Daniel 7:14

Now this Son of Man became the prominent Person in the vision. He received dominion and glory and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days.

"This refers, not to his inherent sovereignty over the universe as God the Son (as consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit), but to his appointment as absolute Lord and Judge by virtue of his atoning ministry as God incarnate-the one who achieved a sinless life (Isaiah 53:9), paid the price for man’s redemption (Isaiah 53:5-6), and was vindicated by his bodily resurrection as Judge of the entire human race (Acts 17:31; Romans 2:16)." [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 91.]

God’s intention in giving the Son of Man this authority (cf. Matthew 28:18) was that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. He was to have global rule over everyone. Furthermore His kingdom would last forever in contrast to the preceding four kingdoms. Succeeding kingdoms destroyed preceding kingdoms, but no kingdom will ever destroy His kingdom (cf. Psalms 2:6-9; Psalms 72:11; Isaiah 11; Revelation 19:15-16; Revelation 20:1-6). This is a fifth kingdom, corresponding to the stone cut out without hands in chapter 2, that destroys the fourth kingdom and all preceding kingdoms.

Did Jesus’ coming to the earth in the first century destroy the Roman Empire? We could only say yes if we interpreted the destruction of the fourth kingdom in a non-literal way. I choose not to do this because the destruction of the previous kingdoms was literal. It seems that we should also expect that the destruction of the fourth kingdom by the fifth kingdom will be literal. Therefore the second coming of Christ must be the initiation of the fifth kingdom and the final destruction of the fourth kingdom. If this is so, then the prophetic picture that Daniel saw did not include the present age in which we live (cf. Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19). This conclusion has seemed reasonable to some amillenarians as well as to premillenarians. [Note: See Leupold, pp. 313-14.]