Why the little horn of Daniel 7, and of Daniel 8 (subtly different) cannot possibly be Antiochus.
This 'little horn' was to exceed the greatness of all the preceding powers. Media/Persia, identified by the angel as pertaining to the ram "became great" (Daniel 8:4); The he-goat itself, Greece, from which the horn grew was to wax "very great", (Daniel 8:8), but this little horn which was to grow out of Greece, was to become "exceeding great".( Daniel 8:9). In other words, it was to be greater than the empire of Greece itself, greater than Alexander, greater than any of the 4 generals that divided the empire between themselves, Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus, or Seleucus. It is claimed by many, in fact it has almost become standard belief in modern Christian thought, that Antiochus Epiphanes is represented by this little horn. This is based solely on his persecution of the Jews and the desecration of the temple, as is presumed to have taken place upon a reading of the ensuing verses. The problem however is that Antiochus does not meet the requirements of any other specific in the prophecy. (Some refer to him as being the fulfilment of the little horn that grows out of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 also.)
This is particularly popular with the preterist position, but to insist upon this understanding is to wrest the scripture from it's historical setting, for an important point to note is that the 4th beast reaches to the end of time, and is destroyed at the second coming. The view that Antiochus is the little horn restricts the entire book of Daniel to the period of time before Christianity was established.
First, let me in detail give my reasons why I believe Antiochus cannot be the little horn of Daniel 7.
a. Antiochus does not rise after 10 kings. He was the 8th king in the Syrian line of Seleucid kings. Besides, the prophecy calls for 10 kingdoms to exist contemporaneously, not successively.
b. Antiochus belonged to the 3rd empire (Greece) in actual historical sequence from Daniel's time.
c. He was not 'diverse' from any other king.
d. He did not 'pluck up' 3 other kings.
e. He was not 'stouter' than his fellows. His father was known as Antiochus the Great, not Epiphanes.
f. He did not prevail until the end of time, the judgment.
g. The kingdom following was Rome, not the kingdom of the saints.
Now, reasons why Antiochus cannot be the little horn of Daniel 8.
a. Antiochus was not a horn in his own right. He was of the Seleucid line therefore was a minor part of one of the four.
b. He did not wax exceeding great. In fact his father was greater, but neither he nor his father were as great as even Babylon or Media Persia, certainly no greater than Alexander. Yet the prophecy demands that the little horn be greater than any empire before it.
c. He does not fit the time periods. According to Maccabees 1:54,59, and 4:52 Antiochus suppressed the sacrifices exactly 3 years. This fits neither the 1260 days , (times time and half a time,) nor the 2300 days (evenings and mornings of Daniel 8:14). These figures do not compliment one another NOR do they meet the reign of Antiochus.
d. The 2300 days is prophetic. Using the day/year principle established elsewhere as being the standard and norm for interpreting prophetic time periods, it is a literal 2300 years, and deeper study reveals that the 2 time periods of the 70 weeks and the 2300 days, begin at the same time.
Therefore,
And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
can only refer to the empire of Rome, and thus is the Daniel 8 parallel to not just the 4th beast of Daniel 7...
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
... but also the iron legs of the statue of Daniel 2. See how each prophecy repeats and enlarges upon the preceding prophecy?
The dragon (4th) beast represents the Roman empire (168 B. C. - 476 A. D.). This empire came to be known as the “iron monarchy of Rome” (Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 4, p. 161). The ten horns represent the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided when it fell apart. These ten kingdoms, according to Edward Gibbon, were:
The Alemanni,
the Franks,
the Burgundians,
the Vandals,
the Suevi,
the Visigoths,
the Saxons,
the Ostrogoths,
the Lombards
and the Heruli
(see, M. H. Brown, The Sure Word of Prophecy, pp. 54, 55).
“The historian Machiavel, without the slightest reference to this prophecy, gives the following list of the nations which occupied the territory of the Western Empire at the time of the fall of Romulus Augustulus [476 A. D], the last emperor of Rome: The Lombards, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Heruli, the Sueves, the Huns, and
the Saxons: ten in all.” (H. Grattan Guinness, The Divine Program of the World’s History, p. 318).
The little horn that grew from the head off the pagan Roman beast of Daniel 7 can only be the papacy. It is the only power that fulfills every criteria the prophecies require of it.