“And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.” – Dan. 2:1

Nebuchadnezzar was given a dream of the final Gentile kingdoms to come on the earth in the form of a great statue but, when he awoke, he could not remember the dream so, he called his wise men for an answer but, they could not show him the dream. But Daniel, who was a captive in Babylon, was given the answer by God –

“Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 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.” – Dan. 2:27-29

Daniel then proceeded to show the dream and explain it to Nebuchadnezzar –

“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 threshing floors; 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.” – Dan. 2:31-35

Later, God revealed these same kingdoms to Daniel but, in the form of beasts instead of a statue.

The four beasts

“Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there

The little horn

came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” – Dan. 7:2-14

Whereas Nebuchadnezzar saw these kingdoms as a glorious statue, God sees them as beasts. God also reveals to Daniel the emergence of the ‘little horn’, which is the Antichrist and comes out of the final kingdom.  John also sees these kingdoms in the book of Revelation.

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (This is describing the rise of the Antichrist).  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” – Rev. 13:1-8

But to John it was also revealed that a second beast would arise in the last days that would join with the Antichrist. This beast would try to look like a lamb but, would sound like a dragon.

The false lamb

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” – Rev. 13:11-14

I will not go into great detail about these kingdoms here but, I have in previous articles: Is Daniel’s 10 Toed Empire Forming Now? , and The Four Beasts of Revelation 13. Instead I will continue with John’s Revelation vision of the 2nd Beast he saw.

This 2nd beast is later called ‘the false prophet’. It is he that causes all to receive the ‘mark of the beast’ in order to buy or sell in the world. He is religious in nature and he deceives the world into following the 1st beast, who is the Antichrist. The only good news about these two beasts is that they only have 3½ years to pour out their havoc on the world.

Daniel and John clearly show the joining of political and religious authority in the final Gentile kingdom. This joining was displayed historically as the Catholic Church joined with the remnants of the Roman Empire to form the Holy Roman Empire. This empire began to die out after Napoleon and finally collapsed with WWI but, the motivation behind it has never ceased and can be seen in the formation of present day EU.

China to choose Catholic Bishops

John warns of its reforming in the last days as a religious leader (the false prophet) joins with a political leader (the Antichrist) to work together to form the final Gentile kingdom. Current news reveals just such an action as the Catholic Church reaches out to China to form a union on selecting Catholic Bishops. The Chinese government will propose a list of those it considers qualified to be Bishops and then the Pope will select current Bishops from this list. This will produce a state run church in line with the Chinese government, a Communist government! Meanwhile, China continues persecuting Christians and closing churches who do not toe government policies.

This Catholic-Chinese amalgam is forecasting the pattern John predicted would develop in the last Gentile kingdom – the Antichrist kingdom. How soon will others join with the Catholic Church to form the Antichrist kingdom John predicts?