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Foreshadows of The Second Coming of Jesus
Part 3, A Renewed Roman Empire (Europe)
Bruce A. Hess
Now, if you would, please take out your Bibles and turn in the Word of God, in the Old Testament, to the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel, in the Old Testament. You know, last time we were in the Book of Ezekiel, so if you found your way to the Book of Ezekiel last time, you can find your way to the Book of Daniel, because it is just to the right of Ezekiel.
This is going to be, today, the third message in a series that we have entitled, “ForeShadows of the Second Coming of Jesus.” What do we mean by ‘foreshadow’? Well, it means an indicator of what is to come.
I just want to say up front: I deeply, deeply appreciate Bible prophecy. It is—I don’t know if you’ve thought of it this way or not, but—it is supernatural Intel from God to us. Bible prophecy is a backstage pass to coming attractions. Bible prophecy is not some frivolous fantasy escape from everyday reality, nor is Bible prophecy a vast mysterious realm that we have no hope of understanding in any way. In fact, Bible prophecy is a core element of the Word of God.
Dr. Randall Price, who was one of my classmates at Dallas Seminary, I knew him then as Randy, but he has calculated the number of times the Second Coming is referred to in Scripture. So, he put this together, he said, “When it comes to the Second Coming, not the first coming of Christ, but the Second Coming, it is mentioned in the Old Testament he says 1,845 times. The Second Coming is a clear theme in seventeen of the Old Testament books. Then, when it comes to the New Testament, he says the Second Coming is mentioned in all four of the gospels; it is mentioned in multiple New Testament letters; and, of course, you also have the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Revelation not only talks about events preceding His coming, and then His Second Coming, but also events that come post His Second Coming as we go all the way into eternity in the Book of the Revelation.
It is very obvious to me that God has planned for us—for you and for me—to be very aware of some issues that help us to see the potential of the Second Coming of Jesus being near.
As we have been going through this series, we have said from the very beginning we want to avoid what is often called ‘newspaper exegesis.’ ‘Newspaper exegesis’ means that you look around at current events, and then you find some way to take those current events and you stick them into Scripture…you read them back into Scripture. We’re not doing that. Rather, what we want to do is, we want to start with the Word of God; we want to start with Scripture; we want to understand what it says; we want to reflect on it and we want to see what that tells us about current events in our world today.
Now, because God’s Word is inspired, it gives us a unique insight to where world events are headed. We’re not–I love this—we’re not left abandoned to a state of total uncertainty.
So, what we said we’re going to do in this series is we’re going to look at Four Indicators, four sign posts that the Second Coming could be near. If you missed the first two of these, I would encourage you to go to our webpage (brucehess.com) or go to Wildwood’s YouTube channel.
Now, we said the first indicator or sign of the coming of Jesus is The Rebirth of the Nation of Israel. We went through that in a lot of detail, very significant, maybe the most significant event of modern times.
Then, the second indicator or sign of the potential nearness of the coming of Jesus, we looked at this last time, is A Specific Coalition of Nations listed in Ezekiel 38, that are Hostile Towards Israel.
Today we want to look at a third indicator, a third sign, and that is, A Renewed Roman Empire, a renewed Europe. We’re going to be reading about this in Daniel, chapter 2. But, before we get to what we are going to read from Daniel, chapter 2, I just want to give us a little set up, because we’re just jumping into it.
I want you to have a feel for what’s going on as we jump into Daniel, chapter 2. So, a little bit of set up.
To do that we have to dial back twenty-five and a half centuries, 2,550 years ago. Daniel and his young friends, which were the cream of the crop [the very best] of the nation of Judah, as Babylon was conquering Judah. They came in the first round of captivity where they were taken from Judah to Babylon. These were the cream of the crop of the young people of the day. So, as Judah was being taken over, Daniel and his young friends were brought to Babylon. We might remember that Ezekiel was in the second round of those captivities.
Daniel was also a prophet and what happens in Daniel, chapter 2 is that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has this nightmarish dream. In fact, it tells us in chapter 2, in verse 1, that he was troubled by this dream. It was apparently so vivid, so dramatic—and it had ominous overtones to it.
Now, why was he having this dream? Well, we get a little insight in Daniel 2, toward the middle, in verse 29. It tells us why the dream came to him. Now Nebuchadnezzar is the ruler of the world empire, he is at the top of his game [he was at the peak of his rule] and it tells us in verse 29, of chapter 2, that as he was lying in bed one night he was thinking, I wonder what’s going to come next in history. What’s going to come after me being the ruler of Babylon? And guess what God decides to do—He sends him a dream!
