Introduction: The study concerning Daniel two reveals to us through symbols and figures the world’s history from the days of king Nebuchadnezzar till the latter days. Nevertheless, our direction will be centered on that portion of the king’s vision which is not normally talked over. “The light that Daniel received from God was given especially for these last days.” Testimonies to Ministers 112, 113 by EGW.
Review: Daniel 2:1-28 “And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live forever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, Lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have 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, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;”
When does this Vision take place?
Answer: Daniel 2:28 “But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;”
Underline that the vision reaches its complete fulfillment in our time, and that the message is mainly for those living in the latter days.
(Dan. 12:4; PK 547, 548.)
What is the actual Vision?
Read: Daniel 2:31-35 “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 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. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 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 threshing floors; 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.”
How will they multiply and fill the earth? –Let Isaiah the prophet give the answer:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 2:2-3.
Where Did The Stone Come From?
Answer: Daniel 2:45 “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the 
silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
a.The stone came from a mountain.
b. If the image (gold, silver, brass, stone, etc.) is all symbolical then the mountain must also be symbolical.
What Does A Mountain Symbolize in Scripture?
Answer: Daniel 9:16,20 “O LORD, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
- Daniel in his prayer likens the church (Jerusalem) to a mountain.
- It could not be a literal mountain because a literal mountain cannot sin.
- The stone must symbolize People. For only people can sin and not a literal mountain.
Answer: Micah 4:1-2 “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
a. God here shows that in the last days He will exalt His church (the mountain of the Lord’s house) above all other churches and kingdoms.
b. Also, many people will be invited by the saints to join God’s true church—the finishing of the Gospel.
c. Therefore, a mountain in Scripture represents People.
Please notice that Micah 4:1, speaks of the exalted state of the professed church of Christ in the last days Mountains mean earthly governments. The church, here represented by “the mountain of the Lords house, was to be exalted above the hills it was to be established in the tops of the mountains.
Further proof: Isa. 56:7, 2:2; Rev. 17:9; Zech. 8:3; Matt. 5:14; Jer. 51:25; Isa. 51:16.
Exactly What Church Does The Mountain Symbolize?
Answer:
a. It must be the church in the latter days (v. 28). “Our position in the image of Nebuchadnezzar is represented by the toes, in a divided state, and of a crumbling material, that will not hold together. Prophecy shows us that the great day of God is right upon us. It hasteth greatly. {1T 360.3}
b. The church of Laodicea
Rev. 3:14 -17
3:14And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”
c. The Church of the Laodicea is applicable to the Seventh Day Adventist. (3T 252-254)
“The message to the Laodiceans is applicable to Seventh-day Adventists who have had great light and have not walked in the light.” 2 Selected messages, pg. 66:2.
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Revelation 3:21.
Can This Mountain Also Include The Churches Of The World?
a. God has only one church in each era. i.e., the Israelites.
b. According to Rev. 14:8, Babylon (The churches of the world) has fallen, indicating that God’s Spirit has been withdrawn from them. God does, however, have faithful people in these churches, but they will be brought into the S.D.A. church. EW 33; John 10:16.
c. God’s church in the latter days is the Seventh-Day Adventists.
What or Whom Does the Stone Symbolize?
a. A remnant of the remnant church
b. If the mountain is people, then the stone must symbolize people as well for the stone was cut out from the mountain.
c. They must be the people on the last days or God’s Church.
Cannot The Stone Symbolize Christ At His Second Coming?
- The Stone came from the church (mountain), not heaven or the sky. Dan. 2:45
- If the mountain is people, the stone must be people too.
- The stone grows and becomes a Great Mountain a great church. Christ Second Coming does not grow of himself or expand. This is done through His chosen people of God in the latter days. Dan. 2:45
- The growth of the stone reveals the rapid growth of the purified church (the stone). It indicates that many, many, new converts will join the ranks of the true people of God. This cannot happen at the second visible return of Christ, for the gospel would have already been completed, probation closed, and the plagues fallen. Therefore, the Stone cannot symbolize Christ Second coming in the clouds of glory.
- We can also say that the stone symbolize Christ in the persons of His faithful Servants not at His Second Advent. Just like apostle Paul say “I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12.
Where Else In Scripture Is The Church Represented As A Stone?
Answer: Zechariah 12:3 “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”
a. Here the church (Jerusalem) is likened to a burdensome stone.
For further proof: 8T, 173, 1 Peter 2:3-5 “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
Who Are The People Symbolized By The Stone?
