Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
READ Daniel 2:1-6
What is the “catch” for the magicians and wise men of
Babylon in interpreting the King’s dream?
He will not tell them the
dream but says it is “gone” from him.
They must have the original dream
AND the interpretation revealed to them.
READ Daniel 2:9-11
What else has been bothering the king?
This is a set up – the king is
suspecting that he has been the victim of fraud in the past.
What is implied by the king’s logic – “if you can tell
me the dream… I shall know that you can show me the interpretation”?
They cannot use their own
intellect.
They MUST connect through the
veil to something – God or angel or devil or spiritual entity.
The king believes in the
spirit world while the magicians do not.
Or at least the magicians do
not believe they can reliably and accurately connect through the veil to the
gods or unseen world – enough to get a very specific answer to this request: to
see the same dream and get the correct interpretation.
The king has likely NOT
forgotten the dream and is waiting to see if they will be able to reach into
the spiritual realm and bring back the truth.
What is implied by the statement “the gods, whose
dwelling is not with the flesh”?
There is a rigid division or
wall between mortality and the spirit world – it is not a veil which can be
parted.
The gods are not ministering
among them but are in their heavens.
The gods have given their
power unto men.
READ 2 Nephi 28:3-6
What is one of the signs of a Church that has been
corrupted?
They claim to be God’s own
Church.
But they teach their own
learning.
They deny the Holy Ghost and
power of God.
They say God has “done His
work” (God is not actively involved with the people in a way that they know Him
and know it is Him – He has left the earth).
They teach God has given His
power to men.
They teach people to
disbelieve in miracles or supernatural occurrences (because that will likely
contradict the will of the men to whom God has “given His power”; also while
God might have given His power to them, they never display that power in any
public way that could be measured or assessed with any certainty).
Why do they teach the people to doubt miracles and
“supernatural” occurrences?
Because the priestly
leadership is not receiving revelation or displaying spiritual gifts themselves
(i.e. Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men).
They become very threatened by
those that do (i.e. Daniel).
They usually say that the
person who is experiencing these things is “of the devil” – they try to
discredit them.
READ Daniel 2:15-18
Why did Daniel need time to receive revelation?
These experiences are real and
require faith and spiritual “labor” (i.e. “crying all the daylong” and into the
night like Enos or wrestling with an angel like Jacob).
READ Daniel 2:19, 23, 27-28
How did God reveal the dream and its interpretation to
Daniel?
In a “night vision” or a
vision at night.
How was this different than what had happened to the
King and why?
The king “dreamed a dream”
(v1).
Daniel had to have more sure
knowledge than a mere dream – he needed a vision and an interpretation, which
comes more reliably while awake (and from a true messenger) than in a dream.
READ Daniel 2:31-35
Why would the Lord give this dream to a heathen king?
He is no respecter of persons.
Giving a dream like this to
one of the most powerful people in the world is guaranteed to increase
visibility into the dream (and Daniel’s miraculous interpretation).
Why would the Lord not give the interpretation to the
king?
The Lord choses “revelators”
who “reveal” His will and knowledge.
These people must have
covenanted with Him; they must worship Him.
God wanted the king to have to
become a seeker after truth.
READ Daniel 2:36-43
What does the image represent?
Various kingdoms of the world
throughout time.
If the gold head represents Babylon, what kingdoms are
represented by the silver, brass, iron and clay?
Silver = Persian/Medes.
Brass = Greeks/Macedonia
(Alexander the Great).
Iron = Roman Empire.
Clay = European nations
(including the USA, according to Joseph Smith, see TPJS 123:2).
READ Daniel 2:44-45
What is the stone cut without hands?
The kingdom of God or Zion.
An incorruptible Gospel or
roadmap back to God with its enabling Atonement.
It is NOT a corruptible mortal
institution or Church – the Kingdom of God is God’s House or royal family that
He is hoping to reconstitute again upon the earth – it is a Kingdom because
Christ is its Lord and Father, and those who live there are His Sons and
Daughters.
What does “cut without hands” mean?
