The Fifth Kingdom

Approximately one third of the Bible is prophecy. One third of this big book is devoted to prophetic passages, to prophetic images, to prophecies of the future. The word gospel, if you just look at one example, it means good news. And Jesus of course came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. It was a good news announcement about something that was coming in the future. He prophesied of the soon-coming Kingdom of God to be set up and established on this earth in Jerusalem.

In the Old Testament, the prophecies of Daniel are also connected to the Kingdom of God, as we’ll see here today. Let’s look at Daniel 2 to begin with. And if you study into Daniel, if you study the ministry of Jesus Christ, if you study the vision of revelation that God gave to John, you see how all of these prophetic passages tie into the Kingdom of God. They talk about a future kingdom to be set up.

Now the overall framework for Bible prophecy is found primarily in two books in the Bible: the books of Daniel and Revelation. And if you look at these two books in particular, there’s four chapters in those two books that specifically talk about the kingdoms of this world that are to be in place leading up to the establishment of God’s Kingdom. Those chapters are in Daniel 2 and 7, and then Revelation 13 and 17. But of those four chapters, Daniel 2 is what really provides us with the big overview for Bible prophecy, at least as far as these prophesied world-ruling kingdoms are concerned.

Daniel 2 here, and verse 25, we’ll see where these four world-ruling empires lead to. Verse 25 says, “Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, are you able to make known unto me the dream which I’ve seen, and the interpretation thereof?”

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ruled over the first world empire, the Chaldean empire, this was about 600 years before Jesus Christ. And here in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar talks to Daniel the prophet about this unusual dream that he had. And God used Daniel, this young lad, this young Jew, to interpret the meaning of the dream. In this dream, Nebuchadnezzar had seen this frightfully large metallic image.

Verse 27 says, “Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king?” Verse 28 continues, “But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed, are these.” And then he goes on to explain, as we’ll see in a moment.

But God alone is the one who reveals secrets, Daniel told this king. I can’t reveal it to you, but God will do it. God does make known His secrets; He does make known His will; He does speak through men. Amos 3 verse 7, you don’t need to turn there, but it says that God reveals His secrets unto His servants, unto His prophets.

Verse 31, “You, oh king,” Daniel says, “saw and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was terrible.” I mean that’s the way it’s been in history. That’s the way it’s been with world empires, with the kingdoms of men—they’ve been dreadful and terrible. Look at what they’ve done to this Earth, look at what they’ve done to the nations, to people, look at the wars and the rumors of wars, look at the millions and billions, perhaps, who have been impacted by war, famine and pestilence, as Jesus prophesied of.

Verse 32 says, “This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.” So this was the dream and here is the metallic image that this king saw. It was a great image, with a head made of fine gold, and breast and arms of silver, and his belly and thighs of brass, and right on down to the iron of those legs.

These are the four universal world-ruling empires that God spoke of. Each successive substance on this image gets just a little bit stronger, but it also declines in value, or becomes a little less valuable as you work your way down to the bottom of this image, which I think conveys the message that while the menacing strength of these empires will increase leading up to the return of Christ, they also decline in morality and culture and these kinds of things.

This is a quote from the Daniel Unlocks Revelation booklet that we have, it says, “The earlier Gentile empires had more culture and dignity than the succeeding ones. This shows the reverse of evolution.” It’s an important point to make because we haven’t been getting better, even though it might seem that way with all the modern advancements in technology. But really, man has become more brutal, more hateful, more vengeful, more spiteful, as we draw closer to the return of Christ.

Verse 34 says, “You saw till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. [35] Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

So what God replaced this image with, spread over all the Earth, covered the entire Earth. We’ll see more about that stone into just a minute. Verse 36 though, it says, “This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. [37]You, O king, are a king of kings: for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power and strength and glory.”

God gave this to Nebuchadnezzar. And in dealing with Daniel, I mean this man had quite a witness of the true God. And Daniel told him, all that you have is because what God has given to you. And he makes it known that this is God’s interpretation, and we don’t have to go off into our own private interpretation of what this image, or what this prophecy is talking about. God explained it. Daniel told this king that he was the first one, the first empire, representing that head of gold.

