Earlier studies have convinced us that the Bible is one complete unit.  Every several part lends itself to the overall purpose of introducing Christ and the church as the only means of salvation.  Since the prophesies came not but as the spirit of God moved man to speak, they are not subject to private interpretations.  Human beings cannot, by their own understanding ,fathom the depth of such statements but when New Testament writers and speakers say "this is that"  or "thus it is written and thus it has come to pass." , we have not a private interpretation, a surmise or a speculation but an accurate statement of the culmination of God's purposes.

         Ephesians 3:11 acquaints us  with  the fact that from the beginning of time God had the purpose that his manifold wisdom, grace and mercy should be made known to the world through the church.  Though variously styled in the New Testament, the prophecies more often speak of the church as the kingdom of God.  Do not be disturbed by the fact that the word kingdom is not synonymous with the word church, yet both are used to designate the same institution.

        Christ is not called the king of the church nor is he referred to as the head of the kingdom.  That would be a clashing of figures.  The reasoning is simple.  The wonderful relationship in which redemption is afforded is made possible only by the marvelous love of God as that love is demonstrated through Jesus Christ.  In Him the saved are organized and unite din one body.  He, Christ, is the head.  From the standpoint of the world it is composed of those who have followed the Saviour from the realms of darkness into the light of truth.  In government it is an absolute monarchy.  We are the citizens:  Christ is the king.  You cannot be a member of the church or a citizen of the kingdom without a knowledge of the laws which make you such.  In Matt. 28:19 jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature".  John 6:45 expresses it thus:    In Hebrews 8:11 we read, "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least unto the greatest".

        Now in our desire to comprehend God's plan of redemption we turn again to the study of the church in Old Testament prophecy.  We shall introduce our study by recounting and event which took place some 600 years before the lord Jesus Christ opened the door of prophecy and stepped upon the stage of action.

        It was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of one of the greatest kingdoms then in existence, the Babylonian or ancient Chaldean kingdom.  Nebuchadnezzar was a very vain and self esteemed man.  In his kingdom there were many marvelous treasures and he could boast of great and worthwhile achievements.  But our concern here is not with the matter of his greatness but with the fact that one night he saw a great and wonderful vision.  In those days god made his wishes know to man in divers portions and in divers manners.  hebrews 1:2.  So it was that he spoke to Nebuchadnezzar in a vision.  But, to the chagrin and complete unhappiness of the king, he discovered that he could not even remember what he had see, much less understand its meaning.  Accordingly, he called together his astrologers, fortunetellers and soothsayers and called upon them for an explanation.

        Under penalty of death they sought in vain to discover the vision and its message.  Reluctantly and as a last resort, they called upon Daniel, the Hebrew captive.  In unwavering confidence and with no apparent reserve, he boldly said to the king, "There is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets and he shall make known unto King nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.  Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these."  And he continued to describe in detail the very image that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his vision.

        "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.  This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron his feet part of iron and clay.  Thou sawest till 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.  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 threshing floor; 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.  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king."  Keep in mind now that by this image God was revealing to Nebuchadnezaar the things that would take place in the latter days.

        Daniel's explanation ran as follows:  "Thou, O 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:  forasmuch 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 potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch s 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 man:  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 heave 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 forever."

        Thus, according to Daniel's interpretation, the vision of  Nebuchadnezzar dream represented four world kingdoms.  he names the first and gives us the means by which we may discover the others.  The four kingdoms as history reveals them are that of Nebuchandnezzar or ancient Babylon, followed by the Medo-Persian kingdom under the kingship of Cyrus and Derias, the Grecian under alexander the great, and fourth, the roman kingdom under the Caesars.  A brief investigation of history proves the truth of Daniel's prophecy for these four great world kingdoms actually did appear in order.  We may then look for the establishment of the kingdom of God in the days of these kings or while the Roman emperors are still upon the throne.  But, it is argued that since Nebuchadnezzar's vision had ten toes there must be something in the development  to be represented by each little toe.  Someone has expressed a truism that is applicable here.  It would be an unheard of thing for intelligent people to pronounce a man dead and not to include his toes in the pronouncement.  So it is in this passage when the report was made that the image was crushed by a great stone that was cut out of the mountain.  The implication is that the toes were crushed as well.

