“a stone was cut out by no human hand”
Amillennialism has been the mainstream view for most of church history. It teaches that the church will win the world for Christ, and when He returns, the church will present all to His footstool. The popularity of the view declined after World War One. As people asked, How can the Christian people bring about a world worthy of presenting to Christ? When the Christian nations had just slaughtered each other on the open fields of Europe.
The term Amillennialism (i.e., no-millennialism) is a pejorative. The adherents to this view prefer nunc-millennialism (i.e., now-millennialism) or realized-millennialism. If you are interested in more of their teaching on the Amillennial position, surprisingly there is a very fine summation on Wikipeadea.
We are Premillennialists. But we feel that some notions originating with the Amillennialists and Postmillennialists should at least be considered. In this post, we are going to look at one man’s Amillennialist view regarding “the stone not cut by human hands” from Daniel Chapter 2.
As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces; Dan. 2:34
The three positions, Amillennialism, Postmillennialism, and Premillennialism, all come down to how literally one takes 3 verses. (See Also: Hermeneutics)
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while. Rev. 20:1-3
Laurel’s Memory
When I went to Bible College some 50 years ago now, I read an Amillennialist book on prophecy. I do not remember the name of the book or the author. At the time, I was sure of my own Premillennialism, and still am. I still feel that this man’s hypothesis was unrealistic. For the same reason, everyone else has questioned this thinking. After World War One, everyone else noticed that the Church universal is incapable of bringing all things under Christ’s feet. However, in consideration of current events, I am considering. Regardless, I still feel that the veracity of the premillennial position is our preferred Position. But. . .
The Prophesy of Daniel 2
When Daniel explained the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image made of four metals, he gave us a map of history in the very symbolic language of the Biblical prophets. The head of gold represented Babylon. Media-Persia was represented by the chest and arms of silver. The belly and thighs of bronze represented Greece. The legs represented Rome, and the feet of iron and clay represented Rome corrupted by the Roman Church.
34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces; 35 then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Dan 2:34-35
FYI: Ten Nations of Western Europe
All the Nations of the Former Imperial Powers
Amillennialist view of The Stone
Most theologians hold that the stone is Messiah himself, and they cite all the rock/stone passages there are to back their assertion up.[Ps 18:2; Is 28:16; Mat 21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20] But, and this part has stuck in my mind all these years, is that according to this man, the stone is an altar stone, and he had all the verses for the stones representing servants.[Mat 7:24; Luke 6:48; 1Cor 3:11; Col 2:7; Heb 11:10; Rev. 21:14] [God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Matt. 3:7-9 c.f. Luke 3:7-9; Rom 3:29; 4:9-16; 9:7-24; Gal 3:6-8; Eph 3:6] He asserted that “the stone not cut with human hands” was the USA. At the time, I wrote this off as an ego-centric interpretation. That invalid idea that we/I are great, we/I are important, so we/I must be in the prophecy. However, I found his reasoning reasonable at the time, and it has been floating around in my head ever since.
Unhewn Stones
And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you wield your tool upon it you profane it. Ex. 20:25
The stone is not cut by human hands, just as the altar stones. The USA is not like any other nation. We were born of a good idea, “No king but Jesus” and “One Nation under God.” Most nations are made of related tribes, connected by language and culture. The USA is made of peoples from everywhere. We chose our common language, and we absorb other cultures, taking what we like and forgetting what we don’t like. The USA is not a perfectly Christian nation. There are sinners a plenty. But we do seem to be grinding the nations represented by the “image of man” dream.
We shall watch.