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Daniel The Man who Feared God 2016


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    1. Considerations related to different interpretations of the metals and clay composing the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream:

      1. The statement in 43: “As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage” (ESV) has led some interpreters to suggest that this is a reference to Ptolemies and the Seleucids who sealed their alliance by intermarriage (Antiochus II to Bernice, the daughter of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, in 252), but could not stay united and ended up at war.

        1. A problem with this interpretation is that after Alexander’s death in 323 BC, his empire was broken into four kingdoms ruled by his generals. Two of these were the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty in Syria.

        2. The interpreters claim that only these two kingdoms were of relevance to the Jews (and therefore included in the statue), because they continually squabbled over Judea.

        3. This ethno-centric interpretation is too narrow. Daniel wasn’t written for Maccabean Jews but for an international audience in a world-empire 400 years earlier.

        4. There are alternate translations of this verse, which we will consider below.

      2. Daniel mentions the Medes and Persians as a single empire (5.28) and the courtiers appeal to the law of the Medes and Persians (6.8, 12, 15). This indicates that at the time of Daniel (see also, Est 1.19), the empire of the Medes and Persians was viewed as a single empire, not two consecutive empires. This supports the view that Interpretation 1, above, is correct.

      3. Daniel 2.36-45 enumerates four kingdoms (37 [a kingdom], 39 [another, third], 40 [fourth]) not five. The kingdom of iron in clay is not called a fifth kingdom but is the fourth kingdom in its later stages.

      4. The kingdom of the Rock was to be set up in the days of the kings of the fourth empire (44).

        1. “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed …” (ESV)

        2. “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed…” (NIV)

        3. Luke 2.1: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” [italics added], confirms that it was the Roman world-empire) that was the fourth kingdom.

      5. Jesus (Mt 24.15; Mk 13.14) refers to the abomination of desolation mentioned by Daniel (9.27; 11.31; 12.11). This indicates that the final, fourth, kingdom in Daniel is the Roman Empire. The particular abomination of desolation is the desecration and destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD.

      6. Edward Young, in his commentary100 on Daniel, in an approximately 20-page appendix, deals with various arguments related to the identity of fourth kingdom. He relates chapters 7 and 8 to chapter 2 and shows that statements (e.g., 7.7) made about the fourth kingdom cannot apply to the Grecian Empire, but they do describe the Roman Empire.

      7. Spencer Kimball, a Mormon, explained in 1976, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored in 1830. ...This is the kingdom, set up by the God of heaven, that would never be destroyed nor superseded, and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that would become a great mountain and would fill the whole earth.” He agreed that the third kingdom represented the Greek Empire and the fourth, the Roman Empire. He then argued that the feet of iron and clay represented the kingdoms of the European nations into which the Roman Empire fragmented and which were the great political powers at the time the Mormon church was founded.101

      8. The Jehovah's Witnesses claim that the feet of iron and clay refers to the Anglo-American dual world-power. They claim that this is the last dominant world power. The mixture of iron and clay refers to the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ powers of these ‘empires’—there military strength and diplomacy. They claim that the Kingdom of the Rock is now established.102

    2. Leupold103 refers to a view that suggests that the metals in the statue correspond to the distinctive nature of the cultures of Interpretation 1: Gold was used extensively in Babylon, Silver represents the commercial activities of the Medo-Persian merchants, bronze was the metal of Greek armaments, and iron typifies the power and cruelty of the Roman armies which used steel swords. This may be reading too much into the passage. Both the Greeks and the Romans used bronze for much of their armour, but iron had replaced bronze in swords by at least 200 years before the time of Alexander the Great.

    3. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream encompassed the world-dominating Gentile nations until the time that they would be brought under subjection to the Messiah. “The times of the Gentiles” (Lk 21.24), in one sense (i.e., world-dominating empires) reached its apex at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. We are now in the Kingdom-age in which there are no longer world-dominating human empires and when Gentiles as well as Jews honour the one Messiah. The truth of the coming end of the “times of the Gentiles” was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, the first world-ruling emperor, to teach him (and all who follow) that they are ultimately subject to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.




  1. What is the significance of the feet being composed of iron and clay? (41-43)

    1. This probably does not refer to two separate parts of the Roman Empire (e.g., east and west) since the Roman Empire was essentially under one ruler during the life of Christ from Augustus Caesar, and to the rule of Constantine or to around 400 AD. The Roman Empire we permanently split into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, following the death of Theodosius I.

    2. This may be a reference to the civil wars in the Roman Empire: between Marius and Sulla (2nd c BC) and Julius Caesar and Pompey (1st c BC). Rome was the dominant world ‘empire’ at this time even though it did not have an official emperor until Augustus (27BC – 14AD)

    3. It is possible that iron and clay refer to the period of chaos after the death of Nero in 68 AD. In the following year there were four emperors.

    4. The iron and clay probably refers to a general progressive weakness and deterioration in the Roman Empire; rather than to a specific era.

      1. The two materials may refer to Rome after the time of Julius Caesar, when the Roman Empire extended north beyond the Mediterranean world. If this is the case, the iron represented the original Roman people; and the clay the Germanic peoples who were brought into the Empire, but were not considered good material for empire building.104 Therefore, Rome lacked inner unity and had a resultant brittleness.

      2. Some suggest that the iron refers to the military strength of Rome, and the clay to administrative, legal, and religious institutions. The strength of Rome was in its militaristic might—in its power to break and crush. But, this military strength and organization was deceptive since Rome was sustained by a large contingent of slave labour, its army included many mercenaries, while its legal system was abused by the debauched wealthy and elite.

      3. Others suggest that the iron refers to the culture and laws of Imperial Rome, while the clay is the different social and political traditions in its conquered territories. Rome succeeded in conquering the territories but it could not unite the peoples into a single empire.

      4. Another explanation may be that the empire was strong organizationally but weak morally.

    5. It may be that, while we consider the iron mixed with clay to represent Rome, we cannot be specific about the time or meaning of this imagery.

