Amazing Facts

Narrator: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry, coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host, Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned. Your Amazing Facts adventure begins now.

Doug Batchelor: Hi friends, welcome back. In our last episode, we learned how God gave the ancient King Nebuchadnezzar a fascinating dream of a giant statue that was full of prophetic symbols and imagery. Today, we'll continue this eye-opening study of how God revealed the meaning of the dream through his prophet Daniel.

You'll discover how this stunning prophecy was fulfilled in world history, and more importantly, what happens next. Remember, if you'd like to deepen your Bible knowledge, check out our Prophecy Odyssey Bible lessons and our free offer. I'll tell you more about how you can get those resources later in the program. Okay, it's time to get into today's presentation.

This vision is dealing with the empires that occupied God's people, who were the guardians of the Word. You realize that the Jewish nation, God gave the oracles of truth to them. The Bible is mostly written by Jews. You know that? Are you okay with that? If you're Christian, the Bible says you are Abraham's seed.

This is talking about the preservation of God's Word that would go to the world, and the kingdoms that occupied them. You're going to see all this if you paid any attention at all when you were in elementary school to world history. We know about Babylon, how it was a world empire.

Amazing fact: historians say the walls of Babylon were over 200 feet high and 50 feet wide, allowing for four chariots to ride abreast on the top of the walls. As I said, one historian said they were 15 miles on each side. They had inner and outer walls, and they thought it would never be conquered. Once again, the map that talks about the extent of their domain was massive, controlling the trade between three continents. All that money was pouring in.

How many of you have been to Dubai? Anyone been to Dubai? I've been there several times. If you've never been there, it is the richest city in the world. Maybe Singapore or Dubai, but Dubai is different. Just a city built out of the desert. They've got a river of money that flows into that city from oil.

I have been in hotel rooms that had—I didn't stay there, someone showed it to me—that had golden toilet seats. I am not exaggerating, I saw it. The wealth and the cars there are incredible. Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Maseratis everywhere. A car five or six years old is not allowed on the road because it's too old. The money and the wealth were incredible. Babylon was like the Dubai back then. Fabulous military power, that was incredible. You are the head of gold.

Would the kingdom of Babylon last forever? That was the king's concern as he slept. He said, "What will happen to my posterity?" Nebuchadnezzar reigned about 39 years and he wanted his sons and successors to have an eternal dynasty. But Daniel said it is not going to happen that way. Babylon was going to fall.

Now, you need to know how it happened historically. It's given a little bit in the Bible, but not all the detail. The Euphrates River ran under the walls of Babylon, and the Euphrates River was much bigger than it is now. There's a prophecy in Revelation that says that the Euphrates River will dry up in the sixth plague. Have you read that?

All you have to do is listen to news reports and they say the Euphrates River is drying up. Now, I don't think we're in the sixth plague yet. We'll explain the plagues later, but I think it's very interesting. They had mighty ships that were navigating way up the Euphrates River. Now, you can't drag a toad through the river. It's becoming a series of stagnating pools because Turkey and up higher, they're damming the water and there's been droughts and things have changed.

What happened is, after Nebuchadnezzar died, for one year his son Evil-merodach was king and he was assassinated. It ended up his uncle becoming king. The uncle was off fighting other battles, and the grandson Belshazzar was in charge of the kingdom. The Persians and the Medes realized that the Babylonians did not have the military might that the Persians had.

Nebuchadnezzar was gone and he was the military genius. Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede thought they could conquer Babylon. They surrounded the city to besiege it. This young whippersnapper of a king—and you find this in Daniel chapter five—Belshazzar said, "We don't need to be afraid of them. They will never get through our walls. We've got our soldiers and our massive gates. We'll starve them. We've got enough food in the city and water running under the walls. They can't sustain their army long enough."

They had a big party in the city of Babylon and they all got drunk. In the peak of their revelry, this blasphemous young king knew that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had been turned to Jehovah by Daniel, and they resented that. He said, "This God of the Jews has no power and we're going to prove it. Bring me the vessels we captured from Jerusalem. We're going to praise our idols."

They took the holy vessels from the temple of God. All of the Babylonian lords and leaders began to drink and to mock the God of heaven, Jehovah. In the middle of this blasphemous drunken revelry, all of a sudden over against the plaster on the wall, a bloodless giant hand appeared—kind of like Thing in the Addams Family.

