The Keys of Prophecy

Prophecy is one of the most fascinating and faith-affirming parts of the Bible. Some estimates suggest that nearly a quarter of Scripture is prophetic, underscoring the importance of understanding it correctly. Yet despite its prominence, prophecy is often misunderstood—largely because many approach it without applying the Bible’s own method of interpretation.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of prophecy in Scripture: literal and symbolic. Literal prophecies speak plainly and directly, requiring little explanation. But symbolic prophecies—those filled with beasts, horns, winds, and other vivid imagery—require a different approach. These symbols are not arbitrary; they are consistent and purposeful, and the Bible itself contains the keys to unlock their meaning. The mistake many make is in supplying their own interpretations, rather than letting Scripture explain Scripture. This results in confusion, and countless competing theories about the end times.

The apostle Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 1:20,

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”

This principle is foundational: we are not to insert personal opinions into prophecy but to allow the Bible to interpret itself. The symbols must be decoded using Scripture alone.

Two of the most important prophetic books are Daniel and Revelation. These books work in harmony, with Daniel providing the prophetic framework and Revelation expanding upon it. For this reason, Daniel should be studied first. It lays the foundation, introducing many of the key symbols—beasts, horns, wings, and more— and providing the structure, that are later echoed in Revelation. What makes Daniel especially valuable is that it often includes immediate explanations of the symbols it introduces, helping to establish patterns we can use when interpreting other prophecies.

Additionally, many prophetic symbols used in Revelation find their explanation elsewhere in the Bible, reinforcing the importance of comparing Scripture with Scripture. With a good concordance and a prayerful spirit, we can trace the meanings of prophetic images across the pages of the Bible. Every symbol has a biblical explanation—we just need to diligently seek it!

Understanding the structure of the book of Daniel is also crucial, not only for interpreting its own messages but also for unlocking the book of Revelation. Just as Daniel 2 lays the foundation for all the later prophecies in Daniel, so the vision of the seven churches in Revelation forms the groundwork upon which the rest of that book builds.

To illustrate how the Bible interprets itself, let’s work through the parallel prophecies in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. Both outline the rise and fall of kingdoms from the time of ancient Babylon to the end of the world. As we understand these prophecies, we’ll see clearly where we stand in the stream of time and how near we are to Jesus’ second coming.

Daniel lived during the reign of ancient Babylon, which ruled from 605–539 B.C. In Daniel 2, God gave King Nebuchadnezzar a prophetic dream, which the king mysteriously forgot. He summoned all his wise men and astrologers, demanding that they tell him both the dream and its meaning. Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t—leading the furious king to order their execution.

Among those facing death was Daniel, a young Israelite of noble birth who had been taken captive to Babylon. Being trained among the king’s advisors, Daniel’s life was now at stake. But instead of despairing, Daniel asked the king for time and turned to God in prayer, along with his three friends. That night, God revealed the dream and its interpretation to Daniel in a vision.

When Daniel appeared before the king, he made one thing clear: this revelation was not the result of human wisdom, but a gift from the God of heaven. He declared:

“He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise… He reveals deep and secret things” - Daniel 2:21–22

Here Daniel is showing King Nebuchadnezzar that God is in charge, that with Him is the power to raise up kingdoms and pull them down. God possesses all power and wisdom, and it is God who has given Nebuchadnezzar this dream.

Daniel then recounted the dream: a great statue, shining and awesome in appearance. Its head was made of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet a mixture of iron and clay. Finally, a stone cut without hands struck the statue on its feet, breaking the entire image to pieces. The wind carried the fragments away like chaff, and the stone became a great mountain that filled the whole earth, establishing an eternal kingdom.

Having revealed to the King his dream, Daniel then provides the much-needed explanation. Daniel explains that Nebuchadnezzar is represented by the head of gold (Daniel 2:38). However, it is revealed to Nebuchadnezzar that his glorious kingdom of Babylon would come to an end and another inferior kingdom, represented by the chest and arms of silver, would ultimately take Babylon's place as the next ruling power (vs 39). Daniel explains that there will be four great powers that will rule Europe and that the fourth kingdom would not be conquered but would fracture and divide. This is evident in the feet which maintain the iron element of the legs but are also mixed with clay (vs 41-42). Daniel further explains that just as iron and clay cannot be mixed, Europe after this time would never reunite into a single kingdom (vs 43).

