Instead of taking the time to type out all of chapter 7, I am going to ask you to read it for yourself. You should have an easy-to-read version of the Bible. When studying the details of the book of Daniel it is important that you have a version that is a word-for-word, or direct translation, of the original languages and not a paraphrase.
In the first year of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, the prophet Daniel had a vision during the night. While in vision he saw the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea. He then saw four great beasts come up from the sea and each beast was different from the others.
The first beast was like a lion, but it is described has having the wings of an eagle. As he was looking, he saw its wings plucked off, it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it.
The second beast that came up out of the sea looked like a bear. He saw that it was raised up on one side. He also noticed that it had three ribs in its mouth and someone said “’Arise, devour much flesh!’”
Next, a third beast came up out of the sea. This one looked like a leopard, but on its back it had four wings like a bird. It also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
As he continued to look, Daniel saw a fourth beast come out of the sea. He said it was dreadful, terrible and exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth and it was devouring everything it came upon, breaking everything into pieces and trampling what was left with its feet. He then mentioned that it had ten horns.
As he was looking at the horns he saw another horn, a little one, coming up in the middle of the other horns. It plucked up three of the other horns by the roots and took their place. As he looked more closely, he noticed that this little horn had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words.
Before the last beast disappeared, the scene changed and Daniel was given a vision of Heaven. He saw thrones being set up for a special occasion and soon the Ancient of Days came and took his seat; the scene was one of powerful majesty and can only represent the God of Heaven and Earth. Daniel wrote that thousands upon thousands attended him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood there ready to serve him. He went on to say that the court was seated and the books were opened; a judgment had begun.
While this judgment was going on Daniel said that he could still hear the little horn speaking pompous words. As he watched, the fourth beast was slain and its body and horns destroyed and given to the burning flame.
Once again, the scene changed and he saw someone who looked like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and presented himself before him.
The Ancient of Days gave the one who looked like the Son of Man dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. Daniel said that the Son of Man’s dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never pass away and His kingdom was one that will never be destroyed.
I want you to notice the similarity in the vision Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter 2 and the vision Daniel had that I have just related.
Before we get too far into the similarities however, we need to understand what some of the symbolism stands for in the vision that Daniel just described. In every case when studying the Bible, or when dealing with prophetic symbolism, it is important to let the Bible be its own interpreter. By not following that one guideline people have come up with whatever interpretation fits their own personal belief. As a result, there is that confusion that is so common in Bible study today. Scripture itself says that "no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." - 2 Peter 1:20, 21. It stands to reason then that the interpretation of what was inspired will also be provided within the text of everything else that the Holy Spirit has inspired.
The last part of chapter 7 gives an outline interpretation of the dream that Daniel had. Daniel was greatly troubled by what he had seen in the vision because he could not make sense out of what he was seeing. While still in vision, he asked an angel who was there to tell him what it all meant.
The angel said that the four beasts he had seen coming up out of the sea represented four kingdoms that would arise, one after the other. The angel went on to say that the kingdom of the saints would eventually take the place of all of those kingdoms and their kingdom would last forever and ever. Do you see the similarity to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream now?
Just like Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image of the four different metals that represented successive world kingdoms, Daniel was given a similar vision, only this vision used four different animals and it added a few more details to the dream that had not been given in chapter 2.
Unless there is reason to suggest otherwise, all scripture is to be taken literally. If there is a good reason to think that it is symbolic, then everything that is symbolic is to be interpreted by the things that are real. The language in chapter 7 is symbolic because verse 17 says, “’Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth.’”
The symbols that are brought up in chapter 7 are: 1. The four winds 2. The sea 3. Four great beasts 4. Ten horns 5. Another horn with eyes and a mouth that went to war against God and his people.
Using the Bible to interpret itself we find that winds, in its literal sense, is often a disruptive, violent and destructive force. In symbolic language, it represents strife, political unrest and war.
“The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; but God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.” – Isaiah 17:13. “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,a destroying wind.’” – Jeremiah 51:1. "They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind.” – Habakkuk 1:9.
A correct definition of the sea, or waters, is very adequately found in Revelation 17:15 where an angel says, “’The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.’”
The angel who gives Daniel the interpretation of his dream says that the ten horns represent "ten kings who shall arise from this (dreadful beast) kingdom." - Daniel 7:24.
