Roman Kingdom/Empire (Legs of Iron)
The Roman Empire comes into its power and conquers the Hellenistic (Grecian) Empire. What is unique, is that the Bible says that this power ruled the whole world (Luke 2:1).
The iron kingdom of Rome is the fourth empire that ruled the world. Gibbon wrote: “The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations or their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.” (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 38, paragraph one, “General Observations.”)
In the time of Christ, the Roman Empire included all of Southern Europe, France, England, the greater part of Holland, Switzerland, the Southern part of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece as well as extensive possessions in Africa and Asia.
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” Luke 2:1.
The first taxing of the world, enforced by the decrees of Rome, shows the expanse of this Roman Empire.
How could this mighty and stable empire disappear from the earth in its present form? It seemed well nigh impossible from human observation. But a further scene from the prophetic vision was to take place, which we find the empire became divided as we see in the feet and toes of iron mingled with miry clay. The iron became fragmented, broken, or better said ‘divided.
The bible depicts this kingdom by a terrible beast with ten horns which has another little horn that comes up among the ten – plucking up three of the existing horns. Also, it is depicted as a little horn that came up out of one of the four winds of heaven. Again, we will be digging deep into the symbols of Daniel’s prophecy as we continue going through the chapters. This kingdom is significant and in the near future we will spend more time on the ‘little horn’ as we study Daniel and when we get to Revelation also.
The Roman Empire ruled from 168BC to 476AD (Western Empire). At this point, we have Daniel accurately forecasting over a thousand years of history. God is so good to tell us beforehand so we can be watchmen and avoid deception.
Disclaimer: THE PLAIN WORD may quote an outside article(s) or provide references to outside materials, which indicate that we stand behind the content of that particular article, topic or reference; but it is not an endorsement by The Plain Word of the author’s opinion, lifestyle or work published elsewhere.
2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AND 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”