Rome.
Daniel continued his explanation of the dream image: “As for the fourth
kingdom [after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece (not including Egypt and
Assyria)], it will prove to be strong like iron. Forasmuch as iron is crushing and
grinding everything else, so, like iron that shatters, it will crush and shatter
even all these.” (Daniel 2:40) In its strength and ability to crush, this world
power would be like iron—stronger than the empires represented by gold,
silver, or copper. The Roman Empire was such a power. Rome crushed and
shattered the Grecian Empire and swallowed up remnants of the Medo-
Persian and Babylonian world powers.
Lets look at how the Rome empire fell.
To quote Mike Maloney again.
"Rome just as every empire in history never learnt from the mistakes of past
empires. Over the many years of Roman leaders various leaders inflated the
Roman currency supply by debasing the coinage and issuing more paper
receipts than they held real money gold and silver. All this led to one of the
worlds first known about hyper inflation's. At one time a pound of gold was
worth 50,000 Denari in the year AD 301, but 50 years later it was worth 2.2
billion denari. It had risen 42,400 times in 5 decades. In modern times to
compare, 50 years ago gold was $35 an ounce if it rose the same amount in
the same time period it would today be worth over $1.5 million an ounce. If
an average new car sold for about $2000 50 years ago which they did, the
average new car today would sell for $85 million."
The Romans expanded the currency supplies so much that there was not
enough gold and silver or even copper. Thus the Iron coins replaced monetary
metals, iron was almost unlimited in supply so these new iron coins that were
'fiat' as in the government says you have to use them slowly replaced the
monetary metals gold, silver and copper. This could be why the Bible
represents Rome and indeed the next world power Anglo-America using iron.
Because the idea continued through to our day, iron/steel coins going through
the legs all the way down to the feet mixed with clay. Even today the majority
of the coinage in the Anglo-American currency is made of iron or similar low
value metals. You almost certainly have iron/steel coins in use today look in
your pocket or purse. I think a lot of the old cupro-nickel coins are nickel clad
steel in the UK, actually Wikipedia (take them for what you will) states only
5p and 10p are nickel plated steel from Jan 2012. 20p, 50p is still cupro-
nickel. In 1992 the copper 1p and 2p coins in the UK were replaced with
copper coated steel coins. Steel is actually an iron alloy with a carbon content between .2 and 2.1
percent. Steel is a common name for many combinations of Iron. So much of
modern coinage today is iron/steel. This started with the Roman empire which
could be why the Bible depicts Rome then Anglo-America using iron.
Iron may be worth a little more than paper but it is still classed as currency
not money. It does not hold its value over very long periods of time like
money does.
I have long been studying the image in the book of Daniel so to review my
theory - the head was gold because Babylon used gold as the monetary
system the chest and arms were silver because medo-persia used silver as
money systems then the hips were copper because Greece debased their
gold and silver coins with copper then the legs were made of iron is it
because Rome then Anglo-America used iron/steel coins in place of the
monetary metals?
Dan chapter 2 says the feet were partly made of iron and partly made of clay.
I wonder if the clay could represent the cashless society we are becoming?
Could the clay mixed with iron represent unbacked digital and unbacked
crypto currency? All the dominant world powers started off using Monetary
PM's and then the cycle repeats but its a little different each time just as its a
little different in our time now that the cycle is repeating but this time we
have unbacked crypto as the cycle repeats.
Lets get back to Rome and how the monetary cycle repeated as always. To
look at the mentality of the Roman emperors, we can look just at the advice
that the Emperor Septimius Severus gave to his two sons, Caracalla and
Geta. This is supposed to be his final words to his heirs. He said, "live in
harmony; enrich the troops; ignore everyone else." Now, there is a monetary
policy to be marveled at!
Caracalla did not adhere to the first part of that advice; in fact, one of his first
acts was to murder his brother. But as for enriching the troops, he took that
so seriously to heart that his mother remonstrated with him and urged him to
be more moderate and to restrain his increasing military expenditures and
burdensome new taxes. He responded by saying there was no longer any
revenue, just or unjust, to be found. But not to worry, "for as long as we have
this," he insisted, pointing to his sword, "we shall not run short of money."
His sense of priorities was made more explicit when he remarked, "nobody
should have any money but I, so that I may bestow it upon the soldiers." And
he was as good as his word. He raised the pay of the soldiers by 50 percent,
and to achieve this he doubled the inheritance taxes paid by Roman citizens.
When this was not sufficient to meet his needs, he admitted almost every
inhabitant of the empire to Roman citizenship. What had formerly been a
privilege now became simply a means of expanding the tax base.
He then went further by proceeding to debase the coinage. The basic coinage
of the Roman Empire to this time — we're speaking now about 211 AD — was
the silver denarius introduced by Augustus at about 95 percent silver at the
end of the 1st century BC. Which makes it more durable similar to 9.25%
silver today. The denarius continued for the better part of two centuries as
the basic medium of exchange in the empire.
