And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure. (Daniel 2:44-45)
The prophet Daniel spoke these amazing words 2,600 years ago, concerning the end of this age. Daniel had been called before the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who was at that time the absolute ruler of the known world. The king had a terrifying dream which he knew had great significance, and God revealed to his servant, Daniel the dream and its interpretation.
The Dream
In his dream, the king saw a huge statue of a man with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. As he watched, a stone was mysteriously hewn out of a huge mountain without human hands. The stone was chipped away, little by little, until it broke free from the mountain and plummeted toward the statue. With extraordinary force, it struck the statue, shattering its feet of iron and clay. The iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed to powder, and a mighty wind came and carried them away so that not a trace of them remained. Then the stone that destroyed the statue grew into a great mountain that filled the Earth.
The Interpretation
The king awoke, deeply troubled by his dream, and urgent to understand what it meant. So, what was the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s mysterious dream? What did Daniel say that caused the mighty king to recognize him as a true prophet — one who spoke the very words of God? And what do his prophetic words mean for us today?
The dream was a timeline of human history, culminating in the end of the age. The head of gold stood for the Babylonian empire. (“You, O king,” said Daniel, “are the head of gold.”) It would be followed by three successive kingdoms, each inferior to the one before it — silver, bronze, iron, and finally iron mixed with clay.1 History bears out Daniel’s interpretation. Three empires followed Babylon in world domination: Media-Persia, Greece, and then Rome. Each one was inferior to the one before it in terms of the authority of its ruler. Each ruler had greater checks and balances on his power. Each successive government, however, was tougher and more enduring.
But what about the stone hewn from a mountain without human hands? What does the stone represent, and when will it come? This question hangs over humanity to this day. One thing is sure: the stone is not part of the statue. It is the fifth and final kingdom that will fill the Earth. It is a kingdom that Daniel’s God will himself raise up, which will never be destroyed — the Stone Kingdom. After putting an end to all other kingdoms, it will endure forever.
Even though Daniel knew that all this would be in the distant future, he must have been overjoyed to know that in the end, the kingdom of his God would have dominion over the Earth. Daniel’s conclusion was: “The great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy!”2
Today is that future, and two questions remain: “Who is the Stone?” and “Where are you in Daniel 2?”
Conflicting Kingdoms
The first four kingdoms represented by the statue were man-made kingdoms, established by force of arms to control the known world. But the fifth kingdom is “hewn from a mountain without human hands.”
Hewing is a deliberate cutting out with the preconceived intent to create something special. The fifth and final kingdom is deliberately hewn out of the world by God in order to create a people of his own who will express his heart and character. This Stone is a kingdom of love which will overpower all the forces of evil that have ripped the world apart since the fall of man. It will shatter all that remains of the world empires that came before it, and bring an end to this age. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the inception of this kingdom:
It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the Earth. (Isaiah 49:6)
This gathered people will be a light, burning intensely, speaking deeply to the heart and soul of every sensitive person who desires to know God and do his will. The demonstration of love and unity that will shine forth from the Stone Kingdom will expose the wickedness and perversion of the last generation of human history. It is this holy people who will be the light of God’s justice and righteousness to the nations in these troubled times. That is what Yahshua,3 the Messiah, meant when he said:
This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the Earth as a witness to all nations; and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
The Holy Nation
A witness is a testimony to the existence of something real. In this case, it is the living demonstration of the kingdom of God. Kingdom means the dominion of the king. The kingdom of God is the place where God rules. When the people of the nations see the lives of this people who are ruled by God rather than by self-interest, they will come to know how human beings were created to live.
Such evidence of a holy life began to be presented to the world 2000 years ago, when the first disciples of Yahshua were gathered together in communities. They demonstrated their love for the Savior by obeying his commands and loving one another just as he had loved them:
All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. (Acts 2:44-45)
But instead of proving to be the Stone that would bring an end to all the kingdoms of the world, the early communities lost their cohesiveness, their oneness of heart and soul,4 and made themselves as worthless as a lump of common clay. Despite the repeated warnings from the apostles and prophets, and even Yahshua himself,5 the early church left their pure and simple devotion to Yahshua. They accepted another gospel, another spirit, another Yahshua lacking the power to save them from their selfishness and pride.6 Therefore, they failed to fulfill the prophecy of the Stone.
