To understand what Daniel is speaking about regarding the phrase ‘mingling with the seed of men’, we have to go back to Genesis where we find language similar to this.
Genesis 6, the Bible says that there was a great time of wickedness. This was occurring in the days of Noah, and we are looking at the condition of the world right before the flood. The Bible says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). The flood for them was the end of the world.
Right before the great deluge, in verse 2 it says, “and the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose’. Many people think this verse is describing angels who mingled with the daughters of men; but that is not what the text is teaching. The sons of God represented the offspring of Seth, and the daughters of men represented the offspring of Cain. What we have here is a mingling of the professed people of God with those who were not of God, in other words, the righteous mingling with the unrighteous. As a result of this mingling, their hearts were evil continually. God sent judgment because unrighteousness nearly took over the whole of humanity. Only eight people heeded the warning of God, but all had the opportunity to be saved. The flood caused worldwide destruction and changed the appearance of planet Earth.
So, the mingling has to do with the righteous mingling with that which is not righteous.
Click here to read the post titled: Genesis 6 – Who Are the Sons of God?
So, Daniel is saying the same about the feet and toes of iron and clay. At the end of time there is a mingling. The clay is mingling with the iron*. The question then becomes: Who is the clay? The answer is the clay represents the professed people of God. In Jeremiah 18, God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to go to a potter’s house where God would illustrate His relationship with His people. God is the Potter; his people are the clay. Unfortunately, the clay becomes ‘miry’ (dirty, muddy, marred) because it mingles itself with iron. Note: There are other verses that describe the Potter and the clay, do a search for the .**
In the toes there is a mingling of the iron* and clay** (Dan. 2:42-43), just like before the flood there was a mingling of the righteous with the wicked. So, what Daniel is foretelling here is that there are people who profess to serve God but who will mingle with the seed of men. In other words, they will mingle with the unrighteous…they will mingle with the world…they will mingle with those that are not of their persuasion. In this illegitimate amalgamated union, it’s going to produce something so wicked that there will be a second destruction – this time not by water but by fire.
*The legs of iron is symbolic of the Pagan Roman Empire (4th kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream)
**The clay represents the church (professed people of God).
Amalgamation results in something different from the originals, but there are features of both – for example we see this in the animal kingdom when a male lion is crossed with a female tiger the result is a liger. There are many other examples that we can see in our world today such as a mule, zorse, beefalo, zeedonk, wholphin, hinny, cama, tigon, leopon, and there are many more. When we speak in regards to the human race we see the same, we get a beautiful variety of mankind. When we bring this mixing of the heart and mind…mixing of righteous and unrighteous, we get something different also. What is different? In this condition purity is lost…the clay that was refined by the Potter’s hands has become miry.
So, the clay becomes miry because of the mingling with the iron. Since clay is representative of God’s professed people, meaning his church; then when the clay becomes ‘miry’ this means there is apostacy. In other words, the ‘church’ is apostate because it has joined hands with the secular/civil power. This is the clay and iron combination or co-mingling that Daniel is pointing out.
Looking Back Will Help Us to Look Forward
We know that Daniel has multiple fulfillments. After all it contains the longest prophecy in the Bible that began in Daniel’s day and ends with the return of Christ at the end of time. Looking back at what has transpired prophetically will help us to see where we are in the stream of time and provide understanding of what lies ahead.
In history, what was the result of a religious power mingling with a secular power?
________________________________________________________________________________
“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 2:43
As we look at what happened during the Dark Ages, we actually see a Church power who sought to control secular power. That never mixes because you cannot convert someone by force and that is what the Church did during the Dark Ages. This is that period of time after Rome fell and became divided. This period of time lasted for over 1,200 years. More on this later.
At first it was the other way around, the iron (Rome) dominated and persecuted the clay (the people of God). This is a historical fact. Then the clay steps into power and runs the secular world. The Bible goes on to say that this ‘mingled’ power will try to mix together and will not. This is a historical fact as well. In fact, it led to a revolt which brought atheism to the forefront – the French Revolution.
How did that happen? We know that Constantine came upon the scene and tried to mix a secular society with Christianity (iron and clay). Then Justinian issued a decree (Code of Justinian 533) which was effectuated in 538 addressing the pope as being “the head of all the churches” and “that all affairs touching the church shall be referred to the pope, Head of all bishops, and the true and effective corrector of heretics.” History tells us that the clay basically dominated the iron…meaning the church dominated the state.
