A clear prophecy of the Catholic Church in the Old Testament?

I had this post as a guest post on another blog that was shut down, so I will just repost it here:

Daniel 2 contains a fascinating prophecy which speaks of God’s plan to set up a Kingdom upon earth that is not of human origin and will come to cover the whole earth. Christians as far back as the Early Church Fathers have interpreted this prophecy as referring to the Catholic Church being established by Christ, expanding all over the world, and lasting forever. After reflecting upon the prophecy, I see no other plausible interpretation. Let me explain my thoughts.

Back at the Babylonian Exile, God caused the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar to have a mysterious dream which only the Prophet Daniel could explain. In verses 2:31-45, Daniel interprets the dream in some pretty plain terms.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was of a large statue that was divided into Five Sections: the statue’s Head was made of Gold, the Chest was made of Silver, the Lower Torso was made of Bronze, the Legs were made of Iron, and the Feet were made of an Iron-Clay mix (2:31-33). Then he saw “a stone not cut by human hands” was hurled down from the sky and struck the statue at the Feet, reducing it to pieces, and this stone went on to become “a great mountain that filled the whole earth” (2:34-35).

That was the dream which Daniel was then given the task to explain.

Daniel begins by telling King Nebuchadnezzar that he and his Babylonian Empire are the Head made of Gold (2:37-38). Then Daniel says another Empire will arise, not as fancy as Gold (i.e. Silver), and this second Empire will take over and become the new world super power. After that, a third Empire, the Kingdom of Bronze will succeed the Kingdom of Silver. This third Empire will be succeeded by a Kingdom of Iron, followed lastly by a Kingdom of Iron-Clay, which signifies “a divided kingdom” (2:41), partly strong and partly weak (2:42). And it will be in the time of this Iron-Clay divided Empire that God will set up His Kingdom which will never be destroyed, and in fact will shatter all kingdoms that stand in its way (2:43-45).

It really isn’t difficult to make a coherent interpretation of what Daniel is talking about. We know from the text that the sections of the Body represent a succession of world Empires and that the clock starts with the Babylonian Empire. We also know from other parts of the Bible as well as undisputed world history that the Persian Empire came in and replaced Babylon, and after that Alexander the Great came in and replaced the Persian Empire with his Greek Empire. The next big Empire to immediately come along was the Roman Empire, which we all know was the big dog at the time of Christ. As the Roman Empire began to erode, it eventually broke into two Empires, an Eastern (Byzantine) and a Western (Latin), starting around the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. It was about this time that Christianity began making huge growth in the public sphere such that we see Christianity as a force to be reckoned with among the pagan remnants. And as we know, Christianity ended up long outlasting the Roman Empire(s) and that Christianity grew and grew to spread all over the world.

For apologetics purposes, we should note that the only “candidate” that fits this prophecy/interpretation is the Catholic Church. We see how the Catholic Church was around at this time and that this is the time when the Catholic Church began to grow in influence. There is no Protestant denomination that really fits as even a possible candidate. No Protestant denomination was around at the time frame of AD300-400, and Protestantism usually explains the Reformation was necessary because the Gospel started to become more and more lost over the centuries as Catholicism grew — despite the fact this Prophecy says these “dark ages” were going to be the time when the Church really begins to spread its wings!

The only ways I see a Protestant not being indicted by this Prophecy is to try and claim a different timeline or different Empires, but this is too tall of an order to fill. For example, what succession of Empires comes close to fitting the Five that were just mentioned? And the way the timeline goes, if you start the Kingdom of God too late down the centuries, e.g. starting at the time of the Reformation, then you have to both explain away the influence of Christianity during the “dark ages” of AD400-1400, as well as explain which Protestant denomination really comes close to modeling an united heavenly Kingdom that spreads all over the world. For those Protestants who say the Church went underground all this time, that certainly doesn’t fit the description that this Kingdom would be like a huge mountain that covers the earth, an image impossible for anyone to not see!

In conclusion, any attempts to get around the plain, straightforward traditional Catholic interpretation will cause more problems than it solves, leaving the Catholic Church as the most obvious candidate of this Scriptural Prophecy.

***

END NOTE: The above apologetic also works very effectively against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who officially teach the same succession as the above, but they say the Iron-Clay Empire represents the British-American Empire, which is when the Watchtower comes on the scene. This interpretation suffers from the flaw of leaving a 1500 year gap between the last two Empires, conveniently side-stepping the disastrous implications to JW theology. To add to this, the JW interpretation has never produced a Church that fits the description of one which will cover the whole world, putting them in a similar dilemma to any given Protestant denomination.

I firmly believe this is an awesome and effective apologetics argument to use against Evangelicals.

--------------------------------------

Update 11-19-14: I have found online an article called “Interpretations of the Kingdom of God in Daneil 2:44” by Gerhard Pfandl (1996). He gives a good summary of the patristic data. The following Patristic sources he cites I was able to find online and verify the quotes:

Irenaeus– Against Heresies, Book 5, Ch 26 – Identifies the Fourth Kingdom as “the empire which now rules,” which means Rome, and he speaks of Rome about to be partitioned while linking this to the Iron-Clay Feet. Irenaeus also says in this same section, “Christ is the stone which is cut out without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just.” Irenaeus apparently thought Christ’s Return was immanent.

Hippolytus – Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, Section 28 – Explicitly identifies the Four Kingdoms to Babylon, Medes, Greeks, and Romans. Unclear on the Feet, but says it comes next and ushers in the Antichrist. He says the stone is Christ.

