What is the Dispensational Interpretation of Daniel’s Stone Kingdom? I would like to understand the following vision from the viewpoint of the Dispensational system of prophecy.  What is the stone kingdom, and when did it arrive? Does it begin at John the Baptist’s announcement (Matt. 3:1-2) and reach its ultimate expression at Christ’s second coming?  Or, has it been deferred until the Millennial reign?


  “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of
  exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was
  frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and
  arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its
  feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut
  out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and
  clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze,
  the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and
  became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind
  carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the
  stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the
  whole earth.”
  
  “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation … in
  the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that
  shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another
  people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to
  an end, and it shall stand forever.”  (Daniel 2:31—36, 44)
The classical Dispensational understanding is that since each part of the image represents an actual political and tangible kingdom, the best understanding is that the rock that becomes a mountain must refer to a future tangible Messianic kingdom where Christ reigns visibly on the earth. If we examine the details of Zechariah 14 combined with Revelation 20 we see how this kingdom has economic, political, military and even meteorological factors and lasts 1000 years.