Prophecy Pages

The Destiny of the World

Introduction
Daniel 2 - The Authority of Bible Prophecy
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
The Dream Explained
Conclusion

Introduction

It may appear that we are masters of our own destiny; that we determine our own future and shape our own world. It may appear that there is no God; that there is no Divine intervention in human affairs and that the Bible is merely a crutch for the faint hearted.

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Daniel 2 - The Authority of Bible Prophecy

Remarkably, Bible prophecy has foretold our future for 2,500 years and it reveals that the destiny of this world is something we have no control over at all. In fact, Bible prophecy is simply the mould into which history is poured.

The purpose of God, as far as the earth is concerned, is clearly revealed in a remarkable prophecy contained in Daniel chapter 2, which speaks not only of the destiny of the world, but also vindicates the authority of the Bible.

Daniel 2 speaks of a dreadful nightmare experienced by the most powerful monarch of the earth in those days, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, in the year 605 BC. Babylon was an immensely strong city which ruled over a great empire stretching from the Persian Gulf up through the Mesopotamian basin and down through Israel into Egypt.

Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and had taken many Jews captive, including the a man named Daniel who was a member of the royal household of Judah in Israel. Daniel was also an exceptional prophet whom God used to convey many prophecies of future events to take place on the earth.

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Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

One night king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a terrifying dream in which he saw a mighty colossus - a warrior standing and staring down at him. It is described as an

"image whose brightness was excellent... and the form thereof was terrible."

The image of this man was made up of several segments. It had a head of fine gold, its chest and arms were made of silver, its belly and thighs were of brass, its two legs were of iron and its feet and toes were made of a mixture of iron and clay. As the king watched he saw a stone which had been cut out of a mountain without hands. This stone flew through the air and struck the image with tremendous force upon its feet, destroying the image. The stone then ground the remains of the image to powder which was blown away by the wind. The stone then grew until it became a tremendous mountain which filled the whole earth.

As we can imagine, the dream and its violence agitated the king, and he sought for someone to interpret the dream. The prophet Daniel was the only one who was able to give the interpretation, because God had specially revealed it to him.

This dream and its interpretation given by God over 2,500 years ago convey a precise overview of the future destiny of the world, running in sequence from the days of the Babylonian Empire to the ultimate establishment of God's kingdom on the earth. The key to understanding it is given in the 28th verse:

"God in heaven... maketh known to the king what shall be in the latter days."

This dream was given by God to explain future world events.

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The Dream Explained

The Image
The dream described two opposing powers. The first was the image of a man made up of a number of sequential metals. Daniel explained that this image was used by God to represent various empires of men that would have rule over the earth.

He showed that the head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom.

After Nebuchadnezzar would come another kingdom represented by silver, and then a third kingdom of brass.

Babylon was overthrown by the Medo-Persian empire which in turn was overthrown at the hand of Alexander the Great, the founder of the Grecian world empire.

The Greeks were subsequently overthrown by the Roman armies, represented by the legs of iron. It is interesting to note that just as there were two legs, so the Roman empire developed into two separate entities, the Eastern and the Western Roman Empires. In the vision the iron legs were never overthrown - they just slowly merged with the clay of the feet. This development can be clearly identified within the Roman empire. It was never formally overthrown but disintegrated through its own decadence (see Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"). However, whilst the military power of Rome disintegrated, Roman religion did not. It was re-consolidated hundreds of years later in the form of the Holy Roman Empire, and this (iron) influence still remains today.

The coalition between iron and clay in the feet and toes of the image represents an alliance between Roman Catholicism (iron) and world political powers (clay) which will arise in the "latter days".

The Stone
The second power mentioned in this vision, which destroyed the image of the empires of men, was a stone cut out without hands which became a mountain and filled the whole earth. This represents the Lord Jesus Christ who is described in scripture as a stone. Daniel explains that God's kingdom would come, and after breaking all other kingdoms into pieces would be established forever. It is interesting to note that this kingdom is depicted as being an international kingdom on earth. The fact that the same language is used of this kingdom as of those preceding it indicated it will be a kingdom in the same manner the preceding empires were kingdoms, but with a difference:

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Conclusion

Daniel chapter 2 is a remarkably accurate overview of 2,500 years of world history. Just as the predicted empires and events transpired with great accuracy as Daniel foretold, so we are confident that the last phase of the dream (the conquest and victory of the stone power) will also occur and that the Kingdom of God will be established upon the earth. This prophecy outlines the destiny of the world. History itself has vindicated these words in the course of the last 2,500 years. The rest must happen.