We can look at this mingling of Church and State in a couple of ways:
- Marriage
European kingdoms/nations tried to cleave together through intermingling – in other words inter-marriage. Marriages were formed to unite the nations under one ruler. All monarchies of Europe are related to each other through intermarriage.
As we know, this did not work and the division still stands just as the word of God foretold. The gospel and secularism cannot be successfully mixed because what ends up happening is that you sow the seeds of skepticism which leads to atheism. This is what actually happens down the road and in our studies we will see it recorded in history.
- Church Craft and Statecraft Mixing
Rome was not overthrown in battle by a successive nation. Rome weakened internally as the people lived in luxury and experienced the degeneracy of self-content and intemperance. The territory which made up the official Roman kingdom laid west of Greece. The Roman Kingdom was represented by the legs of iron in the statue. By fragmentation, this territory was divided into independent kingdoms, represented by the ten toes of the image*. Some retained the strength of the original iron kingdom, symbolized by the iron.
The era of the feet/toes has small and apparently insignificant beginning, but with Constantine and his edicts in the 4th century, the division of the empire in the 5th century, and then Justinian in the 6th century addressing the bishop of the Church in Rome as Pontiff of all the churches and the true and effective corrector of heretics. Papal Rome truly came into being and as we continue in this long prophecy of Daniel, we will see how it comes down through history to our day.
*Looking ahead. In Daniel 7, God introduces a completely new element to the prophecy, which we touched on briefly. We see this same division; however, it is represented by ten horns of the fourth beast; just as we saw the division in the feet and ten toes of the fourth kingdom. The new element is a small horn which comes up among the ten horns which plucks up three of the ten horns. The focus then zooms in on this little horn power going forward in the prophecy. Remember, repeat and enlarge is a biblical principle.
Division of the Roman Empire
This division took place between the years A.D. 351 and A.D. 476. Barbarian tribes invaded the Empire’s territory from the north and east and eventually became the nations of modern Europe. The notable tribes within the Empire were: the Lombards, Franks, Suevi, Angles/Saxons, Alemanni, Burgundians, Visigoths, Heruli, Ostrogoths, and Vandals. The last three were uprooted, the remaining seven tribes converted and submitted to the authority of the Bishop of Rome. Later prophecies of Daniel reveal that the three kingdoms uprooted (destroyed) by a ‘little horn’ power. This has proved true, but the remaining nations are still traceable in the nations of Western Europe today: Italy (Lombards), France (Franks), Portugal (Suevi), England (Angels/Saxons), Germany (Alemanni), Switzerland (Burgundians), and Spain (Visigoths). The three kingdoms that followed the teachings of Arius* were uprooted which were the Heruli, Ostrogoths, and Vandals – as noted above.
*Arius, who was apresbyter in Alexandria around the year 320 AD taught that ‘Christ was created out of nothing as the first and greatest of all creatures’. (Loraine Boettner, Baker’s Dictionary of Theology, pp. 64-65). These teachings were condemned in Nicea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD). These three Arian kingdoms were a threat to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome (later called the Pope). These three kingdoms eventually were uprooted by the imperial power acting under the influence of the Bishop of Rome.
Note: The ‘little horn rose after the divisions of the western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. Remember, the ‘little horn’ starts out small but rises. We will find that the ‘little horn’ rose to full supremacy in 538 A.D. A future post will be forth coming titled, Divided Nation: The Ten Division of Western Roman Empire.
For centuries the nations of Europe have endeavored to be united again under a central government. Neither by force, nor by diplomacy have men and women succeeded in foraging the iron and clay together. Wars have been fought but to no avail. The fragility of the toes have proven to be true, the Roman Empire became divided and the divided nations have not been able to cleave to one another to this day.
Charlemagne tried to bring Europe under one kingdom, so did Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Wilhelm, Hitler, and the European Common Market. Although they have appeared to succeed for a time, there has been and will not be a permanent cohesion.
This ‘little horn’ power (Dan. 7) is the one that has the greatest enlargement, because it has much to do with the end of times. So, there will be much, much more to come.
Reading Materials: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/1137.3373#3486
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.”