THE IMAGE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM
(Prophets and Kings, pp, 495, 496)
A mighty prophecy of the kingdoms of men is the image of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the great and ambitious king of Babylon. He longed to know what should come to pass hereafter; and in the dream of the image, which no human could interpret, God made known what should come to pass.
God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, who believed that Babylon would stand forever, the dream. By His prophet He gave to Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of the dream, that Nebuchadnezzar might know that Babylon would not stand forever, and that the king might learn that truth was more than the ambitions of imperialism. God gave the dream and its interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar, not alone that the Babylonian king might know, but that every king who followed him might know, that earthly kingdoms are all temporal at best, and must pass away, and that the only eternal kingdom, which shall never pass away, is the kingdom of Christ [“the kingdom of the Living Stone, Christ Jesus”- 1934 edition] represented by the stone which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The whole image of a man represented the kingdom of man; but the divisions of the image, the metallic symbols, represent the four great world-molding empires which from Daniel’s time on would prevail on the earth. These begin with Babylonia, then at the height of its glory under Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom preeminently which has molded the world. A. H. Sayce says: “In populousness and antiquity Assyria was far exceeded by the southern kingdom of Babylonia” Here were the center and starting point of the civilization which afterwards spread throughout Western Asia.”-The Ancient Empires of the East, 1894 and 1900 eds., p. 93.
“In that country have been revealed the certain traces of the earliest advanced civilization yet discovered as wen as that which had the longest continuous existance…. Babylonia… represented culture, civilization, literature, and the all-controlling power of religion.” -Art. ”Babylonia,” The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York, 1908), Vol. 1, pp. 396, 397.
“No capital in the world has ever been the center of so much power, wealth, and culture for a period so vast.”–Robert Wm. Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 386.
It was fitting that the revelation and warning from God should be given to that great world-molding empire; but Babylonia, the great and golden, passed away under weaker rulers, Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar, in 539 B.C., in the same generation the revelation was given.
Babylonia was succeeded by Medo-Persia under Cyrus the Great. For about two hundred years Persia, symbolized by the silver of the image, sat on the throne of world empire.
In 331 B.C., Darius III (Codomannus) fought the issue of power with Alexander the Great at the battle of Arbela, and Alexander of Greece became the world’s ruler. Grecia’s symbol is the brass. Alexander died in 323 B.C.; and in a few years his kingdom was divided between warring factions and the century following hopelessly weakened and left a prey to the rising power of the emperor on the Tiber River.
Rome conquered the Syrian division of that formerly powerful Greek Empire in 190 B.C., the Macedonian division of that empire in 168 B.C., while Egypt acknowledged the authority of the iron monarchy of Rome in the same year. Rome was united in her beginning, although a republic. Later she became an empire. Into the Roman Empire came division, symbolized by the mixture of iron and clay, through the incursions of barbarians from the north and east of Europe in the fourth century; and Rome, the iron monarchy, became broken forever. There have been mighty efforts put forth to weld the nations of Europe, the divisions of Rome, into one homogenous whole by intermarriage, referred to in the prophecy as mingling themselves with the seed of men, but they have failed. Charlemagne and Napoleon sought by force of arms to build a united kingdom; but they failed. The prophecy declared that these divisions would not unite, even as iron cannot mix with clay. The word, “They shall not cleave one to another,” is stronger than diplomacy or force of arms.
In the days of the last divisions of Rome [toe-kings] the God of heaven shall set up His kingdom, never to be destroyed, never to be given to another people than His own, who shall inhabit it forever. “And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
THE MYSTERY STONE
THAT BECOMES
A GREAT MOUNTAIN
”The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Ps. 14:1. Or, “God is dead.” But the True Book says, “There IS A GOD.”
Yea, as the prophet Daniel affirmed to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, “there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Dan. 2:28.
Those were the portentous words which fell upon the straining, apprehensive ears of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as he listened intently to Daniel’s answer to his question, ”Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?”
Some nights earlier, Nebuchadnezzar had experienced a dream which had profoundly impressed him but which, having gone from him, he was not able to recall upon awaking. Now he was deeply vexed in spirit because the dream had departed from him and he could not bring it back. So in his desperation to recall and understand it, he called in “the magicians, the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans” (verse 2)-all the putative wise men of his realm, and demanded of them both “the dream and the interpretation thereof.” Verse 6. When they protested that he was asking the impossible and the unreasonable of them, Nebuchadnezzar angrily denounced them for the charlatans they were and issued a decree for their execution. But because of Daniel the execution was stayed. He had distinguished himself ”in all matters of wisdom and understanding, … ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all [the king’s] realm.” Dan. 1:20. Now he was escorted before the king, whereupon he assured him “that he would shew [him] the interpretation.” Then God heard the prayers of Daniel and his companions, and undertook for them.
