As we come to the final chapters of Daniel, things get a little strange. Daniel receives a series of troubling visions—beasts, horns, kingdoms, battles, angels, judgment, resurrection. It’s a lot to take in.
Some of what Daniel sees points to kingdoms that would come after Babylon. The Medo-Persian Empire would rise. Greece would rise under Alexander the Great. Rome would eventually dominate the ancient world. Daniel is looking hundreds of years into the future and seeing kingdoms that, at the time, didn’t even exist yet.
But Daniel also looks beyond those kingdoms to the end of history. We see themes that show up again in Revelation: a time of tribulation and intense opposition to God, a powerful ruler who sets himself against God—the Antichrist—and the deception and persecution that accompany him. Revelation expands on some of these same pictures. Christians have different views about the exact order of events, including the rapture, the tribulation, Christ’s return, and the thousand-year—or millennial—reign of Christ.
But there is something Daniel and the rest of Scripture make very clear. Increasing arrogance and deception are marks of the end times, and Christians should be alert.
The New Testament gives the same warning. Paul says that in the last days people will be “lovers of their own selves.” They will be proud, self-centered, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Jesus repeatedly warns about deception—false teachers, false prophets, and false Christs who will deceive many.
And why does Scripture warn us about these things? Because the world will constantly tempt us to put our allegiance somewhere other than God.
Daniel watched kingdom after kingdom rise and fall. Babylon didn't last. Persia didn't last. Greece didn't last. Rome didn't last. And every kingdom that exists today will eventually pass away too.
But Daniel 7 says of God's kingdom, “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.”
That is where our allegiance has to be. Because if you want to be faithful here, you have to have your allegiance there.
We live in Babylon, but Babylon is not home. We live under earthly kingdoms, but our King is Jesus. And when everything else passes away, His kingdom will still be standing.
