Another supplement to my
comment on YouTube.
I quote from my comment:
“The little horn came out
of—not one of the four horns of the he-goat—but it came out of one of the four
winds. In light of the previous two prophecies, Rome would be the empire that
followed the Grecian he-goat, and it also had a little horn element in the
Daniel 7 prophecy. Therefore, the greatest blasphemy against God and His
heavenly sanctuary occurred [by] the papacy [during] the Dark Ages. And
Revelation 13:1-7 and Daniel 11:21-45 agree with the Daniel 8:10-14,
23-25 [vision].
The cleansing, as in
restoring, the heavenly sanctuary from the defiling by the little horn, would consist
of not only clearing all sins from the throne of God, but also a special work
of purification on earth. That special work of purification must necessarily
require the cleansing of false doctrines and of clearing up the high standard
for sanctification by faith. Together, the work of cleansing of heaven[ly] and
earth[ly] temples would begin in 1844 and continue until the saints are sealed
and sins [no] longer pollute the heavenly sanctuary. When the character of
Christ is perfectly reproduced in His children then He will come and claim
[them] as His own.”
Let me explain the four horns
and four winds. In Daniel 8 verses 8 and 9 we read, “Therefore the he goat
waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it
came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of
them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south,
and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.”
We see 4 horns and 4 winds, and from “one of them came forth a little horn” (Dan. 8:9).
The English composition of this passage cannot discern where the little
horn came “out of”; but the Aramaic reveals it. The little horn came not out
from one of the 4 horns, but from one of the 4 winds. The 4 horns that came up
from the roots of the one great horn were Alexander’s 4 generals: Cassander, Lysimachus,
Ptolemy, Seleucus. I’ll quote from Uriah Smith at the end of this post. But,
the trouble with using the 4 generals and their 4 divisions of Alexander’s carved
up empire is that the Aramaic grammar doesn’t match between the little horn and the 4 horns, which it must. “Them [the 4 horns? or 4 winds?]” is feminine, but “horns” is masculine. Therefore, “Out of one of them” doesn’t gender
match with the “horns”. But, “Out of one of them” does gender match
with the feminine gendered “winds”.
Many Bible prophecy students have gotten off
track in interpreting this vision by concluding that the little horn originated from one of the “horns” of
the he-goat’s unicorn, or one of the generals of Alexander the Great. They
therefore conclude that the little horn came from the Greek Empire, i.e. the
little Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes. However, to translate and interpret
the vision properly, the little horn must come from one of the winds, that is, from one of the cardinal bearings of the compass: east, west,
north, or south.
“And as I was considering,
behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and
touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
And he came to the ram that
had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in
the fury of his power.
And I saw him come close unto
the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake
his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he
cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that
could deliver the ram out of his hand.
Therefore the he goat waxed
very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came
up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
And out of one of them came
forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward
the east, and toward the pleasant land.
And it waxed great, even to
the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the
ground, and stamped upon them.” (Dan. 8:5-10).
The above 6 verses help
interpret the meaning of the abominable “little horn”. They explain the identity of this “little
horn”. But, it also helps to have the context, so below I will quote its
preceding verses.
“In the third year of the
reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after
that which appeared unto me at the first.
And I saw in a vision; and it
came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the
province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.
Then I lifted up mine eyes,
and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns:
and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher
came up last.
I saw the ram pushing
westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before
him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did
according to his will, and became great.
And as I was considering,
behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and
touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.” (Dan.
8:1-5).
Daniel
received this vision in the 3rd year of Belshazzar’s 17 year rule
over the Babylonian Empire. At the end of Belshazzar’s reign Babylon was conquered by
Darius, the greater Median emperor, and Cyrus, the lesser Persian king. Darius
was the last king of the Median Empire and Cyrus took the throne as the first
Persian ruler of the family-related Medo-Persian Empire. With this background
of the vision we will now turn to its interpretation by
Gabriel.
“And he said, Behold, I will
make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the
time appointed the end shall be.
The ram which thou sawest
having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
And the rough goat is the
king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Now that being broken,
whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation,
but not in his power.
And in the latter time of
their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
And his power shall be
mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall
prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
And through his policy also
he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in
his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the
Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Dan. 8:19-25).
“…in the latter time of their
kingdom….” In Gabriel’s explanation it appears that the little horn power
descended from the carved up kingdom of Alexander, and therefore, again, the little
horn appears to point to Antiochus Epiphanes. If we didn’t have the help from Aramaic grammar then the little horn’s real identity would be very difficult to see. But,
knowing that the word “them”, in the statement, “the little horn came out of
one of them”, that the grammatical gender doesn’t match the word, “horns” and does match the word, “winds”, then we know that the little horn cannot derive its identity from one of the
generals, i.e. General/King Seleucus; and we know, rather, that it originated from
one of the cardinal bearings of the compass. Therefore, we can more easily
allow the consistent order of apocalyptic/prophetic/historical events that
follows in the first two visions of Daniel’s book. That order of apocalyptic prophecy
is manifested in the four world empires that would rule over the earth: the Babylonian,
the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman Empires (see Daniel chapters 2, 7,
8, 11, Revelation chapter 13).
