10 March 2010 ©Homer Kizer
Rereading Prophecy
The Little Horn
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I [Daniel] saw in my vision by night …
As I looked,
thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:2, 9–14)
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1.
Human kings do not speak great words or blasphemous words to the Ancient of Days. So the little horn that came up on the head of the fourth king; the little horn before which three of the first ten horns are uprooted; the little horn with eyes like a man and a mouth speaking great things—this little horn is not a human being, is not the Pope, and is different from the ten horns on the head of the fourth king. But this little horn is here seen from the perspective of the heavenly realm.
If the man Daniel trembled and fell onto his face in the presence of an angel (Dan 10:8–9), who would the man be to speak face to face with God and live? The Lord tells Moses, “‘You shall not see my face, for man shall not see me and live’” (Ex 33:20). So the little horn who “‘shall speak words against the Most High, / and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, / and shall think to change the times and the law’” (Dan 7:25) — this little horn shall have his dominion taken away (v. 26) when dominion is taken from the fourth king and from the three other beasts [kings] whose lives are extended for “a season and a time” (v. 12). This little horn shall rule over human beings for a time, times, and half a time when “they” [the saints, times and the law] are given into his hand (again, v. 25).
But dominion is given to the leopard, the third king: “After this I [Daniel] looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it” (Dan 7:6 emphasis added).
Daniel records “the sum” (7:1) of his vision, and Daniel doesn’t record dominion over the saints being given to the lion (made to appear as a man) or to the bear or to the terrifying fourth king; however, Daniel records dominion being taken from all four beasts [kings] as well as from the little horn and given to one like the Son of Man. This kingdom and dominion includes “‘the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven’” (v. 27), and this kingdom “‘shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High’” and their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, / and all dominions shall serve and obey them’” (also, v. 27). So the dominion given to the leopard and shared with the other three kings and apparently usurped by the little horn is the same dominion as is given to the Son of Man to establish an everlasting kingdom—“‘a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor … left to another people’” (Isa 2:44).
The single kingdom of this world is not given to the Son of Man many times, but one time, and this one time is also seen in John’s vision [the Book of Revelation]:
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Rev 11:15–19)
One event—giving the kingdom of this world to the Son of Man—but two portrayals of this event: Daniel’s vision can be aligned with John’s vision through this one-time giving of the kingdom to the Son of Man.
Jesus Christ is not today a man, but the glorified Son of the Most High. And when saints receive the kingdom as younger brothers of Christ Jesus (Rom 8:29), they too will be glorified spirit beings. Plus, the king of Persia who withstood the angel bringing Daniel knowledge for 21 days was not a human king, but angelic king. So it logically follows that the dominion taken from the four beasts/kings is authority to rule this world as the prince of the power of the air; as the prince of this world. For in Daniel’s vision, all who appear or would appear before the throne of the Ancient of Days are spiritual beings. However, the little horn is different from the other horns, and it is this difference that makes all the difference.
The phrase a time, times, and half a time represents a period three and a half units long from the perspective of the Most High; e.g., a time, times, and half a time represents the three and a half millennia between the first Passover and the Second Passover as well the forty-two months or 1260 days when the woman is nourished in the wilderness (cf. Rev 12:6, 14; 13:5) and the 1260 days of the ministry of the two witnesses (Rev 11:3).
When the events described in John’s vision are soon to occur (see Rev 1:1; 3:11; 22:6–7, 10, 12, 20), there is no reason to assign a unit of time to “day” other than a 24-hour day, or to “month” other than a 30-day month, or to “a time, times, and half a time” other than three and a half years [1260 days] … in vision, John is transported into the timeless heavenly realm when the events in John’s vision are “soon” to occur, meaning that John mentally leaps from the end of the 1st-Century to the 21st-Century when the Second Passover will set into play events “soon” to occur.
