Evil Horn Archives » From Daniel to Revelation

2024-06-072024-11-26

Daniel’s fourth beast is the Roman Empire.

Purpose

By comparing the animals in Daniel 7 and 8, this article shows that the evil king in Daniel 7 arose out of the Roman Empire.

The previous three articles gave overviews of Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Daniel 8, respectively. The main character in both Daniel 7 and 8 is an evil horn-king. The Daniel 8 article concludes that the horn-kings in these two chapters represent the same entity. That article also describes the Preterist, Historicist, and Futurist interpretations of this evil power but does not select one.

There are four animals in Daniel 7, but that prophecy does not explain what they represent. There are only two animals in Daniel 8; the Ram and the Goat, explicitly identified as “the kings of Media and Persia” and as “the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:20-21). This article identifies the animals in Daniel 7 by comparing them to the animals in Daniel 8.

Alternative Interpretations

In the traditional view, the fourth beast in Daniel 7 signifies the Roman Empire. In the liberal view, it is the Greek Empire.

Conservative View – Roman Empire

Conservatives (historicists and futurists) align the symbols in Daniel 2, 7, and 8 as follows:

Daniel 2	Gold (Babylon)	Silver	Brass	Iron
Daniel 7	Lion	Bear	Leopard	Dreadful beast
Daniel 8		Ram (Medo-Persia)	Goat (Greece)

In this schema, since the Bear is Medo-Persia and the Leopard is the Greek empire, the dreadful fourth beast of Daniel 7 must represent the Roman Empire, for that was the next empire in history. Consequently, the evil horn, arising from the dreadful fourth beast, does so during the Roman period.

Liberal View – Greek Empire

The Preterist School, comprising mostly of liberal Critical Scholars, effectively reads Daniel backward. They begin by identifying the ‘despicable’ of Daniel 11:21 as Antiochus IV. Then, since the evil horns of Daniel 7 and 8 are the same as this ‘despicable’, they identify the evil horn also as Antiochus IV. Since Antiochus was one of the Greek kings, they propose that the fourth kingdom in Daniel 7 (the Dreadful Beast) symbolizes the Greek empire and that that beast’s 11 horns are 11 consecutive kings of the Greek Empire. But then, what are the previous three empires in Daniel 7 (the lion, bear, and leopard)? Daniel 2 explicitly identifies the first as Babylon, and there was only one empire between Babylon and Greece, namely Medo-Persia. To solve this problem, critical scholars divide the Mede-Persian Empire into two separate empires and align the symbols as follows:

Daniel 2	Gold (Babylon)	Silver	Brass	Iron
Daniel 7	Lion	Bear	Leopard	Dreadful Beast
Daniel 8		Ram (Medes)	Ram (Persia)	Goat (Greece)

In this schema, the Ram of Daniel 8 includes both the Bear and the Leopard of Daniel 7, and the Greek Goat of Daniel 8 is equivalent to the Dreadful Beast of Daniel 7. By comparing the properties of the animals, the next sections will determine which schema fits the text of Daniel the best.

The Ram

Daniel identified the Ram as “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20). Does it agree with the Bear of Daniel 7 only, as proposed by the Conservatives, or with the Bear AND the Leopard, as proposed by the Liberals? Considered their descriptions and evaluate the similarities:

Ram	Bear	Leopard
Two horns—one higher; Higher horn came out last; Charges to West, North, and South (Dan 8:3-4)	Raised up on one side; Three ribs between its teeth (Dan 7:5)	Four heads; Four wings (Dan 7:6)

The Ram and the Leopard

There is no similarity between the Ram and the Leopard. In one respect they clearly differ: While the Ram has two divisions, the Leopard has four.

Daniel’s prophecies use heads and horns to indicate divisions. The Ram has two horns, which means it has two divisions (identified as the Medes and Persians – Dan 8:20), while the Leopard has four heads (four divisions).

The Ram and the Bear

The Ram and the Bear are similar. For both, one side is higher than the other, and both conquer three things.

For both, their two sides are compared, and one side is higher than the other. The Bear is “raised up on one side” (Dan 7:5), while the Ram has two horns, one being longer than the other.

