Daniel 7 verse 7 to 8
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 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.
🟢“Fourth beast”
The dreadful and terrible fourth beast represents pagan Rome. The kingdom was later divided into 10 tribes. His teeth were like "iron,” which became the symbol for pagan Rome, as seen in the statue of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Under this power, Israel was oppressed, and Christ was crucified. This beast lives the longest and undergoes a change until the end.
🟢“Stamped the residue with the feet of it”
This power was to govern whatever remained. This gives us a good description of the great iron Roman power that conquered the Grecian empire. Rome conquered many cities and left a trail of carnage behind them, with the residue put into slavery. They stamped their authority upon the then-known world, and Rome was the strongest and largest of all the preceding kingdoms.
🟢“It had ten horns”
You will remember that a horn is a symbol of a king or kingdom v24. The 10 horns parallel to the feet of iron and clay of chapter 2.
Western Rome eventually split into 10 divisions by 476 A.D., with the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, moving his seat to the east, Constantinople.
Rome ruled from 168 B.C.-476 A.D.
🟢“Little horn”
Whilst Daniel was considering the 10 horns, another little horn rose up from among them. We will look at this power a little later in the chapter, as there are 10 identifying marks in this chapter to show who this power is.
Another power is introduced called the “little horn” which grows out of the Roman Empire and pagan Rome changes into papal Rome. Papal Rome - the Papacy – has a mixture of iron (state) and clay (church). He overthrows three of the original Germanic tribes. This little horn power concerns Daniel and he continues to focus on what this power is doing, because it speaks “great things” against the Most High and will make war against the saints.
🔶We must now take a closer look at the little horn. Here are its characteristics:
1) The little horn arises from the fourth beast (Daniel 7:8). The fourth beast represents Rome, so the little horn must be a Roman power.
2) The little horn arises among the ten horns. The ten horns are the divisions of Western Europe, so the little horn must arise in Western Europe (Daniel 7:8). Notice that these first two characteristics restrict the geographical location of the little horn to Western Europe.
3) The little horn rises after the ten horns (Daniel 7:24). According to historians, the ten horns were complete in the year 476 AD, so this must mean that the little horn was to arise to power sometime after 476 AD.
4) The little horn was to pluck up three of the first [ten] horns by the roots (Daniel 7:8).
This means that these three nations would be uprooted from history. Daniel 7:20-21
Explains that three of the first horns would fall before the little horn, and Daniel 7:24 tells us that the little horn would subdue three horns. In other words, three of the first ten nations would disappear from history!!
5) The little horn was to speak great words against the Most High (Daniel 7:21, 25).
Revelation 13:5 explains what these words would be, namely, blasphemy. And, what is blasphemy according to the Bible? It is when a merely human power claims to be God on earth and when it thinks it can exercise the prerogatives and functions of God (see, John
10:30-33; Mark 2:7).
6) The little horn was to be a persecuting power against God’s people. This is stated in Daniel 7:21 and repeated in verse 25.
7) The little horn would think it could change God’s ‘times’, that is to say, God’s timetable of prophetic events. (Daniel 2:21). We shall see that the little horn invented false systems of prophetic interpretation to rival historicism.
8) The little horn would even have the audacity to THINK that it could change God’s holy law. (Daniel 7:25).
9) The little horn would be different from the ten horns. It would be an amalgamation of church and state (Daniel 7:24).
10) This power would govern for a time, times and half a time (Daniel 7:25). This comes out to 42 months or 1260 days (see, Revelation 13:5-6; 12:6, 13-15). In Bible prophecy, literal days are symbolic of years, so this power was to govern for 1260 years (we will study the year/day principle later on in this material).
11) The little horn had eyes like a man. In Bible Prophecy, eyes are symbolic of wisdom (see,
Ephesians 1:18; Revelation 5:6). Even today, an owl is a symbol of wisdom because of its large eyes. In other words, this power was to depend on human wisdom.
🔶The Roman Catholic Papacy As The Fulfillment Of The Little Horn Prophecy:
🔸🔸Characteristic #1: The Papacy is Roman in all its dimensions. Notice the following:
1) The clay in the feet of the image of Daniel 2 represents the church. But notice that the feet also have the iron of the legs. This must mean that the religious system which succeeds the Roman Empire will continue to be Roman.