With the holy boldness of inspired assurance, “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.” Dan. 2:27, 28.
Notice that “what” Daniel is about to call up and explain to Nebuchadnezzar is beamed prophetically down here to these latter days. In view of this significant fact, it is not to be expected that Satan would make no attempt to pervert the prophecy so as to conceal or falsify its redemptive truth. Declares Inspiration:
”The symbolic representation by which God had revealed to king and people His purpose for the nations of earth, was now to be made to serve for the glorification of human power. Daniel’s interpretation was to be rejected and forgotten; truth was to be misinterpreted and misapplied. The symbol designed of Heaven to unfold to the minds of men important events of the future, was to be used to hinder the spread of the knowledge that God desired the world to receive. Thus, through the devisings of ambitious men, Satan was seeking to thwart the divine purpose for the human race. The enemy of mankind knew that truth unmixed with error is a power mighty to save; but that when used to exalt self and to further the projects of men, it becomes a power for evil”-PK 505:1.
Since important aspects of the prophecy have been ”misinterpreted and misapplied,” and since they have to do with our day and must therefore be of large consequence to us who live today, the true understanding of them is of vital importance to us. So all will be wise, indeed, very dilligently to seek the truth concerning these climactic aspects of the prophecy as we now take up the study of verses 28-45:
”Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed,” Daniel declares to Nebuchadnezzar, “are these; As for thee, 0 king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the Interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, 0 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 day, Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands …. ” Verses 28-34.
“Cut out without hands–“obviously, cut out supernaturally. But cut out of what? Anything that is cut out, has to be cut out of something. It has to have context. But verse 34 does not tell us. Look, though, at verse 45:
“Forasmuch as thou sawest that the ·stone was cut out of the mountain without hands.” Here is disclosed the all-important fact that the stone was cut out of “the mountain.” Note carefully that it was not out of “a mountain” but out of “the mountain” -obviously a singular mountain, Just one of its kind. Otherwise the indefinite article “a” rather than the definite article “the” would have been used. Now back to verse 34:
”Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out [“of the mountain” as verse 45 reveals] without hands [therefore supernaturally], which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and day, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the day, 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.” Verses 34, 35.
Then with inspired positiveness Daniel boldly asserted, “This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, 0 king, 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.” Verses 36-38.
Precisely what Nebuchadnezzar made of it all, remains cause for conjecture. Certain it is, though, that it left no doubt in his mind that he and his kingdom, Babylon, were represented by the head of gold of the great image.
Continuing his gripping interpretation, Daniel declared: “…after thee [after Babylon] shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Verse 39.
History records the exact fulfillment of the events just as Daniel prophesied: Babylon was succeeded by Medo-Percia as the next great world power. Accordingly, the breast and arms of silver of the great image represent Medo-Persia; followed in succession by Grecia, represented by the thighs of brass; and then Rome, represented by the legs of iron. Projecting this iron kingdom, Daniel further declares:
“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.” Verse 40. Writing of ancient Rome, the renowned historian, James Henry Breasted, states: “The victory of Rome over Carthage made Rome the leading power in the whole ancient world ….
“Thus the fourfold rivalry in the Western Mediterranean, which had included the Etruscans and Carthaginians, the Greeks and the Romans, had ended with the triumph of the once insignificant village above the prehistoric market on the Tiber…. The Western Mediterranean world was now under the leadership of a single great nation, the Romans
”While the heirs of Alexander were carrying on their ceaseless feuds, plots, wars, and alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean,… the vast power of Rome had been slowly rising in the West… the western giant was now to overshadow [also] the whole Hellenistic world of the east…. “Breasted’s Ancient Times, pp. 621′ 622, 624.
It is history’s record that Babylon ruled until 538 B.C., when Medo-Persia overthrew her; that Medo-Persia continued until 335 B.C., when Grecia overpowered her and began to rule the then known world; and that Rome came into her own around the year 30 B.C. to dominate the western world.
