03 THE GREAT IMAGE OF DANIEL CHAPTER II

An image of gigantic form was shown to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. Its head was of gold, breast and arms of silver, sides of brass, legs of iron, feet and toes part of iron and part of clay. Beginning with the most precious metals, there is a uniform descent till it ends with the basest. Finally a stone cut out of the mountain without hands smote the image upon the feet, dashed it to atoms, the wind carried away the fragments like chaff, and the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.TBI 33.1

This indicates that the image denotes something which occupies the territory of the earth, inasmuch as the stone which succeeds it, expanding into a mountain, occupies its place and fills the earth. With this the dream ends, and the state of things thus introduced is to be eternal. First there is change and degeneracy, indicated by the different metals of the image; lastly a permanent, eternal, glorious condition of things, shown by the mountain filling the earth.TBI 33.2

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
1. What was shown to Nebuchadnezzar?
2. Of what was the image composed?
3. What became of the image?
4. As the stone in taking the place of the image, occupies the earth, what place had the image occupied?
5. What is indicated by the transition from gold to less valuable, metals. ending in iron and clay?
6. What did Daniel in his interpretation say to Nebuchadnezzar?
7. Did he mean Nebuchadnezzar as an individual?
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In his interpretation of the image, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, Thou art this head of gold. Verse 38. He did not mean Nebuchadnezzar as an individual; for he was speaking of kingdoms. Verses 39, 40. One part of the image could not represent a kingdom, and another part an individual. This would be inconsistent. The head of gold therefore symbolizes that kingdom over which Nebuchadnezzar was ruler.TBI 33.3

Who, then, was Nebuchadnezzar? King of the old Chaldean or Babylonian monarchy. This was the head of gold. It is sometimes objected to Adventism that it has no starting point; that the first steps have to be assumed or taken for granted, whereas its great feature is, as in this instance, that the starting point is given and the stakes set for us in unmistakable language in the Scriptures themselves.TBI 34.1

An old Assyrian empire, founded by Nimrod the great grand-son of Noah, Genesis 10:6-10, had ruled in Asia for 1300 years. On the ruins of this was founded the Chaldean or Babylonian empire of the Scriptures, by Belesis, the Baladan of Isaiah 39:1, B.C.747. In prophecy it dates from B.C.677, because then it became connected with the people of God, by the capture of Manasseh, king of Judah. 2 Chronicles 33:11. It reached the height of its glory under Nebuchadnezzar to whom this dream was given.TBI 34.2

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
8. How do you prove that kingdoms are here represented?
9. Who was Nebuchadnezzar?
10. BY whom was the old Assyrian empire founded? Reference.
11. How long did it rule in Asia?
12. What was erected upon its ruins?
13. Where, and under what name is the founder of the new empire mentioned in the Scriptures?
14. From what year does it date in prophecy?
15. Why?
16. When did it reach the height of it greatness?
17. How many kings reigned after Nebuchadnezzar, and how long?
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From this point the road was steep and short to its decline and overthrow. The kings and their reigns were as follows: Nebuchadnezzar 43 years. Evilmerodach, his son, 2 years. Neriglissar, his son-in-law, 4 years. A son of Neriglissar, nine months, not counted in Ptolemy’s canon, and lastly Nabonadius, son of Evilmerodach, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, the Belshazzar of the book of Daniel, who reigned 17 years, and with whom that kingdom came to an end.TBI 34.3

The kingdom that succeeded Babylon, represented by the breast and arms of silver, was Medo-Persia. Daniel 5:30, 31. Cyrus overthrow Babylon B.C.538, it having continued from 677, B.C. 139 years. 538 marks the beginning of the Medo-Persian kingdom and 331, B.C. its close, when Darius was overthrown by Alexander the Great, at the battle of Arbela. The Persian kingdom continued 207 years.TBI 35.1

The third kingdom, the one which succeeded Persia, was Grecia. Daniel 8:5-7, 21.TBI 35.2

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
18. What kingdom succeeded Babylon? Reference.
19. By what is this represented?
20. When did Cyrus overthrow Babylon.
21. How long did Babylon continued from its introduction into prophecy?
22. What marked the end of the Persian kingdom?
23. How long did Persia continue?
24. What kingdom succeeded Persia?
25. How many universal earthly kingdom do we look for after Grecia?
26. Where is such a kingdom brought to view?
27. Who was Caesar Augustus?
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We are to look for one more universal kingdom and only one, for there were to be but four in all. Therefore, whatever universal kingdom we find anywhere this side of Grecia, that must be the kingdom represented by the legs of iron. Such a kingdom is brought to view in Luke 1. Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that all the world should be taxed. Then he had jurisdiction over all the world. His kingdom was universal. But Caesar Augustus was a Roman Emperor. Here we find the fourth and last universal empire, Rome,the legs of iron. The clay of the feet and toes denotes the degeneracy which came into the kingdom, and the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was finally divided by the incursions of the northern barbarians. Rome in prophecy dates from its league with the Jews, B.C. 161. seven years after its conquest of Macedonia. Its division into ten parts was accomplished between the years 356 and 483 A.D. Grecia ruled from B.C.331, to B.C.161, a period of 170 years, and Rome from B.C. 161, to its division in 483, a period of 644 years.TBI 35.3