It began to write the words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." You have ever heard the expression "the handwriting on the wall"? When the king looked up and everybody saw this, they dropped their cups and his knees began smiting together. He said, "What does it say?" Nobody knew. They brought in the wise men, but they didn't know anymore than they knew 39 years earlier when Nebuchadnezzar called them.

Finally, the queen mother said, "If you want to understand a vision, you need to call in a Jew. There is a man in your kingdom." It gives me goosebumps whenever I say that. She said, "There is a man who is close to the Lord. He understands God. He'll tell you what this will say." Daniel is brought in.

The king said, "Tell me what the writing says and I'll give you a golden necklace and a special garment and make you third ruler in the kingdom." The reason he said "third ruler" is because Belshazzar was only second ruler. Daniel said, "Keep your rewards because I know what it says and you're not going to be in any position to give anybody anything pretty soon."

He said it says, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. You are weighed in the balances and found wanting. You are being judged. The kingdom is being divided and given to the Medes and the Persians." At that very moment, that mighty General Cyrus had diverted the Euphrates River way upstream into a dry lake bed.

The water level where it went underneath the walls of Babylon dropped precipitously during the night. The soldiers of Babylon inside the city were drunk because they thought there was no attack. They had left the inner gates unlocked because they thought they had not gotten to the outer gates yet. Just like Trojan soldiers, a contingent of the Persian army went underneath the walls. They came up and opened the gates. The Persians and the Medes swarmed into the city and in one night Babylon fell.

It is foretold in the Bible with incredible accuracy long before it happened. Isaiah lived long before Daniel. You can go to Jeremiah chapter 50. Why is this important? If you want to understand Revelation, Revelation 18 talks about the fall of Babylon. Jeremiah chapter 50 and 51 talk about the fall of Babylon. Isaiah chapter 13 talks about the fall of Babylon. Not only was there a Babylon in the Old Testament, there is a Babylon today.

The Bible tells us in the last days there's a Babylon and God's people are being called out of Babylon. You need to know what you're supposed to come out of. We need to understand this subject of Babylon. In Jeremiah chapter 50, he discusses the fall and utter destruction of Babylon. Thus says the Lord in chapter 51, "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon and against those who dwell in Leb-kamai a destroying wind."

Verse 43 of chapter 50 says, "The King of Babylon has heard a report and his hands grow feeble and anguish has taken hold of him as pangs of a woman with childbirth." It goes on to say the gates will be left open. It says their soldiers have become like women and they cannot fight. The city fell in one night. In Isaiah, it says the rivers would be dried up in ancient Babylon.

Look at Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah wrote this about 700 BC, hundreds of years before King Cyrus was born. The Dead Sea Scrolls have the entire book of Isaiah. We know this was written. It's ancient prophecy. "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, to loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron."

Read all of this. It foretells what happened. That's why when you get to Revelation it talks about the Euphrates drying up. You understand the spiritual significance of the Euphrates drying up. It preceded the fall of Babylon in ancient history. So did Babylon last forever? No, it fell.

Another little interesting tidbit of history here is Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait a few years ago and you had the two Gulf Wars. One of our sons was in the Marines and he fought in one of those wars. Saddam Hussein had plans to rebuild ancient Babylon because the prophecy in Isaiah and Jeremiah said Babylon would never be rebuilt.

It's in Isaiah chapter 13. It says Babylon will fall, it will become ruins and heaps, it will never be inhabited, and it will never be rebuilt. Someone told that to Saddam Hussein. Nebuchadnezzar was a hero to him. Saddam Hussein said, "I am the reincarnation." He wanted to be the leader of the Arab world. That's why he attacked Iran.

He started to try to rebuild Babylon. It got stopped during the first Gulf War. Then there was a brief pause and he tried to renew construction, but it got stopped again. He was trying to overthrow the Hebrew prophecy. You cannot overthrow. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word will not pass away. Ancient Babylon is still heaps today. Isn't that interesting? Saddam is gone.

Another king will arise after you. Now we're going from gold to silver. This is the Persian kingdom. It started out as the Medo-Persian kingdom, and it ended up where the Persians became the dominant kingdom under Cyrus the Great. I've been there, friends. You can go to the British Museum and see the Cyrus Cylinder that was excavated near ancient Babylon.