By the time of Trajan in 117 AD, the denarius was only about 85 percent
silver, down from Augustus's 95 percent. By the age of Marcus Aurelius, in
180, it was down to about 75 percent silver. In Septimius's time it had
dropped to 60 percent, and Caracalla evened it off at 50/50. Same as the
Greeks did who discovered debasing silver coins when you run out of silver.
But the real crisis came after Caracalla, between 258 and 275, in a period of
intense civil war and foreign invasions. The emperors simply abandoned, for
all practical purposes, a silver coinage. By 268 there was only 0.5 percent
silver in the denarius.
Prices in this period rose in most parts of the empire by nearly 1,000 percent.
The only people who were getting paid in silver were the barbarian troops
hired by the emperors. The barbarians were so barbarous that they would
only accept silver in payment for their services. They were smart enough not
to fall for debased coinage.
But ten years later, he finally abandoned the silvered coinage, which by this
time was simply a bronze coin dipped in silver rather quickly. Now one interesting thing with all this inflation should be a great comfort to
us: historians of prices in the Roman Empire have come to the conclusion that
despite all of this inflation — or perhaps we should say, because of all of this
inflation — the price of silver, in terms of its purchasing power, remained
stable from the first through the fourth century. In other words, silver
remained, in terms of its purchasing power, a stable value whereas all this
other coinage just became increasingly worthless. Silver on average
maintained it historical average norm of a tenth of a troy ounce or about
3grams valued at a 12 hour hard human labor 1 days wage.
A practical example is in Acts 19:19 which tells us something enlightening
about newly converted Christians in Ephesus at the time Rome was the
dominant world power: “Quite a number of those who practiced magical arts
brought their books together and burned them up before everybody. And
they calculated their value and found them worth 50,000 pieces of silver.”
The silver piece in question was the Roman denarius which was 0.1ozT of
silver, the sum would have equaled the combined 12hr daily wage of 50,000
average workers—a substantial amount!
Imagine today in 2014 in the west an average 12 hr days wage today is $120
then the modern day equivalent value would be $6million. Yet to show how
undervalued silver is today this 50,000 tenth of a troy ounce of silver would
today be able to be bought for just $100,000 ($20ozx5000oz).
Also of note is that just before Rome fell the barbarians demanded a ton of
silver to not sack Rome, but the Romans would not or could not pay them, so
they sacked Rome. I think it was the latter.
But they could pay them as many debased 5% silver denarius coins as they
could carry. The barbarians said no way we're not falling for that, only silver. I
wonder if they would have fallen for unbacked US dollars or bitcoins? I doubt
it.
In the end it was currency debasement that brought down the Roman empire.
Just like every empire throughout history it thought it could go from money to
currency and get away with it. As you can see debasing currency is a pattern
that repeats throughout history. It is a pattern that always ends badly.
To repeat a key take away point as already said and as Chris Duane brings
out in his truth never told and silver bullet silver shield series of video's
"When the Barbarians were at the gates of Rome they gave them the choice
of paying 1 ton of silver and they would not sack Rome. As Chris says The
Romans either would not or could not come up with 1 ton of silver, I think it
was the latter. But they could offer a lot of currency to the barbarians which
of course was almost worthless hence the barbarians sacking Rome and leading to an end to the great Roman world power.
But the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image pictured not only the
Roman Empire but also its political outgrowth. Consider these words we have
already looked at recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five
have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he
must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he
was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen
kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and
Greece. The sixth—the Roman Empire—was still in power. But it also was to
fall, and the seventh king would arise from one of Rome’s captured territories.
What world power would that be? Britain was once a northwestern part of the
Roman Empire. But by the year 1763, it had become the British Empire—the
Britannia that ruled the seven seas. By 1776 its 13 American colonies had
declared their independence in order to set up the United States of America.
In later years, however, Britain and the United States became partners and
have been ever since. Thus, the Anglo-American combination came into
existence as the seventh dominant world power of Bible prophecy. Like the
Roman Empire, it has proved to be “strong like iron,” exercising ironlike
authority. The iron legs of the dream image thus include both the Roman
Empire and the Anglo-American dual world power.
We can learn from the way Daniel described the metal image that the Anglo-
American world power would come from Rome, not conquer Rome. Daniel
said the iron starts in the legs and continues to the feet and toes. In the feet
and toes the iron is mixed with clay. This clay that is mixed in with the iron
means people within the Anglo-American world power that make it weaker
than the Roman empire was. Just as solid iron is stronger than iron mixed with
clay. Daniels prophecy says that the clay means "the offspring of mankind"
Dan 2:43. The common people have weakened the Anglo-American world
power when they have fought for civil rights, to have more freedom and even
to become independent nations.
The common people make it hard for this world power to become strong like
iron.
Daniel said in v42 of chapter 2 "The Kingdom will partly prove to be strong
and will partly prove to be fragile."
We the common people have the power to walk away from their debt and
death paradigm. If we get out of all of their paper ponzi schemes and buy
silver, we can start a silver revolution. I strongly recommend Chris Duane's
work for understanding how the common people can just walk away. If we
walk away we take away their power and enpower ourselves. All we have to
do is sell everything we have have in their dying paper currency denominated
World and buy rel physical silver and take it off the market.