Both conquer three things: The Ram pushes in three directions (Dan 8:4—West, North, and South), and the Bear has three ribs between its teeth (Dan 7:5). Since animals symbolize kingdoms, ribs may represent kingdoms or territories conquered.

Conclusions

This means that the Bear in Daniel 7, like the Ram in Daniel 8, represents “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20)

It also means that the Ram is not equivalent to both the Bear and the Leopard, as proposed by the Liberals:

The two horns of the ram and the two sides of the bear symbolize the composite nature of the kingdom formed by a fusion of “the kings of Media and Persia.”

The ram’s horn that came out last, but became longer, and the higher side of the bear, refers to the Persians. Initially, the Medes dominated Persia, but Cyrus reversed the relationship so that Persia dominated the Medes when their combined forces conquered Babylon.

The three ribs in the Bear’s mouth and the three directions into which the Ram pushes (West, North, and South) may reasonably be taken as representing the three major conquests of the combined forces of the Medes and Persians in the sixth century BC: Lydia in the north in 547, Babylon in the west in 539, and Egypt in the south in 525.

The Goat

Secondly, is Goat of Daniel 8 the Leopard of Daniel 7, as proposed by the Conservatives, or the fourth Dreadful Beast, as proposed by the Liberals? Compare these beasts:

Goat	Leopard	Dreadful Beast
From the west; Not touching the ground; One conspicuous horn; Great horn was broken when strong; Four horns to the four winds (Dan 8:5, 8)	Four heads; Four wings; (Dan 7:6)	Terrible & very strong; Iron teeth; Bronze claws; It devoured; broke in pieces; Stamped residue with its feet; Different from the other beasts; Ten horns; (Dan 7:7, 19)

The Goat and the Dreadful Beast

Contrary to the Critics’ proposal, there is nothing in the descriptions of these two animals that imply that they represent the same entity. On the contrary, while the Goat first has only one horn and then later four, the Dreadful Beast first has ten horns and later eight.

The Dreadful Beast first has 10 horns, and then an 11th comes up, which ‘plucks out’ three of the 10 horns by their “roots”, leaving 8 horns standing. Since horns symbolize the divisions of these kingdoms, the Goat and the Dreadful Beast are not related.

The Goat and the Leopard

Consistent with the conservative view, the Goat and the Leopard are similar. Both are represented as fast and both consist of four parts. This implies that the Leopard, like the Goat, represents the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21)

Both are represented as fast. The Leopard has four wings while the Goat flies. The speed of its conquests refers to the speed by which Alexander the Great conquered the known world (within 10 years).

Both consist of four parts. The Leopard has four heads, while four horns grow from the Goat’s head. The four heads and four horns symbolize the four Greek Empires that came into existence after Alexander’s death at age 33.

“The kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21) is also known as the Macedonian Empire.

The Horn came out of Rome.

Consequently, the Dreadful Fourth Beast of Daniel 7, must be the Roman Empire. This further means that the little horn in Daniel 7 comes out of this empire and cannot be the Greek king Antiochus IV.

This comparison above of the animals of Daniel 7 and 8 shows that:

The Bear = “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20), and
The Leopard = “the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21).

Media and Persia

To make their interpretation fit the text, critical scholars propose that the author of Daniel inserted the Medes as a separate empire. This is inconsistent with history and with Daniel itself. Daniel always refers to the Medes and Persians as a single entity (e.g., Dan 8:20).

It is also possible to assess the Critics’ scema by evaluating the validity of their separation of the Medes and Persians into two different empires. Critics propose that the author of Daniel inserted the Medes as a separate empire because of the predictions in Isaiah and Jeremiah that Babylon would fall to the Medes. They consequently propose that, according to Daniel, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to the Medes under “Darius the Mede” (Dan 5:30-31; 6:28), preceding the reign of the Persian king, Cyrus the Great (Dan 10:1).

Historically, this would not be correct. The Medes were conquered around 550 BCE by the Persians and it was the joint forces of the Persians and the Medes that conquered Babylon eleven years later, with Cyrus the Great as their supreme king.

