The Iron becomes the Iron and Clay

Rome was to have two phases. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the metallic idol, the first is represented by the legs of iron. The second is represented by the feet of iron mingled with clay. (You can read more about the vision of Nebuchadnezzar's image here.)

The latter phase represented the empire of Rome being broken up and mixed with other peoples to form ten nominal kingdoms that remained under the dominion of Rome. The iron of Rome continues from the thighs to the toes, but the clay mingled both weakness and division into the strength. Both phases constituted one continuing iron kingdom in God's eyes. The second phase is, however, the one most emphasised in the prophecies.

In Daniel's vision of the four beast kingdoms, this later iron-and-clay phase corresponds with the era of the ten kingdoms, represented by the ten horns of the fourth beast. Another little horn was to arise among them and hold sway over them. (You can read more about Daniel's vision of the Four Beasts here.)

In history, these phases represent Rome – pagan and papal. The original Western Empire and seat of Rome became Catholic Europe. Both were idolatrous, and both dominated by Rome.

The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation indicate the power dominating this final phase would, in its later stages, begin to fall and be consumed, even by the ten kingdoms, and at the return of Jesus Christ would finally be destroyed.

The great eras and events of Rome

The Seven Seals prophecy, which constitutes the bulk of the book of Revelation, is the tale of the final two kingdoms of Daniel's visions – the kingdom of iron, and the kingdom of stone. It is a chart of the history of Rome, and its age-long conflict with, and ultimate defeat by, the Kingdom of God.

The visions of the Seven Seals deal with the glory, decline, and fall of Rome, in both its phases. The seventh or last Seal deals particularly with the fall, which is expanded upon in the Trumpets and Vials. The Seven Trumpets focus mainly on the fall of the Roman Empire in the West and East, and the Seven Vials on the fall of Papal Europe.

These visions describe the glory days of Rome under the Five Good Emperors from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, the subsequent plunge into civil war from the time of Commodus, the oppression and exhaustion of taxation and industry as a result, and the following era of additional external wars, famines, and devastating plague that brought the Empire to the point of dissolution until the time of Diocletian. They describe the last and greatest imperial persecution of Christianity under Diocletian, and the subsequent reversal and overthrow of paganism, and the 'Christianisation' of the Empire from Constantine to Theodosius, and the corruption of nominal Christianity as a result.

The Trumpets describe the invading waves of Goths, Vandals, and Huns under Attilla, (the clay mingling with the iron) and the breakup and fall of the Western Empire. They then turn to the long fall of the Eastern Empire under the rise of Islam and the Saracen and Turkish Empires, and the final fall of Constantinople, before turning back to the Reformation in the West that began shortly after in the 1500s.

A supplementary vision at this point reviews the history of western Europe and the dominance of the Papal power since the fall of the Western Empire, before the Seven Vials describe the final judgments of the French Revolution, the great naval warfare with Britain, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the fall of the Papal States, the drying up of the power of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of evil ideologies, and finally the entrance into the Seventh Vial with the great World Wars of the Twentieth Century. The final vial concludes, yet future, with the destruction of papal Rome and a great storm of war and invasion from the north. These events are followed by the vision of the return of Jesus Christ.

A brief history of the future

The general series of historical events described here are the major movements in the history of pagan and papal Rome, and their unfolding has been identified, traced, and anticipated by many writers over many centuries (many of which are well-documented in the old books available for download on this website). Their correspondence with the symbols in the prophecies is evidenced not only by the events themselves, but in the use of these same symbols by secular writers and historians in describing the same events, and by many other biblical passages which demonstrate the consistent interpretation of the same symbols.

(See two introductory articles on symbols in prophecy here and here.)

The Historicist understanding, outlined here, is one that over 1900 years after John wrote the Revelation can now in the majority be tested and compared with history. The chronological sequence of the visions can be seen to fit the major events of Roman and European history like the cuttings of a key – in the right order. The prophecy of the seven-sealed scroll is, as it was intended to be, a prophetic chart and brief history of the future.