Speaking of the horn with eyes and a mouth the angel says, "And another (king) shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings.
A correct definition of the symbol of the four animals is given to Daniel at the close of the vision in verse 17. “’Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth.’”
All of the animals emerging out of the sea are kingdoms arising, one after the other, because of the "winds" of political strife and unrest. They are kingdoms that find their roots in the "watery" masses of humanity.
According to what God said in Daniel chapter 2, there will only be four world kingdoms until the end of time and that the last world kingdom would be divided up into ten kingdoms.
The first animal that comes out of the watery population of the nations of the world, because of political strife and unrest, was a lion with eagle wings and it represented the kingdom of Babylon. It was represented by a head of gold on the image in chapter 2.
At first, the lion had wings like an eagle, representing the speed at which Babylon extended its empire under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar. Later in the vision, the wings were plucked from the lion and it no longer flew like an eagle after its prey. The strength, spirit and boldness of the lion were gone, it was made to stand on two feet and a man’s heart; weak, fearful and timid, is given to it, which is exactly how the kingdom of Babylon ended its reign in the closing years of its history. It had become feeble and soft because of its wealth and luxury.
The second animal to come out of the watery population of the nations of the world, because of political strife and unrest, was a bear that was taller on one side of its body than the other side. It also had three ribs in its mouth. It was told to devour as much flesh as it wanted.
In Daniel chapter 2 the silver is inferior to the gold. In chapter 7 the bear is inferior to the lion. Medo-Persian, the Empire that followed Babylon, was way short of Babylon in wealth and splendor.
In the symbolism of the bear we have two items that are added in regards to the Medo-Persian Kingdom; details that were not mentioned in chapter 2. The bear was said to be higher on one side of its body than the other side and there were three ribs in the bear's mouth.
In the Medo-Persian Empire, the Medes were the power that came onto the scene first. The Persian Kingdom, coming along second and co-ruling the world government, later became the pre-eminent power of the Medo-Persian Empire. Therefore it is represented by the higher side of the bear. We will see that division of two again when we look at another vision that is given to Daniel in Chapter 8.
The three ribs in the mouth of the bear represented the three provinces that were devoured by the power of the Persian kingdom before it could come into predominant power. Those three provinces were Babylon, Lydia and Egypt.
In Daniel’s vision the third kingdom to come out of the watery population of the nations of the world, because of political strife and unrest, was represented by a leopard with four wings on its back and also four heads; the kingdom of Greece. Earlier, the lion of the vision had two wings, which represented speed as it conquered. Four wings represent even greater speed.
There is not a historian in the world who will deny that the kingdom of Greece, which was led by Alexander, was brought onto the world stage with a speed and swiftness incomparable to any other kingdom, before or since. The symbol of swiftness, represented by the four wings, is very fitting.
In Daniel’s vision, the heads of the leopard are representative of one more additional detail that the image of Nebuchadnezzar did not bring to light. When Alexander died at the young age of 32 his kingdom was eventually separated into four divisions and was ruled by his four leading generals. Cassander had Macedon and Greece in the west; Lysimachus had Thrace and the parts of Asia on the Hellespont and Bosphorus in the north; Ptolemy received Egypt, Lydia, Arabia, Palestine and Coele-Syria in the south; and Seleucus had Syria and all the rest of Alexander’s dominions in the east. The four divisions were still considered the Grecian Empire and remained the Grecian Empire until the fourth beast that followed the leopard came onto the scene. We will once again see that division of four when we examine the second vision that Daniel receives in Chapter 8.
The fourth and last animal to come out of the watery population of the nations of the world, because of political strife and unrest, was described by Daniel as something he had never seen before. It was monstrous, powerful and extremely frightening to look at. It had huge iron teeth and chewed up everything that it killed. What was left, it trampled down with its huge feet; it also had ten horns.
This beast matches the fourth metalic division of the great image that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream, the legs of iron, or the Roman Empire. In both visions, the kingdom of Rome was accurately depicted by the legs of iron and by the fourth beast in this chapter. It devoured as an animal would with iron teeth. It broke into pieces and crushed into dust those nations it conquered and then ground them into the Earth with its feet. It also had ten horns, which are explained in chapter 7:24 of Daniel’s vision as being ten kings, or kingdoms, arising out of this empire.
