Overview of the kingdoms of the world.

7.0 Overview of the kingdoms of the world.

7.0.1 The rebellious spirit of the kingdoms of the world.

The first empire builder in the history of the world was Nimrod. He was a third generation descendent of Noah. His kingdom began in Babel where he unified people by building a city with the Tower of Babel. (Gen.10:8-12; 11:1-9)

By giving this history, the Bible intends to show:

that a unified people group with a strong leader can release an enormous creative potential, power, and renown.
that all of this can be accomplished with mankind's own might and knowledge.

The self-assertive activities of Babel were in reality a rebellion against God's original order of creation,- namely that we should live in fellowship with him, and in dependence upon him.

The same spirit of devil-inspired self-assertion and lust for power has since Babel been behind all subsequent world empires. For this reason, the Bible likens several main world empires to various sorts of wild beasts, since they have continued to swallow up new prey (conquer new territories).
But seldom has this devilish self-assertion been expressed more clearly than in our own time, as exemplified in the theme song of the workers' movement, representing hundreds of millions of people:
(Here we make do with citing only a part of the poem, written by Eugene Pottier.)

The International

Arise, ye starvelings, from your slumbers
Arise, ye criminals of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses, arise, arise
We'll change forthwith the old conditions
And spurn the dust to win the prize

No saviour from on high delivers
No trust have we in prince or peer
Our own right hands the chains must shiver....

Then comrades, come, rally,
and the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race

7.0.2 God was forced to intervene

When God saw what people were building, he said, "If they can accomplish this when they have just begun to take advantage of their political and language unity, imagine what they will be able to do in the future! Nothing will be impossible for them."

Consequently, God divided the united evil by giving them different languages, so that they could no longer understand one another. As a result, they abandoned their common building and spread out over the earth. If the wicked had been able to continue unhindered, they would have even destroyed themselves.

Not until the end of our own age, after the rapture of the Bride, will wicked people almost destroy themselves. (Illustration 7.11)

7.0.3 The heritage of the kingdoms of the world

From the book of Daniel, chapters 2 and 7, we see that several more or less heathen world empires will dominate history, up until the time that Christ and his millennial kingdom takes over (the Messianic reign of peace).
Therefore, history likens the different world empires to wild beasts. In Revelation 17:9-11 it is further described that there are a succession of 7 (or 8, depending on how they are counted) of these world kingdoms. When one world kingdom falls, parts of its culture are taken up by the next world kingdom.

This is a simple example of how the prophecies in the book of Daniel and in Revelation complement each other, so that from a biblical perspective, they build up a framework of the history and future of humanity's redemption.

The 8th world empire, under the control of the Antichrist, will probably arise in our own time, just before the millennial kingdom takes over.
Because of its strong heritage from the Romans, it is also often depicted as a restoration of the old Roman empire (see below under 6b).

In the following, we will as appropriate, point out the dominant characteristics of each world kingdom, such as:

Religious (with, among other things, persecution of Jews and/or Christians, as representatives of the kingdom of God)
Military (with the same thing)
Economy/trade

