The Great Prophetic Outline of the World’s History by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 20, 1915

The Great Prophetic Outline of the World’s History

By W. A. S.

Synopsis of Present Truth—No. 6

The Great Prophetic Outline of the World’s History

The Prophecy of Daniel 2

“THERE is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Dan. 2:28.

In a dream by night the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a clear historical outline of the course of world empire to the end of time and the coming of the eternal kingdom.

The king was a thoughtful monarch; and having reached the height of his power, he was one night meditating upon “what should come to pass hereafter.” Not for his sake alone, but for the enlightenment and instruction of men in all time, the Lord answered the wondering question of the king’s meditation by giving him the dream. “He that revealeth secrets,” said Daniel the prophet, “maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.”

And that we may know at the beginning that there is nothing fanciful and uncertain about this great historic outline reaching to the end of the world, we note first the assurance with which the prophet closed his interpretation: “And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”

The details of the dream had been taken from the king’s mind, while conviction as to the wondrous import of it remained. This was in God’s providence to show the folly of the worldly-wise men of Babylon, and to bring before the king the prophet of the Lord with a divine message. The prophet Daniel, under the inspiration of God, brought the dream again to the king’s mind:—

“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.

“This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

“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.

“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 threshing floors; 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.” Dan. 2:31-35.

The prophet next declared the interpretation. And now follows the history of the world in miniature:—

Babylon

“Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Verses 37, 38.

The parts of the image, then, of various metals, from head to feet, represented successive empires, beginning with Babylon; and the kingdom of Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar, was the head of gold.

History shows how fitly the golden head symbolized the Babylonian Kingdom. Long before, the prophet Isaiah had described it as “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.” Isa. 13:19. And now, in Nebuchadnezzar’s day, it was the golden age of the Babylonian Kingdom. No such gorgeous city as its capital ever before stood on earth. And Nebuchadnezzar was the great leader of its conquests, and the beautifier and builder of its walls and palaces. “For the astonishment of men I have built this house,” one tablet reads; and hundreds repeat the story.

Those portals for the astonishment of multitudes of people with beauty I adorned.

Thus Nebuchadnezzar’s records of stone today repeat the proud boast of the scripture, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?” Dan. 4:30. To the king it seemed such a city could never fall. One inscription reads:—

Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon. May it last forever.—Rawlinson’s “Fourth Monarchy,” appendix A.

The Medo-Persian Kingdom

But the prophet Daniel, proceeding with the divine interpretation, interrupted all such proud thoughts with the declaration:—

“And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Dan. 2:39.

Now the look was forward into the future. And the word came to pass. Babylon’s decline was swift after Nebuchadnezzar’s death. Daniel the prophet himself lived to interpret the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast:—

“God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. . . . Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. . . . Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Dan. 5:26-28.

The breast and arms of silver, in the great image, represented the Medo-Persian Kingdom, which followed the Babylonian, “inferior” to it in brilliancy and grandeur, as the silver is inferior to gold. Medo-Persia, however, enlarged the borders of world empire; and the names of Cyrus and Darius were written among the mightiest conquerors of history.

But the prophet does not stop to dwell upon the grandeur of fleeting earthly kingdoms. The interpretation hastens on to reach the setting up of a kingdom that shall not pass away. Following Medo-Persia, a third power was to rise:—

Grecia

“And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Dan. 2:39.

The “third kingdom” after Babylon was Grecia, which overthrew the empire of the Medes and Persians. And Grecia’s dominion fulfilled the specifications of the prophecy, which indicated a yet wider expansion of empire. Its sway was to be over “all the earth,” said Daniel the prophet, foretelling its history. Arrian, the Roman, writing its history afterwards, said that Alexander of Greece seemed truly “lord of all the earth;” and he adds:—

I am persuaded there was no nation, city, nor people then in being whither his name did not reach; for which reason whatever origin he might boast of, or claim to himself, there seems to me to have been some divine hand presiding both over his birth and actions.—“Alexander’s Expedition,” book 7, chap. 30.

The sides of brass in the great image represented Grecia, the brazen metal itself a fitting symbol of those “brazen-mailed” warriors, the “brass-clothed Greeks,” celebrated in ancient poetry and prose.

While Grecia’s supremacy under Alexander was disputed by none, there was a power rising in the west that was soon to enter the lists for the prize of world dominion.

W. A. S.

(To be concluded)