It’s worth pausing here to consider how remarkably accurate Daniel’s prophecy has proven to be. The vision of a divided Europe foretold in Daniel 2 has stood the test of time. Many powerful leaders have attempted to reunite Europe into a single empire—Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Hitler among them. Yet every attempt has failed, just as God said it would.

One particularly striking example comes from World War II. As Hitler's forces swept through Europe and his dominance appeared unstoppable, a man named Arthur S. Maxwell boldly proclaimed that Hitler would fail. He made this prediction not based on military analysis, but on the unshakable foundation of biblical prophecy. He trusted in the message of Daniel 2: that Europe would remain divided and would not adhere together, “even as iron does not mix with clay.” His confidence was vindicated. In the same way, we can have full confidence today that the rest of this prophecy—including the return of Christ—will also be fulfilled.

The final feature of this dream is the great rock that strikes the image on its feet and sets up an everlasting kingdom. There is no question here that this refers to the second coming of Jesus and the establishment of God's eternal kingdom (vs 44). From this vision we can clearly see that we are living in the time of a divided Europe, the only thing left to happen here is Jesus' return.

THE PARALLEL PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7

This brings us to Daniel 7, a parallel vision that mirrors the prophecy of Daniel 2 but adds new layers of symbolism and detail. While Daniel 2 gives us the broad outline of world empires in symbolic metals, Daniel 7 uses beasts to represent the same sequence of kingdoms—adding crucial features that help us understand not only Daniel’s later visions but also the book of Revelation. In fact, many of the prophetic symbols that first appear in Daniel 7—such as the beasts, horns, and the judgment scene—are expanded upon in Revelation, making this chapter essential for anyone studying end-time prophecy.

In this vision, Daniel himself is the recipient of the dream. He sees four great winds stirring up the sea, and from the sea emerge four beasts, each different from the others (Daniel 7:2–3). This is our first major opportunity to apply the key principle of prophetic interpretation: Let the Bible interpret itself.

The winds symbolize strife and warfare. We find this imagery used in Jeremiah:

"At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A dry wind of the desolate heights blows in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people— Not to fan or to cleanse— A wind too strong for these will come for Me; Now I will also speak judgment against them. Behold, he shall come up like clouds, And his chariots like a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered!”" —Jeremiah 4:11–13

The sea, in symbolic prophecy, represents large populations—densely populated regions of the world. Revelation 17:15 confirms this:

“The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.”

Putting this together, Daniel sees four kingdoms rising out of a highly populated region of the world, amidst great conflict and turmoil (Daniel 7:3). Later in the chapter, an angel gives a clear explanation:

“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.” —Daniel 7:17

These four beasts represent the same sequence of empires shown in Daniel 2, one rising immediately after the next. But in Daniel 7, God gives us more details about the character, actions, and eventual fate of these kingdoms—especially the final one, which leads directly into a dramatic end-time judgment scene and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom.

The first beast that Daniel sees is a lion with eagle’s wings (Daniel 7:4). This represents Babylon (605–539 B.C.), corresponding to the head of gold in Daniel 2. The lion, king of beasts, symbolizes power and majesty, characteristics fitting of Babylon’s glory and dominance. The eagle’s wings illustrate the swiftness with which Babylon conquered:

"The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand," —Deuteronomy 28:49

However, the vision then shifts—the lion’s wings are plucked, it is lifted to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart is given to it.

"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he" —Proverbs 23:7

The man's heart given to this lion beast represents Nebuchadnezzar's eventual conversion to worshipping the God of the Bible. In addition, it shows that the ferocity of the kingdom of Babylon, which started as a mighty lion, would be reduced to the feebleness of a man.

The second beast is a bear raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth (Daniel 7:5). This corresponds to the Medo-Persian Empire (539–331 B.C.), which followed Babylon and matches the chest and arms of silver in Daniel 2. The bear, being raised up on one side, shows that the balance between these joint kingdoms was not equal. Though it was a joint empire of the Medes and Persians, the Persians ultimately became the dominant power, a reality reflected in the bear’s uneven stance.