Now the wording of Gabriel
can be applied to this interpretation: “…in the latter time of their kingdom,
when the transgressors are come to the full”. The reason Gabriel linked the Greek
and the Roman empires together without delineating two empires is because their
ancestries were close, ancient cultures largely under the influence of ancient,
occultic and degenerated, Egypt—the Greco-Roman Civilization. As one website puts it, “The religion of the Romans, their gods, their rites originally came from Egypt. There were 5000 year old Egyptian equivalents of Roman gods, 5000 years before Rome was built... The Greeks who heavily influenced Rome, were at the outset a colony of Egyptians and Phoenicians (neighbours to Egyptians) all from Africa.”
https://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-egyptian-hercules/the-africans-who-civilized-rome-jahdey/
This Daniel 8 vision lays
over the previous two visions, the little horn of the Daniel 7 vision—the little horn that shook its fist at the throne of God and stamped into the dirt the reputation of
all who it couldn’t devour—doing the same work as the little horn of the
Daniel 8 vision. The little horn of Daniel 8 was, therefore, the Roman papacy,
which Satan used to play an immensely diabolical role against God, against His
heavenly home, and against His family in heaven and earth (see Daniel 7:7,8,25 and Revelation 13:5-7). This little horn could be called,
“MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH” (Rev. 18:5). With Israel captive by the world empires for 600 years and their scriptures no longer a light to the world, the violence and wickedness of the world continued to
increase from one empire to the next, as generation after generation continued to remain increasingly
ignorant of the Most High God of perfect love and His great, immutable Law of love.
Paul exhorted:
“This I say therefore, and
testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the
vanity of their mind,
Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in
them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Who being past feeling have
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness.” (Eph. 4:17-49).
This most beloved father of the early apostolic church
warned:
“And even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind,
to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God,
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding,
covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of
God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the
same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Rom. 1:28-32).
And he wept for the unbelievers of his empire:
“The Gentiles … they … fill
up their sins alway: … the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.” (1Thess.
2:16).
But, Paul’s greatest concern
was of the primary nemesis from Daniel’s chapter 7, 8, and 11 visions, “the
mystery of iniquity” (2Thess. 2:7), “who opposeth and exalteth himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2Thess. 2:4).
Paul understood exactly what Daniel’s
prophecies meant.
“Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own
blood.
For I know this, that after
my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch, and
remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night
and day with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31).
Naturally, after for so long a hostility toward their Creator, violence would cover the nation and gross
darkness the people, and the conditions of society and the human soul would move
more and more under the direct power of the general of demonic forces. Surely, “in the
latter time of their kingdom, … the transgressors [had] come to the full”. Yet,
Imperial Rome, as violent as it was, was not the fullest fulfillment of
Daniel’s visions.
“And in the latter time of
their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” (Dan. 8:23). A fuller picture comes by connecting this verse with its comparable verse from Daniel’s previous vision:
“I considered the horns, and,
behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn
were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” (Dan. 7:8).
And more detail comes from following Daniel’s final vision of the vile king of the north. I apologize for the lengthiness of the quote, but it is a necessary piece of the puzzle. I left the verse numbering to make it easier to keep a context within this vision that is utterly essential to understand. Try your best to follow the workings of the vile king of the north, and watch for the three similarities that provide us the means to lay this Daniel 11 vision squarely over the Daniel 8 vision. Those three similarities are: 1) the Prince, 2) the destruction by using peace, and 3) the placing of the abomination that makes desolate (the abomination of desolation, or transgression of desolation). Those three points that are common with Daniel 8 are the key to understanding the Daniel 11 vision.
“Dan 11:21 And in his estate
shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the
kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
Dan 11:22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be
overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the Prince of the
covenant.
Dan 11:23 And after the league made with him he shall
work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small
people.
Dan 11:24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the
fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not
done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and
spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong
holds, even for a time.
Dan 11:25 And he shall stir up his power and his
courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the
south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he
shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.
Dan 11:26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his
meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down
slain.
Dan 11:27 And both these kings’ hearts shall be to do
mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for
yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
Dan 11:28 Then shall he return into his land with great
riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do
exploits, and return to his own land.
Dan 11:29 At the time appointed he shall return, and
come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.
Dan 11:30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against
him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against
the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence
with them that forsake the holy covenant.
Dan 11:31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they
shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily
sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
Dan 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant
shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be
strong, and do exploits.
Dan 11:33 And they that understand among the people
shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by
captivity, and by spoil, many days.
Dan 11:34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be
holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
Dan 11:35 And some of them of understanding shall fall,
to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end:
because it is yet for a time appointed.
Dan 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will;
and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall
speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the
indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Dan 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his
fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify
himself above all….
