In the previous chapter I explained that there will arise a government that will be a revival of the former Roman Empire.  Many, many scholars know this to be true, and accept this without question.  The problem is that these people focus on the name "Rome".  Therefore, they concentrate either on Italy, or the Vatican, or the European Community (which is not even Italian but in many ways is German).  Some people even look at other powerful nations, such as Russia or the USA.  They focus on the label "Rome" as if it were a guidepost to this government's location.
     However, none of the prophecies give the name of the Roman Empire.  Remember that Daniel named all of the future successive governments, with the only exception being Rome!  (See earlier sections of this work).  This final earthly government is simply called the fourth government or a "beast".  Since Daniel knew in advance what the first three empires would be named, why not name the fourth one also?  Some people might falsely assume that Daniel did not give Rome's name because it was too far into the future to "see" clearly.  However, as I will show in a later section, God did name countries that will be allied with this future government, so obviously God could have told the prophets the name of the fourth empire if God wanted to.
     When we consider that the Book of Revelation also does not name the Roman Empire, even though it was written during that empire, it is obvious that the name of that empire was hidden deliberately!  When John wrote the Book of Revelation he was living during the Roman Empire but even John did not give the name of the Roman Empire even though he was obviously talking about Rome.  John talked a lot about the Roman Empire, but instead of naming this fourth empire he described it by saying what Rome is like and what it does, often going to great lengths to avoid calling it by its name.  Everyone in the early church that read John's writing knew that he was writing about Rome, so there is no doubt that the name for Rome was deliberately withheld.  Why?  God told John not to write something in the Book of Revelation because it was a secret:
  

I believe the secret that John was commanded to hide was the name for Rome.  Since the fourth government is clearly Rome, why didn't God just call it Rome?  There is a reason why this last earthly government was not named.  God did not want us to know the name!  Prophecy is often locked and unknowable until the end-times:
  

     There is something in the name of the fourth government that is a "key" that unlocks prophecy!  End-times prophecy can seem confusing, but as soon as you discover the name of this fourth empire then end-times prophecy becomes clear and easily understood.  Scholars have been looking in the wrong places.  We should not be looking for a place called "Rome".  It has a different label.  To find out what that label is, we must learn all that we can about the former Roman Empire, and we must find out what the Bible says about this fourth government.