Thank God for the Model Prayer found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 and its similar presentation in Luke 11. The Lord in the previous verses of Matthew 6:5–9 gives these important words: “And when thou prayest,” “but thou, when thou prayest,” “but when ye pray,” and “after this manner therefore pray ye.” Prayer is going to become more and more a vital part of the Christian life as we head further into the dark global powers of the apostasy leading to Antichrist.
One of the great truths found in this burden of prayer given in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 is the phrase “Thy kingdom come,” which follows the declaration that the name of God is to be hallowed. In every aspect of man’s existence today, Western civilization is leading the way in blaspheming the name of God. Amidst the powers of man’s growing, aggressive sins, the kingdom of Satan is being permitted to accelerate its deepening influence over man. Because of the rejection of God and His name in the earth, the problems of man have come to epidemic proportion with no solutions. The “saviors” that the world governments set forth have only empowered and emboldened the irreversible tragedies and despairs of humanity. The only hope we have is for God to answer prayer: “Thy kingdom come.”
God has revealed in His Word to this planet that He is yet going to establish His Kingdom in this world of time. Though Satan has entered in and conquered the world of man for the time being, and the whole of mankind is under his dominion, God will come and turn this world and all its kingdoms into His own glorious kingdom to be given to His beloved Son.
What does this mean? It means the absolute reign of God; it means the law and the rule of God. The Bible presents the Kingdom of God from three perspectives. (1) In one sense the Kingdom has already come; it came when the Lord Jesus Christ was here. We read in Matthew 12:28, “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” He declared that the Kingdom of God is come; it is here now. As He was exercising the power, the sovereignty, the majesty, and the dominion, this was the Kingdom of God. So in this sense it had come. (2) The Kingdom of God is also here at this moment in the hearts and lives of all who have placed their trust in Christ and who have entered this kingdom through the New Birth presented in the third chapter of John. (3) But the day is yet to come when His Kingdom shall be established here upon the earth. This is what we must be praying for, “Thy kingdom come.” We must ever pray for God’s Kingdom to come to the hearts of men, and ultimately, for this manifested kingdom to come and rule the earth. It is a most crucial hour for us to pray to our Heavenly Father, “Thy kingdom come.”
Daniel’s Prophecy of History
Before His kingdom comes there is a final kingdom to come in history, and our present generation is leading us to it. It is evident that our own country the United States is setting the precedent for the world’s needed changes to bring about this final kingdom of man. We now rank at the top of global governmental corruption and flaunting deception; our country may represent the worst of human degeneracy in history, if not equal to that of Rome. While our country burns, Nero plays golf and feeds the fires with his debased lusts. There is no recovery of our country. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). According to prophecy the worst is yet to come; Revelation 18 is the record of the final Antichrist kingdom. Our country is rapidly and boldly filling up its own cup of iniquity; her sins are reaching up to heaven—God will remember her iniquities. May God in His wrath (which we are already experiencing) remember mercy to the Remnant.
Originally, global governments and kingdoms existed to benefit mankind; in the End Time, this purpose will totally collapse. We must carefully note the prophecies found in Daniel, the prophet chosen to give us the process of Gentile governmental kingdoms and how they would end. The “day of man” in history commenced with Nebuchadnezzar and culminates with the “man of sin” (sin’s most evil man), and the son of perdition (linked with the very Devil in spiritual offspring). Luke records the words of the Devil to Christ in His wilderness temptation, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it” (4:6). Christ did not deny this statement, and in the past two thousand years its veracity has only intensified. How will the “day of man” and his kingdoms end?
Daniel 2 references a dream Nebuchadnezzar had that reveals the great decline of world governments and kingdoms. It must be remembered that most dreams are not revelations from God. Jeremiah speaks of dreams being as chaff to wheat when compared to the Word of God (Jer. 23:28). This prophet also warned the people not to listen to dreams. Nevertheless, this dream of Nebuchadnezzar was given by God as plainly manifested in Daniel’s interpretation. The dream was one that gave the history of man from Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom to the end of the Antichrist kingdom. It begins with the “gold” of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon; yet with each succeeding global government in history, there is a decline of value and quality.
In the interpretation by Daniel, the head was made of gold representing Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Another kingdom inferior to Nebuchadnezzar’s, designated as the breast and arms of silver, characterized Medo-Persia; next was the belly, made of the more inferior element brass, which symbolized Greco-Macedonia; then another kingdom identified by legs of iron, represented Rome; and finally, the feet of iron and clay mixed signified the most inferior kingdom. This last kingdom was described as potter’s clay, baked into hardness with iron mixed with it, yet it was very brittle like pottery. It is also implied that the fifth part was degenerated, or a modified form of the fourth kingdom.
While the king in his dream was looking upon the image, a Stone, described as “cut out without hands,” struck the image at its feet with such an impact that the whole image was reduced to dust, and the wind carried the component parts away like chaff. The Stone then “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” The spectacular and most important part of the dream was the Stone that struck the image. It is to be carefully noted that the point of striking is clearly at the feet. This sets forth the fact that there is to be a kingdom that will supersede all those represented in the image. It will be set up “in the days of these kings,” which appears to suggest that each of the toes in the feet represents a king; a time is coming when ten kings will reign at one time in a federated kingdom. At that time the kingdom symbolized by the Stone will be set up, displacing all previous kingdoms, and will stand forever.