Finally comes the fifth stage of the great image-that represented by its feet and toes, denoting the break-up of the Roman power into the many nations of today. With the unquestioned ring of Inspiration, Daniel called them up before the eye of Nebuchadnezzar:
“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ day, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest 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. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry day, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with day.” Verses 41-43.
Thus Daniel made clear to the king, as he directed his vision down through the mists of time to these last days, that the nations of today, in the final succession in the image, would be closely associated, yet would not cleave one to another, even as iron and miry day cannot adhere together. Subsequently, we are brought to the most important phase of the prophecy for the end-time world:
“And in [or during] the days of these kings [in the days of what kings?… in the days of those kings, kingdoms, which are represented by the feet of this great image- in the days of the present kingdoms] 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 [God’s Kingdom] shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it [God’s Kingdom] shall stand for ever!’ Verse 44.
One immediately observes from this verse the fact that the Kingdom of God is set, up, not after but rather, “in the days of these kings”-that is, while the nations, as we know them today, are still in existence in terrestrial time.
On ”the more· sure word” (2 Pet. 1: 19) of this tremendous prophecy, how can anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see fail to perceive that the Kingdom of God is verily at hand! What a joy and rejoicing to all who love God and His Truth!
But Daniel did not end his narration and interpretation of the dream with a static kingdom. Hear and see what Inspiration vouchsafed to him that the Kingdom is to accomplish in God’s hand:
“Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the day, 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!’ Verse 45.
No understanding mind can contemplate the projection in this scripture without acknowledging that it plainly reveals that the Kingdom of God on earth is represented by that stone and that it is to supersede all other kingdoms, all other nations as represented by the feet and toes.
This is not all, Nebuchadnezzar! There is much more to this prophecy than its simply foretelling the rise and fall of nations and the break-up of those nations by God’s Kingdom.
Anyone who disinterestedly reads this passage of Scripture must acknowledge also that it plainly declares that God’s Kingdom is represented by a stone designated “the stone,” supernaturally (“without hands”) “cut out” of a mountain designated “the mountain,” and that this stone-Kingdom is to supersede all nations as represented by the feet and toes.
This verse (45) also makes obvious the fact that there is even more to this prophecy than foretelling the rise and fall of nations and their being broken up by God’s Kingdom. And the even more important, though generally ignored, aspect of the prophecy has to do with the stone and its origin-“the mountain.” You will remember the scripture says that “the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands” and then “smote the image upon his feet.” So in order to arrive at the complete truth of the kind of kingdom the stone represents, we must next ascertain the meaning of “the mountain,” since the stone is a part of it.
This mountain of Daniel 2, out of which ”the stone was cut,” is manifestly not a literal mountain but, like ”the image,” ”the stone,” “the chaff,” and “the summer threshing floors,” is figurative. And the correct understanding of it can be no less essential and important than is the correct understanding of any other part of the prophecy.
In Joel 3:17, God speaks of His Church as “Zion, My holy mountain”; likewise in Isaiah 56:7. And in his prophecy of chapter 2, verse 2, Isaiah designates the Church “the mountain of the Lord’s house,” while Micah, in his “last days” prophecy of the Church (Mic. 4: 1) when it shall be exalted above all other churches and “people shall flow unto it,” terms it ”the mountain of the house of the Lord.” Thus on authority of God’s holy prophets, a mountain in prophecy is symbolical of a church.
Very evidently, then, the mountain of Daniel 2 symbolizes God’s Church today, and embodies the nucleus of God’s Kingdom, represented by “the stone.” And the fact that “the mountain,” God’s Church, is composed of people, it necessarily concludes “the stone” is to be made up of a portion of the membership of God’s Church today. Moreover, the fact that ”the stone” is to be “cut out of the mountain” (Dan. 2:45), inescapably establishes the truth that there is to be a work of separation wrought in the Church. Thus it is that this part of the prophecy is the most important for God’s people today. It is the present truth and hence is crucially vital to them.
Since it is only the righteous that God will accept as citizens in His Kingdom, this prophecy projects not only the rise and fall of nations and their final breakup but also, and more importantly, the separation of the two classes of people, the unrighteous. From the righteous, the hypocrites from the faithful, in God’s last Church.
Which predominate? The symbol tells the tragic story: the stone, representing those in whom, through the working of regenerating, transforming grace, “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (CoL 2:9), is but a small part of the mountain-the Church. ”Many be called, but few chosen.” Matt. 20:16.