In chapter 2, in verse 2, what Nebuchadnezzar does as he has this dream is he enquires of what I like to call ‘the wise guys’ of Babylon: the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers. These were people who fancied themselves to be specialists when it came to dream interpretation. In fact, archeologists have found some of the manuals in which they actually wrote about dream interpretation. He basically comes to them and he says, I had this lulu [amazingly remarkable] of a dream.
In chapter 2, verse 4, here is how they respond. They said, Well, King, tell us your dream, then we will tell you the interpretation of that dream. In verse 5 Nebuchadnezzar goes, No, I don’t think we’re going to do it that way. Here is what I want you to do, you wise guys, I want you to tell me both the dream and the interpretation. I think he was suspicious of how legitimate these ‘wise guys’ really were.
Then he says something that was a little startling to them, I want you to tell me the dream and the interpretation and if you don’t do it, here is all I’m going to do: I’m just going to tear off all your limbs and I’m going to wipe out all of your households. Now, they knew Nebuchadnezzar. They knew the brutality that he could have.
You might jot down 2 Kings 25, verse 7 and Jeremiah 29, verse 22, because we learn there that as Nebuchadnezzar was taking Judah, the king of Judah was a guy by the name of Zedekiah. You can learn in Scripture that Zedekiah was relatively young, he was only thirty-two years old. As Nebuchadnezzar takes him captive you know what he did. He’s only thirty-two, so he had pretty young sons. Nebuchadnezzar brought the young sons out in front of Zedekiah and he slaughtered all of them. Then, he poked out the eyes of Zedekiah, and then later on he brought him to Babylon and roasted him alive on an open fire.
So, when he says, if you don’t tell me both I’m going to tear off your limbs and I’m going to wipe out your households, they knew he meant business. They were truly ‘up against it’ [in serious hot water]. So, in verse 7 of chapter 2, a second time they said, we can work on this, you tell us the dream and then we will tell you the interpretation. He goes, No guys! We’re not going to do it that way, no can do. And, down in verse 10 they respond, Well, if that’s the deal we’ve got to tell you there’s no one on earth who can do that! And, in verse 12 it tells us that Nebuchadnezzar was very furious and he says, if that’s true, then I’m just going to execute all of you.
Then, Daniel steps up… Daniel and the young men from Judah were ‘wise guys’ trainees. So, Daniel goes to God and he prays for insight and God reveals the dream and the interpretation to Daniel. So, what we have then is, we have the dream laid out for us as he tells Nebuchadnezzar the dream in verses 31-35 and then we have the interpretation of this dream in verses 36-45.
Now, I’m going to read some, I want you to follow along as I’m reading, but as I do that, I’m just going to put a chart up on the screen.
I want to read from Daniel, chapter 2, beginning with verse 31. This is Daniel speaking,
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold; its chest and arms of silver; its middle and thighs of bronze; its legs of iron; its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze (it’s just like the whole thing exploded) and the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
Verse 36, “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king,” and he has several more things to say about him as king but the end of verse 38 tells us the key thought, “You, O king, are the head of gold.”
Verse 39, “Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.”
Verse 42, “And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.”
Now, what I want you to understand is that there is some distinctiveness here. The legs of iron, notice that in verse 40, they are just super powerful, they shatter and break all things to pieces. It crushes, it is going to crush everything. And then in verse 42, when you get down to the feet and the toes, they’re partly iron and partly clay because the kingdom is going to be partly strong and partly brittle.
Then, let your eyes go down to verse 44, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
Men and women, this is one of the bedrock prophesies of the Old Testament. It is a picture of the Gentile world empires that would exist from Daniel’s day until God’s kingdom suddenly arrives on the planet.
The Head of gold is a reference to, as it says, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. The city of Babylon was known as the Golden City and the chief deity of Babylon was Marduk (M-a-r-d-u-k), who was called the God of Gold. Herodotus, the Greek historian, tells us that Marduk was represented as a golden statue sitting on a golden throne.
What he goes on to say is, this kingdom of Babylon is going to be conquered by the chest and arms of silver, which would be the Medo-Persian Empire. And if you read through Daniel, Daniel actually witnesses that transition from the Kingdom of Babylon to the Medo-Persian Empire.
Then, the Medo-Persian Empire is going to be conquered by the belly and thighs of bronze, which is a reference to the Greek Empire, another world Empire. In the Greek Empire they pioneered bronze helmets, bronze shields and bronze breast plates. What that did is, it made their army lighter and they could move quicker. Now, Daniel does not get to see the coming of that kingdom, he doesn’t live to see that, of Greece.