The 1260-day-long ministry of the two witnesses overlaps day for day the time, times, and half a time when the saints are given into the hand of the little horn, and the 1260 days that the two witnesses prophesy begin after the Second Passover liberation of Israel, when the lives of men are again given as ransom for Israel (Isa 43:3–4), now a nation circumcised of heart. As the lives of firstborn Egyptians (man and beast) were given in exchange for the life of Israel, the firstborn natural son of the Lord, the lives of firstborns in the Abyss and on earth will be given in exchange for the life of circumcised-of-heart Israel at the Second Passover. So it is at the Second Passover when the great horn, the first king, of the spiritual king of Greece is suddenly broken because he is first.
Daniel records,
Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. / Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. (8:8–12 emphasis added)
And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. (8:21–25 emphasis added)
The little horn that emerges on the head of the fourth king in Daniel’s vision recorded in chapter seven is broken by no human hand when the court of the Ancient of Days sits in judgment and takes dominion from this little horn and from the four kings and gives this dominion to the Son of Man. The little horn that emerges from the head of the king of the North [this king pushes to the east, south, and west; thus this king has to be from the north] in Daniel’s vision in chapter eight is also broken by no human hand when dominion is taken from him.
No human king will throw down some of the stars. But this little horn is different from other spiritual kings, and Paul explains why.
When the saints at Thessaloniki awaited what they believed would be the immediate return of Christ Jesus, the Apostle Paul told them that the day of the Lord had not come and would not come until the Rebellion occurs and the lawless one [the man of perdition] is revealed:
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. … For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thess 2:3–10)
The little horn on the head of the fourth king is different from the ten horns that are on this king’s head when the little horn emerges. This little horn emerges after the fourth beast/king, terrifying, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, emerges with the ten horns/kings on his head. Likewise, the little horn that emerges on the head of the king of the North in chapter eight, the little horn with a bold face and who understands riddles and whose power is great (but not by his own power), emerges after the king of the North sprouts from the stump of the broken first king of the federated king of Greece. The little horn emerges when “the daily” [as in the regular burn offering] is taken away 2300 days before “‘the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state’” (Dan 8:14).
To aid understanding, let us assign example dates near in time to events so that the hypothetical can be realistically comprehended … about the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus said, “‘But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man’” (Matt 24:36–37). But when Jesus asked who the people say the Son of Man is, and asked who the disciples say that Jesus is, Peter answered, “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matt 16:16). Then “Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven’” (v. 17). So it is within the scope of Scripture to have the Father deliver specific information that only He possessed to a disciple or to disciples, and concerning the coming of the Son of Man, that specific information needed to date the Second Advent is in what Jesus said: For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household … in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” … And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. / In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. (Gen 7:1, 4, 10–11 emphasis added)
Jesus said, “‘For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man’” (Matt 24:38–39).
Noah entered the Ark on the 10th day of the second month, the day when the paschal lamb for the Second Passover is chosen and penned.
Would Noah’s neighbors have known that he was building the Ark in, figuratively, his backyard? Certainly they would have known, and they would have mocked Noah unmercifully.
The Ark would have taken years to build, possibly 120 years, and because of how long its construction took, not much attention would have been paid to Noah entering the Ark on the 10th day of the second month. Not much attention would have been paid to Noah until the windows of heaven opened on the 17th day of the second month. Then it would have been too late for those who mocked.
If the coming of the Son of Man is preceded by “‘a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation’” (Dan 12:1), then the coming of the son of Man will take no one by surprise. However, if the Second Passover begins a time of trouble like none before it, then the Second Passover will come upon humankind in the 21st-Century as the opening of the windows of heaven came upon humankind in Noah’s day.
The Father has given to specific disciples knowledge concerning the coming of the Son of Man as the Father gave Peter knowledge about who Jesus was … at the Second Passover, all firstborns in the Abyss and on earth who are not covered by the righteousness of the Lamb of God will perish suddenly. This includes the first king, the great king, of the federated king of Greece. This will be the breaking of the great horn that permits the sprouting of the four kings from his base. Thus, the reality foreshadowed by the opening of the windows of heaven on the 17th day of the second month is the Second Passover liberation of Israel on the 15th day of the second month, followed by the emergence of the four kings on or about the 17th day of the second month.
