Jehovah’s sovereignty toward this earth was like the lofty tree seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. That tree was chopped down, only its rootstock being left in the ground. “Seven times” were ordained to pass over the tree stump before any tree growth could spring up from it. For that reason bands of iron and copper were fastened around the tree stump, to stay there till the “seven times” were finished. (Dan. chap. four) True to this picture, at the end of “seven times” of unimpeded Gentile domination of the earth Jehovah’s universal sovereignty was to express itself again toward our earth.

22. Thus when was the new kingdom brought forth, and how was this pictured in Bible prophecies?

²² Thus in 1914, not in 33 C.E., the symbolic “stone” seen in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was cut out of the great mountain that pictured Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45) It was at that time also that Jehovah God planted his “feet” upon the symbolic “mountain of the olive trees” and it split in the middle to form two mountains, one toward the north and the other to the south. (Zech. 14:4, 9) This corresponds with the birth of the male child by God’s heavenly “woman,” as pictured in Revelation 12:1-5. In this way a new “kingdom” was brought forth, a new expression of God’s sovereignty toward our earth. God then put his King-Designate on the throne to exercise his “legal right.” The symbolic bands of copper and iron were removed from around the “rootstock” of God’s interrupted sovereignty toward our earth. The prescribed “seven times” had now passed over the rootstock.​—Dan. 4:23, 26.