In Daniel chapter two, King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream and Daniel gave the interpretation. He saw a statue with
1. a head of gold (Babylon),
2. arms and breast of silver (Medo/Persia),
3. belly of brass (Greece),
4. legs of iron (Rome),
5. and feet part iron & part clay (Rome as it crumbled).
6. The 6th kingdom (God’s kingdom): As he watched, a little stone cut out of a mountain (without hands), flew thru the air and struck the image on the feet. The whole thing crumbled to dust and the wind blew it away. Then the little stone grew and grew till it became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. This is the kingdom of God that eventually destroyed Rome and became Christendom.
Daniel said, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever…” (2:44). Daniel clearly reveals the timing of when the Kingdom Of God would be set up: “In the days of those kings.” Just before Christ went to the cross He said, “ “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Christ then ascended in the clouds to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13) and sat down at the right hand of the Father “on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father” (1Chron 29:23). “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1Cor 15:25). When Jesus came in the clouds to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13) “a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom” (Dan 7:22) “in the days of those kings” (Dan 2:44). Jesus said that judgment was made just before He went to the cross: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). The judgment was made at that time, and the execution of that judgment “till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1Cor 15:25). The Little Stone is still growing.
The Greek poet Hesiod, who lived 100 years before Daniel, also envisioned a sixth kingdom. He believed history started with a golden age and steadily deteriorated from gold to silver to brass to iron. He believed he was in the iron-age and that there would be a return to the golden age. Hesiod placed a 5th age of heroes before the age of iron.
Plato, who came 100 years after Daniel, also believed in a sixth government: his Republic. He taught that there are five types of government that deteriorate into anarchy and result in tyranny. 1. First is the golden monarchy. In the golden monarchy there is true justice & love for one’s neighbor.
2. The golden monarchy deteriorates into a timocracy. Timo means honor. A timocracy is ruled by men whose motive is honor. 3. Because honor leads to prosperity, the timocracy deteriorates into an oligarchy ruled by a few whose motive is riches. Riches produce libertine children who want fun. They call it freedom.
4. It’s called democracy: the rule of every man doing what is right in his own eyes. It’s the rule of fleshly passions. It’s the French Revolution and the hippies belching out of the Bottomless Pit.
5. The comes tyranny. According to Plato, pure democracy results in anarchy (lawless liberty). Then, to bring order out of it all, they vote for a tyrant. This is what happened in Germany with Hitler, in France with Napoleon, & in Russia with Lenin. Solomon said, “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun” (Ec 1:9).
Bojidar Marinov writes about Isidore of Seville and the Birth of Europe as the Rule Of Christ (http://americanvision.org/3452/isidore-of-seville-and-the-birth-of-europe-as-the-regnum-christi/).
Isidore (born in AD 560) was Spanish. He based his life’s ministry on Augustine’s theology by accepting Augustine’s six-ages view of history. Isidore was sure that the “sixth age” was the time when he lived, and that was a special age, the age following the Redemption of Jesus Christ, under the power of Jesus Christ, regnum Christi. All previous ages existed only to provide the background for that most important age in history. All previous human achievements in knowledge, wisdom, technologies, social development, philosophy, existed only to be used in the right way in the regnum Christi. The whole world found its fulfillment only in the Incarnation of Christ, and now it was a Kingdom of Christ, under Christ’s royal rule, destined to become one Christian civilization, under Christ, where all authorities and powers will submit to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
This total authority of Christ in this age of regnum Christi will make all the nations become limbs of Christ. Isidore said nations would be judged by a moral standard, just like individuals, and the greatest of them would be those that live – as societies – most clearly in accordance with the Christian faith. All aspects of the life of a nation must become harmonized with the teachings of Christ, from the personal life of the individuals to the government policies and international relations of the rulers. Those that fail to abide by the Law of Christ will be judged in history. Those that obey will prosper and grow.
Therefore Isidore saw the role of the Church in teaching everyone – from the lowest peasant to the highest court officials – their duties in the new age of regnum Christi. He wrote an encyclopedia and His teaching spread all over Europe until all of Europe became Christendom.
This happened to Europe but Europe has turned away just like Israel did. I predict that was only a foretaste of what will happen to the whole world. We are in Babylonian captivity now, but there shall be a return and a re-building of the New Jerusalem in all the nations of the world.
God promises a time when this will happen not just to Europe, but to the whole world (Micah 4:1-4).