The Centuries of History
Over twenty-five centuries have passed away since Daniel interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Much of what he foretold in his prophetic interpretation has now passed into history. In its entirety the image stands for a period of time. Beginning at its head and running to its feet, there is a chronological order of events set forth. The beginning of this period was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom; the end of this period is when the God of heaven sets up the everlasting kingdom on earth. It is significant that the symbol of a man is chosen to set forth this period of time when man runs the kingdoms of the world. Before this period God ruled the heart of the world (Canaan) through His chosen race Israel. During this period of the image, man rules the world, including that center of Canaan. After this period God will take over the governments of the world; they will become His own.
The symbolism of the image is contrary to every theory of evolution, reversing the supposed order of evolution. The evolutionist starts with mud and ends with gold; the image starts with gold and ends with mud. History, according to the evolutionist, started with disorganized elements and will end with a high order of government; the image begins with a high order and ends in anarchy.
As much as we appreciate the concept of government known as democracy, such a government is but one of the final steps to anarchy. America was not given a “democracy” by its founding fathers; it was given a “republic.” The latter is a government for the rights of all men; the former is a government of the majority. In the philosophy of government, democracy is always followed by a socialism that yields to communism. The absolute monarchy of Israel failed because the man who was at the head of it was a failure. But government “by the people” will also fail through the fact that the men that compose it prove a failure. We are in the final days of the total collapse of human governments and kingdoms; our own government has now become socialistic and quickly leaning to dictatorial oppression. Government has now become an enemy to man, just as chaff (though a friend to the seed at the beginning) becomes an enemy to the seed later. The seed must be rid of the chaff in its completion. The same with human government; it has come to a complete failure, and though a man called the Antichrist will come with the symbol of hope and peace through his government, he will simply seal the death and destruction of human government. In the final collapse there will come again the absolute monarchy with Christ the King, and the government forever shall rest upon His shoulders.
The Stone from Heaven
It seems evident by the consensus of commentary interpretations that the Stone out of the great mountain typifies the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. But there is a variation of application by the commentaries. One theological school thinks the kingdom began when Christ came the first time, making the application spiritual and the process gradual through the centuries since. We have acknowledged in the earlier part of this article that Christ at His first coming did establish a kingdom, but not the fulfillment of the Stone in this passage in Daniel 2. That kingdom at His first coming was a spiritual kingdom into which we are born through the power of the Holy Spirit. This would deny the establishing of a kingdom on the earth to replace those represented by the image. But Christ made it clear to Pilate that His Kingdom (at that time) was not of this world, and He told His disciples in Acts 1 that He would not establish the earthly kingdom at that time.
We believe, however, that this prophecy awaits fulfillment at the second coming of Christ. There are several factors for this view.
When Christ came the first time, the Roman Empire as a world-wide power was only thirty-one years old. If the striking of the Stone was typified by His first coming, we would surely have looked for the place of striking to be higher on the image than the feet, particularly at the legs. But since it is specifically stated that the Stone struck the image at the feet, it seems plain that we are to look to some other event than the first coming of Christ for the fulfillment.
There is also the problem of the continuation of the Roman Empire in undiminished power for some centuries after the first coming of Christ. The description of the effect of the striking of the Stone seems to point to a catastrophic and sudden ending of the kingdom typified by the iron and clay. There was no such ending nor has there been since Rome.
There are those who believe it was fulfilled in the moderate growth of Christianity in the world. But again, this does not correspond to the description that the Stone “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” And it is evident today that true Christianity is not abounding in power and taking over the governments or the populace of the world. Even Neo-Christianity is beginning to wane in the earth as other religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are fast rising in global acceptability.
As we read other prophetic de-scriptions in the Bible of the second coming of Christ, such descriptions favor the catastrophic demolition of the preceding kingdoms, and the sudden setting up of the Kingdom of Christ on earth. Psalm 2 describes this event. Note especially verse 9: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” It is noticeable that we have here both the iron and the clay. Second Thessalonians 2:8 speaks in similar terms: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
We will readily declare that the rapture is not presented in this passage, for that secret coming of Christ is not identified with the purpose presented in Daniel 2. Christ’s coming for the Church saints is not shown in this vision. The entire emphasis in Daniel 2 is on the open revelation of Christ’s coming to the world, and He will be coming with His saints to set up the kingdom. We also read in Daniel 7:9–14 these most important words:
I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Conclusion
Our only hope now in human history is for Christ Jesus, our great Saviour and Lord, to come back and bring to naught the failing governments of the End Time. Thank God, the Antichrist kingdom will only last 3½ years. We must remember that Satan will through his king bring mankind on the planet Earth to absolute chaos and the very destruction of what humanity should have been through creation by God. Christ will not only have to come to save man from his own destruction but also renovate the earth and establish true peace through His presence in the earth. Only then will the lion and lamb lie down together; only then will the crops yield as God intended; only then will war be no more; only then will the desert rejoice and blossom as a rose; and only then will God’s Word, God’s will, and God’s knowledge cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
As we recognize the imminency of the secret coming of Christ, the Blessed Hope should be burning in our hearts daily. It is the final prayer of the Bible, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” But now, when insanity and debauchery rule the governments of the world, we equally pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name; Thy Kingdom Come!”