2) The religion of the Roman Catholic Papacy was inherited from Rome. It is well known that
Constantine the Great brought all sorts of pagan practices into the church. This is recognized by both secular and church historians. In fact, the name ‘Supreme Pontiff’ (Pontifex Maximus) was used by the pagan Roman emperors. After the Edict of Milan was signed in the year 312 A. D., Christians were restored as bona fide citizens of the Roman Empire.
3) The architecture at the Vatican is Roman. Recently, I made a visit to the ruins of the old city of Rome and then on the same day visited Vatican City. The architecture is virtually identical. Also, the old city of Rome was filled with statues of gods and heroes as is Vatican City.
4) The Papal church is called the Roman Catholic Church.
5) The official language of the Vatican is Latin, the language of ancient Rome.
6) In official documents, the Vatican employs Roman numerals.
7) The headquarters of the Papacy is Vatican City, which is located in the geographical location of ancient Rome.
8) Historians and theologians consistently emphasize that Papal Rome inherited and perpetuated the Roman Empire but in a different way: It was a religious-political system.
🔸🔸Characteristic #2: The Roman Catholic Church did arise among the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided.
1. The Ostrogoths in Moesia
2. The Visigoths in Pannonia
3. The Sueves and Alans in Gascoign and Spain
4. The Vandals in Africa
5. The Franks in France
6. The Burgundiansin Burgundy
7. The Heruli and Turingi in Italy
8. The Saxons and Angles in Britain
9. The Huns in Hungary
10. The Lombards at first upon the Danube, afterwards in Italy.
🔸🔸Characteristic #3:
The Roman Catholic Papacy did arise to supremacy after the year 476 A. D. The Papal power could not exercise absolute sovereignty until the ten kingdoms were subjected to its control.
When Odoacer, king of the Heruli, deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476 A. D. the fragmentation of the Roman Empire was complete. Yet even though the ten divisions of the Roman Empire were complete by 476 A. D., there were three who were rebellious and refused to submit to the Bishop of Rome (the Vandals, the Heruli and the Ostrogoths). These had to be removed in order for the papacy to exercise absolute control.
🔸🔸Characteristic #4:
The little horn did uproot three of the ten kingdoms. The story goes like this: Seven of the ten
Barbarian kingdoms were converted to Christianity and submitted to the authority of the Bishop of Rome. However, three of the kingdoms converted to Christianity but embraced the heretical teachings of Arius. Arius (who was presbyter in Alexandria around the year 320 A. D.) taught that ‘Christ was created out of nothing as the first and greatest of all creatures’
The teachings of Arius were condemned in two great church councils, Nicaea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD). These three Arian kingdoms were a threat to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome [later called the Pope]. To make a long story short, these three kingdoms eventually were uprooted by the imperial power acting under the influence of the Bishop of Rome. The Ostrogoths (originally from Yugoslavia), by order of the emperor, dealt the heretical Heruli a devastating defeat in 493.
🔸🔸Characteristic #5:
The Roman Catholic Papacy does claim to have the right and authority to exercise the prerogatives and power of God. The Bible is clear that the Antichrist will sit in the Temple of God, ‘showing himself that he is God (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). Notice the following evidence which incriminates the Roman Catholic Papacy:
🔸It is important to understand the Roman Catholic view of the Mass. In their view,
•The priest has the power to change or transubstantiate the bread into the real flesh of Jesus and the wine into His real blood.
•Christ is contained in his totality (known as ‘ubiquity’) in each host that is distributed by the priest.
•Because Christ is totally present in each host, the host is worshiped by the priest and the faithful.
•Obviously, for these concepts to be true, the priest would have to exercise the powers of Almighty God. And this is just what the Roman Catholic Church believes.
🔸🔸Characteristic #6:
The Roman Catholic Church has been an ardent persecutor of dissenters throughout its history.
It has a history stained in blood. The record is there for everyone who wishes to examine it. We will first make a few remarks about the Biblical view of freedom of conscience and then we will trace the historical record of how Roman Catholicism has trampled on this fundamental freedom.