    6. The ESV (43) reads: “As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together”.

      1. The ESV has an idiomatic translation that seems to be more interpretative than a translation.

      2. Compare with other translations:

        1. NIV: “the people will be a mixture and will not remain united”

        2. NKJV: “they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another”

        3. NASB: “they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another”

        4. LXX: “they will be commingled the descendants/seed of man but they will not be united together”

        5. Aramaic: “they will be a mixture the descendants/seed of the peoples but not they will remain untied”

      3. The meaning of this verse, although not easy to determine, seems to be that the people groups who made up the Roman Empire would not be joined in some way (politically, administratively, etc.) but truly united (e.g., ethnically, culturally).

        1. The verse is probably not speaking of inter-marriage between different branches of the royal family, or of inter-marriage among the leaders of the Latin and Germanic territories.

    7. It is probably inappropriate to attempt to assign the ten toes of the statue to specific kings/emperors as some attempt to do. It would be impossible to determine which ten should be included. For example, Suetonius (c 69/75 – after 130) records twelve in the Lives of the Twelve Caesars Emperors of Rome. If there is any significance to the ten toes (other than that the statue had feet on which to stand), they may refer symbolically to the complete number of the rulers of the Empire. [Note the ten horns, and then the 11th horn in 7.8; in Daniel’s vision there might be significance in the ‘ten’.]

    8. Regardless, the instability, decay or rot within the final empire extended to the toes.




  1. What may be symbolized by the statue being a single image made of different materials? (39-40)

    1. The fact that the statue is an image of one man (as distinct from four separate objects like the beasts in chapter 7) may imply that, in essence, the represented kingdoms are one. The world powers are united in their human intent (Gen 6.5)—there is essentially no difference among them.

    2. The Gentile kingdoms as a whole are viewed as a ‘person’ before God. The spirit, genius, power, and purpose of one is the same for all. All are standing against God and his Church.

    3. The four different empires surround Judea. The centres of the former two lie to the east and the centers of the latter two to the west. East and West conspire together against God and his holy people.

    4. The world rule may have passed from conquering empire to conquering empire, but the essential sameness applies to each empire. The subsequent empires absorbed the culture, mythical religion, ethics, and technology of preceding ones. There was really no differences among them. Therefore, when the feet were struck, the entire body of the statue collapsed.




  1. What kingdom is represented by the rock cut out of the mountain without human hands? (44)

    1. There is no debate among Christian interpreters that it represents the kingdom of the Messiah. There is however debate as to when this kingdom was (or will be) established and what it encompasses (e.g., an essentially spiritual realm, a future temporal realm, or an eternal realm).

    2. The symbol of a stone/rock representing the Messiah and his kingdom occurs throughout the OT from before the time of Daniel (Ps 118.22; Is 8.14-15; 28.16; 51.1) and NT (Mt 21.42; Mk 12.10-11; Lk 20.17-18; Rom 9.32-33; 1 Pt 2.6-8).




  1. What are the attributes of this kingdom? (44)

    1. Principality – “a kingdom” It is a Kingdom.

      1. What makes a kingdom a kingdom? A kingdom has to have a king, territory, subjects, laws, and administration.

      2. What are the constituent elements of the Kingdom of the Rock?

        1. The King is Jesus, he is an appointed and anointed sovereign (Ps 2.2; 89.27; Mk 11.10; Lk 22.29; Eph 1.20-23; Col 1.18; Phil 2.9-11; 1 Pet 3.22).

        2. It is a kingdom that ultimately is not of this world (Jn 18.36), and yet it is in and over the world of men (Rev 11.15). Its territory includes the entire world (Ps 24.1)—it is the ultimate world empire.

        3. The subjects of the Kingdom are:

          1. All men in all nations are under the governance of King Jesus, even if they won’t admit it (Ps 2.10-11; Rom 13.1-7).

          2. The Church, from which the King receives honour and tribute (Mt 5.3, 10; 21.31; Mk 10.14, 15; Col 1.13; Rev 5.10).

        4. The laws by which King Jesus rules are encoded in the Kingdom’s constitution, the Bible, and are summarized in the Ten Commandments (Ex 20.1-17).

        5. Jesus administers the Kingdom through the Holy Spirit (Jn 14.26) and his appointed ambassadors on earth such as pastors/elders (Lk 22.30; Jn 20.21; 2 Cor 5.20; Eph 6.20) and through civil magistrates (Rom 13.1-7).

      3. Jesus used the reference ‘Kingdom of God’ or ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ dozens of time during his earthly ministry.

        1. In contrast, he uses the term ’church’ in only two instances (Mt 16.18; 18.17).

        2. It may be that he used the reference ‘kingdom’ explicitly to identify his realm with the prophecy of Daniel 2.44.

    2. Present – “In the time (days) of those kings ...” It is an ongoing ‘now’ Kingdom. (Mt 3.2; Mk 9.1)

      1. Christ’s Kingdom was established in the time of those kings (i.e., during the Roman Empire).

      2. While the empires of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were standing the Kingdom of Christ was founded and started to grow and overcome and destroy the world empires represented by the statue.

      3. The means used by Jesus to establish the Kingdom were his death and resurrection, which occurred during the dominion of the fourth empire—the Roman Empire as it was already in the process of decay (as represented by the iron and clay).

      4. The Kingdom that Jesus was to establish in accordance with the prophecy in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is not a future temporal kingdom to be set up at his second coming, It is a Kingdom that began to exist 2,000 years ago, continues to exist today, and will exist into eternity.

        1. Christ, at the end of his first advent, established the Kingdom. He reigns now from his throne in Heaven (Phil 2.9-11; Heb 8.1; Rev 4).

        2. Christianity, like the growing mountain (35, 45), began to grow and spread geographically and numerically 2000 years ago, and is still doing so.

        3. Premillennialists mistakenly hold that the kingdom will be established by Christ on earth, at a yet future date. In their view, Jesus will set up a new temporal world-empire, ruled from Jerusalem.

    3. Personal – “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom” It has a direct and personal Divine origin.

      1. World empires, and all kingdoms among men, are established by human conquest or by men putting forward other men who they believe have gifts or qualities of leadership.

