Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
a sermon by Rev. Michael Gladish
Dawson Creek, BC, February 3rd, 2008
"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. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 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; and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great rock and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:31-35).
In the verses following the description of this vivid dream the prophet, Daniel, tells King Nebuchadnezzar that it is all about "kingdoms" on the earth - essentially his own kingdom, followed by a succession of kingdoms until the great stone crushed them all and "filled the earth," representing yet another kingdom that would last, finally, forever.
The teachings of the New Church, however, assure us that nothing in the Lord's Word is really about earthly kingdoms, rather it is all about the spiritual kingdoms of heaven and the church.
Thus the succession of states represented by the gold, silver, bronze and iron of which the great image was made are said to refer to four great spiritual eras or dispensations in the history of the human race. In brief these are: -
-
The Most Ancient Church, in which people enjoyed a relatively pure love of the Lord, often called celestial love in the doctrines;
- The Ancient Church, in which people focussed more on charity toward the neighbour, drawing especially on their knowledge and thought about the truths of faith. This is often called a spiritual church in contrast to the celestial;
- The Jewish Church, in which people focussed on natural good, that is, on the blessings of natural life apart from any deeper thought or understanding about spiritual things;
- And finally the Christian Church, especially as it has come to be in all its formal creeds, teaching the literal sense of the Word and salvation by faith in that Word apart from works.
In general gold stands for the good of love, silver for the truth of faith, bronze for natural good, and iron for the natural or literal truth of the Word. So the idea here is that the history of religion on the earth progressed (or rather, digressed) from an original state of pure love to a lesser state of intellectual interest, then to merely natural good, and finally to a merely natural or literal idea of truth, apart from good. At that point there was so little of genuine spirituality left in the church that it could barely hold itself together. Indeed, the iron of truth was mixed then with the "miry clay" of worldly and self-centred loves, corrupting everything. At that point a judgment had to be made, and this is represented by the stone of pure truth, uncut by human hands, striking the image at its feet, crushing and consuming everything and growing until it became a great rock, filling the earth.
Again, the first people were very primitive, and really had little or no interest in the development of systematic knowledge. They lived in an innocent, perceptive state, even communicating openly with people in the spirit world. But because their lives were ruled by their loves, when they fell into self-love and love of the world they had no conscience to bring them back into order, and so their civilization was wiped out. True, there are primitive cultures in the world today that seem to reflect this simple way of life, but they are elusive and usually include unfortunate perversions.
Generally speaking they were replaced by religious cultures based on intellectual development. History records countless civilizations pre-occupied with myths and symbols and the knowledge of spiritual things, often codified in laws and rituals and exotic architecture - as in ancient Greece or Egypt, Mexico and Peru. But as their attention focussed more and more on external things the true knowledge and understanding of spiritual things was lost.
So the Lord established a new religion with Abraham adapted to that very external state. This of course was the Jewish religion, which, when you think about it, is ALL about obedience. Of course there are many strands of Jewish thought that emphasize moral and spiritual virtues, but the essential teaching is about living well. Blessed if you do, cursed if you don't. That's it. And this can be a very positive thing, except that it is easy to see how the quality of internal, spiritual life might suffer.
Interestingly, the Jews recorded the history of their own decline through the books of the kings and prophets, always looking toward the coming of a Messiah who would turn things around for them. Now we know that this was the Lord Jesus Christ, but of course the Jews never accepted Him. And here's where it gets especially interesting.
The fourth era or dispensation described in the vision was that of the Christian Church. But in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, even this was destroyed. Why? Well, despite all the good ideas and good works of its members through the ages the fact is that the traditional Christian Church today is founded on the universal principle that faith alone, apart from works, is what brings salvation, the merit of Jesus Christ Himself being transferred to us if we just "believe" in Him. This is true in all cases, so whatever the denomination, ultimately it's doctrine is based on conviction (or faith) apart from life, but since we cannot separate faith from life, if we do not shun evils as sins against the Lord the truth inevitably will be mingled with the corrupt life of our self-centred loves, like iron mixed with clay. And in this there is no strength or coherence.
The rock, of course, is the Lord - in particular the truths of faith that He teaches. Remember, "Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matt. 7:24). For a while the early Christian Church did follow the teachings of the Lord with zeal and integrity. But within a few years the Gospel began to be corrupted by doctrines and interpretations that completely undermined His work. Eventually then a new revelation had to be provided which would restore and clarify the essential points while shedding new light on the whole Word. We believe the doctrines of the New Church are this new revelation and that they constitute the Second Coming of the Lord. Note therefore, they are not given to replace anything that He said at His first coming but rather to explain and strengthen it so that the stone seen in the dream can and will grow to become a great rock. It is the same stone, a true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the more it is known and understood the bigger, stronger, and more powerful it will grow in dispelling the falsities that weakened and still corrupt the first Christian Church.
Now of course other Christians believe in the Lord, but He is identified as the Son of God who came into the world to offer His life as a sacrificial atonement for the sins of the human race. Atonement to whom? Why, God the Father, of course. Thus there are two Divine beings, not just one. And since His sacrifice atones for our sins there is no need for us to do anything, indeed it would be arrogant of us to presume that we could do anything to contribute to our own salvation. There is therefore no need to learn or understand anything, no need to examine our inner thoughts or motives, no need to change our ways of life. In fact we have no responsibility for anything except to "believe" that Christ died for us.
