A Coming Kingdom
(Hint: it isn’t Rome)
The identity of the final kingdom has been the subject of much debate for the past two thousand years, and although the overwhelming majority of the Church seems to have settled on Rome (whether past or future), there are others who advocate a different point of view.
One such person is author and teacher Joel Richardson, who has made the case that the final kingdom is not Rome, but Islam. This idea has been met with some resistance (from Christians and Muslims alike), but I, for one, am entirely convinced that it is true.
That being said, and with all due respect to Mr. Richardson, I think there is a better explanation as to how Islam fits into Bible prophecy, and the entire purpose of this blog is to present you with my thesis.
To begin:
The first order of business is to address the seven-headed beast in Revelation. The most commonly held interpretation (which I also hold) is that the seven heads represent seven gentile kingdoms throughout history, with the beast itself being the 8th and final kingdom.
Here is the generally agreed upon list:
Egypt
Assyria
Babylon
Medo-Persia
Greece
Rome
?
?
Though greatly contested, what follows Rome is not a mystery. History has revealed it to us if we know where to look. Consider the common denominator: it is no coincidence that of all the kingdoms in the world, these are the ones that have conquered Jerusalem.
That is because this is a war for Jerusalem.
In order to fully understand the significance of this statement, it is essential that we recognize there are spiritual powers of darkness at work behind these world kingdoms. The kingdoms themselves, their rulers, and their subjects are little more than pawns in a game of chess being played by unseen hands.
This whole story—from the time God set apart a people and a land for Himself—is about Satan’s attempts to destroy those people and claim that land as his own.
With this in mind, the thing to do is to ask ourselves who conquered Jerusalem after the Roman Empire.
And the answer to that question is Islam.
A dying-and-rising kingdom
Jerusalem was surrendered to Caliph Umar of the Rashidun Caliphate* in AD 638, and it remained under Islamic rule (with a brief interruption made by Christian crusaders) until 1917, when it was lost to the British during World War I. One year later, the Ottoman Empire was defeated, and the Ottoman Caliphate was officially abolished in 1924.
After thirteen centuries of dominion over the Holy Land, Islam’s authority was shattered. This fulfills the prophecy found in Revelation 13, which states that one head of the beast will (appear to) suffer a fatal wound. Of course, the second part of this prophecy is that it will be brought back to life.
Since the death of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, we have, on the one hand, seen the miraculous return of the Jewish people to their homeland. On the other hand, we have also witnessed the ominous rise of radical Islam, the goal of which is to annihilate the Jewish people, reclaim the Holy Land in the name of Allah, and re-establish a caliphate.
After the horrors of the Holocaust, it is difficult to conceive how humanity could ever be seduced into committing such atrocities toward the Jewish people again. But our collective memory is short, and the craftiness of the enemy cannot be overstated. It is becoming easier by the day to see the machinations of the enemy, especially in light of the October 7th massacre.
The terrible and sobering reality is that the Bible tells us the worst is yet to come. Something that eclipses even the Holocaust. The Ultimate Babylon. And the beast is starting to wake.
Teeth of iron and claws of bronze
I have argued in a previous post that the 8th kingdom of Revelation is the same as the 4th kingdom of Daniel. What this means is that the final beast—the beast that struck terror into the heart of Daniel and left him sick for days—is still to come.
However, it is almost universally taught this is not the case, and that the 4th beast is actually split in two. We are told that the legs of iron have already come and gone, and it is only the feet that have yet to appear; that the beast has already smashed and trampled the earth, and it is only the 10 horns that remain to be seen.
The thinking behind this idea is that by splitting the 4th beast in two, we are solving the problem of needing a “revived” empire (the second iteration of the 4th beast being a revival of the first).
But before we hasten to accept what is essentially a fifth kingdom into the equation, I would point out that there is a relationship between the 3rd and 4th kingdoms that seems to suggest the 4th kingdom is a revival of the 3rd.
For instance, the leg is the natural extension of the thigh. It would make sense that the legs of the 4th kingdom are a continuation of the thighs of the 3rd kingdom, as they are two sections of the same appendage.
Also, there is a reference made in Daniel 7 about the 4th beast having teeth of iron and claws of bronze, which are the two metals that represent the 3rd and 4th kingdoms. An odd detail if it is not an allusion to the kingdoms themselves.
Finally, consider this: the first beast is a lion, the second is a bear, and the third is a leopard. The fourth beast is not physically described in Daniel, and so it is usually depicted as a dinosaur or a dragon. But we are given a description of it in Revelation 13. And what is it? Another leopard.
Lion
Bear
Leopard
Leopard +
It is a leopard with the mouth of a lion and the feet of a bear. In other words, it is a leopard, but a leopard on steroids. Thus, in my view, it is Islam, but Islam on steroids.
If this is true, it changes by necessity our traditional understanding of which kingdoms these animals represent. For example, Joel Richardson would say this:
Egypt
Assyria
Babylon - Lion (Daniel’s 1st Beast)
Medo-Persia - Bear (Daniel’s 2nd Beast)
Greece - Leopard (Daniel’s 3rd Beast)
Rome
Islam - 4th Beast (Daniel’s 4th Beast)
10-Nation Kingdom of the Antichrist - Leopard + (5th Beast/Horns)
Still others would say something like this:
Egypt
Assyria
Babylon - Lion (Daniel’s 1st Beast)
Medo-Persia - Bear (Daniel’s 2nd Beast)
Greece - Leopard (Daniel’s 3rd Beast)
Rome - 4th Beast (Daniel’s 4th Beast)
Holy Roman Empire
Pope/UN/Kingdom of the Antichrist - Leopard + (5th Beast/Horns)
I say there is no 5th beast. Only a 4th. The one Daniel told us about that matches the beast in Revelation. It looks more like this:
Egypt
Assyria
Babylon - Lion (Daniel’s 1st Beast)
Medo-Persia
Greece
Rome
Islam - Leopard (Daniel’s 3rd Beast)
Radical Islam - Leopard + (Daniel’s 4th Beast)
(2nd Beast = To Be Revealed)
Now, this presents a bit of a problem, but it is one that we all share. And that is, if Babylon is the first beast, there should only be three more kingdoms that follow. But instead, there are five. And no matter what anyone believes, at least one kingdom is always going to be skipped.
How do we account for this?
In my next post, I will offer a possible solution.
* Note: A caliphate is the state in which all Muslims are unified together under one government (for lack of a better word), with one caliph (a political and religious leader) to rule over all. The ultimate objective is that the entire world would submit to Islam and be unified and led by one man. (Sound familiar?)
