- Photograph from Light Magazine on Prophecy cover.
- A great king of ancient Babylon saw in a dream a huge statue made of different metals with a head of gold. The dream was interpreted for him by the young Jewish prophet Daniel.
- In the background: A replica of Babylon's famous Ishtar Gate.
- Image from Felix Friebe/ istock
Bible Prophecy - Rome
Based on the "Light on Bible Prophecy" special issue.
Part 1:Introduction, part 2 :Iran (Persia), part 3:Greece, part 4:Rome, part 5 (this article):Israel, part 6:The coming world conflict and you.
Rome in Prophecy
Popularly known as "the eternal city", Rome was home to the Caesars.
Today, from inside Vatican City, the Pope presides over the Roman Catholic Church.
The city centre, which is only two miles across, is like an open museum.
Tourists walking through the streets of the Forum are able to admire the many well-preserved
buildings, once part of the nerve centre of the political and judicial life of ancient Rome.
Close by stands the Colosseum (see below), an amphitheatre built in the first
century AD, where Christians died rather than renounce their faith.
- Colosseum building in Rome, Italy
- Picture Sean Pavone/Dreamstime
Rome and Christianity
The beginnings of Christianity in Palestine are rooted in the wider Roman world.
The circumstances of the birth of Jesus came about because:
"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world"
Later Jesus stood trial before a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate.
By this time Rome was approaching the zenith of its imperial greatness. From small beginnings as a city state in central Italy, its dominions came to include much of Europe including Britain, Spain, North Africa, Arabia and the Black Sea area. Historians know the period 30 BC to AD 180 as the "Pax Romana" or "Roman Peace". As long as provinces stayed on peaceful terms with Rome, they were allowed self-government and were able to keep their own language and religion.
 The rapid spread of Christianity owed much to the infrastructure of military roads and open borders maintained by the large standing army, which enabled freedom of travel throughout the Empire. With Latin and Greek widely used and a common legal administrative structure, the scope for preaching the gospel was vast. But in time Christianity was corrupted by paganism to become itself a political force. The two chief cities of the Empire, Rome in the West and Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the East, became the headquarters of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches respectively.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is well documented by the historian Gibbon in his book of that name. By AD 476 Rome had been overthrown by Odoacer, a Germanic warrior who became the first barbarian king of Italy in AD 476-493.
The Holy Roman Empire eventually replaced the rule of the barbarians in the West. In this dual system involving secular and ecclesiastical powers working together, the Roman Catholic Church effectively ruled Europe for more than one thousand years. One historian described the rule of the Pope in these words:
- Roman Crown The Crown of the Holy Roman Emperor, from about AD 1000
- Picture E. Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien
"In many ways, indeed, the Church was comparable to the Roman Empire of old, whose territorial and administrative organisation it had taken over, and whose official language, Latin, it still maintained in its services, records and literature. Both were international in character. Everyone recognised the Pope as everyone had worshipped the Emperor ... At the head and centre of it all, watching over the whole world, interfering in everything, exercising temporal as well as spiritual power sat Innocent III, with an authority quite comparable with that of a Trajan or a Diocletian." (Thorndike, Medieval Europe, P 14).
The Pope may have lost his political power in AD 1870, but his religious authority is as great now as when the Papacy held sway over Europe in the Middle Ages. Today Rome is still at the centre of Christendom through the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, which, according to the Vatican, has more than 1.3 billion members worldwide.
- St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City
The challenge of prophecy
The complex history of Rome covers more than two thousand years and
involves many lands and peoples.
This was a period of great political and religious change and no-one
could have forecast these developments.
Prophecy is important for establishing the authority of the
Bible and the ability of God to control human history, as we read in the prophecy of Daniel:
"Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things..."
The book of Daniel contains many specific prophecies, some of which
have already been referred to. In the context of Rome the visions of the
great metallic statue in chapter 2 (of part 1 Phtofecy Introduction) and the four beasts
in chapter 7 are important. They give a broad outline of the sweep of world history.
Nebuchadnezzar's image had two legs of iron which answer to the two divisions of the Empire in the East and the West, established by Diocletian in AD 287.
The Eastern Empire finally came to an end in AD 1453, when the Turks captured Constantinople.
The chief characteristic of this section of world history as defined in the image, was to be the iron strength of Rome:
"... the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others"
Daniel chapter 7 tells us about a vision of four beasts seen by the prophet which is very closely linked with Nebuchadnezzar's image (see table below).
The fourth beast
Daniel's vision of the four beasts highlights the iron strength of the fourth beast. The prophet wanted to know its meaning, for it was
"different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet."
The explanation was given to Daniel:
"The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces."
THE BEASTS
Daniel chapter 7 | THE IMAGE
Daniel chapter 2 | THE MEANING |
|---|
| Lion with Eagle's wings | Golden head | Babylonian Empire |
| Bear raised on one side | Silver chest & arms | Medo-Persian Empire |
| Leopard with 4 heads | Bronze belly and thighs | Greek Empire |
| Beast with 10 horns | Iron legs | Roman Empire |
With ruthless efficiency the Roman legions marched under the banner of the eagle to conquer and put down rebellion. The Jews were warned early in their history of what would befall them if they disobeyed God:
"The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young ... They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down ..."
This prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman armies under Titus crushed a Jewish rebellion.
After a horrific siege, Jerusalem, including Herod's temple, was destroyed in AD
70. Jesus also foretold this event and the subsequent dispersion of the Jews throughout the world.
This is part of the "Mount Olivet prophecy" found in the Gospel record of Luke:
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near ... For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled ... And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
- The Eagle Standard carried by the Roman Army Legions
No fifth world empire
A feature of the visions in the book of Daniel is that they do not go on to describe a world empire to take over from Rome. The Arabs and Turks came close, whilst the ambitions of men like
Napoleon, Hitler and others were thwarted.
The final phase of Nebuchadnezzar's image – the feet and toes part iron and part clay (see picture page 12), suggests a collection of smaller kingdoms, some weak and others strong:
"Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided… And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile…but they will not adhere to one to another, just as iron does not mix with clay."
When we read about the fourth beast in Daniel chapter seven, we note that it had ten horns instead of ten toes. In the vision Daniel saw another little horn come to prominence:
"... in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words… the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them… The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them ... different from the first ones ... He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law."
The point to note here is that Daniel was prophesying about the Roman Empire some five hundred years before its rise to power. By the time Jesus Christ was born in the Roman province of Judea (part of ancient Palestine), the land was ruled by a puppet king, Herod the Great. Roman officials and practices were influential in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the spread of Christianity throughout the Empire.
Jesus himself predicted the future decline of this empire. The last book of the Bible is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" and there are sections that have striking similarities to the prophecies of Daniel. After the time of Christ, the Roman Empire was first "Christianised" and then broke up into strong and weak independent nations represented by the iron and clay feet and toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image – but these nations, as history shows, were held together by the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rome in the book of Revelation
The last book of the Bible is concerned with events to take place after the Revelation was communicated to the Apostle John around the end of the first century AD (see Revelation 1.1). The key to its interpretation lies in a careful comparison of the symbology of the book with similar symbols found in other parts of the Bible. Like Daniel's vision of the fourth beast, the book of Revelation describes the continuing importance of Rome in the unfolding of God's plan. Its role is depicted by four beasts, three of
which have ten horns like Daniel's fourth beast. All four beasts are seen persecuting the "saints", the word used to describe all genuine followers of Christ.
The visions of Daniel and Revelation consistently define the persecuting role of the Roman Catholic Church that developed out of the Roman Empire. History bears witness to the brutality of the methods used for stamping out opposition to the power of the Pope.
Blasphemer against God
The Apostle Paul foresaw a development that would take place before the second coming of Christ:
"Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God."
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3- 4 NIV
The River Tiber and St Peter's Basilica, Rome The blasphemous words spoken against God by Daniel's fourth beast also feature in Revelation.
- St Peter' Basilica, Rome near the Tiber River
- Picture R.Nagy/shutterstock
For example the
- "beast rising up out of the sea" had
- "on his heads a blasphemous name"
- "And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies."
- Revelation 13:1,5
The "woman sitting on a scarlet beast" was "full of names of blasphemy."
Note the significant point of identification with Rome:
"...the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."
The future of Rome
All the prophecies we have briefly considered have a time limit set on them to bring to an end all human rule and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. When the stone strikes the feet of iron and clay, the metallic image is standing erect on its two legs, the symbols of the Eastern and Western divisions of the old Roman Empire – now principally the nations of the European Union. A similar limit is set on the war waged by the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast:
"... the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it for ever. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
In the symbology of Revelation the scarlet coloured beast gathers support for the final confrontation:
"And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast… These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings..."
Rome, the "great city", is also described in Revelation as "Babylon the great" (in Revelation 18:2). It is not difficult to see the connection with Babylon of old, the head of the image,
whose overthrow was foretold by Jeremiah (see Jeremiah chapters 50
and 51). In the same way the final destruction of Rome "that great city,
which reigns over the kings of the earth" is graphically described in the
symbology of Revelation:
"Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found any more."
The European Union
The countries of the enlarged European Union are being drawn closer together both politically and economically, structured on the 1957 Treaty of Rome and subsequent treaties. EU citizens find that many aspects of their daily lives are controlled by edicts from EU headquarters in Brussels rather than by domestic legislation. This has led to much unrest, and following the Brexit Referendum in 2016 the United Kingdom left the EU on 31st January 2020.
- The signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957
- EC Audiovisual Sevice
Many EU countries are strongly Catholic and, to some extent,
are influenced by their Catholic connections. Increasingly we
hear the phrase "United States of Europe" mentioned, although
as we noted in the article about Nebuchadnezzar's dream, they
are represented by the iron and clay toes of the image, which
will limit their ongoing attempts at unification.
History is repeating itself, for this is what happened when Charlemagne
became the first Holy Roman Emperor. His administration was
noted for constant interference in the lives of his subjects, and we see it
happening again.
Rome has yet to play its part in the events which are to lead to the
overthrow of all human government and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
In the first section we indicated that the land of Israel and its people had a significant part to play in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of empires. The next section examines prophecies relating to this tiny nation of Israel.
Author Many people were involved in writing and checking this article
Country UK
Source Light on a New World special edition: "Light on Bible Prophecy"
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