The Little Horn Power
– Daniel 7:1-12
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Rule Three says
apocalyptic language can be literal,
analogous, or symbolic. There are
symbolic elements in this prophecy
because relevant Scripture
defines the symbols. The angel told
Daniel, “The four great
beasts are four kingdoms that will
rise from the earth.”[34] Notice
the clarity when God defines a
symbol: “The fourth beast
is a fourth kingdom that will appear
on Earth. It will be different from
all the other kingdoms and will
devour the whole earth, trampling it
down and crushing it. The ten horns
are ten kings who will come from this
kingdom. After them another king will
arise, different from the earlier
ones; he will subdue three
kings.”[35] History
leaves no doubt concerning the
identity of the fourth beast or the
little horn that uprooted three
horns. When God creates a symbol, He
clearly defines the meaning of that
symbol. This simple process
eliminates personal bias, confusion,
and theological putty. The Bible will
speak plainly and clearly; if it is
permitted to do so.
Rule Four says
the presence or absence of the
Jubilee Calendar determines how God
measures time. “He [the
little horn] will speak against
the Most High and oppress his saints
and try to change the set times and
the laws. The saints will be handed
over to him for a time, times and
half a time.”[36] A short
presentation on God’s Jubilee
Calendar is offered in Appendix A.
For now, please consider this: The
ancients believed planet Earth stood
still and the Sun orbited around the
Earth. One complete cycle of the Sun
(a solar year) was called a year or
“a time.” The Hebrew word
used in Daniel 7:25 for “a
time” is‘hiddan’ and
it means a defined period of time
– such as a solar year. For
purposes of calculation, the Jews
divided a year into 360 degrees of
arc. This technique was most likely
derived from observing the number of
“sun widths” in a solar
year. Each day, when the Sun rises,
it appears to move through the twelve
constellations by approximately one
“sun width.” Thus, a solar
year consists of four seasons and
each season is counted as 90
“Sun widths.” For planting
purposes, a solar calendar is very
useful and even today, many people
plant crops according to a solar
calendar. Furthermore, a solar
calendar was useful to Israel because
God’s year can be anywhere from
355 to 384 days in length depending
on the cycles of the moon. Therefore,
the Jews regarded a calculated
year or solar year to be
360 days because the Sun appears to
move about 1 degree of arc per day.
This forces the absolute distance
between two Spring Equinoxes to be
360 degrees. Comparing Revelation
12:6 with 12:14 we find that 1,260
days equals a time, times, and half a
time. The math becomes easy to
understand because 360 degrees + 720
degrees + 180 degrees equals 1,260
degrees/days.
Rule Four requires
all time periods to be translated
according to a day for a year if
God’s Jubilee Calendar is in
operation. (1437 B.C. to 1994)
Therefore, the time, times, and half
a time in Daniel 7:25 equals 1,260
days which must be translated as a
day for a year. History easily
confirms the validity of this
calculation.
Additional
Note
When
Justinian I (A.D. 483-565) became the
ruler of what remained of the Roman
Empire in A.D. 527, he aspired to
rebuild and restore the empire to its
former glory. At the time, Europe and
northern Africa had splintered into
tribal nations and the city of Rome
had been pillaged and burned just
fifty years earlier. Western
civilization had been fragmented by
religion, ethnicity, culture, and
language. Justinian knew that he
could not directly impose Roman
authority on the tribal nations that
had pulled the empire apart. He did
not have the military might to force
them into submission. However,
Justinian believed there was an
indirect way to unify and rebuild the
Roman Empire. About A.D. 533, he
created this law: Everyone
under the jurisdiction of the empire
is required to be a Christian.
Justinian
thought that Christianity would help
unify the Roman Empire. As religions
go, Christianity was a good thing.
Christianity exalted honesty and
integrity, and it had one Supreme God
(unlike the polytheistic religion of
the Romans). When Justinian imposed
his demand that everyone under the
jurisdiction of the empire must be a
Christian, he gave authority to the
head of the Christian Church at
Rome (the pope) to
determine who was a Christian and who
was not. (This was a political
solution that would later prove
disastrous for more than twelve
centuries.) The pope could not
implement Justinian’s law in
A.D. 533 because three tribal nations
(the Ostrogoths, Heruli, and Vandals)
were waging war against his
authority. (These tribal nations were
opposed to certain religious views
which the pope had endorsed and they
wanted to kill the pope for
corrupting the Christian faith.) To
make matters worse, Justinian’s
law and his deference to the pope
made them furious.
A series of
deadly battles occurred between 534
and 537 and eventually, the Heruli
and the Vandals were subdued. In A.D.
537, the Ostrogoths set siege to the
city of Rome hoping they could starve
the city and capture the pope (who
was inside), but Justinian’s
general, Belesarius, arrived at Rome
and broke the siege. Pope Silverius
escaped without harm. After the
rescue, Belesarius discovered some
correspondence indicating that Pope
Silverius had been secretly
negotiating with the Ostrogoths to
end the siege and Belesarius was
outraged. Belesairus removed
Silverius from his position as pope
and demoted him to the position of
monk. This happened in March, A.D.
537.
After he
removed Silverius from office,
Belesarius appointed Vigilius to be
the next pope. About a year later, in
A.D. 538, Pope Vigilius began to
exercise authority that previous
popes did not have. As you might
understand, this enormous power was
abused and over time, the Roman
Catholic Church dominated all of
Europe! Justinian created a
law that had unintended consequences
for 1,260 years! The devil
made a hand puppet out of the Church.
He took control of the Church and
through it, found a way to persecute
God’s people. “When
the dragon [the devil] saw
that he had been hurled to the Earth [cast
out of Heaven on Resurrection Sunday],
he pursued the woman [the people
of God] who had given birth to
the male child [in 4 B.C.]. The
woman was given the two wings of a
great eagle, so that she might [escape] fly
to the place prepared for her in the
desert, where she would be taken care
of for a time, times and half a time, [1,260
years] out of the serpent’s
reach.”[37]
The 1,260
years ended when General Berthier,
obeying orders from Napoleon, entered
Vatican City and arrested the pope on
February 20, 1798 on the grounds that
the pope refused to renounce temporal
(civil) authority over Europe. On
March 7, 1798, Napoleon’s Army
entered Rome and established the
Roman Republic. The civil power of
the papacy over Europe was finally
broken. So, calculating 1,260 years
backward from 1798, we can see that
Lucifer begin chasing God’s
people in A.D. 538. Using the Church
as a hand puppet, John saw the devil
chase the woman into the wilderness
for 1,260 years and history affirms
that “the persecuted”
eventually became “the
persecutors” of the woman.
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