Cyril of Jerusalem – Catechetical Lecture 15.13 – Explicitly identifies the Four Kingdoms to Babylon, Medes, Greeks, and Romans, saying this understanding “has been the tradition of the Church’s interpreters.”

Jerome – Commentary on Daniel – Explicitly identifies the Four Kingdoms as Babylon, Medes, Greeks, and Romans. Commenting on verse 2:40, Jerome says: “Now the fourth empire, which clearly refers to the Romans, is the iron empire which breaks in pieces and overcomes all others. But its feet and toes are partly of iron and partly of earthenware, a fact most clearly demonstrated at the present time. For just as there was at the first nothing stronger or hardier than the Roman realm, so also in these last days there is nothing more feeble, since we require the assistance of barbarian tribes both in our civil wars and against foreign nations. However, at the final period of all these empires of gold and silver and bronze and iron, a rock (namely, the Lord and Savior) was cut off without hands, that is, without copulation or human seed and by birth from a virgin’s womb; and after all the empires had been crushed, He became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Here, Jerome explicitly identifies the Feet as “the present time,” meaning his current lifetime during the dissolution of the Western half of the Empire, being overrun by barbarians and civil strife.

Though not available online, the article cites sources from Origen, Eusebius, and Chrysostom, stating they identified the Fourth Empire as Rome. The article even quotes Luther’s commentary on Daniel, where Luther says ‘everyone agrees’ on the ‘traditional’ identification of the Four Kingdoms and that ‘history proves it conclusively’. (I didn’t verify this Luther quote, but I don’t doubt it.) Unfortunately, there isn’t much said about the Feet, but that’s probably because these Fathers saw themselves in the Iron Kingdom, and thus only those like Jerome had the advantage of seeing Rome partitioned.

There is strong consensus in the Fathers that the “stone not cut by human hands” refers to the Incarnation in the womb of Mary, without having a human father. The article claims that this doesn’t necessarily mean the Kingdom refers to the Church, only to Christ, and that it wasn’t really until Augustine that identifying the Kingdom with the Catholic Church became common. Here are two good quotes from Augustine I found:

Augustine – Homilies on John, Tractate 4 – For He was as yet a small stone, already indeed cut out of the mountain without hands; as saith Daniel the prophet, that he saw a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. But what follows? “And that stone,” saith he “grew and became a great mountain and filled the whole face of the earth.” Mark then, my beloved brethren, what I say: Christ, before the Jews, was already cut out from the mountain. The prophet wishes that by the mountain should be understood the Jewish kingdom. But the kingdom of the Jews had not filled the whole face of the earth. The stone was cut out from thence, because from thence was the Lord born on His advent among men. And wherefore without hands? Because without the cooperation of man did the Virgin bear Christ. Now then was that stone cut out without hands before the eyes of the Jews; but it was humble. Not without reason; because not yet had that stone increased and filled the whole earth: that He showed in His kingdom, which is the Church, with which He has filled the whole face of the earth.

Augustine – Reply to Petilian, Ch38 – Here you have the origin of the name ‘Catholic’. But you are so bent upon running with your eyes shut against the mountain which grew out of a small stone, according to the prophecy of Daniel, and filled the whole earth, that you actually tell us that we have gone aside into a part, and are not in the whole among those whose communion is spread throughout the whole earth.

Here it is clear that Augustine is not denying Christ is the stone, but that the Kingdom is Christ’s Body, the Church, spreading all over the world. It is somewhat understandable that the Fathers prior to this didn’t speak much about the Church dominating the world, because the Roman Empire would still be in full power for the next few centuries. Without living through all that, it seems most saw the end of the Roman Empire as the end of the world, ushering in the Second Coming.

Francis De Sales (Catholic Controversy, Book 1, Chapter 2) is another quote I found, and even though he’s not a Church Father, he’s still a Doctor of the Church:

And they [Protestant ecclesiology] are entirely contrary to it if we believe Daniel’s interpretation (Dan. ii); for Nabuchodonosor saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands which went rolling till it overthrew the great statue, and so increased that having become a mountain it filled the whole earth: this Daniel understood of the Kingdom of Our Lord, which shall last for ever. If it be as a mountain, and a mountain so large as to fill the whole earth, how shall it be invisible or secret? And if it last for ever, how shall it have failed a thousand years? And it is certainly of the Kingdom of the Church militant that this passage is to be understood; for that of the triumphant will fill heaven, not earth only, and will not arise during the time of the other Kingdoms, as Daniel’s interpretation says, but after the consummation of the world. Add to this that to be cut from the mountain without hands, belongs to the temporal generation of Our Lord, according to which he has been conceived in the womb of the Virgin, and engendered of her own substance without work of man, by the sole benediction of the Holy Ghost. Either then Daniel has badly prophesied, or the adversaries of the Catholic Church have done so when they have said the Church was invisible, hidden and destroyed.

IN CONCLUSION: The identification with Rome as the Iron Legs seems most certain. The identification of the Iron-Clay Feet is not talked about much other than Fathers saying it comes after Rome and thus Partitioned Rome is to be understood (as Jerome, living at the time of Partition, makes clear). The identification of the Stone not cut by hands as referring to Jesus being conceived without a human father is also widely attested to, but little detail beyond that, e.g. how this Stone ‘grows to cover the whole world’. If the Fathers were expecting the end of the world after the Feet, then it makes sense they didn’t see the Church Militant as having enough time to cover the world, though Augustine did come to the right conclusions (which became the accepted Catholic view as time went on).