Here is why Rome is not in the scope of the prophetic visions:
5 of the beast's ancient empire's have fallen [neo-Babylon, Media, Persia, Alexander, Syrio/Babylonia] .... the beast was "ruling" [read my post Middle Eastern Culture]
..... then the beast was "not" .... during the Roman .... and still is "not"
Abaddon-Apollyon is in the abyss where he cannot interact with humanity [
Jude 1:6]
Satan is called the "god" of this world and he meddles with all human nations and empires, but the scope of the prophetic visions are all focused upon his activity in the Middle East
Satan will release his beast at the beginning of the coming tribulation period to rule again .... in the Middle East [
Revelation 9:1; 9:11; 11:7; 13:1-4; 17:8-14]
Note Daniel's image in chapter 2 .... a picture of the beast's rule in the Middle East
Rome did not start out as two rival kingdoms as shown on the image [the 2 iron legs]
These are a similar setting to Syrio/Babylonia and Egypt [
Daniel 11:1-35 tracking] just before the first century [the 2 bronze thighs] .... one north and one south of Israel
There will be 2 similar rival kingdoms at the time of the end [there is a breach in the visions between these two settings] [
Daniel 11:36-40] .... one north and one south of Israel [watch the Middle East for this dividing between the Muslims .... most likely between northern Shiite and southern Sunni]
The beast in the little horn will rise out of the ancient land of Syrio/Babylonia ..... the king of the north of
Daniel 8:9; 11:36, and he will then proceed to expand his smaller holdings [6th] into the divided kingdom of iron and clay with 10 other Middle Eastern kings [
Daniel 7:7-25]
Daniel's visions move from the end of the rule of Antiochus IV [the last Syrio/Babylonian king in the scope of the visions [
Daniel 11:21-35]] directly to the time of the end [
Daniel 8:9-12; 8:23-25; 9:24-27; 11:36-45]
Then you have a king of the north and one of the south again [
Daniel 11:36-40]
Rome is presented in the N.T. as a matter of recorded history, but not recorded in the prophetic visions [neither are the subsequent rulers of the Middle East: Arabian, Mongol, Parthian, Ottoman, British]
There is nothing in the scope of the visions of earthly events between the end of the 69th week decreed for Israel and the beginning of the 70th still pending [between the 2 bronze thighs and the 2 iron legs of the image, between the 3rd and 4th kingdoms of
Daniel 7, between Alexander and the coming little horn of the north in
Daniel 8 and
Daniel 11]
And this is because Israel rejected the Lord .... He has stopped the prophetic time clock .... and it will not start ticking again until the beginning og the 70th week
It is this kingdom of the little horn that will materialize during the first 1260 days of the 70th week [
Daniel 2:40-44; 7:7-8;
Revelation 13:1-4]
This coming kingdom of the Middle East is not a revised Rome of European design [notice that the beast has the symbolic trappings of 3 of his ancient Middle Eastern kingdoms]
Daniel's image is a picture of the Middle East only and the kingdoms that succeed one another .... this vision moves directly from the 2 bronze thighs to the 2 iron legs which will exist at the beginning of the 70th week decreed for Israel .... the little horn of the northern leg [kingdom] will conquer the king of the southern leg [kingdom] and then proceed to form his larger divided kingdom of iron and clay [similar to Alexander's ancient Asian holdings .... from the Mediterranean to the borders of India which will include modern Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq [the little horn's smaller kingdom], Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan]
Ten other selected kings will rule with him and he is the iron in both the northern leg [his 6th smaller kingdom] and in the feet if his larger divided kingdom
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