n Daniel's awesome prophecy of the four ancient kingdoms of antiquity as seen in Nebuchadnezzar's famous dream of a great statue, we find one of the most  powerful truths in all of prophetic Scripture. Daniel's second chapter predicts the four great kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. 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 part of 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." - Daniel 2:31-34

Most who have studied prophecy to a minimal degree know the golden head represented the kingdom of Babylon, and the silver arms the Persian Union consisting of the Medes and the Persians. The brass is emblematic of Alexander the Great's Grecian power, and the iron demonstrates the might of ancient Rome. However, it is the feet of clay and iron that presents us with one of the most profound truths in all of Scripture, and the Antichrist Church has successfully obscured this astonishing revelation for all but the true Remnant believers.

The Iron And The Clay

When Daniel interprets this passage for Nebuchadnezzar, he subtly adds a crucial word that is often missed in the verses cited above. Daniel tells the great king

"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." - Daniel 2:41

 Those familiar with Old Testament prophecy recognize this is a key characteristic of the identity of Israel. For example, the prophet Isaiah writes

"But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." - Isaiah 64:8

 This is a much deeper truth than most realize, for it plainly establishes the lineage of God as "our father" - assuming we are the clay that is being described by Isaiah.

 The LORD uses the picture of pottery to describe His handiwork in a number of other verses as well, and the Old Covenant creation of the physical line of Israel is seen in Jeremiah when God tells him

"Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." - Jeremiah 18:1-4

 In this astonishing prophecy, we see the Old Covenant line of Israel is pictured as the vessel that is "marred," even as the LORD chooses to re-create a second version of the same vessel. Notice how in the verse, referring to the antecedent object the clay, God made it again into another vessel. That second vessel is the culmination of God's numerous promises to preserve and renew a remnant of the house of Israel.

The Kingdom Of God Arrives In Roman Times

 Back in Daniel's far-reaching prediction, the prophet specifically pinpoints the arrival of the Kingdom of God, for he informs us it is to occur "in the days of these kings..." (Daniel 2:44).  Although the Spirit of Antichrist has obscured the magnificent truth in these wonderful passages, and sought to push the arrival of the Kingdom of God forward 2,000 years to the time of the second coming, a close look at the Scripture reveals the Kingdom of God arrives in the time of Jesus Christ's first incarnation:

"And in the days of these kings [Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed...." - Daniel 2:44

The arrival of the Kingdom of God occurs at the same time the New Testament tells us the LORD "translates" those who will receive Him, as He re-creates us into His sons and daughters. Notice how the Apostle Paul uses the past tense when he describes how God

"...hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." - Colossians 1:13

One is tempted to ask how, if the kingdom of God only arrives in the last days, Paul can say that God has already "translated" us into His kingdom? The truth is, the Kingdom of God has already arrived on the Spiritual plane of existence where the LORD reigns, and we have been adopted as the "seed" of God through our joining with Christ.

The Mingling

Most believers know the Roman Empire is significant in prophecy, but as the early disciples of Jesus spread the Good News of salvation to the whole world,  the movement morphed into the Roman Catholic Church - and the clay sought to join with the iron:

"They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." - Daniel 2:43

This wasn't the first time such a "mingling" had been attempted by the LORD's "clay," for the post Babylonian exile Jews had also fallen to the allure of the world in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. When Ezra sought to sanctify the second temple after the Jews were released by the Persian throne, he learned that most of the leadership of Jerusalem had turned from their sacred destiny and joined with the sons and daughters of men:

"...The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands...For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass." - Ezra 9:2

This is a crucial passage, for it plainly identifies the "holy seed" as Israel. The reason this is so important is it links the Spiritual seed of God, which can only be the Christians, with the attempt during the early Roman Christian era to "mingle themselves with the seed of men..." (Daniel 2:43).

A correct understanding of this lineage is absolutely non-negotiable, for when we are adopted into the kingdom of God, it is Jesus Christ who is the only "seed" of God, and He is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and David that the "seed" will inherit the kingdom. The promise to Abraham, routinely misapplied by the Antichrist Church to the physical seed of the Jews, is the "mother of all promises," in that it contains the key promise of God's eternal blessing. God solemnly promised to Abraham

"I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." - Genesis 17:7

The New Testament flatly tells us the only true seed of Abraham is Christ Himself, and unless one is in Him, they cannot be the holy seed:

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." - Galatians 3:16

The truth is staring us in the face. Because Jeremiah linked the metaphor of the "potter's clay" to Israel in the Old Testament, and Ezra linked the term the "holy seed" to Israel in the Old Testament, when the New Testament applies both of those terms to the Christians, it is obvious the Christians are Israel.

Remember, Jesus Christ told us there is to be "one fold [flock], and one shepherd"

(John 10:16), not two. Indeed, the attempt to re-insert physical Israel into the role of the "sons of God" and the "chosen people" based on different time periods, is completely Antichrist, for Paul tells us that through Christ, God

"...hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth...." - Acts 17:26

When physical Israel became "the vessel that he made of clay [that] was marred  in the hand of the potter" (Jeremiah 18:4), God purposed to re-create another vessel, but this second vessel did not replace the first, it was "born again" as the vessel of honour that inherited all the promises that God had made.

This was one of the many errors of Roman Catholicism. They accurately saw there can only be one body that is the "holy seed" as there is only one body of Christ, but in their successful attempt at "mingling with the iron," they demonstrated they were not the true "clay." Meanwhile, the Jews had already lost their standing as Paul taught us

"he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly...but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly...." - Romans 2:29

In this way, God was able to fulfill His promises to redeem Israel, and to set up a kingdom which shall never end, for as we've just seen, His kingdom arrived "in the days of these kings" (Daniel 2:44). With this amazing act, God was also able to retain His requirement that "the children of the promise are counted for the seed," because that seed is Christ (Romans 9:8, Galatians 3:16). Furthermore, because physical Israel is no longer "counted for the seed," they have been transformed into "the seed of men," even as God has "translated" all who are in Christ into "the sons of God."

This means that those who seek to mingle "the holy seed" with "the seed of men" are those who continue to seek to wed the kingdom of God with the earthly dominion of the Jews and the Romans (or any other political dominion) as expressed in the image of the iron and the clay. This was the mistake of Roman Catholicism, and it is the same mistake being made today by those who continue to separate the so-called "church" from Israel.

There are not two "churches," but there are two Israels:

"For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the [physical] seed of Abraham, are they all children...they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." - Romans 9:6-8

Thus, there are two clay vessels, one is marred, and one is not. All who are not truly in Christ have "mingled themselves with the seed of men." Indeed, one might note how the so-called "church," as personified by the False Prophet of Revelation 13, seeks to conform its image to the first beast (think Israel), whose deadly wound was healed in 1948. But that's another study.....

- James Lloyd

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See Also

The Mingling

The Remnant In Romans

The Translation Of Israel