KINGDOM OF GOD Part 52: THE COMING WORLD EMPIRE

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Part 52

THE INCREASE OF THE KINGDOM

(continued)

Millenniums ago ancient prophets beheld in spirit the scroll of history, prophesied the rise and fall of world empires, revealed the frantic efforts for world domination, and finally outlined clearly and unmistakably the last great world empire of all. The Spirit of God has revealed the course of human history today. He shows the ultimate outcome of the efforts by mortal men to resolve their differences and live peacefully, every man beneath his own fig tree and by his own vineyard.

The unfailing promise of God is, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). God has not left His people in darkness about the future. God is in control! In the annals of human history the rise and fall of empires appear to be dependent upon the will and power of man. But by the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the workings of the great God, silently, patiently working out His own purpose and will.

In the days of Daniel the prophet, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had a dream in the night. He awoke disturbed and perplexed because he knew the dream was significant, but he could not remember any of it! The king called the magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, all the wise men of Babylon, but none was able to tell him his dream or give the interpretation. When Daniel received news of this, he requested an audience with the king. King Nebuchadnezzar's question to Daniel was to the point: "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation of it?" Daniel answered the king, "The secret which the king has demanded neither the wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor astrologers can show the king; but there is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets, and He has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what it is that shall be in the latter days -- at the end of days. Your dream and the visions of your bed are these..." (Dan. 2:26-28, Amplified).

And then came the dream, one of the most dramatic revelations of all history, in which God outlined the rise and fall of global empires, moved beyond to our day and its efforts toward a New World Order, on to the setting up of earth's last great world empire. "God...has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what it is that shall be in the latter days...thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof to the king" (Dan. 2:28, 31-36).

With what interest and astonishment must the king have listened as Daniel began his interpretation of the dream and informed the king that his own kingdom was the golden head of that magnificent image. Gold, the king of metals, represented the Babylonian empire. Daniel informed the king that the God of heaven had given him his kingdom, and made him ruler over all. But the empire of Babylon was not to last forever. It was to give way to another. The breasts and arms of silver represented the Medo-Persian empire which overthrew the kingdom of Babylon. Great as was the Medo-Persian empire, it too, was to topple. It was succeeded by the Grecian empire. The fourth and final empire to arise and dominate the whole of the civilized world was Rome. Of this fourth kingdom Daniel said, "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, foreasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom SHALL BE PARTLY STRONG AND PARTLY BROKEN" (Dan. 2:41-42).

The brokenness spoke of division. Ten kingdoms, represented by the ten toes, were to emerge. The earth was never again to see the cohesive strength of the Roman empire welded into the superstructure of one great World Empire. For Daniel, in one of the most significant prophecies of all time, declared, "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they (the ten toes) shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay" (Dan. 2:43). It is important that we drink very deeply of these words of the prophet, for in them is contained the KEY to, and the UNDERSTANDING of events that shall unfold in this our day!

Hear it! "They shall NOT cleave one to another!" This reference is to the toes of the image, the ten divisions of the old Roman empire which remain with us unto this day in the nations of modern Europe. But if, as some say, these ten toes must yet be formed into the super-structure of a World Empire of Antichrist, where is the signification of that COMING WORLD GOVERNMENT? Daniel revealed that there would be but FOUR great World Empires of man. The fourth would exist first in two parts (the two legs), as East and West, and finally would be divided into ten parts, brought into a condition of fragmentation and weakness. Then, in the days of those kings, at the time of the ten toes of iron mixed with clay, in their fragmentation and weakness, the God of heaven would set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed! If there is to be a World Government of the ten toes here at the end of the age then God left something out! God was wrong! There was an oversight on His part! Perhaps there really was to be a FIFTH WORLD GOVERNMENT in between the fourth world empire and the Kingdom of God -- but in His haste to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar the plan of the ages God momentarily overlooked that fifth kingdom!

Time and again men have dreamed of rearing on these ten fragments of the fourth kingdom ONE mighty empire. A single verse of scripture was stronger than all their hosts... "Partly strong, and partly broken," was the prophetic description. And this is exactly the history of these ten kingdoms! "They shall NOT cleave together!" God announced. And yet men have tried to mold them together. And men of God, who ought to know better, predict that they shall unite and form a Fifth World Empire -- a World Government in our time! "This shall not be," says the word of God. "This has not been," replies the book of history.

