Daniel 7:7,8 - It crushed and devoured its victims

7:7

We now get the fourth beast, and this beast is even more terrifying than the rest. It had iron teeth that crushes its victims. One of the lessons we are meant to learn from these visions, and the similar ones in Revelation, is that there will be seemingly terrible powers that have authority in the world, but we are not to fear them. For Christ is Lord, not any of the beasts. It is Christ who has all power and authority, not any of the beasts. Sometimes we need to look at what we consider to be our enemy and declare to it “you do not have all power and authority, and the one who does have all power and authority loves me”. This beast was worse than the rest, and its influence was even greater, for it has ten horns, signifying the apparent completeness of its domain.

7:8

But we are not finished yet, for a little horn came forth, and this horn displaced three of the other horns. This horn also had “eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully”. This Indicates that this power would be exercised through a man. If we look at history we see many times when terrible powers arise. There can be terrible social forces that arise as well. There is a fairy tale version of Christianity that essentially wishes that all the bad things in the world would just go away. This can affect all types of Christians, including social gospel types, and charismatic types. The truth presented in the Bible is far different, and is utterly realistic. It is not afraid to face up to the reality of what the world is like.