An Outline Of History

Nebuchadnezzar had not understood only God can predict the future with any degree of certainty.  He had been ready to kill all the wise men, the soothsayers, psychics and shamans because they were not able to explain his dream to him.  Daniel had asked permission to pray about what it meant, and God had revealed the answer to him.   When he went back to the king, he made it very clear that both the dream and the interpretation came from God, who wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know certain things which were to happen in the future, as Daniel 2:28-30 explains.  “But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.  But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.”

Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten what he saw in his dream, so Daniel started by describing the dream so that the king would know he was not just making up a story, in Daniel 2:31-36.  “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.  This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.”  As Daniel described the dream, Nebuchadnezzar remembered it and was assured that Daniel might really know what it meant.  It was more than any of the others had been able to do.   

As Daniel explained it there would be a series of world powers in the future.  The first, would be the Babylonian Empire starting with Nebuchadnezzar, as Daniel explained in Daniel 2:37-38.  “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.”  The Babylonian Empire stretched from southern Turkey south into Egypt, and east into present day Iran. 

The second world empire would be the Persian Empire, which would include all of the old Babylonian Empire and extend into Afghanistan and southward to Ethiopia, as listed in Daniel 2:39.  The collapse of the Persian Empire would open the way for the Greek Empire, under Alexander the Great, which would extend from around much of the Mediterranean Sea Eastward to northern India and south to include Ethiopian and various colonies along the coast of northern Africa, as listed in Daniel 2:39.  “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.”

The fourth Empire would be the Roman Empire, and would be the strongest of all, as Daniel 2:40 describes.  “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.”  The Roman Empire would eventually control the entire area, from northern Africa to England and northern Europe and east to Pakistan and northern India.  Later the Empire would split into an Eastern and a western group, the two legs, and continue until about 500 years after Christ. 

Following the breakup of the Roman Empire, the western or European branch was taken over by the Holy Roman Empire, which continued to play a major role until World War I.  It was based on the old Roman laws, but was never united like the Roman Empire.  The eastern part of the Roman empire was known as the Byzantine Empire, and still used the Roman Empires laws but was gradually taken over by Islamic forces, finally totally controlled by the Ottoman Turks.  After World War I, both the Eastern and Western empires broke up into loosely connected independent states, as described in Daniel 2:41-43.  “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”

Daniel went on to explain, this last period will end with the Lord’s return to set up his earthly kingdom in Daniel 2:44-45.  “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”

While this Prophecy does not go into great detail about any of these periods, it does give us a framework for understanding many of the other prophecies.  Daniel 7 and 8 will go into greater detail about the second and third kings, while Daniel 11 gives more detail about what happens during the Roman Empire and after its collapse.  Daniel 9 and 12 deal primarily with events at the end of that last period before the Lord’s return.