      2. Although it is true that ultimately God rules and establishes all kingdoms (Dan 2.21; 1 Sam 2.7, 8; Ps 113.7, 8; Prov 8.15, 16), only the Son receives a royal appointment directly from God (Ps 2; 110).

      3. Since the Kingdom of the Messiah is not of human origin, it does not go forward with worldly instruments or weapons but with spiritual ones (Eph 6.10-18).

    4. Permanent – “that will never be destroyed” It is an indestructible Kingdom.

      1. The kingdom of Christ cannot decay (Mt 6.19, 20; 1 Pet 1.4).

      2. It is in no danger of destruction, not even Satan or the powers of Hell can overcome it (Ps 125.1, 2; Mt 16.18, 19; Heb 12.28).

      3. No one can remove any of its subjects (Is 54.17; Jn 10.27-30; Rom 8.33-39).

      4. No succession or revolution is possible in this Kingdom (Rev 21.1-4).

    5. Protected – “nor will it be left to another people” It is owned by God.

      1. What happened to Sargon’s empire?

        1. Sargon (may mean ‘the true king’) the Great (thought to have reigned c 2270 to 2215) conquered Sumer, Upper Mesopotamia, the Amorites in Syria, Elam and Assyria. His empire ranged from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. Sargon was probably the first individual, after the Flood, to create a centrally ruled empire made up of subject kingdoms.

        2. His empire eventually decayed and the Elamites destroyed the remnants of the empire. Mesopotamia had no central authority for a few centuries. It is possible that the creation of the alliance under Sargon may have been the driving force in the building of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11.1-9).105 The decay of this Empire was probably caused by the separation of mankind at the time of the Tower.

        3. Out of the turmoil, an Amorite king, Hammurabi (dated at 1790-1750 BC) built a new empire based in Babylon (an earlier Babylonian Empire). He restored law and order.

      2. What happened to the Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi?

        1. Tribesmen from the north-east and south plundered and destroyed the irrigation systems and central administration of government.

        2. Within a few generations the first ‘great age’ of Mesopotamia came to an end.

        3. Over the next few centuries the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia began their rise to power and conquered the Babylonian territories to the south. Some of the Assyrian kings106 were: Tiglath-Pileser II (967-935 BC; 2 Kings 15.29; 16.7, 10), Shalmaneser III (859 -824 BC; 2 Ki 17.3; 18.9), Sargon II (720-705 BC; Is 20.1), Sennacherib (705-681 BC; 2 Ki 18.13; 19.16, 20, 36), and Esarhaddon (681-669 BC; 2 Ki 19.37; Ezra 4.3; Is 37.38).

      3. What happened to the Assyrian empire?

        1. At the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal the son of Esarhaddon (627 BC), the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia rebelled under Nabopolassar. With the help of the Medes they sacked Nineveh in 612 BC. The seat of the Assyrian-Babylonian Empire was transferred to Babylon.

        2. Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar became king in 605 BC, and consolidated the first great world-empire.

      4. What happened to the Babylonian Empire? It was over-run by the Medes and Persians in 539 BC.

      5. What happened to the Medo-Persian Empire? It was defeated by the Greeks under Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

      6. What happened to the Greek Empire? It fell apart into four kingdoms ruled by descendants of Alexander’s generals and was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire (c 63 BC).

      7. What happened to the Roman Empire? It eventually disintegrated under attacks by the northern peoples and later by Islamic tribes. The Middle Ages was a time of chaos in which there was no central administration in the northern Mediterranean regions, and the southern and eastern Mediterranean fell into the hands of the Islamic Caliphates.

      8. What is the point of asking these questions about what happened to each empire?

        1. The fact is that each empire became the possession of someone else.

        2. Human empires do not last. Every emperor in history has proudly thought that his empire or dynasty was different from the others and that it would last for generations, or even forever.

      9. In contrast, what is the expectation for the Kingdom of the Rock?

        1. The Kingdom and its sovereignty cannot pass to another king, and its subjects can never come under the dominion of another king.

        2. Since the Kingdom is possessed by God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it cannot pass to, be left to, or be possessed by, anyone else (another people).

          1. Christ cannot be deprived of his Kingdom; he cannot lose his reign or authority.

          2. His throne cannot be usurped.

          3. Christ reigns secure because of who he is (the God-man and Mediator) and what he has done (earned his inheritance through perfect obedience and conquering Satan).

        3. The subjects of the kingdom are protected by God and can rest eternally secure.

          1. We are saved by God’s grace and preserved by God’s grace, through faith. Therefore our salvation is eternally secure (Jn 10.27-30; Rom 8.33-39; 1 Pet 1.5).

          2. Ultimately, we are secure from all tyranny and danger from Satan and man. Temporal evils and dangers pass away and can never retain a hold on us (Ps 23.4; 20.5; 2 Cor 4.17; 1 Pet 1.6; 5.10)

    6. Powerful – “It will crush (break in pieces) all those kingdoms and bring them to an end (consume them)” It is an all-powerful Kingdom.

      1. What is the evidence that this prophecy has come true?

        1. The Christian Church broke the power of pagan Rome. Eventually Rome became Christianized (by about 325 AD) and officially recognized Christ after the conversion of Constantine. Rome collapsed from moral decay and the attacks of the migrating northern Visigoths under Alerc I (a Germanic tribe, the Ostrogoths being another). After the sack of Rome in 410 AD, Augustine, in The City of God (413 AD) refuted the pagans’ claims that Christians brought about the fall of Rome because they weren’t patriotic, asked people to serve God rather than the state, and advocated forgiveness toward enemies. Augustine argues that Rome had suffered calamities before Christians were in the Empire, and the pagan gods were worshipped, and yet those gods had not prevented the calamities. In contrast, he argues, Rome was preserved for far longer than it deserved because of the leaven of Christian influence in the Empire.

        2. Many kings thereafter in the remnants of the Roman Empire (e.g., Theodosius II and numerous other Byzantine emperors), in Europe (e.g., Charlemagne and subsequent Holy Roman Emperors) and in England (e.g., Wihtred107, Alfred108, AEthelred109, John110 and Edward I111) professed allegiance to Christ as King of kings.

