ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melvin L. Hawkins (BA, 1974, University of Southern Mississippi; JD, 1977, Louisiana State University Law School) accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior as a child in rural Mississippi. He was valedictorian of his high school class, a college honors program graduate in political science, earned his law degree at age twenty-three, and completed a lengthy legal career in Texas. Melvin is a husband, father, and grandfather; an award-winning Christian writer; a former deacon and elder; a church volunteer; and a Bible prophecy student and teacher who completed a semester-long course on Daniel and Revelation at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston in 1992. In decades of studying eschatology, he could not find a book devoted primarily to the fourth kingdom (or beast) of Daniel 2 and 7. That intrigued him because Daniel describes the fourth kingdom in great detail and was particularly interested in “the meaning of the fourth beast” (Daniel 7:19 NIV). Melvin’s view of Bible prophecy as an enduring message of hope for the church led him to research and write this book.