This article will focus on several accumulated difficulties with most modern futurist Eschatologies, if not all (If some system of eschatology does not contradict on of these claims, by all means, contact me and I can make a note of it, or revise, as necessary).
The main basis of assuming a mostly-fulfilled pattern of Revelation and Daniel is the text itself. Could the text, with a high view of Scripture, be satisified with the current futurist systems, no further study would be necessary. However, while difficulties and seeming textual impossibilities exist, that is, problems with the futurist system which cannot be interpreted away, we are left to continue searching. In this search, we have found that with a high degree of conformance to the text, without direct contradictions, a mostly-fulfilled model is the only susutainable End Times doctrine.
A short summary of a few textual problems with Daniel are as follows.
Destroyed “Together”
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Daniel 2:35
In Daniel 2, we face one of the greatest challenges to a futurist Eschatology. In order for these systems to work, much of Daniel must be yet to come. But, right here, at the beginning, we have defeated the entire system.
Daniel 2 represents Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the 4-part statue. Each of these materials is a separate Kingdom, the first of which is directly identified. Most scholars settle on the Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome (where, Rome could be a prototype of the antichrist empire to come, or Rome I and Rome II, or a ‘revived Roman Empire’).
The impossibility with any of these interpretation revolves upon two things. First, all four materials, according to the text, are broken ‘together’, or ‘at the same time’. If we look at the world stage today, we can make one discernable distinction–Bablyon, Media-Persia, and Ancient Greece are no-where to be found.
In fact, every solid representation of them disappeared at the same time in history. Looking at the statue, then, we can say that they have been, indeed, broken. But, because Daniel 2:35 says they are broken “at the same time”, whatever broke them must have broken the fourth kingdom as well. In addition, the thing that broke them is the second point of our focus, the Rock.
These two facts point to one direct conclusion. The fourth kingdom must have had all solid constructions of itself broken at the same time as the first three, and the thing that broke them must have been the Kingdom of God.
That is, the fourth kingdom must have been historical Rome, alone, and the thing that broke them was Christ’s Kingdom, corresponding to His first coming in the first half of the First Century.
Consider the alternative. A ‘revived Roman Empire’ would not do, as Daniel 2:35 says, above. You would need a ‘revived all four empires’. In fact, some scholars go so far as to suggest some or all of this. But, even this will not do! No, in Daniel 2:38, Daniel called Nebuchadnezzar the ‘head of gold’ of the statue. That is, it must be specifically Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, not another, which must fulfill this prophecy.
Not only would you need a revived all four empires, you would need a resurrected king Nebuchadnezzar to head it off, and, probably Daniel to prophecy again. At this juncture, you begin to recognize the absurdity of the claim. No. God is not resurrecting literal Nebuchadnezzar to re-run the entire prophecy, from Babylon to Rome, simply to re-fulfill a prophecy that was already fully fulfilled in Christ’s first advent.
So, assuming that one can piece together an interpretive framework for the parts of Revelation and Daniel that support a historical fulfillment (and you can!), you must make excuses and dismiss the text.
And, while many things must be considered in a statement like this, this is exactly what is done. Despite the clear statement of Scripture that all four metals are broken together (although the modern NIV version actually omits this detail while all others surveyed include it), the fact that no viable portion of the outward glory, government, or institution of Babylon, Media-Persia, or Greece exist makes no difference to the futurist.
This constitutes a substantial reason to continue going forward.
The Preservation of the Beasts
I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
Daniel 7:11-12
In this analysis, it is necessary to consider a few interpretational schemes. While some view the four beasts of Daniel as parallel and corresponding to the same four kingdoms as Daniel 2, some interpret these four beasts with other identities.
Laying aside the idea that they could represent something other than the four kingdoms of Daniel 2, looking at where they are parallel, let us consider the verse above.
First of all, the setting of each of these four beasts is corollary to the history. Each of the four listed above could be understood to represent the four kingdom, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome. But, while most futurist eschatologies treat the casting of the fourth beast into the lake of fire as the end of all human nations upon the Earth, this verse says differently.