In review we can look back into history and find the nations that arose out of the empire of Rome, represented by the ten toes of the image of chapter 2 and that are now represented by the ten horns that sprouted from the head of the beast in this chapter. They are the: 1. Anglo-Saxons 2. Franks 3. Alamanni 4. Lombards 5. Ostrogoths 6. Heruli 7. Burgundians 8. Visigoths 9. Suevi 10. Vandals
While Daniel was intently looking at the ten horns that had sprouted from the head of the beast he saw a little horn sprout up among the horns already there. This little horn continued to grow and as it did so it plucked up three of the other horns by the roots so it could make room for itself.
Notice the characteristics of this little horn that came up last. It had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. In other words, it was intelligent, cunning, proud and arrogant.
Before continuing and identifying the little horn, I want to direct your attention to a statement issued by Pope John Paul II.
Once again, I am going off on another tangent. Hopefully, these little side trips are not too boring. It has been necessary in every case however, to wander away from the narrative for a while in order to gain other information that is important to the subject.
Please understand, where I am going right now is not very pleasant to me and it might not be very pleasant to many other people. It is important to understand though…and unfortunately it is all a matter of historical fact.
In March of 2000 the Vatican issued an apology for past "sins" committed by its church members. This statement was approved by Pope John Paul II and was written by Cardinal Ratzinger, John Paul II's successor as pope. Sin is a rather weak word when categorizing the actual events that have taken place in the Catholic Church's history, but I am not going to quibble over words right now. What I will do though, is let those words speak for themselves. Also, if you would like to study more of this statement you will find plenty of references to it on the www.
The content of the Vatican's statement is summed up as:
MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION The Church and Faults of the Past.
The apologies being made are on behalf of unidentified “sons and daughters” of the church, but not on behalf of the church itself.
Pope John Paul II delivered a homily in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome where he verbalized the Vatican's statement. He apologized for wrongs done to “women, Jews, Gypsies (Roma), other Christians and Catholics.” Some excerpts from Pope John Paul II's speech are as follows:
Concerning the church’s relationship to Jews, the pope said, “We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood.”
In the treatment of individuals who the church considered heretics and to the different divisions within Christianity and in regards to religious intolerance, the pope said: “We are asking pardon from the divisions among Christians, for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions.”
The confession refers to the different past admissions of error, such as those made by Pope Hadrian VI, Pope Paul VI and Vatican II. It also points out that Pope John Paul II's latest apology is unique in church history because, “…he also extended a request for forgiveness.”
Since the subtitle of the Vatican's document is, The Church and Faults of the Past, it is clear that the Catholic Church was apologizing for past errors, faults, abuses, criminal acts, immoral acts, etc., by the church. However, the apology points out that it is the individuals, not the church itself, who are being blamed for the mistakes of the past.
I do not know how it possible to separate the individuals within the church from the church itself and make them two separate and distinct entities. It is the individuals who make up the church; therefore if the individuals leading the church are wrong in their actions then the church itself is wrong, especially if the "wrongs" committed in the past were done so by the authority of and under the direction of the popes, the true leaders of the church, who also claim to be the physical representatives of Christ on Earth. If what they are saying is that God Himself was not responsible for the actions of the members within the church then in that case they would be right.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the church is composed of two components: 1. A visible church, made up of individuals, consisting of the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, other religious persons and the laity. 2. The “Church’s Spirit”, referred to as the “Spotless Bride of Christ”.
The Catholic Church believes that the church, as an institution, is seen as component #2, pure and without fault. It is said to be maintained by God, so it is free of error, both in the past and in the present. They are declaring that individual members of the church, as described by component #1, are the ones who bear the responsibility for past horrors and inhumanities.
The "Spotless Bride of Christ" however, is that group of believers and followers of God as seen in component #1. Component #2 cannot be separated from Component #1 because it is the Spirit that truly makes up the lives of those who make up the church. Without the Spirit, all that would be left would be nothing more than a building, an object without a spirit. The true "Church's Spirit" is that group of God's children who are filled with his Spirit. Those true believers would be followers of his and would live lives of non-violence towards all people, in the same way that Jesus/Christ lived a life of non-violence and instead, repaid violence with love and forgiveness. The popes who commanded the destruction and torture of heretics and unbelievers would not have been filled with the Spirit of God...even though they did claim to be God on Earth.
