So according to Peter, we are living in the last days that must have started with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The question we must ask ourselves is what did or does God intend to be the future history of the earth? I personally believe it was explained to Daniel, and many of us have read it and overlooked the simple meaning of the passage. We find Daniel explained it in Chapter 2 where he interpreted the dream of the king.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that bothered him greatly. The problem was that when he woke up he couldn’t remember what the dream was about. He called all his wise men together and asked them to tell him what the dream was and what it meant. His wise men asked him to tell them the dream and they would explain its meaning. Not wanting to be embarrassed, the king wouldn’t admit he couldn’t remember the dream so he said, “If you are truly wise men, you will be able to tell me the dream and its meaning”, but they could not do it. “Off with their heads”, the king demanded. But Daniel asked for a little time to provide the king with an answer.
After praying with his friends, Daniel went to the king and explained the dream. The dream was about a magnificent statute the king saw in his dream; its head was gold representing the Babylonian kingdom, the chest and arms were silver representing the Persian empire, the belly and thighs were of bronze representing the Greek empire, and the legs and feet were a mixture of iron and clay representing the Roman empire. Each kingdom would come to an end with the Roman empire being overcome by a giant rock carved out of a mountain supernaturally.
“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.” Dan 2:44-45 (NLT).
When Jesus came, His message was “the Kingdom of God is at hand”. God’s plan was to conquer all the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the first thousand or so years, the church progressed and spread the gospel around the world, but, since men are naturally sinners, other things took the place of God’s agenda and corruption entered the church. I think God is still waiting for His church to forget about their own agenda, to get on their knees, and intercede for the people of this world. The Bible tells us there will be people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation in God’s kingdom. The big question is God’s agenda our agenda? When was the last time you saw a church set aside time for church members to pray for the world? When was the last time you and I prayed with burdened hearts for the salvation of those without Christ?