Jesus and the End of Worldly Empires

The dream of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, which God gave the
interpretation of to Daniel, is the foundation for the understanding of
where all worldly empires will end up, including America.

Here's how it's reported in the Holy Scriptures in Daniel Chapter 2 (NAS):

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great
statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was
standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

The conclusion by God concerning the four world empires being addressed, which were, in this order: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, was this:

44 In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for
another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

The key passage which determines the future of all worldly empires is this: "that kingdom ... will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever."

"That kingdom" is a reference to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ from Heaven after He bought back or redeemed people from the bondage of sin and the hold of the devil, and when completing His earthly task, returned to heaven to rule and reign from there until all His enemies are put under His feet.

In that scenario, no earthly empires will be allowed to remain, as Christ and Christ alone is the sovereign ruler of all things by the appointment of His Father, and He won't allow any competitors to remain as pretenders to His throne.

That's indisputable. The question is, what does it all mean in a practical sense?

Leading up to the appearance of Jesus on the earth, we historically see the fulfilment of the dream God gave Nebuchadnezzar, with the exception of the Roman Empire, which was in the midst of its rule, and gradually disintegrating from numerous pressures.

People still try to scrutinize the fall of the Roman Empire as a type of sport, but no matter how many theories are proffered, in the end, Jesus Christ put down that empire, as will all empires be put down.

While we mentioned Jesus will brook no earthly competitors to His rule, meaning governments that attempt to rule and control the lives of people on the earth through the manipulation of other nations in an inordinate manner (based upon force), will be themselves removed from history as a ruling influence. Oddly enough, these failed cultures mentioned in Daniel are studied and almost deified as examples of success, even though the failed miserably over time. The bottom line is earthly empires don't work, and, other than the rejection of them by God, there are also practical reasons they failed, although they are not removed from the actions of Christ.

Look at the first post-resurrection church: the believers in Jerusalem. They grew to thousands in number over time, yet it didn't bother God at all to have them disperse in face of the looming judgement on the city as prophesied by Jesus.

God had no desire, inclination, or thought about building some localized group of Christians to be the center of God's work on earth. The dispersion of Jewish believers resulted in well over a 100 new churches in the region being formed not too long afterwards.

Christ is ruling now from heaven, not an earthly, representative city. Having said that, Christ is totally interested in having a local work on the earth, and this applies to the church first, but also to secular government.

Christians need to change their mindset about the church and government, largely ignoring it from the international and national level and bringing it home to the local level. That's where the many battles will be fought and won.

One of the major reasons for this is as far as the church goes, it was never meant to be a bureaucracy by Christ, and when it practice in that way, just like worldly empires, it will eventually fall apart, as the need to feed the bureaucracy is not sustainable economically. That's why local is the best way to administer the church of Jesus Christ, and falls in line with His practical plan for His people.

It's the same, and more so, with the government. Even though there are countless reasons assigned to why empires fall, the bottom line is they cannot afford to pay for the promises they make and the administration
of the empire, as there isn't enough money to prop it all up. That includes attempts to enforce the will of the empire upon its people, and people of other countries as well. It all costs money, and the parasitic government is insatiable in its wants and perceived needs.

Although the temptation to write more on the church in regard to the resistance of Christ to empires, I won't go there in this article, as it would divert too much from the purpose I'm trying to get across.

For those of you worn out and tired from the control of and intrusion of government in your lives, take comfort in the fact it can't last forever. Eventually empires will fade, and the kingdom of God will have its way.

The reason for mentioning all of this is we need to pray for and start to embrace limited government, and by extension, local government, as the preferred environment for legitimate government rule.

Too many Christians are battling at the Federal level, as far as the united States goes, and have little power there, and even when a few bones are tossed our way, they do little in the sense of making real changes.
Real reform happens at the local level, and there God's people can make
a real difference.

I do have to add a big caveat here. This entire article isn't attempting to make government the major focus of our lives, as it's almost like software: it's meant to run quietly in the background while the real living and work gets done.

As a matter of fact, government needs to be not only shrunk in size, but also shrunk in relevance to our lives, as we who are followers of Jesus Christ need to put our faith in Him for salvation, healing, and the provision of heavenly resources.

Many so-called Christian ministries refuse to follow this rule themselves, and generate funding through all sorts of dubious, and in some cases, fraudulent ways, in order to "grow" their own little empires.

The kingdom of God doesn't operate that way, and God isn't a beggar that needs the help of government funds for His work. To me, that's a horrid practice to engage in, and undermines the person of God in the eyes of the world.

Many people attempt to justify this by citing the needs of people. Yet if the government wasn't confiscating so much capital from business and
individuals, the resources would be available for charity work and other endeavors to better the plight of people and the success of businesses.

Jesus warned of this in the parables of the kingdom, when using birds as a metaphor for the devil.

Whenever the kingdom of God makes progress on the earth, there are always going to be bird or demons influencing those camp followers looking to build a name for themselves by attaching themselves to it, or by undermining the work from within. The birds being under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar wasn't a positive statement saying how great his kingdom was, it was a statement saying that evil forces had already infiltrated his rule, as evidenced by the opposition to Daniel and his companions. Judas Iscariot was one of those right in the camp of Jesus. Jesus said it was better for that man if he had never been born.

The birds, as mentioned, were alluded to in Daniel when talking about them being under the rule of the Nebuchadnezzar. Follow the actions of men associated with the king in order to see how these birds work among kingdoms; even the kingdom of God (parables of Jesus). Those same actions followed when Medo-Persia took over Babylon, which led to the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

Empires aren't the will of God, empires (even smaller ones) are endless targets of the ambitious and power-hungry, and even those using God as the reason for building their own empire will find themselves kicking against the brick wall of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Again, thinking local, as far as government goes, is the answer to all of this, as there there will be true accountability, small government, and a place where an individual or small group can have significant influence. That's the type of government that we need to focus on, not the attempts to sway matters on the Federal level in order for the empire to retain its legitimacy in the hearts and minds of people.

As long as the battle is on the Federal level, we will be telling everyone by our actions that big government is the place to do warfare, further legitimizing big government.

But when the battle is taken to the local level, we are asserting through our actions that the Federal government is largely irrelevant in the everyday lives of people, and it needs to be significantly whittled down to size.

As the scriptures teach, we can fall on the rock or the rock can fall on us. Either way, the days of empire are over for America, and as people continue to vote for politicians who extend its lifetime by endless spending and piling debt on our children and grandchildren, they'll find out the rock that is carved out of the mountain will indeed fall on it, crushing it to bits. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when.