But in the light of history's dramatic chapters and the current move toward a united Europe -- a UNITED STATES OF EUROPE -- what of the future? Will the elusive mirage of world peace based on the foundation of European solidarity, the result of wishful thinking, again cause men to forget the counsel of the word of God? "They shall not cleave one to another!" Ah, alliances may come, as they have for brief periods in the past, even some strong-man may arise, and it may appear that the iron and the miry clay of the feet and toes have finally fused to again dominate the world, but the word of God standeth sure: "They shall not cleave one to another!" It may seem that old animosities have disappeared and that the "ten kings" have truly become one, but I must assure you that "the scripture cannot be broken" (Jn. 10:35).

What further proof of divine inspiration need anyone than these words of the Lord: "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another." Everyone who knows the history of Europe knows that for generations and centuries the royal seed of these nations intermarried and mingled to foster unity, but the result was always the same -- they never could cleave together! And neither can they now. In the year 1957 the European Economic Community (Common Market) was created under the Treaty of Rome. This is the latest, perhaps final, effort to unite the ten toes that cannot cleave together, and thus revive in some form, by a United States of Europe, the old Roman empire. This, too, is ultimately doomed to failure no matter how promising it appears at the present time. Even now all is not peace and harmony within the European Union. A struggle for unity and direction has become increasingly tense. Germany and France insist on a strong central government. Luxembourg, Belgium, and The Netherlands, wedged between the two giants, are forced to join the two stronger powers. Denmark has been a reluctant participant, fearing the Catholic Church. England has been reticent from the beginning to surrender sovereignty to a strong central union. Spain and Italy have at times sided with England. Greece, Iceland, and Portugal are going along for the ride. I do not say there will not be some kind of European unity. There have been in the past for short periods of time, only to be violently broken apart by age-old resentments, mis-trust, and hostilities. But I can prophesy this: Should such a union materialize for a season it will NOT be a world empire, neither will it last!

When the Soviet Union collapsed, some observers thought they heard its crumbling superstructure sputtering out promises of a new world order -- a grand new era of peace, cooperation and easing of international tensions. The tearing down of the Berlin Wall, a precursor of the Soviet breakup, became a symbol of fresh winds of freedom and hope blowing over the European continent. Winds, it was proposed, that would blow goodwill and understanding around the world! As we look honestly at today's rapidly changing political world, I doubt that most people are being deceived into believing that some wonderful new era of man-made peace is developing. It is other winds, renewed dark winds of long-standing hatred and religious and economic confrontation, that have all but devastated the idea of a new world order. The end of the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the West is leading to far-reaching consequences. The shape of the world is changing. New power blocs are emerging. Frightening scenarios of economic upheaval, intensified regional armed conflict dividing the interests of the super-powers, more starving populations and ecological disaster loom on the horizon. Once again the almighty Lord is setting the stage to show the immutability of His word -- "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

THE COMING WORLD EMPIRE

The awe-inspiring vision of Nebuchadnezzar did not end with the vision of the feet and toes of iron and clay. The greatest event of all was yet to come, for he saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands which smote the image on its unsteady feet. The blow fell upon the feet because they represent the ruling power at the time of the end when these events take place and the vision is fulfilled. The moment that blow was struck by the stone from the mountain, the whole Babylonish system fell and crumbled to dust beneath its own weight. It became like the dust of a summer threshing-floor and the wind blew it away. Then the little stone cut from a mountain itself became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (Dan. 2:35, 44-45). This, of course, is the beginning of the Kingdom of God over the nations which will eventually fill the whole earth!

That Daniel should have thus so accurately and precisely foretold the past two thousand five hundred years of world history is convincing proof that we have in his writings a divine revelation, and it demands that we expect the due fulfillment of the rest of his forecast. We are bound to expect the sudden and dramatic overthrow of all the nations that have emerged out of the old Roman empire by a heaven-sent power, the "stone cut out without hands," which smites the image, grinds it to powder, blots it out of existence, takes its place and then rapidly increases and fills the whole earth, not merely with the gospel of salvation, but with the GOVERNMENTAL RULE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD OVER THE NATIONS.

