"28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: 29 As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. 30 But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. 31 "You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. 37 You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all--you are this head of gold. 39 But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold--the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure." (Dan. 2: 28-45 nkjv)
This is a prophecy of history from the time of Daniel and king Nebuchadnezzar until the setting up of God's kingdom on earth under Christ and his people and which is what is described in Revelation chapter twenty and the age to come, which age will last a literal thousand years. Notice these several statements about the dream being a prophecy:
"what will be in the latter days"
"about what would come to pass after this"
"made known to you what will be"
"the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this"
Foretelling future events is the common normal meaning of "prophecy." Though some bible teachers want to broaden the definition of "prophecy" to include revealing God's thoughts about the past or present, yet this is not the general meaning. "Prophecy" is a foretelling of future events. So, when we read of those who "despise prophesyings" (I Thess. 5: 20) we are not to think that Paul is alluding to those who despise sermons, but rather those who despise any who attempt to predict the future.
Many Christians think that the death of the apostles brought an end to God giving the church prophets but I believe that is an error. There may not be any prophets now but we cannot discount the idea that there will be some given in the future. We know that there is yet to be at least two mighty prophets to come immediately prior to the Lord's descension from the heavens (See Rev. chpt. 11). That fact in itself disproves the assertion that there will never be any more prophets of God. Of course, we know that there are, and have been, many false prophets. Also, Paul exhorted the early Christians to "Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy." (I Cor. 14: 1 nkjv) I can't accept the idea that such an exhortation was not applicable to any Christian after the first century. This negative attitude towards the study of unfulfilled prophecy is prevalent in the Hardshell or "Primitive" Baptist church of which I used to be a part. I think this attitude is prevalent among many Amillennialists.
In the above prophecy, given by a dream of an unsaved Gentile king, God was revealing the future of the world from the time of Daniel until the coming of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom on earth. In that prophecy we see how God once again used a figure or symbol to reveal literal truth about the future. Also, we see again a case where the interpretation of the symbolism was also given. Had that not been given, people would be guessing as to what the image signified.
The image of a man with its various materials for body sections was a fitting image of world government and of the empires of it. The Babylonian empire was identified as the gold head, the Medo-Persian empire was identified with the silver arms and chest, the Grecian empire was identified with the bronze of the thigh, and the legs of iron with the Roman empire. The ten toes were a mixture of iron and clay and are identified with ten kings who will be heads over the final world empire of man and be super headed by the coming Antichrist or "man of lawlessness." These same kings and beastly empire of "the son of perdition" are mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The "stone" cut out of the mountain without hands stands for the coming of Christ the king and the establishment of his kingdom on earth. Amillennialists want to tell us that this has already occurred but that is quite untenable for several reasons.
First, "the days of these kings" is yet future as the book of Revelation shows. Second, the empires or rule of man on earth has not been destroyed and put to an end. That will occur when Christ appears with his kingdom (II Tim. 4: 1). That moment is described in the Apocalypse in these words:
"Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11: 15 nkjv)
In fact, the scenes of the Apocalypse show Christ destroying the empire of the Antichrist and all earthly rule by ungodly men.
Third, the kingdom or empire of God that follows the destruction of the last of the world's beastly empires is one that is described as lasting forever, and as having no successor, and one that destroys all earthly sovereignties.
So, again, we see where prophecies that made use of figures and symbols were all for the purpose of depicting literal events.
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