“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. And to him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him. His rulership is an indefinitely lasting rulership that will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be brought to ruin.”​—Daniel 7:13, 14.

Thus Daniel was used to foretell that “the Ancient of Days,” Jehovah God himself, will do away with misrule by oppressive human governments. He will replace this with rule by a government finer than humankind could ever imagine​—an invisible Kingdom exercising power and authority from heaven. But who is this “someone like a son of man” who will receive the Kingdom?

We are not left in doubt. Jesus identified himself as “the Son of man.” He described his presence as the time when “the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him.” (Matthew 25:31) When the Jewish high priest demanded that Jesus tell the court whether he was “the Christ the Son of God,” Jesus answered: “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.”a​—Matthew 26:63, 64.

But what is that Kingdom? It is far more than just an influence for good in people’s hearts and lives. It is also much more than the life of the so-called Christian church. God’s Kingdom is a real government. It has a king, associate rulers, a territory, and subjects.

“Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”​—Revelation 12:9-12.

That short time will soon expire. A few chapters later, the glorified Jesus is seen on a white horse. He is called “The Word of God,” and he will “strike the nations” and “shepherd them with a rod of iron”​—just as Daniel had shown that the nations would be crushed by God’s stonelike Kingdom that would grow to fill the whole earth.​—Revelation 19:11-16; Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45.

Never again will beastlike human political powers oppress mankind!

Associate Rulers

But there is more. Daniel was inspired to say that the Kingdom would be given not just to “someone like a son of man” but also “to the people who are the holy ones of the Supreme One.”​—Daniel 7:27.

Who are these? Revelation says of the Lamb, Christ Jesus: “You bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” It further says that they will become “priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.” Their number is given as 144,000.​—Revelation 5:9, 10; 14:1; 20:6.

These are the ones whom the Most High God chooses for a share in world government with his Son, Jesus Christ. Could our future be in safer hands than in these God chooses? No, this Kingdom will be the best possible government​—far superior to anything man has ever known. Under its rule all the earth will be transformed to the Paradise originally purposed by God.