        3. The defeat of Nazism, the removal of the Berlin wall, and the realization of the bankruptcy of Communism, all demonstrate that no human kingdom or atheistic political system can long endure. The US’s pride of world dominance (in pop culture, economic ascendency, and military ‘empire’), the United Nations, and Islam’s goal of global dhimmitude (to subject all people to Islam) will also be broken in pieces (assuming Christ does not return first).The collapse of all human systems and aspirations to world empire will fail. Only the Kingdom of the Rock will continue to grow and dominate the world.

        4. The Kingdom of Christ has grown and continues to overcome all religions and kingdoms. Starting from a small group of fearful disciples, Christianity has become the dominant religion and moral influence on earth.

          1. “Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims 21.01%, Hindus 13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007 est.)”112

          2. Christianity is growing faster than the growth rate of the world’s population, and is apparently growing faster (percentage and absolute) than any other (major) religion on earth.113

      2. What are the means used by the Kingdom of the Rock to crush world empires?

        1. Precepts – truth about God, creation, law, and salvation stated and proclaimed (Jn 8.32; Eph 6.14)

        2. Prayer – the prayer of faith (Eph 6.18; Heb 11.33 with Jam 5.15)

        3. Preaching – evangelism and teaching (Rom 10.14-15; 1 Cor 1.21; Eph 6.15)

        4. Practice – morality lived out (1 Pet 2.12).

This is in marked contrast with Islam which conquers territories by sword and forced slavery and servitude.

      1. What is the result of the Kingdom of the Rock crushing the kingdoms/empires of this world?

        1. The Kingdom of the Rock does not deliver more of the same, such as is found in totalitarian governments that have aspirations to dominate mankind:

          1. Concentration of power in a single man’s hands, or in the hands of a few elite individuals (oligarchy) such as Ivy-league lawyers

          2. State ownership of the means of production, property, and the lives of citizens

          3. Control of monetary policy (e.g., setting interest rates and inflating currency)

          4. Government-endorsed censorship of statements of belief that are contrary to the official positions of the state or academic institutions

          5. Deprivation of freedom of movement, and personal choices (e.g., in family, education, and career choices)

          6. Creation and dissemination of nationalistic, humanistic, religions, through:

            1. Myths that stand in the place of (the true) religion, such as the religion of environmentalism with ‘green’ sacraments, an evolutionary ‘theology’, and ‘scientists’ in the priesthood

            2. State-funded indoctrination mills that reproduce ‘politically correct’ thinking

          7. Dependence on the government’s/the monarch’s largess (e.g., in social programs)

          8. Suppression of initiative and denigration of personal responsibility

          9. Endorsement of evil (e.g., abortion, same-sec marriage, homosexual practices, etc.)

          10. Entertaining the masses to keep them stupid and submissive.

        2. The Kingdom of the Rock delivers a different kind of kingdom from world empires, overcoming all that is wrong in the world powers, and replacing them by:

          1. Providing freedom to worship the true God openly with public endorsement (e.g., sanctifying the Christian Sabbath)

          2. Destroying slavery, caste systems, and feudalism

          3. Fostering freedom of thought and morally accountable consciences

          4. Encouraging personal and family responsibility for health, education, and welfare; rather than reliance on government to provide programs through the forced re-allocation of income

          5. Demanding critical thinking and evaluative reasoning

          6. Teaching right moral practice.

        3. Note: Until Christ returns there will continue to be a tension between human world-empire builders and citizens of the Kingdom of the Rock. Although Jesus’ kingdom will grow and prosper, human antagonists will continue to try to drag it down and set up imitations. The book of Revelation speaks of this tension with the Beast and the False Prophet representing false governments and false religion attacking the Church, until the end of time.

      2. Is this prophecy (it will crush all those kingdoms) complete or fulfilled?

        1. In one sense, yes, as the Roman Empire has been crushed. However, the prophecy referred not only to the dissolution of the Roman Empire but to the destruction of all the kingdoms that made up the statue (yet, the preceding had already come to an end). So, the application is to all similar kingdoms/empires on earth.

        2. Its victory is continuing and will be completed with the final revelation of the eternal Kingdom. It is both temporal and eternal.

        3. Only when Jesus returns to this earth will the final form of his eternal Kingdom be revealed (1 Cor 15.24, 25).

        4. When that day comes, Jesus will have put down all rulers of this age/realm, and will have made all his enemies his footstool (Ps 110.1). Then the prophecy of the destruction of the statue will be fully accomplished (Rev 11.15).

        5. Jesus will then be acknowledged as King of kings by all mankind—whether willingly in love, or grudgingly in hatred (Phil 2.9- 11).

    1. Perpetual – “but it will itself endure (stand) forever)” It is an eternal Kingdom.

      1. How long with the Kingdom of the Rock endure.

        1. Forever! (2 Sam 7.16; Rev 11.15).

        2. Jesus will reign forever, not only to the end of time, but through the end of time and into eternity.

        3. This shows that the prophecy of Daniel (as given by the interpretation of the statue’s imagery) is not speaking of some (yet) future millennial reign of Christ. Daniel 2 is not predicting a reign of Christ on earth for 1,000 years, as some (e.g., dispensationalists) suggest.

        4. The meaning of the growing rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream isn’t speaking ultimately of the period between Christ’s 1st and 2nd coming to earth, although it includes that period. The prophecy is referring to the eternal reign of Christ that began at his resurrection and will continue into eternity in the New Heavens and Earth (2 Pet 3.13; Rev 21.1).

        5. Of the increase of Christ’s government and peace there shall be no end (Is 9.7).

    2. A summary of the differences between the kingdoms of man and the Kingdom of Christ is as follows:

Comparison of the Kingdoms of Man with the Kingdom of Christ

Attribute

Kingdoms of Man (the Statue)

Kingdom of Christ (the Rock)

  1. Extent

‘World’ empires that included only a portion of the globe and of mankind

Principality – A universal Kingdom with a king, territory, subjects, laws, and administration

  1. Existence

In the past with temporary dynasties that ceased to reign

Present – An ongoing ‘now’

  1. Origin

Human

Personal – Divine

  1. Durability

Temporary

Permanent – Indestructible

  1. Ownership

Owned by man

Protected – Owned by God

  1. Power

Weak, based on an arm of flesh

Powerful – All-powerful

  1. Outcome

Non-existence

Perpetual – Eternal




  1. How does Daniel conclude his explanation of the dream’s meaning? (45)

    1. He summarizes the key aspects of the dream:

      1. He reminds Nebuchadnezzar of the key elements of the dream. With very few words he summarizes all the important parts of the dream that he wishes Nebuchadnezzar to dwell upon.

