Each new successive empire of Daniel 2 took over the previous one and often enlarged its borders. I'm Dr. Fred, you're listening to another episode of Study, Grow, Know. Welcome to Study, Grow, Know, where we discuss theology, prophecy, and current political issues from a conservative biblical perspective. Here's your host, Dr. Fred DeRuvo. Welcome to another episode of StudyGroNow. We are still talking about Rome Rising because there's a lot to discuss. As I've mentioned before, we can't fit everything into this series. I do have a book written on the subject called Rome Rising and it's available through Amazon.com. I'd encourage you to pick that up if you have a mind to because it has charts. and illustrations and other information that we will not be covering in this series. This is kind of a broad overview, but we cover a lot. Last time we discussed the fact that the empires mentioned in Daniel 2 basically were in the same location geographically. We covered the Babylonian Empire, which kicked things off as far as God was concerned with respect to what God referred to through his prophets as the times of the Gentiles, when Gentile nations would control and literally tread down Israel and Jerusalem. And the first empire to do that on God's calendar was the Babylonian Empire. And for the Babylonian Empire, they had a fairly large empire. But what's interesting is that As one empire fell, another took its place, but in the same area. So, it really became that previous empire, for instance, the Babylonian Empire, really became part of the Medo-Persian Empire and was expanded upon from there. Can the same be said of Rome though? Well, maybe. Here's a quote from the internet, and I have all these references in my book. The historical truth, if any exists, is that Rome did not fall. Rather, it evolved. Roman coloni, farmers tied to the land, gradually became medieval serfs. The patron and client relationship so central in Roman society slowly assumed the name and nature of the lord and vassal bond. So the social order underlying much of European society in the Middle Ages. So if Rome fell, it was only in slow motion, very slow motion. And that is a quote from an individual by the name Mark Damon from USU.edu. And he discusses the fall of the Rome. I mean, the Roman Empire was fascinating because of literally how long it took to change, to evolve, to morph into something else and then kind of die out, yet aspects of the Roman Empire lived on. Certainly as we deal with the Roman Empire, we will consider the above statement that I just read and see if history proves it to be correct. From what we've seen at this point, we can say that one empire truly never disappears. but is merely absorbed into the empire, the new empire that replaces it. And it's often in the same geographical area. Remember the feet and toes of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar and what he saw in his dream from Daniel chapter 2. The legs represented the Roman Empire. But below the legs there is another empire. Or is it the same empire that revives itself? And remember, those feet, the feet and toes that are below the legs, they will be standing They will be in existence when Jesus physically returns to this earth. So something's going to be there. Something will be standing in Rome's place, whether we call it Rome, Revised Rome, or just merely the fourth beast. It will evolve from what was left over of the Roman Empire. Now, prior to Jesus's physical return, and that's represented, of course, by the rock in the illustration of Daniel 2 that destroys the statue from the feet up. In that thing, in that big, huge, world-shaking, world-changing, universe-changing event, Jesus's physical return, the feet and the toes represent that final kingdom. And notice that when the rock, or Jesus, slams into the feet and toes, the entire statue is destroyed completely. And it essentially, as the text tells us, turns to dust and blows away. In referring to this rock, Daniel 2.2.44 states that it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Jesus' return will completely obliterate not just the final kingdom, it will put an end to all these kingdoms. The memory of them will be literally wiped away. Now, if each prior empire had truly died, then Jesus would only actually be dealing with the final phase of the fourth beast when he comes back. because that's the one that's going to be in existence when he returns. However, the text implies that all the kingdoms will be rolled into one. So there are characteristics from every kingdom that Daniel talks about in Daniel 2, the four kingdoms. The final empire is different from all the rest, and there is really one thing that makes it completely different from all the kingdoms, the three previous kingdoms or four that came before. Now we'll get to that, but first from the kingdom of Babylon, we segue to the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, or what is also known as the Medo-Persian empire. The Medo-Persian Empire lasted from 539 BC to 331 BC and rulership was through Darius the Mede and Cyrus for the Persians. Now 539 to 331, that's over 200 years, 208 years. And as we can readily see if we compare the geographical areas of Babylon or the Babylonian kingdom to the Median and Persian empires, They look much different, yet some of the same physical landmass was there, but simply grew larger and in different directions with each successive empire. If you don't have my book, I would suggest that you go on the internet and look up Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire. Look those up. Look for maps of those areas and then compare the landmass to one another. Of course, with respect to the Babylonian Empire being conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire, this