I kept on beholding at that time because of the sound of the grandiose words that the horn was speaking; I kept on beholding until the [fourth] beast was killed and its body was destroyed and it was given to the burning fire.

21. How were the lives of the “rest of the beasts” lengthened?

²¹ As history books show, the four imperial “beasts” passed off the worldly scene one after the other, in the order of the four metals seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the world-power image. First the Babylonian World Power made its exit off the stage, after it the Medo-Persian World Power, then the Grecian World Power, and finally the Roman World Power. Although those world powers lost their rulership one after the other, their imperial territories and the inhabitants thereof continued on, some remnants of these existing down to this day. That is why Daniel 7:12 says: “But as for the rest of the beasts, their rulerships were taken away, and there was a lengthening in life given to them for a time and a season.”

22. Why is the fourth beast with its “small” horn destroyed?

²² The fourth symbolic “beast,” with its aggressive “small” horn, suffers destruction because of its violent oppressive course on earth, because of its blasphemous words against the Most High God, and because of its continual harassment of God’s “holy ones.” Such ungodly things have been done more recently by the Anglo-American horn on the head of this fourth beast.

23. What happens to rulerships not pictured by the four beasts?

²³ So, the symbolic fourth beast is pictured as being destroyed along with the “small” horn. In historical reality, however, the symbolic fourth beast, namely, the Roman World Power, has its imperial power taken away, in order to make room for the Anglo-American Dual World Power. Various “kings,” or symbolic “horns,” that had been embraced within the Roman World Power, continued on ruling like inferior “horns,” dominated by the crafty “small” horn that had a man’s eyes and a talkative mouth. So, when the Anglo-American Dual World Power goes down into destruction under the fiery judgments of the Ancient of Days, those hornlike “kings,” as remnants of the Roman World Power, perish with it. (Daniel 7:23-26)