October 28, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE ‘LITTLE HORN’ POWER OF DANIEL 7
“I considered the [ten] horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn.” Dan. 7: 8, KJ.V.
“Let us now consider all the characteristics this prophecy gives to the ‘little horn,’ and we shall be forced by weight of evidence as to settle in just ONE power as the fulfillment of this prediction.
(1) It was to come up ‘among’ the ten European kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was split. verse 8 (2) It shall ‘rise’ to power ‘after them.’ verse 24. ‘And He shall be DiVERSE [different] from the first,’ ten kingdoms; that is, different from ordinary, secular kingdoms. verse 24.
“Anyone acquainted with history knows that the Papacy is the only power that answers to all these specifications. It was ‘among’ the kingdoms of Western Rome, ‘after’ they were established in A.D. 476, and is different from a purely civil power.
“But the angel gives still another mark of identity to the little horn (4) Before it ‘there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.’ Verse 8. That is, in ‘coming up’ it pushed out before it three of the former horns ‘by the roots.’
“Thus three kingdoms were to be plucked up to give place for the Papacy. This prediction found the exact fulfillment in the destruction of the three Arian kingdoms: the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths. Rev. E. B. Elliott, M.A. says: ‘I might cite that three that were eradicated from before the Pope out of the last first given; viz., the Heruli under Odoacer (AKA Odovacar), the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths.”- ‘Hora Apocalyptica, Vol. III, p. 168, Note 1, London: 1862.
“In former days crowns of conquered kings were placed on the head of the conqueror.(2 Sam. 12:30). It is symbolically fitting therefore, that the Pope wears a triple crown. Bishop Thomas Newton, speaking of the power that destroyed the three horns, says, ‘And the Pope hath in a manner pointed himself out for the person by wearing the triple crown.’- ‘Dissertations on the Prophecies,’ p. 220. London.” — Facts of Faith, pp 35, 36. (To be continued). Bless all today, NMF