Page 4 - BV14

The dream further showed that, during the existence of these four empires, there would be a
FIFTH EMPIRE, outside the image or Gentile world. This 5th power was symbolized in the dream by a
"STONE," cut out of the earth without human hands, which Daniel interpreted as signifying its Divine
origin. The prophet then saw war between the "stone" kingdom and the nations represented by the feet
of the image -- resulting in their destruction. The "stone" kingdom would then expand into a "GREAT
MOUNTAIN," or world-wide Empire, which finally covered the whole earth.

Emblem of the Kingdom

In his interpretation of the meaning of the stone, which Nebuchadnezzar saw strike and destroy
the image, Daniel stated that it represented a kingdom which would be set up by YEHOVAH God of
Heaven. Notice Daniel 2:44-45:

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never
be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it
broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold -- the great God has
made known to the king what will come to pass after this...

This statement is quite clear and, because the stone represents the Kingdom of YEHOVAH,
most Bible students accept it as the EMBLEM of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH. However, because
many of those same students have refused to recognize ALL that the Bible has to say about that King-
dom, and in order that they may jump the many hurdles that the failure to accept all the literal state-
ments of the Bible place in their way, those same scholars have spiritualized away the meaning of the
Kingdom.

There is basically no disagreement among interpreters -- either Catholic or Protestant -- on the
interpretation of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. All agree that the image predicts the
four Gentile world empires: Babylon, the head of gold; Medo-Persia, the chest; Greece, the loins; and
Rome represented in the legs and feet. There is, however, a difference of opinion on the meaning of the
little stone, described in the prophecy as destroying the whole system when it hits the image in the feet.

The positions taken by interpreters is divided among those who believe the little stone is the
church, and those who think the event is still future. The former see a spiritual kingdom -- the church --
which later overcame the system of government, based on paganism, started first by Nebuchadnezzar
and which system was then received in sequence by the Persians, and then by the Greeks and finally by
the Romans. The little stone destroyed the image with some immediacy when it hit the empire in the feet.
The location which was struck by the little stone, because of its position down the scale of the legs,
would indicate the latter time of the Roman Empire. The toes, on the other hand, would indicate, not the
latter times but a time after its division into ten kingdoms. To those seeing the church as the spiritual
kingdom, the little stone's filling of the whole earth is progressive and still going on.
4