AND CONCERNING THE TEN KINGS....

***Originally written in July 2014, reposted in 2017 and again in April 2018.

"The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast." Revelation 17:12 NKJV


Who are the ten kings Revelation 17:12 refers to?

Before answering, let me share a few verses from the book of Daniel. Confirming Revelation 17:12, and also showing how the book of Revelation fulfills, and is intertwined with, the book of Daniel, these verses speak of the same ten kings, albeit in a slightly different way:

• In Daniel 2:33, Daniel describes this empire to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." 
• In Daniel 2:41-42, Daniel describes this empire further, "Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided...And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile."
• In Daniel 7:7b NKJV, Daniel himself had a vision. The part of his vision referring to this empire: "...It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns."  (The 4th beast described by Daniel to Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:31-43)

These "ten horns" are also known as the Revived Roman Empire, which the aforementioned passage declares will arise at the end of this age, just before the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ! As these verses note and most commentators agree, this empire will likely mix democracies shown as "clay" and dictatorships shown as "iron" together. Today, this is what we see: democratic republics in Europe and dictatorships in parts of the former parts of the Roman Empire, notably Turkey.

And now let's go back to Revelation to show the same Revived Roman Empire yet again since the Bible confirms itself with different passages:

• Revelation 17:10 described seven major earthly kingdoms throughout history. It is widely held that their common thread is that they all oppressed Israel at different periods in history, "There are also seven kings. Five have fallen (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia & Greece), one is (the Roman Empire was presently in power during John's writing of the Book of Revelation), and the other has not yet come (the Revived Roman Empire, aka the 10 Kings of Rev. 17:12-13). And when he comes, he must continue a short time." 
• Revelation 17:11, which can be confusing refers to "the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth". Chuck Missler, in his excellent YouTube teaching on Revelation 17, says that this shows the Roman Empire originally, and in its later revived form. This is a reasonable interpretation and is consistent with related passages. 

How then should we reconcile the four beast kingdoms Daniel describes with the seven kingdoms mentioned in Revelation? First, Daniel combines the two manifestations of the Roman Empire into one kingdom, which is obvious. Additionally, Egypt and Assyria were not part of the four kingdoms noted in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, outlined in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was the central character in his own dream. Perhaps the Egyptian and Assyrian empires may have been omitted to avoid "offending" Nebuchadnezzar. More likely, perhaps they would not have been considered worthy in the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar since they were in the past so God didn't include them in the King's dream.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE of REVELATION'S TEN KINGS?
The Bible answers this question very simply. In Revelation 17:13, "These are of one mind, and they will give their authority for one hour as kings with the beast."  One hour means a short period of time, which is consistent with Revelation 17:10.  The leaders of these 10 kingdoms will essentially become puppets of the Antichrist, willingly giving their authority to him.

Also, Revelation 17:14 notes, "These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb (Jesus Christ) will overcome them..."  


WHERE DOES THE ANTICHRIST FIT IN WITH THESE 10 KINGS?
Revelation 17:13 says these 10 kings give their authority to the beast. Daniel 7:8 notes, "I was considering the horns, and there was another horn,  a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots..."
Revelation 17:11 describes this relationship as the Antichrist being the 8th kingdom, who is also of the 7th, "The beast (the Antichrist) that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition." 

WHEN WILL THEY ARISE? WILL THE USA BE INCLUDED?
Signs of the times seem to point to...soon! My personal thought is no, the USA will not be included, but the USA may be influenced by the Revived Roman Empire of the 10 kings.  The USA, after all, was not part of the original Roman Empire. It seems reasonable this revived empire may arise after the USA's power is diminished. 


WHAT AREAS WILL BE PART OF THIS REVIVED EMPIRE?
    If this is to be a truly revived form of the Roman Empire, we would look to the original Roman Empire's boundaries which included most of Europe and parts of Asia, including Syria. The rise of Isis in 2014 in Iraq and Syria with its violent hostility against Christ and Christians could foreshadow this type of character being present in the Revived Roman Empire. We also see a rising Anti-Semitism in Europe and appeasement of Islam in many parts of Europe. 
   However, J. Dwight Pentecost, in his book, "Things to Come" makes a good argument that the boundaries of the Revived Empire may well exceed the original Roman Empire, including the Americas, as well.