It should also be noted from these symbols that the Stone does not “become a mountain and fill the whole earth” until the great image has been scattered to dust.  From this it is certain that there can be no development of the Kingdom of Christ on the earth before the final breaking of the kingdoms of the earth.  This same order is recognized throughout all prophecy.  The king suddenly returns as lightning shining from one part of heaven to the other; Satan is violently seized and cast into prison; and a nation is born at once.  The second Psalm connects the kingly reign of Christ—­the time when He is set upon the holy hill of Zion—­with the time when He shall claim the nations of the earth and “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel.”  Also in Matt. 25:31, “when He sits on the throne of His glory” the “blessed of the Father” are called to enter the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.  And in Rev. 12:7-12, where Satan is cast out into the earth and the execution of his sentence is begun, the announcement is made by a great voice in heaven, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ.”  There is no evidence of a gradual process here; all is sudden and decisive.

Again, this age is not the coming earthly kingdom for nowhere are the promised conditions of that kingdom now to be found.  The Old Testament prophecies contain long and detailed descriptions of that glorious time; God’s ancient people shall become the chosen nation, restored to their own land; the enemy shall be banished; the earth shall be purified, and blossom as a rose.  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den.  They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain:  for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:6-9).  “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground:  and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely” (Hos. 2:18).  “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim” (Joel 3:18).  “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion:  for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.  And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: