Act 3, Scene 1:
The Colossus
of Empire
“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.
32This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34Thou 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.
35Then 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.
36This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
37Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
38And 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.
39And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40And 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.
41And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' 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.
42And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” Dan. 2:31-42
Daniel's prophecies fix one of the most fundamental and important facts in all of God's quintessential history by establishing beyond any debate or argument that there are four great empires - that's right, only four - with prophetic significance, four empires that embody every bit of Antichrist humanism, every bit of Antichrist rebellion, every bit of the Antichrist gospel. While it may be true that other empires and dynasties have scurried across history's stage – like the Mongol hordes, Chinese Dynasties, African Kingdoms, and the empires of the Aztecs and Mayans - the empires of Daniel's prophecies are the only ones that have been enthroned in the actual seat of Satan. In three of his chapters (chapters 2, 7 and 8) Daniel not only identifies the Antichrist Empires, he also reveals their beastly nature and the beastly man who heads it under Satan's inspiration. In chapter 2, Daniel identifies the empires, acquaints us with their earthly majesty and power and reveals the bond they have with each other. In chapter 7 we are introduced to their individual beastly character and shown how they each contribute something profound to the overall Antichrist cause. In chapter 8 we finally see the man, the Antichrist person, and his ultimate lordship over the Beast who, as a clever and ruthless self-ordained "god", rules the world from his throne in the Temple at Jerusalem.
The Book of Daniel unearths the true spirit behind the Antichrist Empire and before long we find out that what looks pretty on the surface has an ugly, evil beast lurking beneath. Daniel's prophecies show that the Antichrist person and the Antichrist government are necessary to each other. Some of Daniel's visions deal with the evolution of the Beast, some talk of the Antichrist's career, some parts are real life experiences of Daniel and other men of faith which were arranged by God to further unmask the spirit of the Antichrist and the tactics he will use to undermine believer's faith in the end times. The Book of Daniel is a marvelous historical survey of the Antichrist Beast and all its components, and serves as a siren alerting the world that the end times are upon us. Daniel was told that the words given to him would be "closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be purified and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." If the words of Daniel's Book are correctly interpreted here, if the Church is truly privy to their understanding, then we must be in the end times, and we must give Daniel our serious and diligent attention.
First, let's set the stage for Daniel's prophecies. Act 3 comes exclusively from Daniel's visions of the Beast and opens with a colossal image being wheeled out onto the world's stage. At first glance this Colossus of Empire looks to us like a reassuring symbol of all that is pure and stable about government and authority; but soon our repose gives way to an uneasy feeling as its dark shadow lengthens across the face of the stage. Before long, Daniel enters the scene with his lamp of prophecy, shining his bright light on some sinister forms looming just out of view in the darkness behind the colossal statue. One by one, the light reveals four beasts, each one more hideous than the first, beginning with a regal lion they devolve to a devouring bear, a four headed leopard, and ultimately to an indescribably horrible beast with many heads and horns and iron teeth. Slowly, but methodically, through the prophecies of the Book of Daniel and the light shining from them, our eyes are able to cut through the darkness and we are able to see clearly what skulks in the background. Hidden and obscured behind the glare of the statue's gleaming gold head, silver arms and brass legs, four unseemly beasts - "painted" by the visions given to Daniel and recorded in his book - picture for us what the wonderful looking statue is really all about.
Because the Beast's true nature is cleverly masked by a humanistic, benevolent facade, and would be impossible for Mankind to detect without supernatural vision and wisdom, this spiritual expose’ of the Antichrist by Daniel becomes of great, great importance. Partly because the true nature of the Beast is so difficult to swallow, these harsh realities are not explained in words alone. How can the most wonderful kingdoms of Mankind and all that they stand for, be connected so closely with evil? Daniel nonetheless proves it true. The true spirit of these kingdoms is illustrated in visions and dreams and experiences of Daniel in such graphic images that they serve as a constant backdrop for the action of history's third act. Through these pictures we not only hear about the true nature of the Beast, but we also "see" the true nature of the Beast. The pictures drawn so vividly in the visions and dreams of Daniel, truly are worth a thousand words. From our vantage point, these marvelous mysteries would be invisible and unfathomable except for the light of prophecy shining brightly on them. These dreams and visions of Daniel give us the understanding of the true nature of the Spirit of the Antichrist and give us a sense for the magnitude with which the Antichrist influence blankets the earth.
The Dream of the Colossus of Empire
Daniel, through a dream given first to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and then to himself, describes the colossal statue to us. It represents four empires having a head of gold, body of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of clay and iron mixed. As symbols they run the gamut of earthly material, from the most precious element, gold; to fine silver; through the alloy, brass; on down to man-forged, iron; and the basest of matter, common clay. When considered in its sum this gamut of materials symbolize complete, but entirely earthbound, power indicating both the might of the Antichrist Kingdom and its limitations.
