1. Look for the waymarks as you journey on,
Look for the waymarks, passing one by one;
Down thro’ the ages, past the kingdoms four—
Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o’er.
Refrain
Look for the waymarks, the great prophetic waymarks,
Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four.
Look for the waymarks, the great prophetic waymarks;
The journey’s almost o’er.
2. First, the Assyrian kingdom ruled the world,
Then Medo-Persia’s banners were unfurled;
And after Greece held universal sway,
Rome seized the scepter—Where are we today?
Refrain
3. Down in the feet of iron and of clay,
State mixed with church, but soon to pass away;
What will the next great, glorious drama be?
Christ and His coming, and eternity.
Refrain
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I really appreciate your website. I have a question for you. Where did you find the lyrics “State mixed with church, but soon to pass away” instead of “Weak and divided soon to pass away”? Thank you!
Rina,
I re-wrote that line. (You must be very familiar with the song, as most people probably wouldn’t have caught that detail!).
Traditionally (and as Uriah Smith explains in his comments from the book “Daniel and the Revelation”) Adventists have understood the ten toes to correspond to the ten horns of Daniel 7, which were the nations that the Roman Empire split into when it decayed.
However, the image of Daniel 2 extends further down the prophetic line, since it represents the earthly powers in existence when the stone of Christ’s kingdom smites the feet of the image. Therefore, the ten toes more accurately represent those “ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” (Revelation 17:12) These “ten kings” do not have power yet, so they cannot be any kingdoms that already exist.
The last beast (or power) formed before Christ returns is the “image of the beast”. The original beast was a combination of corrupt church (Roman Catholicism) and State (the various nations of Europe). This corresponds nicely with the miry clay and iron of the feet of the image in Daniel 2.
Since the making of the image is done by a combination of corrupt church (miry clay) and state (iron), those “ten kings” of Revelation 17, which would correspond to the ten toes of the image of Daniel 2, must be also formed by the combination of religion and state, since they receive power “one hour with the beast”. The image begins in America, but is followed by all the rest of the nations. This would be the final constitution of the ten toes.
“The mingling of churchcraft and statecraft is represented by the iron and the clay.” The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1168-1169.
I thought the song should be updated to reflect this truth.
You can find a more full explanation of the topic here: Churchcraft and Statecraft