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This is chapter / lecture # 17 in our series entitled Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom. In our previous lecture, we were pursuing two lines of thought—two threads which we had left dangling from previous lectures.
The first thread concerned how ecclesiastical (religious) Babylon has been supplanted by the economic power of Mystery Babylon; that is, by the money power. In other words, the power that was once wielded by papal Rome began to wane, while at the same time, the economic power of international banking began to arise.
In that regard, we also stated that the rise of the money power in the 1800s does not mean that it did not exist prior to that. On the contrary, that is one of the mysteries of Mystery Babylon: the fact that it has been the head of gold, the power of money, which has secretly ruled from behind the scenes all down through the centuries. There is much more to discuss concerning this first thread.
The second thread concerned the question of what will replace Mystery Babylon. And of course, the simple answer is the Stone Kingdom. And by the way, for clarification purposes for new listeners / readers, we at Stone Kingdom Ministries, do not in any way claim to be THE Stone Kingdom.
THE Stone Kingdom is a government which is headed by King Jesus Christ and which will rule the earth in complete righteousness. As an individual, I, of course, hope and strive to be among those called overcomers, those who have been predestinated, called and chosen for service to rule with and under our King in the millennial kingdom.
But Stone Kingdom Ministries itself is merely a tiny little ministry where our mission is simply to teach the full and complete gospel of the Kingdom, to the best of our knowledge and ability. We are simply Bible educators. We are not a political organization, although we teach about politics and government, because that is what the kingdom is all about: righteous government.
Nor do we advocate violence against our present government. Rather, we recognize that while we are under God-ordained bondage to the present Mystery Babylonian government, we are to pray for our leaders. And if our understanding of Bible prophecy is correct, we expect to see our present government replaced with that of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, the transition will not require or involve any taking up of arms against it on our part. So we are observers of what God is doing in the earth. As Paul says in…
2 Corinthians 10: 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
As we began to address this second thread at the end of the last lecture, I realized the first thing we needed to do was to identify the symbolism of the clay. Along the way in this series we have already identified most of the body parts of the image which the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream.
The head of gold was Babylon itself. The silver arms and chest represented the Medo-Persian Empire. The belly and thighs of brass symbolized the Greek Empire. The legs of iron represented the Roman Empire.
But we had not yet discussed what the clay in the feet and toes might symbolize. As you recall, it said the clay was mixed with iron. That’s verse 33 in Daniel 2.
So that means that something or some people group was in and among the Roman Empire. Okay, class, pop quiz time. Fill in the blank. We left off last time having clearly identified from the Bible that the clay represents what? The clay represents _______. We saw that the clay represents Israel.
This fits history as we know it. Secular historians do not recognize it, nor does the church at large recognize it because they are all still blind to our identity as Israel. But remember how I have taught how the ten-tribed House of Israel never returned to the old land of Israel, but they migrated over the centuries into and overspread Europe?
And while there were, and still are, Israelites over all parts of Europe and beyond, the further north and west one goes in Europe, the more densely it is populated with Israelites.
But at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, and all through the reign of the little horn, descendants of 10-tribed Israel were mingled among the non-Israelite people who comprised the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision.
Thus at the close of the last message, we were left “hanging ten,” so to speak.
The last lecture was entitled The Rise of Financial Babylon. This lecture is called The Rise of the Stone Kingdom. This goes back to a concept I presented two lectures back, the idea of the tension of opposites.
So what I am going to teach and show you now—or at least get a good start on it, is the idea that while Financial Babylon was rising, so also was the Stone Kingdom. Two polar opposites—the tension of opposites—two manner of people came from mother Rebekah, remember?
Previously, we have seen how pagan Rome gave way to papal Rome and by the 1800s, papal Rome (aka religious Babylon) was giving way to financial Babylon. Now look with me in Daniel, chapter 2, verse 33 again…
Daniel 2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 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
And then in verse 37 Daniel begins to tell Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation which the Most High God had made known unto Daniel. We pick it up at the Roman empire in verse 40…
By the way, I realize that those of you who have been with this series of studies since the beginning have heard these passages several times before, but there are always new people just tuning in (or on the web, discovering these blogs). And although we cannot repeat everything, we know that repetition is one of the keys to learning. Therefore, I do hope that each time you hear these verses repeated, that you are seeing something new in them.
Daniel 2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 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.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, 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.
In the time of the Roman Empire—especially papal Rome—there were multiplied millions of the descendants of ten-tribed Israel among the “ten toes nations” in Europe who, through those centuries, never really accepted the rule of Rome. And thus there were wars—often with religious causes—throughout those centuries.
It was exactly as it says in verse 43: “they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Now observe:
44 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 for ever.
45 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.
And for the remainder of this chapter, we are going to zero in on the first part of verse 44: And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.
Right out of the gate, we can deduce two facts: (1) The Stone Kingdom has been in existence for quite some time; and (2) the Stone Kingdom is still rising. It has not reached its full potential yet, because obviously Mystery Babylon still exists.
So let us now back up in history to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, to lay some foundational observations concerning the Kingdom.
This takes us back to where we can begin to answer the questions we posed in the previous message; namely, just who and or what is the stone? And what is the relationship of the stone to the kingdom which is spoken of in verses 44 & 45 of Daniel, chapter 2?
Think about this: From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, what does He preach about? Personal salvation? Very little! That will be shocking to most Christians, but study the Scriptures, brothers and sisters! Read the four gospels and see what Jesus preached. Here’s a hint—in all caps, boldfaced, italicized and underlined—He preached about the KINGDOM!!
I’ve said this before but I feel I should probably repeat it for any number of my listeners on our radio broadcasts who might be getting upset at this statement, so listen carefully. This is not to say there is no personal salvation. Of course, there is, but what I am saying is that Jesus primarily taught and preached about the kingdom. For example…
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Even that most famous passage in churchianity about being “born again” is actually more about what? Here it is:
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus taught the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom. I am not going to present them all to you here, but you can do a search and here is what you will find in the gospels. The phrase “kingdom of heaven” appears 31 times in Matthew. The phrase “kingdom of heaven” does not appear at all in Mark, Luke or John.
However, the phrase “kingdom of God” appears 15 times in Mark. And the same phrase “kingdom of God” is found in 31 verses in Luke, and twice in the gospel of John. Plus, the phrase “kingdom of God” appears 5 times in Matthew.
Do not assume that the two phrases are interchangeable. There are some subtle but very important distinctions between them, especially prophetically. To teach about that could fill a series by itself.
Ron Oja tipped me off to this some years ago and suggested I do a series on it. Well, I do hope to get to it sometime. This Mystery Babylon-Stone Kingdom series will not go on forever and at this point, I have no idea what I will be teaching on when this series is done.
[Note: This lecture was originally given in 2011, and I am now (October of 2020) 45 lectures into a deep, deep study of The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God.]
But meanwhile, Ron has already begun to slip in some of the distinctions in his talks from time to time. And I welcome that because I want to learn every jot and tittle concerning the Kingdom, don’t you?
There is, however, one very critical distinction between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God which is uniquely central to this series on the Stone Kingdom—and if we do not get to it in this lecture, well, we shall get there at some point.
(To be continued.)