And, then, the kingdom of Greece is conquered by the legs of iron, the Roman Empire. We’ve all heard maybe of ‘the iron hand of Rome’ or the ‘iron legions’ of Rome. The Roman Empire conquers the Greek Empire and of course Daniel obviously didn’t live to see that.
I want to pause here for a moment because I want us to be aware of and we’re not going to go there in any depth, in Daniel, chapter 7, but there is another dream that happens in Daniel, chapter 7. It is a dream that God gives this time to Daniel himself. And there is a similar structure there of these world Gentile kingdoms but there’s different images that are used. So, I’m going to put up a different graphic, it’s too tall to go vertically, but you’ll see it here. It is comparing Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.
Down towards the bottom you have the various images of these beasts. So, what happens in Daniel 7, verse 3 is, he has this dream and four beasts arise out of the sea, which is a picture of the Gentile nations arising from the world. The first one that comes out is a lion with eagle wings, which is a picture, again, of the Babylonian Empire. We found this in archaeology, this is a common thing that was in the Babylonian kingdom. You have here a lion with eagle wings, so that was very, very common.
The second beast that comes out is a bear, which is representing the Medo-Persian Empire. Then, you have the leopard that comes, which is a reference to the Greek Empire. And then you have the fourth beast that comes out, which is described as a beast with iron teeth that is a reference to the Roman Empire.
Here is what I really want to notice and why I want to get some into Daniel 7. Two interesting statements are made in Daniel 7. In Daniel 7:19 it says this fourth beast is different than all the rest, the three that preceded it. In chapter 7, verse 23, it says it is different, this fourth one, from all the kingdoms before it. So, we just sort of hit pause, and we go, how is it different? How is it different?
Well, I can think of two ways. One is that Rome was different than the first three because Rome was never conquered by another world kingdom. The first three were conquered, Rome was never conquered. Really what happened to the Roman Empire is that it disintegrated. You know, you have the two legs of iron, representing the western Roman Empire and the eastern Roman Empire. The western leg of the Roman Empire disintegrated about the 400’s A.D. The eastern leg of the Roman Empire fizzled out in about the 1400’s A.D.
So, one way that it is different, it was never conquered, but there’s another reason why it is different. That is, this fourth kingdom has a second phase to it, a phase that would arise many years later. That is referring to the feet of iron and clay. You notice it is feet of iron and clay, there’s some iron there, which indicates it is a continued expression of the Roman Empire But iron and clay don’t really bond together, which points to some political instability in this renewed Roman Empire, renewed Europe.
Again, look at chapter 2, verses 41-43. You saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron. It is going to be a divided kingdom, with some of the firmness of iron—but it goes on in verse 42, to say the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. In verse 43, as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not really hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
One thing I want to say that is interesting…in Daniel 7, in this Roman Empire picture, what says is going to happen in verse 7 of chapter 7, is that ten horns are going to arise, which it says are ten kings. Then, it says in chapter 7, verse 8, another horn then arises, a horn that has the eyes of a man. In verse 25 of chapter 7 it says, this horn that arises, that has the eyes of a man, speaks words against the Most High God and shall wear out the saints of the Most High God. In verses 20-21 it says this horn, that has the eyes of a man, will make war with the saints of God. This horn is a picture of the rise of the anti-Christ.
One thing we know, when it talks about ten horns or ten kings, there’s never been a form of the Roman Empire, ever, that was led by ten kings or ten rulers or ten nations in some way, shape or form.
I tell you all that, but I do not want you to miss the crucial timing point in all of this, okay? Don’t miss this. In Daniel, chapter 2, in verse 34, it says “A stone was cut out by no human hand,” this is a supernatural picture, “it struck the image.” Where? In the chest? In the middle? In the head? No, it strikes the image on its feet of iron and clay, on its feet of iron and clay. That means this phase, this rock coming, which is a picture of the Second Coming of Christ to establish His kingdom on the earth. This phase of the feet and clay exist at the time of the Second Coming of Christ. And, you see we have the rock image hitting precisely on the feet and toes of iron and clay. Isn’t that interesting?
Chapter 2 and verse 44, “And in the days of those kings (of the feet and toes of iron and clay) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.” Jesus is going to return and set up His kingdom. The stone hits on the feet and the toes, but it shatters, ultimately, the whole statue. All human world empires are going to be just blown away, they’ll become like chaff in the wind.
In chapter 2, verse 35, “Not a trace of them could be found.” When Jesus comes, He comes a second time, He establishes His kingdom. It is just going to blow away all that secular history, never to be found again.