The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation clearly reveal that God’s people are always the persecuted not the persecutors. During the 1260 years the true church was in exile in the desert (see Revelation 12:6, 14). During this period the true church was persecuted, it did not persecute. But history reveals, indelibly, that the Roman Catholic Church during this period was the persecutor. This makes it crystal clear that the Roman Catholic system was performing the work of the little horn in making war against and wearing out the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:21, 25).
🔸The Inquisition
We must now examine the origin and mechanism of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The origins of this organism can be clearly traced to 1227-1233 A. D., during the pontificate of Gregory IX. In 1229 the church council of Toulouse condemned the Albigenses in France and gave orders to exterminate them. In 1231 Gregory IX in his bull, Excommunicamus, condemned all heretics and proclaimed specific laws on how to deal with them. Among the provisions were the following:
1) Delivery of heretics to the civil power.
2) Excommunication of all heretics as well as their defenders, followers, friends, and even those who failed to turn them in.
3) Life imprisonment for all impenitent heretics.
4) Heretics were denied the right to appeal their sentence.
5) Those suspected of heresy had no right to be defended by counsel.
6) Children of heretics were disqualified from holding a church office until the second generation.
7) Heretics who had died without being punished were to be exhumed and their bodies burned.
8) The homes of convicted heretics were to be demolished. (See, G. Barraclough, The Medieval
Papacy, London, 1968, edited by Thames and Hudson, p. 128; and R. I Moore, ‘The Origins of
Medieval Heresy’, in History, vol. 55 (1970), pp. 21-36
🔸During the pontificate of Innocent IV (1241-1253), the mechanism of the Inquisition was further developed. In the papal bull Ad Extirpanda (1252), the following provisions were given the force of law:
1) Torture must be applied to heretics so as to secure confessions.
2) Those found guilty must be burned at the stake.
3) A police force must be established to serve the needs of the Inquisition.
4) A proclamation of a crusade against all heretics in Italy. Those participating in this crusade were to be extended the same privileges and indulgences as those who went on crusades to the Holy Land.
5) The heirs of heretics were to have their goods confiscated as well.
🔸🔸Characteristic #7:
Daniel 7:25 tells us that the little horn would also think to change the times.
🔸🔸Characteristic #8:
We must now move on to the eighth characteristic of the little horn. Daniel 7:25 also tells us that the little horn thought he could change the law. It is clear in Daniel seven that the little horn is guilty primarily of transgression of the law. We offer the following examples: The little horn slays the saints [sixth commandment], blasphemes the name of God [third commandment], thinks he can change the law [fourth commandment], and proclaims himself God [first commandment].
Revelation 13 adds the fact that this power demands worship to the image he has raised up [second commandment] and Revelation 17 adds that this power fornicates with the kings of the earth [seventh commandment]. In II Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul informs us that this power performs lying wonders [ninth commandment].
But the Roman Catholic catechisms go even further. Invariably, they encourage the faithful to attend mass and rest on Sunday in fulfillment of the third commandment!! First of all, it is the fourth commandment which commands us to rest. But this same commandment also commands us to worship on the 7th day Sabbath, and not on Sunday, the first day of the week! How can the Roman Catholic Church blatantly command the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, when, in its own Bibles command us to worship on Sabbath, the 7th day of the week? The answer is simple. The Roman Catholic Church claims that Christ gave it the authority to change the day from Sabbath to Sunday (more on this when we speak about the 11th characteristic of the little horn). In this way, the Roman Catholic Church is guilty of attempting to change the Law of God.
🔸🔸Characteristic #9:
We shall now see that the Roman Catholic Church is a different power than the kingdoms which came before her. The fundamental difference lies in the fact that the Papacy is an amalgamation of church and state.
🔸🔸Characteristic #10:
The little horn was to govern for a period expressed as ‘time, times and the dividing of time’ (Daniel 7:25; see also, Revelation 12:14). This period is also described as 1260 days (Revelation 11:3; 12:6) and 42 months (Revelation 11:2; 13:5). Virtually all Bible scholars agree that ‘time’ means one year, ‘times’ is a dual form which means ‘two years’ and ‘the dividing of time’ means one half year.
🔸🔸Characteristic #11: The antichrist will have eyes like a man.
Hebrews 4:12, 13
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
With respect to man, eyes are also employed to represent discernment, knowing or understanding but in contrast to God, man’s understanding is finite.