Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
Once again I am confronted with a dilemma! Some of the coolest images for Today's Passage have writing on them, identifying the animals in Daniel's Dream. Most of these are obvious, because Daniel himself tells us the interpretation. We KNOW the Ram is Persia, and we know the Goat is Greece. The larger horn on the Goat is obvious in 20/20 hindsight to have been Alexander the Great. The High Priest in Josephus' account knew that too, when Alexander came into Jerusalem over 300 years before the Birth of Christ. Nearly all Bible Scholars, Jewish, Christian, and even agnostic academics, agree about the "Large Horn". (I am sure that there is SOMEONE out there who disagrees, but he has been very quiet about his minority opinion.)
There IS, however, much disagreement on the identity of the "Little Horn", and the images on the Internet reflect that.
Some scholars continue in the parallels between Nebuchadnezzar's Statue, and the Four Beasts, to say that the "Little Horn" is yet another World Empire, namely Rome. OK...that makes sense and fits with the other dreams. But you will notice there are four horns to contend with before we even talk about Rome. Alexander died very young, in the middle of his conquests. He had no children, and hadn't really planned on dying so soon, so he had no hierarchy of succession in place. He did, however, have four trusted generals named Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. The ensuing power struggle between these four generals was called "The Wars of the Diodachi". The four horns on the Goat correspond to the four HEADS on the Leopard in the previous dream with the Beasts.
So far, everything lines up. Except now, a "Little Horn" emerges from the pack and makes trouble. Many historians interpret that to be Antiochus IV, the evil tyrant of the Hanukah Story. He was a descendant of the Selucids, the family of one of the Four Generals. He was awful, and oppressed the Jewish People, even desecrating the Holy Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar. Although Antiochus was an evil madman, he was not the ONLY one in History to oppress the Jews. There would be more to come, and far worse! So if he was the "Little Horn", he wasn't much of an adversary! There would be plenty of Hamans, Tsars, Hitlers, and Stalins to follow!
And so, we come to the issue of "multiple fulfillment of Prophecy. Certainly, Antiochus qualifies as the "Little Horn", but there will be one coming who will make him look like "Junior Varsity", if you catch my drift.
And here we arrive at the most recent interpretation of the "Little Horn". He is the "man of sin", the "king of fierce countenance", or, in a word, the "Antichrist" (upper case A). There have been plenty of "antichrists" (lower case a) in history, but the "Little Horn" is the one who will stand out.
We could get into calculating the number of days, the Abomination of Desolation, and so on, but God tells Daniel to "seal up the prophecy until the time of the end", so it will become apparent to all when the time is right!
Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His inheritance! (Psalm 33)
God Bless America!
Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.
This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.
Hallelujah and Amen
ML/LTOS