Islam.
However, the Persians and Turks who came from the brass (Greco-Roman) kingdoms never fully Arabized. Because the various descendants of Ishmael and Esau had intermarried among the various desert tribes, they had actually become known as “the mixed ones.” Daniel 2:43 speaks of the type of mixed peoples that would make up the final Antichrist Empire. As we saw in the handwriting on the wall account, this is not without precedent in the Book of Daniel.
Elsewhere, the Bible uses word play with the words, Eber or Abar. The word used for “Hebrew” literally means, “to cross, come through, pass over.” It’s a fitting term in light of Moses and the Israelites’ passage through the Red Sea, Joshua and the Israelites’ passage over the Jordan and Abraham’s departure from Ur and crossing over the Promised Land. But to be an Arab meant that one was from a mixed people who were lost scattered wanderers.
A KINGDOM DIVIDED
Beyond being an Arab Empire or an attempt to make it so, the Last-Days Empire is also said to be a divided (peleg) empire. The division, of course, that this passage speaks of is truly an appropriate description of the Islamic world, as it has existed from its earliest days until modern times with its various sectarian divisions. “In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron it will be a divided kingdom,” (Daniel 2:41).
One need only look to modern Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’a sectarian battles to observe how divided the Islamic world truly is. This division of the final Antichrist Empire is also seen in the fact that even at the time they attack Israel, they will not be able to resist their own disputes. Thus, Ezekiel tells us that, “Every man’s sword will be against his brother,” (Ezekiel 38:21). Once again, this resembles precisely what one finds today in the Palestinian Territories and Iraq and much of the Muslim world.
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Daniel 2 Four Or Five Empires: Or Both?
As we discussed Revelation 17, we saw that the Antichrist Empire was specified as being the eighth empire—or a revival of the seventh empire that would arise after being healed of a “fatal head wound.” So how many empires are there, seven or eight?
Well, both are correct—the eighth is a re-creation of the seventh. This is what the text is trying to tell us.
The concept of an empire-revival is also found in Daniel 2. We have 4 sections to the statue, yet we also have 5—both are correct, since the fifth is a re-creation of the fourth.
Here, we will see that Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream also lines up perfectly with Revelation 17. The last empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is comprised of two distinct phases of the same empire. They are related, but they are distinct. These two empires correspond to the seventh and the eight empires of Revelation 17. The first key to seeing this two-fold phase of the last empire is seen in the following portion of the above passage:
“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, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay,” (Daniel 2:32-33). While many modern translations might blur this point, if one were to examine the actual Aramaic text, the most literal translation possible would read as follows: Image – Head – Fine – Gold – Breast – Arms – Silver – Belly – Thighs – Brass – Legs - Iron – Feet – Part – Iron – Part Clay
Now we will arrange it a little differently, yet in the exact order that it appears in the verse. What we will see is that there are five distinct elements, and thus five distinct components to the statue:
With this arrangement by following the text, it is easy to see that there are not simply four, but rather five phases. Keeping in mind that the fifth is a re-creation of the fourth, we have fine gold, silver, brass, iron, and a mixture of iron and clay. The passage continues, “This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces,” (Daniel 2:36-40).
There are a few important observations that need to be highlighted here. First, we need to take note of the unqualified description of the fourth kingdom: “there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron.” The fourth kingdom will not be partially strong and partially weak. It is simply described as “strong as iron.” However, when we look at the descriptions of the feet and the toes, they are completely different. In these descr
iptions, the kingdom is only partially strong—but it is also partially brittle. Compare the descriptions below:
Legs: “there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron,” (Daniel 2:40)
Feet: “this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle,” (Daniel 2:43).
For those who would argue that the statue contains only four phases, the question needs to be asked: How can the very same kingdom be described in one sentence as “strong as iron,” while in the very next sentence be described as only having “some of the strength of iron in it” and “partly strong and partly brittle?”
Upon examining the passage, one must conclude that there is both a fourth and a fifth division of the statue. However, because there is also continuity between the legs and the feet that are seen in the element of iron, there is also reason to believe that these last two empires are, in fact, related.
Many modern interpreters have rightly recognized the fact that the last empire in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream consists of a two-fold division. Of course, most of these scholars and Bible teachers have claimed that the fourth empire is the Roman Empire and that the fifth empire is a revived Last-Days version of the Roman Empire. Again, in light of all that we have already learned, we know that this last dual-phased empire cannot be the Roman Empire, but rather represents two distinct phases of one Arab-Islamic Empire. Again, in Revelation 17 the last empire (the seventh-eight empire) follows and is distinct from Rome.
The fourth kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream represents the various manifestations of the Islamic Empire that existed for over thirteen hundred years, culminating in the Ottoman Empire. This Empire was essentially fatally wounded in 1924 with the abolition of the Caliphate and the division and colonization of the Middle East by the Western powers. But the fifth empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream, represents the revival of the Islamic Empire that we are presently seeing arise in fractions before our very eyes.
I know that someone will object, saying that the Western powers that wounded Islam would qualify to be the next empire in the prophecy; yet the Bible gives the cut-off at the seventh in Revelation 17 and the fourth in Daniel 2. Also, it is necessary to have someone available to fatally wound that empire in order to fulfill this prophecy. So the British Empire that wounded it cannot be the one that is wounded. This would be illogical.