If the Second Passover were to occur in a year near to the present year, say 2011, the death of uncovered firstborns and the liberation of Israel would occur on or about May 19th. The four kings would emerge about three days later. Satan and his angels would be cast from heaven on or about Halloween 2014, and Jesus will have returned by April 16th, 2018, the first day of the new year, when the year begins with the first sighted new moon crescent following the vernal equinox. As a theoretic timeline, this line is accurate to the following degree:
· May 19, 2011, is Julian day #2455700.5;
· October 31, 2014, is Julian day #2456961.5, or 1261 days later, when days are counted as beginning at midnight;
· April 16, 2018, is Julian day #2458224.5.
As the second Passover slaughter of firstborns slightly precedes (one day) when circumcised-of-heart Israel will be liberated from indwelling sin and death through being filled with spirit, the sixth Trumpet Plague (when a third of humankind will against be killed) will slightly precede when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on the doubled day 1260. Both the Second Passover slaughter of uncovered firstborns and the sixth Trumpet Plague serve as shadows and copies of Armageddon, when those human beings bearing the mark of the beast will be slain at the end of the 2520 days of the combined Tribulation and Endurance: Armageddon will occur slightly before the beginning of the new year denoting the beginning of the Millennium. Thus, the extra days suggest that a period of three or four days pass between Armageddon and when the Millennium begins, with these three or four days representing the dark portion of the fifth day of the Genesis chapter one creation account, a subject that is discussed in other commentaries, and the period addressed by the prophet Ezekiel in chapters 40–42. And in counting days, these extra days fit within the margin of error that incorporates Moses asking Pharaoh for permission to take Israel three days’ journey into the wilderness so that the nation could worship the Lord, with Israel coming to Marah at the end of three days journey into the wilderness (Ex 15:22).
So using 2011 as an example year, the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven and the four horns of Daniel chapter eight will appear when the four horsemen of Revelation chapter six appear—these four kings will emerge after the first horn of the king of Greece is suddenly broken, and they will emerge on or about the 18th day of the second month [Lyyar], or about May 22nd. Typology holds that they will emerge on the 18th day of Lyyar, Sunday, May 22nd, 2011.
The angel Gabriel was told to make the prophet Daniel understand the vision about which Daniel is told, “‘The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now’” (8:26).
When Christians are liberated from indwelling sin and death, they will no longer have need for grace … Luke records,
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (17:26–30 emphasis added)
If disciples are the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), they are also the Body of the Son of Man; they are the covered [clothed by grace, the righteousness of Christ Jesus] Body of the Son of Man. So when the Son of Man is revealed, the Body of this Son will be disrobed or stripped naked. This Body will have, because it is filled with spirit and liberated from indwelling sin and death, the ability to cover itself with its own obedience, its own righteousness.
Again, Paul wrote to the saints at Thessaloniki that the great falling away—the Rebellion—must occur before Christ Jesus would return … Christ Jesus is the reality of the morning and evening sacrifice. Disciples daily putting on the garment of His righteousness represents the reality of “the daily” sacrifice. Therefore, when the glorified Jesus “baptizes” disciples in spirit and into life as the world in Noah’s day was baptized by water into death, the obedience of disciples becomes their “covering” for their nakedness before God; becomes their daily sacrifice. So the great falling away comes when disciples refuse to cover themselves with the garment of obedience.
The daily ends with the great falling away.
Subtracting 2300 from the 2520 days of tribulation, endtime disciples realize that the Rebellion of saints occurs on or about Christmas 2011, and comes because these saints will not forsake the co-mingled holiday that unites the sacred [Christ] with the profane [the invincible day of the sun].
