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Rev. James M. Gray 213
What did this forecast? Daniel is commissioned of God to reveal
it, and in effect, it meant just one thing, namely, Gentile dominion in
the earth from the time of Nebuchadnezzar down until the end of this
age. During all this period Israel was to he set aside from her place
of leadership and the Gentiles were to be in power, not all the Gen-
tiles, as was stated, but certain nations which God chose.
The Great World Empires
But while the image represented only one thing, the four metals of
which it was composed represented four things, in other words, as
the prophecy goes on to show, the four great world empires into which
Gentile dominion would be divided. The head of gold represented the
Babylonian Empire, the breast and arms of silver the Medo-Persian,
the belly and sides of brass the Grecian, and the legs and the feet the
Roman Empire which followed the Grecian. This last empire, in the
territorial and in the governmental sense, is still in existence and still
in power.
The prophecy further indicates a time when the Roman Empire will
be divided into ten parts, or ten kingdoms, as represented by the ten
toes, and when those ten kingdoms will be partly of a monarchical
character as represented by the iron, and partly of a democratic char-
acter as represented by the clay. At this time when the Roman Em-
pire thus in control of the earth shall be represented by ten kingdoms,
five in the east and five in the west, doubtless it will please God to
set up His own kingdom upon the earth in the place of them. Jesus
Christ will come in power and great glory, "with His mighty angels,
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that
obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 1:7, 8).
Then it is that the Kingdom of God strikes the image upon its feet,
comes into collision with the Gentile governments of the earth, as the
result of which those governments will be brought to an end. That
does not mean that all the people of the earth will be destroyed by
any means, but that the governments as such will cease. As it is
written: "Then shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other peoples
;
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it
shall stand for ever."
That is the day when Israel is back in her own land and when God
shall be pleased to use her as His vice-gerent, so to speak, in the gov-
ernment of the earth. Then Christ and His glorified Church,—to
which I trust every soul in this company belongs through faith in
His blood,—shall be reigning in glory over the earth.
Yes God loves the earth, and the time is coming when our eyes,
glorified as we shall then be with Christ, shall behold the fulfillment
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