Daniel: Chapter 7 Timeline
The timeline for this chapter is built upon the timeline that described and developed in Daniel chapter 2. Daniel 7:1-28 is the first of the remaining chapters in the book Daniel is the subject of receiving dreams and visions and seeking understanding and interpretations of them. As each chapter is examined, the information will be layered upon this graph to help illustrate the time frame of a passages fulfillment, the duration of the event, and the context, or other events that may be occurring concurrently.
As discussed in this site on Daniel chapter 7, Daniel is greatly troubled by the four beasts, especially the fourth beast and the little horn. In the description of that chapters, there were two sections dealing with the interpretation of the beasts, the common view that is generally held by a vast majority of the commentators, and the alternate view, which is the preferred view for this site. The reasons for the latter interpretations is given in the alternate view link. The following timeline illustrates the common view. In this timeline, the lion is associated with the gold head, the bear with the arms of silver, the leopard with the sides of brass, and the beast with the re-emergence of the Roman empire during the seven years of tribulation. Notice that the blue horizontal bars under the beast show a shade change for the beast. This is to indicate the development of the restored Roman government, its military power, and growing influence abroad. Also, the smaller blue horizontal bar for the little horn, is only represented for the last half of the tribulation. The little horn, or the Antichrist, does not receive his full satanic power until the midtribulation after Satan is permanently kicked out of heaven, and seeks to kill anyone testifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. The beast's and the little horn's existence come to an abrupt end, at the battle of Armageddon.
In contrast to the above, the following timeline demonstrates the alternate view. As seen below, the first three beasts are contemporary with the fourth beast, and in such a case, would be in a confederation with the fourth beast, following the orders of the little horn, the Antichrist. It is presumed in this site that the prophetic passages concerning the return of Christ to establish His millennial reign centers upon Israel being a nation and Jerusalem her capitol. Therefore, the countries that were associated with the first three beasts would have to be modern countries who existed prior to Israel becoming a nation. Obviously, the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Russia pre-existed Israel, but so did the Muslim countries. Their borders were all established before the British left the land of Israel. So, for this site, all four beasts are shown in colors fading into a solid color at or before the beginning of the tribulation. Only the beast, the harlot, and the little horn have an abrupt end. The harlot is introduced here to show that before the Antichrist ascends into full power, the harlot, or religious Babylon, rules or has significant influence over the government of the beast for the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. Immediately, the harlot is thoroughly destroyed during the midtribulation by the ten kings, Revelation 17:1-18. The smaller blue horizontal bar for the little horn, is only represented for the last half of the tribulation. The little horn, or the Antichrist, does not receive his full satanic power until the mid-tribulation after Satan is permanently kicked out of heaven, and seeks to kill anyone testifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. The beast's and the little horn's existence come to an abrupt end, at the battle of Armageddon. Only the lion, bear and leopard are allowed to continue on for a season. The following timeline will be the one used throughout this website.
