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The Little Horn in Daniel 7

The Little Horn or antichrist in Daniel chapter 7So who is the Little Horn? The bible gives us very detailed information about him as he plays a major role in world affairs. If we can put together the time line and look at the attributes of this Little Horn, we might be able to determine who he is.

The Little Horn is also referred to as the Antichrist, Anti meaning “Against” and Christ meaning “Anointed One”, or the state of being against god’s anointing. Anointed One means one smeared with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was smeared with the Holy Spirit when he got baptized and walked the Earth. Those who follow him are also smeared with the Holy Spirit. The spirits of hell are at war against the anointing, for without the anointing mankind is no threat to their domain. The Holy Spirit and the anointing reveal the Father’s heart to us and empowers us to walk in the miraculous.

In Mark16:17 Jesus said, And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons ; They will speak in new tongues; They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison it will not harm them; They will place their hands on sick people and they will get well.

Some churches say that these miraculous things no longer happen, that once we have received the bible, they were no longer needed. They are basing their belief on experience and not on what the bibles says, the bible teaches that all these things are in place and shall continue until everyone reaches unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, Eph 4:11-12. Unfortunately, the church has not reached a unity in the faith yet so all these gifts are still in operation.

You might find it strange the world has not rejected the miraculous, but many streams of the church have. The world says, Yes, God should show up with miraculous events and healings. It’s those in the church who have been taught that these things don’t exist anymore who are at war with those operating in the anointing. Many church denominations have started out strong, but over time have reasoned away the anointing. They need to go back to God, renew their love for God and welcome the Holy Spirit. Man can control his own destiny, and it’s determined by the choices he makes. When he decides to agree with God and moves in that direction darkness has to flee and chains are broken.

Satan’s plan is to deceive man by presenting a distorted image of God and trying to stop any move of the Holy Spirit started by those who follow Jesus. He’s spent thousands of years twisting the image of God into a hard task master, someone who isn’t reachable and someone who doesn’t care. The truth is entirely opposite as ever since the fall, God has had a plan to redeem man and restore his relationship with us.

The image of Satan is not like the world pictures him as a red horned creature carrying a pitch fork. The bible says that Satan comes as an angle of light so realize that Satan would be more likely to show up as a leader of a religious movement than a red horned beast, whatever it takes to keep people from hearing the real truth. The antichrist spirit attempts to influence believers to reject everything that has to do with the Holy Spirit’s anointing. This rejection takes on many forms, but basically it boils down to this, we reject what we can’t control. To follow the Holy Spirit we need faith not intellectual knowledge. The Antichrist spirit has given to the rise of many religious spirits. A religious spirit works to get us to substitute being led by the Holy Spirit with being led by our intellect and performance.

The Little Horn in scripture symbolizes a nation that comes into world power and influence. Remember a horn in scripture symbolizes a kingdom. To be a kingdom you must have a king. So the Little Horn is a Little Nation with a King as its leader. All this information is covered in the preceding articles leading up to this one. There are many historical events leading into the reign of the Antichrist that we have already covered. To receive the most out of this article you need to read these other articles first.

Daniel’s Statue
Daniel 7 Vision of the Beasts
Daniel 70 Week Prophecy
Daniel 2300 Day Prophecy

There are 12 identifying marks that will help us determine who the Little Horns is. The bible was very specific when talking about this horn as it holds a major role in World Government.

Daniel 7:7-8 After that, in my vision at night I looked and there before me was a Fourth Beast – terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had 10 horns.
While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

If you read the article “Daniel 7 Vision of the Beasts” above we know that the Fourth Beast is Rome and the 10 horns on his head are the 10 nations that were given birth in 476 AD when Rome fell. Those nations are: Visigoths, Vandals, Suevi, Britain, Bergundians, Alamanni, Franks, Ostrogoths, Italy, and Eastern Rome. Now let’s identify the traits of the Little Horn from the scripture we just read.

  1. It’s a nation, as it’s represented by a Horn.
  2. It’s a little nation.
  3. This little nation came up among the other 10 Horns, so it must be located in the same territory as the Roman Empire.
  4. It had eyes of a man, so it has a human king leading it.
  5. It rooted up three other horns in order to come into power. So three other nations were subdued in the process.

The angel gives Daniel the interpretation and we pick up a few more details about this Little Horn.

Daniel 7:21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
He gave me this explanation: The Fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on Earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole Earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The 10 horns are 10 kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another King will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three Kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.
But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.