It is also not consistent with the Book of Daniel itself. Daniel consistently regarded the Medes and Persians as a single entity. For example:

He prophesied that Babylon would be conquered by the joint forces of the Medes and the Persians (Dan 5:28).

Daniel 6:9, 13, and 16 refer to the unchangeable law of the Medes and the Persians.

He identifies the Ram as “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20).

Daniel never refers to a separate Median kingdom. He refers to a person (Darius) as a Mede (Dan 11:1) but that is within the context of the Persian Empire (Dan 10:1 and 11:2).

There is also no indication in Daniel of a conflict between the Medes and the Persians which resulted in the dominance of Persia.

Furthermore, the author would be inconsistent in describing both Media and Persia as a single beast in Daniel 8, but as two different beasts in Daniel 7 and as two different metals in Daniel 2.

Who was Darius?

Critics argue that the author of Daniel committed a historical blunder when he referred to Darius the Mede in Dan 5:31-6:28 and in Dan 9:1. They argue that no such figure is known from history and that Daniel mentioned Darius the Mede because he mistakenly thought that the Medes were a distinct empire between the Neo-Babylonian rulers and the Persian king, Cyrus.

A separate article on this website argues that Darius the Mede might have been the throne name for Ugbaru (Greek Gobryas), the general who conquered Babylon for Cyrus, and who was appointed by Cyrus as king over the “kingdom of the Chaldeans” (Dan 9:1)—one of the kingdoms in the Persian Empire—but who died three weeks after the conquest of Babylon. He ruled only for one week, which explains why archaeologists have not yet found him in secular history.

Revelation’s Beast is the Church of the Roman Empire.

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Previous Conclusions

Book of Daniel

In Daniel 7, 11 horns grow out of the fourth animal. A previous article identified the 4th animal as the Roman Empire. [Show More]

The 11h are the kingdoms that were formed through the fragmentation of the Roman Empire. The first 10 horns are the nations of Europe into which the Western Roman Empire divided in the fifth century. [Show More]

After the first 10, an 11th horn comes up from the fourth animal (the Roman Empire). It is different from the others. It becomes larger than the other horns and opposes God. It blasphemes the Most High and persecutes His people (Dan 7:8, 24-25). These things are not said of the other 10 horns. It is one of the kingdoms into which the Roman Empire fragmented in the fifth to eighth centuries. A previous article identified the 11th horn as the Roman Church, meaning the Church of the Roman Empire that later became the Church of the Middle Ages.

In 380, the Roman Empire made Nicene theology the State Religion of the Roman Empire, meaning that it was the only legal religion but also that it was subject to the authority of the emperors.

In the next (fifth) century, Arian tribes wrestled control of the Western Empire from the Romans and fragmented it into several Arian kingdoms, symbolized by the first ten horns of the fourth animal (the Roman Empire). The Roman Church survived as a distinct organization with its principles and a hierarchy of bishops but was now subject to Arian rule.

In the next (sixth) century, the Eastern Empire subjected three Arian nations and liberated the Roman Church, enabling it to rule itself, symbolized as the 11th horn coming up.

However, only in the High Middle Ages, from the 11th century onward, was the Roman Church able to dominate Europe and persecute God’s people.

Read Article

Book of Revelation

The Dragon is one of three seven-headed beasts in Revelation. Both Revelation’s Dragon and Daniel’s 4th animal symbolize the Roman Empire. [Show More]

The Beast of Revelation, whose Mark in the time of the end will be put on the foreheads of people (Rev 13:15-16), receives its authority from the Dragon (Rev 13:2). Therefore, it received its authority from the Roman Empire. The Beast is the same as the 11th horn that grows out of that fourth animal in Daniel 7 (Read article), which has been identified as the Church of the Roman Empire.

For clarity, this article reserves the term “Beast” for the Beast in Revelation 13:1 and refers to the creatures of Daniel 7 as animals.

