"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 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. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king" (Dan 2:31-36).
The question is frequently posed: "Where is America in biblical prophecy?" Let me preface my response with this observation. When the prophet Daniel saw his panorama of human history in the sixth century BC, he did not see ALL of human history but only the unfolding of a time period of about 490 years. Daniel saw the rise of four world empires and one spiritual empire. Daniel saw the rise of the Babylonians, the Medes/Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. And then he saw the collapse of these four world empires by the rising of the one Divine Empire represented by the Uncut Stone from the mountain. This Uncut Stone from the Mountain is none other than Jesus Christ setting up the Kingdom of God. Concerning the Kingdom of God, Daniel saw several truths:
1. The kingdom would never be destroyed.
2. The kingdom would never be conquered.
3. The kingdom would dominate all previous empires.
Notice the word "these" in Daniel 2:44. The pronoun reference is to the preceding empires prior to the Divine Kingdom, i.e. Babylon, Medes/Persians, Greece, and Roman.
I tell you it is important to stay focused on what Daniel saw because that is all Daniel saw by way of interpretation in this portion of Scripture. Daniel did not see anything beyond the coming of the Messianic kingdom. Daniel did not see any new nations that would arise to fight the kingdom of God. He did not see the rise of Islam. He did not see the rise of Communism. He did not see the rise of the Chinese. What Daniel saw is what is recorded, no more and no less. Therefore, it is wrong for modern day Bible teachers to say that Daniel saw something more than the Scriptures reveal. While it is wrong for new concepts to be taught not rooted in the Bible, it is done.
Individuals shamelessly teach new things. Thousands of books are printed. Charts are made. Dogmatic statements are declared without scriptural basis. Daniel saw a specific time period of history that stretched from his day to the days of the Messiah the Prince and it all happened as he predicted and interpreted. Why then, do we have so much new teaching in Christendom today? Why are more prophetic concepts attributed to Daniel? There are several reasons:
1. Application has replaced interpretation.
2. Pride has replaced humility.
3. Sensationalism is very appealing.
4. To some extent the Enemy has infiltrated the church to focus attention upon his power and not the power of Christ.
Finally, many Christians are strangers to the Scriptures so that a popular interpretation of the Bible replaces what might be a proper application of the Scriptures. For example, if we were to ask, "Where is America in biblical prophecy?" the correct answer would be that there is not a single verse in the entire Bible that speaks of America by way of interpretation. The proof of this is that God knows how to spell. There are hundreds of geographical locations in the bible so that the adding of one more name would be no problem to a sovereign, omniscient God. If God wanted to put America in the Bible, He could have easily and plainly done so. It is very humbling to realize that, while we might think our nation is great, God does not deem fit to mention it. We are impressed with our strength, our spirituality, and our ancestry but God is not impressed at all. At least God is not impressed enough to write about us two millennia ago. This is humbling to realize.
The last nation the Bible spoke of prophetically was Rome. John called it a Beast in the Revelation and saw its judgment. Therefore, by way of interpretation, mark it down; America is not in the Bible. Neither is China, Russia, Japan, Italy, or England.
However, by way of application, America and all the nations of the earth are in the Bible. For example, the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God will dominate the other kingdoms of this world now that it has been established. This is what Daniel saw and it is what John saw in the book of the Revelation. But it takes faith to believe this for the natural eye looks around and wonders. The natural eye sees the Communist party coming to power in 1917 in Russia and wonders where God is. How can such an evil empire emerge? But wait! The Sovereign God is not through with Communism and within 70 years the nation is subdued. The eye of faith sees the Lord judging the Communist and the kingdom of God being triumphal.
America today is going the way of the flesh. As evidence, the Mayor of San Francisco recently united a homosexual couple in marriage. Such an affront upon our land is certain to bring the righteous judgment of God upon everyone. And the judgment will come. Unabashed sins will prove to be the curse on our culture. In the decades to come, America will look more and more like the face of Europe if history teaches us anything. People who are afraid of the United Nations and those who believe we are moving towards a one-world government should be assuaged by this: more nations are being created, not less. The world is becoming more fragmented, not more united. And this too is a form of divine judgment. Evil shall not be allowed to reign forever (Isa. 59:19). Sensationalism teaches one thing, while the Scriptures teach another.
If we understand the difference between biblical interpretation and practical application of biblical principles then we will be careful not to read into the text what we want it so say. We will be careful to read out only what the texts allow us to read. There are technical concepts for these two ideas. The first is summarized in the word exegesis. Exegesis is a term derived from the Greek meaning "narration" or "explanation." Exegesis is the science of interpretation. It tries to fix the meaning of individual statements and passages. Exegesis is founded upon two fundamentals.
First, it is believed that thoughts can be accurately conveyed in words that have shades of meaning.
Second, exegesis assumes that the Bible is so important that all painstaking effort to discover exactly what God said is important. The search is on for the literal, grammatical-historical understanding of a text.
In contrast to exegesis is another concept, which is not scholarly but subjective. The issue is not, "What has God said?" Rather, the issue for some people remains this: "What is God saying to me today in light of the morning news stories?"
Freedom is found to read into the Bible whatever the mood of the moment is. For those who were persecuted during the Reformation period, the Pope was the Anti-Christ. For those were afraid during the 19th century, Napoleon was the Anti-Christ to come. For those afraid during the 20th century, Germany's Kaiser was the Anti-Christ to come during WW I. Then came WW II and people, like Martin R. DeHaan thought that Mussolini was the Anti-Christ. Others decided it was Adolph Hitler. During the 1970's, more than one American Protestant prophet said Henry Kissinger was the Anti-Christ. What all of these people have in common is the guilt of reading into the Scriptures instead of reading out of the Bible what God has said.
I do not have much hope that this will ever stop. The Bible tells us that God's people will always have itching ears. God's people will always be gullible. God's people will always be lead astray to a certain extent by those who are bold enough to find keys to unlock ancient mysteries. All some of us can do is to be faithful and tell the truth. America by way of interpretation is not in the Bible and it is prideful to think that we merit mentioning. The exciting thing to believe and realize is that the Kingdom of the Messiah has been established according to promise and of that kingdom there will be no end. Let the church be the church and let the people rejoice.
