(1) 10 Toes of the Statue

Daniel had several prophetic dreams concerning the end-time; like most dreams; the message was presented with symbolism that must be interpreted.

In Daniel chapter 2, the king of Babylon has a dream that Daniel interprets for him. He sees a huge statue that represents four great kingdoms; the head of gold represents Babylon, the chest and arms of silver represent Media-Persia that conquered Babylon, the belly and thighs of bronze represent Greece, the legs of iron represent the Roman Empire, and finally the feet and toes of iron and baked clay represent a final kingdom that will exist at the return of Christ.

The meanings of the first four kingdoms are not in dispute because the text says that Babylon is the head of gold and we know which empires followed, but the 10 toes are in dispute. Many Bible interpreters believe that the European Union (EU) are the 10 toes because they came from the Roman Empire. But there are now over 27 nations in the EU, and more could be added: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. There were 28 until the UK left. Five nations are on the road to membership: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey.

Because there are more than ten nations in the EU, some teachers are now saying the 10 toes represent ten regions of the globe that will be the world government, but I have already proven that there will not be a world government or a one-world dictator. This chapter in Daniel adds to that proof. So what nations are the 10 toes? An analysis of the passage reveals important details:

As you saw the feet and toes, partly of potters’ clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it some of the strength of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. 43 Whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. (Daniel 2:41-43)

The NIV says this kingdom “will not remain united.” The time of the toes’ existence on earth is not past history. The Scripture text clearly puts the toes here on Earth at the second coming of Christ:

“In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” (Daniel 2:44-45)

It says in the days “of these kings,” which means that while the 10 toes are in power, Christ will return and set up his kingdom. It says the 10 toes will have a “divided” kingdom, which means it is an association of separate nations like the European Union. It also proves that the 10 toes will not become fully united into one empire but remain “divided.”

But how do we account for the fact that there are 10 toes but over 20 nations? The elements of the statue should not be taken so specifically. The statue is not going to show 28 toes, but only ten. For example, let’s look at the other parts of the statue; Greece split into four empires, but does the statue have four thighs? No. Also, Rome did not start out in two sections, yet it is seen as the two legs. Later it became divided into east and west, but it ended as only one empire after the western half fell. Did one of the legs get cut off at the knee? No.

So you see, you cannot force the elements of the statue into such extreme detail, it is only giving us partial information. The statue having 10 toes merely means that there will be many separate nations joined together in an alliance.

Even so, the EU will never rule the world. Why? Because it never says anywhere that it will! Bible commentators have been wrong in claiming that the toes are the same as the 10 horns of the 4th beast in Daniel 7, and 10 horns of Revelation, as we will see in the next chapter.

Notice that Daniel says the old Roman Empire was made of iron. Rome did not rule the whole world, but only western and southeastern Europe, North Africa, a small section of the Middle East. Rome often had to use force to put down rebellions, and the 10 toes will only have “some of the strength of iron,” which means that the 10 toes will not even be as strong as Rome, which did not have modern weapons. Therefore, if the 10 toes will not even be as strong as the Roman Empire, then it certainly will not rule the entire planet.

Notice also that the text does not say that one toe is iron and one toe is clay. It says that all the toes are a mixture of iron and clay; “partly of iron and partly of clay,” each toe is a mixture. Therefore, I believe the iron and clay represent cultural aspects of those nations that will keep them from becoming fully mixed together and united, because iron and baked clay cannot be melted or mixed together to form one substance. Daniel said:

Whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel 2:43)

This is not just clay, it is baked clay as the NIV translates it, because that is the only way for it to be  “partly brittle,” which is why the toes represent weakness. As a result of being brittle, it “shall not cleave to one another.” The NIV says, “will not remain united,” which means some nations will withdraw from the union, as the United Kingdom has already done. It will not totally dissolve like the Soviet Union did, but it will not remain fully united.

(Note: I originally believed that Norway had withdrawn from the EU, but their “no” vote was to never become a full member, so they never fully joined. Therefore, it is only with the UK leaving the EU in 2019 that this prophecy was first fulfilled.)

Notice the statement, “ they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.” The NIV says, “the people will be a mixture.” Other than speaking different languages, they are very close, culturally. So, what does it mean that the people will be a mixture? Describing the people as iron and clay that does not mix does not seem to fit modern Europe, until events of the last thirty years. In recent years something new and totally foreign has entered Europe, something that is not mixing with old European values and culture. That something is vast numbers of Muslims that have entered the EU nations.

The word cleave means “mix,” so they will not mix. The iron and clay is not in the national politics, but is in the “seed of men,” the people themselves. (Some modern translations translate “seed of men” in different ways, such as marriages, but they are trying to interpret the verse rather than translate the literal words. You cannot do that for prophetic verses.) Barnes’ Notes on this verse states:

Various explanations have been given of this verse, and it certainly is not of easy interpretation. The phrase “seed of men,” would properly denote something different from the original stock that was represented by iron; some foreign admixture that would be so unlike that, and that would so little amalgamate with it, as to be properly represented by clay as compared with iron. . . . The word rendered “men”אנשׁא) ‘ânash) is employed in Hebrew and in Chaldee to denote men of an inferior class – the lower orders, the common herd – in contradistinction from the more elevated and noble classes, represented by the word ‘ישׁ (ı̂ysh). See Isa. 2:9; Isa. 5:15; Pro. 8:4.

The word here used . . . would properly denote feebleness or inferiority, and would be aptly represented by clay as contrasted with iron. The expression “seed of men,” as here used, would therefore denote some intermingling of an inferior race with the original stock; some union or alliance under the one sovereignty, which would greatly weaken it as a whole, though the original strength still was great. The language would represent a race of mighty and powerful men, constituting the stamina – the bone and the sinew of the empire – mixed up with another race or other races, with whom, though they were associated in the government, they could never be blended; could never assimilate. This foreign admixture in the empire would be a constant source of weakness, and would constantly tend to division and faction, for such elements could never harmonize.

