In the previous article, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar revealed a panoramic history of the times of the Gentiles (the Day of Man) that began with Nebuchadnezzar. This rule of the Gentiles in the earth is to continue through the last attempt of world government under the man of sin, Antichrist. Although the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar, his dream was concerned more with the latter days. This history represented in Daniel 2’s image is a perspective through the hopeful thoughts of man, believing that history would ascend into a utopia of continued greatness. However, God’s revelation to Nebuchadnezzar revealed a downward course, a devolving, from gold to brittle clay, burnt potter’s clay, the worst of clay. Only in Daniel 7 are we given the prophet’s perspective where man’s rule of the world is beastly and senseless. At the end of man’s governmental history, a full judgment falls upon the entirety of Gentile governments: a stone out of heaven descends upon the image, smiting its feet, causing the image to implode, and pulverizing the image to powder.
Daniel 2 also revealed that the great image was one of excellence, brightness, and abundance. The greatness of wealth, architecture, pomp, and glory could cause the heart to greatly admire these kingdoms. Though excellent in appearance, the image was also terrible. Each empire was marked with fear, wickedness, debauchery, accompanied with satanic terror. These governments are pictured devolving sequentially from gold to mud. This mud is a profound insight to the foundation of the entire image of the man. At the end of the history of man’s kingdoms, iron will unsuccessfully attempt to mix with the clay of depraved man. In the Scriptures iron denotes the unyielding monarchist or imperialist rule, while clay represents the common element from which man came. These two elements cannot be blended together. The tremendous weight of imperial government is here seen to be resting on a base which is composed in part of potter’s clay burnt and brittle, that which is uncertain, unstable, and insecure. It reveals the tottering governments of earth despite all their boasting of scientific and cultured civilization.
America and Its Republic
America is attempting to mix iron with clay. Providentially birthed late in human history, America has been a superlative nation among the greatest of nations. Its greatness was due to God’s own divine appointment in the light of the founding fathers’ desired character for the nation. With reluctance, however, we must acknowledge that congruous with America’s greatness, there were two major flaws evident from its beginning. (1) Although God is referenced with several titles, God is never truly defined. Several forefathers give their perspective of God in their private writings, yet within our founding documents the concept of God is never clarified. God is called benevolent, Divine Providence, and one who lives in heaven, but without elaboration. This created problems later, particularly during our contemporary. (2) Secondly, our founding fathers did not consider the possibility of the apostasy of Christianity. Though many of them knew of the apostasy of Roman Catholicism, and others were concerned as to the falling away of the Anglican Church, they never dealt with the possibility of Christianity becoming a “Neo” religion within itself. Today, we confront a public Christianity that is apostate, with all its neo’s of belief. Having at one time sent forth the world’s largest number of missionaries, America is now the innovator and promoter of global apostate Christianity. Because our founding fathers never imagined such a deformed Christianity, there was no language within the founding documents to confront the rise of global Christian apostasy and its contribution to the destruction of Western civilization.
An equally sad reality of contemporary America is the fact that we have apostatized the kind of government our founding fathers gave us. They gave us a republic, the highest form of government conceived by man for man. A republic demands great care and maintenance from its people.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was questioned as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation. According to notes by Dr. James McHenry (one of Maryland’s delegates to the convention), a lady asked Franklin, “Well, Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.” We dare not forget that the founders of our country intended at the national level to have a representative republic. It also must be noted that the word democracy is not mentioned in the Constitution. Democracy was a word and concept that most of the founding fathers distrusted with a passion.
A republic is a government in which elected representatives make laws; in a democracy the majority directly make laws. In the latter the majority has unlimited power, whereas in the former a written constitution limits the majority and provides safeguards for the individual. If a republic is neglected by the people, it can deteriorate into a democracy where government is controlled by popular and manipulative feelings of the people. A democracy will eventually end in anarchy, a system in which each individual determines his own rules and standards of living. A republic can also devolve into an oligarchy where the government is run by a council or a group of elite individuals, as is Russia today. In a worse scenario, democracy could devolve into dictatorship, where one individual oppressively rules the country.
