Daniel 2:40-43

[1LoverofGod]

The Title verses refer to the Fourth Kingdom in the last days which is the One World Government from which Antichrist will come out of.

This topic is specifically about the feet with ten toes that consist of the iron mixed with clay.

I've heard different theories on what the iron mixed with clay might represent and they have good argument for why they think their theory makes sense.

I have heard another theory and I have analyzed scripture to think about it and this theory seems to fit.
I want to know what others think about it.

First let's examine
Daniel 2:40-43


40 "And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile."

From this passage the Fourth Kingdom will be partly Strong, iron, and partly Weak, clay.
The two components can't mix because they don't adhere to one another.

We know that the OWG will be made up of Ten Horns according to Daniel's dream, or Ten Kings according to Revelation 17.

While there are Ten Kings/Horns, are formed and may be recognized as a form of government for a short time, they aren't a real Kingdom with power until they give the leadership to Antichrist who will then have the power to rule as with "crushing iron teeth" (Daniel 7:7).


9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

12. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast."
Revelation 17:9-13

Here's where it gets interesting.
Note the verses in Revelation 17:9-11

It tells us that the "kingdom" has "Seven kings" in verse 9 and "five have fallen".
And"one is" and "one has not yet come".
Then speaking of Antichrist it says "he was and is not, but he himself also the eight, and Is of the seven and going to perdition".

Now looking at how it tells us that there are kings from among the Ten that fall and left with seven, this shows that this kingdom has some problems with some of those kings, it's divided and they don't"stick" together.
But when there's seven left, out of the seven comes the Antichrist who's given power to rule as leader of that kingdom and is only called an "eighth king" because now he's the One leading the OWG.

This is consistent with
Daniel 7:8....

8I "was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words."

I see the "little horn" who plucks out three of the ten horns consistent with Revelation 17:9-11 where seven are left out of the Ten kings because 3 have been plucked out of the ten by the Antichrist.

As I see the way everything plays out with this Ten King government, it's apparent that it's got some problems with maybe complete agreement or cooperation between the kings that it's divided and doesn't seem to stick together and is why it's partly strong, iron, and partly weak, clay, and can't rule as a government until they give power to the Beast/Antichrist.

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast."
Revelation 17:12

Now it's a ruling government/kingdom with Antichrist ruling, but he will only have that power for a short time/"one hour", because "the days are cut short or no one would survive"
(And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.)
Matthew 24:22

So after laying out the pieces of the puzzle I have put together as to why I think it makes sense that the iron doesn't mix with clay is because at first the ten kings don't seem to stick together because of the kings from among them that fall so they don't have power to rule, after the three the Antichrist takes out, then Antichrist is given his crushing power to lead them, and is why Revelation 13:4 says....
“Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

I'm not very good at explaining well but I hope it's understandable and I would like to have thoughts on this theory.
It's not completely my theory but after digging scripture I put it together so it gives a picture of why it makes sense to me.

 

[Batman]

I've always been highly intrigued by the "iron mixed with clay" verses and Daniel 2:43 (As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.) is as intriguing as it gets. What does it truly mean that "they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another"?

I guess some think it's DNA while others think it's culture, religion, politics, or other.....or combinations of these things.

Very intriguing.

 

[1LoverofGod]

I've always been highly intrigued by the "iron mixed with clay" verses and Daniel 2:43 (As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.) is as intriguing as it gets. What does it truly mean that "they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another"?

I guess some think it's DNA while others think it's culture, religion, politics, or other.....or combinations of these things.

Very intriguing.

Thank you for your comment

 

[RonJohnSilver]

I've always been highly intrigued by the "iron mixed with clay" verses and Daniel 2:43 (As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.) is as intriguing as it gets. What does it truly mean that "they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another"?

I guess some think it's DNA while others think it's culture, religion, politics, or other.....or combinations of these things.

Very intriguing.

