Sunday News 4 May 2025

Double vision.

‘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 threshingfloors; 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.’ (Daniel 2:31-35)

By describing this dream, and subsequently presenting the interpretation, Daniel saved not only his own skin but also that of the ‘wise men’ of Babylon – whom one imagines to be an array of fortune tellers and sorcerers, as well as probably some people of learning and knowledge, such as was to be had in the time of ancient Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar’s requirement was that not only the interpretation, but the dream itself must needs be revealed to him, failing which those ‘wise men’ should be ‘cut in pieces and their houses made a dunghill’.

So as not to frustrate the reader unduly I will proceed to Daniel’s interpretation, given to him by God, as follows:

‘But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 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. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.’ (Daniel 2:37-45)

It is normal for those of us with an interest in scripture, or prophecy, or the supernatural, to hurry to an application of a dream and interpretation such as these, to review what is known to have taken place since the days of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar some thousands of years ago, to try to discern how the dream and prophecy have unfolded, and where in the sequence we may be now. I myself did a quick google to see what kingdoms and empires have occupied the earth throughout history, to see whether a reflection of Daniel 2 is evident. However, such applications are commonly misguided, for two reasons.

Firstly, a spiritual revelation given by God is from the spiritual realm, and is spiritual in nature, and speaks from a spiritual and heavenly perspective. This is not the same as a worldly or earthly perspective.

Secondly, to understand the explicit outworking of a prophecy such as this is of secondary importance to other, more general aspects of its meaning. After all, as the prophecy describes, kingdoms shall come and go on the earth, and there is little we can do about it. And we cannot foretell the detail of our own experience from a prophecy such as this even if we could attach labels from the prophecy to the kingdoms that have been, or which are now present. But we are privileged to know from this and elsewhere in the scriptures that the final kingdom, as described by Daniel, shall be that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no prophecy or turn of history which can change that – for which we give everlasting thanks and praise to the Lord.

I believe the most relevant and important learnings from Daniel 2 have little to do with kings or kingdoms, or with the direct interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream given to Daniel. Nonetheless, I realize already there is more than can occupy a single article of this Sunday News. So I will begin this week with some musings on the perspectives by which we can view scripture such as this, and how the various kingdoms may be understood, and will leave the more general (and in my view, more important) learnings for another week.

Returning to the first point – the spiritual perspective of prophecy – in Daniel chapter 10 we read of a further vision, in which a messenger from God visits Daniel and speaks with him.

‘Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.’

Was this the Lord Jesus himself? I am inclined to think it was, because the description is similar to other heavenly visions of the Lord recorded in the Bible e.g. in Revelation, and Daniel calls him ‘my lord’. Though I expect some may identify the person as an angel, for example, Gabriel.

‘Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.’ Daniel 10:12-13.

Now it is clear that the speaker in this instance is a heavenly being – whomever we determine him to be – and his journey to Daniel is of a spiritual nature. (Daniel’s companions had fled in great fear, and Daniel himself had fallen unconscious on the ground before the messenger awakened and strengthened him.)

Personally I feel certain that the ‘prince of the kingdom of Persia’ and the ‘kings of Persia’ mentioned above are not such persons as would normally be known in this world by people of flesh such as ourselves, or indeed, by Daniel. They are not, for example, king Cyrus of Persia in whose days Daniel received the vision. These beings are angels – demons – spirits – or some kind of spiritual beings. And they ‘withstood’ the Lord, or the messenger of the Lord, and Michael who is thought to be an angel of the Lord; the impression is of some kind of struggle or battle. Perhaps one of these beings is Satan himself. I am not an expert on the nature of spiritual beings so please excuse my interpretation if the reader is more knowledgeable of such things. But I think that whoever they are, Daniel would not have seen them except perhaps in a vision such as the one he was experiencing, and would not have known of their existence had he not been told. Neither would we.

