While Daniel had revealed to him that the "LITTLE HORN" should come out of one of the "Four Kingdoms" into which the Empire of Alexander the Great was divided, he was not at that time told which one, but 20 years later, in B. C. 533, the information was imparted to him in a Fourth Vision. He saw in vision two Kings warring against each other. One was called the "King of the North," the other the "King of the South." This chapter (Dan. 11:1-45) is one of the most wonderfully minute as to prophetic details of any chapter in the Bible. It corresponds exactly with the profane history of the kings of Egypt and Syria for over 350 years. From verse 5 to verse 31 we have an account of what is called the "wars" of the "Kings of the North" (Syria) and of the "Kings of the South" (Egypt). These end with the close of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes,
[paragraph continues] B. C. 164. Verses 32-35 cover the whole period from B. C. 164 down to the "Time of the End," that is, until the "Seventieth Week" of Daniel's "Seventy Weeks." At verse 36 the "WILFUL KING" appears, and from that verse down until the end of the Book of Daniel we have an account of what is to befall Daniel's People in the "Latter Days." As the description of the "WILFUL KING" corresponded with the description of the "LITTLE HORN" of the "Fourth Wild Beast" and the "LITTLE HORN" of the "He-Goat," and they were all to appear at the same time--the "Time of the End." Daniel understood that they referred to one and the same Person, and as the "WILFUL KING" would be the "King of the NORTH," that is, of Syria, Daniel saw that the "LITTLE HORN" was to rise on the "SYRIAN HORN" of the "He-Goat," in other words that the "LITTLE HORN," or "Antichrist," shall come out of SYRIA, and as Syria included Assyria that the "LITTLE HORN" of Daniel is the same as the "Assyrian" of Isaiah. "When the Lord hath performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem (which will not be until Christ comes back), I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the KING OF ASSYRIA (Antichrist) and the glory of his high looks." Isa. 10:12. I will break the ASSYRIAN (Antichrist) in My Land (Palestine), and upon My mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them (Israel), and his burden from off their shoulders." Isa. 14:25. The context shows that this prophecy is connected with the restoration of Israel to their own land, not after the Babylonian Captivity, but a restoration that is still future, for the Assyrian Empire had been swallowed up by the Babylonian when the Prophet wrote and the ASSYRIAN King here mentioned must be some future Assyrian King, for he is to be brought to Palestine and destroyed there.
We must not allow ourselves to be confused by the different names given the Antichrist, as the "King of Tyrus," the "King of Babylon," and the "King of Assyria," for that section of the world will comprise one territory in the days of the Antichrist and he will be known by all of these titles.
From what we have thus far learned of the Antichrist, the probability is that he will be a SYRIAN JEW, for it is not likely that the Jews will accept as their Messiah one who is not a Jew, unless the claimant by false pretense makes them believe he is one. This, however, does not prevent the Antichrist being a Roman citizen, and the political head of the revived Roman Empire, for Saul of Tarsus was both a Jew and a Roman citizen.
Those who claim that the "LITTLE HORN" of Dan. 7, and the "LITTLE HORN" of Dan. 8, are not the same, because the "LITTLE HORN" of Dan. 7 arises amid the "Ten Horns" of the "Fourth Wild Beast," which represents the Roman Empire, and the "LITTLE HORN" of Dan. 8, arises on one of the Horns of the "He-Goat" which represents the Grecian Empire, and corresponds to the "Third Wild Beast," forget that the Vision that the Apostle John had of the revived Roman Empire (Rev. 13:1-2), the Roman Empire in its last stage, reveals the fact that the "last stage" of the Roman Empire will include all the characteristics of the whole Four Empires, Babylonian,
[paragraph continues] Medo-Persian, Grecian and old Roman. This is seen in the character of the "BEAST" John saw come up out of the sea. It was like unto a LEOPARD (Greece), with the feet of a BEAR (Medo-Persia), and the mouth of a LION (Babylon). The fact that the BODY of the "BEAST" was like a LEOPARD (Greece), reveals the fact that the preponderating feature of the revived Roman Empire will be GRECIAN, and that therefore the "Ten Federated Kingdoms," represented by the "Ten Horns" of the "Beast," will include the FOUR KINGDOMS into which the GRECIAN Empire was divided, viz., Egypt, Macedon, Thrace and SYRIA. It follows therefore that the "LITTLE HORN" of the "He-Goat" (Greece), will be the LITTLE HORN that rises among the "Ten Horns" of the "Fourth Wild Beast" (Rome), for Syria, one of the four divisions of the Grecian Empire, will be one of the component parts of the Revived Roman Empire.
Again those who claim that Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C. 175-165), a king of Syria, was the LITTLE HORN" of the "He-Goat," overlook the fact, that, while Antiochus Epiphanes devastated Palestine and caused an "idol altar" to be erected on the Brazen Altar of the Temple, on which he offered swine-flesh, which was an abomination to the Jews, he does not fulfil the description of the "LITTLE HORN" of the "He-Goat" (Dan. 8:9-12, 23-25), for Antiochus Epiphanes, nor any other ruler of the past, ever stood up against JESUS, the "Prince of Princes." Neither was Antiochus Epiphanes "broken without hand." He died a natural death at Tabae in B. C. 165. But the "LITTLE HORN" of the "He-Goat" is to be "broken without hand." His Kingdom is to be destroyed by a "stone cut out of the mountain WITHOUT HANDS," and he himself shall be "paralyzed" by the "brightness of the Lord's Coming" (1. Thess. 2:8), and he shall be cast ALIVE into the "Lake of Fire." Rev. 19:20. There is no intimation in Scripture that Antiochus Epiphanes is
even to be regarded as a "type" of Antichrist. They are distinct historical personages, and though they resemble each other in some respects, yet they must not be confounded with each other. After this prolonged exposition of Daniel's "Foreview" of the Antichrist, which has seemed necessary to a proper understanding of the meaning of the "Beast" which John saw come up out of the sea, we now turn to--