Revelation 13:2

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.

The incorporation of the appearances of the four beasts shown to Daniel, in the appearance of the beast that John saw, provides the key to identifying the five empires that have fallen. The first beast Daniel saw had the appearance of a lion, the second had the appearance of a bear, the third was like a leopard, and the fourth had ten horns: “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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.” (Daniel 7:2-7)

The same four empires symbolized by the four beasts that Daniel saw, featured in a stature that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saw in a dream that he had forgotten. Not only did the prophet Daniel tell the king what he had dreamt, he told him the meaning of the dream: “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. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 his legs of iron ....” (Daniel 2:31-33) Daniel then told the king that he was that head of gold, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 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.” (Daniel 2:37,38) The first beast, therefore, that was like a lion, is symbolic of the Babylonian Empire. In regard to the ‘breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron’, Daniel told the king, “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron.…” (Daniel 2:39,40)

Mysterious writing on Belshazzar’s palace wall foretold the fall of the Babylonian Empire and the rise of the second empire: “And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. 27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:25-28) The second empire, therefore, is the Medio-Persian Empire. The second beast, therefore, that was like a bear, is symbolic of the Medio-Persian Empire.

The takeover of the Medio-Persian empire by the third empire was shown to Daniel in another vision: “And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.” (Daniel 8:5-7) Daniel was then told the interpretation of the two beasts: “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. 21And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” (Daniel 8:20,21) The third empire, therefore, is the Grecian empire under the leadership of Alexander the Great. The third beast, therefore, that Daniel saw which was like a leopard, is symbolic of the Grecian Empire.

The fourth empire represented by the iron legs of the metallic image and by the fourth beast whose appearance was unlike any other earthly beast, and had ten horns, was the Roman Empire. (Daniel 2:33; 7:7) Its boundaries in the time of the emperor Augustus (B.C. 30) were “the Atlantic on the west, the Euphrates on the east, the deserts of Africa, the cataracts of the Nile and the Arabian deserts on the south, the British channel, the Rhine, the Danube and the Black sea on the north. The only subsequent conquests of importance were those of Britain by Claudius and of Dacia by Trajan.” (Smith Bible Dictionary p. 567) The very fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem attests to the existence of the Roman Empire. Luke wrote: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:1-7) Roman soldiers carried out the crucifixion of Christ. The accusation by the Jews that he, Pilate, was not a friend of Caesar should he release Jesus, caused Pilate to relent, “And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.” (John 19:12) The fourth beast that Daniel saw, therefore, that had ten horns, is symbolic of the Roman Empire.

It is notable that John wrote of the appearances representing the first four empires in the reverse order shown to Daniel. Daniel saw the lion first, the bear second, the leopard third, and finally the strange beast with ten horns, while John wrote of the ten horns first, then of the leopard-like appearance, then of the feet as of a bear, and finally, of the mouth as of a lion. The reason being that Daniel who lived in the time of the Babylonian Empire saw the four empires which were yet future of his days, rise in their chronological order, whereas John, who had been transported into the Lord’s day, far future of even the days he lived in, viewed the empires in the reverse order since he was looking back through the corridor of time.

These four historical empires, the Babylonian Empire, the Medio-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire and the Roman Empire, represented by four of the seven heads make up four of the five kings that were mentioned to be fallen. The fifth king or kingdom was also shown to Daniel. It was shown in the sign of a ‘little horn’ which emerged from amongst the ten horns of the fourth beast empire: “I considered the horns, and, behold, there 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.” (Daniel 7:8) Though the identity of the fifth empire is not as clear as the previous four empires, history attests to the fifth empire being the Holy Roman Empire. Such an empire was established in the disintegration of the Roman Empire. Since the five empires covered to a lesser or greater degree the area of Europe of today, we can expect the sixth and seventh empires to be European empires. The rising of the sixth European Empire will coincide with the beginning of the fulfilment of the Revelation prophecy. Chapter thirteen will prove to be the fourth prophesying of the Revelation prophecy; this time with the focus on the empires that Satan will use as his instruments to wage war on the church of God.

The dragon shall ‘give his power, and his seat, and great authority’ to the sixth European empire. The dragon was previously identified to be Satan: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9) Satan, therefore, will give his power, and his throne, and great authority, to the sixth European Empire.