Unlike the stability of a republic, a democracy is susceptible to the whims and passions of immediacy. In these days of growing individualism (which is existentialism and its new cloak of Postmodernism), man lives by his passions of the moment. The founding fathers wanted to protect us from such instability in government. They wanted the laws to be made by elected representatives to prevent laws being made in the heat and passion of the moment. Sadly, this is the way laws are being passed today. The pressure of riots and revolution by certain segments of society manipulates the moment for their desired change. This was made evident in 1984 when the Supreme Court declared “public policy” as the interpreter of the law. The question may be asked, “What about those who are the representatives and what about the laws they pass? Suppose our elected representatives fail?” Alexander Hamilton gave the answer to these questions in the Federalist 21, “The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.” Yes, simply choose new men to represent the people.
Nevertheless, democracy is not the appropriate path for a government! Oh, the disinformation that is pandered by our contemporary government leaders, news media, and popular literary writers! Every day we read that America is a government of democracy; thus, we become accustomed to hearing of this form of government, even accepting the illusion that this was what our founding fathers gave to us. It is true that our forefathers discussed this form of government and had the opportunity to follow this path for our country. But they carefully chose not to take this road of government for the country. In fact, this was so clear in their decision that they warned us never to become a democracy. Let us read from their own writings.
John Adams observed in Vol. I, p. 83, from “An Essay on Man’s Lust for Power, with the Author’s Comment in 1807,” written on August 29, 1763 (first published by John Adams in 1807):
Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.
James Madison, as one of the writers in The Federalist on the New Constitution in 1818, stated,
Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
John Adams, in The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, stated,
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
Fisher Ames, in his Works of Fisher Ames in 1809, author of the House Language for the First Amendment, stated,
A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.
Also in that same publication he stated,
The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive evil living] which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.
Gouverneur Morris, Signer and Penman of the Constitution, stated in his An Oration Delivered on Wednesday, June 29, 1814, at the Request of a Number of Citizens of New York, in Celebration of the Recent Deliverance of Europe from the Yoke of Military Despotism in 1814,
We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate . . . as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt.
John Quincy Adams stated on April 30, 1789, during the Jubilee on the Constitution in New York City,
The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.
Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration, stated in The Letters of Benjamin Rush in a letter to John Adams on July 21, 1789,
A simple democracy . . . is one of the greatest of evils.
The godly and revered “Father of American Education,” Noah Webster, stated in 1801,
In democracy . . . there are commonly tumults and disorders. . . . Therefore a pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth.
John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration, stated in The Works of John Witherspoon in 1815,
Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state; it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.
Zephaniah Swift, Author of America’s First Legal Text, in A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut in 1795, stated,
It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion.
The writings against the rule of democracy are replete from the pen of these founding fathers. It must now be sadly acknowledged that America has become the worst democracy in history. Providence will deem it a final contribution to the bringing of the world governments together. Yes, prophetically we are in the prelude of the feet of iron (strength of monarchy) and clay (weakness) trying to mix in democracy, socialism, and anarchy. The prophecies of Daniel reveal that constitutional unity in government will continue to decline in Gentile governments until it finally devolves into anarchy. Anarchy is futile man trying to stem the tide of his own evil pride. We are approaching the hour in our country of democratic licentiousness and anarchy. We have witnessed this in the reaction of many to the outcome of the recent presidential election with riots, burnings, killings, and destruction of property. Yes, this is the result of “democracy.”
In the Days of These Kings
Daniel 2 resolves human governments in verse 44:
And in the days of these kings 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 shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
These kings mentioned here (the ten toes on the two feet) arise after the rapture of the saints (at the end of the ankle period of the image) and just before or during the apocalypse of the Antichrist. The earth at that time is ruled by ten dictators with Antichrist ultimately at the head. It seems that these ten toes (or ten horns, Dan. 7:7), or ten kings, arise from the world governments identified with the old Roman Empire. All the nations of the world will ultimately come under these ten in two great divisions (the two feet). Amidst any kingdom’s satanic influences, there will continue among its leaders great pride, jealousy, and envy, making unity emphatically difficult. Note Revelation 17:12:
And the ten horns [the ten toes of Dan. 2] which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Then note Daniel 2:41:
And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, 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.
