to study it, huh? I want to read now in Daniel chapter 7 beginning with verse 15. I'm going to read through the remaining part of that chapter. And then we're going to go back and study the vision because we're reading the interpretation. God gave Daniel the vision, then he gave him the interpretation, and he wrote it down. He didn't say that he understood it all, but he wrote it down. And now it's our responsibility to study that which he has written down and seek to understand it from the Word of God, and that's what we're doing. So let us begin with verse 15. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all of this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the thing. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding great, dreadful, whose teeth were iron, and his nails of brass, which devoured, breaking pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet, and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake great things, whose look was more stout than his I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came. Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms. shall devour the whole earth, shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another shall rise after them. He shall be diverse from the first. He shall subdue three kings. He shall speak great words against the most high. Well, the saints of the Most High shall think to change times and laws. They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit. They shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me. My countenance changed in me, but I kept the matter in my heart." Those are the readings, the scriptures and the readings, which gives the interpretation of the vision which is given in the preceding verses of this seventh chapter. Daniel, of course, is the prophet of the times of the Gentiles. And his prophecy covers some 74 years of his life. He began as a young man, and he lived through all the kingdoms back there until he was at a ripe old age. The writer of the Quarterly said, these four kings and kingdoms, the fulfillment of the four world kingdoms assures us of the coming of Christ and his world kingdom. Daniel and Revelation are companion books. we'll be quoting from the book of Revelation. I think the only way to correctly interpret the visions of Daniel is by study of the book of Revelation. Revelation yields more than Daniel on these prophecies. If you'll study Daniel's prophecy and vision of chapter 2 of Daniel, which you've already had, you'll find this same thought that's in this seventh chapter, except the seventh chapter will give more details than the second chapter. Then when you get over to the book of Revelation, John sees the same thing, and John sees it in a larger form, giving more details of the visions of Daniel. in the book of Daniel. That's why it's necessary to study the book of Revelation. But in all of the visions, whether in Daniel's first vision, his second, or third, or whatever, or John's vision in the book of Revelation, everyone climaxes with the Kingdom of Christ upon this earth. which is the filled kingdom on this earth. These messages should be entitled the filled kingdom because the others lead up to that climax with the kingdom of Christ on earth. I want us to study this tonight under two general considerations. First, the vision, really visions, that Daniel had. Second, the interpretation of those visions which God gave to Daniel. The time of these visions was in the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon. That means that this vision that came to Daniel, the vision preceded the doing away of the Babylonian empire and the death of Belshazzar, as you've already said. That lets you know something, that the chronological order in prophecy usually is not given. That's why it's a little more difficult to understand, because the order, chronological order, is not there. The writing of it, when Daniel received this vision, he said that he wrote it down, and this is the song of the matter. That's all in chapter 7, the first verses. He first saw the four winds upon the great sea striving, the Bible says, toward Egypt. I'll make a comment on that. I think the four winds striving, there upon the great sea signifies the agitation, the strife. And it would indicate to me the troublesome times that will be prevalent when these prophecies are being fulfilled. The great sea, of course, is the Mediterranean, sea in Old Testament prophecy, where Daniel saw these four winds driving. And that shows the place of the fulfillment of these prophecies in the main, though they will cover more. Thus, in the Middle East, and in the place where the Mediterranean Sea flows, And in those nations surrounding there is where these prophecies basically will have their fulfillment. Always look to the Middle East for fulfillment from Bible prophecy. You won't miss it too far because that's where it will be. All that agitation, troubles, among the nations around the Mediterranean today, might be leading up to some of these things. For vision proper, Daniel looked, and upon the sea he saw four great beasts arise, didn't he? Just rose up out of the sea. One looked like a lion. had eagle's wings. Another looked like a bear. The bear rose up on one side. As the bear gets up that way, the bear had three ribs in his mouth. The boy said, devour much flesh. And then the other looked like a leopard. He was a leopard beast. And yet it had four wings of a fowl upon it. And it was divided, of course, there into four things, places. And then we come to the fourth. He saw a fourth beast, didn't he, come up out of the same sea. And that fourth beast was different from all the other three. And the fourth beast was dreadful to look at. A terrible looking thing, terrible. Dreadful and terrible. It had iron teeth. Its nails were brass fingernails. Whatever nails it was, it was brass. And then it crushed whole nations. What it didn't kill, it stomped and stomped on its feet. And then this fourth beast, in addition, Daniel's look kept looking, and it had ten horns. We already know a little about those horns, don't we? Then he considered those horns and just kept looking at those horns. Suddenly another little horn rose up among the ten in addition to the ten. This little