Some have imagined that this was fulfilled in the days of Christ and the early church as the apostles and disciples went forth proclaiming the name of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, triumphing at last over the pagan religions and gods of the Roman world. But it is clear that this stone cut out without hands has nothing to do with that. In the first place, the stone falls on the feet of the image. Now you will observe that the stone did not fall on the head, nor on the breast, nor on the belly, nor on the legs, but on the feet of iron and clay -- it was upon the feet that the stone fell! This helps wonderfully to identify the stage of world history when the stone is cut out of the mountain without hands and smites the image. The ten toes, representing the ultimate fragmentation of the Roman empire, did not even exist in the days of Christ or the early church! Christ came and the church grew from one hundred twenty souls into millions in the time of the undivided imperial strength (the iron kingdom), not after its decay and division (iron and clay mixed). Christianity had already been established for centuries, as the religion of the Roman empire, before the state of things symbolized by the ten toes of iron and clay arose. The "days of these kings" were not yet come. The hordes of barbarians from the north and the east had not poured into the empire and broken it up. You see, the church came before the legs were fully formed. The church came and triumphed over the pagan religions and gods of the Roman empire. The church began and triumphed, not in the days of the toes, but in the days of the loins of the image. The church did not destroy human government, and then take its place. The church has been growing alongside of human government for two thousand years. No, the stone is not the advent of Jesus two thousand years ago, nor is it the church!

In addition to this, the destruction of the image is attributed to the sudden fall of the stone, not to its gradual expansion into a great mountain that fills the whole earth. Nothing whatever answering to the crushing, destructive fall of the stone came upon the Roman empire at that time. The Roman empire barely knew that a man called Jesus had walked upon earth. The growth and development of the stone into a mountain does not even begin till the image has been struck by the stone, broken to pieces, ground to powder, and blown away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor! The stone will fall on the feet of the image. Earthly politics will then crumble forever into dust. Empires, monarchies, republics, and democracies alike, the iron and the clay, will disappear from man's experience upon this earth and the Lord shall be King over all the earth, and alone be exalted in that Day. The gospel of salvation preached among all nations for the past two millenniums has never destroyed the civil powers of human government; to the contrary, the church systems have ridden upon the back of the civil powers as a gaudy harlot riding the beast (Rev. 17:3). But what we have in Nebuchadnezzar's wonderful dream of the stone smiting the image is that there comes a power that sets aside every human empire and government, and then is introduced the rule of the Kingdom of God over every dimension and institution of national life. In fact, even the residual influence of human government in culture, politics, government, judicial systems, social orders, philosophy, education, science, art, religion and all other realms shall be smashed to smithereens, ground to powder that the wind (spirit) drives away -- the whole thing disappears to be remembered no more!

God's own nation on earth must take up the scepter. This Kingdom SHALL NEVER BE DESTROYED! "Never" covers a long time. This Kingdom of God "shall not be left to other people." The four preceding kingdoms were left to others. Babylon became a prey to Medo-Persia, which in turn was seized and held by Greece, which in turn was left to Rome to subject and dominate. Rome has fallen into its fragments which in due course shall be subjected to the rule of the saints of the Most High. It is God's Kingdom which must "break in pieces and CONSUME A-L-L these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever!" (Dan. 2:44). Furthermore, this is no fiction or fairy tale: this is history in the making. "The dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure" (Dan. 2:45).

As the fourth kingdom, the Roman empire, was represented in a two-fold state, first strong and flourishing, "with legs of iron," and then weakened and divided, "with feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay," so this fifth kingdom, or Christ's Kingdom on earth, is likewise described in two states. But while Rome passes from strength to weakness, from iron to iron mixed with miry clay, the fifth kingdom begins small, merely a stone, and advances to become a great mountain. First it is cut out of a mountain to become the kingdom of a stone. The final phase is when itself becomes a mountain, larger and greater than the mountain it was cut from, "and filled the whole earth." There is ANOTHER KINGDOM coming! It is the Kingdom of the Stone, and yet it is not another kingdom, but another stage of the same Kingdom of God. It is the Kingdom of the LIVING STONE! It is the Kingdom of God in His sons! It is not made with hands -- it is not of man's doing. It is cut from the mountain of the house of the Lord (Micah 4:1). It shall roll irresistibly forth from the mountain (kingdom) of the Lord's house (the true church), smiting the feeble feet of the great image, leaving it in ruins, and as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor the wind (spirit) shall carry it away that it shall be no more. Thus will the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and we shall reign unto the ages of the ages. Hallelujah!

