THE SMALL HORN BECOMES MIGHTY IN POWER

According to history, the small horn was an offshoot of one of the four symbolic horns-the one farthest to the west.  This was the Hellenistic kingdom of General Cassander over Macedonia and Greece. Later, this kingdom was absorbed by the kingdom of General Lysimachus, the king of Thrace and Asia Minor. In the second century before our Common Era, these western sectors of  the Hellenistic domain were conquered by Rome. And by the year 30 B.C.E., Rome took over all the Hellenistic kingdoms, making itself the sixth world power of Bible prophecy.  But the Roman Empire was not the small horn of Daniel's vision, for that empire did not continue till  "the appointed time  of the end." -Daniel 8:19. 

What, then, does history identify as that aggressive "king fierce in our countenance"?  Britain actually was a north-western offshoot of the Roman Empire. Down till early part of the fifth century C.E., there were Roman provinces in what is now Britain.  In the course of time, the Roman Empire declined, but the influence of the Greco-Roman civilization continued in Britain and in other parts of Europe that had been under Roman dominion.  "At the fall of the Roman Empire," wrote  Nobel Prize winning Mexican poet and author Octavio Paz, "the Church took its place."  He added: "The Church fathers, as well as the later scholars grafted Greek philosophy onto Christian doctrine."  And the 20th-century philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell observed:  "The civilization of the West, which has sprung from Greek sources, is based on a philosophic and scientific tradition that began in Miletus [a Greek city in Asia Minor] two and a half thousand years ago."  Thus, it could be said that the British Empire had its cultural roots in the Hellenistic kingdom of Macedonia and Greece.  

By 1763 the British Empire had defeated her powerful rivals, Spain and France.  From then on she demonstrated herself to be the mistress of the seas and the seventh world power of Bible prophecy. Even after 13 American colonies broke away from Britain in 1776 to establish the United States of America, the British Empire grew to embrace a quarter of the earth's surface and a quarter of its population. The seventh world power gained still greater strength when the United States of American collaborated with Britain to form the Anglo-American dual world power.  Economically and militarily , this power had indeed become "a king fierce in countenance."  The small horn that became a fierce political power in the  "time of the end," then, is the Anglo-American World Power.

Daniel saw that the small horn "kept getting very much greater" toward "the Decoration." (Daniel 8:9) The Promised Land, which Jehovah gave to his chosen people, was so beautiful that it was called "the decoration of all the lands," that is, of the entire earth. (Ezekiel 20:6, 15)  True, Britain did capture Jerusalem on December 9, 1917, an din the year 1920, the League of Nations assigned the mandate over Palestine to Great Britain, to continue until  May 14, 1948.  But the vision is prophetic, containing many symbols. And "the Decoration" mentioned in the vision symbolizes, not Jerusalem, but the earthly condition of the people whom God views as holy during the time of the seventh world power.  Let us see how the Anglo-American World Power tries to threaten the holy ones.

Next time: "PLACE OF HIS SANCTUARY" THROWN DOWN

From the book: PAY ATTENTION TO DANIEL'S PROPHECY! 1999