Thus the indisputable confirmation of the ”more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed” (2 Pet. 1:19) is given to one of the most, if not the most, grievous of inspired pronouncements: ” … the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal.”-5T 136:1.
The anomalous fact that “the stone” is “cut out of the mountain without hands” exhibits the separation of the one class from the other as a supernatural act, and makes transparently clear we are the objects God will either choose or reject.
After the stone is cut out of the mountain, it smites the image upon its feet and thus breaks it in pieces. And as it continues to break the nations in pieces, thus polarizing to itself the righteous out of “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Rev. 14:6), it grows, filling the whole earth, and is itself in turn symbolized by. “a great mountain.” More explicitly, the stone grows into a much larger church-kingdom-than it was when it was but a small, hidden part of the old mountain of dross.
What is it that causes the Church to grow? It is the stone’s grinding out of the nations, as it were, the righteous and adding them as converts till it becomes as a “great mountain” filling the whole earth! First representing but the nucleus of God’s Kingdom, relatively obscure and few (144,000 “firstfruits”) in number, even as a stone is but an obscure and minute part of a mountain, the Church quickly grows in numbers as the righteous-the great multitude (Rev. 7:9) from all nations- come into it, until it takes on the fantastic aspect, figuratively, of a mountain that fills the earth!
By now it should be luminously clear that the stone does not represent Christ coming in person in the clouds of Heaven at His second appearing, for in the first place Christ is not then in any sense “cut out” of His Church!
Furthermore, at His second coming the wicked are destroyed and the righteous, both living and resurrected, are caught up to Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Accordingly, at His coming He does virtually the opposite of what the stone is to do according to “the more sure word of” Daniel 2:35, 44, 45. For whereas He, at His coming, empties the earth, the stone, God’s Kingdom, fills the earth.
It is difficult to see how anything could be much plainer than that the stone of Daniel 2 does not represent the second coming of Christ, but represents exactly what Daniel says it does… the Kingdom which God is about to set up “in the days of these kings”-the kingdoms of today represented by the feet and toes of the great image.
As the expansion of the stone into “a great mountain” which “filled the whole earth” clearly shows that it represents a literal, tangible, developing kingdom made up of territory and people acknowledging Christ as their Supreme Sovereign, obviously Daniel’s declaring that the stone smites the image on its feet and breaks it in pieces is the equivalent of saying that Christ in His people breaks the nations in pieces. Speaking of the same tremendous event, Zechariah prophesies:
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 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…. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” Zech. 12:2, 3, 8.
In his chapter 51, verses 19 to 23, Jeremiah projects Israel, God’s people, as an instrument by which He will vindicate His name on earth: “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 ax and weapons of war.” Jer. 51:19, 20.
In these prophetic words God is reassuring His people Israel (the Israel of today, spiritual Israel-the 144,000 initially) that they are His ”battle ax and weapons of war”; that it is with them, exactly as with the stone of Daniel 2 and Zechariah 12, that He will “destroy and break in pieces the nations”-the kingdoms of earth. Then He continues:
“And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.” Jer. 51:21-23.
These verses make ”the more sure word of prophecy” more sure, even than is death, that none will be able to withstand God’s Kingdom-His “battle ax and weapons of war”; that nothing shall escape them, as Joel also attests:
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations [margin “generation and generation”]. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame bumeth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men ofwar; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shaH run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter His voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for He is strong that executeth His word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” Joel 2:1-11.
Micah and Isaiah prophesy the same great- and dreadful-day event in virtually the sarr1e words: “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” Mic. 4:1; Isa. 2:2.
With this world-shaking exodus of righteous souls out of the doomed nations of earth into the purified house of God, His Kingdom Church, it will thus be exalted above all other churches and kingdoms. All will recognize that Christ’s righteousness is truly the soul-apparel of this great host of redeemed from among the living tribes of mankind-“in the days of these kings,” before the second Advent of Christ, not during the millennium when the devil is bound and the earth is in a state of void, and when “the mystery of God” is “finished” and henceforth Christ is no longer a Saviour to save any.
“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.” Mic. 4:2.
Being privileged to thrill to the vision of the same “great day,” Isaiah and Zechariah jubilantly declare: “And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.” Isa. 5:26.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; it shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” Zech. 8:20-23.