The two legs do not denote the division of Rome into the Eastern and Western empires. If they do, Rome should have been thus divided from the beginning of its history, or the legs should have been united down to the ankles, as it was not till A.D.330 that the seat of the empire was moved from Rome to Constantinople. But history forbids the former, and consistency forbids the latter.TBI 36.1

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
28. What is denoted by the clay of the feet and toes?
29. What is presented by the ten toes.
30. From what point does it date in prophecy?
31. When was it divided into ten parts!
32. How long did Grecia rule?
33. How long did Rome reign to its division into ten kingdoms?
34. Are Eastern and Western Rome symbolized by the two legs of the image?
35. If so, when should Rome have been divided?
36. When, by whom, and where, was the seat of empire moved from Rome?
37. In the days of these kings; what kings?
38. Why may not some one of the first three kingdoms be meant, or Rome before its division?
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“In the days of these kings” the kingdom of God is to be set up. Not in the days of any one of the previous kingdoms which had passed away, nor of Rome in its undivided state, when it was but one kingdom. It is not till after we find a plurality of kingdoms existing contemporaneously, that we can look for the setting up of the kingdom of God, and we do not find these contemporaneous kingdoms till we find Rome breaking up into its final divisions 356 to 483 A.D. Not till then was the image complete ready to be smitten by the stone upon the feet. The kingdom represented by the stone could not therefore have been set up in the days of Christ and his apostles 483 years before this division was completed. The fact is therefore forever settled that the kingdom represented by the stone is not a spiritual kingdom, but is literal like the four preceding it; and that it is yet future; for nothing to answer to the setting up of this kingdom has taken place since 483 A.D.TBI 36.2

It will be asked if those kings of kingdoms are still in existence, in the days of which the God of Heaven was to set up his kingdom. If they were established so long ago as 483, have they not all passed away? We answer, No. They are the kingdoms which, as Dr. Scott remarks, have generally been known since that time as the ten kingdoms of western Europe. Many of them can easily be traced to the present time. Originally they were the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Heruli, Burgundians, Anglo-Saxons and Lombards. And we have have now the French from the Franks, the English from the Anglo-Saxons, the Portuguese from the Suevi, the Spanish from the Visigoths, the modern Italians from the Ostrogoths, and the Huns, and Lombards from the original stock of that name.TBI 37.1

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
39. When was the image complete so that it could be smitten upon the feet?
40. Was the kingdom represented by the stone set up in the days of Christ or his apostles?
41. Why not?
42. Is this kingdom a literal kingdom and why?
43. Is it yet future, and why?
44. Are those kingdoms still in existence?
45. What is Dr. Scott’s remark?
46. What were the names of the ten kingdoms originally?
47. What modern nations do we now find descended from them?
48. Is the image now complete?
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The image is all complete. We are still in the days of these kings, and wait for the setting up of the kingdom of God, which is the next and only remaining event in this line of prophecy.TBI 37.2

CLASS QUESTIONS ON LESSON 111. WITH ANSWERS.TBI 38.1

1. Daniel 2. It is been stated by some speakers that the reason the Lord chose gold, silver, brass, and iron to present the four kingdoms in the great image, was because those kingdoms would represent themselves by these metals. Is there any historical proof of this assertion?TBI 38.2

ANS. An iron crown was used in the later years of Rome as their symbol of power; and this iron crown appeared as a historical object down to within a few hundred years of the present time. But we know of nothing to sustain the statement in reference to the other kingdoms. That some regard was had to the relative strength of the kingdoms, in the metals by which they were represented, is evident from the language of the prophecy itself: “And the fourth kingdom shall be /strong// as iron.” Verse 40. But inasmuch as the image closes with a mixture of miry clay, the idea of degeneracy from beginning to end, from gold to mud, is still more strongly presented.TBI 38.3

2. Daniel 2:45. What is the mountain out of which the stone was cut that smote the image on its feet?TBI 38.4

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON THREE
49. Are we still in the days of these kings?
50. What is the next event in this line of prophecy?
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ANS. The great mountain of grace, that system of favor to men which led God and his Son to devise the way of salvation, and which led Christ to enter upon the work of redemption which will result in his, finally having a kingdom filling the whole earth, after all the evil kingdoms of this world like the shattered fragments of broken potters’ vessels shall have been cleared away.TBI 38.5

3. At what date was Rome divided into its eastern and western divisions?TBI 39.1

ANS. As the prophecy takes no note of this division it is an point of no importance so far as concerns an interpretation of the prophecy. It is however a matter of historical interest as one of the steps which prepared the way for the overthrow of the Western empire. Swinton’s Outlines of the World’s History, p.193, speaks on this point as follows:-TBI 39.2

“Constantine made a change which had a great effect upon the later history of the Roman world. He removed the capital of the empire to the old Greek city of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, which he greatly enlarged and called New Rome, but which has been better known ever since as Constantinople (Greek /polis//, a city-the city of Constantine). Even before this, Rome had, as we have seen, ceased to be the usual dwelling-place of the emperors, who commonly lived at Milan, Nicomedia (Bithynia), and elsewhere; but the transfer of the capital to a Greek city is a proof of how completely the empire had come to overshadow Rome and Italy. Theodosius was the last emperor who reigned in A.D.395, the vast dominion was divided between his two sons,-Honorius ruling in the West, and Arcadius in the East. From that date the history of Rome divides itself into two distinct histories, that of the Western or Latin empire, and that of the Eastern, Greek or Byzantine empire.”TBI 39.3