Writing about the Babel enterprise, Georges Steveny, the late dean of theology at the French Adventist Seminary, says this: "The old ’Luciferian’ dream to be equal with God reappears. In fact, it never died. The will to build the world without acknowledging the true God is as tenacious as ever" (Le mystère de la croix [Mystery of the Cross, trans, Eddy Johnson], 51. It would seem that this statement can readily be applied to the powers identified in the dream of the king of Babylon.

"The old Luciferian dream." The Bible indirectly refers to the war that started in heaven because of Lucifer’s desire to be equal with God (Isa. 14:12–15; Ezek. 28). In fact, to be more precise, Lucifer’s contention was about the position that Jesus held in the heavenly hierarchy. But he camouflaged it well under the mantle of pretending to work for the good of the angels by promising a better society where justice and stability would reign.

Doubts and confusion reigned for a while. God had to settle the issue by gathering the angelic hosts and confirming the Son as his own alter ego (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 16, 18). Cast down to earth, Satan fought all those who acknowledged Jesus as king, and he still does. The desert temptations disclosed Satan’s long-held desire when he said to Jesus: "fall down and worship me."

So before history began, a conflict has raged over the issue of preeminence. In Eden, the issue was raised again, and man chose Satan over God. The history of the earth is nothing more and nothing less than the story of the creature’s insane desire to build a society in which there is no need—and so no room—for the Creator.

Frank Sinatra’s well-loved but totally rebellious song, "I Did it My Way," epitomizes the attitude. The story of Cain’s choice of offering and the murder of Abel is the first indication of the shape that the Great Controversy would take on earth.

Soon after the Flood, Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord (many commentators read this to mean "against the Lord"), defied God and undertook to build a society that would do away with God.

After Babel, Nimrod went on to build a number of cities, the most notorious being Nineveh, the later capital of the Assyrian empire, an empire that waged war against Israel for so long. The resistance of the Assyrians to God is well evidenced in the words of Sennacherib, one of its kings, to Judean king Hezekiah: "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you…" (2 Kings 19:10).

A few hundred years before, Egypt had also adopted the same anti-God stance. "Who is God that I should obey Him?" said the proud Pharaoh to Moses.

So we come to Daniel 7. The prophet is given an abstract of the world’s history in terms of its rulers’ defiance of God. Daniel certainly had no problem identifying Satan behind these powers (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome—secular and religious—and the kingdoms that sprang from Rome). All these powers have in one way or another defied God and persecuted his children.

History can be looked at in two different ways. The secular way is to focus on events and explain them. The other way is to see history in terms of the Great Controversy between God and Satan, which is aptly summarized in verse 21: "The horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them." Thousands of years of conflict witnessed the forces of evil prevailing, and God’s children persecuted.

To the prophet, the most frightening part has been his growing awareness that the cruelest of all the identified powers would eventually establish itself as God on earth, and take upon itself God’s prerogatives. The ten horns signified that the power would hold court in one form or another until the end of time, which brings the prediction to our own era.

Throughout history, human organizations have endeavoured to build societies where the true God would have no place. If God was acknowledged at all, it was always in terms acceptable to man. It was God constructed in the image of man. The same is true to this day. The United States is promoting a New World Order in which God has a place only as long as he looks like a Christian Right-Wing Republican. Woe to those who do not bow down and worship.

Israel of old was once asked to choose between two Bar Abbases (the name means "Son of the Father"). One, Jesus, was the true Son, the other, a man accused of sedition, was a fake. The incident was reminiscent of the choice that the angels had to make a long time ago between the Son of God, the true Light, and Lucifer, the carrier of light. The angels that made the correct choice were also, in a way, persecuted. "Satan denounced the loyal angels as deluded slaves…he accused them of indifference to the interest of the heavenly beings" (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 21, 23). Satan was bent on destroying all his opponents.

Without verses 9–14, the vision of the persecuting powers would leave all the believers disheartened. The grandiose judgment scene settles the issue of pre-eminence. When every thing is considered, the one and only being to be acknowledged as ruler is he who looks like a Son of Man, the Prince of Peace. To him is given dominion, glory, and the kingdom. Jesus is God and deserves worship. (Compare Rev. 4:11 and 5:12).

Daniel 7 should keep Christians going whenever they face hostility because of their faith. Dominion belongs to Jesus, and they will be with him. The old "Luciferian" dream will soon be ancient history. Everything shall be done God’s way. Praise the Lord.

Visit Spectrum’s Message Board for an ongoing discussion of this quarter’s subject, "The Gospel, 1844, and Judgment"

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