The Future Foretold: A New World Government is Coming

 During the second year that Nebuchadnezzar was king, he had such horrible nightmares that he could not sleep. So he called in his counselors, advisors, magicians, and wise men, and said, “I am disturbed by a dream that I don’t understand, and I want you to explain it.”

 They answered in Aramaic, “Your Majesty, we hope you live forever! We are your servants. Please tell us your dream, and we will explain what it means.”

But the king replied, “No! I have made up my mind. If you don’t tell me both the dream and its meaning, you will be chopped to pieces and your houses will be torn down.

Daniel rushed off and said to the king, “If you will just give me some time, I’ll explain your dream.” Daniel returned home and told his three friends. Then he said, “Pray that the God who rules from heaven will be merciful and explain this mystery, so that we and the others won’t be put to death.”

In a vision one night, Daniel was shown the dream and its meaning. Then he praised the God who rules from heaven: Our God, your name will be praised forever and forever. You are all-powerful, and you know everything. You control human events– you give rulers their power and take it away, and you are the source of wisdom and knowledge.

 

Arioch rushed Daniel to the king and announced, “Your Majesty, I have found out that one of the men brought here from Judah can explain your dream.” The king asked Daniel, “Can you tell me my dream and what it means?” Daniel answered: Your Majesty, not even the smartest person in all the world can do what you are demanding. But the God who rules from heaven can explain mysteries.

And while you were sleeping, he showed you what will happen in the future.

 

Your Majesty, what you saw standing in front of you was a huge and terrifying statue, shining brightly.

Its head was made of gold, its chest and arms were silver, and from its waist down to its knees, it was bronze. From there to its ankles it was iron, and its feet were a mixture of iron and clay.

As you watched, a stone was cut from a mountain–but not by human hands. The stone struck the feet, completely shattering the iron and clay. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed and blown away without a trace, like husks of wheat at threshing time.

 

But the stone became a tremendous mountain that covered the entire earth.

 

Your Majesty, you are the greatest of kings, and God has highly honored you with power over all humans, animals, and birds. You are the head of gold.

• Babylon became a “world” empire around 600 BC.
• It was the first nation of that region to rule from Babylon all the way down to Egypt
• Babylon had captured Israel and taken some of the people into slavery; among them was Daniel

 

 After you are gone, another kingdom will rule, but it won’t be as strong.

• The Babylonian empire was overthrown by the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians
• The empire extended from Persia proper, south of the Caspian Sea, to the Punjab highlands on the borders of India in the east and across Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt and Anatolia in the west.
• A particularly noteworthy aspect of Persian rule was the emergence of the monotheistic religious faith of Zoroastrianism (Parsi).

Then it will be followed by a kingdom of bronze that will rule the whole world.

• Grecia, led by Alexander the Great, overthrew the Persian empire at the battle of Arbella, 331BC.
• He created an empire stretching from Macedonia to the Indus River.
• In 327 BC Alexander the Great began his foray into Punjab. King Ambhi, ruler of Taxila, surrendered the city to Alexander.
• Notice how each succeeding mineral depicted in the image is less valuable, yet more enduring and powerful than the one before it.

 

 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these,

• The iron legs represent the Roman Empire.
• Rome is the kingdom that dominated the world when Jesus the Christ was born.
• The Roman standard was raised over nations across Europe and North Africa and deep into Asia.
• It held sway for almost 500 years.
•  Notice how Daniel foretold a thousand years of world history with unerring accuracy. The rise and fall of these four world empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome-are clearly foretold in the Bible and proven by the history.

 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.

• When the Roman Empire began to crumble in A.D. 476, it was not overtaken by another world power.
• Instead, barbarian tribes conquered the Roman Empire and divided it just as Daniel prophesied.
• Many of these tribes evolved into modern Europe.
• For example, the tribe of the Anglo-Saxons became the English, the Franks became the French, the Alemannians became the Germans, and the Lombards became the Italians.
• The ‘European Union’ is today composed of countries that are strong and weak. 
• They are United (Example: Common currency – EURO) and yet divided (Like Mixing of Iron and Clay)
•  All throughout history, leaders such as Charlemagne, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Mussolini, and Hitler have fought to build a new European empire but never succeeded in becoming a world ruler.

 

WHAT NEXT?

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

 

 

God has appointed Jesus as Ruler over the world in the Age to come.

As I continued to watch the vision that night, I saw what looked like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, and he was presented to the Eternal God. He was crowned king and given power and glory, so that all people of every nation and race would serve him. He will rule forever, and his kingdom is eternal, never to be destroyed.
(Daniel 7:13-14 CEV)