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been healed. This eighth king does not add another head to the beast, for "he is of the
seven". Not merely "of the seventh" although that is true, the resuscitated king is "of the
seven" and contains within himself the previous seven heads, so that this eighth king is
spoken of not as a king merely, but as "the beast". He is first mentioned in 11: 7, where
speaking of the two witnesses it says:--
"And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the
abyss shall make war against them."
These witnesses occupy a period of 3-1/2 years before their death (verse 3). The
holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles for the same period (verse 2). In
chapter 13: the beast receives power to continue 3-1/2 years. This period seems to be
the extent of the reign of the beast, for the seventh angel sounds soon after the death of
the two witnesses.
The satanic kingdom has seven crowned heads (12: 3), but the final manifestation in
the beast that ascends out of the abyss has ten crowned horns (13: 1). We are not
definitely told that the seven heads were not crowned, and seeing that they represented
reigning kings, we must understand the ten crowns to be additional. This is in line with
the angel's explanation:--
"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom
as yet; but they receive authority as kings one hour with the beast" (17: 12).
In Dan. 7: 24 the description is "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings
that shall arise". The ten kings arise out of the fourth kingdom which was diverse from
the others. They are not human, they are Satan's princes and are spiritual. This
observation is most important. One feels their presence even in Dan. 2: The
descriptions of the earlier kingdoms of Gentile dominion read smoothly enough, but
when the toes of the image are described the language becomes involved:--
"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be
partly strong, and partly brittle. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay,
THEY shall mingle themselves with the seed of MEN; but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of THOSE KINGS shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom, etc." (Dan. 2: 42-44).
Who are meant by "they"? If they are ordinary human beings, why speak of them
mingling themselves with the seed of "men"? "Those kings" are evidently "they" and
"they" are the toes. The toes are "ten" in number, and although this final phase of the
Colossus was not a subject for Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel says enough to let us understand
that Gentile dominion will finally merge itself into a confederacy of ten kings who shall
be superhuman, and that although they will attempt to mingle with the seed of men they
shall not do so properly. It was left for Daniel himself to see the vision of this monstrous
kingdom and the ten kings that arose out of it. Some readers may be a little skeptical as
to the possibility of these more than human kings, and therefore we might notice Dan. 10:
A glorious heavenly being appears to Daniel. The description of his glory is so like that
of Christ in Rev. 1:, that some have felt that it must be the same. The effect upon Daniel
was overpowering. This mighty messenger reveals to Daniel the fact that "the Prince of