The great majority of commentators have missed the truth here, assuming this stone to be Jesus Christ, when God says it is A KINGDOM. The text does not state that God sets up the Christ, who shall never be destroyed, as beautiful as that fact is. Furthermore, in verse 45 we find this stone "cut out of a mountain." Jesus was not cut out of a mountain. But this fifth kingdom was cut out of a mountain. And the next verse definitely states that this kingdom is set up by God "in the days of these kings," that is, in the days of the kingdoms of the toes. The ten toes did not even exist when Jesus came! Rome was not even in its "feet" stage at that time. And the stone smites the feet!

I do not deny that there is a Kingdom of God in the world today. The Kingdom of God has been here among the Lord's people ever since Jesus came and brought it. If a man has been born again, he has been delivered out of the power of darkness, and translated or transferred into the Kingdom of God's dear Son, submitting to the will of God in the Spirit as supreme. And yet -- this Kingdom is as a mountain in the earth co-existing with the image of Nebuchadnezzar. The Kingdom of God in the earth is one kingdom among all the kingdoms of men, one mountain among all the majestic peaks of human government. But this present "mountain" form of the Kingdom is not the one that shall smite the image and break it to pieces and utterly destroy and replace it. A stone must be cut out of this mountain without hands, by the sovereign move and work of God, and it is the stone that smites the image! The stone destroys all human government! Only then does the stone begin to grow and become a mountain so great and mighty and immense and boundless and all-consuming -- not a little mountain co-existing with the image, but a great mountain that fills the whole earth! Ah, can you not see it, my beloved? There are TWO MOUNTAINS AND A STONE. The stone is cut out of the first mountain, and the stone becomes the second mountain. The first mountain is a small mountain, the second mountain fills (dominates) the whole earth! The first mountain exists "in the days of these kings." The second mountain only materializes after the image of human government has completely passed away! The stone and the two mountains are different forms or stages of the Kingdom of God in the earth!

The apostle Peter, when writing to the church, says, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, AN HOLY NATION, a peculiar people..." (I Pet. 2:9). He calls the church a nation. He also calls the members of the church a race, for the word "generation" is from the Greek GENEA which means "race." The Amplified Bible renders this, "But ye are a chosen race." Nations are generally built up after ethnic lines. The church is both a race and a nation because it is composed of people who have been born of God! God is thus the head of an entirely new ethnic entity which is heavenly in its origin! Born again, born of the Spirit! The off-spring of God! And God has formed this new race of men under His government, making them a nation. It is God's nation. He is the King over this people. And in the scriptures mountains are used to denote kingdoms or nations. So when we read in Daniel 2:45 of a stone CUT OUT OF A MOUNTAIN, it is a stone, a force, a power cut out of a kingdom -- out of a nation! And that nation, or mountain, is GOD'S CHURCH! The stone is, therefore, the many-membered Christ of God, the overcomers out of the church age who form His divine government for the nations -- the sons of God! The Hebrew word for "stone" is EBEN, taken from the root word BANAH, which means "to build". The Hebrew word for "son" is BEN, also derived from the root word BANAH. Thus, in the Hebrew language the association between "stone" and "son" is clearly established. The stone is the sons!

The stone is the corporate Christ, the body of sons. It is the body of Christ, which we are, united with Christ the Head. Our spiritual maturity and union with Christ make us the stone of Daniel's prophecy. And this anointed body of Christ is now ready to smite the image, man's systems and governments, the remnants and residue of the fourth kingdom of Rome lingering in the modern institutions and nations of the industrialized West, breaking it into pieces. This will begin to happen when the body of Christ steps forth into the full expression of Christ's immortality and omnipotence at the manifestation of the sons of God. This manifestation is not afar off, beloved, it is even at the door! That mighty stone, which is this glorious Christ company, including the Head and the body, shall smite the image, representing man's governments and systems, by the power of the fullness of the Spirit of Sonship. It will be the mighty spiritual manifestation of the glory of God! It will be the power of God of which Pentecost was but a foretaste, a sampling, the appetizer! This will be the balance of the meal -- the fullness of the Feast of Tabernacles! In due time, all those bits and pieces of man's corrupt and fallen systems shall become like chaff to be carried away by the wind of the Spirit, leaving no place on earth for any of them. And that stone shall become a great mountain or kingdom that shall fill the whole earth, not with laws, rules, force, or coercion, but with the eternal glory and transforming life of Christ.

