Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful king of the Babylonian empire. His fiery furnace and his dreams of the great tree and the statue are all told in the first four chapters of the book of Daniel. He is also mentioned in 2 Kings 24, and in Jeremiah 27 -- 39 where he destroys the kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar represents the kind of church that starts out well but then degenerates into a lust of power that demands obedience to human leaders. Such a church comes to believe that it has the power to to save or condemn, thus falsely claiming a power that belongs only to God.

(Riferimenti: 2 Kings 24:1, 24:8, 24:10, 24:11, 25:1; Jeremiah 27:6, 27:8, 27:20, 39, 39:5; The Apocalypse Explained 650 [29], 652 [16])