In this light, King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great ‘image’ and the interpretation of it given to Daniel are understood somewhat differently. There are but five kingdoms represented in the image, variously described as ‘bearing rule over the whole earth’, up until what I imagine is the end of the age which has not yet taken place – the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the final and everlasting establishment of his kingdom.

A simple search such as I did on Google immediately identifies more than five kingdoms or world empires throughout history to date, none of which could be said to exclusively ‘bear rule over the whole earth’. Doubters will say, ah, but that was only the known earth at that time. To whom I would say, how much of the earth do you think was known to God who gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream, revealed it to Daniel and also gave him the interpretation? Seeing we know from Daniel 10 that God does not limit himself when speaking to Daniel to such things as Daniel has direct knowledge of, or even which he will necessarily understand.

The image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Daniel 2 has parallels elsewhere in scripture. In Daniel 7, a further ‘dream and visions’ had by Daniel is described – four beasts arising from the sea: one like a lion with eagle’s wings, followed by one like a bear, then one like a leopard with wings and four heads, then a different type of beast, ‘dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly’, with ‘great iron teeth’ and ten horns, and ‘another little horn’ which emerged later. But in the end ‘one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days’, 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’.

And the interpretation given in Daniel 7: ‘These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.’ Daniel 7:17-18.

But concerning the last beast: ‘the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them..’ (Daniel 7:24)

So then, one of the ‘four kings’ of Daniel 7, the last king before the final and everlasting manifestation of the reign of Jesus Christ, is subsequently described by the same speaker (an angelic or heavenly being in Daniel’s dream) as a kingdom with ten kings – and then another, further king of the same kingdom. So the same picture in the vision alternatively represents either one king or ten kings (plus a further king) in one kingdom. So you can see the difficulty with trying to match exact ‘kings’ of various visions with human kings or kingdoms of earth. They simply are not the same thing.

My understanding of the visions of Daniel 7 and Daniel 2 is that they depict a mixture of spiritual and material realities – earthly kingdoms and human kings, behind which, and driving which, are spiritual beings or ‘kings’ with a season or measure of authority over the earth. Yet above that authority to an infinite extent, the authority of God.

Viewed in this light, the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar appears likely to represent not just an earthly sequence of human kings, but ‘movements’ of spiritual power expressed through kingdoms or empires across ages or epochs of history on earth. And most likely, a number of what we recognize as kingdoms or empires, perhaps across time or in different parts of the world could occupy together a single phase of the sequence from a heavenly perspective, occupying together a discrete stage in a spiritual succession. It is a mixture of earthly and spiritual realities – of human and spiritual rulers and ‘kings’ – a double vision.

Accordingly, to attempt to match the metals of the image in Daniel 2, or the beasts of Daniel 7, to exact, historical kings, kingdoms or empires, is likely to be an unattainable goal. Not because the prophecies are vague or imprecise – but because they represent a view from heaven, not a view from earth. At most we can see different, broad characteristics in the seasons of change which sweep the earth in great eras of world history.

An analogy might be the action of sighting through a rifle scope. I recently learned how to sight through the scope with both eyes remaining open, though one eye sees a magnified image through the scope and the other unmagnified. But the dominant eye prevails (and it is important that the dominant eye – in my case, my left eye – is looking through the scope) and the ability to aim at an object is increased, and more stability is attained than if one eye is closed.

If we are to learn anything, then, we must put our ‘spiritual glasses’ on, and ask the Lord for guidance. And the spiritual view is the dominant one, by which the natural view is understood. But a direct match between the spiritual vision and the earthly reflection in history is most likely not possible for us, and is in any case unnecessary.

That being so, what can we learn from the vision of Daniel 2?

Two things strike me as counter-intuitive about the ‘great image’ dreamed of by Nebuchadnezzar and subsequently revealed to Daniel. The sequence of history proceeds not up, but down – from the head down to the toes. The kingdom of Daniel’s day, that of Nebuchadnezzar himself (though he may not have been the only earthly ruler in which that ‘kingdom’ was manifest) is represented by the head, then the kingdom to follow by the ‘breast and arms’, then a later kingdom by the ‘belly and thighs’, and so on down to the feet.