The futurist claim, however, is that these are not broken at the same time, but that is not a workable conclusion, considering the whole of the text from this interpretational position.
The verse in interest indicates that the body of the first beast is immediately destroyed in the fire. Whether one interprets the beast as the literal kingdom or the animating supernatural force that empowers it, what this verse is saying is that the body of Rome is immediately destroyed, and the power that worked behind Rome was immediately destroyed when it was overthrown. However, the other beasts were stripped of their authority, but were preserved for a time and a season. That is, there were still nations in the Earth, but they lacked the one-world governing authority.
As with any thing of political or national power or struggle in this Earth, whose prince is said to be the enemy, it is the power behind a system, not the particular ideas themselves, which empower and embolden it. When the spiritual power or force, or principality, of Rome was broken, we see, not the ‘fall of Rome’, but it’s ‘decline’. Once the animating and motivating power behind the physical representation of Rome was defeated, the whole outward system of government collapsed and was ‘broken small’ (as the YLT calls it), and no place was found for it. The so called ‘Eastern Roman Empire’ devolved into an totalitarian autocracy, no and other nations formed. This is precisely what occurred after Rome could no longer hold together due to the collapse of its head.
But, the other position, since they must maintain a complete cessation of earthly nations in the time of their version of the Millennium, must maintain that this refers rather to the sequential defeating of these kingdoms in the passage. But, this does not work.
First, there would be no reason to adjoin these other three kingdoms, after saying the first was destroyed, to say, “but the other three beasts were allowed to remain”. If the intention of the text was to indicate that the first three had continued for a while but had also stopped at the destruction of the fourth beast, then the verse would not so adjoin them, nor indicate it as an exclusionary clause. Their arrangement in this clause indicates their proximity in the timing.
Second, if one assumes that the first three do represent the first three kingdoms in Daniel 2, then, once again, we see the direct parallel as before, that they are destroyed together. Since they are all in existence in Daniel 2 in some form at the coming of the Kingdom which destroys them, and it is coming of the Kingdom in Daniel 2 that destroys the fourth beast in which this clause also references the first three, then this is the time of the breaking of all four. Hence, the period of time in which these other three nations exist with their authority stripped is after the burning of the body of the fourth beast. They persist.
Third, the interpreation is not ingenuous to the text to any degree. Daniel sees four beasts come from the ocean, and subsequently, “one like the son of man” approach the Father, who defeats them. He does not see one beast eat the other, just as the subsequent metal of Daniel 2 did not remove the substance of the previous kingdoms. So here, the only spiritual overthrow that occurs is through the Kingdom that comes.
All four beasts are established, four beasts, not one beast at a time eating each other or defeating each other (can satan cast out satan?). In the end, it is only the kingdom which defeats them.
So, again, we see the defeat of all four nations at once, and while the beast representing Rome is immediately destroyed, nations continued to exist, and the same motivating power even of Babylon went on, but with their world-wide, one-world-government stripped.
This is also an important to further clarify the position of Rome. Rome ended, by historians, in 476 AD with the last of the Roman emperors. While the “Eastern Roman Empire” continued into the 15th Century, it existed merely as a autocratic absolutism (or totalitarian monarchy). But, this could either be representative of one of the three stripped beasts, or something else, but it constitutes no continuing mark of the beast which was the Roman Empire (nor would the Roman Catholic Church, for that matter).
As a indication of this, Rome had existed as a city for some 500 or more years before Christ. The Roman Republic was not the fourth kingdom of Daniel. But, in 31 AC, Octavius, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, reformed the state. Julius Caesar, before him, may have feigned to be emperor for a short time before his assassination, but it was not until Caesar Augustus, as Octavius came to be known, that the fourth Kingdom, the Rome under which Christ was crucified, became a beast. This too, explains the dissolution of the empire in its end.