makes sense if we understand, for instance, that Darius, as I mentioned previously in another episode, was literally waiting outside the city of Babylon while Belshazzar and his 1,000 guests dined and drank themselves into drunken stupors. And you can read about that in Daniel chapter 5 if you would like to refresh. Or, if this is the first time you're joining me, actually I would suggest that you find Rome Rising No. 1 and start from there. But go back to Daniel 5, refresh yourself as far as your memory is concerned, get that picture in your head. and understand that Belshazzar was so confident that Babylon was impenetrable because of the huge wall that completely encircled the city of Babylon. He felt he didn't need to worry about Darius and the Medes that were positioned just outside the wall. They were no threat to him as far as he was concerned. The wall was too big. They couldn't climb it. They couldn't take it down. never occurred to him that they could redirect the river that ran underneath it and then walk underneath the wall or crawl underneath it. Now unfortunately for Belshazzar, that was what happened and it was time for his kingdom to be turned over to Darius by God's decree. So because of that, God allowed Darius and his armies to block off the river that flowed into the city, cutting off the water supply. The armies were then able to enter the city through the dried out riverbed underneath the wall and they killed Belshazzar that very night. Now, according to scriptures we've already referenced and discussed, Darius was 62 years of age when he conquered Babylon and established the Median Empire. with the Medo-Persian Empire, however you'd like to discuss that or call it. Now if we consider the illustrations again that I have in my book and the charts that are included in this book based on Daniel 2 and the statue that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about, To me, it is clear from scripture that the Medes and the Persians are represented by the lopsided bear. This meant that though the two ruled together successively one after the other, the union of their two separate cultures never really happened. They didn't meld completely. though the Medo-Persian Empire continued with Daniel living to become an old man and Daniel being thrown in the lion's den occurred under Darius if you'll recall in Daniel 6 when it was time this empire was conquered by a young man who is symbolized in scripture as a leopard with four wings and later on with four heads. So fast did Alexander the Great's kingdom rise and expand that he is exemplified first as a lion, excuse me, a leopard with four wings. and also a male goat later on in Daniel 8. Now this male goat is none other than Alexander the Great. And what is interesting is how we read about the description of his horn that's broken into four sections. We can read about that in Daniel 8, 5 through 8. And here's what the text says. While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. Obviously, that's a symbolism for speed. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. And the ram had no strength to withstand him." This ram with two horns refers back to the Medo-Persian Empire. One horn for Darius or the Medes, and one horn for Cyrus. or Persia. So he basically shattered these two horns. So he hurled him, the ram, to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken, and in its places there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven." Now, these last few sentences of the quote First, the male goat magnified himself greatly. His ego was huge, and as far as he was concerned, he had a right to be egotistical because of what he had accomplished in such a short time. Humanly speaking, we can understand why. He managed to grow his empire so quickly, and it became so vast that the previous empires paled in comparison. Second, he no sooner became mighty than his large horn was broken. It was broken. That's what the last portion of the text that I read tells us. So, we have to sit there and wonder what's really going on here. Well, this is Alexander. It's his life. The horn was broken into, the text tells us, four conspicuous horns or four pieces. This signifies the fact and proves history future because this was given to Daniel before it happened. Alexander died at the age of 32 and because he had no legitimate heir, a son had not yet been born but would be born by his mistress later, his empire was divided among his four generals. They are the four horns. Daniel 8, 9-14 speaks of a little horn that came up out of one of the horns. Historically, this is a reference to Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who would have been under Seleucid's rule. Seleucid was the king of the north, who along with the king of the south is referenced in another portion of the book of Daniel, chapter 11. More is also stated about Antiochus IV in Daniel 11, 21-35, and as it turns out, Antiochus ruled as the Seleucid king who reigned from 175-164 BC. and we are gonna talk about Antiochus a little bit more next time. We got a lot to cover with him, so we're gonna take a little side trip. But I hope this has been interesting to you. It's always fascinating to me to study prophecy, to study books of the Bible that were written well before the events they described happen. That's the way God is. He stoops to our level. Doesn't have to, but he does. Well, that is our show for today. I want to thank you so much for being with me. And until we meet again, I pray that God will open your eyes to show you how blessed you are. You've been listening to Study, Grow, Know with Dr. Fred DeRubo. Please join us each week for new broadcasts that deal with theology, prophecy, and political issues from a biblical, conservative perspective.