What are the seven mountains?
The puzzle of the seven mountains prophecy is in Rev. 17:9-10 and they represent seven Gentile kingdoms on earth who have either attempted to destroy or persecuted Israel. John in his vision saw seven mountains which he explained were seven kings or seven kingdoms but then he said that there would be an eighth king right at the very end which is the beast. So really this is an eight-mountains prophecy. In previous posts, I have said that these seven kingdoms are in order Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia/Medes, Greece, Rome, Nazi Empire. In this post, I want to give further clarification and match them entirely with seven metals or materials.
Firstly, it is consistent in Bible teaching that mountains are kingdoms such as in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel chapter 2. Dan. 2:35-44 specifically identifies that a rock that grows into a mountain will be the 9th and final kingdom set up by God that can never be destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream identifies only five kingdoms equivalent to a great metal statue: head of gold (Babylon); chest of silver (Persia); belly and thighs of bronze (Greece); two legs of iron (Eastern and Western Roman Empire); and feet of clay mixed with iron (final future eighth beastly kingdom). Rev. 17:9-10 in John’s 1st-century vision makes it clear that five kings have fallen, one was present at the time (Rome), one was future, and then the eighth would be a repeat of one of the seven. The materials used for the eight mountains are important because they give us a clue about the makeup of the eight kingdoms. Five are obvious because of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream but the other three require wisdom and a search into other books mainly from extra-biblical and apocryphal sources including the Book of Enoch, 2 Esdras, and possibly some writings of Noah. Now the caveat of course is that none of these other books that sit outside the canon of Scripture can claim to be infallible but are a collection of ancient thoughts and experiences. One must recognise that they were somewhat accepted in ancient and some in more modern history. For example, 2 Esdras was part of the early King James Bible, and Enoch is quoted in Jude 1:14-15. The Book of Enoch is accepted as canonical by the Coptic Church in Ethiopia and the Eritrean Orthodox Church and was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Abundance and sequence of metals
The abundance and sequence of metals may indicate the order of kingdoms when God was replying to Ezra’s questions in 2 Esdras.
55Say to her, ‘You produce gold and silver and brass, and also iron and lead and clay; 56but silver is more abundant than gold, and brass than silver, and iron than brass, and lead than iron, and clay than lead.’
This response by God to Ezra tells us the order of the abundance of six materials on the earth. The puzzle is to fit it in sync with the kingdoms. The order from least abundance to most abundance or most precious to least precious is as follows: gold; silver; brass/copper/bronze; iron; lead; and clay (aluminium). The most abundant metal in the earth’s crust is aluminium. Clay could arguably be seen as a soft metal as it contains aluminium.
The puzzle unfolds
So far in the nine mountain prophecy puzzle, we have identified the following known information about some but not all of the mountains/kingdoms. The identity of the first two kings is still to be determined in our study… (scroll to the right to see more of the table)
Kingdom | Material | Body Part | Ruler |
1. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2. | ||||
3. |
Babylon |
gold |
head | |
4. |
Persia |
silver |
chest | |
5. |
Greece |
brass/copper/bronze |
belly and thighs | |
6. |
Rome |
iron |
two legs | |
7. |
lead | |||
8. |
iron and clay |
ten toes |
Antichrist | |
9. |
Millennial |
rock |
Christ |
With the addition of some more information from some of the extra-biblical sources, we can perhaps fill in some of the blanks. Most biblical scholars recognise that the first two mountains/empires that oppressed Israel were Egypt and Assyria. Egypt held Israel in slavery for 430 years.1 Also with each kingdom comes a ruler or protagonist. In the case of most this is either a specific man or an evil dictator and is fairly easy to identify. So we can fill in some more information as follows… (scroll to the right to see more of the table)
Column Name | Kingdom | Material | Body Part | Ruler |
1. |
Egypt |
Pharaoh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2. |
Assyria |
The Assyrian | ||
3. |
Babylon |
gold |
head |
Nebuchadnezzar |
4. |
Persia |
silver |
chest |
Haman |
5. |
Greece |
brass/copper/bronze |
belly and thighs |
Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) |
6. |
Rome |
iron |
two legs |
Caesar (Western and Byzantine) |
7. |
lead | |||
8. |
iron and clay |
ten toes |
Antichrist | |
9. |
Millennial |
rock |
Christ |
What about Egypt and Assyria?
There is some more information that we can fill in when examining the clues from the Book of Revelation and historical information. First of all, what material was of prime importance in the Egyptian period? I think that is fairly easy to answer. It is stone of course. Hieroglyphics were engraved in stone.
