Note: This paper was written for a specific class where we taught specific theology. Some of the idea's portrayed i am still studying, since they are not my church's standard beliefs. I hope you enjoy.
Morgan Metcalf
Bible 11
January 29, 2012
Term 2 Research Paper
Daniel 2:40-44 Exegesis
Previously in Daniel chapter two, Daniel is
recounting to the king of Babylon,
Nebuchadnezzar, what the king had dreamed and what it meant. The kingdoms were
listed from Babylon
and descending. Verse forty is a description of the fourth kingdom, Rome. As a historically
proven fact, Rome
used quite a bit of iron which supports the part in verse forty that says, “The
fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron.” Just as the metal iron can break almost anything, the kingdom of iron “will
crush and break all the others.”
In verse forty one, the image moves down from
the legs to the feet. This kingdom had the strength of Rome’s iron combined with the brittleness of
potters’ clay, but they would never mix completely. Continued in the content of
verse forty-two, the description of the last kingdom shows that because of the
incompatibleness of the two substances that the kingdom would always be partly
strong and partly broken.
The ten toes of the feet represent Rome’s region that was divided into ten
smaller kingdoms as listed: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi,
Alamani, Anglosaxons, Heruli, Lombardi, and Burgundians. Daniel 7:24 also
supports this. It says, “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings
that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse
from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” The weird kingdom that rises
afterward is the Papacy, seeing as they killed off three of the ten original
kingdoms.
At this point in the scripture, the description splits into
two perceptives. There is the literal translation, and the prophetic
translation. Verses forty-three and forty four’s literal translation basically
is that the iron and clay’s ten kingdoms would try to join themselves into one
body through alliances of marriage, but because of their elemental
incompatibility, it didn’t hold together. During the reign of the ten kings,
the true God of creation will set up a kingdom—the New Jerusalem that will
never be destroyed or conquered. It will also utterly defeat the ten kingdoms,
and will stand forever. This is a prophecy of the last days of earth in its
literal and simple sense.
In the symbolic sense, these texts are a
little more complicated. Verse 42-43 says, “And as the toes of the feet were
part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and
partly broken. And whereas thou saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall
mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” It may seam simple, but
the prophet Ellen White wrote in Ms 63, 1899, pp. 12, 13 a little more about
this.
“We have come
to a time when God's sacred work is represented by the feet of the image in
which the iron was mixed with the miry clay. God has a people, a chosen
people, whose discernment must be sanctified, who must not become unholy by
laying upon the foundation wood, hay, and stubble. Every soul who is loyal to
the commandments of God will see that the distinguishing feature of our
faith is the seventh day Sabbath. If the government would honor the Sabbath
as God has commanded, it would stand in the strength of God and in defense of
the faith once delivered to the saints. But statesmen will uphold the spurious
Sabbath, and will mingle their religious faith with the observance of this
child of the Papacy, placing it above the Sabbath which the Lord has sanctified
and blessed, setting it apart for man to keep holy, as a sign between Him and
His people to a thousand generations. The mingling of church craft and state
craft is represented by the iron and the clay. This union is weakening all the
power of the churches. This investing the church with the power of the
state will bring evil results. Men have almost passed the point of God's
forbearance. They have invested their strength in politics, and have united
with the papacy. But the time will come when God will punish those who have
made void His law, and their evil work will recoil upon themselves.
(Untitled Manuscript, April 22, 1899.)
Mrs.
White makes it very clear that in the last days of God’s work that the people
who joined in union with the iron and clay mixture, church/state—strong/broken,
will not be able to stand. “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation; and a house [divided] against a house falls,” Luke 11:17.
Before they even start, they are destined to fail.
To clarify, this church in Daniel 2:43 is the
Papal church and all those that follow her teachings. The verse says, “And
whereas thou saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” The “they” here mentioned is the
apostate protestants who do not cherish the vital principles of protestants. In
The Great Controversy Ellen White says,
“Babylon
is said to be "the mother of harlots." By her daughters must be
symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her
example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an
unlawful alliance with the world. The message of Revelation 14, announcing
the fall of Babylon
must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt.
Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the
last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that
church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore, in the
eighteenth chapter of the Revelation the people of God are called upon to
come out of Babylon.