The report says, “From a theological point of view, Vatican II distinguishes between the indefectible (inexcusable) fidelity (faithful obligations) of the church and the weakness of her members, clergy or laity, yesterday and today.”
Referring to the instructions from the popes, church leaders and councils that resulted in burning hundreds of thousands of Jews alive, driving them from entire countries and forcing them into ghettos, the document said: “The hostility and wariness of numerous Christians toward Jews over the course of time is a painful historic fact.” The pope mentioned “attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions.”
In the past the church, by order of the popes, has jailed, tortured and burned alive, people who were outspoken and who differed with the church’s interpretation of life and the Bible; individuals such as outspoken scientists, people perceived to be heretics, natural healers, midwives and others.
Referring to the wars of extermination committed by the church, at the direction of the popes, against the Cathars, Knights, Templars and other break-away Christian groups, the Pope referred to “the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth.”
Also mentioned was the past “lack of discernment by many Christians in situations where basic human rights were violated.”
Father Brugues was a little more open and direct in what he said. According to Reuters, he said, “This was a reference to the Inquisition, which was marked by the torture and killing of people branded as heretics, and the enforced conversion of non-believers.”
There have been many reversals of church belief in the past. The popes of the Catholic Church once taught that slavery was acceptable under a wide range of situations. It has since reversed its stance.
The Catholic Church, at the direction of the popes, placed under house arrest or burned alive a number of scientists and philosophers, such as Galileo and Bruno. Their “crimes” were to promote concepts that conflicted with church beliefs – beliefs that have since been reversed.
Those of you who are my age, or older, should remember that the Catholic Church, again under the direction of the popes, once taught parents that they should not give their children inoculations against disease because it would be against God’s will. It was taught that it was God's will that a certain percentage of children die and inoculations would have prevented those deaths. The church has since reversed its teachings.
The actions of the Catholic Church have always been and will always be, directed by the leadership of the popes, and those within the church have always followed the sole directives of that papal leadership.
Everyone, including all religious leaders, are human in their thinking and their actions. Those human actions can often be cruel and bloodthirsty in spite of the profession of peace and love that comes from their lips.
When any human led organization, whether it is political, secular or religious, insists that others do as they say on pain of punishment, we have always found those punishments to eventually become forceful and even cruel to the point of being deadly.
Wherever there is humanity you will find rebellion against the ways of God. The rebellion of the angels in Heaven spread to our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Rebellion had also been expressed as cruelty on a world wide basis in the years before the Earth was destroyed by a flood and rebellion and cruelty has been easy to see in the years since that time. Rebellion has expressed itself in cruelty and death by those with secular power and also by those who claim to represent God. Those with religious power have projected cruel punishment on those who have dared to go against “the ways of God”, according to their way of thinking. Those “ways of God” were merely the ways of men who claimed to stand in the place of God and to have the only true understanding of his word as found in the Bible. The most notable example of this was during the time of the popes in the early centuries of the Christian church. That cruel and deadly time lasted from 538 A.D. until 1798 A.D. when the power of the popes was taken away by the French General Berthier. At that time he and his army marched into Rome and took the pope away in chains.
I am not bringing out anything new here; I am merely pointing out facts as Pope Paul II has pointed them out...and apologized for. Since the subject of our study is prophecy you are going to find that all of what we consider as history was known by God and that it was written down by men before the events took place. In that way God has communicated with us so that we, in the future, could see that there is one who knows the end from the beginning. God knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew the future from Daniel's perspective of time and space. For us it is all history and it is not the best of histories, especially as far as Christians are concerned. There were many cruel and bloody events in the past that were all done in the name of God. In reality they were only the actions of cruel and bloody men who claimed to stand in the place of God.
Now then, you are probably wondering why we have gone from a little horn uprooting three other horns, to the recent apology of the pope for the past transgressions of some people within the Catholic church?
The little horn that uprooted three other horns to make room for itself, the one with the eyes of a man and a voice speaking boastful and arrogant things can be identified by history itself.
In 530 A.D. Justinian, the Eastern Roman Emperor, issued a decree proclaiming the pope to be the head of all the churches and the corrector of heretics. At that time the pope was given the governmental power to intervene in the affairs of all nations.
Looking back into history we can see that, between 493 A.D. and 538 A.D., three kingdoms were overthrown under the direction of the papal leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. The reason those three nations were “uprooted” is because they were of the Arian faith.
Arianism found its beginnings in the teachings of a priest of Alexandria by the name of Arius who lived from 250 A.D. to 336 A.D. He taught that Christ was the first created being and was therefore inferior to God the Father.
In 325 A.D. the Roman emperor Constantine called together the Council of Nicea, condemned Arius as a heretic and declared that his teachings were heresy. In spite of this condemnation the teachings of Arianism continued to grow until four of the ten nations that developed out of the declining Roman Empire were Arian in their beliefs. Three of those four were the Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths.
The newly formed papal power of Rome agreed with Emperor Constantine's declaration of heresy and the Council of Nicea and made it their purpose to destroy those heretical nations that believed in Arianism.
THE HERULI
John Clarke Ridpath, in his History of the World says, “The first kingdom established by the barbarians in Italy was that of the Heruli.” He also says that they were overthrown by the Ostrogoths in 493 A.D. under the command of the Ostrogothic Emperor Theodoric, in what Theodoric called, a divine commission from the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno. “Zeno, in spite of his personal feeling, came to the throne as the champion of the Catholic party.” – Henoticon, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Even though the Heruli and Ostrogoths were both Arian in belief that did not stop the papal power of Rome from using one to destroy the other as long as it led to the advancement of their plans. The nation of the Heruli was so completely uprooted that no trace of it is left in the modern world.
THE VANDALS
The Vandals entered northern Africa and took control of Carthage in 431 A.D. Because they agreed with the Arian doctrine they were also singled out for destruction. Ridpath says they were destroyed in 534 A.D.
"Their power was at its height when Genseric died (in 477 A.D.). In his time the Vandals became Christians, but they were Arians, and fiercely persecuted orthodox believers and other heretics. In 533 the Byzantine general, Belisarius, landed in Africa. The Vandals were several times defeated, and Carthage was entered on Sept. 15, 533; and in November of the same year they were routed in the decisive battle of Tricamaron. In the next year Africa, Sardina, and Porsica were restored to the Roman Empire. As a nation, the Vandals soon ceased to exist." - Nelson's Encyclopedia, Vol. XII.
"It is reckoned that during the reign of Justinian, Africa lost five millions of inhabitants; thus Arianism was extinguished in that region, not by any enforcement of conformity, but by the extermination of the race which had introduced and professed it." – J. C. Robertson, History of the Christian Church, Vol. I, p. 521.
THE OSTROGOTHS
Ridpath states that the nation of the Ostrogoths was established in 493 A.D. and that it was overthrown in 538 A.D.
"Bishop Wulfila, or Ulfilas, labored for forty years among the Goths, and saw as the fruits of his labors the conversion of the entire people to the Arian branch of Christianity....The Ostrogoths had grown to be first in influence among the barbarian states....In religious faith Theodoric, like his people, was an Arian. This fact opened a chasm between the Goths and the Italians, the latter accepting the Nicene creed....Certain it is that Justinian, who had now succeeded to power at Constantinople, resolved to purge the church of heresy as well in the West as in his paternal dominions." - Ridpath, History of the World, Vol. IV.
Once again the Emperor Justinian used Belisarius. This time he used him to destroy the Ostrogoths, just as he had used him to destroy the Vandals.
"Nearly the whole Gothic nation gathered around the Eternal City; but Belisarius held out until reinforcements arrived from the East, and after a siege of a year and nine days' duration, Rome was delivered from the clutch of her assailants. Vitiges (the Ostrogothic leader) was obliged to burn his tents and retreat before his pursuing antagonist to Ravena....It was evident that the kingdom of the Goths was in the hour and article of death." - Ridpath, History of the World, Vol. IV.
Speaking of the final defeat of the Goths in 538 A.D., Ridpath says that there was "inflicted on the barbarians a defeat so decisive as to refix the status of Italy. The greater part of the Gothic army perished either by the sword or in attempting to cross the river...As for the Goths, they either retired to their native seats beyond the mountains or were absorbed by the Italians." – Ridpath, History of the World, Vol. IV.
The three Arian nations, the Heruli, the Ostrogoths and the Vandals, who refused to renounce their heretical Arian belief, were uprooted and the rest of the people who believed in Arianism became orthodox believers. The pope of Rome, with the defeat of the last tribe of Arian dissenters in 538 A.D., was now the undisputed ruler of nations and the corrector of heretics.
When a religious power declares, and has the majority of people on the Earth believe, that they will lose their eternal salvation if they disagree with it, then those people eventually become enslaved to superstition and religious fraud. There is not a single person, or religious group that has been given the power to decide or control anyone else’s eternal fate. Power like that belongs only to the Creator of this world. To stand in the place of God and make great claims of that nature is to stand where the little horn stood. It is a power speaking arrogantly and boastfully. It is a power standing in the place of God himself. It is a power claiming to be the only human representative of God on the Earth.
In Daniel 7:24:25, Daniel asked the angel to explain in more detail about the fourth more terrible beast and he specifically wanted to know about the little horn that uprooted the three other horns.
The angel told Daniel: “The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom (the Roman Empire). And another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. 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 will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.”
In letting the Bible interpret itself, whenever a day is mentioned as a period of time in prophecy, that day is equal to one year. The scriptural authority for that interpretation is found in Ezekiel 4:4-6. God told Ezekiel that he was to lie on his left side for a period of 390 days while the iniquity of Israel was laid upon him. After that he was to lie on his right side for a period of 40 days while the iniquity of Judah was laid upon him. Those days prophetically corresponded to years as God told Ezekiel in verse 6, “I have laid on you a day for each year.” As we proceed you will see how true that interpretation of prophetic time is.
A time, in prophetic understanding, is one year in length. Times, following the same reasoning is a period of 2 years. Half a time would be considered ½ of a year.
Daniel is told that the power of the little horn would last for “…a time and times and half a time”, or 1 year + 2 years + ½ a year, or 3 ½ years.
During the time of the scriptures, one year was 360 days long. Therefore, the three and one half prophetic years this little horn would try to take the place of God would more accurately be 360 days X 3½ years, or 1,260 days. A day for a year would turn those 1,260 days into 1,260 prophetic years.
If you have been following my reasoning here then you will see that the angel had told Daniel that the little horn that had uprooted the other three horns was going to remain in power for 3 ½ years or 1,260 days/years.
All we have to do to verify the accuracy of the prophecy of Daniel 7:24, 25 is to look at the time period when the three kingdoms were uprooted and ask if there was:
1. A power arising when those three kingdoms were subdued. 2. Did it last for 1,260 years? 3. Did this power try to take the place of God and actually boast about it? 4. Did it wage an aggressive campaign against Gods people? 5. Did it attempt to change God’s law?
Yes to all of the above. The papacy issued the orders of extermination to Belisarius and assisted by providing financing and soldiers to fight in the religious war that destroyed the kingdoms of the Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. When the final kingdom was destroyed in 538 A.D., the time period of the 1,260 years began. That was the year the papacy first became the dominant power, both politically and religiously. Its power continued to grow and grip the spiritual souls of people until it was stopped in the year 1798, exactly 1,260 years later, when Berthier, with the French army, entered Rome, declared it a republic, took the pope prisoner and abolished the papacy; giving it a deadly wound.
During its time of power the papacy tried and succeeded to a great extent, to take the place of God and actually boasted about it. The papacy has embraced the self-approved titles of the pope as “Vicegerent of the Son of God” and “Lord God, the Pope”. - See gloss on The Extravagantes of Pope John XXII, title 4, ch 4, “Declaramus”.
Pope Nicholas told Emperor Michael: “The pope can never be bound or loosed by the secular power, since it is plain that he was called God by the pious prince Constantine…and it is manifest that God can not be judged by man. - Decreti Prima Pars. Distinctio XCVI, Caput 8.
“The pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ himself hidden under the veil of the flesh. Does the pope speak? It is Jesus Christ who speaks.” - Catholique Nationale, July 13, 1895.
Until the early seventeenth century the mitre or crown, worn by the popes, had the words, “Vicarius Filii Dei” printed on the front. It was later removed, but the Catholic Church still uses this phrase in their ceremonies whenever a new pope is ordained. Vicarius Filii Dei means “vicar,” or “substitute of the Son of God.”