Now, here is what I want us to take away from all this, I know we’ve given you a lot of data and information, here is what I want you to see. From our standpoint today the first four sections of this prophecy are past history. They are ancient history, but the feet and the toes of iron and clay is yet to happen, because that will be present when Christ comes back the second time.
So, here is the question I want to ask: are there any indications in our day today of something like a renewed Roman Empire? Like, some kind of entity that exists that would exist on the core geography of the original Roman Empire, that might indicate the nearness of the second coming of Christ? I think the answer to that is, Yes.
I want to just give a very brief history perspective about Europe. Some of us who are younger may not know anything about this but, if you study the history of Europe, for multiple centuries in Europe they were regularly at war with one another as countries. You have France and England and Spain and Germany and others and at different times over the centuries, in Europe, different countries were dominating at different times. And then came World War I, 1914-1918, labeled the war to end all wars. Then, twenty years later came World War II, 1939-1945. Here is what we need to understand, historically in Europe, those two wars, especially World War II, had a deep impact into European mentality.
In World War II, the whole continent of Europe was overrun by death. Much of Europe was left in ruins, entire cities were left in ruins. Fifteen to twenty million people died in Europe in the fighting and more of them were civilians than soldiers, and millions were left homeless after the war. And, here was the European mentality: all of this transpired among the most educated, prosperous nations in the world. Whoa!
Here is what they said: we can’t let this ever happen again. We can’t let this happen again! You begin to see a change in perspective. In 1930, for example, a Frenchman, Aristide Briand, here is what his suggestion was, you know what we need to solve this problem? We need to have the United States of Europe, that’s what we need. He said, “The nations of Europe today must unite in order to live and to prosper.” These are just…we’re skipping across the surface here…we could look at a lot more things. But, in 1950 French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman said this, what we need to do is make war…”not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.”
Then, if you start tracking your way through some high points: in 1957, six nations signed what is called the Treaty of Rome, where they said, what we need to do is eliminate trade barriers, we need to open up our borders to one another. France and Germany and Italy and the Netherlands and Belgium and Luxembourg signed that Treaty of Rome.
And then, in 1993, you had the European Union that comes on the scene.
In 1999, they developed the Eurozone, which is where they take the Euro as the currency of Europe and establish that.
Then, we come to 2022, the European Union has twenty-seven members in it, the third largest economy in the world.
And, you may not be aware, but inside the European Union are seven significant institutions that exist today. For example, I will just give you three of them. The European Parliament, which has 705 members—I think this month is going to go to 720—and they’re passing laws for the European Union. Then, you have the European Central Bank, which is coordinating all the finances of Europe. Then, you have the European Council, where we have the heads of the member countries who come together to establish rules and laws for the European Union.
You know, you look at all this and it just seems they’re lacking only one thing and that is a dynamic central leader, which is what the anti-Christ is going to be.
Now, I want to just talk about—remember when we mentioned the iron and the clay, the iron and the clay, the iron and the clay–I want you to think about the iron and the clay and what is going on in Europe today. They struggle to adhere together. I mean, they have different languages, different cultures, they have ethnic issues that differ. You know, in the EU today, the EU members in the north and the west part are more industrial, they’re very financially stable. The nations that are in the south and the eastern part have a lot more financial instability, a lot more debt.
You might remember the story of what happened with Greece. Remember they were bankrupt, 300 billion dollars in debt, and who bailed them out? It was the other European nations that did that. Over the years, Germany and the UK have been at the top, nations like Albania have been at the bottom. Even my friends in the nation of Latvia are in that lower tier. You know, there’s this upper tier and the lower tier inside the EU.
Then, you have the UK withdrawing from the EU in 2020, taking the second largest economy with them. You see how there’s just this, they’re having trouble melding together. There’s this myriad of struggles that are going on and yet there’s more unity in Europe than in any time since the dissolution of the Roman Empire.
Here is what I want you to be thinking about, just getting a bigger overview, Jesus’ first coming happened two thousand years ago, right? We’re looking at Foreshadows of the Second Coming of Jesus, and what have we looked at? Well, we saw that The Rebirth of the Nation of Israel happened when? Like, 1948, which made it official and it’s just gone on from there. We’ve been talking about renewed Europe, which gained momentum since the year of 1945.
