Daniel related: “I happened to be beholding in my visions during the night . . . And four huge beasts were coming up out of the sea, each one being different from the others. The first one was like a lion . . . And, see there! another beast, a second one, it being like a bear. . . . And, see there! another beast, one like a leopard . . . After this I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! a fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusually strong. . . . As for these huge beasts, because they are four, there are four kings that will stand up from the earth. But the holy ones of the Supreme One will receive the kingdom, and they will take possession of the kingdom for time indefinite.”​—Daniel 7:2-18.

Similarly, the four beasts of Daniel chapter 7 symbolize four world powers dating from Daniel’s day and onward, up until the time for the setting up of God’s Kingdom. Daniel lived past the fall of the Babylonian World Power (the lion) and into the start of its successor, Medo-Persia (the bear). Daniel’s long-range prophecy foretold Medo-Persia’s fall before Greece (the leopard), which in turn would be replaced by “a fourth beast,” the Roman Empire and its outgrowth, the Anglo-American World Power.b