horn subdued three of those other horns which left eight. seven besides the little horn. And Daniel wondered about it. But the vision didn't stop. This little horn, of course, made war against the saints and prevailed and wore them out. And Daniel wondered. Suddenly he saw another vision, an ancient of days came. He was upon a cloud of glory. And the Son of Man came to the ancient of days, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom, didn't they? Then he just kept looking. Finally this great beast, monstrosity, was cast into the fire. His body and flesh was slain and destroyed and cast into the burning flame. And then he looked, and there came the kingdom of God, covering the whole world. And that's the fifth king. That's the vision. And then the interpretation of the vision. We all know this. Daniel desired to know it, and he was grieved in his heart because of all of this. What does it mean? And there stood a being beside of Daniel. I don't say who he was, but I think we have some insight as to who he was. And he went to that being and said to this being, said, what is all this? And this particular being told him. And he said, I wrote it down. See it? And this is the son of the man. This being was an angel that interpreted this to Daniel. No doubt in my mind it was Gabriel, because over in the 8th chapter, we'll find when we get there, in another vision that Daniel had, he didn't understand, God sent Gabriel. And the boy said to Gabriel, "'Cause this man," Daniel, to understand the vision. That's why I think he's mistaken. And he works in that realm of intelligence. Anyway, all right, here's the matter. So he said, I would know the truth of this matter, didn't he? And he told me, and I wrote it down. Now notice in verse 19, The four beasts first they saw all together there, the four beasts. What are they? These four are Gentile nations. They are nations. If you read verse 17, you'll find that they are kings. And in verse 23, the last part, the fourth kingdom, is, of course, the last kingdom that shall come upon the world, the Gentile kingdom. But these four beasts are all representative of the Gentile kingdom. The Gentiles, they're all Gentiles. This marks the time and the reign and the rule of the times of the Gentiles, these folks. Now, you keep that statement in mind. And you might want to put this in your notes. In Luke chapter 21 and verse 24, Jesus said, that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles," that's these kingdoms, kings right here, "...until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Thus these four kingdoms are all Gentiles' kingdoms, and set forth times of the Gentile rules on this earth, all the way through. And it began with the kingdom of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. And that was the first world Gentile world kingdom on this earth. There were two other kingdoms before that were Gentile but not world kingdoms. We might talk to you about that later. But these are world kingdoms. And the times of the Gentiles means the times that Gentile kings of this earth will rule this world. That's all of it. And this last and fourth kingdom is, of course, the great Gentile kingdom under the Antichrist, which will rule the world and finish out the times of the Gentiles. I want to say here, from the time that Nebuchadnezzar became the first world ruler over Babylon until this day, the Gentile kings and governments have had the rulership in this world. Even when Jesus was born, They were under the fourth of these kingdoms, which was wrong, all of it. But when the times of the Gentiles come to an end, as Jesus said they will, then the Gentiles will not rule this world anymore. The kingdom will revert back to Israel. And Israel will become the ruling nation again under Christ when he's king in Jerusalem over all the world. That's the fifth kingdom. All right. I'll have to go along because I'll say too much. This fourth kingdom, then, is the last form of the revived empire having in it all the qualities of these four. Now then, the first kingdom was Babylonian kingdom, represented by the lion. The second was the Medo-Persian kingdom, as you already know, represented by the bear. All these are world kingdoms. Then the Grecian kingdom, under Alexander the Great, He ruled the known world and wealth that causes not more world to conquer. And then, of course, Rome, Rome, and the Roman kingdom, which ruled clear on until in the times of Christ. Christ was born under the Roman kingdom and all of that. the revived kingdom right here. And in this revived kingdom, all these qualities of every one of these kingdoms, the other three, are in it also, aren't they? For in John, in Revelation chapter 13, John saw a beast come up out of the sea, the same And this beast that John saw, the same as Daniel saw, except he saw more, of course had other things. It was like a leopard. It was like a bear, John said. And it was like a lion, don't you see? Now, whether this last and fourth Gentile kingdom, this terrible beast that's going to come and government that's going to rule the world under the Antichrist is the revived Roman Empire, or whether it's the revived Babylonian Empire, and there's a lot of difference of opinion there. It really makes no difference because within that last kingdom under the Antichrist, all of these things It is like the Babylonian kingdom, the lions, it is like the Medo-Persian kingdom, the bear, it is like the Grecian kingdom, and it is like the Roman kingdom. It is the last Gentile world kingdom that will ever be in this world. That is what Daniel saw in the fourth. What is the truth, he said, then, of the ten horns, then? He showed me now what the fourth kingdom is and the other kingdoms are. What about these ten horns, Daniel said? The interviewer will read in verse 24 of the seventh chapter, which we have already read. They are ten kings that shall arise. Well, that's pretty well interpreted. The ten horns represent ten kings in this last Gentile kingdom under Antichrist that will arise and work with the Antichrist. If you'll read Revelation chapter 17, you'll find John sees this beast as a scarlet-colored beast. And he had seven heads, and he had ten horns, the same horns there, but seven heads, a little more than