I've considered that the mixture could be cultural, specifically, the strength of the Roman ancestor people (Europeans) mixing with the weakness of the immigrant (largely Arab) people. Certainly those two groups don't play well together as we see in the daily news.

Regarding who the 'they' is interesting. If 'they' mingle with the seed of men, then they clearly can't be the seed of men. Chuck Missler was the first that I remember who brought up the idea of 'aliens' or a re-introduction of the nephilim issue, the inter-mixing of human with non-human seed. The NT says that things will be 'like' the days of Noah. How much like that time is unknown. If all of this is post-rapture, then I wouldn't rule out anything. Things will go quickly downhill at that time.

 

[1LoverofGod]

I've considered that the mixture could be cultural, specifically, the strength of the Roman ancestor people (Europeans) mixing with the weakness of the immigrant (largely Arab) people. Certainly those two groups don't play well together as we see in the daily news.

Regarding who the 'they' is interesting. If 'they' mingle with the seed of men, then they clearly can't be the seed of men. Chuck Missler was the first that I remember who brought up the idea of 'aliens' or a re-introduction of the nephilim issue, the inter-mixing of human with non-human seed. The NT says that things will be 'like' the days of Noah. How much like that time is unknown. If all of this is post-rapture, then I wouldn't rule out anything. Things will go quickly downhill at that time.

Thank you for your comment.

 

[1LoverofGod]

There are varying theories on this topic as I stated in the OP.
But since the "seeds of men" has been brought up, here's a commentary that seems to line up with the theory I have mentioned from Bible Hub.


Barnes' Notes on the Bible


And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men - Various explanations have been given of this verse, and it certainly is not of easy interpretation. The phrase "seed of men," would properly denote something different from the original stock that was represented by iron; some foreign admixture that would be so unlike that, and that would so little amalgamate with it, as to be properly represented by clay as compared with iron. Prof. Stuart interprets this of matrimonial alliances, and supposes that the idea expressed is, that, "while the object of such alliances was union, or at least a design to bring about a peaceable state of things, that object was, in a peculiar manner, defeated." The word rendered "men" (אנשׁא 'ănâshâ') is employed in Hebrew and in Chaldee to denote men of an inferior class - the lower orders, the common herd - in contradistinction from the more elevated and noble classes, represented by the word אישׁ 'ı̂ysh. See Isaiah 2:9; Isaiah 5:15; Proverbs 8:4.

The word here used also (from אנשׁ 'ânash) - to be sick, ill at ease, incurable), would properly denote feebleness or inferiority, and would be aptly represented by clay as contrasted with iron. The expression "seed of men," as here used, would therefore denote some intermingling of an inferior race with the original stock; some union or alliance under the one sovereignty, which would greatly weaken it as a whole, though the original strength still was great. The language would represent a race of mighty and powerful men, constituting the stamina - the bone and the sinew of the empire - mixed up with another race or other races, with whom, though they were associated in the government, they could never be blended; could never assimilate. This foreign admixture in the empire would be a constant source of weakness, and would constantly tend to division and faction, for such elements could never harmonize.

It is further to be remarked, that this would exist to a degree which would not be found in either of the three previous kingdoms. In fact, in these kingdoms there was no such intermingling with foreign nations as to destroy the homogeneousness of the empire. They were, in the main, Orientals; with the language, the manners, the customs, the habits of Orientals; and in respect to energy and power - the point here under consideration - there was no marked distinction between the subjected provinces and the original materials of the monarchy. By the act of subjection, they became substantially one people, and readily blended together. This remark will certainly apply to the two first of these monarchies - the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian; and though with less force to the Macedonian, yet it was not true of that, that it became so intermingled with foreign people as to constitute heterogeneous elements as it was of the Roman. In that monarchy, the element of "strength" was "infused" by Alexander and his Greeks; all the elements of weakness were in the original materials of the empire.