The main material in Assyria used for inscriptions was clay so it could be argued that clay could be the material of the Assyrians although it was used by other cultures. The Assyrian Empire arose in northern Mesopotamia and derives its name from the important city of Assur. The Assyrians spoke Semitic languages but adopted cuneiform writing from Sumer. It first flourished as the neo-Sumerian Empire. Sumer was the smaller and earlier of the two kingdoms, responsible for, among other things, the invention of writing ca. 3500-3000 BC on clay tablets.2 Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge-shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform (“wedge-shaped,” from the Latin cuneus, meaning “wedge”), written on wet clay with a sharpened stick, or stylus.3
The emerging picture
The emerging picture is becoming clearer and clearer with only the mysterious kingdoms or mountains 7 and 8 still yet to be deciphered. The clues are in Rev. 17:9-10 where it says that five kings have fallen, one is and one is yet to come yet it will only remain for a little while. When one considers empires or kingdoms or wars that have oppressed the Jews one cannot ignore the Nazi Empire from 1933-1945. It fits the clue of only being around for a little while — 12 years to be exact. Also when one considers that only the Nazis under Adolf Hitler apart from Haman desired to completely exterminate the Jews. Of course, they were empowered by the same being – Satan so that makes sense. There is an amazing parallel between Haman and Hitler and both are a type of the beast to come. See my blog, “The ten sons of Hitler.” Furthermore, World War 2 was responsible for the deaths of between 60-85 million people, the most of any war in history, and was centred on anti-Semitism and the systematic removal of the Jewish race. To avoid this conflict and this kingdom from the big picture of the mountains is really unthinkable in my mind. Now, of course not every metaphor is part of the picture such as the body parts of some of the kingdoms and the rulers to some degree are derived from history. (scroll to the right to see more of the table)
Kingdom | Material | Body Part | Ruler |
1. |
Egypt |
stone |
Pharaoh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2. |
Assyria |
clay |
The Assyrian | |
3. |
Babylon |
gold |
head |
Nebuchadnezzar |
4. |
Persia |
silver |
chest |
Haman |
5. |
Greece |
brass/copper/bronze |
belly and thighs |
Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) |
6. |
Rome |
iron |
two legs |
Caesar (Western and Byzantine) |
7. |
lead | |||
8. |
iron and clay |
ten toes |
Antichrist | |
9. |
Millennial |
rock |
Christ |
The interesting aspect is that Rev. 17:11 says that the beast comes up out of the abyss and belongs to one of the seven kingdoms so the Antichrist has to be resurrected from one of the seven historical kingdoms. He is the eighth ruler. The other clue in Rev. 13:3 is that one of the seven heads (rulers) had had a fatal head wound that had been healed. The only ruler in history that this could possibly apply to is Adolf Hitler as the dictator of the seventh kingdom. Hitler was the seventh king and he will be the eighth king who will be resurrected. The Nazi Empire by implication is the material lead. What material can we think of that was used to kill millions and millions of people in World War 2? Is it not the lead slugs which is highly toxic in the bullets? This is the only kingdom in history that has used the modern technology of guns with lead bullets. I think it would be fair to associate the Nazi Empire with lead. In fact, nearly one-third of the 6 million Jews murdered were killed by a shot to the head in mass shootings often in broad daylight. This is often referred to as the holocaust by bullets.4
The fact is that lead is an appropriate metal to associate with the Nazi regime. The eighth kingdom however is associated with iron and clay mixed. Daniel describes how this kingdom will not have unity. It will be as strong as iron in the sense, like the Nazis of old, all opposition will be harshly dealt with, but it will become fragmented like clay. A great picture of how things will be in this final empire.
This also makes total sense because clay was the material of the Assyrian Empire and the final tribulation dictator is also known as “The Assyrian.”5 So how does iron fit into the analysis mixed with clay? If the beast is a resurrected Adolf Hitler this makes total sense because he was trying to establish the 3rd Reich, the third Roman Empire. The first Reich was the Holy Roman Empire starting under Charlemagne in 800 until defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French in 1806. The 2nd Reich was the German Empire, also referred to as Imperial Germany, from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918. In other words, a final resurrected Hitler may indeed establish a fourth Reich, a continuation of Roman glory whose metal is designated as iron. It will be a combination of iron and clay in the form of ten toes or ten regional powers-the New World Order.
The final picture
Hopefully, by now you can see why both metals and body parts are needed to describe the 8 kingdoms of the earth. The order is both established from head to toe and from the abundance of metals in the earth from precious to most common (stone–>clay). So here is the final picture… (scroll to the right to see more of the table)
Kingdom | Material | Body Part | Ruler |
1. |
Egypt |
stone |
Pharaoh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2. |
Assyria |
clay |
The Assyrian | |
3. |
Babylon |
gold |
head |
Nebuchadnezzar |
4. |
Persia |
silver |
chest |
Haman |
5. |
Greece |
brass/copper/bronze |
belly and thighs |
Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) |
6. |
Rome |
iron |
two legs |
Caesar (Western and Byzantine) |
7. |
Nazi (3rd Reich) |
lead |
Adolf Hitler | |
8. |
NWO (4th Reich) |
iron and clay |
ten toes |
Resurrected Adolf Hitler |
9. |
Millennial |
rock |
Christ |
All will be destroyed
The good news is that the rock destroys all kingdoms before it and it grows into a magnificent new mountain where the ruler is Christ.6 To some degree all evil Gentile kingdoms evolve and incorporate the previous kingdoms before them. Similarly, the New World Order (NWO) will incorporate characteristics from the previous seven kingdoms.
For further information see Nelson Walter’s YouTube on this subject below which gave me the idea to do this blog…. (He differs on some of the analysis that I have presented.)
4 Responses
Looks like we have lots to study and pray about. I found that Joel has a lot of sound biblical teaching, yet like a well cooked chicken, I’ve learnt to eat the meat and spit out the bone. Mate it’s great to find a church that’s on the same page of the End Time’s. Bless you both , See you Tuesday night.
I just read your blog Who is the Assyrian? ( Very interesting )
Thanks Richard. It’s great to have you onboard!
Hi Brother, thought you may enjoy this study! After your teaching tonight I went straight home and took a look at this session from Joel Richardson bible study on, THE BOOK OF REVELATION // Session 14: The Conquering Rider on the White Horse.
Assyrian seems to stand out in this session.
Thanks Richard. Have you seen my blog “Who is the Assyrian?“?