No where does it say that all nations would be destroyed, or in Daniel 2 that no trace would be found (some translations may try to confer this, but it is not textual). They were ‘broken small’ and ‘no place was found’ for them (YLT). The various powers were there, and to some degree, they could control affairs, but they could not enslave the whole known world.
Authority/Dominion, Glory, and a Kingdom
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:14 KJV
One of the most contentious points with the futurist model is the claim that the Kingdom is yet to come. Of course, there is a fullness that must arrive, even as Matthew 6:10 says, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven”. The Kingdom is fully established, in Heaven. We pray, that what is there might be made manifest here. And, one day, what is there will be here fully, in a way that it isn’t. But, the time of possession of that Kingdom is now.
We must examine the things that Christ, which most agree this passage points to, is to receive.
First, He is given authority, or dominion. The difficulty with any futurist is that Christ, now, has all authority, according to the Great Commission in Matthew 28.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Matthew 28:18
Now, if one considers the words in Matthew 28, you have only a handful of choices. Assuming one agrees that the Scripture means what it says, if one says that Daniel 7 is not already accomplished (so that Matthew 28 is reflective of that), then for Jesus to receive ‘authority’ would mean that he would not have some authority now, or that whatever authority He did receive was of no consequential importance.
If Christ were to receive meaningful authority at this encounter, then He must not have all authority now, which Matthew 28 clearly says. Unless one wants to dismiss what Jesus said in the Great Commission, then, whatever happens in Daniel 7:14 is a past occurrence, corresponds to Matthew 28 (and Ephesians 1:19-23, as well), and places the destruction of the fourth beast and stripping of the first three in the past, namely, at the end of Rome.
The same goes with the other two. In John 17, Christ asked that He be restored with the glory He had at the creation of the world. As that must, it seems, in the scope of the world be all glory with relation to things of the Earth, and if we can assume Christ’s prayer in John 17 was answered, then Christ now, again, has all glory. This teaching, of course, is consistent with all of the New Testament, and to claim that Christ is not glorified now with all glory would be a step out of Orthodoxy. But, if Christ has all glory, just like with all authority, He has it now.
And, finally, a Kingdom. Christ has the Kingdom. Luke 22:29 says He did, numerous other passages (and the whole thrust of the Gospels) prove that He did (Matthew 12:27; Luke 11:12). His ascension to and seating beside the Father corresponds to the receiving of it, and that time is now. As it says later in Daniel 7:18 (KJV), its words of the time coming for the saints to “take” the Kingdom are echoed directly in the Gospel of Matthew, “the violent take it by force”.
The kings of the Third fight the King of the Fourth
Continuing this pattern of kingdom interaction, we can delve deeper into the parts of Daniel.
In Daniel 8, we see the interaction between the 2nd and 3rd kingdom, Media-Persia and Greece. In Daniel 11, we see a brief recap of the 2nd Kingdom with the Persian kings, and transition immediately into the 3rd. The remainder of the chapter, then, focuses on the 3rd transitioning into the fourth.
For the majority of Daniel 11, the focus is on the 3rd nation, or Greece. This is reflected in the breaking of the first king of Greece in Daniel 11:4, or Alexander the Great, into the four sub-kingdoms. But, the language (especially in the NASB) identifies the context for the rest of the chapter,
But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass, though not to his own descendants, nor according to his authority which he wielded, for his sovereignty will be uprooted and given to others besides them.
Daniel 11:4 NASB
Here, we see the four kings of Greece identified with the four compass points. Hence, the Kings of the North and South, throughout this chapter, are kings of Greece.
The interpretation of this chapter reads like a history lesson, chronicling the kings of Persia and Greece. It is widely accepted as fulfilled through Daniel 11:35.
It is the introduction of the willful king of Daniel 11:36 and onward that many claim there is no historical fulfillment of the chapter (but, we find one, and it’s not too hard to do).
But, again, take note of the important historical ramifications.
Daniel 8 showed the 2nd and 3rd kingdoms. Daniel 11 is now showing the 3rd and 4th (which a brief perspective for the sake of Daniel of the last few kings of the 2nd).
