In Daniel chapter 7, the prophet symbolically described Satan's dominion in the Roman Empire¹ as a "fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth."² Daniel does not identify a specific animal by name to symbolize Satan's power in the Roman Empire because no animal known to mankind³ could express just how dreadful,⁴ terrible,⁵ and exceedingly strong⁶ Satan's dominion was in the Roman Empire.⁷ With its great iron teeth,⁸ the Roman Empire devoured Jews by the millions.⁹ It brake in pieces the city walls at Jerusalem¹⁰ and stamped the residue of the temple with the feet¹¹ until there was not one stone left standing upon the other.¹² Legions of Roman soldiers caused this Abomination of Desolation¹³ at Jerusalem in 70 AD.¹⁴ The dreadful Roman beast also destroyed the residue of the ancient church of Jesus Christ¹⁵ and made sport of killing Christians in the Roman coliseum.¹⁶

The fourth dreadful beast in Daniel chapter 7 is also the First Beast that John saw in Revelation chapter 13.¹⁷ Daniel's fourth dreadful beast and John's First Beast both describe Satan's power and dominion that completely overcame the ancient Christian saints during the Great Apostasy of the fifth seal after the time of Christ.¹⁸

Daniel chapter 7 also states that the fourth dreadful beast was "diverse from all the beasts that were before it."¹⁹ This means that Satan had greater dominion in the Roman Empire than in the three preceding empires²⁰ represented by the lion (Babylon),²¹ the bear (Medo-Persia)²² and the leopard (Greek).²³ History confirms this. After the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ, Satan influenced the political powers within of the Roman Empire²⁴ to destroy anyone who professed faith in Jesus Christ.²⁵ The Romans intermittently persecuted Christians²⁶ for almost three hundred years²⁷ until Emperor Constantine reversed the course of religious history throughout the Roman Empire.²⁸

In 313 AD,²⁹ Constantine adopted a counterfeit form³⁰ of Christianity³¹ that eventually became the state religion of the Roman Empire.³² Constantinian Christianity was a counterfeit because two hundred years earlier,³³ the Roman Empire–Daniel's fourth dreadful beast–had already devoured the true church of Jesus Christ.³⁴ Thus, Constantine merged the imperial Roman state with a false form of Hellenized and paganized Christianity. He imposed this false form of Christianity on the empire by imperial fiat no later than the council of Nicaea in 325 AD.³⁵ He and other Roman emperors after him politicized³⁶ this so-called Christian religion that was the kingdom and church of the devil symbolized by Daniel's fourth dreadful beast.³⁷ Satan's dominion in this new world order³⁸ became immediately apparent when Constantinian Christianity persecuted every other form of religion in the Roman Empire.³⁹ Under Constantine, the persecuted church became the persecuting church.

The autonomous nations of modern Europe and Asia began to emerge after the fall of Rome in 476 AD, as represented by the ten horns on the fourth dreadful beast from Daniel chapter 7.⁴⁰ Even though Rome fell, Constantinian Christianity crossed the geographical boundaries in the Roman Empire.⁴¹ Thus, when Rome fell to its apparent death, Constantinian Christianity survived. John describes this in Revelation 13:3 as a wounded head on the body of the First Beast that died and was healed.⁴² In other words, the popes of the Constantinian church continued to have power in the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe and Asia, and Papal Rome endured long after Imperial Rome had died in 476 AD.⁴³ By this means, the fourth dreadful beast from Daniel's vision endured into the modern era under the banner of Christianity.⁴⁴ The growing dominion of the fourth dreadful beast continues today in every conceivable form of false religion.⁴⁵ Daniel also foresaw this eventuality which he described as the ten horns of power on the fourth dreadful beast.⁴⁶