Sir Isaac Newton
“This last horn is by some taken for Antiochus Epiphanes, but not very judiciously. A horn of a Beast is never taken for a single person: it always signifies a new kingdom, and the kingdom of Antiochus was an old one.”
“Antiochus reigned over one of the four horns, and the little horn was a fifth under its proper kings. This horn was at first a little one, and waxed exceeding great, but so did not Antiochus.”
“It is described great above all the former horns, and so was not Antiochus. His kingdom on the contrary was weak, and tributary to the Romans, and he did not enlarge it.”
“The horn was a King of fierce countenance, and destroyed wonderfully, and prospered and practiced; that is, he prospered in his practices against the holy people: but Antiochus was frighted out of Egypt by a mere message of the Romans, and afterwards routed and baffed by the Jews. The horn was nighty by another’s power, Antiochus acted by his own.”
“The horn stood up against the Prince of the Host of heaven, the Princes of Princes; and this is the character not of Antiochus but of Antichrist.”
“The horn cast the sanctuary down to the ground, and so did not Antiochus; he left it standing. The Sanctuary and Host were trampled under froot 2300 days; and in Daniel’s Prophecies days are put for years; but the profanation of the Temple in the reign of Antiochus did not last so many natural days. These were to last till the time of the end, till the last end of the indignation against the Jews; and this indignation is not yet at an end.”
“They were to last till the Sanctuary which had been cast down should be cleansed, and the Sanctuary is not yet cleansed.” Sir Isaac Newton’s “Daniel and the Apocalypse”.
Adam Clarke
Clarke’s commentary on the ‘little horn’, and who was a student of John Wesley, writes regarding the “little horn” of Daniel 7 and 8 this:
“The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them (Daniel 7:21) – Those who make Antiochus the little horn, make the saints the Jewish people. Those who understand the popedom by it, see this as referring to the cruel persecutions of the popes of Rome against the Waldenses and Albigenses, and the Protestant Church in general.”.
He shall speak great words against the Most High (Daniel 7:25)— Sermones quasi Deus loquetur; “He shall speak as if he were God.” So St. Jerome quotes from Symmachus. To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them! And they go against God when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies!
And shall wear out the saints — By wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions of all kinds. What in this way have they not done against all those who have protested against their innovations, and refused to submit to their idolatrous worship? Witness the exterminating crusades published against the Waldenses and Albinenses. Witness John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. Witness the Smithfield fires in England! Witness God and man against this bloody, persecuting, ruthless, and impure Church!
And think to charge tines and laws — Appointing fasts and feasts; canonizing persons whom he chooses to call saints; granting pardons and indulgences for sins; instituting new modes of worship utterly unknown to the Christian Church; new articles of faith; new rules of practice; and reversing, with pleasure, the laws both of God and man.-Dodd.
Until a time and times and the dividing of time. — In prophetic language a time signifies a year; and a prophetic year has a year for each day. Three years and a half (a day standing for a year, as in Daniel 9:24 will amount to one thousand two hundred and sixty years, if we reckon thirty days to each month, as the Jews do.
If we knew precisely when the papal power began to exert itself in the antichristian way, then we could at once fix the time of its destruction. The end is probably not very distant; it has already been grievously shaken by the French. In 1798 the French republican army under General Berthier took possession of the city of Rome, and entirely superseded the whole papal power. This was a deadly wound, though at present it appears to be healed; but it is but skinned over, and a dreadful cicatrice remains. The Jesuits, not JESUS, are now the Church’s doctors.
If the papal power, as a horn or temporal power, be intended here, which is most likely,…
The kingdom and dominion (Daniel 7:27) — The people of the saints of the Most High, or the people who are the supereminent saints, shall have the kingdom. Whatever name they may be distinguished by among men, these are the people, and theirs is the Church, that no lapse of time shall injure, and no power be able to destroy; but shall last as long as time shall endure.
Concerning the ‘little horn” of Daniel 8, Clarke writes:
And brake his two horns (Daniel 8:7) — (Alexandar the Great, Greece) Subdued Persia and Media; sacked and burnt the royal city of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian empire, and, even in its ruins, one of the wonders of the world to the present day. This he did because “he was moved with choler” against Darius, who had endeavoured to draw off his captains with bribes, and had laboured to induce some of his friends to assassinate him. Alexander, finding this, would listen to no proposals of peace; and was determined never to rest till he had destroyed Darius and his whole empire. In Media, Darius was seized and made prisoner by some of his own treacherous subjects, and afterwards basely murdered. (Supplied).
There was no power in the ram to stand before him — Alexander’s victories over the Persians were as easy as they were rapid and decisive.
He cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him — Totally destroyed the family, and overturned the whole monarchy.
The he-goat waxed very strong (Daniel 8:8) — He had subdued nearly the whole of the then known world.
The great horn was broken — Alexander died in the height of his conquests, when he was but about thirty-three years of age. His natural brother, Philip Aridaeus, and his two sons, Alexander AEgus and Hercules, kept up the show and name of the Macedonian kingdom for a time; but they were all murdered within fifteen years; and thus the great horn, the Macedonian kingdom, was broken, Alexander’s family being now cut off.
And for it came up four notable ones — The regal family being all dead, the governors of provinces usurped the title of kings; and Antigonus, one of them, being slain at the battle of Ipsus, they were reduced to four, as we have already seen.
1. SELEUCUS, who had Syria and Babylon, from whom came the Seleucidae, famous in history.
2. LYSIMACHUS, who had Asia Minor.
3. PTOLEMY, son of Lagus, who had Egypt, from whom sprang the Lagidae. And,
4. CASSANDER, who had Greece and the neighbouring countries. These held dominion towards the four winds of heaven.
Cassander had the western parts, Lysimachus had the northern regions, Ptolemy possessed the southern countries, and Seleucus had the eastern provinces.
Out of one of them came forth a little horn (Daniel 8:9) — Some think that Antiochus Epiphanes is meant; but Bp. Newton contends that it is the Roman government that is intended; and although very great at its zenith, yet very little in its rising.
Waxed-great toward the south — The Romans made Egypt a province of their empire, and it continued such for some centuries.
Toward the east — They conquered Syria, and made it a province.
Toward the pleasant land.] Judea, so called Psalms 106:24; Jeremiah 3:19; Daniel 11:16; Daniel 11:41. It is well known that they took Judea, and made it a province; and afterwards burnt the city and the temple, and scattered the Jews over the face of the earth.
The Plain Word wants to point out in these commentaries that both Newton and Clarke identified the papacy as the ‘little horn’ power, with this point we fully agree. This is not a new teaching, but one that has been long standing. We encourage our visitors to study the Reformation and what the reformers had to say in this regard.
We also want to point out, in regards to “think to change times and laws”, that Clarke’s list is not all inclusive and one in particular that we would like to point out is changing the solemnity of the Sabbath to Sunday.