The Four Universal Kingdoms

Verse 23 reads: “Thus he [the angel] said, The forth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” Daniel lived in the time of Babylon. The fourth great kingdom from that time could be no other than that of Rome. This power is first presented as a beast with ten horns, and subsequently with three of these “horns plucked up by the roots” and a “little horn” with “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Then the solemn scene of the great judgment day is presented, one like the “Ancient of days”-God the Father- sitting with myriads of heavenly angels in attendance. “The judgment was set and the books were opened.” Then he beheld the body of this beast destroyed in the burring flames of the last day. In the explanation of these symbols given by the angel of God, he informs the prophet that these four beasts are “four kings,” or kingdoms, the fourth being Rome. The ten horns, he also says, are “ten kings,” or kingdoms, which are evidently the kingdoms of the Western empire, into which Rome was divided between the years 351 and 483 AD. These the commentators inform us were the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards.ChSa 167.1