In Daniel, the second chapter, verses 26-45; Click here for on-line text:
 

Here we learn that through the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, there are four kingdoms recognized by God, the kingdom of gold, Chaldeans and Persians, the kingdom of silver, the Syrians, the kingdom of bronze, the Greeks and the kingdom of iron and clay, the Romans.  These four kingdoms encompass all of the people groups that God considers a “kingdom.” 

 

 We also learn in this same chapter that there is a fifth kingdom but not a kingdom made by the hand of man, but a kingdom hued out of the side of a great mountain, the mountain of God, and it is a great stone.  This great stone we learn breaks away from the mountain and comes crashing down onto all of the other four kingdoms.  It is amazing to see and to behold, as says Nebuchadnezzar, and hits the iron and clay kingdom first and then moves to destroy all of the others, the bronze kingdom, the silver kingdom and the gold kingdom.  This destruction is slow and methodic as it grinds these kingdoms to such a fine powder until such time as a strong wind comes up that blows them into oblivion, never to be mentioned again.  Wow, that is some destruction and we can easily see that even after 2,000 years we are still giving great reference to the Greco/Roman empires in all of our university studies of western civilization.  The prophesy says that a time is coming under Christ and through His Kingdom that these four kingdoms will one day be forgotten as totally unimportant to our current needs and culture.  This will be a time when the Kingdom of Christ predominates throughout the entire world as the dominant culture and Kingdom!