Chapter 4

How God’s Kingdom Becomes a World Government

1, 2. Destruction of the “image” comes how​—from within or from without?

THE symbolic “image” of world rulership by human politics​—its gold, its silver, its copper, its iron and its clay—​is doomed as a whole! Jehovah God, who foretold the end from the beginning, says so in his prophetic Word. Let us take note from that Word that it is not the divided condition of the feet and toes that causes the downfall of the “image.” It is not any nuclear global war between the symbolic “iron” and the symbolic “clay” that brings about the destruction of the “image” from head to foot. The prophetic dream as recalled to Nebuchadnezzar’s mind by Jehovah’s prophet Daniel plainly shows that the destruction does not come from within the “image,” but comes from outside it. From where, then? Daniel indicated this when he ended his interpretation, saying to King Nebuchadnezzar:

² “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush  and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite; forasmuch as you beheld that out of the mountain a stone was cut not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the copper, the molded clay, the silver and the gold. The grand God himself has made known to the king what is to occur after this. And the dream is reliable, and the interpretation of it is trustworthy.”​—Daniel 2:44, 45.

3. Why must the time for God to make changes be near?

³ We today, who can look back over more than 2,580 years of time from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, have far more reason to believe, than Nebuchadnezzar ever had, that the dream is reliable in meaning and that its interpretation by Daniel is trustworthy. Hence we are led to believing the word of “the grand God.” And so, from where does destruction of the symbolic “image” come? From “the God of heaven,” the One who changes the times and seasons and who puts down kings and sets up other kings according to his own will. The fixed time for him to do so must be very near. Why so? Because back in early autumn of the year 1914 C.E., the last year of the Gentile Times, “the appointed times of the nations” ended. According to Christ’s words in Luke 21:20-24, this meant that the time had arrived for God to stop the further trampling by the nations on what Jerusalem symbolized. How?

4. How did God react to clergy prayers regarding World War I?

⁴ In the summer of 1914 world war broke out between the Seventh World Power and the principal leftover parts of the previous Sixth World Power, for some time known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The main issue  in dispute was world domination here on earth, a quarter of which the British Empire then controlled. God’s Messianic kingdom was of no interest or concern to the warring disputants. And yet they were fighting over that to which God’s Messianic kingdom (as pictured by Jerusalem of Bible times) held the title, namely, world rulership. The clergy of Christendom prayed in favor of both sides engaged in the global conflict. But did Jehovah God pay attention to the clergy’s patriotic, nationalistic prayers? Not for a moment! According to the prophetic picture given in Revelation 12:1-10, at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 Jehovah God brought to birth up in the heavens his promised Messianic kingdom in the hands of his enthroned Son, Jesus Christ.

5, 6. Out of what mountain was the “stone” cut? When, and how?

⁵ This is how the “stone” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was cut out of the mountain without the aid of human hands. The Messianic kingdom in the hands of the glorified Jesus Christ is the “stone” of the dream. That long-promised kingdom could come forth only from the “God of heaven,” Jehovah, the Sovereign Lord.

⁶ So the “mountain” out of which the stone is miraculously cut is not one of the “seven mountains” upon which the religious harlot, Babylon the Great, has been sitting as an empress. (Revelation 17:9, 10) The symbolic “mountain” is not an earthly mountain of rulership. It is a universal “mountain” of rulership, for it is the universal sovereignty of the Creator of heaven and earth, namely, Jehovah “the grand God.” (Psalm 121:1, 2; Daniel 2:45) The royal “stone” was cut out  by divine power from the universal “mountain” at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. Since then God’s Messianic kingdom has a right to interfere in the affairs of the nations and to have “this good news of the kingdom” preached in all the inhabited earth “for a witness to all the nations” before their end comes. (Matthew 24:3-14) The Kingdom is now in action!

