The fourth dreadful beast (Roman Empire) in Daniel's vision had ten horns.¹ These horns represent power and dominion.² The horns are ten in number to symbolize wholeness and completeness.³ The ten horns, therefore, represent Satan's universal power and dominion in the modern nations represented by the number ten.⁴ The same modern nations⁵ are universally represented by the ten toes of iron and clay from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel chapter 2.⁶ The ten toes are not ten specific kingdoms or nations as some suggest.⁷ They represent the whole or complete number of all nations in the modern world where Satan has his power and dominion.⁸

Daniel chapter 7 states that the ten horns are ten kings that shall arise,⁹ but they are not just earthly kings per se. Satan is a king over his spiritual dominions,¹⁰ and his agents are at work in all the modern nations.¹¹ They have great power¹² to influence and blind the many mortal heads of state in the world today.¹³ Therefore, the ten horns of power represent Satan's dominion in the modern nations,¹⁴ and not just the nations themselves.¹⁵ Similarly, the fourth dreadful beast represents Satan's dominion in the Roman Empire,¹⁶ as distinguished from the Roman Empire itself.¹⁷

The ten horns in Daniel's vision are an outgrowth on the head of the fourth dreadful beast¹⁸ because Satan's power in the modern nations is an outgrowth of his power and dominion in the Roman Empire.¹⁹ When Rome fell as an imperial power in 476 AD,²⁰ the papal power of the Roman church endured for centuries²¹ in the emerging nations of Europe and Asia.²² Throughout the Dark Ages,²³ the power of the Roman church rivaled and even controlled the power of monarchs and political heads of state.²⁴

Today, Satan's power is growing in the modern nations.²⁵ This means that Satan's power in the modern nations is greater than his power in the Roman Empire that he once used to devour the whole earth, to tread it down, and break it in pieces as recorded in Daniel 7:23.²⁶