~ The Number “4” in Bible Prophecy ~

God identifies either in history or prophecy the number four in connection with the conclusion or fall of an empire of Bible prophecy.

When ancient Babylon fell there were four words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" (Dan. 5:25-28). When the empire of the Medes and Persians fell there were four kings. (There were more than four Persian kings but the prophecy only mentions four, Dan.11:2). When Alexander the Great fell his Greek kingdom was split between four generals (the four horns of Dan. 8:8) that were gradually absorbed into Pagan Rome. Pagan Rome ruled the then-known world for "a time" 360 years, from 31 BC to 330 AD (Dan. 11:24). In the year 330 AD Constantine divided Pagan Rome into East and West, signaling the beginning of its fall.

Pagan Western Rome fell under the first four Trumpets (Rev. 8), which were the leaders of the invading barbarian tribes; Alaric the Goth in 395 AD, Genseric the Vandal from 428 to 468 AD, followed by the infamous Attila the Hun, and finally, Odoacer the Heruli who forced the last Roman Emperor to abdicate his throne. Theodoric the Ostrogoth also ruled as an independent monarch in Rome, ending in 526 AD. (Notice the names of the three tribes that were eliminated to make room for the papacy.) There are seven Trumpets but the last three are separated from the first four by the term "Woe." (The last three are "Woe" Trumpets, referring to the actions of Islam.) The pagan barbarian tribes were absorbed into Papal Rome by 538 AD, which continued to be divided into East and West.

Eastern Rome was "tormented" during the first "woe" (the 5th Trumpet) by the disorganized Arab Moslems for 150 years, from July 27, 1299 AD to July 27, 1449AD,  (the "five months" of Rev. 9:5) when the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople voluntarily, in effect, gave his kingdom up, or fell, to the then Turkish Moslems.

Eastern Rome was then conquered, or fell, to the "four angels," the four Turkish Moslem Ottoman Sultans, who began the second "Woe" (the 6th Trumpet) on July 27, 1449, and continued for 391-years-15-days, ending on August 11, 1840 (the "hour, day, month, and year" of Rev. 9:15). At that time the last Sultan of the then enfeebled Moslem Ottoman Empire (also voluntarily) gave control of his kingdom, or fell, to the "four powers" of Christian Europe, one being Russia. Then the 7th Trumpet began (containing the third Moslem "Woe") with increasing strifes and world wars. During those wars Russia grew into a great atheistic empire, the USSR, and when the Soviet Union fell in 1989, it paralleled the fall of the Ottomans, and signaled the arrival of the "fourth angel" of Revelation 18. 

Today, under the sounding of the 7th Trumpet, Christianity, including America, is in the process of its own fall, being absorbed (again, voluntarily) into the final Modern Babylon, a three-fold, global union of Church and State, administered by the pagan United Nations, enforced by the apostate Protestant United States, and ruled over by the united "Universal Church," the papacy. When this Modern Global Babylon finally comes to its own fall, it will be accomplished in part by the third Islamic Jihad "Woe", or the "four winds" (Rev. 7:1-3) of global Islam. Then Jesus returns to rescue His people!

Adapted from www.Future-News.org, Vol. 10, #3, March 2006