Even now that stone is being fashioned and formed, chiseled and cut out of the mountain without hands, by the sovereign dealings and work of God in the elect members of His body. We are truly members of our Father's glorious Christ! According to the prophecy of Daniel we are gods, sons, lords and kings in union with Jesus the Christ. I find myself too limited to set forth this truth as I should do, but king Nebuchadnezzar's heart was pierced by these sacred words when Daniel interpreted the king's dream by the spirit of revelation from God. Hear the words of the king in response to the mysteries opened up to him in that awesome hour: "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret" (Dan. 2:47). What a word! Our God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings. Now it naturally follows that we are those "gods" of whom Yahwey is the chief God, and we are those "kings" of whom Yahweh is the Lord!

The elect of God are beyond doubt a very special people, members in particular of the body of Christ, called and chosen unto a divine and supernatural calling. They are a people hand picked for sonship from the teeming multitudes of redeemed men and women. They are few in number, for they are but a small stone cut out of a great mountain. They are chosen by the sovereign purpose of God and refined in the furnace of affliction. They have welcomed Father's call and have stripped for the race. They have girded up their loins with truth. They have laid aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset the human frame. They have pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. They are fashioned in the heights of the mountain of the Lord. They are destined for full sonship in Him. They have counted every dear and precious thing of earth but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord. Christ has become all in all to them. They have brought into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and He is high and lifted up within them. They love Him first and foremost, and all other men they love in Him.

We have thus become the mighty Stone of Christ that is ready to smite the image. The hour is at hand when this mighty Stone of Christ will bring down all the carnal, worldly systems of man, replacing them with the righteous and just and beneficent Kingdom of God in all the earth. Whenever we turn away from the religious doctrines, traditions, ceremonies and orders of the church systems of man to embrace completely the truth, life, maturity, mind, will, power, and authority of the Spirit of the Son in our hearts, we thus enforce the mighty, kingdom Stone of Christ. Whenever we reject the will of man, the ways of the flesh, the systems of the world, and the religious principles derived from eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and seek to do only and always the will of the Father in the earth, we thus enforce the mighty Stone of Christ. When we cease eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after the rules, laws, and doctrines of the religious systems of man, and begin to eat of the tree of Life by the Spirit, we receive the greater wisdom of the mind of Christ and transformation into His image by the spirit of His Life working within. We then become partakers of Him who shall feed the peoples of the nations, and impart to them the Life that He is.

This mighty and glorious Stone of Christ is taking form as it is chiseled out of the mountain without the aid of any of man's works or religion's methods. It is cut out of the mountain without hands! Oh, the wonder of it! Thousands who now read these lines can testify to the fact that it is the Lord Himself who has revealed Himself and these truths to their hearts, and who has directed their steps, ordained their path, and brought forth His dealings in their lives to conform them to the image of God's Son. Only the work of the eternal Spirit within their hearts has purged, purified, refined, delivered, changed, enlightened, transformed and empowered them to do nothing but the absolute and perfect will of their Father. Because we have come before Him declaring our solemn purpose and intention of submitting to every one of His dealings in our lives to make us His sons, we see that the Lord is taking away the former order of things and preparing our minds, hearts, and bodies for the fullness of His resurrection life, glory, wisdom and power. We are being readied for the great fall down the side of the mountain which shall bring the more glorious order of the Kingdom of God upon the nations of the earth. How marvelous is this day and Father's sovereign, omnipotent purpose for it!

The same analogy of the stone cut out of the mountain is drawn in John's vision of a woman bringing forth a manchild in chapter twelve of the Revelation. The woman is the church. The manchild, born out of the woman, is that company of God's overcoming sons who are to "rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Rev. 12:5). Thus, the woman of Revelation twelve, and the mountain from which the stone is cut, ARE ONE AND THE SAME -- God's church! The manchild out of the woman and the stone out of the mountain refer to the same company that is also the 144,000 overcoming sons of God who come with the Lamb upon mount Zion to reign! Immediately following the marvelous description of the 144,000 sons of God in chapter fourteen of Revelation, John sees an angel flying through the mid-heaven crying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen!" The remainder of the chapter symbolically portrays the process of the destruction of this Babylonish system by the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands!

Can we not see by this that the manchild out of the woman, the overcomers out of the seven churches, the 144,000 symbolically out of the tribes of Israel, and the stone cut out of the mountain all bespeak of the same company. Of the manchild it is written, "And she brought forth a manchild, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Rev. 12:5). Of the overcomers the record states, "And he that overcometh...to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers" (Rev. 2:26-27). In Revelation, chapter 14, the 144,000 come up on mount Zion, the symbol of kingship and dominion, where typically king David ruled gloriously over the kingdom of Israel. Daniel says of the stone, "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 forever. 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; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure" (Dan. 2:44-45).

