Daniel 7: 7 - 8
‘Doctored’ Photos Of The Antichrist
Part II
7 “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
I had mentioned that we what we have read in chapters 1 through 6 in the book of Daniel, will be expanded in chapters 7 through 9. Then broken down further are chapters 10 through 12. I had left off in chapter 2 and mentioned that I would further explain these verses in another study.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
The fourth beast that Daniel saw and is talked about in chapter 7 is the same as the legs of Iron that we read about in chapter 2. Then we read that its ten toes were mixed with clay in chapter 2 and ten horns here in chapter 7. They are talking about the same thing. Can you see this?
The Roman armies were brutal. As the Scripture reveals they devoured and broke in pieces and stamped out whatever resistance remained in those countries in which they conquered.
Now remember that we are talking about the fourth empire which is Rome. The vision that Daniel received was referring to the future. Some people ask why didn’t Daniel just write down the names of these future kingdoms that branched off and tried to rule the Roman Empire. The reason is because mankind keeps changing names. For example, Saint Petersburg was changed to Leningrad, then as you well know it was now changed back to St. Petersburg. When our Precious Holy Spirit just lists things in His Way now you can see why.
There were ten nations that developed out of the Roman Empire. Have you ever been to Europe. It amazes me. That you travel a hundred miles or so and the people talk a different language. I live on the east coast. If I drove from Philly PA to New Jersey and then to New York – if this was Europe I would be talking three different languages. Hymm. Come to think of it, they do speak different in Jersey and New Yawk.
These are the names of the ten and what there names are today;
1 Anglo-saxons England
2. Franks France
3. Burgundians Switzerland
4. Visigoths Spain
5. Alamanni Germany
6. Suevi Portugal
7. Lombards Italy
8. Heruli Destroyed 493
9 Vandals Destroyed 534
10. Ostrogoths Destroyed 538
These individual kingdoms at one time or the other tried to rise up as the dominant power but were not successful - Just as clay will not mix with iron.
Now let us look at verse 8 again.
8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
As Daniel continued to gaze at the fourth beastly empire he saw a little horn that grew from it. As this little horn popped up, it pushed out three other horns. If you have children you remember that when their regular teeth starting growing they pushed out the baby teeth. Can you see from our list of the ten nations that developed out of the Roman Empire, the three cultures that were destroyed? These three were destroyed by the Antichrist and his kingdom.
Who is the Antichrist? We are going to take a look at what our Precious Holy Spirit tells us about him and let us see if you can guess who he is before I tell you. The Antichrist has a few alias. These are what he is referred to in the bible.
1. Antichrist [opposed to / instead of Christ]
o 1 John 2:22: Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son.
2. Man of Sin, Son of Perdition
o 2 Thessalonians 2:3: Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.
3. The Lawless One
o 2 Thessalonians 2:8: And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
4. The Beast
o Revelation 11:7: Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.
5. The Wicked Man
o Psalm 10:2,4: In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
6. The Mighty Man
o Psalm 52:1: Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
7. The Adversary
o Psalm 74:8-10: They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!” They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land. We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. How long will the adversary mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever?
8. The Little Horn
o Daniel 7:8: I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
9. The Vile Person
o Daniel 11:21: And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue.
10. The Willful King
o Daniel 11:36: Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blaspemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done.
11. The Worthless Shepherd
o Zechariah 11:16,17: For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces. "Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye; his arm shall completely wither, and his right eye shall be totally blinded."
Now remember Daniel received his vision while the Babylonian Empire was still ruling the known world. The future kingdoms were many years in the future.
So, let us now look again at verse eight and see the clues that our Wonderful Holy Ghost has left for us to identify the Antichrist.
8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
The little horn came up after the 10 horns were already in existence. Therefore, the time frame of these had to be in AD, that is when Rome ruled the world.
We find out more about this little horn later on in the chapter,
19 “Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet; 20 and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows. 21 “I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. 23 “Thus he said: ‘ The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. 26 ‘ But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever
Please notice that twice Daniel informs us that the empire of the Antichrist is ‘different’ than the other 10 kingdoms or countries. How so?
The 10 kingdoms were political by nature. These kingdoms all operating had a king over them. This kingdom of the Antichrist would not only be political but different, which means that something else of great significance highlights this Empire. Can you guess yet what that major power or influence is?
