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God’s Chief Agent in the World GovernmentOur Incoming World Government—God’s Kingdom
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25. How is God’s Chief Agent introduced in Daniel 7:13, 14?
25 “I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! with the clouds of the heavens someone like a son of man happened to be coming; and to the Ancient of Days he gained access, and they brought him up close even before that One.
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God’s Chief Agent in the World GovernmentOur Incoming World Government—God’s Kingdom
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26. Some men argue that “someone like a son of man” pictures whom?
26 Who is that “someone like a son of man” that comes, not up from the earth, but from the heavens “with the clouds” and gains access to the Ancient of Days enthroned in the judicial court? Some think that, because this “someone like a son of man” is not mentioned thereafter in the prophecy but the “holy ones of the Supreme One” are spoken of as getting kingdom rulership, it refers to a composite person, God’s “holy nation” as a body. But there is a reliable authority who points out who that “someone like a son of man” really is. How so?
27, 28. (a) How was an authority obliged to identify who that “someone like a son of man” is? (b) How was he then treated?
27 Over nineteen hundred years ago, on Passover night (Nisan 14) of the year 33 C.E., a natural descendant of King David stood on trial for his life before the judicial Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. After this man refused to answer to the accusing testimonies that were offered against him, the presiding high priest said to him: “By the living God I put you under oath to tell us whether you are the Christ the Son of God!” Did the accused man now recognize himself to be under oath before the living God to tell the truth about himself? Yes! He recognized the high priest’s judicial authority to put him under oath to state the facts, even though he knew that his telling the truth would make him appear as a shocking blasphemer to the Supreme Sanhedrin.
28 The record of the court trial tells us: “Jesus said to him: ‘You yourself said it. Yet I say to you men, From henceforth you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest ripped his outer garments, saying: ‘He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See! Now you have heard the blasphemy. What is your opinion?’ They returned answer: ‘He is liable to death.’ Then they spit into his face and hit him with their fists. Others slapped him in the face, saying: ‘Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you?’”—Matthew 26:63-68.
29. What else shows that Daniel 7:13 does not mean a composite body?
29 There, then, was the one man on earth who could reliably refer to Daniel’s prophecy, Da chapter seven, verse thirteen, and correctly identify who that “someone like a son of man” really was. Sixty-three years later Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead and glorified in heaven, transmitted a revelation to his apostle John on earth, and John was inspired to write concerning him: “Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him. Yes, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7) This as well as other statements of the Bible prove that the “someone like a son of man” as seen in Daniel’s vision is Jesus Christ the Descendant of King David. In Psalm 8:4 (AV) David spoke prophetically of him as “the son of man.” (Hebrews 2:5-8, AV) Repeatedly Jesus spoke of himself as “the Son of man.” Not the company of “the holy ones themselves of the Supreme One,” but David’s royal Descendant is the individual pictured in Daniel 7:13 as coming “with the clouds of the heavens.”—Matthew 24:30.
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God’s Chief Agent in the World GovernmentOur Incoming World Government—God’s Kingdom
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31 At the close of those Gentile Times, in 1914 C.E., David’s royal Heir could rightfully apply to God for Kingdom rule.
32, 33. Why did we not see the coming of the one with legal right?
32 Events in fulfillment of Bible prophecies from 1914 C.E. down till now prove that the Son of man’s coming occurred in that year. Of course, none of us saw such a coming with our literal eyes. We could not have done so, for Daniel 7:13, 14 describes the Son of man as coming, not to earth, but to the Ancient of Days, the Judge in heaven who “is changing times and seasons, removing kings and setting up kings.” (Daniel 2:21)
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