The most intuitive interpretation of the juncture of Daniel 11:36 would be that the willful king here marks the transition into the fourth kingdom, considering his introduction that he must succeed until the time of indignation is complete, that is, this whole time period is over. This is strong indication that this is the final kingdom.
And, as we read through Daniel 2:36 through the end of the chapter, we continue to see the kings of Greece, the Kings representing the North and South compass points, as fighting and interacting with this fourth kingdom.
But, this would mean, logically, that the kings of the North and South must be alive at the time of the fourth kingdom, or, that the kings of ancient Greece must be alive at the start of it.
When one considers that Octavius did, indeed, do these things, that he invaded the land of Israel, but not the three mentioned countries, that he fought the battle of Actium with the same makeup of ships in Daniel 11:40-43, and did all of the other things in the chapter (save the last two verses, which seem to switch to another individual, such as Nero), the case is pretty strong.
So long as the willful king is a third individual in Daniel 11:36, which is debated, then he must be in the same time frame as Ancient Greece. As we have seen, Ancient Rome is the perfect and only fit.
Which leaves us, in Daniel 12:1, to conclude that the Great Tribulation alluded to here happened in 70 AD, the same conclusion we came to in Matthew 24:21, using other arguments. The body of intent of Daniel 12:2-3 is fulfilled in the accomplishment of the Gospel through this time, not in the complete and full resurrection of all believers at this specific time.
As the tense and quality of these two verses shifts from the place of historical fulfillment to the eternal, the sense of the final culmination of this body of prophecy beginning in Daniel 11 then shifts to the ‘prohpetic perfect’, that the accomplishment of what would then be perfected throughout the rest of history, not contained in this book, would be accomplished and perfected, but not fully finished, within the timeframe of this book.
Hence, all these things that the angel Gabriel announced to Daniel were fulfilled in by the end of the First Century.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Role
Perhaps most striking in the whole analogy, however, is the role of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel. Already by Daniel 2, the words of Jeremiah 28 had already been fulfilled, that even the animals were subject to his rule.
But, it is his exultation that is most in view. God, and God alone, were the reason for Nebuchadnezzar’s greatness, not satan’s. It was merely to punish Israel, and that severely (as an iron yoke in the place of a wooden one represents), that God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dominion, or authority, to rule over all the world, including the beasts. In fact, God was so intent on driving this fact home that, when Nebuchadnezzar took credit for it himself, God removed that sovereignty from him, and the weight of that greatness drove him insane, and he lived as a beast until he acknowledged God alone as the reason.
This is, indeed, repeated in an even more dramatic encounter, in which Nebuchadnezzar truly came to encounter the Lord more directly.
It comes in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and it demonstrates the height to which both Nebuchadnezzar was elevated, and the nature of that elevation.
Man can perceive something, and in sheer instinct, attempt to reproduce it without knowledge. This is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did, an the elevation is precisely what God is showing us in it. Elevation in itself is nothing, of course. It is only knowledge of Christ that saves, and Nebuchadnezzar also demonstrates the folly of man, and the complete inability to reach God’s ways short of true relationship, no matter how great of a kingdom we build.
When Nebuchadnezzar set up his kingdom, he also set up his ‘spiritual kingdom’. In the book of Daniel, it says that the king both “made” and “set up” an image on the plain of Dura, commanding that all, when they heard the music, must bow and worship it. Failure to worship the image would result in immediate destruction in the fiery furnace, as well all remember.
But, it is this exact type that represents what God had planned to do, but had not revealed. What Nebuchadnezzar perceived was God’s plan, in a mystery.
When God came with His Kingdom, corresponding to Christ’s first coming, He said the same thing Nebuchadnezzar did. Bow down and worship Jesus, or you will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Now, in Colossians 1:15, we read that Jesus Christ is the ‘image of the invisible God’, and in Matthew 13, Christ Jesus described the place where the weeds go as the fiery furnace.
