The Crushing Blow - Part One

     The destruction of the counterfeit kingdom of the Antichrist is called the end of the times of the Gentiles. It was revealed long ago in Nebuchadnezzar's time (605-585 BC), compliments of the "God in Heaven who reveals secrets, and has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter Days" (Daniel 2:28).
       It was revealed as a statue of different materials, where each material represented a different Gentile empire that sought to oppress God's people. In their human pride, these empires declared, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us” (Psalm 2:3). The “Their” here is the Godhead.
        Psalm 2:4-6 gives us God’s response: “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’ ”
       King Nebuchadnezzar got to watch in his dream what that wrath would look like. “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. 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” (Daniel 2:34-35). To identify the stone, we go to the Scriptures:
 
“Have you not even read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.' "  (Mark 12:10)
 
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22)
 
       Do you get the picture? Christ and His Body/Church/Bride are the Stone. We strike the image using our two-edged swords—the heavenly declarations as the immortal government. And we don’t just strike the image, we crush it to dust. It shall disappear with the wind.
 

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