The Unshakable Kingdom
Some people scoff at the intense interest given to end-time prophecies. When the year 2000 rolled around, many people were on edge. And maybe they’ve got a point. The times we live in could make a person fearful. Think about the social, moral, and economic problems that face people today. Over 65 million people have contracted the AIDS virus (about 25 million having died from it), and about 5 million are being added yearly to the total. That’s one issue that makes the world a little tense. Terrorism is another. And people feel insecure when they hear about tampering with the genetic makeup of plants and animals, or violating the structure of atoms. And since roughly half of all marriages end in divorce and growing numbers of couples don’t even bother making a commitment to stay together, people tend to worry about the future of society.
The reality is, there never has been a time like this. Even when a nation or empire was in decline, or verging on moral collapse, there was always another society standing by, ready to take over when it fell. This is the only time in over 4000 years that a global civilization and a global culture have been within man’s reach. Within a generation, the whole earth could very likely be united in a federation of governments, much like the European Union is today. And many people fear that when this coming civilization falls, it’s going to take everything down with it.
So there are good reasons why men are looking to Bible prophecies for direction. People want to have something secure and unchanging to put their confidence in. The world is mutating much too fast for them to keep up, and they have no assurance that most of the changes are for the better. They want to know how it’s all going to turn out, and they’ve heard that the prophets in the Bible have been right. Haven’t many of their predictions already come true?
The Fall of the Statue
The prophet Daniel is a good example of a man whose words are trustworthy. 2,600 years ago, he interpreted a dream for a Babylonian king. The focus of the dream was a huge statue with a gold head, a chest and arms of silver, a bronze belly, iron legs, and feet and toes of iron mixed with clay. From this dream he predicted a succession of empires which would dominate the earth. And history has proven him right. The Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires followed one another, corresponding exactly to the statue, especially the legs of iron, which depicted the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire.1
As for the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay, many scholars have imagined that this would be a revival of the Roman Empire in a modified form. Their speculations carry weight, because Roman law and culture under-gird all of Western civilization. The essence of Rome is like a seed waiting to sprout. The West is obsessed with a united world because they still remember the peace and prosperity that the Roman Empire enjoyed in its heyday — the "Roman Peace."
It is easy to see how the current movement toward world unity will bring about the feet of iron mixed with clay, ending with ten iron-and-clay toes.2 Even now, forces are at work to unify all the organized religions for the purpose of making them a dominant political force in the world. When the Ecumenical Movement succeeds, the governments of all nations will see a need to incorporate the influence of religion as a stabilizing force in society. This mixture of the iron of government and the clay of religion will resolve itself into a federation of ten world leaders. Many people, even within Christianity, see this much about Daniel’s predictions. What they do not understand, however, is the end of this vision.
The Mystery of the Stone
In the dream, a stone was mysteriously being hewn out of a huge mountain. Without human hands it was chipped away, little by little, until it broke free and plummeted toward the statue, striking it on the feet. The iron and clay mixture shattered, and the entire statue fell and disintegrated. Then a mighty wind came up, blowing away the dust, until no trace was left of the once-mighty statue. Only the stone remained. Then, amazingly, that stone grew into a huge mountain that filled the earth.
The fifth-century theologian Augustine claimed that this stone was the Roman Catholic Church, and that it had already become the mountain that filled the whole earth.3 What Augustine failed to consider, however, was that the Catholic Church had not removed every trace of the Roman Empire, but was instead preserving it. In fact, the Roman Church was the beginning of the clay mixing with the iron, which will become the one-world empire of the last days.
Daniel made it clear that the stone is not merely a religion, but a kingdom.4 And it is not just any kingdom, but the Kingdom which the God of heaven will set up in the days of "those kings" — the ten kings of the world federation represented by the toes of the statue. This can only happen at one time in history — the last days of this age. Obviously so, because when the Stone Kingdom falls on the toes, it brings this age to an end.
The relentless progress toward religious and political unity that is now driving the Western world shows that we are clearly in the beginning stages of that federation of kings. Once again, Daniel’s interpretation of the dream is proving trustworthy. So we must also be living at the time when God is beginning to cut the stone out of the mountain of the world.
Not Subversive
Daniel said that this Stone Kingdom will not be left for another people. It will endure forever because it is completely separate from the society of the end times. This is the meaning of the stone being cut out of the mountain. Those who make up this kingdom are hewn out of the world, not by human effort, but by a divine act.
Many groups are forming today, taking their cues from such prophecies as Daniel and the book of Revelation. They are taking steps to isolate themselves from the corruption they see in society, and even to arm themselves for a conflict with the emerging one-world order. The FBI estimates that there are hundreds of such private armies in the United States alone. These survivalist groups think that by stockpiling weapons and supplies, they can make it through the collapse of the present society and take over. But what they do not see is that, contrary to prophecy, they are trying to cut themselves out of the mountain with human hands.