The bear has three ribs in its mouth, symbolising the three major kingdoms it devoured in its rise to power: Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt. These ribs represent the conquered remains (ribs) of these nations—proof of Medo-Persia’s might and its mission to “devour much flesh,” as the angel commands.

The third beast Daniel sees is like a leopard, with four wings on its back and four heads (Daniel 7:6). This beast corresponds to the waist and thighs of bronze in Daniel 2 and represents the Greek Empire (331–168 B.C.).

Like the lion, this leopard has wings—symbols of swiftness—but this time four wings, emphasizing how rapid Greece’s conquests were, especially under Alexander the Great. Alexander famously swept across the known world with stunning speed, creating one of history’s largest empires in just over a decade.

However, Alexander died young and without a clear successor. His empire fractured and was eventually divided among his four generals - Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus - and later settled into four distinct divisions. These four divisions are represented by the four heads of the leopard. In prophecy, heads often represent kings or ruling powers:

“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings...” —Revelation 17:9–10

Thus, the imagery of the leopard with four heads and wings perfectly describes the speed, fragmentation, and legacy of the Greek Empire.

The fourth beast Daniel sees is “dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong,” with iron teeth that devour everything in its path. This beast is different from all the beasts before it and has ten horns (Daniel 7:7). It aligns with the legs of iron in Daniel 2 and represents the Roman Empire (168 B.C.–476 A.D.).

Rome's iron-like rule was harsh, crushing opposition and dominating the known world with military precision and legal authority. The ten horns on this beast are explained by the angel in verse 24:

“The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom.”

Historically, Rome was never conquered by a single empire but fragmented into ten smaller kingdoms, which formed the basis of modern Europe. These ten kingdoms include the:Lombards, Franks, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Vandals, Burgundians, Suevi, Saxons, Visigoths, and Alemanni.

This division matches the image’s feet of iron and clay in Daniel 2. The strength of Rome (iron) remained, but unity was lost (clay), and as Daniel 2:43 says, these divided kingdoms would not cleave together—an accurate description of post-Roman Europe.

Finally, Daniel sees a little horn arise from among the ten. This power becomes central to the rest of Daniel 7 and later prophecies—it is the antichrist figure, a religious-political power that rises from the divisions of Rome.

But the identity and work of this little horn deserves its own careful treatment. That is the focus of a another post. (Click here to continue.)

Hopefully, by working your way through these key prophecies in Daniel, you now have a clearer understanding of how the Bible interprets itself. So long as we allow Scripture to explain Scripture, we cannot go wrong. There’s no need to come up with our own strange or speculative ideas. However, having a solid grasp of history is also vital in seeing how these prophecies have been fulfilled.

Another crucial insight we gain from Daniel is the concept of chain prophecies—those that reveal a sequence of events stretching over time, like what we saw in Daniel 2 and 7. In Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 11–12, we observe that each prophecy begins in Daniel’s day and ends with the second coming of Christ. These visions span the entire course of history.

The book of Revelation follows the same pattern. Each of the seven churches, seals, and trumpets begins in John’s day and ends with the return of Jesus. While some try to place these prophecies way back in the past—or, more commonly, entirely in the future—God has given us a progressive unfolding of history. This approach to prophecy is called the historicist method, and it is the correct biblical framework for understanding end-time events - allowing the Bible to interpret itself.

These prophecies are powerful evidence that we can trust God’s Word. Only God can reveal the future before it happens, and we are privileged to live at a time when many of these predictions have already been fulfilled—just as foretold. If God’s word has proven true in these things, we can be confident in trusting everything else He has said.

This world is drawing to a close. Soon, Jesus will return to gather His people. Do you want to be part of that number? God has held nothing back in His work to redeem us. If we surrender to Him, He will make us pure and prepare us for eternity.

“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure.’” —Isaiah 46:9–10

To now unlock the mystery of the little horn continue with our next article 'Unmasking the Antichrist' by clicking here.

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