We now further examine the meanings of the symbols of iron and clay located in the feet and toes of the human-shaped statue described in Daniel 2. Concerning the meaning of the “iron,” Bishop writes in 1886 that: “Iron is the character of Rome. The crown of Charlemagne was iron. The crown of Charles V. was [i]ron. Napoleon was crowned with iron. The crown of Germany is iron. The crown of Italy, worn by Humbert and handed down from the year 590, is iron. Iron represents hardness, severity. It is more perishable, more easily corroded, rusted, than brass or silver or gold; but in the form of steel, it . . . cuts through every other metal. Such has been Rome—inexorable, pushing everywhere a reign of arbitrary law.”[1] Thus, crowns symbolize Roman monarchs, including royal dynasties, who represent the iron of the empire. More specifically, Gaebelein writes in 1911: “The iron represents the monarchical form of government . . . but the clay stands for democratic rule, the rule by the people.”[2] Thus, the iron and clay mixture represents a weaker, divided form of the Roman Empire. As detailed in chapter 5 of this book, the iron of the Roman Empire has continued to exist through history in the governments of at least the following ten Western European successor nations of the fourth kingdom: . . ..[3] . . . Each of these ten nations is a former iron-monarchy, which has also embraced democratic principles over time. Today, five of them . . . are constitutional monarchies, while the other five are multiparty republics.[4]
[1]. Bishop, “Times of the Gentiles,” in Prophetic Studies of the International Prophetic Conference, 108–09 of 440 on Nook Color digital reader, emphasis added.
[2]. A. C. Gaebelein, The Prophet Daniel: A Key to the Visions and Prophecies of the Book of Daniel (New York: Our Hope Publications, 1911), 23 of 129 on Nook Color digital reader. Also writing about the meaning of the iron and clay, Lalonde (quoting Pentecost) says that the iron and clay represent “that which is weak and that which is strong, autocracy and democracy, the iron and the clay.” Lalonde, One World under Anti-Christ, 48.
[3]. My views and thoughts expressed herein are based on my personal study and research; they are not prophecies or predictions, nor are they dogmatic. I am not a prophet. Only God knows the exact ten kings, nations, entities, or divisions of the Roman Empire that will fulfill Daniel’s prophecies and only God knows the exact timings of the pretribulation rapture and of Jesus Christ’s second coming to earth as “the stone . . . cut out of the mountain without hands” (Daniel 2:44–45 KJV; Matthew 24:36 KJV; Acts 1:7 KJV).
[4]. DK World Atlas: The Atlas for the 21st Century (New York: D K Publishing, Inc., 1997), 208–214, under the subheading: “Countries of the World.”
