God is the Almighty Ruler of the universe (Psalm 2). Every ruler in our world has received authority from Him (John 19:11 & Romans 13:1). And Jesus came announcing that the Kingdom of God had come into our world (Mark 1:14): When Jesus came, God’s kingdom came. That’s how our world is meant to be: with God being acknowledged as the ruler of men and women, boys and girls.
So, what should we expect to happen as God’s Kingdom spreads in the world God made?
Well, one way of looking at the world expects God’s kingdom to grow within the kingdoms of the world. That’s theological liberalism. It teaches that God’s people will bring peace to the world by living like Jesus. But it misses the fact that the world hates Jesus and will hate His followers too (John 15:18-19).
Or you might think that God’s kingdom will co-exist alongside the kingdoms of the world. That’s the Amillennial view: There will be friction, but really, the church and the world will pretty much live alongside each other for the rest of history.
Actually, a lot of Christians think that’s wrong. In fact, they believe that God’s kingdom will actually disappear from the earth! That’s the Pre-millennial view: At the rapture, all true believers, the whole church on earth, will disappear, and God’s plan for the world will shift back to the Jewish nation.
But what we’re seen here in Daniel is that God’s kingdom will continue through all of history. In fact, the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will overrule all earthly kingdoms and fill the whole earth: “In the time of those kings [that is, while the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome still existed], 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 for ever,” (Daniel 2:44). We could call that Post-millennialism.
Each vision that Daniel sees over his lifetime zooms in on that same truth in greater detail. He learns to see history from God’s perspective, and so should we. As God tells us in Ephesians 1:22, “And God placed all things under His [Christ’s] feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church…”
Daniel was concerned for God’s people (ch 9) and we should be too. We can see the trouble the church is in today, but we shouldn’t despair. And we can long for great things for the church, but we shouldn’t resort to the world’s methods.
But we should trust God and His sovereign plan for history.
See, history is not a random series of events. God isn’t sitting back watching the world go, passively waiting until time is up! As we’ve seen, God is actively working in the world throughout history to put everything under Jesus’ feet.
That’s always been God’s plan. Revelation 5 shows us that: there God has a scroll written on both sides and sealed with 7 seals. That scroll represents God’s complete and confirmed plan for the history of His universe. And only Jesus can open the scroll (Revelation 5:5).
So, what has God written in history?
GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WODONGA 