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In Daniel chapter seven the prophet himself is given a vision which corresponds to the empires we have looked at.

7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.

7:2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the Heaven strove upon the great sea.

7:3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

7:4 The first was like a lion, and had eagles wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a mans heart was given to it.

7:5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.

7:6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

The ten horns on the fourth beast in Daniels vision and the feet and ten toes of the image in Nebuchadnezzars dream correspond to the fifth empire. The toes and horns represent 10 kingdoms or regions that will exist during the period when Antichrist appears. Horns in biblical Prophecy represent either particular people or centres of power. The little horn that rises from within the ten horns is the coming ruler of the Revived Roman Empire, the Antichrist, because this horn is given a mouth to speak. I repeat, today we are witnessing the birth of the Revived Roman Empire foreseen by the ancient king of Babylon and the Hebrew prophet Daniel.

We are at the feet and toes of the image of Daniel 2 and we have also reached the emergence of the final beast of Daniel 7. The two are related.

The ancient Senators, and the Caesars of Rome, believed a united Europe would help bring to an end wars and disputes between different ethnic groups. It has ever been the desire, since the fall of Rome in 476 a.d., to return all of Europe to one central European government and one leader. It has been the desire of kings, emperors, dictators and the Popes of Rome.

As the Roman Empire went into a death spin, the Roman Church, already powerful and influential within the empire, began to raise its head and carry on where the Caesars of Rome left off. The Pope even inherited the title once worn by the ancient Caesars, Pontifex Maximus. As successor to the Caesars, the Popes began to rule as powerfully, as any Roman emperor, if not more so.

Since losing much temporal and spiritual power in the Reformation of the 16th century and suffering even further loss in the 19th century, Rome has longed for and sought for ways to return to her former glory and power which she inherited from the Roman Empire. And she has actively made plans to fulfil that dream. The dream of a United Roman Catholic Europe has been kept alive for centuries. A simple study will show how the Vatican, in the hope of becoming the religion of Europe, has always been at the side of those wishing to return to the days of Roman style, anti-democratic, dominion.

In St. Peters, Rome, on Christmas day 800 a.d. when most of Europe was under the rule of Charlemagne the Great, the Pope anointed him and crowned him "emperor of the Romans." Charlemagne was the first emperor of non-Roman origins and the first German emperor of the middle ages.

In 962 a.d. Otto the Great of Germany began what became known as the Holy Roman Empire following his coronation in Rome.

In 1262 the noble German family of Habsburg took over the leadership of the "Holy Roman Empire."

Later in 1806, fearful that Napoleon I of France was about to take to himself the title of emperor, the last of the Habsburg emperors, Francis II, dissolved the empire over which his family had reigned supreme for centuries. Despite this move however, Napoleon did declare himself emperor. He firmly believed Europe should be joined together in what he termed "The United States of Europe." As Pope Pius VII stepped

forward to crown the new emperor, Napoleon snatched the crown from the hands of the startled Pontiff. Placing the crown upon his own head, Napoleon said "I am a Roman emperor in the best line of the Caesars." But as history records, his dream fell into disarray when he was defeated at Waterloo in 1815 by the British army led by Wellington.

Years later however, the dream of a re-united Europe based on the model of the old Roman Empire was rekindled in 1870 by the German Count von Bismark who announced the birth of the second Reich or "empire". He regarded the "empire" set up by Otto the Great as the first Reich. Wilhelm 1st of Germany was appointed emperor of the Reich and given the title "Kaiser" which is German for Caesar. Thus the dream of a Revived Roman Empire was still alive and well, in the heart of late 19th early 20th century Europe. There is much evidence to support the belief that the Vatican backed any nation, or dictator, desiring to re-unite Europe. Though the relationship between the Catholic Church and the European nations has sometimes been very volatile, exploding, on occasions, into open war between the supporters of each side. This conflict of Church and state will reach its ultimate fulfilment when the future ten kingdoms of the Antichrist turn on the Babylonian Whore (false Church) and destroy her (Rev.17:16,17).

In 1930 Sir Winston Churchill published an article in an American magazine entitled The United States of Europe. Mirroring the ideas of the ancient Roman senate, the Caesars, Charlemagne, the Habsburgs and Napoleon, Churchill expressed the desire that all Western Europe should band together, in order to put an end to war, in a United States of Europe. He later made a further impassioned plea for Europe to unite when he spoke in Zurich in 1946. In many ways this speech was part of the catalyst for the founding of the Common Market, later to become the European Economic Community, which in turn evolved still later into the European Union.

However, in 1930, as Churchill wrote his article for American readers, two men were working fervently toward fulfilling, by force if necessary, their own agenda for the European nations. Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. Mussolini and his Fascists said it was Rome's destiny to be the centre of Western Europe. Meanwhile, Adolph Hitler had dreams of uniting Europe under the 3rd Reich (empire). Hitler identified the continuity of the Holy Roman Empire with the First Reich (962-1806), the Second Reich (1870-1918) and his own Reich, which he believed would last for 1,000 years. In actuality Hitlers empire lasted far less than its predecessors, 1934 to 1945.

We shall look at the Vatican involvement with Hitler. Hitler was a Catholic, as was Mussolini. Neither of these monsters has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for their despicable deeds. The reason for this becomes clearer when one realises that Hitler's and Mussolini's dream for uniting Europe was, in many ways the same dream as that of the Vatican. The Vatican's plan has always been a united Europe. A Catholic Europe with the Pope as supreme spiritual, if not political head. Pope John Paul II may fail through age, but his successor will be hoping for the dream to become a reality in his reign.

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