Amidst the metals representing strong monarchies, the clay of these feet represents democratic rule by the people. This is where we are in America. Democratic rule by the people not only has become the governmental philosophy of our society but also is becoming accepted by the world. Out of democracy arises socialism and anarchism, its closely-related proclivity; both are fast becoming the warp and woof of our society. We are also witnessing all the nations of the earth in gross disharmony within themselves and among themselves. Without God’s peace within the heart, and without God’s Word controlling the will of man, there can be no stable global unity.
The details of how the times of the Gentiles will reach its apex are not known. Some believed years ago the European Common Market would have been the fulfillment of this prophecy; however, the number of nations has gone beyond ten, yea, even beyond twelve (like the woman of Rev. 12 with her crown of twelve stars). The upheaval in this prophecy of Daniel 2:43 may come quickly, but we do not believe it will happen until after the rapture.
Daniel declares in 2:43b, “They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” One part of great anarchy leading up to this prophetic time is the breaking down of racial barriers. Governmental powers will try to alleviate racial problems through mixing of the seed, the races. Even kings will mingle or mix with and marry peasants; races will be intermixing, intermingling, and intermarrying. This statement also may include the context of sodomy to further integrate a God-forsaking society to greater proportions. In the light of end-time sodomy, Daniel 11:37 speaks of Antichrist: “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” Antichrist may be a sodomite.
Daniel 2:43b also states, “But they shall not cleave one to another.” Eventually all policies of mixing will fail to resolve the perplexities of the End Time, and the world will witness the final absolute collapse of all global government. The United Nations will utterly fail; the world courts, world currency, world conferences to bring about peace all will fail. Everything that man will endeavor to implement will fail to sustain and maintain humanity. Thus, universally the world of humanity will come to absolute collapse.
Conclusion: The Coming Stone
When the course of this global governmental image is complete, the world will be in utter anarchy. It is then that God will step onto the scene in order to save humanity from being absolutely destroyed. Note 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.
This stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, coming from heaven, from the mountain of heaven, the kingdom from above. He will be the stone cut out without hands because no man can contribute to His Kingdom. The remedy for the total failure of humanity to govern itself can only come supernaturally from the God of heaven. Man can contribute nothing! God’s remedy will change the whole course of human history. God’s stone will not simply push man’s image aside and create its own place. God will not transform or regenerate man’s mighty image. Away with such suggestions!
This Stone will forcefully smite the image amidst its final attempt of rule, crushing, destroying, and grinding it to powder. When the Stone has fulfilled this destructive, judgmental work there will be nothing left to see but the Stone Itself; the wind will sweep away as chaff the very memory of man’s government. Daniel 2:35 states that no place was found for all these world powers.
This stone then becomes a great mountain. Originally coming from the mountain of heaven, this stone will fill the whole earth. The very presence of heaven will come to earth. Only the Kingdom of Christ can powerfully and peacefully fill the whole earth. Whatever man has attempted, it has failed; whatever man has attempted, Christ will fulfill. And of His Kingdom there shall be no end. Though He reigns on earth for a thousand years, to consummate the history of this earth His Kingdom will continue in the renewed heaven and earth which has often been called the Eternal Golden Age.
Daniel concludes in 2:45, “And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” In these days when America is in the throes of national suicide, we as Christians must get ready for what is ahead. We believe that in this ankle period Christ will return to take His waiting people home to heaven.
The Bible speaks of the Gentiles in two contexts. (1) One is Luke 21:24, where Christ referred to the “times of the Gentiles” as being fulfilled. (2) The second is Romans 11:25: “That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” This latter passage is referring to the Gentile church, with which Western civilization of nearly two thousand years has been identified. Now Western civilization is turning away from Christianity; it is evident that the Gentile church is coming to its end, having entered global apostasy. The rapture will resolve this “fulness of the Gentiles.”
The former context in Luke regarding the “times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” has yet to see the consummation of the image in the Antichrist kingdom, the two feet and ten toes. Only the Battle of Armageddon will bring the consummation of this “times of the Gentiles” of political and governmental power.
Our only hope as God’s Elect is the Blessed Hope! We pray for Christ to come for His saints and bear us to heaven, while we also pray for His Kingdom to come.
Though we have seen this prophetic, End-time perspective from the standpoint of man, in our next issue of Straightway, we must perceive this prophetic perspective from the standpoint of heaven. How does God view the past, the present, and the future of the history of man and this planet called earth?