Daniel's. Then he said, these ten kings, represented by the ten horns, are ten kings that will have power with the beast. and rule for a while. These ten kings, incidentally, if you read the seventeenth chapter further, will destroy the old mystery Babylon, the mother of harlocks, that's riding upon this scarlet-colored beast. Then, finally, after it destroys the mother the Harlech mother of Revelation. And by the way, I'll stop to say that that mystery, the mother of Harlech's abomination to the earth, riding upon this terrible beast that John saw, represents the false religious systems of this world that has persecuted God's people down through the ages. and all through the ages, that God will use these ten kings, though rebellious, to destroy the false religious systems of this world. That's what we see right here, the ten kings. Then the ten kings, under the Antichrist, it says, will rise And with the beast of Revelation attacked Christ when he comes as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, to this earth. We read that in Revelation chapter 19. We saw the beast. We saw the false prophet. They got their arms There's Jesus coming from the white horse and the armies of heaven. This terrible beast and these kings attack Christ. That's some of the work of these kings. I'll just quote right here, lest it gets away from me, from your teacher's help, for whatever it's worth. ten horns symbolizes a ten-nation confederacy, symbolizes now. Having their ethnic, religious, political, social, historical roots in Rome. How does that sound to you? It is one thing for sure, the mother of father. the blood of the saints of Jesus, and that's it. And the Roman Catholicism and the Roman government, when it was together, has killed and shed more blood of God's saints than any other kingdom in this world. He says that this European common market, that there are nine nations in it now, but negotiations are now underway to add the ten, whatever that's worth. Now, whether that would be these ten kings, it would be a good illustration of the end time, when the hand of Christ is here, when the ten kings, represented by the ten horns, are here, and will rise up. These ten horns are kings. The ten toes of the image in chapter 2 harmonize. This ten-horned confederacy is the first part of the forming of this last world Gentile government. Keep that in mind. We have today the United Nations of the world. That's a pretty good illustration. If anything goes wrong today in the nations, They go to the United Nations to get them to bring something to pass. We all know that. Brother, Obie's brother, Carter is doing that now. Of course. But that's the thing to look for. These ten kings will play a big part in destroying the mystery of Babylon, the false religion in the time to come, but they'll first have to come to pass. What is the truth and the meaning of the little horn? Daniel kept looking. There, looking at these ten horns, he saw this little horn just come up suddenly. This little horn conquered three kings. He said, What about this little horn? And this little horn had great eyes and nose and a mouth that spake great things. The little horn is the beast and antichrist of Revelation chapter 13. For this beast John saw come out of the sea with thin horns, and then his eyes were flame, and he had a mouth speaking great things, the same as Daniel saw, except John saw more than Daniel did. That's the Antichrist himself, the little horn, who will be the ruler over this last The Gentile king is coming upon the earth. That will be the Antichrist, the little hornet. He will make war with the saints and prevail against them. We have already read all this. He will wear out the saints of the Most High. We read that, didn't we? And he will cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast that they should be killed. This is Revelation 13, 15, the same day. So he's going to attack the saints of God that's on Earth at that time. Who are these saints? I don't think they're Church saints, brother Crawford. I think they've been raptured already. They are the Jewish saints and the Gentile saints that saved during the Tribulation period. Because God has always promised Israel that they are going to have a kingdom. Christ is going to sit upon the throne of David and rule this world. And that's it. Those that are left of the Jews are not killed when this is over. The Gentiles are not killed. They will go into this kingdom in their living bodies to populate the earth for the millennium. I may have not ought to have said all that. But I want you to notice that this terrible antichrist will prevail over the saints. I love this. Only for a while. Did you read it? Until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. The time came. But the saints possess the healing. Now, when is the time? All right, read it in verse 25 of Daniel 7 again. And they, that's the saints, shall be given into his hand, the little horn, the antichrist, and note, until the time, times, and dividing of time. That's where you find this first. Time is one year. Time's plural is two years. And dividing of time is, of course, the half of the year. In the book of Revelation, over and over, it's called forty and two months, the same thing. Three and a half years. Time, time, half time. Three and a half years. Forty-two months, twelve hundred and sixty days. Thus this world kingdom will rule this world under the antichrist until the end of this three and one half years, the 42 months. And he will continue, the Bible says, on the 42 months. That will be the end of his persecution against the saints of God. will possess the kingdom then. He also will make war against Christ at his coming to the earth. We've already given you that. Now notice, Daniel looked again, and my goodness, that old beast, time's up. I can't go on and forth, but Daniel saw him cast into the fire. You'll find the beast was taken at the end of this 42 months and cast alive into the lake, burning with fire and brimstone. What's next? Then the ancient of days comes. The kingdom of God takes over. It's an everlasting kingdom. And Jesus Christ is our king. He'll be the ruler. over the kingdom of the world. And that kingdom will be a theocracy under Jesus Christ. All right, Brother.