This beast or empire’s ruler is going to destroy in the future three of the 10 kingdoms. Out of the 10 division kingdoms this little empire is going to destroy totally 3 of the countries. These people will cease to be a culture as a result of the Antichrist’s action taken against them.
The little horn is going to have the eyes like the eyes of a man. A beast is representative of what in the bible? – An empire. Here we see that the Antichrist is also referred to as a beast. The verbiage of ‘eyes like the eyes of a man’ infers that this empire continues to be directed by one leader who sees and controls is just a man.
We read that this little horn’s empire is different than the 10 political nations. It will arise out of the 10 and be somewhat different. The little horn is going to try to influence the world that he is more than a king. But our Precious Holy Spirit wants everyone to know this Antichrist although he is going to claim that he is something more, in reality he is just a man like you and me.
The Antichrist is going to publically speak words and proclaim policy that is in direct opposition to God’s Word - 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High’
This little horn is going to arise and persecute Christians. The law will be his way or the highway - “I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.’
The little horn will try to change times and seasons – ‘and shall intend to change times and law.’ Adoni Yahweh, our Father God, the Creator and Sustainer of all life established time and as you know the seasons. This little horn thinks that he is equal or better than God so to try to show that he is more than a man, he will change theses God Almighty ordained days and time keeping of years.
As I mentioned earlier Daniel expanded on the first 6 chapters and I will now expanded on the clues of the Antichrist.
The year A.D. 330 was to alter the culture and history of Europe forever. Having dominated the mighty Roman Empire for more than four centuries, the center of Roman power was moved from Rome to the Bosphorus as Emperor Constantine I transferred the seat of government to Constantinople, a name he devised in order to perpetuate his own place in history.
With the transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to the far eastern reaches of the Balkan Peninsula there arose a steady increase in the political power of the Bishop of Rome. Heretofore, despite its growing defects and deviations from the pure faith of its founder, The Lord Jesus Christ, the Christian Church, previously partially purified through generation after generation of state-instigated intolerance and vile persecution, had confined itself largely to matters ecclesiastical.
But now, as the Bishops of Rome found the capital of the empire far removed from the eternal city, they commenced to flex their secular arm, enforcing their convictions upon others of different persuasion. In general the empire assented and often implemented the whims of the church, seeing such support as essential to the unity of the empire.
The title Pontifex Maximus was held by the head administrator of the Roman pagan religion. Eventually the Caesars envied this title of high honor and power; and first Julius Caesar and then Augustus Caesar made the title and office their own, as did later emperors. Thus developed a religio-political power well suited to the aims and ambitions of Roman bishops.
When, in 375, Emperor Gratian declined to accept this august title, believing its pagan origins unsuited to a Christian monarch, the Bishop of Rome, who is later titled Pope Damasus I, appropriated the title Pontifex Maximus to himself. Thus the religio-political title of the Caesars passed without objection to the Papacy, together with its implied union of church and state.
After ten years of fearful persecution under Emperors Diocletian, Maximian and Galerius, the relief and joy of Christians knew no bounds. Emperor Galerius had, in 311, eased the plight of the Christians by enacting the Edict of Toleration. However it was Constantine who provided full freedom and civil rights to Christians by enacting the Edict of Milan in 313. Yet one form of persecution was soon to be replaced by another. This emperor, raised in pagan philosophy, deemed it his prerogative to ensure that by force of the state, Christians walk the pathway which he felt proper. Christians had merely exchanged pagan persecution for a Christian form. In time the church itself adopted the philosophy of the emperor and those formerly persecuted became, themselves, the persecutors.
Persecution by Christians was first instituted against pagans. That intolerance which faithful Christians had endured for three centuries was now directed at pagans. This was an omen of times ahead and a serious degradation of true Christian faith which eschews coercion.
Emperor Theodosius I’s legislation against paganism began in 391. It forbade all forms of pagan religious practices. In 392 all pagan temples and their treasures and idols were appropriated by the state.