The power I have described so far was also said to make war against God’s people. Once again, I ask, did such a thing happen during the 1,260 year reign of the papacy? Once again, I must answer yes and once again, all I have to do is point you to history and even the admissions of Pope Paul II and others in the Catholic Church to verify the claim that for many years the papal Church has pursued a relentless, violent work against the followers of God. Chapter after chapter could be written if space allowed it. Wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions and persecutions of all kinds; these were their weapons of extinction.
Scott's, Church History says, “No computation can reach the numbers who have been put to death in different ways, on account of their maintaining the profession of the gospel, and opposing the corruptions of the Church of Rome. A million Waldenses perished in France; nine-hundred-thousand orthodox Christians were slain in less than thirty years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted of having put to death in the Netherlands thirty-six-thousand by the hand of the common executioner during the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed, by various tortures, one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand within thirty years.”
These are only a few of the events history has recorded. The total amount will never be known until the end of time when all will be made public by the decree of God himself. It is estimated that millions more than fifty million people were put to death for “heresy” by those who were leading the papal Church.
Lastly, the papacy, as depicted by the little horn, is said to think to change the law of God. As proof of this, I only have to point you to the Ten Commandments as printed in the Catholic Bible and in their catechism.
Close inspection will show, when you compare it to the original texts, that the Catholic version has removed the second commandment forbidding images. Because of that creative editing another change had to be made. With the second commandment forbidding images removed from the Catholic version of the Ten Commandments, there was then a noticeable discrepancy, since there were then only nine commandments left instead of ten. To solve that problem the tenth commandment of the original Ten Commandments was divided into two in the Catholic version so that commandments nine and ten both forbid coveting. In the original version of the Bible only the tenth commandment forbids coveting.
Also, as you read the fourth commandment in the Catholic Bible you will find that it is shortened to the point where it only mentions that you should “Keep Holy the Sabbath Day”. The original text says to remember the Sabbath Day because God created the Earth in six days and that he rested on the seventh day. It also says we are not to do any work on the seventh day because it is a day that is Holy to the Lord.
History shows that, beginning around the year 200 A.D., there was a decided shift from people worshipping on the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week; “in honor of the Lord’s resurrection”.
Nowhere in the Bible will you find any authorization for the change from the seventh day of rest to resting on the first day of the week. Changing the day of worship from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day, was slowly instituted over a period of years by the Roman Catholic Church and has finally been accepted by the majority of Christians as the only true day to worship God; the seventh day is said to be a holdover from Judaism and is supposedly no longer in effect.
Since the focus of this book is meant to be more historical than philosophical, I will not get into the purposes of the Catholic Church for making the change from Saturday, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week. The change of worship was made though and even the Catholic Church itself admits to making that change.
The following are just a few of the numerous quotes by the leaders of the Catholic Church cataloging the change of the day of worship from Saturday, the seventh day of the week to Sunday, the first day of the week. It is all out there on the great www.com.
“But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.” - James Cardinal Gibbons, Roman Catholic Confessions, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., p. 89.
Question: “Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?” Answer: “Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority. - Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.
Question: “Which is the Sabbath day?” Answer: “Saturday is the Sabbath day.”
Question: “Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?” Answer: “We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. - Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R. The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1957, p. 50.
“Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The Church instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority of purgatory as we have for Sunday. - Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics are Asked About, 1927, p. 136.
"Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them (makes them fools) in the eyes of every thinking man. “We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible, we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages, and a thousand other laws. It is always somewhat laughable; to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.” - Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, IL.
I found the previous quotes on the Internet and it provides many more resource materials to verify the change in the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. As the previous authorities have clarified, it is a day for which there is no divine authority. Unless of course you consider the Catholic Church, as it considers itself, to be the only other divine authority there is. By doing so they are making themselves gods; equal to the Creator of the universe.
Daniel chapter 7 ends in much the same way that Daniel chapter 2 ended. Chapter 2 ends with the image being destroyed by a rock cut from a mountain without hands, which continues to grow until it fills the entire world. Daniel’s vision in chapter 7 ends with one who looked like the Son of Man being given a kingdom by the Ancient of Days, a kingdom with no end.
The power of secular rule will be destroyed by the power of the living God of Heaven and his kingdom of peace will be established for the rest of time.
You should now be able to see the similarities between Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7. As we continue throughout the rest of the book of Daniel, you will see even more detail being added to these two chapters. It will be done in such a way that you will be left with the awesome realization that the God of Heaven is in complete control of the events of this world. We are in good hands.