According to this scripture, many of God's people must still be in Babylon. And in
what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be
found? Without doubt, in the various churches professing the Protestant faith.
At the time of their rise these churches took a noble stand for God and the
truth, and His blessing was with them.” “But they fell by the same desire which
was the curse and ruin of Israel--the
desire of imitating the practices and courting the friendship of the ungodly.
‘Thou didst trust in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of thy
renown.’ Ezekiel 16:14, 15.
Many
of the Protestant churches are following Rome's
example of iniquitous connection with "the kings of the
earth"--the state churches, by their relation to secular
governments; and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world. And
the term "Babylon"--confusion--may
be appropriately applied to these bodies, all professing to derive their
doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects, with
widely conflicting creeds and theories.” Great Controversy 382, 383
When the first angle’s message came to the believing
Protestants in 1844, many believed in it, but most of the others did not. This
quote above tells what became of them. Together, joined with the Papal power
and Rome, they
became the ‘they” of Daniel 2:43.
Although the apostate Protestants are now
part of the ten iron/clay toes of the image, most of them still remained in
church attendance, mingling, with the true “seed.” The “seed” refers to the
true Christians of the last days that did not reject the first angel’s message
and still obey the commandments of Christ, but most importantly honor the
seventh-day Sabbath. Since verse forty-three of Daniel two says the iron/clay
mixture will try and mingle themselves with the “seed,” it shows that
God’s remnant last day people are still somewhere they shouldn’t be. Revelation
18:4 says, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues.” In the time of the end the “seed” will be called out of the iron/clay
mixture that could not and will not be united with the true seed, God’s last
day people. “But light and darkness cannot harmonize. Between truth and error
there is an irrepressible conflict.” {GC 126.3
In
verse forty-four it says, "In the time of those kings, the God of
heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left
to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end,
but it will itself endure forever.” In Revelation 17:12-13 the Bible says
something similar: “And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the
beast.” Since Daniel and Revelation are parallel in most prophetic
proclamations, we can assume that “those kings” of Revelation 17:13 are the
same as “these” kings of Daniel 2:44. This kingdom is made up of iron and clay
which we saw was church and state, but in Revelation we see the beast’s power
is ruled by the Papacy, or Babylon.
The ten kings of Revelation sit upon seven heads. These heads are Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, Pagan
Rome, Papal Rome, United States as the kingdom that “is”, and Papal Rome reborn
after her “deadly wound.” In addition, Revelation 17:11 mentions an “eighth,
and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.” This could only be Papal Rome
as the beast itself that will control all the kingdoms territories that came
before it. But who are the ten horns (kings) that are on the seven heads?
Revelation 17:2-13 says, “…but they receive authority for one hour as kings
with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and
authority to the beast.” In Daniel chapter two we see the ten European kings,
mentioned earlier, and they are part of the Papal Roman Empire. But they also
represent the apostate Protestants of the last days. It is from these that the
beast receives its power. For a short period of time, they are given power to
be kings with the beast in the last days when they will make war with the Lamb.
Here is a quote from Ellen White:
“Yet under one head--the papal power--the
people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. What is it that
gives its kingdom to this power?
Protestantism, a power which while professing to have the temper and spirit of
a lamb and to be allied to Heaven, speaks with the voice of a dragon. It is
moved by a power from beneath.” “In the warfare to be waged in the
last days there will be united, in opposition to God's people, all the corrupt
powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah. In this
warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue;
for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the
heavens and the earth.
Through the two great errors, the
immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people
under his deceptions. While the
former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of
sympathy with Rome.
The Protestants of the United States
will be foremost in stretching
their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will
reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power;
and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow
in the steps of Rome in trampling on
the rights of conscience,” Maranotha
187.
From
this quote we can recognize how the ten toes of iron and clay in the lasts days
is destroyed by the “rock” that decimates Nebuchadnezzar’s image. The Papacy
stirs up the apostate Protestants into war against the remnant of the “seed.”
Because the beast challenges God’s holy Sabbath and question that they are
mortal, thinking they could be gods, God has no choice but to destroy the
wicked. “…God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever,” Daniel 2:44. This
kingdom is the New Jerusalem and it will be on Earth forever.
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