  1. The Little Horn made war against the saints and was defeating them. (also in Rev 13:7)
  2. The King will be different from a normal King.
  3. He will speak against the Most High commit blaspheme against God, Revelation 13:5-8 also talks about the Antichrist and says “great things and blasphemies”
  4. He will attempt to change the set Times and Laws
  5. He will rule for a time, times, and half a time. The bible speaks of a time being equal to a year or in biblical times it would be 12 moons with 30 days between each moon or 360 days. So a time (1-year), times (2-years), and half a time (one half year) would be three and a half years or 1260 prophetic days.

The book of Revelation also gives us more information about this Little Horn, except in Revelation they call him the Antichrist. It’s found in Chapters 12 and 13. The Beast has the same characteristics of all four beasts found in Daniel Chapter 7. One reason for this, is that the book of Revelation was written after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece ruled the earth. Rome was the current power in place. So the Beast in Revelation is looking back in time and had characteristics of all 4 beasts. In fact, it had 7 heads which stands for the 7 world powers leading up to that point; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the future Anti-Christ. The visions in Revelation give us the behind the scenes look at what’s happening in the spiritual realm.

7 Headed Dragon in Revelation 13

This is a really ugly dragon, but then again so are the demonic forces at work around us

To fully cover Revelation 12 and 13 would require another article to shed more light on these visions, for now we wish to make one point. The time period for how long this Antichrist would reign was determined by God to be 1260 years. In Revelation Chapter 12 the Woman with 12 stars above her head stands for the church and the devil or Satan went to make war with her (the church). She was hidden in the desert for 1260 days, Rev 12:6. A prophetic day is equal to a year.

Rev 12:14 God repeats himself by giving the same vision again, but this time communicates the time period as a Time, Times, and half a time. So the Woman or Church being protected in the desert is the same time period the Antichrist has when he comes into power world-wide. Rev 13:5 is the same story repeated again except is given from the point of view from the Antichrist. Notice the time period here is the same time period given to us in Daniel and Revelation 12 as a Time, Times, and half a time.

Rev 13:3-4 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”
5-7) The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

The beast exercised his authority for 42 months. At 12 months a years this comes out to three and a half years, or 1260 biblical days. It’s all the same time period, just repeated in 4 different visions. You might say that God is fair, He’s even fair to the devil, giving him a chance to run his coarse, so people can see the results. Remember God has a host of angels and demons that will all see what sin brings into the world. God had predetermined a time period that allows the Devil an opportunity to run the show. So God patiently waited during that time and hid the remnant of the church in the desert.

Some would say that this time period is literally three and a half years. I beg to differ with you. These are world-wide movements. Nothing happens in three and a half years. The bible says a day is like a year so we are really talking about 1,260 years not 1,260 days. For the details on this one you need to read the article called, Daniel 2300 Day Prophecy and you will understand that a prophetic day is a one year time period.

We have two more points to add, found in Rev 13:3 and 7

  1. The Little Horn would receive a fatal wound and yet recover. Rev 13:3

Some teach that this is an individual who will receive a fatal wound and be healed before all. Remember, both a beast and a horn in scripture symbolize a kingdom. This is a kingdom with a king and it’s reign for 1,260 years as we have just discussed, so we would be wise to stick with the Little Horn being a Kingdom and that Kingdom receiving a fatal wound, then recovering.

  1. The Little Horn will have World-wide influence. Rev 13:7

So here we have a little nation that has world-wide influence. How could a little nation have so much influence? The key is #7, he was a different kind of King. Daniel 8:9-11 gives us a clue.

Out of one of them (a horn from rule of Greece) came another horn (Rome), which started small but grew in power to the South and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. It grew until it reached the host of the heavens (Antichrist), and it threw some of the starry host down to Earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the Host;

Notice the Horn starts out as a geographical kingdom growing to the south, east, and beautiful land, but then it changes and goes vertical towards heaven and sets himself up as equal to the Prince of God who is to come. The definition of blaspheme (#8) is claiming to forgive sins or claiming to be God. So this Horn is different from a normal kingdom as it is setting himself up as God. This would explain how a Little Kingdom could have so much influence around the world, as it claims to speak for God.

We have now identified 12 items of criteria that must be met by this coming kingdom. This Horn is established or comes up after the 10 horns or sometime after 476AD. In its efforts to rise up as a kingdom it uproots 3 other kingdoms. There is a kingdom that matches this description in every detail. We’ll cover that in the next article entitled, “The Little Horn, Part 2”.

 

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2015 Contact Us