So the stone rules and breaks in pieces all these kingdoms. The overcomers rule and break the nations into shivers. The 144,000 rule from the dominion of mount Zion. The manchild rules all nations with a rod of iron. And each of these "comes out" of something else -- out of a larger group of God's people! They all fulfill the same function -- smashing the kingdoms of this world and bringing the Kingdom of God to pass over the nations of earth! This, precious friend of mine, is GOD'S GOVERNMENT. And this is the NEXT WORLD GOVERNMENT! After Rome, the NEXT WORLD EMPIRE IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD! Hallelu-yah!

Is there not joy in your heart to think that the One who came, and had nothing but a borrowed cradle, a cross built for a criminal, and another man's tomb -- I say, is there not joy unspeakable and full of glory in your heart today that God is going to establish His Kingdom over ALL? I freely confess it is a great joy to me, and I am blessed with the sacred knowledge that we are sharers of His glory, we are called to sit with Him on His throne and reign with Him in His Kingdom, and we are glad to the full because it is the Day of the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ as King over the nations and Lord over all. At the present moment, when I think of God's dealings with men, I learn this, that "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life" (Rom. 8:21) -- it is divine grace upon a righteous basis that saves men today. But in that glorious age now at hand "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment" (Isa. 32:1) -- there righteousness reigns and there comes forth a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Righteousness is perfectly at home, so to speak, there. It is the Day when righteousness reigns upon the earth through the transforming authority and rule of the sons of God. The unrighteousness of men, institutions, and nations shall be broken to shivers, ground to powder, and carried away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.

Press on, saints of God, for we are on the winning side! We are on the way up, and the kingdoms of this world are on the way down! All of the distress and perplexity among the nations today does not indicate the imminent rise of a world dictatorship under Antichrist. Oh, no! Rather, it heralds the hour for the final collapse and destruction of this present evil system of things and the victory of God's glorious Kingdom. The kingdoms of puny, unregenerated men are growing old and wearing out like a garment. Democracy is not the greatest form of government ever devised, it is the weakest, the clay mingled with the iron. It is the rule of the people with unregenerated hearts and uncircumcised minds. Democracy cannot stand. Communism cannot stand. Dictatorships cannot stand. Kingdoms of men cannot stand. They are all time-worn and threadbare, faded and dilapidated -- ready to be discarded like a worn-out garment and replaced by a new order.

The carnal-minded rulers of this world plan for a One World Government, a New World Order of their own making. But it matters not what the Fabian Socialists or any other group plans -- don't you believe for one moment in any scheme that the carnal mind devises! Just because men plan doesn't mean they will succeed. Man that is born of woman is born in sin and shapen in iniquity and because men have sinful natures and dwell in a world where sin with all its sordid evil and wicked deceptions and vain illusions, they craftily devise many inventions, plans and plots, and the vast majority of Christians believe these things. Man boasts of what he is going to do and all the Christians say, "Amen!" fully expecting it to come to pass. The confession of many of God's people corresponds with what the devil is promoting. Remember, beloved, millenniums ago men were promoting the same ideas. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:4). But GOD had other plans! "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad...and they left off to build the city" (Gen. 11:5-8).

The effort to World Government today is just as contrary to the will and word of God as was Babel of old. And the whole world, including the people of God, must yet again, one more time, come face to face with the word of the Lord: "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

The present nations of the earth, and most of the Christians of the world today, will be surprised...shocked...when God steps in again and by His sovereign power derails the well-laid and proud and boastful schemes of the great men of the earth, bringing forth a company of unknown, unrecognized, and unheralded sons of God, the instrument in His hand to establish in the earth HIS OWN WORLD GOVERNMENT!

God's word is always true, but it is our meddling with it that makes it awkward and difficult to explain. The simple truth is just this: "But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even forever and ever...the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the SAINTS of the most High: and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom...and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and ALL DOMINIONS SHALL SERVE AND OBEY HIM" (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27).

These saints who take and possess the Kingdom, to whom is given judgment and dominion, are THE STONE OF CHRIST -- THE COMING WORLD GOVERNMENT! You have God's word for it!

To be continued...

J. PRESTON EBY

PART 51

PART 53