In many ways what this ‘little horn’ power does on earth is a reflection of what Lucifer (aka: Satan) did in heaven:
Uprooted 1/3 of the angels
Spoke very great things, words against the Most High
Brought war against the saints of the Most High
Sought to change times and laws in heaven
Remember who Lucifer was, he was a beautiful – every precious stone was his covering, his voice in song was astonishing, he was the anointed cherub which covered, he was upon the holy mountain of God and walked in the midst of the stones of fire (Eze. 28).
The angels adored him. It would have been difficult to hear in heaven, ‘Hey, Lucifer is no good for iniquity has been found in him’. It would have been unbelievable. Lucifer used the argument of ‘likeness’, meaning we can be good and righteous on our own, we can be like God without Him…He does not have the market on righteousness and goodness.
It was a movement to reform the government of God, it is time for change, and we can make it better – and I (Lucifer) am just being misunderstood. This was a great maneuver by Lucifer, the great deceiver, and one-third of the angelic host was offended and did not believe what God was addressing in Lucifer, which was iniquity; and fell for the deceptive cover of righteousness.
This is when war broke out in heaven, it was a war of the mind and of allegiance…and, the great controversy began. This should help us understand how people will react when the ‘little horn’ is identified. Many will be surprised and offended; they will point to all the good. This is why God uses this approach because he already knows how this news will be received and what people will think, However, he makes it abundantly clear that there is only one power that fits all of these characteristics.
Many people have this image of Satan being red, with horns, a pitch fork and evil looking. If those people would go to Ezekiel 28 and read the description of Lucifer, they will find he was a magnificent and beautiful, intelligent, holy angel in heaven. His appearance did change, just as Cain’s countenance changed. Lucifer’s attitude and motives changed, becoming self-centered and believing that he could be God.
Same with this little horn power, it does not appear openly evil and appears good, righteous, and holy – making it all the more difficult to believe. There is only ONE power that rose out of Rome, only ONE power that uprooted three of these ten horns, there is only ONE power that went against Christians for over 1,000 years of history, With that said, anyone who knows history, specifically the Dark Ages, should be able to identify this little horn power…the Reformers figured it out.
Unfortunately, what this ‘little horn’ power did in history, has turned many away from God. Why? Because of what “Christians” did in the name of God to those who claimed to be followers of Christ. When Christianity mingled with the State and became a church/state union – it became corrupt Christianity. It was’ Christianity’ that dominated during the Dark Ages in Europe who actually persecuted those that chose to believe differently, and this is who the ‘little horn’ power is.
Constantine and his mingling together of church and state (iron mixing with miry clay), brought about a Christianity in medieval Europe that is this ‘little horn’ power. There is only one power that sought to change God’s times and laws, and they have proclaimed it as their authority to do so and that is the Roman Catholic Church. They openly state that they changed the solemnity of the Sabbath to Sunday. In this one decision, they changed the time of worship and the law of God…just as the Bible indicated that this ‘little horn’ power would do.
There are many other things this power does that flies in the face of God cloaked with the appearance of righteousness. God said that he made Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath – so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28). The Sabbath is the only day God ever sanctified and declared Holy. No other day has ever been sanctified and declared Holy by God. Did you know the Father’s name is represented in the day of rest…sABBAth?
MAN has said that the Sabbath is a Jewish thing…but God said it was made for MAN meaning mankind. Many will make the argument that it does not matter what day we worship on, but that is really not the argument. The early church was in church every day of the week, so it is not a matter of what is the best day because God always wants us to worship. The Sabbath is a special sign between God and his people – it is a sign of His power – it is HIS memorial to His creation – it is THE day he blessed, made holy, and sanctified just for us.
Exodus 20:8-11 tells us, the Sabbath cannot be kept any other day because the commandments say, ‘six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, you are to do no work but to rest…it is His command.