- The people represented as the stone must be five wise virgin, faithful SDA’s because they came from the mountain (the church).
- They (the stone) are used as God’s ‘servants’ to proclaim the gospel (in power) to the world. This is shown in the stone’s rapid growth.
- The first fruits are the only ones that embody these characteristics.
Read: Revelation 7:1-4 “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
Read: Revelation 14:1,4 “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”
a. Here they are recorded to be ‘not defiled with women’ (other churches-doctrinally) for they are ‘virgins’ (profess a pure faith – COL 406). For proof that women represent churches. See Jer. 6:2, Great Controversy 381. They are called the ‘firstfruits’. This indicates that there are second fruits. One cannot have a first without a second, one necessitates the other. Therefore, the 144,000 are the first ones sealed, they in turn go out and gather in the second fruits- the Great Multitude of Rev. 7:9 ; those from other churches of Babylon and the world.
For Further Study: EW 14,15 (God’s people are called the Advent People) and TM 422 (God’s people are those who follow the Lamb…144,000 – Rev. 14:4).
How Is The Stone Cut Out Of The Mountain?
Read: Dan. 2:45 “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
The stone is cut out without hands, which indicate that it was the Work of Providence.
Read: TM 46,47
“There are two opposing influences continually exerted on the members of the church. One influence is working for the purification of the church, and the other for the corrupting of the people of God.” {TM 46.1}
“all our zeal will not be successful in making the church militant as pure as the church triumphant. The Lord forbids us to proceed in any violent way against those whom we think erring, and we are not to deal out excommunications and denunciations to those who are faulty.” {TM 47.1}
“Finite man is likely to misjudge character, but God does not leave the work of judgment and pronouncing upon character to those who are not fitted for it. We are not to say what constitutes the wheat, and what the tares. The time of the harvest will fully determine the character of the two classes specified under the figure of the tares and the wheat. The work of separation is given to the angels of God, and not committed into the hands of any man.” {TM 47.2}
a. These references reveal that the wheat and tares are in the church and how they are brought in.
b. Page 47.2, reveals that angels will accomplish the separation—not men.
Read: 3T 266,267
“The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin in its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God. Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people. This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work under the figure of the men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.”{3T 266.2}
“Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? Is it those who take their stand against them and sympathize with those who commit wrong? No, indeed! Unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never receive the mark of God’s sealing approval. They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked, represented by the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons. Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those “that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done” in the church. Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are represented as being in agony, even sighing and crying. Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel.”{3T 267.1}
- That the true people of God are those who recognize sin in the church, stay aloof from it, but speak out against the sins.
- The closing work for the church is the sealing of the 144.000. See also TM 445.
- This work of the sealing of the 144,000 is ‘forcibly set forth’ by the prophet (Ezekiel), when in vision he saw five men (angels) with slaughter weapons and the sixth with a ‘writer’s inkhorn.
- Those who receive the seal are those who sigh and cry for the wrongs in the church. “The true Christian will always love the one who faithfully admonishes him, no matter how severe the rebuke may be. David said, “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head:” Ps 141:5″ The Signs of the Times 9, 41.
- Inspiration itself tells us to read Ezekiel Nine.
What Causes the Stone to Grow?
a. The gathering of the great multitude —the finishing of the gospel. See Isa. 2:2,3; Matt. 24:14
Read: Isaiah 66:15-20.
“For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD. For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.”
- Verse 15 shows the Lord coming, but it could not be the second coming of Christ because there is no pleading when Jesus comes in the clouds.
- No one will escape the second coming to go and preach the gospel. (Verse 19)
- There will be no gathering of the nations after Jesus comes. (Verse 19)
- The coming of verse 15 must therefore be the Lord’s judgment in the church, after which a great multitude is gathered into the church, (verse 19).
How will the 144,000 (the Stone) Destroy the Nations?
- By completing the preaching of the gospel in ‘every nation, kindred, tongue and people’ which brings the end of earth’s governments.
- See Jer. 51:19, 20—This unconditional prophesy has never been fulfilled. It shows God’s people smiting the nations – not literally – but with the Gospel.
Jeremiah 51:19,20 “The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name. Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;”
Conclusion: Indeed, their interpretation provides the only key that unlocks the present and the future, revealing that the kingdoms of this world are to come to their end at the setting up of the kingdom of Christ: for the stone which was “cut out without hands” (Dan. 2:34), smote the image, ground it to powder, and scattered it to the four winds.
Click below and God bless….
THE GREAT IMAGE AND THE STONE PART II