There is no reason, I suppose, why history should be portrayed as progress upwards rather than downwards? Although, it might also be said that the lower portions of the body are thought of as less noble. The head is above all – both in position, and in esteem. It is the centre of our consciousness, the home of those aspects of our nature which most clearly set us apart from animals. The ‘breast’ is less venerated, but is the abode of our heart – which is the symbol of not just our circulatory system but our deepest feelings. And arms are noble symbols. Below that, the ‘belly’ is considered without doubt less noble, but is more inclined to be covered than the ‘thighs’, which are important but mechanical. Our feet are in the place of servitude, and are liable to soiling by the world. Which is not to say any part of the human body is bad – but we are talking here of symbols, not an actual human body, so symbolism is relevant.

At the very least, one might say, it could be considered a strange analogy to think of ancient history as the human head while the contemporary world is the feet or thighs, given the huge advances in knowledge and technology since ancient times.

In a similar vein, the head of the image is gold, the breast silver, the belly bronze, the legs iron and the feet a mixture of iron and clay – decreasing value from the head down to the toes; from the past to the present and into the future, until the coming of our Lord, the ‘stone cut without hands’.

To me, this is a stunning revelation: God sees human civilization in a one way process of decline from the days of Nebuchadnezzar (and possibly before) until our day, and to the end of the age, until Jesus returns. Whereas I think it would be almost universally considered by ourselves, the human race, that there has been ‘progress’, however we might define that. We have healthcare including astonishing and effective medical procedures and medicines, much greater longevity, food security (apart from wars and famines), sophisticated technology making possible all kinds of activities, instant, global communication, rapid, safe means of travel, secure, durable housing, not to say countless comforts and amusements – the list is endless of things which were rare or absent in Nebuchadnezzar’s day. How could anyone of that age have imagined a modern city? A video call? Or that spacecraft would land on the moon, mars, or a passing asteroid? Or that, in the latest twist, DNA from extinct creatures could be reborn in living animals today? Yet as pictured by the great image in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, ours is a degraded, depleted world by comparison with his, the head of gold.

As a student of development studies (societal development), this is not the first time the Bible has caused me some wry realisation that the great goals of humanity may not be seen by God as great at all. Take, for example, the story of the tower of Babel.

‘And the whole earth was of one language, and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ (Genesis 11:1-4)

This was about to be a major launch point of technological advancement, with all the world united and building together to see what they could do. There was peace and ‘progress’, so it would seem. But God was not pleased.

‘And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.’ (Genesis 11:5-8)

How different is our view of progress to that of God! And today, with all speech about to dissolve again into one by the power of computers, one cannot help but wonder what stage of history we may now be at.

But not all things have declined over the course of history – neither do all things decline in the picture of Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

The world population has grown immensely, and continues to do so. In quantity, if not in quality, human society has greatly increased. And as the value of even one human soul is beyond measure, and all in truth belong to God (whether or not we assent to that) – this is without doubt a great increase in his Kingdom. ‘The harvest truly is plenteous,’ said Jesus. (Matthew 9:37) And never more so than now.

And while the quality and value of metals in Nebuchadnezzar’s image shows decline from past to present to future, from head to toe, the strength of the metals increases. Gold is without blemish, but soft. Silver tarnishes but is stronger than gold. Brass is stronger again, but can corrode, while iron is strongest of the four, yet degrades most readily, by rust.