Revelation 13 says that the Beast will have a fatal wound, but the wound will be healed. It also says that the Beast will have authority for 42 months (Rev 13:5). The question is whether the 42 months describe the period before or after the fatal wound, or both periods:

The Dragon gave the Beast his authority (Rev 13:2, 4). Since the Dragon is the Roman Empire, the Beast had its authority while the Roman Empire still reigned. Presumably, the 42 months began when the Roman Church received the power to reign, which was when Emperor Justinian liberated it in the mid-sixth century.

Revelation 17 explains the same fatal wound and explains it as .

The fatal wound and resurrection of the Sea Beast suggest that this world power would have a period of great authority for “42 months,” followed by a period of death before its ‘resurrection’. This may be applied as follows to the ‘Roman Church’:

1. The 42 months represent the many centuries during the Middle Ages when it massacred people who did not accept its blaspheming doctrines and practices.

2. Its authority received a fatal wound through religious liberty and the separation of church and state in the time of the French Revolution.

3. In the end-time, the wound will be healed (Rev 13:3) when an image of the beast (a copy of the system during the Middle Ages) is set up, which will again kill its opponents.

A further indication – that the beast is the ‘church’ – is that the Sea Beast is not just a political power; it is also a religious power, for it “blaspheme His name and His tabernacle“and “make war with the saints.”

More specifically, the Sea Beast is a Christian organization, for it is a deliberate counterfeit of Jesus Christ. Like Jesus Christ, it:

- - Receives its authority,
  - Looks like one from which it receives its authority, and
  - Has a ministry that lasts three and a half years, followed by a death and a resurrection.

Other indications that the Sea Beast is a Christian organization are:

- - It specifically persecutes God’s people. Only a Christian organization is able to do that.
  - It uses a lamb-like beast as its agent. Revelation refers 28 times to Jesus as a lamb.
  - The Bible predicts in various places that the church would become corrupted.

The End-time Antichrist

The Sea Beast is not ‘personally’ involved in the end-time. Just like it received its authority from the Dragon (Rev 13:2), which symbolizes the Roman Empire, the Sea Beast gives its authority to its end-time assistant; the Beast from the Earth (Rev 13:12). The Earth Beast then convinces the people of the world to make an Image of the Sea Beast (Rev 13:14), which is an end-time organization in the likeness of the Sea Beast. In other words, it is an end-time organization that functions on the principles of the church in the Middle Ages. It is this ‘Image’ that persecutes and kills God’s end-time people (Rev 13:15).

The religious oppression and intolerance of the Protestant Orthodoxy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) were disturbingly similar to the Church in the High Middle Ages. The Holocaust and similar more recent religious cruelties make it clear that today’s version of institutional Christianity is not significantly improved over that of the Middle Ages. The end-time Antichrist is not any of the specific organizations that exist today, but an application of the principles of the church of the Middle Ages. Whenever we see persecution and killing of people for their religious convictions, whatever form that persecution takes, then we must know that the principles of the Roman Empire are at work, for God never uses force.

– END OF SUMMARY –

Evidence from Revelation

The previous section identified the Sea Beast by identifying Daniel’s evil horn. The current section identifies it based on what Revelation 13 itself says about it.

The time, times, and a half describes a period of 1260 years, from the time the Roman Church was liberated.

The death and resurrection of the Beast suggest that the world power, of which the Beast is a symbol, would have a period of great authority for “42 months,” followed by a period of death (the fatal wound – Rev 13:5) before its ‘resurrection’ (“his fatal wound was healed” – 13:5).

In the previous chapter, the 42 months are described as a time, times, and half a time or 1260 days (Rev 12:6, 14), during which God’s people will have to hide. These are the same period (time, times, and half a time = 3.5 years = 42 months = 42×30 = 1260 days). This same period is mentioned as a time, times, and half a time during which God’s people will be given into the hand of Daniel’s 11th Horn (Dan 7:25)

The nature of Revelation, with things such as beasts with seven heads and ten horns, that are worshiped by the people of the world, implies that time indications are also symbolic. For example, the ten horns are ten kings that will reign “for one hour” (Rev 17:12). This must be a symbol of a much longer period than one literal hour, but still a relatively short period, perhaps only some months. Compared to one hour, 42 literal months (3½ years) is a very, very long time.

