THE STONE CUT OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN

                Daniel’s ‘parable’ of the stone cut out of the mountain is quite well-known. Nebuchadnezzar produced a large idol and God chose an amazing way to remove it. God has purposed to remove all traces and effects of fallen Adam from creation . . . from His people . . . from mankind. The image of this double prophecy simply represents this Adam’s religious thinking which will in the end, return to dust from whence he came. In scripture, anything that is INSTEAD OF Christ is called ANTICHRIST, for that is the meaning of the Greek word translated antichrist.

            The purpose of this writing is not to ridicule peoples’ beliefs, nor to mock folk’s ignorance of spiritual things, but to exhort readers to search out a matter, crying out to the Lord for His enlightening as to who He is and what He is saying today. May each one be challenged to leave the old lifeless religious ways where progress is hard to define, and believe in what God says about Himself and what His plans are for all humanity.

            Each reader is encouraged to hold on to what they have of Life until God gives a further revelation of Himself whereby one will begin to grasp, as reality for this hour, all that God has purposed for them. The grace of God has provided such a revelation for the hungry and the grace of God will bring one through to experiencing each progressive step. St. Paul exhorts in Ephesians 4:15, for us ‘to grow up into Him who is the Head. . .’ — the thinking of God as contained in the Head, in the mind of Christ which we have (! Corinthians 2:16).

            The whole context is about ruling and reigning . . . in the office of a king who is expected to do the best for his people. In history there have been many differing expressions of kings ruling over people. A ‘kingdom’ is a domain over which a king rules.

            This scripture prophecy has two fulfillments: the one historic noted by the word ‘hereafter’ in verse 45 and the other regarding this hour shown in the word ‘the latter days’ of verse 28. These verses are usually expounded as five historic kingdoms from Babylon (gold head) to the Medes and Persians (silver) to the Greek (brass) to the Roman (iron legs) to a mixture of more recent dictatorships and democracies (iron and clay). This is quite acceptable but we feel that there needs to be another look at these verses in the light of ‘present truth’ and the Kingdom of God. The second fulfillment will expose the false or counterfeit thinking which has usurped God’s thinking in His people who have been promoted by the religious church system of our day.

            Man’s futile efforts will be supernaturally swallowed up by God moving through His people to truly show that He is THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS. . . the all consuming One who reduces to dust all that is of the first Adam.

            We shall see that Daniel was a specific part of the Body of Christ. He was given the anointing of wisdom and understanding as he responded to the call of God and ‘blazed the trail’ for the corporate body to come forth.

Daniel 2:28-49

                I was told by a Hebrew/Chaldean teacher many years ago the meanings of Nebuchadnezzar and Belteshazzar (Daniel’s Chaldean name - v.26). Nebuchadnezzar means “he doesn’t know where the treasure is” . . . while Belteshazzar means “he does know where the treasure is”. Whether this is accurate or not, it does show the difference between man’s thinking and the mind of Christ. Through Christ’s provision, we have the mind of Christ — God’s thinking . . . as we yield to His thoughts, we become a part of that ‘stone’! Praise the Lord.

THE MYSTERY REVEALED — WHAT SHALL BE IN THE LATTER DAYS!

28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;

Daniel believed that ‘It is given unto the called-out ones to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven’.

29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

            These thoughts were not in Nebuchadnezzar’s mind by any effort of his but came from God — remember the work of a spirit is to create thought — for God has a plan!

30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes (=all mankind) that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

THE GREAT AND MIGHTY FALSE IMAGE which will be destroyed.

                As we look at this false vision of what and how God is achieving His plan, we note that the appearance of this idol is simply ‘Adam’ complete with his fallen self-centered nature, natural thinking and devious imaginations that try everything to enhance and improve his state.

31 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.

            ‘Brightness’ (from the Chaldean) means countenance or appearance. Man’s vision for the Church is very attractive for the members do not have to do too much to receive its outworking!

            ‘Terrible’ (from the Chaldean) means to slink . . . like something formidable to fear and comes from a root word that means to crawl as a serpent or worm. The religious system predomi-nantly teaches that if you do not choose to receive Christ now, then your future is unending torment planned by God! That is ‘terrible’! This counterfeit image looks so good, who can fault it? It stands in one place not going anywhere for there is no progressive vision involved. In fact there was no real spiritual life in this stationary expression of man’s understanding of what God is like.

32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

34 Thou sawest till (= a delay or time lapse) 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.

            The stone of God’s thinking (and thus His life) struck at the ‘walk’ (or lack of it), the feet of this image.

                MAKEUP OF THIS IMAGE . . . What are these FIVE expressions of man’s thinking that produce such an idol? An idol is easily recognized by its failure to change . . . the same expression is seen whenever one looks at it.

            Claim is made that what they have is through God’s grace (5). However, such thinking is geared to improve Adam’s lot and with a big effort, change him into a better Christian!. Man’s idea of paradise or utopia and how he thinks it can be attained. It is like a man trying to lift himself up by the handle of the bucket while standing in it!

35 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 threshingfloors; 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.

            In fact is there was no real spiritual life in this stationary expression of man’s understanding of what God is like. This idol is just not going anywhere! Being as these scriptural verses are contrasting man’s image with God’s kingdom, we shall look at the makeup of the ‘image-nation’ of him who ‘doesn’t know where the treasure is’, in a negative way.

            GOLD: Instead of seeing and knowing the unconditional love, mercy and grace of God which is His nature depicted in the word by gold, this counterfeit look at God appears to be like the real . . . it is called ‘religion’ and its proponents have many so-called anointed ideas of what God is like and what God proposes in which the recipients will get marvelously blessed . . . especially if you are of certain (denomi)nations! This thinking which focuses a lot of attention on ‘man’ is often hidden behind the title ‘fundamental evangelical’ thinking!