      2. What element of the dream is missing from the summary? Why?

        1. There is no reference to the statue but only to the constituent pieces. The rock broke the metal components, not the statute.

        2. This may indicate that, in spite of the impressive and fearsome image, the realms of man are nothing to be feared and nothing more than scattered dust before God and his Rock.

        3. It is the Kingdom of the Rock that is the ultimate focus of the dream, not the passing kingdoms of man.

    2. He refers to the divine origin of the dream:

      1. He refers to god as ‘great’.

        1. The modifier of ‘great’ was necessary to distinguish the true God from the gods of the pagans. In our alphabetic system we capitalize the word ‘god’ when we are referring to the true and only God. Only one form of Aramaic alphabetic symbols was available to Daniel. Upper and lower case letters were not used in the alphabetic systems in the ancient world.

          1. Lower case, or minuscule, letters developed from a semi-cursive style used for handwriting that eventually evolved into a minuscules alphabet by the 8th c AD.

          2. The two styles were used separately, majuscules for inscriptions and formal writing, and minuscules for less formal manuscripts.

          3. During the reign of Charlemagne, during the Carolingian Reform, the two styles were merged to create our Roman alphabet.

          4. The Greek alphabet went through a similar transformation process during the same period.

        2. Daniel used another expression earlier to refer to the uniqueness of God: ‘God of heaven (heavens)’ (2.18, 19, 37, 44; 5.23). We noted that this title was used mostly during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the prophets/writers wanted the pagan world to understand that God was different from the gods of their pantheons and that he is not earth-bound or confined to a particular realm of the created order—he is above the created order.

        3. In the same way, the name ‘great God’ is used, in the OT, primarily in the context of refuting paganism:

          1. In English (ESV/NIV) translations: Ezra 5.8; Neh 8.6; Ps 95.3 [see also Dt 10.17; 2 Sam 7.22; etc.]).

          2. In Aramaic and Hebrew: Ezra 5.8 and Daniel 5.45 (אֱלָ֥הּ רַב) use a different word for ‘great’ than Nehemiah 8.6 (הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים הַגָּד֑וֹל) and Psalm 95.3 (אֵ֣ל גָּד֣וֹל).

          3. It is used also in the NT (Acts 8.10; Titus 2.13 [μεγάλου θεοῦ]).

        4. Daniel also sets up a contrast between the ‘great’ king, Nebuchadnezzar, and the great God. In effect putting Nebuchadnezzar in his place.

        5. The modifier ‘great’ as used here can refer to immense, powerful, and of high status. It is probably used of God in this context as the most high all powerful God, rather than as a reference to his immense infinitude.

      2. What is the significance of his calling God great in the historical context in which Nebuchadnezzar received his dream?

        1. The wise men of Nebuchadnezzar’s court had claimed (11) that only the gods could reveal mysteries and that they did not dwell among men (or, by implication, communicate with them)—i.e., the solution to the dream could not be known.

        2. God alone is different from all gods created by men. He is the Great God who knows all things, chooses to communicate with men, and can reveal truth. The pagan gods of the ‘wise’ men were vain idols and meaningless imaginations (Acts 17.29). They could not see, hear, or talk (Is 42.17, 18; Jer 10.3-5, 8, 14; 51.17; Rev 9.20).

        3. It is the Great God alone, who can give prophetic dreams and the interpretation of dreams.

    3. He declares the dream to be fore-telling prophecy; as distinct from forth-telling truth, which certainly is included in the revelation of the dream and its explanation:

      1. The Great God who can, and does, communicate with man has revealed truth about the distant future.

      2. As we noted when considering Daniel’s prayer of praise (2.20-23), God can reveal true prophecy—foretelling history to be (Is 42.9; 44.7; 48.6)—not because he looks ahead and sees what men (as free/responsible agents) will do in the future. Augustine said, “[F]uture things do not yet exist; if they do not exist, they are not. If they are not, they in no wise can be seen.”114 Instead, God knows they will happen because he executes his plan through the future actions of men. God knows for certain what will happen in the future because he has decreed the future. God knows the future is certain because he makes it certain (Is 46.10).

    4. He proclaims the truth and certainty of what is foretold:

      1. The things foretold by God are certain because they are the unfolding of his perceptive decrees (i.e., what he has declared from all eternity will happen in the space-time realm).

      2. The things foretold by God are also certain because he is a God of truth, who cannot lie.

      3. God is, again, represented as a unique God. The gods of the pagan pantheon were contingent entities who could not know the future, were capricious beings that would change their minds, and were deceptive in their relations with one another. In contrast God is certain and candid.

    5. How does Daniel declare the true God to Nebuchadnezzar?

      1. Daniel proclaims the true God in very few well-chosen words.

        1. Truth is not strengthened or improved by the volume of the words offered—either decibels or duration of the sounds.

        2. Truth is established by the nature of the subject of the declaration and the clarity of the argument or evidence offered.

        3. If a proposition is true, its truth can be demonstrated easily by simple logic, verifiable fact, or reliable testimony. Truth can be defended by the elemental and the essential. For example:

          1. The truth for the resurrection centres not around arguments of whether or not it is possible to resurrect a dead person but on what you do with the evidence of the empty tomb. Reliable eyewitness accounts tell us that the tomb was empty and that many saw the resurrected Jesus. You can propound alternate theories (the disciples stole the body and lied, the authorities stole the body and hid it, or Jesus was in a swoon and recovered). However, these alternate theories require convoluted and complex constructs that demand more faith to believe in than the simple and consistent evidence of the eyewitnesses’ testimony.