Verse 38, “And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven has he given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold.”

So there is the first interpretation, God’s interpretation, of the head of gold. King Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean empire, which ruled the world from 625 to 539 b.c.

Another quote from Daniel Unlocks Revelation: “Daniel was on the scene when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah. God sent someone during the time of the head of gold to reveal the whole image. If you understand the head,” it says, “it’s much easier to understand the whole system—it is Babylonian all the way through. God tells us today to come out of Babylon and the confusion of this world.”

You can see that over in Revelation 18 in verse 2, God says, Come out of this worldly system, come out of this pagan system. Babylon means confusion. And you look at this world and all of the various empires and the different forms of government and all the different religions, and you see how confusing it is. It’s because this is Satan’s world, it’s not God’s world. Satan has deceived this world—he is its god. And so there’s nothing but confusion.

That system was set up soon after the flood by Nimrod and it spread. He’s the one who started these cities and city states, small kingdoms I guess you could say, but the first world-ruling kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar’s, and it came right out of that Babylonian system. And it’s continued right through all four of those world ruling kingdoms, even unto this day. Which is why John, in the last book of the Bible says, Come out of Babylon, come out of this confusion, come out of this society that was established and set up by the devil. I mean, it all stems back to these beginnings, as that quote brings out. I mean, if you understand the head, you understand that the entire system, the whole body.

Verse 39 says, “And after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to you, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Now throughout this prophecy, you can see that the words king and kingdom are used interchangeably. God’s speaking about the same system in each case—whether he refers to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, or the kingdom, the Chaldean empire—these were and are literal kingdoms, ruling on earth, that have ruled successively right through to this day. You’ll see where Daniel brings us right up to speed with where we are today, the latter days, the last days. We’ll see that in just a second.

Verse 40, it says, “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” So if you look at verses 39 and 40 together, you see that—and just compare it against secular sources—you see that after the Chaldean Empire fell, it was superseded by an even larger, an even stronger empire—the Persian Empire, from about 558 to 330 b.c. The Persian Empire represented this breast and arms of silver that the king, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw in that great image, in that dream. And then an even greater empire, a stronger empire succeeded the Persians, the Greco-Macedonian empire, ruled by Alexander the Great, from 334 to 330. It was cut short by his untimely death, but his empire represented the belly and the thighs of brass.

And then after Alexander’s empire, God prophesied that there would be one more world ruling empire, to be more powerful, more dreadful, more terrible than all three before it. And this, of course, was the Roman Empire that came on the scene at about 30 b.c. and ruled for 500 years or so—five centuries. It was the Roman Empire, of course, that was in place during the days of Jesus Christ, during the first century church, and it’s spoken of here in this passage, as having two legs of iron, which symbolize those two ancient capitals of Rome—or the empire I should say—Rome and Constantinople.

Verse 41, it says, “And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch if you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.”

Now there’s a lot that we don’t have time to get into that is covered elsewhere, like in Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and Revelation 17, that speaks of the seven successive resurrections of the Roman Empire, after the empire at Rome fell. There were to be seven resurrections of it. And this one, then, jumps forward, this prophecy here in Daniel 2, to that final resurrection that’s taking place even now, even today in Europe, represented by these 10 toes. The mixture of iron and miry clay, these are all mixed together. Mr. Armstrong brings that out in his booklet on the prophetic beast, and we’ll make that available to you. But these 10 toes represent 10 kings that bring together—or that come together at the same time, right in the latter days.

Verse 43, it says, “As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay”—this is in the Revised Standard Version—“so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.” I mean, it’s very—it’s a very diverse bunch. There’s a lot of differences, there’s a lot of competition between the 10, but they do come together and there is that strength that the Roman Empire has been noted for—every time that it’s resurrected there will be that strength. I mean, it will be a short-lived empire. But it’s going to have all the strength of that iron mixed in together with that clay, or that instability of the clay.