The lawless one, a human being possessed by Satan, reveals himself on or about Christmas 2011, if the Second Passover were to occur in 2011. The lawless one is the little horn that is unlike the ten horns or kings on the head of the fourth beast. This lawless one uproots three of the ten horns, and this lawless one casts down some of the stars. This lawless one understands riddles, especially the riddle of progressive governance. He shall make deceit prosper, and he shall destroy many by causing them to follow him in rebellion against the Most High.
The man of perdition is a human being fully possessed by Satan.
When speaking of the lawless one, the man of perdition, disciples need to understand that this man will sincerely believe the angel inside him is Christ Jesus; he will believe that human beings are born with angels inside them rather than immortal souls (both beliefs are problematic). He will be an Arian Christian, who holds that Jesus is a created being like Lucifer and Michael, but it won’t be Jesus that possesses this man of perdition who will appear “angelic.” It will be the Adversary himself who comes disguised as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14–15).
Today, the lawless one might not yet know what he will do, but he is known to many Americans for his advocacy of returning governance of this nation to We the People [Korah’s rebellion]. He is a seemingly good guy, and this will not change even after the rebellion of day 220 occurs. He will still seem like a good guy, like someone only concerned for the people.
Christians are sloppy in their worship of God: they consistently mingle the sacred and the profane and sincerely believe that God will accept them just the way they are … when Elohim placed the first Adam in the garden of God, Elohim [singular in usage] said, “‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen 2:16–17). Why have such a tree? Was Adam not to know “good”? Or was Adam not to know “evil”? Or was it because the fruit of this tree, unlike the fruit of any other tree, was co-mingled, the sacred [good] with the profane [evil], thereby making that which was sacred profane?
The sacred doesn’t make the profane holy, but the profane does make the sacred unclean or profane: any mingling of sacred and profane causes the sacred to become spiritually defiled.
In Korah’s rebellion, what did Korah say that was wrong?
Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Num 16:1–3)
Was not all of the congregation holy? This is what the Lord says: “‘Now therefore, if you [Israel] will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’” (Ex 19:5–6 emphasis added). This is what Peter writes about Christians: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9).
Had Moses gone too far? Could Moses go too far in requiring that Israel keep covenant with the Lord? Was Moses exalting himself over the congregation that wanted to return to Egypt under other leaders (Num 14:4)?
The Rebellion of Christians that occurs when the man of perdition is revealed will not, to the rebels, seem like rebellion at all. Rebelling Christians will choose for themselves a leader to take them back into sin; they will eat co-mingled fruit when they keep Christmas. And the man of perdition will be this leader: he will be a man chosen by We the People. He will be the little horn, and evidence that the events described in Daniel’s visions and in John’s vision are soon to occur are in his sudden rise to national and international prominence in the past year.
Prophetically, when looking at the little horn, a human being possessed by Satan, a disciple needs to realize that the true Antichrist is Satan, the spiritual king of Babylon given the mind of man as Nebuchadnezzar, the human king of Babylon, who was given the mind of a beast—and Satan doesn’t appear among men until he is cast from heaven (Rev 12:7–10) when dominion is taken from the four kings and given to the Son of Man. Therefore, the man of perdition in the 1260 day long Affliction [in our example timeline, from May 19, 2011, to October 31, 2014] forms the shadow and type (the left-hand enantiomer) of the true Antichrist in the 1260 day long Endurance. The man of perdition is not the Antichrist, but is the mirror image of the Antichrist.
When the little horn is “viewed” from on high (the perspective of heaven), Satan is seen. But when this little horn is viewed from the perspective of men, he seems like an intense but likable fellow who has a special relationship with Christmas. But his intensity separates him from all other men except the two witnesses, his nemeses.
Because the man of perdition is sincere when he declares himself God, he can only be an Arian Christian who believes that Jesus began as a created being, meaning that he will be recognized as false by Trinitarians, whom he will destroy utterly. But he will be accepted by Muslim converts, who will feel comfortable within Latter Day Saint or similar Christian fellowships.
The little horn that seeks to change times and the law comes with another testament of Jesus.
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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."