        Accordingly, we seek for a more reasonable explanation.  Turning to the New Testament in Mark 1:14-15, we read that "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:  repent ye, and believe the gospel." When Jesus made this statement, some of his friends then did not believe it and some now imply that he did not know what he was talking about.  One outstanding feature of the kingdom of Daniel 2:44 appears in the expression, "It shall never be destroyed".  The same kingdom is described in Hebrews 12:28.  I read, "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  For our god is a consuming fire".  Daniel said that the kingdom of which he was a citizen could not be moved.  Tell me the difference if you can between a kingdom that is indestructible and one that is immovable?  Certainly we must conclude from these passages that the kingdom of which Daniel prophesied and the church of which Paul was a part had at least this one thing in common and when put with the other proofs that are offered we come to the unmistakable conclusion that the kingdom of Daniel 2:44 and the church for which Jesus died are one and the same institution.

        Now, retaining these matters in mind, let us notice another vision described nit eh 7th chapter of Daniel.  Daniel had a vision of his own.  He said in verse 12 and 14, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.  And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve him:  his dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."  Take another look at Daniel's vision.  He saw one identified as the ancient of days sitting upon a great throne.  One like the Son of man came into his presence.  In the first chapter of Acts we find full evidence that these things were fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.  When Jesus, according to previous arrangements, had met his disciples on the Mount of Olives and talked with them, they incurred saying, "Lord will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"  and he said  unto them, "It is not for you to  know the times of the seasons...And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight".   Now notice the beginning of the next chapter.  When the day of Pentecost was fully come and the apostles were all together with one accord in one place, the sound as of a rushing mighty wind filled all the house where they were sitting and the Holy Spirit came upon them.  A great multitude assembled and marveled that the Apostles were enabled to speak in tongues or languages before unknown to them.

        The Apostle Peter explained by saying, "This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel," this is that for which David hope when he said "the Lord will not leave my soul in hell neither will he suffer thine Holy One to see corruption".  In the 32nd verse of Acts 2, Peter further said, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.  For David is not ascended into the heavens:  but he saith himself.  The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right, until I make thy foes thy footstool".  Listen:  "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ".  In matchless splendor and glory the Lord Jesus Christ ascended from the earth in the clouds of heaven to be brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days.  No wonder that DAvid, the psalmist of Israel, should break forth in his prophetic psalm to sing, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors and let the king of glory come in". Ps. 24:7-9.

        There are certain New Testament passages which will enable us to see the intricate workings of the great plan of God in developing these details.  The incidents recorded in the 3rd chapter of Matthew which, of course, preceded the incidents of Pentecost, tell us that John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Again, recalling Mark 1:15, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel",  Matt. 10:7 relates that the twelve preached "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."  In Luke 10:9, the seventy went out to preach "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you".  The disciples were taught to pray for the kingdom "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come".  Jesus declared in Matt. 16:18, "Upon this rock I will build my church".  In Mark 9:1 he said, "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power".  These passages teach us many interesting things concerning the kingdom.  First, the "will build" in Matt 16:18 indicates that the church was yet future.  The disciples were not in the kingdom by reason of the fact that it had not yet been established.  Second, they teach us that the kingdom which was expected should appear in the lifetime of the disciples.  Third, that it should come with power and the church and the kingdom are one and the same thing.  These scriptural predictions were fulfilled in the things which transpired on Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.

        After Pentecost the church or kingdom was spoken of as an existing institution.  In the Revelation letter, chapter 1, verse 9, John spoke of himself as "...your brother...in the kingdom...of Jesus Christ..."  Paul wrote that men might know how to behave themselves in the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.  I Tim. 3:15  folks were added to the church (Acts 2:47), translated into the kingdom (Col. 1:13).  These statements could never have been made had the church not then been in existence.

        Again the time and place of beginning are detailed in the following passages.  First, turn with me to the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, the 3rd verse.  Isaiah said that out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  Luke 24:47,
Jesus said "Thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:  and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."   The Lord said to his disciples, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high".  Luke 24:49.  They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  There they waited until the spirit came upon them to guide them into the marvelous propagation of truth.  The church of which Jesus died, the kingdom that had been prophesied in the Old Testament, is not a reality and people are invited to unite their minds, heart, interests and influence in building up this mighty army of the Lord that salvation and enternal life may be universally enjoyed.