The Kingdom is not created or
led by men with “hands” to build things, but by God who commands with His voice
and waits to be obeyed.
The Lord “brings again Zion”
(see Isaiah 52:8) not man.
It is the heavenly angels that
bring men and women to Zion (see Moses 7:27).
Ultimately, it requires
becoming a Son or Daughter of God and receiving the testimony of Jesus (see
D&C 88:75) to live in Zion and be able to withstand its glory, which causes
fear among the mortal armies of the earth such that they won’t go up to fight
it because it is “terrible” or filled with heavenly glory that even they can
see with their mortal eyes (see D&C 45:70).
How does the Kingdom “break in pieces” the Kingdoms of
the World so there was “nowhere found them”?
The Lord will use the wicked
kingdoms of the world to destroy each other (see D&C 63:33).
The truth will destroy the kingdoms
and organizations that work in the dark and depend upon lies to engage their
people.
Angels will protect Zion but
they will not be attacking people (see D&C 45:70).
Ultimately, the Lord will
destroy the wicked at the Last Day when He comes in glory with the hosts of
heaven.
How can the truth destroy the kingdoms of this world?
When the world discovers the
truths that business leaders are hiding, their stock falls and their companies
are bankrupted or sold.
When free nations discover the
truth about its corrupt politicians, they become lame ducks or are impeached,
and their followers/parties suffer (i.e. Nixon, Clinton (both of them), Trump).
When the world discovered the
truth about the Soviet Union (it was bankrupt and built around a façade of power),
it fell.
Our world is built upon
falsehoods constructed carefully in the dark – when they are exposed in the
light of truth, people lose faith in them and turn away, and in the vacuum
other wicked people come and take advantage or destroy them.
What does the Kingdom “becoming a great mountain and
filling the whole earth” mean?
It is the complete removal of
all aspects of the culture, values, behaviors and influences of all of the
nations and empires the Lord names in the dream (including the USA, according
to Joseph Smith).
When Christ comes again, the
earth will be His to rule.
Mountain = temple symbolism =
house or palace or residence of the Lord, who is present on earth to reign
personally.
READ Daniel 2:48
Can the King make Daniel a “great man”?
Great in the eyes of the
world, perhaps, but Daniel has already shown that this kind of “greatness” is
fleeting at best.
The king cannot make Daniel
great – only God can make Him great or “perfect in Christ”.
Daniel’s Visions
READ Daniel 7:13-16
What is Daniel’s reaction to seeing in vision a
coronation ceremony of the Savior and Michael?
It is awe-inspiring.
It makes Daniel’s head spin.
He needs a guide to help him
comprehend what is going on.
This experience reminds me of
Joseph Smith’s experience in the Sacred Grove – but one can grow in the
capability to rend the veil and experience glory, as when Joseph and Sidney
Rigdon saw The Vision (D&C 76), Joseph was reported to be strong while
Sidney was as weak as a rag after the experience, not being used to the
intensity of the glory and its toll on the physical body.
READ Daniel 10:4-12
Why is Daniel the only one to see the vision?
The others are unprepared.
Or unworthy (see D&C
67:10-14).
Are these experiences real if only one person can see
them, while in a group?
Yes.
Just because only one person
in a group can see a certain light spectrum doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist
or impact the others, even though they can’t see those particular light
waves.
READ Alma 30:15-16 and Moroni
7:29-30
How would you contrast how the teachings of the world
(Korihor) and the teachings of The Lord (Mormon) would interpret Daniel’s experience at the river?
The world would tell Daniel
that he is crazy or a liar.
The Lord would have assessed
Daniel’s faith, character, and sanity/mental capacities before He showed him
the vision.
Why are spiritual experiences like this anecdotal?
We are all to have our own
personal relationship and experiences with God.
They are adapted to our own
capacities and where we are in our personal journey back to God.
Like the oil from the Parable
of the Ten Virgins, these anecdotal experiences can’t be shared – you have to
experience it yourself, which is as God desires it.
The Lord never makes things
easy because there is no growth in easy (weight lifting is a great physical
analogy). The world will not believe
you, and that is part of the trial.