In the Roman, the element of strength - "the iron" - was in the original material of the empire; the weak, the heterogeneous element - "the clay" - was what was introduced from the foreign nations. This consideration may perhaps do something to show that the opinion of Grotius, Prof. Stuart, and others, that this fourth monarchy was what immediately succeeded Alexander is not well founded. The only question then is, whether, in the constitution of the Roman empire, at the time when it became the successor of the other three as a universal monarchy, there was such an intermingling of a foreign element, as to be properly represented by clay as contrasted with the original and stronger material "iron." I say, "at the time when it became the successor of the other three as a universal monarchy," because the only point of view in which Daniel contemplated it was that. He looked at this, as he did at the others, as already such a universal dominion, and not at what it was before, or at the steps by which it rose to power.

Now, on looking at the Roman empire at that period, and during the time when it occupied the position of the universal monarchy, and during which the "stone cut out of the mountain" grew and filled the world, there is no difficulty in finding such an intermingling with other nations - "the seed of men" - as to be properly described by "iron and clay" in the same image that could never be blended, The allusion is, probably, to that intermingling with other nations which so remarkably characterized the Roman empire, and which arose partly from its conquests, and partly from the inroads of other people in the latter days of the empire, and in reference to both of which there was no proper amalgamation, leaving the original vigour of the empire substantially in its strength, but introducing other elements which never amalgamated with it, and which were like clay intermingled with iron.

(2) This was true, also, in respect to the hordes that poured into the empire from other countries, and particularly from the Scandinavian regions, in the latter periods of the empire, and with which the Romans were compelled to form alliances, while, at the same time, they could not amalgamate with them. "In the reign of the emperor Caracalla," says Mr. Gibbon, "an innumerable swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest of food, or plunder, or glory. The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was composed of so many different tribes, assumed the name of Allemanni, or "allmen," to denote their various lineage, and their common bravery." No reader of the Roman history can be ignorant of the invasions of the Goths, the Huns, and the Vandals, or of the effects of these invasions on the empire.

No one can be ignorant of the manner in which they became intermingled with the ancient Roman people, or of the attempts to form alliances with them, by intermarriages and otherwish, which were always like attempts to unite iron and clay. "Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great, was given in marriage to Adolphus, king of the Goths; the two daughters of Stilicho, the Vandal, were successively married to Honorius; and Genseric, another Vandal, gave Eudocia, a captive imperial princess, to his son to wife." The effects of the intermingling of foreign people on the character and destiny of the empire cannot be stated perhaps in a more graphic manner than is done by Mr. Gibbon, in the summary review of the Roman History, with which he concludes his seventh chapter, and at the same time there could scarcely be a more clear or cxpressive commentary on this prophecy of Daniel. "During the four first ages," says he, "the Romans, in the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government: by the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absolute empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, was dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the million of servile provincials who had received the name without adopting the spirit of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the subjects and barbarians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preserved and abused their independence.

By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country of the Scipios. The limits of the Roman empire still extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undiscerning eye of the common, Philip appeared a monarch no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and rigor were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of oppression. The discipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the state, was corrupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness of the emperors. The strength of the frontiers, which had always consisted in arms rather than in fortifications, was insensibly undermined, and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the Roman empire." - Vol. i. pp. 110, 111; Harper's Edit. (N. Y.) 1829.

Daniel 2:43 Commentaries: "And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

That was lengthy
But what I get from it is that while the Roman Empire was as strong as Iron, it's rule was directly from Rome.
Now stay with me.
The fourth kingdom is a global government, while it has it's roots from the Roman Empire it's going to be made up of ten kings, and if the theory of ten regions is correct, then those ten kings may be of various backgrounds in ethnicities and nationalities and may have views that clash with the main agenda that ultimately the Antichrist will be in agreement with.
So the seeds of men are basically just different groups of men from different backgrounds of culture.
I think this is how this commentary is explaining it.
I may be wrong but it does go with what I outlined in the OP as to the dividing and not sticking together among the kings and is why some of them fall and Antichrist becomes the strength of that kingdom.