Comment as you like. Copied from an ocr'd PDF file so the punctuation is a little off(i tried to clean it up a little) This is taken from your book beginning on page 179:
Religious clergymen have attempted an interpretation of this dream, making it refer to the rise and fall of the four successive world powers,Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman empire . The smiting of the image they explain to mean the introduction of Christianity, followed up by the interference of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and other religious denominations in the political systems of the whole earth. The mountain's filling the entire earth
the religionists interpret to mean the adoption of the name "Christian nation" by all the countries of so-called "Christendom", but without changing their political governments . It is further claimed that "all the other empires, kingdoms, and states on the face of the earth may become Christian, and preserve their characteristic forms of political government" . (Clarke)
Viewed in the increasing light shining upon God's Holy Word, such religious interpretation becomes more and more untenable and manifest as wrong . It is an interpretation of demon origin to hide the truth on the primary doctrine of the Bible, the kingdom of Jehovah God by his Son Jesus Christ . Through his prophet Daniel the great Revealer of secrets furnished a general interpretation of the dream. In these latter years the same God of revelation provides the Scriptural interpretation of the prophetic dream by means of the unlocking of the Scriptures and by physical facts in fulfillment of the dream.
Daniel proceeded : "This is the dream ; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, 0 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 . And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: orasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 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. 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 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.
"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. 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 interpretation thereof sure ."-Daniel 2 : 36-45.
In view of the further visions given to the prophet and recorded by him at Daniel chapters 7, 8, 11 and 12, it is manifest that Jehovah God is not forecasting at chapter 2 what should be repeated several times over later on . As the first of a series of prophecies this one is fundamental and stands distinct . It does not apply simply to certain earthly parts of Satan's organization. The image of the dream represents Satan's organization as a whole, invisible and visible, and including "the god of this world" himself. It pictures Satan's entire
world or kosmos, composed of both the heavens and the earth which he organized since the flood, "the heavens and the earth, which are now ." (2 Peter 37) It is all one organization from head to foot. Its destruction means the world's end.
Satan the Devil is the golden head of the image, pretending to be divine, and aiming to "be like the Most High" . That he was pictured or represented by the demon-worshiping Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is manifest from Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 14, where Babylon's king is spoken of as the bright-shining one, Heylel, or Lucifer . At the time of man's creation in Eden, Lucifer was given an organization of holy angels and was appointed as "the covering cherub" respecting mankind and their interests. The perfect man under Lucifer was mandated to have dominion over all the beasts, birds, and fishes and to subdue all the earth and fill it with a righteous human race . This is what is meant by Daniel's statement to the king (picturing Satan) that Jehovah had given to him a "kingdom, power, and strength, and glory", and had made him ruler over all living creatures on earth. Lucifer's station being from divine source, he was as a "head of gold".
