Five hundred years before Jesus stepped foot on earth, God sent a series of messages to a prophet living in the capital of the world at that time – Daniel. In Daniel 2, the message came in the form of a vision God gave the world leader, Nebuchadnezzar. I draw your attention to the last part of that dream, verses 40-45. A terrible beast was coming which represented the fourth kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision. During the days of that fourth kingdom, another, different, spiritual kingdom would be set up. This special kingdom would be set up by the God of heaven, not by men. This kingdom would never come to an end. It will “crush and put an end to all” the other kingdoms and it will “itself endure forever.”
In Daniel 7, Daniel receives a vision himself from the God of heaven which overlaps the vision given to King Nebuchadnezzar. I draw your attention to verses 7 and following. Observe the description of this fourth beast. In the middle of this vision, Daniel sees the “Ancient of Days” siting on His throne (vss 9-10). Once the Ancient of Days appears on the scene, notice verse 11 that this terrible, fourth beast is slain and its body is destroyed and given to burning fire.
Following that, Daniel sees the “Son of Man,” a glorified Man in a vision. To Him was given dominion, glory, a “kingdom.” His dominion, in contrast to the other dominions, would never pass away. His kingdom would “never be destroyed.” As Daniel lay meditating on the meaning of this vision, an angel appeared to him and explained that these four beasts were “four kings” (vs 17) but the “saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come” (vs 18).
But in verse 19, Daniel gets another picture of that terrible, fourth beast. One horn of the beast waged war with the saints (vs 21), overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom (vs 22). Further pictures of this terrible beast are given until verse 27 when Daniel reiterates the point that the kingdom of the saints will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions of man will serve and obey the “Highest One.”
There is no doubt at all that the kingdom pictured, set up by the Ancient of Days and given to the Son of Man, is the church of Jesus Christ. We will not take the time to prove that. But, we are interested in this fourth beast, who it is and what will happen to it.
John the apostle picks up on Daniel’s visions from chapters 2, 7 & 8 as he writes to the Christians in the first century, in the middle of the Roman Empire, and encourages them to remain faithful to God despite the present and coming persecutions. “Simply put, John understands Daniel’s reference to a distant time as referring to his own era, and he updates the text accordingly” (G. K. Beale, 153). The book of Revelation will take our attention for the next 13 weeks.
Bruce Metzger, in Breaking the Code, compares different books of the Bible as they relate to different aspects of our nature. The book of Psalms affects our emotions (cf. Psa. 103:1). The Pentateuch affects our will with its commands. Romans affects our intellect. The Apocalypse affects our imagination: “not, however, a freewheeling imagination, but a disciplined imagination” (11). Yes, many, many people have used Revelation to teach all manner of strange and weird things; they have used a “freewheeling imagination.” What we want to do, is approach the book with a “disciplined” imagination, an imagination that has been educated by the Word of God, steeped in the images and phrases of the Old Testament prophets and intended to encourage Christians throughout the ages.
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Observe these passages which show that the Christians were obligated to engage in some type of idolatrous practices instigated by the Empire or its sympathizers: 13:4-8, 15-16; 14:9-11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; and 20:4. The persecution we see in Revelation arises because the Christians refuse to worship the ungodly emperor. Even if there were no state sponsored anti-Christian laws and persecution, it would be easy to see that local, regional or provincial leaders would engage in persecution to the degree they were able, simply to curry favor with the Roman Emperors.
What we cannot do in this series of Daily Droplets due to its nature and time constraints:
- We cannot provide all the possibilities of interpretation for each symbol.
- We cannot run the Old Testament background references as thoroughly as we should.
- We cannot understand fully and completely the purpose and meaning of every individual symbol. Revelation has perplexed Christians for two millennia for a reason.
The “rich reality of Revelation” from this introduction? The church of Christ will never cease to exist.
–Paul Holland