In summary, the empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream are as follows: Head Gold Babylonian
Daniel 2 confirms what we have already learned concerning the final Antichrist Empire in Revelation 17. In Revelation 17, the final Antichrist Empire is a revived version of the seventh empire, which we identified as the Islamic Empire. So also here in Daniel 2, the last empire is the two-fold fourth/fifth empire, which also is the Islamic Empire. Piece by piece, passage by passage, when the religion of Islam is plugged into the puzzle, every piece fits perfectly. There is no forcing or bending of the pieces required.
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Am I The Only One?
To most who read this book, the Islamic End-Times thesis represents something radically new. The majority of popular modern End-Times theories teach that the Antichrist will proceed from a revived European Roman Empire. Because the Islamic end time theory is a “new” theory, many will view it with deep suspicion. If Joel and I were introducing a new theory about the nature of Christ or about the atonement, then we would both expect to be stoned to death or at the least disregarded and shunned for our heretical views. Yet we are not introducing any heresies here. We are simply adjusting common views in light of current events. But when it comes to eschatology, the Church has, in fact, never had any universal orthodox position regarding the End-Times and the identity of the Antichrist. Many theories have abounded throughout Church history and the European Theory is certainly not the only option given. Not only is it correct to assume that the Church would gain greater clarity as the day draws nearer (II Peter 1:19), but the truth is that what we are presenting here is nothing new at all. Since the earliest days of Islamic conquest, many great Christian leaders have seen Islam as the fulfillment of the Biblical Antichrist prophecies. Likewise, many commentators, both Jewish and Christian, have seen the weight of Scriptural evidence pointing to the Middle East rather than Europe as the location from which the Antichrist and his Empire would rule. What we are presenting in this book is far from a novel theory. By claiming Islam as the fulfillment of the Antichrist prophecies, we are joined by many of the greatest Jewish and Christian commentators.
IS TRADITIONAL WESTERN INTERPRETATION WRONG?
Yes and no. The traditional western interpretation correctly sees the ancient empires, yet misses their dual fulfillment. The lion, for instance, was the animal most often historically associated with Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah, for instance, refers to Babylon as a lion. The lion motif is found abundantly in ancient Babylonian art and architecture. Likewise, the description of the bear matches the unbalanced character of the Medo-Persian Empire, in which Persia exerted far greater influence over the Median portion of the empire. Here, the bear arose on one side (Persia without Media); we see one side rising and the other remains. Iran is rising, but Media (Kurdistan) is not. The leopard, known as a swift and stealthy predator, seems to be a clear reference to Alexander the Greats’ agile military prowess and the incredible speed with which he conquered the ancient world. Finally, the fourth beast represented here is clearly the same empire that is seen in the fourth kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, as well as in the Book of Revelation.
As for the fourth, many prophecy aficionados have been waiting for Europe to emerge as the iron-toothed beast of Daniel 7. According to this common expectation, then, Europe which today is liberal will someday emerge as a vicious and unstoppable military machine that will kill and trample down the whole earth, leaving untold millions of victims in its wake. If this theory were accurate, then what is today arguably the most toothless group of nations in history would indeed need to grow the iron teeth of which the passage speaks. Will the toothless truly become ruthless? I doubt it. In all cases, when iron is used as symbol, it signifies ruthlessness.
Am I the only one in the world saying that Islam is the beast? “Hardly,” I am not presenting a private interpretation. I am simply adding my perspective from a lifetime of experience with Islam. In fact, many great theologians agree.
JOHN WESLEY
“Indeed, the iron teeth closely match Islam.” John Wesley explains, “Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it…have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are raised from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries, which were once as the garden of God, are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished from the earth! Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of human kind.”13
HILAIRE BELLOC (1938)
“Will not perhaps the temporal power of Islam [will] return and with it the menace of an armed Mohammedan world, which will shake off the domination of Europeans—still nominally Christian—and reappear as the prime enemy of our civilization? The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam.”14
BISHOP FULTON J SHEEN
“Today (1950), the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world Power.”15
GREGORY PALAMUS OF THESSALONICA (1354)
“For these impious people, hated by God and infamous, boast of having got the better of t
he Romans by their love of God…they live by the bow, the sword and debauchery, finding pleasure in taking slaves, devoting themselves to murder, pillage, spoil…and not only do they commit these crimes, but even—what an aberration—they believe that God approves of them.”16
Jesus said, “The time will come, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God a service” (John 16:2).
VERNON RICHARDS
“The true Islamic concept of peace goes something like this: Peace comes through submission to Mohammed and his concept of Allah (i.e., Islam). As such the Islamic concept of peace, meaning making the whole world Muslim, is actually a mandate for war. It was inevitable and unavoidable that the conflict would eventually reach our borders, and so it has. This is Islam’s latest attempt to conquer the infidel world. Why do you suppose they waited until three centuries after the siege and battle of Vienna before they tried again? Was it because they saw an opportunity to get after us for the first time since 1683, because political correctness and the apologists it brought in train softened us up, and made us totally unaware of how evil and intolerant Islam really is, and gave them that window of opportunity to once again threaten our civilization with doom.”17
JOSIAH LITCH (1840)
In his Fall of the Ottoman Roman Empire, Litch predicted the fall of the Ottoman Empire two years in advance to the exact day. He also interpreted the star of Revelation as the ushering in of Islam: “A star, in the figurative language of Revelation, is a minister of religion. See Revelation 1:20…A fallen star then would signify a fallen or heretical minister of religion. This was undoubtedly the Arabian imposter, Mahomet. [Mohammed] There is so general an agreement among Christians, especially protestant commentators, that the subject of this prediction is Mahommedism [Islam]”
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