The Witness to the World
The Stone is central and supreme in the purpose of God on Earth: It brings an end to the fallen kingdoms of this age, replacing them with an eternal kingdom — the kingdom of God. This is a dramatic contrast to Christianity, which is thoroughly involved in the kingdoms of the world, supporting, strengthening, and even seeking to direct them.7 Such compromise is exactly what Yahshua faced when he was on the Earth. The Jews of his time had forgotten their purpose of being a light to the nations, and had settled instead for their own personal comfort and security. Their religion was only an empty husk. That’s why he told the religious leaders of his day:
The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. (Matthew 21:43-44)
The similarity of Yahshua’s words to Daniel’s description of the Stone shattering the world empires is not coincidental. Yahshua knew of that fifth and final kingdom. The choice of obeying or rejecting God is what Yahshua was speaking of when he said, “He who falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”8 Those who come to the end of their selfish, independent lives and fall upon this stone will see the hardened shell of their hearts crack open, so that the true spirit of love can fill them. Their broken pieces will be perfectly put back together by the Master Potter to form that Stone kingdom.9 Those who refuse to fall on this stone and be broken will find themselves part of the statue of Daniel’s dream, which will be crushed and scattered like dust, never to be seen again, or even remembered.
The ultimate fruit that God is looking for is the witness that will usher in the demise of the kingdoms of this world.10 This will not be done through might or craft. It is not a military coup or a subversive plot to undermine government. The nation that produces the fruit of the kingdom will, by their lives of obedience to their Creator, raise up a standard of righteousness by which God can judge the whole world. It will be a holy nation, a royal priesthood.11 When this demonstration has confronted the world with the clear choice of obeying or rejecting God, then the end will come. He will send his Son to judge the people of the world, removing every trace of their worldly kingdoms. Then the Kingdom of God will be established on Earth as it is in Heaven, bringing everlasting peace.12
A Kingdom of Love
The Stone Kingdom is a kingdom of love. It is a people who love one another as their king, Yahshua, loved them.13 It is a people who dwell together in unity. The unity of the Stone Kingdom is the answer to Yahshua’s prayer on the night before he was crucified: that his disciples would be one just as he is one with his Father in heaven, so that the world would know that he actually came, that he is not just a myth, and that the Father loves them as much as he loves his own Son.14
This unity is a unity without diversity, a unity that cannot come about by mere toleration, compromise, or seeking to ignore differences. It is only possible through God’s love. The spirit of love had been poured out in their hearts,15 just as it was in the first century, and the result is the same:
All who believed were together, and had all things in common… Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common… There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 2:44; 4:32,34,35)
The Unholy Alliance
Many Christians believe that the kingdom of God is going to come to Earth through mixing the clay of Christianity with the iron of Western civilization once again. It would be easy to mistake the feet and the toes of iron and clay for a fifth kingdom. But no matter how much clay (religion) one adds to the iron (government) of the world, it will not become the kingdom of God. It can only be an extension of the fourth kingdom — the legs of iron. The Book of Daniel makes it clear that the ten kings (the toes of the statue) will arise out of the fourth kingdom.16
The two elements of iron and clay, which can never mix, are social democracy and ecumenism17 — one is political and one is religious. Despite the appearance of world peace and unity, it will only be a facade that deceives the whole world, not those who make up the Stone. It will seem to be the answer to all the world’s problems, but it will be a lie.
The Chiseling Has Begun
Even as the Ecumenical Movement becomes a catalyst for the revival of the fourth world empire, a people is being hewn out of the mountain of the world and gathered into communities of love that will grow to be the Stone Kingdom. During the lifetime of the ten kings depicted by the toes, God is raising up his kingdom, and his name will be made great among the nations.
And your eyes will see this, and you will say, “YHWH be magnified beyond the borders of Israel! … for from the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations.” (Malachi 1:5,11)
It will be the restored, fully-developed Body of Messiah, the twelve-tribed spiritual Israel which will roll down that mountain and crush the toes, bringing an end to the kingdoms of the world. Of this fifth kingdom there will be no end, nor will it ever be left to another people. This kingdom will continue into the coming age of peace, governing the whole world and expanding throughout the universe into eternity.18
So, this is the revelation of the mystery of the hidden purpose of America. God established a land of freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience 250 years ago. And he gave us our Constitution in order that there would be a place to raise up his Stone Kingdom in these last days. It all began on American soil, just over 50 years ago, and is beginning to spread to the four corners of the Earth. Come and see...
Footnotes
- 1Daniel 2:37-43
- 2Daniel 2:44-45
- 3Yahshua is the original Hebrew name of the one called Jesus in most English translations of the Bible.
- 4Acts 4:32
- 5Revelation 2 and 3
- 6Corinthians 11:3-4
- 7John 2:15-17; James 4:4
- 8Matthew 21:44
- 9Ephesians 2:21-22; Psalm 51
- 10Matthew 24:14; Revelation 11:15
- 11Peter 2:9-10
- 12Revelation 19:11-16
- 13 John 13:34-35
- 14John 17:21-23; Psalm 133
- 15Romans 5:5
- 16Daniel 7:7,23,24
- 17ecumenism - (Christianity) the doctrine of the ecumenical movement that promotes cooperation and better understanding among different religious denominations: aimed at universal Christian unity
- 18Daniel 2:44
