I'm not sure I follow your question, but I like the Joel's idea about how to look at Daniel.
For example, regarding
Daniel 2, that dream was given to Nebuchadrezzar about things concerning kingdoms
in the region after Babylonia. The gold statue was the Babylonian empire, then, the next powerful kingdom that reached the Middle East that ruled over Babylon was the Medo-Persian empire, then the Grecian empire. Then, the Parthian and the Sasanian kingdoms came, but they did not rule as far as the others, so they don’t qualify as the iron legs that “will break in pieces and crush all the others [Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian's territories].” The Sasanian did reach the Middle East but for only 20 years, and the Roman empire reached Babylon but only for one year. The Sasanians, Parthians, and Romans did not crush the territory of the Medo-Persian, or the Grecian empire. In fact the Sasanians and Parthians had a lot of the previous empires culturally. That's probably the interpretation of
Daniel 7:12 when it says that while the fourth beast is destroyed completely, the other three beasts are allowed to live for some time after their dominion is taken "As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time". These four beasts came out at the same time in the vision, so it is just a comparison of the four human kingdoms character and ending. Not a timeline saying that they will be coexisting in time and ending at the same time (
like Baxter's interpretation).
The next kingdom that did crush all other’s territory geographically, culturally, and religiously, and conquered Babylon and the Middle East for long periods was the Islamic Caliphates from 632 AD to 1922 AD. Therefore, the iron legs are more likely to be the Islamic Caliphates, and the toes an Islamic Caliphate revival attempt.
Curiously, the first Islamic Caliphates were very united, but they began to be divided among themselves like the Grecian empire started united and then divided, and fought among themselves for power and one part in particular, Epiphanes, attacking the people of God very wickedly.
If the Islamic Caliphates is the one, then that beast is probably already morphing into the 10 horns scenario that will rule with some powerful ruler "for one hour" out of the fragmented current state they are in.
Anyways, I hope Esaias didn't miss my previous post, and even this one two. I'll love to hear his thoughts. He probably went through this view as well in the past.
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