It's a known fact that people lie. either to achieve their hidden agenda, or to evade the embarrassment of dealing with the consequences of their actions. Some may seem like harmless fibs, but a lie is a lie. This is why there is so much distrust in the world.
So who do, or can we trust? Scripture says that God cannot lie; it's not in his nature; the devil is the father of lies. For a believer in the one Almighty God, everything is tested against his word, and to them the Bible is the the inspired word of God. Now theory has it that Constantine was the one who conceived the idea of giving the people a bible, so that they could be controlled by religion. But since he was a pagan the spiritual writings of the prophets would have been beyond him. Whatever God wanted to perserve for today's readers would have been overlooked. One of the interesting things about The Dead Sea Scrolls is that fragment of scrolls reveal that certain books of the bible are word for word copies of the ancient writings. To disregard the writings of ancient holy men, because of Constantines motives is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Like Constantine, many people today do not understand the nature of prophecy; prophecy is simply telling people what God said. Much of it is cryptic, and sounds symbolic as the prophets wrote about things that were beyond the knowledge of their times. One example is found in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream by Daniel. What is more amazing about this incident is that he was required to tell Nebuchadnezzar what the dream was too. After spending some time in prayer he was able to tell him that God had given him an image of what was in store for the world.
He told Nebuchadnezzar that God orders history by setting up and removing human rulers. and this dream illustrates this truth. But before he told him what he had dreamed he told him it was a God given vision in response to his concern about the future. The disturbing image of his dream was a huge statue: the head was of gold: the chest and arms were of silver; the belly and thighs were of bronze (brass); the legs were of iron; and the feet were a mix of iron and clay (Daniel 2:31).
Suddenly the dazzling figure moved, and a stone supernaturally cut from a mountain flew through the air and struck the figure with such force that all traces of it dissappeared, and the great stone filled the earth. Daniel told him that the head of gold symbolized him and his city of Babylon, because of the great use of gold to decorate all the important buildings, but someday the grand and mighty Babylon would be defeated by an inferior kingdom.
The chest and arms of silver represented Darius and the Medo-Persians. The empire was bigger, but inferior in quality of government. The next great empire (bronz) would be Greece, ruled by Alexander the Great, who ordered that he be called the king of the world. The iron legs represented the destructive strength of Rome. For though they built many things they crushed and demolished all resistance, which stamped out freedom. These four kingdom reigns have been fulfilled, the last kingdom has yet to play out it's roll.
Of course Daniel didn't name the sequence of empires, history has born out the proof of this prophecy. There is no reason to doubt that the world will live through the last worldly (feet of clay and iron) and brutal empire. The question on many minds is who will rule this last empire? It is believed that something of the old Roman empire will be revived, but it will be mixed; bible scholars point to other prophecies about the end days, when Daniel speaks of a federation of 10 kings (7:24), some strong and some weak that will create internal problems. Many believe it will involve the countries that once were ruled by Rome, which would include the EEC, since a economic union was formed with The Treaty of Rome in 1957.
The members held a summit meeting in Rome in Dec. '75 and seven of the nine nations held direct elections to the European Parliament in '78. They agreed to issue uniform passports, and they now have the Euro currency. Whether the speculation is true, or something else develops, it is a certainty that Europe will be a significant power bloc in the years prior to Christ's return to reigh as King. I believe the New World Order is the directive of this last empire, which will be ruled by the anti-christ.
If you haven't guessed already, the rock that destroyed the image in the dream, which filled the earth, represents Christ's rule of all the nations. No matter what people say, or what men plan, God has a plan for the world; history is unfolding according to His plan. Amen.
ps. You can read the interpretation of Daniel's life in Babylon in a little book titled: "Daniel: Decoder of Dreams" by Donald K. Campbell. Published by Victor Books, SP Publications, Inc. Box 1825, Wheaton, Illinois 60187. It is a wonderful companion to the study of the book of Daniel.
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