In the cylinder, it says that he conquered Babylon and he let the captives of the Babylonians go back to their native lands. God foretold in the book of Jeremiah—you also find it in the end of second Chronicles—that the children of Israel would be captives in Babylon for 70 years and after 70 years they would be allowed to go back. They did.

If for no other reason, believe the Bible because the Jews are an unusual people. There is no other people in the world that has been dispossessed from their land three times. In the days of Jacob, they went down to Egypt, but they got it back after the Exodus. Then they were carried off to Babylon, but they got it back during the time of Cyrus.

Then they were scattered by the Romans for 1,900 years, and they got it back and remained a distinct people. Every other nation that was conquered intermarried, disappeared, or lost their identity. Try and find someone that speaks Comanche today. They used to occupy the Great Plains. But the Jews, God said they would come back. They'd remain distinct. It's incredible how prophecy comes true.

Silver was the principal currency in ancient Persia. It is a silver kingdom. Here's the expanse of Persia. It gets bigger. You'll notice the kingdoms are getting bigger. But it would not last. He said you'd have silver, but the silver would transition. What metal would represent the kingdom that followed Medo-Persia? Another third kingdom of bronze.

Some of your Bibles will say brass. Technically it's not brass because they didn't use brass back then. Brass also has tin in it, making it a little shinier. This is really bronze. It shall rule over all the earth. Again, it's going to be an empire that's going to spread everywhere. The bronze kingdom of Greece came into power with Alexander the Great in 331 BC when he conquered the Persians. It lasted till about 168.

Alexander the Great marched his armies approximately 11,000 miles in mostly ten years. He conquered the world. He was taught by Aristotle, a very bright military genius and very brave. He spread the Greek culture. They call it Hellenization. Even at the time of Christ, Greek was the language of learning.

Even governments of the world, like the Roman governments, were influenced by the Greeks and these great philosophers of Greece. One historian, Arrian, said, "I am persuaded that there is no nation, city, or people then in being where his name did not reach, for which reason whatever origin he might boast or claim to himself, there seems to have been some divine hand presiding over his birth and his actions."

But even this kingdom would not last. The kingdom of Greece used bronze armor. They were known as the brazen soldiers because they used bronze swords, shields, and helmets. There's an example of one that was recovered that you see there on your screen. Here is a map of the extent of Alexander's kingdom. He marched his armies all the way to the borders of India, where they were fighting elephants, and it extended up into Egypt, Damascus, and Greece.

I want you to notice something that's happening here with these different kingdoms. They all occupied Jerusalem. The Greeks were a little better at first. Alexander was. Some of the later Greek leaders like Antiochus Epiphanes and others were very brutal to the Jewish nation. Each kingdom is lasting longer, but the metal is less valuable than the one before.

The Babylonians lasted about 70 years. Then you get the Persians which last longer but it's silver, which is not worth as much as gold. Then you got the bronze which isn't worth as much as silver, but it's harder. Each one is harder than the one before it. They last longer and they're harder. Watch what happens next.

What metal represents the fourth kingdom? You read here in Daniel chapter 2 verse 40, "And the fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron." The Romans had mastered the forging of iron weapons, and that's one reason they were able to conquer. I just want you to think about this. Are you aware in the book of Daniel that he foretells later the Greek Empire by name? He calls it Grecia.

The chances of the Greeks ruling the world when Daniel said that were ludicrous. If I were to tell you that in 100 years the world is going to be ruled by Uruguay, who here would predict that? Anything's possible, but who would predict that? The likelihood of the Greeks and the Romans ruling the world when Daniel made that prophecy was ludicrous. They saw no way that would happen. But he foretold it and he even foretold the Greeks by name in Daniel chapter 8.

Now, he says this fourth kingdom is a kingdom of iron. The Romans had mastered iron. They were getting the iron from the forgers and the mines in southern Spain, a place called Tartessus. The Iron Monarchy conquered the Greeks in 168 at the Battle of Arbela. With an iron sword, you can literally cut a bronze sword in two. The weapons made a big difference.

That's why the medieval knights had this armor mail. In the Bible, you can read how the soldiers of Israel couldn't get any iron from the Philistines. The Philistines were able to subdue them because they had the iron. Only David, Saul, and Jonathan actually had iron swords. That was like having nuclear weapons back then if you had the iron.