Romans 6:16 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Remember the game Simon Says? Simon says stand up…we stand up; sit down…no, no for Simon did not say to sit down; and I only obey Simon which is the whole purpose of the game. It is the same principle, if God and Satan were here right now and God said, “Pick up that pen”; and Satan says, “No, don’t pick up that pen” – picking up or not picking up the pen is not the issue, the issue is who are you going to obey.
Think of the tree in the Garden of Eden, it was not a matter of picking the fruit and eating it, it was about a simple command and who Eve was willing to believe and obey. So, the decision before us is obedience, do we obey God and keep the Sabbath, or do we decide to keep another day such as Sunday? It is about who we yield ourself servants to obey. If it was not important, God would not have put what he did in Daniel 7:25.
As far as The Plain Word, we keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath is all about the gospel, you cannot keep the Sabbath on any day and here is why. Since the fall we are absolutely powerless to do anything in and of ourselves. The seventh-day sabbath is the only day that is blessed, sanctified, and set aside; and this is the only way we can keep the sabbath holy. We don’t have any power to keep a day holy. There is nothing in ourselves that keeps anything holy. We need the power of God…we need the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, the fact that God has blessed, sanctified, and set apart that day means His power is in that, not ours. That is how we enter into sabbath rest. We find motivation from God’s blessing, sanctification, and his power to do what we don’t want to do as human beings. The power of the gospel is in the spoken word of God, and he has breathed that power into the seventh-day sabbath.
This is what Lucifer attempted to accomplish in heaven, he said I will to be like the Most High; meaning “I can be holy like God’. I can sanctify myself. I don’t need God in order to be good or holy, I can do it myself. So, when God gives man the sabbath as a sign – he says hey I want you to keep the sabbath so that you may remember it will be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the one that sanctifies you. You cannot sanctify yourself. The sabbath is the mechanism that God uses as a reminder there is nothing we can do except rest.
The sabbath is not about when one decides to step out of God’s rest and choose their own rest, because that is works. This is why sabbath is connected to creation, because when you look at creation and the succession of the week, it is clear that God created the world for us without us…we were not there. By the time He created us, our world is finished. The first thing he asked us to do was to rest in everything he did for us, without us.
The same as what Christ did for us, he did it without us; and on the sixth day he said it is finished and rested on the sabbath day. Jesus followed this same pattern of a finished work that was laid in the beginning at the cross. His earthly ministry came to a close on the preparation day. He rested in the tomb on the sabbath day. And, took up the next phase of His work as our High Priest and Mediator on the first day of the week when he rose from the grave.
One might ask themselves, why would Satan want to change the sabbath? Because it is a big deal, otherwise he would not bother. It is like if God says go right, Satan will work hard through his agents to get us to go left. If you look at previous chapters, we see that Satan tried to use appetite (Dan. 1), idol worship (Dan. 3), attack God’s law and worship time (Dan. 6) as ways to cause God’s people to fall or have them killed. This tells us that these things are important, as are many other commands are important.
Chapter 7 connects directly to chapter 2 and then takes us all the way down to the judgment at the end of time. Today, we don’t see literal Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, or literal pagan Rome; but this little horn power is very much alive today. In other words, the end time enemy of God’s people is not some secular, atheistic, communist, socialist elites; rather it is going to be that which appears as Christianity. God is not condemning the people in this system; it is the system that is condemned. Just like God did not condemn Nebuchadnezzar because he was on a journey seeking God and God was working with him; however, God was against Babylon and its system. If you will, there are millions and millions of Nebuchadnezzars who are having an experience with God that we cannot judge but the system itself God is judging.
Daniel is beholding this fourth beast/little horn power until the Ancient of Days took his seat and opened the books. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, pagan Rome, and a divided Rome (ten horns) fade into the background; but Daniel has his attention on the little horn until the Ancient of Days takes his seat. What does this mean? He is looking at this little horn and beholding it while it is existing, then he says, “I beheld this until I saw the Ancient of Days”. Daniel now sees the Ancient of Days seated; so basically, what he was saying is: “I was looking at the dominion of this little horn until something else caught my attention”. What caught Daniel’s attention? It is the judgment scene, when the Ancient of Days sits in the judgment seat AND the appearance of Jesus Christ coming before the Ancient of Days. The books are opened and thousands and ten thousands of angels are looking on upon this scene.