In essence, what God has said, proclaimed through all the world (Colossians 1:23), is, Bow down and worship this image, my son, the exact representation of my being, or you will be thrown into the fiery furnace, or the lake of fire. The language is identical.
The implication is this. Even if man builds it, and threatens you with the same destruction that God threatened unbelievers with, their fires, even 7-times as hot, will only burn off your bonds, but leave you unharmed, without even the smell of smoke.
But, further than that, we see, through Jeremiah’s prophecies, that God had raised up Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to punish Israel. Through Leviticus 26:18, and the whole chapter, we see that the 490 years of Daniel 9 were the 7-fold more punishment of the 70 initial years Israel was supposed to serve. And so, the whole of the prophesies of Daniel accomplish an astounding thing.
The book of Daniel is not an end-times book, as we think of an end times. The writings pertained to the time of the end, the end of all the things Daniel could imagine and comprehend, the end of the power of the Jewish nation at the coming of God’s Kingdom, represented through God’s church.
Indeed, God was showing Daniel that, for nearly 1,000 years, from approximately 603 BC to 476 AD, a pagan nation, called Babylon although in four different forms (for, what you call the head, you also call the foot, Mystery Babylon) would rule over Israel and oppress them. And, at the end, through John’s book of Revelation, then Christ’s Kingdom would reign and be the ruling power in the world for 1,000 years.
But, the idea that an antichrist figure would arise out of the 4-fold nation of Mystery Babylon, or the Daniel 2 statue, is preposterous. If the head, the greatest of the kingdom, was neither the enemies creation and was its best (gold), than to contend that a lesser king would do more is obviously false. If not even Nebuchadnezzar could claim the authority, how could any after him, who were in his shadow?
If one recognizes the nature of the statue of Daniel 2, and that the 490 years are the promised additional punishment for failure to obey, which Daniel confessed they had not in Daniel 9:14, then one sees that, just as the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shows, all of Babylon is only great for one purpose, to bring judgment upon Israel in the hopes that increasing judgment would bring repentance, healing, and restoration.
But, it did not. Just as Daniel’s prayers were answered with a, “No”, Israel continued to act with hostility towards God, and the promised wrath and indignation were manifest. God executed vengeance for his covenant, as He said He would, and destroyed the city and the nation. Daniel 9:24-27 prophesied it would happen, from construction to destruction to desolation, and it came about, exactly as it was said.
And, so, the idea of the devil having any control in the situation, or the devil having any authority or any place in all of this is completely absurd. The notion of an end-times antichrist is completely absent, minus the rulers of these nations sent to oppress Israel (which they did quite effectively).
Yes, the devil has power, but he does not have authority, except as God allows, which is why he had to get permission from God to torment Job.
All this talk of an end times antichrist is mere fear-mongering in the absence of the knowledge of the truth, that the sanctified, holy, and knowledgeable people of God cannot be defeated nor affected by the enemy’s schemes. For, even in the life of Jeremiah, he said his enemies laid in wait around him, looking for him to make a mistake, so that they could pounce on him. He knew, so long as he stayed right, they could not touch him.
The devil could not build so much as a house to live in, unless the Lord gave him that ability, as it is written, the enemy comes only to kill, steal, and destroy, not build a government.
As Nebuchadnezzar’s rule was ordained of God, the authority, although used by the devil, was of God. Even if not directly, then indirectly, in the granting dominion or withholding wrath. But, it is not in the enemies ability to build a government, much less to exert that control over all the Earth.
To which, it must be added, one other thing. While the idea of an end-times antichrist is a fallacy, many antichrists have come. What near all Eschatology agrees upon is that people like Adolf Hitler did not fulfill the events of Daniel and Revelation, but the plain fact is, Nazi Germany did come, and WWII did kill many. Yet, even in this, God was in control. Why did He allow it, one may ask? Remembering that God does things wholly on His time-clock, it is interesting to note that, in Europe, 2/3 of all the Jews were killed, that is, “in the land”. The other 1/3 clearly went through a fire. While the end result of Zechariah 13 is the Jews coming to salvation, it is interesting that all those ‘dry bones’ have assembled into whole bodies, but they are yet ‘dead in their trespasses and sins’, with no ‘breath of life’ in them.