            SILVER: Silver in a positive sense speaks of the redeeming work of Christ in which He made the full provision for man’s salvation/redemption. So here we have a similar target from this type of thinking . . . but here the subjects of the rulers are required to do certain things in order to obtain the utopia proposed. It will also cost each subject certain monetary input . . . and, of course, only in-cludes present believers!

            BRASS: Brass in scripture always speaks of judgment which Christ took for all men upon Himself. However, many even today speak of constantly repenting to avoid God’s judgment. If you repent then you can avoid judgment . . . it again depends on what you actually do and say. Each of these efforts by ‘Adam’ are done and adhered to with genuine sincerity. Why endeavour to obtain what has already been given to one?

            IRON: This substance is likened to unyielding strength . . . in this context, one is compelled to believe in exactly the same way as the others in the ‘franchise’! Their strength is in dogmatically

believing the same things in the same way. Headquarters sometimes dictate the terms of being a part

of this expression of God or rather; it all looks like God, but is a religious substitute.

            CLAY: This speaks of man in his natural state seeing that he came from earth. Earth is not strong and here clay speaks of compromise and always trying to agree with one’s fellow man without ‘upsetting the apple cart’!

            IRON AND CLAY MIXTURE: The unyielding ‘iron’ denominations who are controlled by

‘H.Q.s’ who dictate much of the church’s operations, creeds and ministry qualifications! The com-promising ‘clay’ speaks of democratically run churches whose members vote on policies, operations, who will minister and of course, all financial matters! This mixing of these attitudes usually cause frustration and disharmony and can never come to a oneness in the spirit. Uniformity is sought after but that is not the unity of the spirit and faith.

BY CONTRAST . . .

                In spite of being involved with or surrounded by such idol, the result of man’s thinking, there is a genuine hunger among God’s saints to align themselves with the Lord and to surrender all thoughts that do not stem from Him.

            God Himself, His Spirit within, is carrying out a preparation work in those truly seeking Him. God is doing it without ‘man’s hands’ imposing rules (law) and without any enticements other than ‘being found in Him’. God is separating a people on the earth today who can move as one . . . in spirit, motive and vision. They make up His ‘stone’ among all the other overcomers that make up this mountain . . . we could call it Mt. Sion and/or the Mount of Transfiguration.

                The Kingdom of God in the earth is a people who ‘live and move and have their being’ in Christ. It represents a people who have been called and chosen to be the first-fruits of the visible expression of the invisible God in the earth. They have yielded to the Lord’s dealings and processings making them a part of the Mount Sion overcomers of all generations.

            The Kingdom of God which differs in function and operation from the Church, will have a ‘first-fruits company’, like Gideon’s 300, and their calling is to fully declare the fullness of God on the earth in this seventh Day. This kingdom’s domain is the earth over which a corporate king will rule . . . is an everlasting kingdom, the epitome of God’s purpose.

            The thrust of this dream of Nebuchadnezzar is for us today. The setting was in Babylon where God’s people were in captivity. Today there are places and fellowships where there is no liberty of the Spirit. Many limitations are proclaimed on every side as the people of God are stifled and restricted from showing forth Life. ‘Babylon’ in the word most times in scripture, refers to the man-made systems of religion. Remembering that God loves the people but hates the restricting systems, orders and dogmas including limiting constitutions produced from fear of losing members or having unwelcome additions (of life!) added to their beliefs. Actually God is well able to build and maintain His Church . . . He said so!

SUPERNATURAL REVELATION IS NEEDED

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

38 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.

            Nebuchadnezzar in today’s setting would be like those who give mental assent to Christ being Lord, but only when things go right for them! How do you react to differing circumstances that surprise you?

39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

            Another new idea is thought up with its own gimmicks and is usually inferior to what has been tried before! It is still ‘from Adam’!

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

            Are not God’s people divided into thousands of denominations and sects all because each one majors on WHAT they believe about God and His plan that will bless them, instead of WHO He is and who He says they are in Him?

42 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.

43 And whereas thou sawest 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.

44 And in the days of these kings shall the 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.

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpreta-tion thereof sure.

46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

            Nebuchadnezzar, having been blessed by God, wanted to treat Daniel as he had treated his idol. As God’s kingdom comes forth now . . . in these latter days . . . great patience will be needed in instructing those who have their eye opened by the Lord.

UNIVERSAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ALMIGHTY GOD

                Do you know ‘your God’ intimately? Do you know God as your Father? Do you therefore know Him as Lord of your thinking and decisions? How you know Him will be seen in how you refer to Him. Daniel’s testimony before Nebuchadnezzar was that he knew his God..

47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

48 Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

            Do you recall Jesus sharing a parable about ruling of ten cites, five cities etc.? Such responsi-bility comes from walking consistently with the Lord . . . not by burying one’s talent in the earth.

49 Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate.

            RULE & REIGN with God . . . sit with Me in My Throne . . . A corporate ruling people as Daniel includes Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be a part of the vehicle for such ruling.

                This ‘stone’ represents a remnant people moving in the mind of Christ completely. Each ‘kingdom’ represents a way of thinking that will affect one’s life. The kingdom which Daniel un-veiled has its origin in heaven — the realm of Spirit where God dwells — and will swallow up every ‘kingdom’ built by man using his hands or abilities. The natural and limited expressions of religious life as pictured in this multifaceted idol are heading for extinction.

Rev 11:15 ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever’.

            We are called out of Babylon’s carnal, natural thinking realm derived from fallen Adam, so that the whole of creation can be changed and its people brought into the glorious liberty that is found only in God, Himself.§