A Role in History
This ‘little horn’ power that continued up from the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly (v.7), and who was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful (v.19) has a role in history until the second coming of Jesus. Remember, the Rock cut without hands that smashes the feet or iron and miry clay which destroys all the earthly kingdoms that we read about in Daniel 2. So, this ‘little horn’ power rules the longest out of all of the beasts. In fact, we find it in power at the end of time when Jesus returns. In fact, it is because what the ‘little horn’ and the ‘lamb like beast who speaks like a dragon’ are doing that causes His return.
Let’s rewind the clock for a moment before Genesis, clear back to heaven. Remember, that Lucifer in heaven was the right-hand angel of God. In previous posts we identified Lucifer as the covering cherub. The two cherubs that sat upon the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place was made out of gold. The mercy seat represents God’s throne which is in heaven where God also has a mercy seat.
The Bible says that Lucifer sinned, meaning he transgressed God’s law. He is called a murderer and liar from the beginning (Jn. 8:44). Beginning of what? At the time which iniquity was found in him (Eze. 28:15). This tells us there had to be a law in heaven in order for Lucifer to sin; meaning transgressing the law. This is what the ark of the covenant shows us: ark of the covenant with the law of God inside, and the mercy seat that sets upon the top of the ark. This is the foundation of God’s throne. Then we have these two covering cherubs. Lucifer was one of those covering cherubs. As stated, Lucifer ends up sinning, turns against God, and causes 1/3 of the heavenly host to fall. Then, he caused mankind to fall into sin.
Was Lucifer cast out of heaven because he sinned? Was he cut off when he sinned? The answer is no and here is why. Remember, when Peter was speaking to Jesus and he asked when his enemies’ sin against him how often shall I forgive him…seven times? Jesus told Peter, seventy times seven. This begs the question, would there have been a period of time that we could symbolized seventy times seven that was extended to Lucifer to turn from sin? Yes, it is possible that Lucifer was granted time to repent and turn away from sin. Why do we think that this was a possibility? We know that seventy times seven is 490. We know that there was a time prophecy of 490 years that was extended to the Israelites to turn from their sin. They chose not to and were ‘cut off’, and in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed. God loves his creatures…ALL of them; so it would be of His character to extend a time of repentance just as He has extended to us. Unfortunately, whatever it was that God extended to Lucifer we know he chose to rebel, and war with God and the angels of the most High instead.
Lucifer is thinking to change times and laws. He was out to blaspheme God’s name, in fact, he saw himself as God wanting to sit in the place of God.
Had there been a time in heaven where Lucifer thought to change times and laws, wars against the saints of the Most High, and blasphemes the name of God? YES.
How many angels does Lucifer uproot in heaven? One-third.
How many horns did the ‘little horn’ uproot? Three out of ten, roughly 1/3.
When we look at the ‘little horn’ we are seeing an earthly counterpart of what Lucifer did in heaven. Daniel is honing in on this little horn power to identify it and say whoever this guy is…this is the man of sin. This ‘little horn’ power is the reflection of that image of Daniel 3…mystery Babylon. That man of sin is a reflection of that golden cherub way back in heaven that fell. When we look at the acts of the ‘little horn’ earthly power that rises out of Rome, Daniel is trying to prepare our minds to see this double vision. As we look at the ‘little horn’ earthly entity, we can as we look at it at the same time we are looking at a reflection or image of Lucifer in heaven. It would be like when Jesus said ‘if you see me you see the Father’. It is the same with this ‘little horn’ when we see it, we see Lucifer which is the greater power behind it. We need to know who this is and when we study the literal power of who this is, we will see what Satan is trying to do. Understanding these things prepares us for Daniel 11. Daniel 11 is this ‘little horn’ amplified.