Scripture Reading: Dan. 2:31-35, 41-44; Rev. 19:7-9, 11-21; 17:14
We should not study the Word or understand the Word in a natural way but study and understand it according to the Lord's revelation and enlightenment. To see that Daniel prayed three times a day does not require enlightenment, but to see God's economy in the book of Daniel requires vision, revelation, and enlightenment. Because we need vision, revelation, and enlightenment, Paul prayed that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:17). We also need the proper interpretation of the Word.
In this message I would like to give a further word concerning the problem presented to God by human government. My burden is to point out that eventually human government will fight against God and will be crushed by Christ in His coming with His bride.
In the great human image described in Daniel, the head was of gold, the breast and the arms were of silver, the abdomen and thighs were of bronze, the legs were of iron, and the feet and the toes were partly of iron and partly of clay. Apparently, the parts that were of gold, silver, bronze, and iron were not a problem to God. But with the ten toes there is a great problem, for when human government reaches the stage of the ten toes — the stage of Antichrist and his ten kings — it will fight against God directly. Thus, human government not only rebels against God, exalts man, and worships idols but also fights against God directly. However, Christ, the embodiment of God, will come with His bride to crush the human government.
Before the human government is crushed, there will be a long history, both of the world and of the new creation. It is in the new creation that Christ prepares a bride for Himself to marry. If Christ did not have a bride, then He would have to fight alone against Antichrist, for Antichrist would have an army but Christ would not. However, Christ will have an army, and this army will be His bride.
The book of Ephesians reveals that the church is not only Christ's bride but is also a warrior (6:10-20). On the day of His wedding, Christ will marry the one who has been fighting the battle against God's enemy for years. This means that in Revelation 19 Christ will marry the overcomers, who have already overcome the evil one.
This defeated evil one, the devil, will then seek to join himself to Antichrist, and Antichrist will welcome him. The devil and Antichrist will become one. Inspired by the devil, Antichrist will gather together a multitude of evil persons to be his army. In the sight of God, these evil ones, the army of Antichrist, will be the grapes that will be trodden in "the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" (Rev. 19:15).
When Christ comes to fight against Antichrist and his army, He will come as the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He will need a counterpart to match Him and complete Him. This counterpart will be His bride. In His coming to crush human government, Christ will be the Husband with the overcomers as His bride. This means that before He descends to earth to deal with the ten toes and then with the entire image, He will have a wedding (Rev. 19:7-9). After His wedding, He will come with His newly-married bride to destroy Antichrist, who with his army will fight against God directly.
In a previous message we pointed out that both the old creation and human government are problems to God. Christ dealt with the problem of the old creation through His crucifixion, His all-inclusive death on the cross. This problem He solved alone. Christ will deal with the problem of human government by coming with His bride to crush the great image from the toes to the head. This problem He will solve not alone but with His bride as His army. Christ with His bride will annihilate the human government.
Now we need to go on to see by what way Christ produces His bride. He produces the bride by the way of the new creation. In the Lord's recovery today, we are fighting against traditional, organized religion and are fighting for the new creation. Traditional, organized religion does not help the believers to grow, to be renewed, and to be transformed. Many of us can testify that we did not begin to grow spiritually until we came into the church life.
Growth is followed by transformation. Both in our physical life and in our spiritual life, we are transformed by growing. The more we grow, the more we are transformed.
Because traditional, organized religion does not help God's people to grow, there is the need for the Lord's recovery. We need the recovery, and God also has a need for the recovery. The Lord's recovery is absolutely for the new creation. For this reason, from the time I came to this country in 1962, I have been giving messages on the matter of transformation. The Lord's recovery is for the new creation, and the new creation requires transformation from the old into the new. In addition to being transformed, we also need to be built up together so that we may be the Body of Christ and also the bride of Christ, the counterpart of Christ.
Christ needs the Body and the bride. Before His second appearing, He will continue to work in the church in a mysterious way to make us a new creation. When this new creation has been transformed and has become mature in life, it will be attached to Christ and become one with Him to be His bride.
I want to stress the fact that the bride requires maturity. Christ will not marry a bride who is immature. Only when we have reached maturity will He take us to be His bride. We must admit that in the Lord's recovery we have not yet reached maturity; we are still too young to be presented to Christ as His bride. Thus, there is the urgent need for maturity. When Christ, the Bridegroom, sees that we have reached maturity, He will marry the bride and then come with her as His army to crush the human government.
After Christ has married His bride, He will come as the stone cut out without hands and will crush the great human image from the toes to the head, destroying the human government which fights against God directly. Through this crushing the whole earth will be cleared up. The problem of the human government in the old creation will be solved. Then Christ will increase from a stone to a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:35). In this way Christ will be the centrality and the universality in God's economy.
The stone refers to Christ as the centrality, and the mountain refers to Him as the universality. As the stone He is the center, the centrality; as the mountain He is the circumference, the universality. Today Christ must be the centrality and universality in our church life, family life, and daily life. If Christ is our centrality and universality in this way, He will also be the centrality and universality in God's economy and in God's move.
The book of Daniel shows us that all the kings and kingdoms of the world are under God's administration. Consider the situation of the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar. First, he became a co-regent with his father and reigned with him. As such a co-regent he destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 606 B.C. Then about 604 B.C. he became king and reigned until 561 B.C. Eventually he was replaced by his son and then by his grandson, Belshazzar, whose debauchery in Daniel 5 was an insult to God and who was slain in 538 B.C. At that time the Babylonian Empire came to an end, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two. Darius was a subordinate king to Cyrus (see Daniel 8). In 536 B.C. Cyrus issued the decree that released the captives of Israel to return to Judah, thus ending the seventy years which God had apportioned for the Israelites to remain in Babylon. Therefore, God used the Babylonian Empire for the purpose of carrying His corrupted and defeated elect into captivity. After the seventy years of their captivity, God caused the Medes and the Persians to become one for the purpose of ending the Babylonian Empire and of releasing His people from their captivity in Babylon. This is an illustration of how all kings and kingdoms are under God's administration.
In the book of Isaiah, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon are condemned, but Cyrus is highly regarded. Isaiah 14 reveals the oneness of Satan and Babylon. In the eyes of the prophet Isaiah, Nebuchadnezzar was one with Satan. Concerning Cyrus, on the contrary, Isaiah says that God delighted in him and even made him a shepherd to care for His people. In the first year of his reign, Cyrus proclaimed the return of God's people to Judah (Ezra 1:1-4). He also arranged for the vessels of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar had brought to Babylon to be returned to Jerusalem. Thus, Cyrus is presented in a very positive way. Nevertheless, he was still part of the great image, that is, a part of the human government which will consummate in Antichrist, who will fight against God directly. This exposes how evil the human government is.
In order to deal with this evil human government, Christ as the Son of Man must receive the kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14). On the one hand, Christ is in the heavens as the One who has received the kingdom. On the other hand, Christ is in us as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As our Redeemer, He terminated the old creation by His crucifixion. As the One in resurrection, He has germinated the new creation, and today He is working within us as His new creation. He is also our Companion in the burning furnace (Dan. 3). As such a wonderful One, He is preparing everything for His coming back to exercise His dominion over the whole earth.