Thus was Europe’s descent into intolerance, cruelty and control of the human conscience inflicted by a union of state and church. Forgotten was Christ’s edict, underlining their separation, when He accorded the church and the state separate arenas of influence as our Lord Jesus Christ was recorded to say in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 22 verse 21, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
The second impediment to European dominance, which successive Bishops of Rome envied, was in a more difficult area and took a little longer to overcome. The Bishops of Constantinople contested, often with great vigor, the primacy among Bishops coveted by their counterparts in Rome. So exasperated was the Roman Bishop with the persistent claims of the Bishop of Constantinople to the right to acceptance as the Universal Bishop, that Pope Gregory I, who occupied the Roman See from 590—604, forgetting his own ambitions akin to those of his fellow Bishop John in the east, exploded, ‘I say confidently therefore, that whosoever calls himself Universal Bishop, or even desires in his pride to be called such is the forerunner of antichrist.’
So, with this information we can somewhat put together who the little horn or Antichrist is.
The Roman Empire moved its headquarters to Constantinople. If you go to Rome today you can visit the Palace which belonged to Constantine who gave it to the Bishop of Rome as he left town.
We have read that this little city of Rome is its own kingdom ruled by the Pope. His kingdom is different than the European countries because it yields both political and religious influence. The Pope, who is just a man, made a declaration that he is Almighty God’s representative on earth. Later it was declared by a Pope that he was in fact god. As a result he is to be worshipped.
From the beginning of time our Lord began the yearly calendar. It is the Romans Empire that changed His calendar to BC and AD. [Have you ever thought why the Jewish people have a different calendar? They are still following Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High’s calendar] Where do you think we get our days of the week from? They are Roman listed days which reference pagan deities.
Dies Saturni Day of Saturn Saturday
Dies Solis Day of the Sun Sunday
Dies Lunae Day of the Moon Monday
Dies Martis Day of Mars Tuesday
Dies Mercurii Day of Mercury Wednesday
Dies Jovis Day of Jupiter Thursday
Dies Veneris Day of Venus Friday
Our Lord said to us in the book of Exodus chapter 20 this about His Special Selected day, “ 8 “ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.’
The Papacy to show that it is the one who is running things here on earth changed our Holy Father’s Commandment to force mankind to treating Sunday as the new Sabbath. Even we Protestants still go along with Rome’s mandate by gathering on Sunday to worship. Some people say that ‘Well Sunday is the Lord Jesus Day because He arose on Sunday.’ Well, then let us ask Him to tell us what day He picked as the day we should honor Him in. We read in the Gospel of Luke chapter 6 His answer, “1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first[a] that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. 2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?” 5 And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
We will see in our next study of Daniel chapter 7 that we come upon the name which our Lord identified Himself As, ‘The Son of Man’. Our Master and King The Lord Jesus Christ is the ‘real’ Christ or Anointed of The Father. He tells us in Luke that His Day is the Jewish Sabbath Day or Saturday, not Sunday which the Antichrist imposed upon all of us.
The papacy suffered a major setback through the Reformation. The help of the monastic orders was sought, but they were so decadent that they had lost the respect of the people. The Dominicans and Franciscans, peddling relics and indulgences, had become the butt of ridicule and mockery.
At this crisis Loyola and his companions offered their services, to go wherever the pope should designate, as preachers, missionaries, teachers, counselors, and reformers. A new order was created, The Jesuits - authorized in 1540, which infused a new spirit and spread rapidly in Europe. Like a wounded giant, Romanism arose in desperation to recover her lost prestige and shrunken territory.
The conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was basic and irreconcilable. The Romanist believed in the authority of the church; the Protestant, in that of the Bible. The one yielded his conscience to the priest; the other to God alone. The Romanist believed in the pope as the visible representative of Christ on earth; the Protestant looked, instead, upon the pope as Antichrist. The one regarded the church—meaning the hierarchy—as the depository of all spiritual truth; the other looked upon the clergy as ministers of the church, not as the church itself. The Romanist, satisfied with the teaching of the church, was content to leave the Bible to the learned; the Protestant, on the other hand, held that it was to be diligently and reverently studied, by all, as the word of God. The one dreaded its spread as tending to heresy; the other multiplied translations as the assurance of soundness, and sought to introduce them to every household. Between the time of Luther’s appeal to a general council, in 1518, and the convening of the Council of Trent in 1545, Bibles in German, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and English (Tyndale’s New Testament and Coverdale’s complete Bible) had been published, and the Reformation established in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and England.
