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The Destruction of the "Little Horn" in the Judgment Hour
William Diehl
It is a great mistake and a serious distraction from the gospel of Jesus Christ to insist upon the view that Antiochas Epiphanes is the primary fulfillment of the "little horn" of Daniel 7 and 8. Rome, not Antiochas Epiphanes, is the world empire which subjugated Israel and which fulfilled the chronological succession of Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece as the world empires which were foretold to the prophet Daniel in chapters 2, 7, and 8 of the book of Daniel .
Our Lord Jesus Christ and also the apostle Paul obviously applied the "little horn" (called the "Abomination of Desolation" in Matthew 24 and the "Man of Sin" in 2 Thessalonians 2:6) primarily to Imperial Rome and then, after Imperial Rome was "taken away" (2 Thes 2:7), Papal Rome arising from the ashes of Imperial Rome would make war with the church. The apostle John in Revelation 13 uses with the same symbolism of the "dreadful 10 horned Beast" of Daniel 7. He symbolizes Imperial Rome as the "Seven Headed Beast with 10 horns" coming up from the sea. Then John states that this "Beast" (Imperial Rome) receives a "deadly wound" and then the "wound is healed". The "healing" of Rome in the form of the "image to the Beast" erected by the "Lamb-like Beast" is an obvious prophecy of the Papacy which arose from the ruins of the fallen Imperial Roman empire.
Those who insist that Antiochas Epiphanes is the correct interpretation of the "little horn" fail to recognize the clear unbroken flow of history presented in the prophecies of Daniel. These prophecies depict the world empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Imperial Rome, Papal Rome and then end with the second coming of Christ. Christ's eternal "kingdom of God" destroys all the earthly powers which have made war with God's kingdom by "casting to the ground" (Daniel 8:12) the persecuted people of God, the truth of God, and the Temple of God in heaven. Daniel's visions all point to the end of the world, not to the re-dedication of the Jewish temple by the Maccabee brothers in the second century AD.!!!
The "1260 days" or "forty two months" or "3 and 1/2 times" of Daniel and Revelation should be interpreted figuratively as symbolic of the entire Christian era and not a literal 1260 years from AD. 538 to AD. 1798. Many Bible interpreters shoot themselves in the foot by refusing to see the allegorical symbolism in this time prophecy which is derived from Daniel 9:27b. Here the final "3 and 1/2 years" of the 490 year messianic prophecy of Daniel 9 are to (be) interpreted allegorically rather than as a literal 3 and 1/2 years ending with the stoning of Steven. The mistaken view that the "3 and 1/2 years" or "1260 days" represents 1260 years from AD. 538 to AD. 1798 is very immature because it attempts to force a crass historical literalism into an obviously allegorical apocalyptic symbol. The only view that harmonizes with the interpretation of Paul, John, and Christ is that the reign of the Roman Antichrist for "1260 days" is an allegorical time period from the cross of Christ to the second coming of Christ.
Regarding Daniel 8:14 and the "2300 days", this is another allegorical time prophecy which refers to the end of the world when the Antichrist will be destroyed by the second coming of Christ. The problem with those Christians who believe that Daniel 8:14 is referring to a specific date in history is that they try to make a symbolic time element into a literal time element of 2300 literal years ending in AD.1844 or some other date in the past or future. These time prophecies of "1260 days" and "2300 days" are allegorical and symbolic time, not literal time.
Bill.
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