Daniel 2:44-45

These verses explain what the "rock" signifies, that crushed the feet and toes of the image and destroyed it completely. It is a fifth kingdom that God Himself will establish, following the final phase of the fourth kingdom (Rome; cf. Psalms 2:7-9; Revelation 11:15). The "Rock," a frequent symbol of God and Jesus Christ in Scripture (cf. Psalms 18:2; Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 28:16; Zechariah 3:9; 1 Peter 2:6-8), evidently represents the King as well as His kingdom (cf. Daniel 2:38: "You are the head of gold"). The mountain out of which the rock comes is evidently God (cf. Deuteronomy 32:18; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 31:2-3), though a mountain is also a common figure for a kingdom or government in the Bible (cf. Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 27:13; Jeremiah 51:25; Micah 4:1; et al.). "Those kings" evidently refers to the 10 kings represented by the 10 toes. They are quite clearly contemporaneous with one another, not sequential rulers. God’s kingdom, the mountain of Daniel 2:35, will fill the earth and will last forever (cf. 2 Samuel 7:16). It will never suffer destruction or be succeeded by another kingdom, as all the preceding kingdoms had. It will begin with the Millennium and continue forever in the eternal state.

"The major burden of the book of Daniel is the tension and conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world." [Note: Eugene H. Merrill, "Daniel as a Contribution to Kingdom Theology," in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, p. 217. See also Lourdino A. Yuzon, "The Kingdom of God in Daniel," South East Asia Journal of Theology 19 (1978):23-27.]

"Though the differing metals within the image represent four chronologically successive kingdoms, the single statue suggests that these kingdoms, though diverse in their identity, actually comprise one entity, a world empire opposed to God. This explains why the entire statue is depicted as destroyed by the rock with a single blow delivered to the feet (Daniel 2:34-35; Daniel 2:44 b) and why this event is said to occur ’in the times of those kings,’ that is, the kings of the four kingdoms symbolized in the vision (Daniel 2:44 a)." [Note: Robert B. Chisholm Jr., Handbook on the Prophets, p. 297.]

Whereas almost all expositors agree that the kingdom of God is in view, they disagree on the nature of that kingdom. They also disagree on how it will destroy the preceding kingdoms, and when this destruction will happen. Amillenarians, and some postmillenarians and some premillenarians, believe that Jesus inaugurated this kingdom when He came to earth. They view the church as this kingdom that defeated Rome.

"The disintegrating and corrupt empire crumbled through decay from within as well as through the impact of the sound morals and the healthy life of Christianity that condemned lascivious Rome. . . . Christianity was in a sense God’s judgment upon sinful Rome." [Note: Leupold, p. 121. Cf. Young, p. 78.]

The term "premillennial," of course, refers to the view that Jesus Christ will return to the earth before He inaugurates His millennial (thousand-year) rule on the earth. The term "amillennial" refers to the view that there will be no literal millennial rule of Christ on earth. His present rule over His church, or His future eternal rule in heaven, is all the rule we should anticipate, according to its supporters. The "postmillennial" view sees the present church age as the millennium. Advocates of this view believe that Jesus will return at the end of the present age in which the church is presently and increasingly overcoming all ungodliness. Amillenarians and postmillenarians believe in a spiritual kingdom, but to be consistent with the imagery of this vision, it seems that the fifth kingdom must be an earthly kingdom-just as the preceding four kingdoms were. Daniel saw that it "filled the whole earth" (Daniel 2:35).

Many students of this passage, including myself, find the amillennial and postmillennial interpretations unsatisfying. First, Rome did not fall because of Christianity primarily, but because of its own internal decay. Eventually Visigoth invaders from the North defeated it. Second, the effects of the Roman Empire, the fragments of the legs and toes if you will, remained for hundreds of years after Jesus Christ’s first coming. Yet the vision pictures all vestiges of this kingdom and its predecessors disappearing, apparently fairly soon. "The wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found" (Daniel 2:35). Third, few people today would say that the kingdom of God has in any sense, certainly not politically, conquered the world. The popular title for our age as the "post-Christian era" testifies to this truth. Fourth, God gave prophecies after Jesus Christ’s ascension that He would return to the earth as King of Kings, smite the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:11-21).

"Nothing is more evident after nineteen hundred years of Christianity than that the stone, if it reflects the church or the spiritual kingdom which Christ formed at His first coming, is not in any sense of the term occupying the center of the stage in which Gentile power has been destroyed. As a matter of fact, in the twentieth century the church has been an ebbing tide in the affairs of the world; and there has been no progress whatever in the church’s gaining control of the world politically. If the image represents the political power of the Gentiles, it is very much still standing." [Note: Walvoord, p. 76.]

Seeing the destruction of the final stage of the fourth kingdom as future seems more in harmony with the facts of history and with other Scriptures (cf. Daniel 7:24; Revelation 17:12). This premillennial view sees the kingdom that Jesus Christ will set up on earth, following His second advent, as the first stage of His endless rule. The stone in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision represents that Ruler and His kingdom.

Daniel concluded by explaining to Nebuchadnezzar that the sovereign God had revealed to him what would happen in the future. He further affirmed that the dream represented reality, and that the interpretation that Daniel had given was reliable.

If the stone from heaven represents the kingdom of God thoroughly destroying all earthly kingdoms when Messiah comes, as seems true, then it appears inconsistent to view that kingdom as beginning with Christ’s first coming. Rather, it fits better Christ’s second coming. If so, the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth must begin with Christ’s second coming, not His first coming. This is the view of normative dispensationalists, in contrast to progressive dispensationalists and historic premillennialists. These latter two groups see the church as the first stage in the kingdom of God, the second stage being the millennial reign of Christ.

"Daniel 2:31-45 indicates that the Aramaic word for ’kingdom’ may include the concept of a kingdom with both earthly/temporal and heavenly/eternal aspects. The context in Daniel 2 allows for one kingdom beginning on earth and continuing into the eternal state. This kingdom is established by God, fills the whole earth after destroying all other earthly kingdoms, and will never be destroyed." [Note: Kenneth L. Barker, "Evidence from Daniel," in A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus, p. 134.]

Wiersbe noted four implications of this vision: God is in control of history; human enterprises decline as time goes by; it will be difficult for things to hold together at the end of the age; and Jesus Christ will return, destroy His enemies, and establish His kingdom. [Note: Wiersbe, pp. 260-61.]