"The Bible says that these beasts, from Daniel, will be kingdoms during the time that Jesus returns."
The symmetry of four beast empires before the Cross and four after the Cross and the two previous empires before the four in Daniel 2 and the two previous ones after the Cross coming before that quartet in Daniel 7 imply that the empires of Daniel 7 will exist when Christ returns. Revelation 13: 1-3, though, does not say that all four of the beasts of Daniel 7 are in complete power in the period of time after the Cross when Revelation 13 is fulfilled.
Revelation 13: 2 says "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
The first beast of Revelation 13 is said to be like three of the four beast kingdoms in Daniel 7, not that it is all four empires of Daniel 7.
Like is from the Greek omoios, or homoios Strong's number 3664, from 3674, meaning "similar in character or appearance, like..."
It is true that the four empires of the statute dream of Daniel 2 - Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome all interacted with Old Covenant Israel.
In rejecting the four Daniel 7 beast empires as being after the Cross, the Capital C Church (not everyone but most in the churches) is failing to understand that after the Cross Israel still exists. The four beast kingdoms of Daniel 7 interact with Israel of the New Covenant, just as the four statute empires of Daniel 2 interacted with Old Covenant Israel.
In dispensationalism God has two peoples, the Capital C Church and Old Covenant Israel. This rejects the message of Jeremiah 18: 1-6, that Old Covenant Israel was not replaced by the Capital C Church nor does it stand alongside the Capital C Church, but that Israel as the one people of God was remade.
The Capital C Church, is different from the small c church, which is more like Tyndale's congregations in his 1526 English translation of the Textus Receptus, retaining the meaning of ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation. The Roman Catholic Church is a Capital C Church and so is the dispensationalist Church, which is made to be another people of God, alongside Old Covenant Israel (in dispensationalism).
"And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it...........6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." Jeremiah 18: 4, 6
The remaking of the vessel, Israel, is a foundational doctrine of the New Covenant, though subtle as a strand that runs through the Gospel of Christ. The New Covenant of Jesus Christ was opposed by the multitude of the earlier version of the vessel, Old Covenant Israel. It was not opposed by the remnant of Israel (Romans 11: 1-5).
“Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” Romans 9:20.
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonor?” Romans 9:21.
Israel was remade, changed or transformed by God into the New Covenant, and so Israel exists as the one people of God (John 10: 16, Romans 12: 4-5, Ephesians 4: 4) in the timeline after the Cross and will exist when Christ returns.
What Revelation 13: 1-3 is saying is that the first beast of Revelation is a composite of an empire which has the traits of the lion, bear and leopard empires of Daniel 7 and is somehow allied with the head of the beast whose deadly wound was healed, which is the Little Horn found in Daniel 7: 8, immediately following the four beast empires. Since the first beast of Revelation 13 is said to be like the lion, bear and leopard empires and that fourth empire of Daniel 7: 7 is not mentioned there, it is implied that the first beast as a composite is somehow that "fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly..."
What nation on the scene during the reign of the lion, bear and leopard empires has traits of all three of these empires? That nation grew out of the lion empire, has had Marxist influences during the 20th century, and incorporated former Nazi operatives into its intelligence apparatus as part of the national security state. It became the national security state (1947) though it was once a constitutional republic.
