“I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man [Jesus], coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days [God the Father], and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14.

Again, as in other posts verse 13 has been added here to help maintain the context. The incident portrayed above comes directly after the courtroom scene wherein the Ancient of Days (God the Father) has pronounced judgment upon the beast/Antichrist, see Daniel 7:8-11.

Now let us look at verse fourteen separately so we can examine its meaning more closely.

“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:14.

At first giving dominion, glory, and a kingdom to the Lord Jesus Christ appears to be a mere formality since He already stated after His resurrection that He had all authority in heaven and on earth.

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18b-20.

The statement in Matthew 28 though is the great commission given to the disciples and to all Christians. So in that case the Christian is a representative of Christ on earth.

Still, Jesus Christ even now rules in the affairs of men though He is not seen by them. Yet Christ is seen in the world in the form of the Christian and His rule is seen in part through Christian obedience to Him.

However, at the end of the age when all rebellion is put down on earth Christ will rule the world visibly as an absolute ruler. It is for this reason that Jesus Christ is ceremonially given the kingdom in this fashion.

“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.” Daniel 7:14a.

This is something that God the Father has set in His heart, and nothing in all creation is going to change that.

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ 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.’” Psalm 2:1-6.

The four empires shown in Daniel 7:1-11 are the same as those in Daniel chapter 2, the only difference being that the beasts in seven are represented as parts of a statue of a man in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

In his dream, the statue had a head of gold, representing the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar himself, its chest and arms were silver, which was the Medes and the Persians, the belly and thighs were of bronze, meaning the Greeks.

The legs, being different from all the others were of iron, with feet partly of iron and of clay. This gives us a picture of the strength of the Roman Empire and the weaknesses of the coming revived Roman Empire.

But it is the ending of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that is the most exciting.

“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.

“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold – the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.” Daniel 2:44-45.

I can think of no words as final as these when it comes to describing the end of the rule of sinful men upon this earth. These governments and particularly Antichrist’s government were absolutely destroyed.

“…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 2:35b.

“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.” Daniel 7:14a.

After the end of the battle of Armageddon Christ will set up His kingdom which will last for a thousand years. Matthew 25:31-46 describes how this will begin.

There will be many who did not participate in the last battle against the Christ for one reason or another, and many who survived the tribulation both saved and unsaved. It is all of these survivors that are shown in the judgment scene below.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…’” Matthew 25:31-34.

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’” Matthew 25:41.

The King goes on to describe to each group the good things that the righteous did for Him, and all of the good things that those who rejected Him did not do. Please read Matthew 25:31-46 to get the whole picture.

The sheep to the right of the King enter the millennial kingdom and participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb and His wife, the church.

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called [as guests] to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” Revelation 19:7-9a.

“For I [Apostle Paul] am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2.

Christ’s kingdom will last for a thousand years; those who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and survive the tribulation will enter His kingdom along with the resurrected believers who died during the tribulation. See Matthew 25:31-34 quoted earlier, and
Revelation 20:4 quoted below.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.

Time’s Epoch, Part A taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-23-16, updated on 7-24-21.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.