While time would fail me to develop this further here, it is my belief that as a ‘prophecy to the bones’, or a healing revival happened in conjunction with Israel being reformed and returning to its homeland, a ‘prophesy to the breath’, or a Spirit revival may, indeed, be just on the horizon.
Why does God allow horrible things like World Wars? Because, he knows, through it all it will bring the most good. The Lord knows how to save the upright in the day of calamity. His long-suffering to our sinfulness is for our salvation.
Conclusion
Surely, other considerations could be drawn from the whole of the text of Daniel.
As Daniel says that the first destruction of Jerusalem was the worst to befall any city up to that time, the end of the book, Daniel 12:1 says that the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem would be the worst ever, both before and after. If this were the end of human nations, or the end of wars, such a statement would be pointless.
Or, Daniel 9:25, mentioning such specifics as a ‘moat’ and ‘trench’ in some translations, surely limits the city destroyed in Daniel 9:27 to the same physicality, namely, the historical Jerusalem rebuilt after the Babylonian Captivity. Not to mention the fact that, as a 7-fold additional punishment, the notion of a ‘gap’ between the first 69 7’s and the last 7-years is out of the realms of real likelihood.
Or, the plain fact that Christ’s whole message was begun with the phrase in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand”. The time fulfilled, just like the ‘time of visitation’, is a reference to Daniel, obviously. And, if the time is fulfilled, then that certainly cannot mean 2,000 more years on a 490-year time-table. It can’t even mean 20.
And, if the Kingdom was here, then the rock was here. And, if the rock was here, then it would crush Rome. Which, of course, it did, in its time, but not in the time and manner which many expect. And, it didn’t happen by human overthrow, human hands.
But, that church on that rock did grow, and became a whole mountain, and filled the whole Earth.
And, the nation which it broke, because the church broke Rome, simply drifted away in the wind.
Why would historians call it the dark ages? Well, for the same reason they consider nearly 1,000 years of Babylonian beast-hood “Western Civilization”. They call it the ‘dark ages’ in reference to the ‘light of Rome’. I tell you, if that is light, I’ll take the darkness. A ‘beastly light’ for sure.
The list could go on, level upon level, pulling out more and more details from the text. But, the hope of this piece is merely to give the broad strokes of this position that it is untenable to consider the book of Daniel as pertaining to anything beyond the First Century (understanding that parts such as Daniel 12:2-3, interpreting them as the ‘prophetic perfect’, obviously are the exceptions to ‘prove the rule’).
The whole of Daniel, from start to finish, is about the exile to Babylon. The first 70 years were in a foreign land, and, because of their continued disobedience, God began to tell Daniel through successive revelations that, though it was not His original intent, that Babylon would rule them for much longer than that.
They would rule them, dominate them, and crush them, first in Babylon, and then in their own land. What had begun as a punishment with a future, turned to the Church, and the Kingdom, and the Messiah, and only a few were saved.
Probably the greatest error in futurism is the dismissal of the Kingdom, which is Now, which is here. But, the second is like it, their division of the church and Israel.
God, in one sense, will never be done with Israel. It will remain a nation before Him, blessed with regards to election. But, in another sense, He broke their power, and the promise belongs to the church. A Jewish church. A Church with the roots in Jerusalem, with some of the Jewish branches broken off to make room for Gentile branches.
All the remaining promises to natural Israel will of course be fulfilled, but only the context of the national salvation of the Jews, in accordance with Ezekiel 39:28-29. As that relates to Revelation 20:7-10, the promises therefore correspond with the time-frame between Revelation 20:10-11, after Gog Magog, before the Great White Throne, the throne of His Glory, the Second Coming.
Has God forgotten Israel? Of course not. She has experienced a temporary hardening until the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in, and then All of Israel shall be saved.
In His Name.