          2. The truth of the existence of God does not rely upon arguments of probability or an appeal to men to set aside their presuppositions and to apply their innate logic to determine if there is a God.

            1. We can use cosmological (first cause or prime mover), teleological (order, complexity, design), ontological (the greatest that can be conceived), or epistemological (we can know only as image bearers) arguments. But, in the end they make man the measure of all things, as it is man who decides whether or not there is a God.

            2. Even the transcendental (logic, beauty, ethics make no sense without God) and moral (an objective standard) arguments, as valid as they are, appeal to man’s reason as the final arbiter of truth and the existence of God.

            3. Rather, our approach should be similar to Daniel’s and Paul’s. They assumed the existence of God as presented in the Bible and expected men to accept the truth about the true God (Gen 1.1; Rom 1.18-23). All men know that there is a God and that they are accountable to him. They (Daniel and Paul) started from that presupposition and stated facts about God’s nature and demands that all men know to be true, but choose to suppress or ignore.

      2. Daniel states simply: “The true God has revealed the future, only the true God can do this. The future is certain because he is God.”

      3. Daniel presents four key attributes of the true God:

        1. He is a person; he truly exits,

        2. He is powerful (great),

        3. He is prophetic (knowing all because he predestines all), and

        4. He has probity (honesty, integrity, uprightness).

The modern pagan world of 21st c NA needs to hear the same message: God is, God is the almighty creator, and God communicates truth that all men must hear.


  1. What are some lessons that we can derive from this section? (Solution: 36-45)

    1. Communication – God is not silent.

      1. By revealing the content and meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel shows us that God is not like the imagined gods of the pagans who cannot communicate. He is also not the imagined god of the deists who wound up the universe like a clock and watches it unfold from a disinterested distance.

      2. God’s revelation, through Daniel, to Nebuchadnezzar shows us that God’s word is not just for God’s people but also for all mankind.

        1. Men try to dismiss the Bible, and the OT in particular as the sacred writings of a particular religion or ethnic/cultural group.

        2. They posit that other sacred writings (from the Koran to the Vedas) have an equal claim on mankind.

        3. Daniel demonstrates that only the true God can reveal truth.

      3. The word of God, as documented in the Bible, tells us all that we need to know for faith and life.

        1. “Although the light of nature; and the works of creation; and providence; do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal; Himself, and to declare; that His will unto His Church; and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.”115

        2. “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge ... that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.” 116

        3. The word of God, in the Bible, gives us sufficient information not only about how to be saved but also how to govern and defend nations, administer justice, regulate economies, conduct business, execute our professional duties, manage our families, educate our children, care for the health and welfare needs of those dependent upon us, and participate in recreational activities.

        4. The Bible is to be not only the sourcebook for Christian faith, but also the guidebook for all that we undertake as rational, volitional and social beings.

        5. This view of Scripture permeated the thinking of the Reformers, but is foreign to most men, including Christians, today:

          1. Preaching throughout the Church today is largely not based on an exegesis of Scripture but on general concepts of morality or prudence.

          2. ‘Christian’ counselling follows the guidelines of the ‘scientific’ understanding of man’s psychology rather than God’s teachings of how sinful man thinks and operates (e.g., in Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, the Psalms, and Romans 1).

          3. Laws governing behaviour are not based on Biblical prudence, let alone Biblical directives. Rather, they are based on theories of man’s nature (e.g., innate goodness, only needing to be educated), and justice and equity that have been developed by political scientists and philosophers who have an explicit antagonism to Christianity.

          4. Lifestyle choices are not based on Biblical standards but on feelings and popular cultural trends.

      4. Just as God communicated the future to Nebuchadnezzar, through Daniel, so he communicates the future to us through the Bible.

        1. Future events that we need general information about, but about which God does not deem it necessary for us to know specifics:

          1. Which kingdoms will arise and which pagan leaders will challenge the Church. The remaining (unfulfilled) prophecies about the future in the Bible are not given so that we can discern which specific world leader is the anti-Christ.

          2. Economic events, wars, natural disasters, times of spiritual declension, etc. We have general guidance in Scripture that teaches us that there will be times of falling away and times of revival.

          3. Our personal life. Some people in the past have been given specific information about life-events (e.g., the duration of their lives), or about the way that they would die. But, we are given only general information: God will care for us and take us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and deliver us safely into the hands of Christ.

        2. Future events about which we need to know about with more precision, and which are predicted in the Bible, include:

          1. Death is certain for all—unless Christ returns first (Heb 9.27; 1 Thes 4.15)

          2. Christ’s return—suddenly without signs and warnings (1 Thes 4.16-17; 5.2-3)

          3. The Judgement Day—in which all men will stand accountable before God with respect to what they have done with his Christ (Jn 5.26-29; Acts 17.31; 2 Cor 5.10; Heb 9.27)

          4. The renovation of the created realm in the new heavens and new earth (2 Pet 3.13)

          5. The general resurrection of all mankind—some to eternal life in Heaven and the rest to eternal death in Hell (Jn 5.28-29).

      5. We have a revelation of God that is perfect in the account of the living Word and in the written word delivered by the Holy Spirit through human writers. We know what God requires of us and must believe it and act upon it.

    2. Control – God controls all things.

      1. The gods of the pagans were very small gods. They were assigned areas of responsibility such as control over the oceans, crops, storms, wind, crafts, etc. The god of men today, even of many Christians is also a very small god.

        1. ‘Atheists’ who set up a ‘straw man’ god to attack, limit god by proposing that he must have had a beginning or that he cannot have valid reasons for permitting/decreeing suffering.

        2. The gods of false religions today, including the gods of Judaism and Islam, are poor imitations of the true God. They are limited and contingent and not infinite, eternal, unchangeable, tri-personal, all-wise, almighty, totally holy, loving and just.

        3. The god of the Deists is a meaningless figment of man’s imagination who is limited to giving the universe its creative spark and putting in place some nebulous ‘laws’ that allow chance, evolution and autonomous man to create the future.

