KING OF ALL KINGDOMS

I love history. I particularly love finding connections to people across the span of time. Many prophets of old were given to know us and our day through visions and dreams and God given revelations. One such prophet was Daniel who was taken to Babylon around 605 B.C. Daniel lived in captivity for 70 years and served 5 heathen kings. Because of his righteousness he rose to such prominence that he was made governor of all the Jews in Babylon. He prophesied and interpreted dreams of kings with boldness and worshipped the God of Israel without fear. He is mostly known for surviving the lion's den into which he was thrown, for which survival king Darius called him 'Daniel, servant of the living God' (Daniel 6:20). So in Daniel we mainly see immense power, until we read the recordings of his own dreams and visions which pertained not only to his time but to the time which we the latter-day saints live in. Then we see a man heavily burdened with knowledge which tugged at his heart for the scriptures record that Daniel was grieved in his spirit, that the visions of his head troubled him and his countenance changed in him forever (Daniel 7:15, 28).  What could have brought such grief to so great a man?

Chapter 7 of Daniel is a record of a dream that Daniel had of four major ancient empires: Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman. We know from Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image in chapter 2 that the Roman empire was destroyed and replaced by a powerful European group of ten nations. This dream was about the latter days in which a 'stone was cut out of the mountain without hands' (Daniel 2:45) which consumed all the other kingdoms of the earth. We know of course that this stone is the Kingdom of God on earth, meaning the Church. The visions of Daniel as opposed to kings' dreams should, however, hold a particular interest for us because they go further than the establishment of the Church. The first recorded dream which Daniel had talks about a beast with ten horns, meaning the Roman empire which becomes replaced by ten powerful European nations, as already mentioned. What is particularly interesting is that Daniel saw another horn come up on this beast. This horn is described as a 'little horn' (Daniel 7:8) and does not seem to represent an earthly government or nation so it does not seem to have any political or secular power. However, it does have a terrible power of its own.  This is the  power of an anti-Christ that would rise up and that would make war with the saints of God util the time of Christ's Second Coming (Daniel 7:20-27). What must have pointedly struck at the heart of Daniel is in verse 21 which states that this power prevailed against the saints....until the Ancient of Days, meaning Adam, shall come to Adam-ondi-Ahman to hand over the kingdom to the King of all kings, to Him to whom the kingdom rightly belongs. Why is this a sad story if Christ triumphs in the end? Because when the anti-Christ power wages war against the Saints, many of us will be lost (Daniel 11:32-34). With the latest changes, the Church is placing the responsibility of our testimonies upon our own shoulders, attempting to prepare us for a worse time to come when the saints will be persecuted and many of us will not stand. We will not stand if we do not take this responsibility to heart and center ourselves on the Saviour of the world and His Kingdom. This can already be seen by many who have recently left the Church, whose testimonies were not able to survive the subtle manipulations of the anti-Christ power of our day.
There is another important reason why we need to spiritually invest in ourselves. Without us, there is no kingdom. We, the saints of latter-days are preparing the kingdom in which Christ will reign. Consider Elder LeGrand Richards' take on this:

"When I was president of the Southern States Mission, one of our missionaries preached on that dream of Nebuchadnezzar in one of our meetings where we had some investigators, and I stood at the door to greet them as they went out. A man came up and introduced himself as a minister and he said, 'You don't mean to tell me that you think the Mormon Church is that kingdom, do you?' And I said, 'Yes sir, why not?'. He said, 'It couldn't be.' I said, 'Why couldn't it?' And he said, 'You can't have a kingdom without a king, and you don't have a king, so you don't have a kingdom'. 'Oh', I said, 'my friend, you didn't read far enough. You just read the seventh chapter of Daniel, where Daniel saw one like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, "and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him" (Daniel 7:14). 'Now', I said, 'my friend, tell me how can the kingdom be given to him when he comes in the clouds of heaven if there is no kingdom prepared for him? That is what we Latter-day Saints are doing." (In CR Oct 1975, pp 76-77 or Ensign Nov 1975, p 51)

When the heavens opened and John the Beloved saw the Saviour appearing on a white horse whose eyes were as a flame of fire, he also saw that upon His head sat many crowns (Revelation 19:12). These crowns no doubt will represent that He is the King of all kingdoms. And these crowns will be adorned with valuables without price, meaning those who have overcome and endured with faith, those who will welcome Him as their King, those of which the Saviour has said "they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels......." (Malachi 3:17). We shall be His  and He will be ours, the begotten Father of our spirits, the Saviour of our souls, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.....