Daniel Unlocked #41. More Detail on the Little Horn.
It is time to look in greater detail at what we discussed previously. The little horn grows out of, and among, the other horns of the terrible animal that represents the Roman Empire. Indeed, it uproots three of the ten kingdoms that grow out of pagan Rome; the Heruli in 493, the Vandals in 534, and the Ostrogoths in 538, were all exterminated by the church in order for it to come to power.
The little-horn power is an extension of pagan Rome and thus shares essential characteristics of the former empire. It usurps the prerogatives of Christ, persecutes God’s people, supposes to change God’s law, speaks against God, and acts as it pleases for three and a half times (which, according to the year day principle in Bibe prophecy, is 1,260 calendar years). These activities indicate that this entity holds both political and religious power, which fits with the papacy. History shows that the conversion of the emperor Constantine, the official recognition of Sunday as a day of worship, the fall of Rome to barbarians, and the foundation of Constantinople in the East were important factors that favored the rise of the papacy.
With the demise of the pagan western Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome filled the power vacuum that was created in Rome with the transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople.
With the decree of emperor Justinian in A.D. 533, made effective only in A.D. 538, declaring the pope the head of all the churches, the door was open for the papacy to implement its rule. Now the bishop of Rome held not only religious authority but also political power. The popes soon began to call themselves by the roman name pontifex and adopted other customs and laws of the pagan Roman Empire. The word pontifex and its derivative “pontiff” became terms used for Christian bishops, including the Bishop of Rome. The title of pontifex maximus was applied to the Roman Catholic Church for the pope as its chief bishop and appears on buildings, monuments, and coins of popes of the Renaissance and modern times. The papacy became the mightiest power in Medieval Europe. What a contrast between the man who wanted to make himself God and the God who made Himself man. God stooped to conquer.
By means of alliances with temporal powers, the persecuted church became the persecutor. Through the Crusades and the Inquisition, the Roman church inflicted tremendous pain on many who wanted to remain faithful to biblical teachings. So, already during the Middle Ages the pope came to be identified with the Antichrist (Matthew 24; 2 Thess. 2:3, 4; Rev. 13:1–10). In 1798, Napoleon knew that for him to come to power, he had to break the back of the church. So, he put the pope in prison, ending the 1,260 years of papal rulership. Revelation 13:3 (NLT) would call this the “fatal wound” – which would be healed. It seemed as if history was running to a script.
In v16 Daniel approaches one of the angels and asked him the truth of all he had seen and what lies ahead, and God showed him more persecution. Babylon is about to pass away but the empires get worse, the persecution gets worse. The fourth empire is fragmented but from it arises a persecutor worse than them all. .
Vindication for God’s people is explained in v18, “But in the end, the holy people of the ‘Most High’ will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.” (NLT)