        4. Christians limit God by believing (preaching/teaching) that he:

          1. Could not have created the universe in six days, ~6000 years ago, as he declares

          2. Could not have caused the earth to turn back for part of day because reversing the inertial mass of the earth would have caused massive destruction

          3. Has no right to elect some to salvation and predestine others to damnation

          4. Cannot know (and predestine) what humans are going to do next, in exact detail

          5. Cannot save us unless we choose to be saved

          6. Doesn’t know what is best for each of us, and is working his plan for the good of his people

          7. Cannot dictate what practices are right in our lives and in our worship of him.

      2. The dream given to Nebuchadnezzar reveals true attributes of God and demonstrates in particular that he controls the:

        1. Lives of every person in every nation, whether king or pauper, and raises up whom he wishes and dismisses them again, in his time. God is the ultimate king-maker, not parents (dynastic fathers), popes, political parties, or the people.

        2. Future by unfolding his precise plan. God does more than foretell the future, he makes it come to fruition.

        3. Vibration of every molecule. He holds the physical universe together, and continues to permit our existence; all by pure thought (Acts 17.28; Col 1.17).

      3. Men say in their heart there is no God, but they are fools (Ps 14.1) who exchange the glory of the immortal God for idols based on created entities or figments of their imaginations (Rom 1.23). There is a God. He is larger and more powerful than we (any of us) can imagine or think. We must not be practical atheists—that is living as if God does not interact intimately with his created order, minute by minute. We need to believe and trust in the true God, the one who controls all things (Rom 8.28-30).

    3. Christ – Christ’s kingdom is dominant.

      1. The kingdom represented by the stone is the one that conquers all other kingdoms, grows to fill the whole earth, and endures to the end of history and throughout eternity.

      2. The kingdom of the Rock, Jesus Christ is (44):

        1. Principality – It has a king, Jesus; a territory, the whole earth; subjects, believers from all nations (and all mankind in a second sense); laws, as given in Scripture; and an administration through Church officers and civil magistrates.

        2. Present – The Kingdom of Christ exists now. It is not a future kingdom, although it has a glorious future. We live in the Kingdom age, the last days, before Christ comes to remove out of his Kingdom all manner of evil, purify it, and present it to the Father as his glorious bride.

        3. Personal – The Kingdom of the Rock was not set up by human hands. It is directly established by God himself in the person of the God-man, Jesus.

        4. Permanent – The Kingdom is an eternal kingdom that will last longer than the Persian Empire (it is claimed that it lasted 2,500 years) or the Roman Empire (700+ years; 625 BC or 241BC to 476 AD), or any nation will ever last.

        5. Protected – The kingdoms of this earth are scattered before the Kingdom of Christ. They become nothing but dust that is blown away. Nations rise up and destroy other nations, and in turn are destroyed by other nations. But, the Kingdom of Christ can never be defeated and will never stop growing until Jesus has brought every person into his Kingdom that he died for on the cross.

        6. Powerful – The Kingdom of Christ breaks into every nation and conquers it. It may not seem that way with Europe and NA, which were once permeated with Christian principles, heading back to paganism and absorbing false forms monotheism. However, God breaks down kingdoms in his time. He may yet have great plans for destroying Islam through mass conversions in the ME and he may yet conquer secular humanism in the first-world. Regardless of his specific plans for nations, the kingdom of Satan has been defeated and is in decline.

        7. Perpetual – The Kingdom is eternal; it will endure through the end of time and throughout eternity.

      3. We are part of Christ’s amazing, conquering, kingdom. Rejoice!

    4. Conclusion – World-dominating kingdoms of men are poor imitations of Christ’s kingdom, and they have had their day.

      1. The destruction of the statue made of materials of value to men—gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay—is a sign that idolatry is being destroyed by the Kingdom of Jesus. As idolatry and the kingdom of Satan are being destroyed, the Kingdom of Christ is growing.

      2. Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom stands as the representative of all pagan, anti-God systems (religious, philosophical, economic, and scientific), governments, cultures, and civilizations. It was the ultimate tyranny among men, binding men to Satan and Hell. In contrast, the Kingdom of Christ sets men free (Is 61.1; Jn 8.32; Rom 6.14-18; 8.2, 15; 2 Cor 2.17, 18).

      3. The kingdoms of men conquered ruthlessly and dominated their subjects’ bodies and souls. In contrast, Jesus lovingly draws all men into his kingdom (Jn 12.32).

      4. During the age of empires, power was consolidated into the hands of a relatively few emperors and kings. Man has always had an aspiration to form empires and unite people in opposition to God:

        1. Starting at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11.4-6), shortly after the Flood around 2,350 BC, men wanted to form one people. During the years leading up to the time of Christ there were at any one time fewer than ten large empires throughout the world (Mediterranean, Middle East, Indus Valley, Far East, Meso-America).

        2. Around 400 AD much of Europe and the Mediterranean world was under the control of Rome, the Sassand Empire controlled the Middle East, the Kingdom of Ghana and the Axumite Kingdom controlled civilized Africa, the Kushan States were south of Russia, the Gupta Empire covered Pakistan and northern India, the Pallava Confederacy ruled in southern India, the Sung Empire dominated much of China; and there were empires in eastern Russia (northern China), Japan, SE Asia, Melanesia, and Mexico (Mayan). Most of mankind was under the control of fewer than 20 kings.

        3. Around 1600 AD the world was under the control of probably 30 major kingdoms; ranging from the Aztec and Incan Empires to the British and Spanish Empires, to the Ottoman Empire, Persian and Mongol Empires and the Ming Dynasty in China, and extending to the kingdoms in Siam and beyond.

        4. Today, 87% of the world’s population lives in the top fifty countries by population (67% live in the top 11 countries, with populations of over 100,000,000). There are however, about 220 recognized countries in the world.

        5. Men have tried to consolidate control of men by men into single empires. Yet, control has been fragmenting: from ~6 empires in 1000 to 500 BC, 20 empires in 400 AD, ~30 Empires in 1600, and 50 ‘empires’ around 2010 (with 200+ countries).

        6. Notwithstanding the UN, the world is fragmenting politically, not consolidating.

        7. In contrast the Kingdom of Christ, that began (in the NT age, not including the believing Jews of the OT era) from a small band of disciples and represented about .002% (5,000/250,000,000) of the world’s population a year, or so, after his resurrection has grown to represent approximately 30% of the world’s population.