And so, while human society has become, according to the vision, increasingly corrupt, it has also increased in strength. I suspect the beginning of the ‘iron age’ (not the iron age of history but the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image) marks the beginning of industrial, technology-based society – perhaps the industrial revolution. In this light, note the ‘great iron teeth’ of the beast of Daniel 7, with which it ‘devoured and brake in pieces’. Teeth, while part of the body, are instruments, tools. As are machines. And despite the astonishing capabilities of computers today – so that the strangest images of the Bible, e.g. talking images causing people to be put to death etc, can be easily imagined – these are really just more sophisticated machines. In this can be seen the wisdom of God’s actions at the tower and city of Babel, and in debates today over the risks of technology such as artificial intelligence.

If man is corrupt, then greater technology, and greater power – greater progress – will just increase man’s opportunity for evil, to oppress, control and violate other human beings. This is the increasing strength of the kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the power of technology to ‘break in pieces and subdue all things’ (Daniel 2:40; Daniel 7:7). Those who believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, in the goodness and triumph of man, support the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence which, they may say, will solve the problems and end the suffering of mankind. Those who read the news may believe otherwise. I am not suggesting such ‘progress’ can be stopped, or that it is evil in itself.

There is one final matter of interest (to me anyway) – the clay mixed with iron in the feet of the image. Concerning this, Daniel says:

‘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. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed’. (Daniel 2:43-44)

Here again we see the spiritual nature of the vision implied: if the kingdom of iron ‘mingles itself with the seed of men’ – and ‘men’ represented in the vision by clay are clearly of a different substance to the iron, and different to any metal – what then is the iron, or what do any of the metals represent, if not men? To my mind, notwithstanding that Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar ‘Thou art this head of gold’, the metals representing different kingdoms are symbols essentially of non-human, spiritual beings or forces which manifest their power in earthly kingdoms. But in this final regime – the iron mixed with clay – the relationship between the spiritual and human ‘kings’ is apparently different, and closer. And this is the final, worldly kingdom before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish his kingdom. (In my view, this refers to the ‘second coming’ of Jesus, not his earthly life and ministry which is recorded in the gospels – though it can be said in spiritual terms that his kingdom is established already, including by Jesus’ death and resurrection, yet in many respects it is not yet manifest in the world.)

Speaking of his ‘second coming’, and the ‘end of the world’ as his disciples put it, about which they had asked him, Jesus said:

‘But as the days of Noe [Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’ (Matthew 24:37)

The same days about which Jesus spoke on that occasion are the days of the kingdom of iron and clay which coincides with his return, and is to be destroyed when all worldly, ungodly authority is disestablished, when the ‘stone’ smites the image upon his feet which are of iron and clay, and breaks them to pieces, and all the worldly kingdoms are ‘broken to pieces together’. (Daniel 2:34-35)

What manner of days, then, were the days of Noah? If these were in some ways similar to the days of the end of the age, and of the final, worldly kingdom?

The main point Jesus appears to be making is that the people of Noah’s day did not know God in the way they should, and were focused on worldly matters, and ignorant of their coming destruction. But of those days it is also written:

‘And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 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.’ (Genesis 6:1-5)

The above is one of the more strange things written about in the Bible, that apparently there were sexual unions of women with beings of some different, spiritual nature, and children were born to those women as a result, and it is touched on elsewhere in the Bible also. The Israelites encountered ‘giants’ in their conquest of the ‘promised land’, e.g. as recorded in Numbers 13:33 and Deuteronomy 2:11 & 20. Concerning one of these ‘giants’, Og the king of Bashan, it is written that his ‘bedstead’ was ‘four cubits’ wide and ‘nine cubits’ in length (Deuteronomy 3:11). A cubit is apparently the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, commonly standardized as 18 inches. So Og had a bed more than 13 feet in length, and the fact this is recorded as such and mention is made of it indicates to me that he was thought to have needed that length in order to lie down. Og was more than 12 feet tall.

Goliath is also written about in the Bible and is more well known that Og, as Goliath was killed by the young David with his sling and stone. The Bible records the height of Goliath as ‘six cubits and a span’ – about nine foot and nine inches (1 Samuel 17:4). And there is a record in 2 Samuel of ‘a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.’ (2 Samuel 21:20; Gath was also the home town of Goliath.)