7. How have “those kings” shown determination to keep ruling?

⁷ In that war-shocked year of 1914 there were more rulers sitting on thrones as kings than at present. There the circumstances existed for the words of Daniel 2:44 to be true: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin.” Those “kings,” or whatever political rulers have since come to power on earth, have refused to pay attention to the “good news of the kingdom” that has now been given a worldwide publication. They, or their governments, have opposed or even violently persecuted the Christian preachers of the “good news” of Jehovah’s established Messianic kingdom. This, such “kings” have done as an expression of their being determined to hold on to their earthly sovereignties. What, then, has to be done with regard to such rulers who refuse to cede their sovereignties to the Messianic kingdom that God has put in power? Daniel 2:44 gives us the answer:

8. The thing done to the “image” means what for our system?

⁸ “And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” Such a thing will mean the total end of this system of things. It will mean  the everlasting disappearance of the symbolic “image” of man-made political world powers. This is just ahead, nearer now than ever before since 1914 C.E. The removal of the idolized “image” of human rulership will not be a peaceful one. There will be a crushing and grinding of it to powder. As the Messianic Kingdom “stone” enters, as it were, the atmosphere of our earth on its God-given mission, it will not explode like some meteorite from outer space. With the full force of all the momentum that it has picked up since 1914, this indestructible “stone” of diamondlike hardness will reach its objective with a smashing impact. Where?

9. What crash will this post-Gentile Times generation witness?

⁹ On the “feet” of the symbolic “image,” the “feet” of iron and moist clay that are still standing today. We, this generation of mankind, are living “in the days of those kings,” in the days of these partly iron, partly clay “feet.” We, this generation of post-Gentile Times, are about to witness the crashing of the Kingdom “stone” against the Seventh World Power and all the other political governments inside or outside the United Nations organization. Thus, in a final clash over the supreme issue of universal sovereignty, the Kingdom “stone” will put an end forever to “all these kingdoms.” What will that mean to us who are of this generation that will be caught right in the middle of this crash? Have we ever thought about that?

10. Why does the end of man rule leave no governmental vacuum?

¹⁰ The violent putting of an end to this earth-wide system of man-made political rulership will not leave a vacuum here as far as government  for humankind is concerned. Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream does not show that a governmentless emptiness will set in on the earth in which every human inhabitant will do just as he pleases without submission to any government. Rather, the grandest, most powerful government of all human history will take complete control of survivors from among this generation.

11. Daniel saw the pulverized “image” displaced by what?

¹¹ Highly favored will be those of this generation who will be privileged to see the fulfillment of what the prophet Daniel saw in vision, giving us this description thereof: “You kept on looking until a stone was cut out not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of molded clay and crushed them. At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them. And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.”​—Daniel 2:34, 35.

12. What does the mountain’s filling the earth signify?

¹² What does that signify? Nothing less than that God’s Messianic kingdom as symbolized by the “stone” will fill the whole earth, wherever the sons of men dwell.

13. In what way will this be a stable government, and why?

¹³ The seat of government will be in the heavens, where the enthroned, crowned Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God, but it will extend its superhuman power toward the earth, not now for destructive purposes, but for the perfect rulership and blessing of all the obedient inhabitants of  “the whole earth.” This will be a stable government, immune to any overthrow by revolutionary uprisings. It “will never be brought to ruin,” nor will it have a human successor. It “will not be passed on to any other people.” Unlike the kingdoms of dying human rulers from Babylon of Nimrod’s day onward, “it itself will stand to times indefinite,” forever. (Daniel 2:44, 45) Its heavenly Ruler, the Messianic King Jesus Christ, upon whom Jehovah God has conferred immortality, will not let his government die out. He himself will live “to times indefinite” to maintain that kingdom for the full realization of God’s will and for the never-ending blessing of all obedient mankind on a perfectly ruled earth.

14. Who will be the happy ones from among today’s generation?

¹⁴ And this is how God’s kingdom becomes a world government. Happy are all those of this generation today who will survive to see it become such. They may become its loving, obedient subjects forever!

[Study Questions]