7.0.4 The kingdoms of the world in historical order

WORLD EMPIRE symbol	Time period (circa)	Famous ruler	Persecution of Jews and/or Christians
1. Egyptian	3.300 - 1000 B.C.. (lasted 2300 yrs.)	Ramses	The Jewish people had become completely enslaved before their liberation.
2. Assyrian	850 - 613 B.C. (lasted 237 yrs.)	Shalmaneser the 5th.	Israel's 10 tribes were led into captivity, and disappeared into the sea of humanity.
3. 3. Babylonian Lion	612 - 539 B.C. (lasted 73 yrs.)	Nebuchadnezzar	The 2 tribes of Judah were carried off to a 70 year captivity in Babylon.
Medes-Persians Bear	539 - 336 B.C. (lasted 203 yrs.).	Cyrus e.g. Sassani	Freed the Jews, who were then persecuted by the successor to his throne.
5. Greek Leopard	336 - 65 B.C. (lasted 271 yrs.)	Alexander the Great	Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, 175 - 164 B.C.
6a. Roman Terrible beast	65 B.C. - 476 A.D. (lasted 541 yrs.)	Caesar Nero	Jerusalem destroyed in 70 A.D.; Jews expelled; Christians martyred
7. Nazi Eagle	1933 - 1945 A.D. (lasted only 12 yrs.)	Hitler	Wanted to totally annihilate the Jews; actually killed 6 million Jews.
*8. Wild Beast* alt. 6b	2XXX ? (lasts 3 - 7 yrs?)	Antichrist	Will persecute Christians and Jews.
*9 alt. 8.* *Millennium*	2YYY lasts 1000 yrs.	*Christ*	Will be a reign of peace

At the time Daniel received his visions regarding developments in the world, the first two world empires had already fallen. King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and Daniel's visions of the future stretch therefore from the third world empire to the 9th, which is the Millennium, covering a total of more than 2600 years. The prophecies of Revelation treat primarily the time from 6b forward, with the main emphasis on the dominion of the Beast, and the Millennium.

Modern day Europe can consequently be considered as an integrated mixture of cultures from all of these earlier world empires.

The Roman empire, which lasted over 500 years, and became the greatest of them all, has perhaps influenced Europe the most. For many generations it ruled from half of England in the north, to North Africa in the south, and from Spain in the west, to Persia in the east.

7.0.5 Further examples of God's overriding sovereignty

The kingdoms of the world can certainly develop and mold to a large extent their own politics, culture, etc. but overall it is also true that:

God uses the kingdoms of the world in such a way that they become a part of the outworking of the plan of salvation.

The Egyptian dynasty had a highly advanced technology and culture for its day. Even at the time of the Israelite's sojourn there, (ca:1500 B.C.), Egypt was exporting papyrus rolls as writing paper to various Mediterranean countries. Further, some researchers currently maintain that the basis of our alphabet was formed in the southeast part of the kingdom during that time. Moses, who was highly placed in the kingdom, had certainly been well trained in this knowledge. It is therefore not unreasonable to believe that Moses and his scribes could have begun the writing of the Bible's first books, with the assumption that the revelation was given during the Israelites' 40-year wandering in the wilderness.

Israel's 10 tribes closed their ears to the voices of the prophets warning the nation against idolatry. In the end, the Assyrian empire deported Israel into a captivity which resulted in their disappearance into the sea of humanity, and out of history.

God used the more than 70-year captivity in the Babylonian and Media-Persian kingdoms to carry out a cleansing of the two tribes of Judah from their idolatry.

The Greek language was, in its time, probably the world's most expressive language, and therefore it became the language of the Bible. God also used the Greek world empire to force all its conquered territories to adopt Greek as an important common language. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The oldest translation of the Old Testament into Greek is called the Septuagint, and it is generally used by the New Testament authors in their quotations from the Old Testament.

Perhaps most used of God, was the Roman empire. Because of the protection of the Roman law, the Jewish leaders could not kill Jesus before his work on earth was finished. The disciples, and especially Paul, also came under the same form of this law's protection for several years.
Thanks to the Roman empire's longstanding civil peace, and its good road communication system, and a common currency, Christianity was able to quickly spread throughout the kingdom.

In a similar way, God uses our own day's knowledge and information-based society among other things:

to facilitate the spreading of the Gospel to all peoples on earth.
Since EG/EU was formed in recent times, an expanded and unified European Union is becoming a super-power alongside of the USA, Japan, and China (and furthermore, the EU is within the borders of the old Roman empire). I believe, therefore, that for a time God will use even the EU in a similar way for the spreading of the Gospel in conjunction with the last great revival.

Thereafter, God will once-and-for-all expose the origin of evil and its terrible consequences under the reign of the Beast.