The above perfectly describes the vast numbers of Muslims who have invaded Europe, because the Muslims are not blending with Europeans; they are not becoming European because they live by and enforce Islamic law within their own sections of town. This is how the people are not able to blend fully, or unite, like oil and water. Even Sayyid Qutb, the Islamist ideologue, stated this same thing:

“The chasm between Islam and Jahiliyyah [the unbelievers] is great, and a bridge is not to be built across it so that the people on the two sides may mix with each other, but only so that the Jahiliyyah may come over to Islam.” (Milestones)

Large-scale immigration of Muslims into Europe and North America is part of the Islamic plan for global conquest. The Muslims plan to grow in numbers and power until they are able to overthrow their host governments. The birth rates of Europeans are so low that they cannot maintain their populations, so they are importing millions of Muslim immigrants who are reproducing at high rates. In only 30 years England went from having 82,000 Muslims to having 2.5 million with thousands of mosques. The Netherlands will be 50% Muslim in 2025. Throughout Europe, Muslims are expected to be 50% of the population by 2050. That was, however, before the influx of Muslim refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war that invaded Europe in 2015. The Muslims have correctly been labeled an Islamic Trojan Horse.

The principal reason France would not support the U.S. invasion of Iraq is because of its large Muslim population, about 6 million, or 10% of the total population. Muslims do not need to be 51% to take over. They are already intimidating European governments into prosecuting people who criticize Islam or who warn people about Islamic fascism. In early 2009, the Dutch government ordered the criminal prosecution of Geert Wilders, who produced the film, Fitna, which exposes Islamic fascism. In England, you can be arrested for saying that Islam is not a religion of peace! Or that Islam was spread by invading other nations!

In 2012, Muslims in Europe were able to cancel some Christmas pageants and the display of Christmas lights. This is just the beginning. Over the past 1,400 years of Islamic conquest, thousands of churches all over the Middle East and North Africa were converted into mosques, and now in Europe thousands of churches are being converted into mosques because of the decline of Christianity and the growth of Islam.

In the Netherlands, there are still approximately 4,400 churches, but, “Each week, two close their doors forever. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the al Aqsa Mosque” (Europe Turns Churches into Mosques, October 20, 2012, www. israel national news.com /articles/ article. aspx/ 12333).

An old prophecy states that the French will not wake up until Notre Dame is converted into a mosque (Ibid). In England, 10,000 churches have been closed since 1960. The article written in 2012 said that by 2020, another 4,000 churches will close while there will be, it is predicted, 1,700 new mosques; many will occupy former churches (Ibid). St. Mark’s Cathedral is now a mosque called New Peckam Mosque. Even Germany is blind to the poison it has allowed to enter its nation.

(2) Arabs and the 10 Toes

It has been pointed out by a handful of prophecy teachers that the original Aramaic word for “mix” in Daniel 2 is actually, “arab” ערב (6151). These teachers believe it means the 10 toes are Islamic nations, the same as the 10 horns of Revelation. But Islamic nations do not have big problems with mixture of the religions and cultures; there is no oil and water situation. Islamic nations only have minority populations of Christians today.

Although Arabic nations have some differences, those differences are not significant compared to Islam in Europe. Most Islamic nations have the same language, the same religion, and the same culture, because Islam dominates in the Arab world. Even though there are two divisions in Islam, the vast majority are Sunni, with only a small number of Shia (Shite). And they often work together to defeat a common enemy, the Christians and Jews. So, the 10 toes cannot represent Islamic nations.

So why does it use the word “arab”? This word is telling us who the people are who will come into the mix and cause the oil and water, or iron and clay situation. The issue is not a union of nations, or a union between nations, but the cohesion of people inside of those nations.

But prophecy teachers expect us to believe that the EU will become so strong it will rule the entire globe! The information in this chapter is significant proof against the popular teaching that says the Antichrist and the EU will rule the world as the Revived Roman Empire. Nowhere does it ever say that these 10 toes will rule the world or even conquer a single nation; it is not in the text! It is an extreme misreading to make such statements. The beast of Revelation is based in the Middle East, not Europe.

(3) Double Fulfillment

The 10 toes appear to have only one fulfillment, but the rest of the statue has a double fulfillment because it says that when Messiah comes, he will destroy not only the 10 toes but also the other three kingdoms:

You watched until a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:34-35)

Therefore, this means there must be four nations on Earth today that are the gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Though they may represent the nations that were once the original nations; they are today Iraq, Iran, Greece, and Italy. However, I doubt that strongly because Iraq is not going to become a “gold” nation. It is a heap of ruins and will never become an economic capital with a great culture famous the world over. And Iran  and Afghanistan (Media-Persia) are not going to become silver nations. So, whoever these nations are today, they will cease to exist after the global destruction, but will likely have a few survivors.

Jesus is seen symbolically as the rock that will smash these nations and set up his own Kingdom that will spread across the globe. However, it says the rock will be cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. Jesus is not a piece of rock from a mountain, so why did it say that? It is using figurative, symbolic language to describe how Jesus will bring about the destruction of those nations, which is with an asteroid impact.

If it merely called him a rock, then it would refer to his strength and stability, but it specifically says a rock cut from a mountain, and not by humans. We know that Christ will come with judgment upon the whole world, and the imagery of a rock smashing nations must refer to an asteroid impact, not a missile or any other man-made object. This destruction will take place at the end of the GT (see The Approaching Apocalypse).