In contrast the New Church teaches that God the Father clothed Himself in a body of flesh - which is why we call it "the incarnation" - and so presented Himself in a visible, tangible form so that He could inspire and teach more directly than ever before, so that we can take responsibility and live according to His Word. The difference is so great that we read in the book, "A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church," published in 1769, that "The faith of the New Church cannot by any means be together with the faith of the former church, and if they are together such a collision and conflict will take place that everything of the church with man will perish" (#102). "The reason... is because they do not agree together in one third, no, nor even in one tenth part" (#103; for details see also TCR #647).
This is why the rock striking the feet of the image broke the whole thing to bits that were then blown away like chaff in the summer wind. The New Church does not destroy the essential Christian faith, it establishes it, in clear contrast to the incoherent mix of truth and falsity that passes for Christianity today. It also provides what none of the former churches or religious cultures in the world could provide, that is, a comprehensive picture of the Lord in His Divine Humanity, including how He works - in the Word, in the events of history, and in our daily spiritual lives so that we can receive and enjoy His blessings with our whole heart and intellectual mind.
As Daniel said, "This is the dream.... The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure" (vv 36 & 45). But wait. In his interpretation Daniel plainly said that the head of the statue - the golden head - was Nebuchadnezzar. But Nebuchadnezzar was never in the innocent celestial love of the Lord! Indeed, he was the chief representative of Babylon, described in Revelation as a great whore, corrupting the church. And further dreams and incidents in Daniel's prophecy clearly reveal the downfall of Nebuchadnezzar's empire, mainly on account of his arrogance and self-love. So which is the head of gold - love to the Lord or self-love? And what is the image as a whole - a series of churches or one church consisting of perverted elements from all the religions of the ancient world?
The one thing that is crystal clear is that the stone represents a true faith in the Lord, a faith that includes charity as a way of life, which includes the responsibility to shun our evils as sins against Him not to mention the joy and freedom of feeling His love in the effort to do so.
With respect to the image that was smashed to pieces and "blown away," of course this cannot represent the four church eras or dispensations in their integrity. Rather it clearly represents them as they were all perverted by the love of self and the world represented by Babylon. And here alone is a long story, for we read in the teachings for the New Church that every church declines and falls because of the corruption that begins with the loves of self and the world. In short, every church starts out with some level of integrity, whether in simple love to the Lord, intellectual faith in what He teaches, natural goodness or the natural truths - the literal teachings - of His Word, and then they all get sidetracked by the concerns of the world including external things like personal comfort, the accumulation of wealth, social justice, politics, the environment and even the health and welfare of the church itself as a natural organization. There is nothing wrong with any of this stuff, but simply put, none of it matters anywhere near as much as our personal, spiritual relationship with the Lord. So the very minute our natural or material concerns begin to interfere with our connection to the Lord, whether it is a connection through simple, innocent love, through delight in His wisdom, through the natural good of service for His sake, or through faith in His written Word, Babylon begins to rule, and we find ourselves standing on feet of iron mixed with clay.
In short, this whole vision applies to each of us in a very personal way.
And following through, two things remain. What is that Rock in our lives, and what is "the earth" that it will grow to fill?
Many preachers for many years have inferred from this vision that the New Church as an institution will actually spread throughout the world. But if we take this part literally, we must also take the rest of the story literally. Or to put it other way around, if the rock corresponds to our faith in the Lord, the earth also corresponds to something higher; you can't have it both ways, that is, one spiritual interpretation and the other literal in the same sentence! What, then, is "the earth"?
Quite simply, it is the church, specifically the New Christian Church that will be established and built entirely out of the strong, solid faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of all creation represented by that rock. In fact, this is the same rock that Jesus mentioned when He spoke to Peter, referring to his confession of faith, saying "...upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18). It is not an organization; it is not a corporation; it is not a building or even a group unless the Lord is its main focus.
Yes, the New Church will endure forever. And yes, it will be "the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth" (TCR 787), but will it literally fill the earth? Who knows? That is not the point of the dream! The point is that the earth itself, the true church however you define it, will be "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9, Hab. 2:14, cf. Ps 72:19, etc.). This knowledge, this faith, this rock will define the church and make it. And where this faith does not exist there will be no church. It will all be blown away.
And so it is for us individually. Fortunately for us the revelation for the New Church offers everything we need for a full understanding of the Lord, a deep appreciation of the spiritual realities of our lives, and a clear plan or method for taking the responsibility to co-operate with Him. All we have to do is invest ourselves in that plan. So we can be blessed with everything we need to grow in a mature, intelligent spiritual faith that will replace and supercede any other faith we may have experienced in our lives, for this faith is represented by the stone that grew and became a great rock, and filled the whole earth.
Amen.
Lessons: Daniel 2: an introduction and vv. 26-45; Revelation 17:18 and 18:1-8
and Arcana Caelestia 3021:8 (see also AC 10030:2-6)
