(3) The fourth was the Roman Empire (Dan. ii. 40), which was the greatest of them all, and which the Muslim version of history entirely omits: (4) The revived Persian Empire under the Sasanians might be counted as the fifth, or as the third Empire, but could not be the fourth, and yet the prophecy refers to what happened during the fourth Empire (Dan. ii. 40, 44; vii. 7, 19, 23). That the Macedonian Empire was the third, and not the fourth, is clear from what is actually said about it, for it overthrew the Persian Empire (Dan. viii. 5, 7, 21), and, after Alexander's death, was divided into four (Dan. viii. 8, 22) and thus gradually faded into insignificance and was swallowed up by the Roman Empire. It was in the time of the Roman Empire, when it ruled nearly the whole civilized world, that Christ was born in part of that Empire. The kingdom which He set up was "not of this world" (John xviii. 36; Luke i. 31-33; Dan. vii. 13, 14, 27) and did not spread through the sword, like all earthly kingdoms. Christ called Himself the Son of Man, and thus showed that He was the person mentioned in Dan. vii. 13. His is the kingdom which is described as the stone that filled the whole earth (Dan. ii. 45). When He returns, to Him every knee shall bow (Phil. ii. 9-11).

16. Habakkuk iii. 3. Muslims seem to fancy that "The Holy One from Mount Paran" was Muhammad. But we find that the verse goes on to say "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise", where the use of the singular pronoun clearly shows that the "Holy One" is God, who is mentioned at the beginning of the verse. We have already seen that Mt. Paran is in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and not anywhere near Mecca. Teman was a district and town in Edom, the town of this name being not far from Sela (Petra), and only a few days' journey south of Jericho. Mt. Paran and Teman were therefore close to one another, and both were hundreds of miles north of Mecca and very much nearer Jerusalem.

The fact that Teman is spoken of as descended from Esau, father of the Edomites (Gen. xxxvi. 11, 19), confirms what we learn from historians, geographers, and the statements of the prophets (Jer. xlix. 7, 20; Ezek. xxv. 13; Amos i. 11, 12: Obadiah, vers. 8, 9, 10) regarding the situation of the town, which bore the same name. If after this Muslim theologians persist in stating that Teman is in some way connected with Islam, we must ask them to notice how in Obadiah God threatens Teman with utter destruction. But we Christians do not apply this prophecy to Islam, because we know that there is no connexion whatever between Islam and Teman.

17. Haggai ii. 7. Here Muslims argue that "the Desire of all nations" means Muhammad, because the Hebrew word meaning "desire" (חמדּה‬ hemdah— حمداة) comes from the same root as does the word "Muhammad". But it is admitted that, even in Arabic, not every word derived from that root refers to Muhammad, still less does every such Hebrew word. This very word hemdah is employed again in Dan. xi. 37, "the desire of women," and there probably denotes a false god worshipped by the heathen. We cannot therefore logically found any argument upon the form of the word. Nor can it be shown that the nations of the world "desired" Muhammad's advent, for the Muhammadan conquest of many lands was hardly to be considered a desirable thing for the conquered, though the Arabs desired to make such conquests. "The Desire of all nations" denotes either (1) "the desirable things of all nations", referring to the silver and gold mentioned in ver. 8; or (2) "the choice of all the Gentiles", that is "the election of grace" (Rom. xi. 5) from among them, i.e. the Christian Church; or (3) the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who did come to His Temple, and in Jerusalem by His Atonement gave peace (Hag. ii. 9; Mal. iii. 3; Matt. xii. 6, 41, 42; Luke xxiv. 36; John xiv. 27; xvi. 33; xx. 19, 21, 26) to His people.