The two systems stood forth in absolute and irreconcilable opposition at the Council of Trent, where the council expressly condemned what the Reformation taught.
The Council of Trent—beginning in 1545 under Paul III and ending in 1563 under Pius IV—crystallized its actions into decrees that became permanent law of the Catholic church.
Reformation truths were there rejected and stigmatized as pestilential heresy. In one sense Trent became the culmination of the Counter-Reformation. It was Rome’s definitive answer to the Reformation.
For some time following the launching of the Reformation, Roman Catholic leadership carefully avoided exposition of the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse. They seemed unable to parry the force of the incriminating Protestant applications of the prophecies concerning Antichrist, which were undermining the very foundations of the Catholic position.
The reformers, with declarations by pen and voice, forcefully stated that the Papacy was the specified Antichrist of prophecy. The symbols of Daniel, Paul, and John were applied with tremendous effect. Hundreds of books and tracts impressed their contention upon the consciousness of Europe. Indeed it gained so great a hold upon the minds of men that Rome, in alarm, saw that she must successfully counteract this identification of Antichrist with the Papacy, or lose the battle.
From the ranks of the Jesuits two stalwarts arose, determined to lift the stigma from the Papacy by locating Antichrist at some point where he could not be applied to the Roman church. It was clearly a crisis of major proportions.
Rome’s answer to the Protestant Reformation was twofold, though actually conflicting and contradictory. Through the Jesuits Ribera, of Salamanca, Spain, and Bellarmine, of Rome, the Papacy put forth her futurist interpretation. Almost simultaneously Alcazar, Spanish Jesuit of Seville, advanced the conflicting preterist interpretation. These were designed to meet and overwhelm the Historical interpretation of the Protestants. Though mutually exclusive, either Jesuit alternative suited the great objective equally well, as both thrust aside the application of the prophecies from the existing Church of Rome. The one (preterism) accomplished it by making prophecy stop altogether short of papal Rome's career. The other (futurism) achieved it by making it overleap the immense era of papal dominance, crowding Antichrist into a small fragment of time in the still distant future, just before the great consummation.
According to the Protestants, the vision of Babylon and the supporting Beast is divinely interpreted in chapter 17 of the Apocalypse. It was on this that the Reformers commonly rested their case—the apostate woman, the Roman church; the city, seven-hilled Rome; the many waters, the many peoples; the Beast, the fourth, or Roman beast of Daniel; the sixth head, the Caesars; and the seventh, the popes.
About 1590 Ribera published a 500-page commentary on the Apocalypse, denying the Protestant application of Antichrist to the Church of Rome.
Since its inception his basic thesis has been virtually unchanged. He assigned the first few chapters of the Apocalypse to ancient Rome, in John’s own time; the rest he restricted to a literal three and a half year’s reign of an infidel Antichrist, who would bitterly oppose and blaspheme the saints just before the second advent. He taught that antichrist would be a single individual, who would rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, abolish Christian religion, deny Christ, be received by the Jews, pretend to be God, and conquer the world—all in this brief space of three and one half years! Do these points strike home in some teaching you have received;
Places Antichrist’s coming at the close of the seals
Places trumpets under the seventh seal
Death of the witnesses is literal time
Antichrist's persecutions last three and one half years
Repudiates Augustinian earthly millennium
Antichrist’s reign counted by literal days
Babylon is Rome past and future, not present
Luis de Alcasar (1554-1613), Spanish Jesuit of Seville offered the Preterist theory. This one to a large extent has not been accepted because Alcasar’s view was that all the prophecy of Daniel and Revelation was fulfilled before 70 AD.
So, how did this false teaching come into our present protestant churches.
It did not happen overnight! Nor did it happen during the lifetimes of the Jesuits who first promoted the new interpretations. It happened by promoting diversity of opinions and then moving in to divide and conquer! Had the Protestants remained firm and united on their historic interpretative stand, the counter reformation could never have succeeded in implanting these new interpretations into all of Christendom. Many reformers rose and refuted the futurist and preterist positions, but others bought into them.
So, now TV programs along with prominent Pastors are ignorantly teaching that there is going to be a ‘Rapture’ and that some day still in the future an evil world ruler is going rise up and be the Jesuit’s description of the man called the Antichrist.