Dan 11:45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his
palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his
end, and none shall help him.” (Dan. 11:21-37,45).
As I wrote previously, Paul’s
greatest concern was of the primary nemesis from Daniel’s chapter 7, 8, and 11
visions, the little horn power, the vile king of the north, “who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself
that he is God” (2Thess. 2:4), that “mystery of iniquity” (2Thess. 2:7), MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Paul feared for the church when he paraphrase-quoted from Daniel 11:31 through 37 and then onward to verse 45,
Likewise, as John saw the demise of the scape-goat little horn, “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev. 19:20). “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Rev. 20:10).
Now for Uriah Smith’s more detailed
rundown of ancient Imperial Persian and Greek history (copied from EGW CD ©2008 “Words of the
Adventist Pioneers”, “Uriah Smith”, “The Biblical Institute”, “05 The Vision of
Daniel Chapter VIII”):
“THE VISION OF DANIEL CHAPTER
VIII
THE symbols of this chapter
are mostly explained in the chapter itself. The ram with two horns, the higher
of which came up last, represented the kings, or the kingdom, of Media and
Persia, the two horns symbolizing the two elements in the nation, the Medes and
Persians. The Persian came up last and attained the controlling influence.
Hostilities first broke out between the Babylonians and the Medes, whereupon
Cyaxeres, king of the Medes, summoned to his aid his nephew Cyrus, the son of
his sister who had been married to Cambyses the king of Persia. Cyrus,
responding with an army of 30,000 Persians, was at once placed by Cyaxeres in
command of the joint forces of the Medes and Persians. On the taking of
Babylon, B.C. 538, Cyaxeres (who is called Darius in Dan.5:31), as civil ruler,
took the throne. On his death, two years later, B.C. 536, he made Cyrus his
successor, and the same year, Cambyses, the father of Cyrus dying, Cyrus was
brought also to the Persian throne. The two were then united in one; and thus
was founded the Medo-Persian empire, the ruling house being in the Persian
line. This power pushed its conquests especially in the directions named,
northward, westward and southward, till in the days of Ahasuerus, Esther 1:1,
it reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia.
{1878 UrS, TBI 50}
The rough goat is explained
to be the king of Grecia. Verse 21. The great horn between his eyes was the
first king. This shows that the word king as first used has the sense of
kingdom; as it would be absurd to speak of the first king of a king. This first
king was Alexander the Great, who having defeated the last Persian king, Darius
Codomannus, at the battle of Arbela, Oct.l, B.C. 331, found himself master of
the world. This horn was broken and four came up in its place, denoting the
four parts into which his empire would be divided. Eight years after the battle
of Arbela, Alexander gave himself up to beastly drunkenness to that degree that
he died Nov.12, B.C. 323, aged only 33. Prideaux gives a just estimate of the
man, when he calls him “the great cut-throat of the age in which he lived.” In
the name of Aridaeus, then called Philip, bastard brother of Alexander’s…, and
by Alexander’s two infant sons, Alexander Aegus and Hercules, all being under
the guardianship of Perdiccas, the unity of the empire was for a time
maintained. But it did not take long to put these all out of the way, and
within fifteen years after Alexander’s death the kingdom was divided into four
parts, between his four leading generals: Cassander had Macedon and Greece;
Lysimachus had Thrace and those parts of Asia that lay upon the Hellespont and
Bosphorus; Ptolemy had Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Palestine and Coele-Syria, and
Seleucus had Syria and all the East. These kingdoms are called, in brief,
Macedonia, Thrace, Syria and Egypt. They date from about B.C. 308. {1878 UrS,
TBI 51}
The little horn denotes a
succeeding kingdom to arise in the latter part of the reign of the four horns,
a kingdom of fierce countenance, strange language, a wonderful destroyer, to
stand up against the Prince of princes, and at last to be broken without hand.
This horn was not Antiochus Epiphanes as claimed by some, for he was not “exceeding
great” in comparison with Medo-Persia and Grecia that went before. He did not
increase his dominions, was not another horn, but only one (the 8th in order)
of the 26 kings that constituted the Syrian horn of the goat. He did not stand
up against the Prince of princes (Christ), but died 164 years before our Lord
was born. {1878 UrS, TBI 52}”
I will end this post with a statement
from The Desire of Ages concerning the Greco-Roman world that Christ came to redeem.
“Sin had become a science,
and vice was consecrated as a part of religion. Rebellion had struck its roots
deep into the heart, and the hostility of man was most violent against heaven.
It was demonstrated before the universe that, apart from God, humanity could
not be uplifted. A new element of life and power must be imparted by Him who
made the world.
With intense interest the unfallen worlds
had watched to see Jehovah arise, and sweep away the inhabitants of the
earth….
Satan was exulting that he had succeeded
in debasing the image of God in humanity. Then Jesus came to restore in man the
image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has
been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will.
He came to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the
pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with His own glory.” Desire of Ages, p. 37.
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