The exceedingly dreadful Beast of Daniel is among us, yet its identity has been distorted through centuries of church tradition. To begin to understand the end-times we must know the identity of the beast.
The Predecessors of the Beast
Trying to understand the book of Revelation without first grasping the book of Daniel is like watching a movie sequel before you watch the first movie.
Daniel presents us with a chronology of events and detailed imagery that lays the groundwork for understanding the origin and evolution of the beast of Revelation and the antichrist.
Now, if you have ever attempted to understand the book of Daniel, you probably find it as maddening as it is fascinating. You will likely go “back and forth” in your understanding of its meaning and never feel like you fully grasp it. This is by design because the book of Daniel is a sealed book. But the angel explains that our understanding of it will increase as we near the end.
One confusing part of the book is that Daniel’s visions are largely historical from our perspective. From today’s time, much of the prophecies appear to have been fulfilled. But this is hard to reconcile with statements from the angels who tell him that his visions pertain to the end-times. Many commentators awkwardly split the visions into historical and future. But in doing so they fail to explain the 2,000+ year gap between one sentence and the immediately succeeding one.
As I stated in the post Are the Beast and the Antichrist Among Us?, satan needed to prepare the final beast well in advance of the time of the end. He does not know exactly when Jesus will return so he has to have the game pieces largely in place.
A Beast Different from All the Others
Daniel tells us that this beast arises after three others pass. Based on historical accounts, there is little debate about the identity of the first three beasts. They represent the Babylonian Empire, The Media/Persian Empire, and the Greek Empire. The angel tells us this.
However, the fourth beast is like none of the others. Daniel described it as “dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong” with “large iron teeth.”
Daniel further said that it “devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet.”
Also, that it was “different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns“
This is the last kingdom that arises before God establishes a kingdom on Earth that “will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.“
For centuries experts believed this beast to be the Roman Empire, but this is wrong.
The Identity of the Beast
The first time Daniel mentions the sequence of four empires is in Daniel 2, revealed through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue. This fourth empire is described as “iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these [prior empires] in pieces.“
This is nearly identical language he uses to describe the fourth beast in Daniel 7. But did Rome do this? Did it trample and crush Babylon, Persia, and Alexander’s empire?
Absolutely not.
Who the Beast is Not
The Roman Empire was not the fourth beast. It was primarily a Mediterranean empire. Its borders were to end at the great rivers of the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates in accordance with the precepts of Augustus. At its peak, Emperor Trajan took Babylonia a year before his death but relinquished its rule to a Parthian prince. After Trajan’s death, his son Hadrian completely withdrew east of the Euphrates.
Rome never conquered the Parthians, which held the area from which the Persian Empire emanated. Though some territory overlapped, Rome never trampled down the former Babylonian, Persian and Macedonian Empires.
Unequivocally, Rome did not fulfill Daniel’s prophecies. Therefore Rome is not the fourth empire, nor the fourth beast. This is a deeply-seated traditional view that many in the church hold to be true, but it does not align with Biblical prophecy. Therefore we will not see a resurrected Roman Empire as many assert.
If you hold to this belief you will be watching in the wrong part of the world for signs of the beast to come.
Here is a map of the Roman Empire under Augustus.
The “People of the Prince to Come”
Another reason people believe Rome to be the source of the beast is the prophecy in Daniel 9:26. In this prophecy, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel, “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.“
Most people would say that the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. But did they? Notice that Gabriel did not say “the kingdom of the prince who is to come.”
No, Gabriel said the “people,” using the Hebrew word, “am.”
Fortunately, the Roman historian Josephus recorded the event in chapter four of the sixth book of the War of the Jews. Per his account, the Roman empire did not give orders to bur down the temple. Quite the opposite in fact.
Importantly, Josephus documented that Emperor Titus gave orders to quench the fire four times! He reported that “Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itself might yet he saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion, and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat the soldiers that were refractory with their staves, and to restrain them; yet were their passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dread they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also.
So clearly it was not the Roman Empire’s desire to burn the temple. But rather the soldiers, whose passionate hatred towards the Jews exceeded their requirement to follow orders and the threat of punishment that came with it.
Who were the “People”
So who were the people who destroyed the second Temple?
According to Josephus, at least three of the legions were at the scene of the fire; legions V, X, XV . Per Chuck Missler, in his book, Israel and the Church: The Prodigal Heirs these legions were as follows:
| Legion | Garrison Location |
| Legion X Fretensis | Turkey, Syria |
| Legion V Macedonia | Serbia, Bulgaria |
| Legion XII Fulminata | Eastern Turkey, Syria |
| Legion XV Apollinaris | Syria |
So who are the “people of the prince to come?” They are the ancestors of modern-day Muslims in Turkey and Syria.
The account of Josephus testifies to the accuracy of the prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel.
The Identity of the Beast is…
There is only one empire/beast that’s origin came after the Macedonian Empire that trampled down the rest – the Islamic Caliphate.
Let’s start by looking at the geography covered by the Babylonian, Persian a Macedonian/Greek Empires. These areas stretch out from Macedonia to India.
Now let’s look at a map of areas under the Islamic Caliphates starting with Mohammad and ending with the Ottoman Caliphate.
These two maps show the four main Muslim Caliphates: Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, and the Ottoman Caliphate. The Islamic Caliphates collectively is the only empire that has trampled down these prior empires and forced its ways upon them.
The Islamic Caliphate Meets Daniel’s Description
Mohammad’s empire is “different from all the beasts that were before it.” Islam is not just a political and legal system like the other empires, it is integrated with a religion.
Now you may think, wait a minute, these caliphates transpired over 1,500 years and were never under the control of the same leader at the same time. That is true. But therein lies the mystery of the iron and clay in Daniel 2.
“In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.” – Daniel 2:41-43
The Islamic Caliphate has always been a divided kingdom and remains that way today. It is divided in its beliefs (primarily Sunni and Shia), but also in its countries and peoples. Yet it is united under the name of Allah.
How the Islamic Caliphates started is also unique as compared to the other beasts. In the next post, I will explore how the Islamic Caliphate started with a man and a spirit in a dark cave.