It was iron nails that pierced Jesus' hands, an iron spear that pierced his side, and iron swords that killed the babies in Bethlehem. The Romans ruled with an iron fist. They lasted longer than the Greeks. For a while there, there was what they call the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. It was during the time of the Roman Empire God saw fit for the incarnation.

God came into the world during that time for good reason. There was a period of time during the time of Augustus Caesar for 40 years where there was a degree of peace. They built roads everywhere. When Christ came and the knowledge of the gospel and Pentecost was poured out, Jews from all over the Roman Empire heard about Jesus. They scattered all around the world and the gospel spread. Jesus said something outrageous. This carpenter said, "My teachings will go to all of the world." It did.

The Romans influenced the government of the world today. We're still influenced by Rome. Why do we have a month called July? Julius Caesar. Why do we have a month called August? Augustus Caesar. Why is February short? Augustus Caesar wanted a month that was just as long as July, so he had to take some days off of February to put it on August.

Why do we have a day of a week called Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? We got it from the Romans. Sun worship, moon worship, Saturn worship, Odin worship, and Thor worship all came from the background of Roman power. What would happen after the fall of the Roman Empire?

The kingdom will be divided as the toes and the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile. The Roman Empire began to crumble about 476 BC. It didn't happen any one particular day, but they were so preoccupied with entertainment and the family fell apart.

Augustus Caesar believed in marriage. In spite of his problems, he supported the strength of the family. Then you got people like Nero and Diocletian and these guys were despicable. The kingdom became weak and the soldiers became weak. The barbarians and the Aryans came in from the north and the kingdom fragmented into ten parts, just like the ten toes on the image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about.

Until now you've moved from the iron to the iron mixed with clay, but it says later in Daniel not just clay, but "miry clay." Notice up to this point, these kingdoms are occupied around Israel. During the time of the iron Rome, during the time of Christ when the Romans ruled, the gospel and God's people then spread. Even the Jews were conquered and in the great diaspora they spread everywhere.

Now it's not just restricted to the Middle East. Now we've got the ten divisions of the Roman Empire that end up spreading around the world. I think it's very interesting. It says, "But there shall be in it the strength of the iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay."

Who would like to guess what is the number one building material in the world today by far? It's called reinforced concrete, which is iron mixed with miry clay. Would these kingdoms ever succeed in uniting? What did the prophecy say? Daniel 2:43 says they'll mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, as iron does not mix with clay.

They all tried. They all tried to get back the power of the Caesars. You've heard of Kaiser Wilhelm? Kaiser is German for Caesar. The word Czar is Russian for Caesar. Hitler wanted the Third Reich; he wanted to be the Caesar. They wanted to reunite it. The English tried to do it through marriage. Queen Victoria was called the grandmother of Europe because her kids and grandkids were married into every family in Europe.

Who will set up the final kingdom? Praise God. The Bible says there is a stone. There is a rock of ages cut without man's hands because he came in the image of God. Friends, we are living in the days of the final empire. The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. All the other kingdoms passed away, but there's a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Amen?

Quickly review. Go back and I want to put it on the stage so you see it again. Call out the answers with me. All right, let's see if we can get our statue back up here. You've got the gold. What kingdom is the gold? Babylon. Followed by silver, which represented? Medo-Persia, 539 to 331. Followed by what kingdom? Greece, 331 to 168. Followed by the iron of what kingdom? Rome. Then you get the iron and clay which is the divided kingdom from the ten nations of Europe: the Alemanni, the Franks, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and others.

What does the stone do to the other world kingdoms? You watched while the stone was cut out without hands. It struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The Bible says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall fill the earth." Friends, I want to be one of those who will be in that kingdom. You know the spiritual kingdom came when Jesus came. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

What did the king say when he heard this vision? After hearing Daniel's clear interpretation of the dream, Nebuchadnezzar said, "Truly, your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, since you could reveal this secret." How many of you think that God can tell the future?

If everything else in this vision has happened right on schedule, why would we doubt the last thing's going to happen? Friends, we are living on the very cusp of eternity now. The next thing is for Jesus to come. Jesus came into our world for three reasons. First of all, he came as our example, to live a life that we might follow his steps. He came to show us the Father. He said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Then he came as our sacrifice. He died on the cross as a substitute for all of our sins. But we must come to him. We repent of our sins and confess, and he'll receive us with loving arms. Why don't you ask him now?

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