I’ve been studying this for a number of years, I remember when it talked about the ten horns and we would say, well, that’s probably ten nations, so as the EU was originally coming together, we thought, there will be ten of them. Well, there’s twenty-seven of them now, how’s all that going to work its way out? Well, we don’t really know. Maybe seventeen of these nations are going to leave like the UK did. Maybe it’s not just ten nations, maybe it’s ‘ten regions’ in some way inside the European plan. Maybe it is ‘ten affiliations’ of some kind, I don’t really know.
Then, we saw, not only does this happen in the 1940’s and this began to really flow in the 1940’s, but then we have that Coalition of Hostile Nations to Israel, which we saw last time, which has just emerged in the last few decades. Men and women, these are not random events, these are foreshadows, Foreshadows of the Second Coming of Christ.
I’ve only got one more we’re going to look at next week, but I just want to draw all of us back in again and we want to look at some Life Lessons we can learn from this, that we can take out of here today. As God is predicting and as God is orchestrating history, what Life Lessons can we learn?
Well, the first one is that Our Future is Secure, our future is secure. I mean, you don’t need to be a ‘PNT’ to profit from Biblical prophecy. What do I mean by ‘PNT’? A ‘prophecy nerd type.’ You know, you don’t have to be a prophecy nerd type to benefit from Biblical prophecy. Someone has said this, “every prophecy is a promise from God.” I love what we see in Daniel, chapter 2, verses 20-22. It says there, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever…He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him.” Our future is secure!
Then, Isaiah 46:10 says this, God speaking, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is to come.” He knows what is going to happen before it happens. The lesson is, Our Future, men and women, is Secure.
Now, if your life is like my life, pain and sorrow and suffering and grief are going to invade the fabric of our lives. We have Satan, our enemy, who is out to hold us hostage to sin and to darkness. But there is a time coming, as it says in Revelation, chapter 21 and verse 4, “A time coming in which there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more mourning, no more death.” They will be forever banished. In 21, verse 6, there is a voice from the throne that comes out and says, regarding these things, “It is done.” It is so certain…it is as if it has already been accomplished. The life lesson is: Our Future is Secure. Our future is secure.
But, in the meanwhile, we have to live life, right? So, meanwhile what we need to do is, we need to Rest in our Rock. It is very easy to become riveted on the difficult circumstances we face, to become riveted on the afflictions of life. What we need to do in the meanwhile is to rest in our rock.
Our call to worship today was Isaiah 41:10. I love this, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you,” we do that often, “for I am your God.” I love the promises, “I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Meanwhile, while our future is secure, We Rest in our Rock.
You know what is ahead for us, men and women? I’ll tell you what is ahead for us. It talks about it in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 17. What is ahead for you and I, who follow Jesus, is an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Let’s pray together. Father, we just thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You for the clarity; we thank You for the reminder that life just doesn’t go on randomly without a plan. We thank You for this series of messages where we can begin to get some insight into the potential nearness of the Second Coming of Christ. But we thank You that our future is secure and that You are our rock. You are the one that we depend on and we rely on. You will always be there, that is Your promise. May we remember that when we face rough roads in life. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Foreshadows of the 2nd Coming of Jesus series
Message 3 – Renewed Roman Empire (Europe)
1. Bruce began by stating that biblical prophecy is supernatural intel. That it is literally a backstage pass to coming attractions by the God who orchestrates history. Yet, so many believers remain fairly uninformed about prophecy, especially prophecy related to the 2nd Coming of Jesus. What are some of the reasons for this? Discuss.
2. What are the three indicators (so far) in the Foreshadows series? Which one intrigues you the most and why?
3. Nebuchadnezzar had been a very ruthless ruler who obviously was skeptical of the so-called “wise guys” and dream interpreters who consulted with him. After Daniel describes in detail both the dream, and also the interpretation, how much of an impact can you imagine that had on Nebuchadnezzar? Elaborate.
4. Some are skeptical about Daniel’s dream of the statue in Daniel two since there would be a significant time gap between the Legs of Iron (the ancient Roman Empire) and the Feet of Iron and Clay (the renewed Roman Empire around the time of the return of Jesus). Can you think of any other passages of Scripture where there is a time gap between verses?
You might look at Isaiah 61:1-2a (which Jesus read from in Luke 4:17-21). Jesus said he was fulfilling this passage about his First Coming that very day. But he stops short of the rest of verse 2 in Isaiah 61. What Coming does the rest of the verse relate to?
You might also look at Zechariah 9:9-10. Which coming of Jesus is the focus of verse 9? Verse 10?
5. Read out loud Isaiah 41:10. How does this declaration from the Living God bring encouragement when we find ourselves facing suffering, discouragement, grief, and difficulty?
6. Spend some time in prayer thanking God for who He is.