      5. Even the greatest of these kingdoms/empires decays. The Babylonian, Mede and Persian, Greek and Roman Empires are nothing more than pages in history books and fragments of clay in museum cases.

        1. The Persians claim that their dynasty lasted 2,500 years from Cyrus until the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the Shah of Iran in 1971. But even it came to an end under the tyranny of Islamic mullahs (whether in the 8th century or 20th century).

        2. “Eternal Rome was a byword for centuries and the Roman emperors continually emphasized that idea.”117 Coins minted in London in the early fourth century during the reign of Constantine had the words “To Eternal Rome” engraved on them. Yet, about 100 years later the city or Rome was sacked; in 410 AD by Alaric, king of the Visigoths; in 455 by Geiseric, king of the Vandals; and finally depopulated by Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, during the war between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines. The remnants of the Roman Empire, which had been in a steady decline for centuries, eventually disappeared with the raise of Islam and the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

        3. Hitler had pretentions of setting up an endurable Third Reich (Empire)118 through world conquest.119 As we know, 1945’s defeat of the Nazis ended that hubris.

        4. Some in the US seem to believe that America is the new ‘eternal empire’, even if they don’t make pretentious and preposterous claims to its perpetual endurance.120 For example, “As we celebrate the birth of the American Republic, can we all stop predicting its death? It's getting depressing. … The U.S. is not only the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth now, but in all of history. There's never been a better time and place to be alive than America in the 21st century.” The author of this article is a professor of history at Saint Louis University and author of Empires of Trust: How Rome Built – And America Is Building – A New World.

        5. In contrast, the Kingdom of Christ is building a new world order that is eternal.

      6. The destruction of the kingdoms of this earth by the Kingdom of Christ informs us that we never need to worry about men setting up a world government.

        1. The age of world-dominating human governments has passed. We are now in the Kingdom age when Christ’s kingdom dominates.

        2. Some argue against this view by pointing to Revelation 13 (especially verses 16-18). We cannot take the time now to consider in detail this, essentially, dispensational/pre-millennial view. However there are alternate and probably more valid and accurate explanations, such as:

          1. The bulk of what is recorded in Revelation applied to the generation for which it was written and the events prophesied (probably through chapter 18) referred to the Roman Empire.121

          2. The beast symbolizes governments in general throughout history that persecute the Church.122

        3. However, it does not follow that Christian’s should not work against the creation of world governments.

          1. We need to be ever vigilant because people have aspirations to create world governments (e.g., the United Nations, world courts and legislative bodies for all nations) and we need to challenge them as direct usurpers of Christ’s Kingdom.

          2. At minimum, we need to fight against these movements to keep them from wasting (usually taxed) resources on futile schemes, and we need to resist the movements because of the damage to human freedoms and the Church that will result as they try to execute their programs (e.g., instituting programs to silence criticism of religion—meaning Islam).

          3. We also have to point out the logical contradiction in the thinking of those who claim that a world government will be better than the governments that are in place today: “Why should we presume that would-be governors of the globe will be essentially different from other kinds of governors? And why should we expect that politics will improve merely by pouring it into different containers, especially when these new vessels also divide people and keep them unequal? The nation-state, for all its faults, at least provides a structure in which governors and the governed are presumed to belong to the same polity. This has not precluded terrible atrocities, the worst typically inflicted on stateless people after they have been stripped of their citizenship. International and nongovernmental organizations can provide aid, but if they are to offer a better alternative, they must surmount a critical flaw: a constitutional inability to answer to the people they profess to serve.”123

        4. Regardless of what men attempt to do in setting up world governments, we do not need to fear. God will never allow their schemes to succeed.

    5. Confidence – We can be confident in all that God does and says.

      1. Daniel knew he had the solution to the mystery of the dream. He went into the king confidently and proclaimed truth. We can trust God’s word in the same way. We have the word of truth in the Bible.

      2. We should never be ashamed of what the Bible says and attempt to reconcile it with ‘science’ or ‘archaeology’, ‘psychology’ or ‘religion’. The Bible is without error and its description of creation, history, human psychology, and theology, are truth not requiring rationalizations, compromise, or external validation. Whatever God has revealed we can depend upon.

        1. When ‘science’ claims the world is 4.5B years old we can respond, in spite of the scorn, with the fact that God created it ~6,000 years ago.

        2. When ‘history’ says there was no king named Ahasuerus (book of Esther) and that he cannot be identified. We can confidently say that there was a king who ruled Persia who the Jews called Ahasuerus by the Jews.

        3. When ‘archaeology’ claims there is no evidence of the fall of Jericho’s walls in the strata presumed to be from around 1400 BC, we can declare with certainty that Joshua and the army of Israel brought down the walls with the blast of many trumpets.

        4. We can also confidently believe and state that God made the sun stand still when Joshua fought against the enemies of the Gibeonites, regardless of the supposed impossibility of stopping the earth’s revolution because of its inertial mass.

        5. When ‘psychology’ says that man is innately good and needs only state-funded education to become a useful citizen of world with a ‘green’ conscience and a spirit of ‘tolerance of diversity’; we can respond with the truth, stating that man is a seriously depraved sinner who needs to repent of sin and believe in Jesus as saviour before he can do anything that approaches being good.

        6. When the mainstream-media claim that all religions are essentially the same and that any one of the three ‘monotheistic’ religions (Christianity, Judaism, or Islam) can be looked to for moral principles, we must stand on the uniqueness of Jesus the God-man, the Trinitarian unity of the Godhead, and the absolute Biblical standard for morality summarized in the Ten Commandments.

      3. We must not think of the Bible as a series of isolated texts that give us moral moments or salvation snippets. We need to see the Bible as a unified whole, that provides an absolutely unique outlook on all areas of life. The word of God is true and can be trusted in every dimension in which it speaks, from the creation of the universe to human psychology, from how to deal with poverty to the roles of husband and wives, from personal property rights to provisions for restitution of crimes.

      4. Trust the word of God, as given in the Bible, with total confidence!



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