So it appears these giants which are spoken of in the Bible were not just big men, they were genetically different to other human beings, and this was caused by their parentage i.e. they were fathered by beings which were not entirely, or perhaps not at all, human: the ‘sons of God’. (Or possibly in some cases descended from persons who were fathered by those beings.) And these things happened in the days of Noah (‘and also after that’ e.g. when the Israelites encountered them) which are said by Jesus to be like the days when he shall return – which are also the days of the final, worldly kingdom, which shall be a mixture of ‘iron and clay’ – a mixture of the spiritual and human worlds. A kingdom in which ‘they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men’ (Daniel 2:43).

In Revelation 13, John in his vision sees a beast with characteristics of the beasts of Daniel 7:

‘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.’ (Revelation 13:1-2)

Here then is a beast with characteristics of a leopard, a bear, and a lion – the beasts of Daniel 7 – and ten horns, like the final, terrible beast of that chapter.

‘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.’ (Revelation 13:5-6)

Similarly, concerning the final, terrible beast of Daniel 7, we read:

‘I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up 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.’ (Daniel 7:8).

So, as with the beast of Revelation 13, the beast of Daniel 7 has ‘a mouth speaking great things’, and this horn goes on to speak ‘great words’ even as the awesome judgement seat of the Lord is revealed, until ‘the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.’ (Daniel 7:11)

And as the beast of Daniel 7 has a little horn emerges later, so the beast of Revelation 13 is followed by ‘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, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven 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.’ (Revelation 13:11-14)

Without having read much of what others have to say about these things, I suspect that the final, terrible beast of Daniel 7, with its subsequent ‘little horn’ speaking great things, and the beast of Revelation 13, followed by the lamb-like beast which ‘spake like a dragon’, are two related pictures of the same thing: the beings which have been referred to as ‘antichrist’ and ‘the false prophet’ – and I have no argument with that interpretation. The two parts of scripture, Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 appear to me to describe a similar thing – an evil, worldly regime which continues up until the final return of Jesus. This is also written about in Revelation 19:

‘And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.’ (Revelation 19:20)

The relevance to Daniel 2 – the actual subject of this article – is that these beings, the beast and the false prophet, apparently also represent the final kingdom of the great image seen by Nebuchadnezzar – the feet of iron mingled with clay.

My final thoughts on this subject are that, despite the increasing strength of the metals in the image of Daniel 2, and despite what may appear to be happening in the world – the Kingdom of God has in fact increased and will continue to increase throughout history.

‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.’ (Isaiah 9:6-7)

The enemy therefore, seeing that despite all his evil works through the regimes of history which have manifested his power, and continue to do so, that the Kingdom of God continues to increase and to defeat him – the enemy therefore has one final ploy. Because, it has emerged that despite the apparent weakness of men, it is the grace of God through men (and above all, the man, our Lord Jesus Christ) that has defeated Satan. And it is by himself being made man that Jesus has won, through his eternal and all-sufficient sacrifice on the cross. The enemy, therefore, will also unite himself with man, if by this final twist he can frustrate the grace of God through man, which has defeated him. This is the final ‘mingling’ of the ungodly, spiritual realm with mankind.

And just as the earlier mixings of the spiritual realm with the human realm brought forth strange and unnatural phenomena – so will this final project of the enemy: miraculous signs, wonders, and great utterances. But technology will also play its part – the ‘iron’ machines of the final beast, which we can already glimpse in the technologies of our day.

The relevance of these things to ourselves and the lives we must live is to be afraid of nothing, but to fear the Lord only, for our Lord Jesus has the victory, and the final judgement of our enemy and coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be changed. But we should expect extraordinary, miraculous, supernatural phenomena if we indeed find ourselves living in the time of the ‘feet of iron and clay’. And we must not be shaken by those things, though for a time, the Bible says, the saints will be overcome.

‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’ (Revelation 22:20)

Amen.