Daniel 7 was a dream yes.
The beasts that came up from the ground where not physical in the flesh, they where beasts yes, but they where all Satan's and each satan representing a spiritual kingdoms in spirit in a dream.
.
I’m trying to just get you to recognize the structure Of daniels book , the interpretations are already written in tbe text. You are trying to isolate something that’s not meant to be isolated please consider this
Chapter 2 Nebucadnezzar king of babylon has a dream Daniel gives the interpretation
“This is the dream; and
we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Thou, O king,( of Babylon anfter they overthrew Jerusalem annd took them captive
) art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
And
after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee,
and
another third kingdom of brass, which
shall bear rule over all the earth.
And
the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall
it break in pieces and bruise.
And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”
Daniel 2:36-40, 44
also you have four kingdoms Babylon is identified as the first kingdom right there but we see that there would be four kingdoms and then God would set up an ever lasting kingdom that would never fall
Now before you lose that train of thought Daniel later has a dream and then he’s given the interpretation
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon
Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
(He has his dream of the four beasts and then wakes and sees a vision of the kingdom of God being set up and the victorious saints ..and then )
…I Daniel was
grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and
asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
These great beasts, which are four, are
four kings, which shall arise
out of the earth. ( that’s the dreams subject matter )
But
the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.”( that’s the vision of Christs kingdom subject matter )
Daniel 7:1, 15-18 KJV
So again he’s seen four kingdoms rising up in the earth ( one has four heads ) then he sees the saints of God possessing the eternal kingdom
(now he shifts to the fourth beast the fourth kingdom he’s been seeing and hearing about )
“Then I would know
the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which
devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of
the ten horns that were in his head, and of
the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of
that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”
Daniel 7:19-22 KJV
( Still the subject matter is these four kingdoms and then now we have more details about what’s going to happen when the last king rose to power but also not shows the saints victorious in the end )
chaoter 8 daniel sees another vision
“And it came to pass, when I, even I
Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And
I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said,
Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.”
Daniel 8:15-16 KJV
This is the last example here , but I really believe it’s worth considering because you are t looking at all of the information your trying to isolate daniel seven only the first half
“And he said,
Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation:
for at the time appointed the end shall be.
The ram which thou sawest having two horns are
the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of
Grecia: and
the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken,
whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.”
Daniel 8:19-22 KJV
Do you know how accurate these prophecies were over the next seven hundred years ?
babylon was overthrown by
media Persia and took power then
Greece led by Alexander the Great conquered media Persia and took power Alexander was killed and his four generals rose up in power over a divided kingdom which resulted in the Roman Empire of Jesus and then the apostles late lives around 70-100 ad
the structure of the book shows several visions of what the subject matter was those four kingdoms that would rise and take dominion over Israel and also the earth at the time Babylon eas the world power then Persia then Greece and finally rome …..
John also is seeing the end of the same things Daniel had seen
john was living in the end of daniels prophecy when Rome eho was the world power at that time was destroying the saints and slaughtering those of Jerusalem for a time.
nero wrapped the Christian’s in oil soaked linens crucified them and set
Then ablaze as lamps they worked then in blood threw them to wild dogs hanged them burned them alive crucified them infact Roman society sponsored Christian persecution for a very long time after the Christian’s were blamed by Nero for the burning of rome which set off e mass persecutions and siege of Jerusalem shortly after John was in exile on patmos because he was a Christian at the time but he was fortunate many were slaughtered like James for instance who was beheaded or Peter who was crucified as Jesus foretold him
i think you would benefit just by reading the entire book like chapter 2 or 8 or just even the rest of chapter seven that explains it ….rather than isolating just the dream and then interpreting it yourself but that’s just my theory on it