These four kingdoms represented in this one being are the undisputed titans of world history, not just because they set precedents and ruled in great majesty over long spans of time, but because they hold in common the one key thing that makes them special in "The Redemption Play". They all took control of Israel, the center of the earth and focal point of God's promises to Man. And by doing so, these beastly empires invaded the very seat of the Redemption, where God's prophecy and Satan's counter-plan must meet in head to head battle. All other empires, all other movements, merely skirt the real fight. But these four, these four, have torn and bullied their way to the very heart of the prophecy's battleground. That is why these four, and their direct competitors, are the empires of spiritual consequence, deserving the attention of "The Redemption Play" and the "audience" of Mankind. They are the earthly powers with the spiritual backing. In succession these four beasts dominated the Holy Land. The first is Babylon, the second is Persia, the third is Greece, and the fourth is Rome. The first gives way to the second, the second gives way to the third, and the third gives way to the last; so that the giving way of one to the next is the metamorphosis of the Beast.
Fake of the Body of Christ
The four corresponding maps picture these four empires and offer some pertinent details. In his dream, recounted in chapter 2 of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar saw the four empires melded together in one body into colossal statue of a man. This Antichrist Colossus is Satan's counterfeit of Christ's Church: like the Church this organism is made up of individual members joined together into one body, with a common faith, with one mind, and one purpose. And in this way the four empires are inseparable.
Beastly Nature
Like the Church which has individual callings and ministries fitted and joined together into one plan under one Spirit, so the Colossus of Antichrist has its individual members contributing their own special characteristics all fitting into one plan. The similarity stops there, however. For as the Church is knit together in bonds of love, working together for the edifying of the whole, exhibiting the character of God, the individual members of this quasi-spiritual body also exhibit the character of their god, the Devil. Instead of love, it is full of hate, instead of hope it is full of false hope and despair, instead of compassion it is full of brutality, instead of truth it is full of lies. Compared to God's supernatural Church, this pseudo-spiritual being is a poor, clumsy imitation. Like gold, silver, brass, iron and clay, they can be hammered together or stuck to one another, but they can never blend together as one. Pride, contention, envy, treason, hatred, jealousy and above all competition, cause these empires to rival one another. Like a rat, the Colossus turns on its own kind, devouring even the one who spawned it. As one empire gobbles up the other it takes on the essential attributes of the one it has devoured, and so the beastly metamorphosis is accomplished; not by learning, or growing, or assimilation, but by a kind of cannibalism typical of its ruthless and cruel master, Satan. Only because God has determined to use this Beast in his plan of salvation has its self-destruction been avoided and its total evolution been possible.
Daniel shows us what is behind the Antichrist Empires, shows us what is behind the Beast. The terms Colossus of Empire and the Beast are synonymous. It has been said that the picture of the colossal statue is Man's view of Man's government, while the view of their beastliness, is God's view of Man's government. By "seeing" what Daniel's visions paint for us we can be alerted to the Antichrist's deception and we understand that Act 3 of "The Redemption Play" revolves around the paradox that God permits his enemy, the Beast, to evolve and grow fully into a powerful and mature Beast according to his prophetic word.
Antichrist Person is Head of Beast
And again, like the Church, this quasi-spiritual body has a head: the Antichrist. The Beast can no more function without its head than the Church can without Jesus as its head. Chapter 8 of Daniel prophesies of the evolution of the empire up to the Antichrist himself, until he is in complete charge of everything the Beast does, right up till the time that he and the Empire is destroyed by Christ himself. And thus we are reassured that the Providence of God is overseeing all things, even the growth of this dreadful Beast and even the rise of the Antichrist at the end.
All the empires of history have had a spirit, a spiritual power, that controlled it and spurred it on to dominance, but the four spirits of the Colossal image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream which control the four great empires are the ones with the spirit and power of the Antichrist. They not only hold in common the spirit of humanism, they are responsible for filling the earth with it. This humanism is a common enterprise that has its roots in the rebellious tradition started at the Tower of Babel. And certainly the religion and hopes of the Babel conspiracy did not die with the scattering of the rebels over the face of the earth, or the confusing of languages. The ambition of men to control their own destiny by a unity that opposes God's will has never died; and this humanism, this worship of creatures rather than Creator, is what lies at the heart of any imperial power, and never more so than in the four Antichrist Empires of Daniel. For the next 600 years - before the coming of our Hero - these four monsters march in succession across history's stage, subduing every people and culture in their path, all according to God's script for "The Redemption Play".