Brother/Sister, what truly rational mind could reject this glorious prospect of the ”more sure word of prophecy” (2 Pet. 1:19) for nothing better than continued attachment to the world’s horrendous status quo-hellish, hateful, murderous, bloody, mad, and doomed, with the certain, final consequence of death, destruction, and perdition?
“For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Heb. 10:26, 27.
By happy contrast, there stands out all over the denouement of this momentous prophecy, for every eye that can see, the great lesson that if we are God’s people, we need not fear defeat from any aggressive power. For God’s stone-people are not the vanquished, but the victors. So for all whose minds are stayed upon God (Isa. 26:3), there is no cause for fear of defeat from any church-state or other aggressive power. Our only concern need be to sanctify the Lord in our hearts: “Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.” Isa. 8:12, 13.
Atheistic and heathen powers today have the Christian nations preoccupied with combating an endless proliferation of crises, a preoccupation which screams out the need for a spiritual awakening in Christendom. In incontrovertible graphics, the stone’s expanding and growing into a mountain portrays the great truth that when God’s people are right with Him, they are on the offensive-invulnerable and invincible, their enemies being as grasshoppers before them!
Although the enemy of God and man, of truth and righteousness, has, as the prince of this world and through his deceptive influences, beguiled or coerced the allegiance of most of mankind, yet the day is hastening on apace when a complete reversal of affairs is to take place, ushering in the new order in the Kingdom of God! and before the_ close of human probation-before the millennium.
With the supernatural spiritual and physical power of this stone people, represented by David and Jeremiah as “the rod of His inheritance” (Ps” 74:2; Jer. 51:19); by Zechariah as ”men wondered at” (Zech. 3:8; 12:8); by Jeremiah also as God’s “battle ax and weapons of war” (Jer. 51 :20); by Isaiah as “a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth” (Isa. 41:15); by Obadiah as “saviours” (Obad. 21); and by Joel as “the Lord’s great army” of which ”there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations” (Joel 2:2), Christ will bring Satan and all the workers of iniquity to their knees and thus vindicate the government of God. With such a people in whom is restored the Divine image, by virtue of Christ’s being formed within them the hope of glory, God will be able to “finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Rom. 9:28.
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear.” Isa. 45:22, 23.
Who can reject or doubt, ignore or be indifferent to, this Scripturally certified certainty? No true son or daughter of God.
In this people, the paragons of prophecy, the spiritually elite and nonpareil of all ages, reflecting God as love and truth and mercy and justice and righteousness to all men, a world weary to death of the false, the chicane, the meritricious, the ersatz, the tinsel, the cheap and shoddy and shabby and spurious in every category, will see at long last the genuine article of true religion, true godliness, true holiness, true humanity, true Christianity-in short, Truth Incarnate! What will be the sublime result? The inevitable-“a reformation” and “a revival of true godliness” the magnitude and proportions of which this old sin-saturated world has never before witnessed-massive, prodigious, all-encompassing, forever enduring.
Who with eye to see and ear to hear can fail to see that Heaven’s great plan of redemption is of such scope and magnitude as to dwarf out of focus the ill-defined, constricted, and puny concepts held by earthlings-even by Christians in general?
In the light now shedding from this unfolded prophecy, the Spirit–led student may -see in clearest lineaments the unfolding purposes of God for planet earth, sin-convulsed and reeling, in this fag-end of time, The circumcised ear of the saint, of the ”Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (John 1:47), will hear the Voice of Truth pleading with the Church to make their calling and election sure, that they may not fail to have their names retained in the Lamb’s Book of Life, so as to have ministered unto them an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Praise God, “He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it” Zech. 4:7.
”The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of douds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers!’ Zeph, 1:14-16.
“Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty, Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the· sinners thereof out of it!’ Isa.13:6-9.
“…the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them [the stone’s expanding and becoming a mountain that fills the whole earth], and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob [the 144,000]. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shaH possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.” Isa. 14:1, 2. ”And in that day win 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…. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” Zech. 12:3, 8.
“So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. [No more prayer after the close of probation, after “the mystery of God” (the plan of salvation) is finished, after Christ has left the most holy place, and is no more, forever, an intercessor.] This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” Ps. 102:15-18.
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” Joel 2:32.
“…upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” Obad. 17, 21.
”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.” Rev. 14:1.
“And thou, 0 tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Mic. 4:8.
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.
“The LORD’S Voice crieth. Unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name: hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it.” Mic. 6:9.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.” Rev. 3:22.” The Mystery Stone Pages 5-22.