Daniel 7 states that the 11th horn comes up when it uproots three of the other horns (Dan 7:8). That refers to Emperor Justinian’s wars in which he subjected the three Arian nations that dominated the Roman Church. Those wars began in 533 and ended in 552.

The authority of the Roman Church received a fatal wound by the introduction of religious liberty in the time of Napoleon and the French Revolution in the 1790s. The period from the 530s to the 1790s is 1260 literal years. It is, therefore, proposed that that was the period of authority of the Roman Church.

It follows that we today are living in the period of the Fatal Wound. The Church is no longer able to compel God’s people to comply with its demands, as it was during the Middle Ages. It further follows that the healing of the wound lies in our future. In the end-time, when the Image of the Beast is created (a copy of the system during the Middle Ages), the Beast-power will again be able to “cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev 13:15).

Revelation implies that the Beast is a Christian organization.

Firstly, the Beast blasphemes God and persecutes His people (Rev 13:6-7). A non-Christian organization is unable to identify God’s true people. Only a Christian organization is able to persecute God’s true people, for God’s people are identified by their protest against unbiblical doctrines and practices in the church.

Secondly, more specifically, the Beast is a counterfeit of Jesus Christ:

While Jesus is an image of His Father, the Sea Beast is an image of the Dragon. [Show More]

While Jesus received His authority from the Father, the Sea Beast received its authority from the Dragon. [Show More]

While Jesus’s ministry lasted for three and a half years, the Beast ruled for 42 months (Rev 13:5), which is also equal to three and a half years.

Like Jesus, the Beast’s ministry is followed by a death and a resurrection. [Show More]

Thirdly, one of the Beast’s associates is a lamb-like beast (Rev 13:11-12). Revelation refers 28 times to Jesus as a lamb. This is the only instance in Revelation where “lamb” does not refer to Jesus. The lamb-like beast, therefore, looks like Jesus but “spoke as a dragon” (Rev 13:11).

The beast is something dragon-like that has a Christian face! It claims to serve Jesus, yet its actions serve the Dragon!

The New Testament elsewhere often predicts that the Church would apostatize.

For example:

“The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1; cf. Acts 20:28-31; 2 Tim 3:1-5; 1 John 2:18-19).

The end-time Beast will not be the same organization as the Beast during the Middle Ages.

The final end-time phase of the Beast, after the Fatal Found had been healed, will be very different from the Roman Church and the Church of the Middle Ages. We should not expect the same organizations to be involved. In the end-time war, the sea beast will be resurrected, and an Image of the beast will be set up (Rev 13:14). Since it is the Image that persecutes God’s people in the end-time, and not the Beast itself, the Beast is probably resurrected by the creation of the Image, which will be a different organization.

The Church of the Middle Ages brutally persecuted and executed believers who dared to stand up to its doctrines and practices, but the religious oppression and intolerance of the Protestant Orthodoxy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) were disturbingly similar. For example, the role Calvin played in the murder of Michael Servetus. Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Holocaust show that Protestant Christianity has not significantly improved over that of the Middle Ages.

I propose that we define the beast as the mainstream church of Christendom. That definition would allow it to be represented by different organizations at different times.

Religious persecution is a sign of the Antichrist.

Whenever we see persecution and killing of people for their religious convictions, we see the spirit of Satan at work, for God never uses force. If God used force, He would not have allowed evil to develop. But He created us as free beings with the wonderful ability to make our own choices. He protects our freedom, for if He would override our freedom to choose against Him, He would be destroying the miracle which He has created.

Final Conclusions

Revelation’s Beast is the mainstream church of Christendom. This identification is based on the following:

The Beast is the same as the Evil Horn in the Book of Daniel, which is the Church of the Roman Empire, which grew to become the Church of the Middle Ages.

The description of the Beast in Revelation 13 identifies it as a Christian organization.

The beast symbolizes the Antichrist in both the Middle Ages (before the Fatal Wound) and in the end-time (after the Wound had been healed), but different organizations may be involved. In the end-time, the beast could take the form of the Protestant Orthodoxy.

Tag: Evil Horn