Question
Can you please help in this question asked to me after my lessons at preachers Training Programs COC Iheorji. I want to know if my answers are in accordance with yours. The question is in agreement. If Dan. 2:44 and LK. 3:1-3 are in agreement I need comprehensive explanation or answers
Answer
King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a great image. “This great image, whose splendor was excellent … and its form was awesome” had a “head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.” The king
“watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:31-35).
The prophet Daniel interpreted the dream thus:
“You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure” (Daniel 2:37-45).
Beginning with Babylon, there were to be four world kingdoms (world of the Jews). These were, in order, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek (Macedonian), and Roman. Thus, according to Daniel, the kingdom of God was to be established during the time of Roman rule. “The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
The inspired biographer Luke sets the time frame for his narrative thus:
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness” (Luke 3:1-2).
Thus, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, and Christ Jesus began their ministries under the rule of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The fourth kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy, that of the Romans, was indeed in power.
The message of John the Baptist was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2) The message of Jesus was the same (Matthew 4:17). To be “at hand” is to be near (cf. Matthew 26:18, 45, 46).
Later, the Lord promised, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power” (Mark 9:1). So, the kingdom of God was to come during the life time of some of Jesus’ hearers, and it was to come with power.
After the Lord’s resurrection, as He was about to ascend on high, His apostles asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Christ replied:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).
The kingdom was to come with power when the Holy Spirit came on the apostles. Since this kingdom is spiritual (John 18:36; Romans 14:17), the power to establish it was spiritual.
On the following Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles with power (Acts 2:1-4). The apostle Peter proclaimed that Christ Jesus had become Lord and King (Acts 2:22-36). The kingdom of God had indeed been established on earth.
Thereafter the New Testament writers present the kingdom of God as present on earth (Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:9).
