But there is a God in heaven that revealeth king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Daniel 2:28.
In past ages the Lord God of heaven revealed His secrets to His prophets, and this He does still. The present and the future are equally clear to Him, and He shows to His servants the future history of what shall be. The Omniscient looked down the ages and predicted through His prophets the rise and fall of kingdoms hundreds of years before the events foretold took place. The voice of God echoes down the ages, telling earth's inhabitants what is to take place. Kings and princes take their places at their appointed time. They think they are carrying out their own purposes, but in reality they are fulfilling the word God has given through His prophets....
The unbelieving and godless do not discern the signs of the times. In ignorance they may refuse to accept the inspired record. But when professed Christians speak sneeringly of the ways and means employed by the great I AM to make His ways and purposes known, they show themselves to be both ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God.... The Christian who accepts the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will look at Bible history in its true bearing. The past, the history of the Jewish economy from the beginning to the end, instead of being spoken of contemptuously and sneered at as “the dark ages,” will reveal light, and still more light, as it is studied.
The word of men and women fails, and those who take their assertions as their dependence may well tremble, for they will one day be as shipwrecked vessels. But God's Word is infallible and endures forever....
God lives and reigns. His glory is not confined to the temple made with hands. He has not closed heaven against His people. As in the Jewish age, so in this age God reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.
The image shown to Nebuchadnezzar [Daniel 2] in the visions of the night represents the kingdoms of the world. The metals in the image, symbolizing the different kingdoms, became less and less pure and valuable. The head of the image was of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the sides of brass, [the legs of iron], and the feet and toes of iron mingled with clay. So the kingdoms represented by them deteriorated in value.... If they had kept the fear of the Lord ever before them, they would have been given wisdom and power which would have bound them together and kept them strong.—Manuscript 39, 1899 (see also The Review and Herald, February 6, 1900).
From Christ Triumphant - Page 327
Christ Triumphant