The last world Empire was Roman. The next may be Roman plus. The one following will be antichrist's. And finally, Christ's.

Where does all that information come from? A new "word" out there in the "prophetic" circles? Speculation, intelligent guessing?

No, it's all tucked away in Scripture waiting to be revealed in a massive way as the times become appropriate.

We reference Daniel the prophet and John the apostle to confirm all details. No other reference is needed. Mere men cannot come up with these scenarios. Men of our age are thinking doomsday. Just look at the movies coming out.

Some speculate the ultimate takeover will be by Muslims. Others, by Russians and an upsurge of Communism. A "Revived Roman Empire" has gotten a lot of press, too. The Global Warming folks tell us exactly how it will happen.

To all of which we must simply say, "Not so fast, not so fast."

There will indeed be an end to the present world system, followed by Christ's own brand of leadership, in turn followed by the unknowns of eternity. Of course, God's people will have 1000 years to learn about that eternal phase, so plans for it need not be revealed now.

My focus in this article is the next two kingdoms before Jesus sets up His own. Though not much is known about them, their coming is clearly specified for those who do a little extra digging.

The things of God are always hidden to those who do not seek for them or who blow them off as unimportant. Most often the folks who think Biblical facts are mere trivia spend much of their free time on things that truly are trivial and meaningless. And that is spelled s-p-o-r-t-s. Not play, which is a nice refreshment, especially for the young, but the big business gone bad that eats up so many hours of God's people's time.

But that is another subject that I imagine I must cover another day.

For now I am intrigued once more with the fact that two, not one, but two more world empires must surface on the earth before Jesus rules and reigns here.

Let's look at the pieces of the puzzle:

1. Daniel. Daniel, you recall, interprets for Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2) a dream the king has had about a huge statue. Daniel correctly identifies the parts of the statue as coming world Empires. Bible scholars are nearly unanimous in what those Empires were: First, Nebuchadnezzar's own Kingdom of Babylon, or Babylonia. This is to be followed by Medo-Persia. Next will come Greece. And finally , Rome.

Well, not finally finally. Rome develops into something else.

Rome is represented on the statue by two long legs, signifying it will be around a long time. It has been. As the historians will tell us, it was never defeated. It corrupted from within and its political power was handed over to Roman Catholic Popes. There, to a small but very real measure, it hides and resides to this day. A very insignificant power to be sure, but the last world Empire the world has known to this point.

That is not to say that men have not attempted to rule the world since those days. Hitler was on his way, Communism was on its way, Islam has had such aspirations more than once and has been thwarted so far by Western powers. It seems to be rising again.

Daniel sees the Roman Empire eventually broken into ten parts, as the toes on the two feet of the statue. Some see a further division pictured by the two feet, and have talked of the eastern and western portions of the Roman Empire.

But the feet and toes are part of another kingdom, a more end-time one, according to Daniel. And when we visit John's revelation, we see yet another aspect to the "times of the feet", or the end.

2. So let's look at John. In Revelation 17 is a key to some of these final mysteries. Earlier in his prophecy, we run into a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns. The ten horns stands for the same entity as the ten toes in Daniel. Here is a final Kingdom, ruled by antichrist, and it has ten divisions or perhaps nations.

In chapter 17 we see a woman riding this beast. The woman is said to be "Babylon", so there is no need for further speculation about her identity. For, at the end of the same chapter "Babylon" is said to be the city that reigns over the kings of the earth. Clearly, John heard "Rome" when he heard that. We should too.

So Daniel and John agree that Rome is somehow a part of the end-time scene. Daniel has already said, though, that Rome was to follow Greece in world domination. That means that Rome must still be with us. Behold the Vatican and its tamed but real holdings throughout the cosmos.

John adds some other important details to the end-time Rome and the one who rules her.

In verse 8 of that 17th chapter, John is told that the beast, the antichrist, will ascend out of a bottomless pit. He is being restrained even now, we glean from Paul in II Thessalonians 2, awaiting his time to appear on the earth. So is the antichrist alive today? You bet! But not on the planet, rather, in the planet. In a pit, in the Enemy's territory, being restrained by an angel.

That's what Paul meant when he said , "He that restrains will continue to restrain until he is taken out of the way." It is unfortunate that Bible translators capitalized "He" to make readers believe that God is restraining the antichrist. Or that God the Holy Spirit is restraining evil in the world. This speculation was added to the interpretations of our day to make way for the pre-tribulation rapture theory. According to that relatively recent theory, the Holy Spirit, in the form of the church, will be removed from the Earth at the rapture, and evil will be allowed to have its day since we won't be here to stop it.

The context as well as the literal meaning of the words all point to an angel being the one who is doing the restraining, namely of the Man of Sin himself, a prisoner in the Pit at present. And when the Lord says "Release him", he will be released.

His coming to Earth will be through a series of miracles according to both Paul there, and John in our text.

John's angel goes on to explain the seven heads of the beast, or antichrist. Satan will have had seven eruptions or manifestations over the centuries before it is all over. In verse 10 we meet these seven kings, though their names are not mentioned.

In John's day, five of the kings had already fallen. Moving backward from Rome, we could surmise that they are some mighty man in Greece, one in Medo-Persia, one in Babylonia (in concert with Daniel), and before that, one in Assyria, and in Egypt. (Some would suggest also , the original Babylonian Empire, as Nebuchadnezzar's was "Neo-Babylon.")

Looking for single kings in each of those eras leads to speculation and guess work, and is therefore not exact. Some have thought that perhaps the hard-hearted Pharaoh of Egypt might be one candidate. Perhaps the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib who conquered Israel. Or, Nebuchadnezzar who never did fully convert to the god of Israel as his only god. Xerxes or Haman could be possibilities in Persia. And of course there is the villain of Daniel, Antiochus Epiphanes.

Whoever they are, by John's day, they have fallen. But "one is." Rome is, in John's day. And several Emperors come to mind, as Nero, and Caligula, and Trajan. Many of them were truly anti-Christ.