Verse 44 says, “And in the days of these kings”—notice this, this is a key verse—“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shalt not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”

Now Lange’s commentary says, “while these kings are still reigning.” I mean, that gives us the context—that tells us it’s a latter-day prophecy. That gives us the time element.

Let’s just look at Acts 4—you can hold your place in Daniel—Acts chapter 4.

God’s kingdom, we read in Daniel 2, is to break the image in pieces, it’s to shatter this image in pieces, that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. He saw the stone cut out without hands that smote the image on its feet. And that of course was representative of the Kingdom of God.

And you saw how that, in going through all those four kingdoms, Daniel said it to Nebuchadnezzar directly, You are the first king, you are the first kingdom. And we’ll look more at that subject in a later forum. But he was a king, ruling over subjects, in a certain territory, a specific territory, with a government and laws, and so on. And it was the same with the Persians, and it was the same with the Greco-Macedonians, the same with the Romans. So why should we, when we get to the Kingdom of God, then shift gears and assume that this is something that’s set up in our hearts, or something that is the church, rather than a literal government that is to be set up on this Earth, as so many prophecies have told us in advance?

I mean, a third of the Bible is devoted to prophecy; a third of the Bible is devoted telling us what is to happen in the latter days, in the future. If we just accept what the Bible says and believe it. I mean, it charts our course, it shows us where we’re going in this world.

Acts 4 and verse 10 says, “Jesus Christ of Nazareth … is the stone”—skipping down a little bit—“is the stone which was set at nought of your builders, which is become the head of the corner.” Jesus Christ is that stone that Nebuchadnezzar saw in that dream, and that stone in the dream grew into a great mountain, it says in Daniel 2, a great mountain that is a kingdom. That’s what a mountain symbolizes in the Bible, a kingdom a great kingdom.

So we speak of these four kingdoms often, that Nebuchadnezzar saw in that image, but really, the central focus of Daniel chapter 2 is on that fifth kingdom: the stone. The stone that smites the image; the stone that just crushes that image; and then expands and grows into a great mountain that fills the entirety of the Earth. That’s the soon-coming Kingdom of God’ that’s the kingdom that’s to be set up on this Earth, headquartered in Jerusalem.

Look at Revelation 11, Revelation chapter 11. These world-ruling kingdoms, as I said, all ruled over people here on Earth, and so will God’s kingdom. So will God’s kingdom. Daniel prophesied about it, along with so many others in the Old Testament. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel—of what? The Kingdom of God, God’s Kingdom.

Here in Revelation we find so much more about that kingdom. Verse 15, “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world,” the kingdoms of this world “are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Notice here, the kingdoms of this world become Christ’s Kingdom, they become God’s Kingdom. Not the kingdom in your heart, not a kingdom that is a great church. But a literal kingdom, set up an established by God.

Mr. Armstrong wrote this in Mystery of the Ages, “This makes completely plain the fact that the kingdom of God is a literal government, even as the Chaldean empire was a kingdom, even as the Roman Empire was a kingdom, so the kingdom of God is a government. It is to take over the government of the nations of the world.”

How inspiring to think of it, when all of these kingdoms, when all of these governments become the Kingdom of God, once God establishes His authority, His rule on this Earth.

Back to Daniel 2, we’ll just conclude over here. Daniel chapter 2, verse 35 again, “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” The entire earth. That stone that Acts 4 reveals to be Jesus Christ coming soon as King of kings and Lord of lords, it also says in the book of Revelation.

Verse 45 then continues, “Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter”—see, it’s prophecy—“and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” I mean, God has made these things known!

Mr. Armstrong said fulfilled Bible prophecy is one of the very proofs that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Just the fact that these prophecies have been fulfilled. Just the fact that the second empire came along after Nebuchadnezzar, just as Daniel told him it would. The events that occurred after the Chaldean empire, or that first empire represented by the head of that image, it proves—it proves the interpretation of the dream to be true. It is certain, as Daniel wrote. It will come to pass. God’s Kingdom will be set up just as sure as the kingdoms of this world have been set up throughout the ages.