Bf – Summary Statement about the Fourth Kingdom

Summary Statement about the Fourth Kingdom

In summary, 2:40-43 describes the Fourth Gentile Empire. This empire goes through several stages. First, there is the United Stage, strong as iron (to see link click Bc – The United Stage). Second, there is the Divided Kingdom Stage, which still has the strength of iron (see Bd – The Divided Kingdom Stage). However, the presence of clay shows that this stage is weaker than the previous one. Third, there is the One World Government Stage as is seen in the ten toes being composed of iron and clay (see Be – The One World Government Stage). Part of this stage will be strong and part will be weak and brittle. The lack of cohesiveness is especially evident in the toes. Unity is impossible, and ten different kingdoms occur because the different rulers cannot unite. The Fourth Gentile Empire differs greatly from the previous empires. It totally crushes and subdues all that came before it. It is this empire that is especially emphasized when dealing with the Times of the Gentiles (see Ao – The Times of the Gentiles).⁹⁶ We will discuss the Fourth Kingdom in more detail when we get to Chapter 7. Dani’el 2 gives us the perspective of the times of the Gentiles from a human viewpoint as something majestic, but Dani’el 7 gives us the perspective from God’s viewpoint as something dreadful, where four kingdoms are pictured as four beasts.