Continued from previous post:
Now we are going to look at the
longest timeline in Bible prophecy; the timeline that all other timelines fall
into. Do you remember the ram and the
goat, Medo-Persia and Greece, from Daniel Chapter 8?
The goat’s horn was broken and was
followed by four other horns, representing Alexander’s death and the division
of his kingdom among his generals. In
the strife and confusion after Alexander’s death, the generals split the
kingdom …toward the four winds of heaven. (Daniel 8:8) North, East,
South and West. Daniel 8:9-12 and 23-25
says that out of one of them, in the latter period of their rule, came a small
horn that became mighty and powerful, destroying holy people, opposing God, and
calling himself equal to God. After our
study in the last chapter we know without a doubt that the Roman Empire
followed the Greek Empire, both in prophecy and in fact, and we know that a
horn stands for a person or a position of power. So what are these verses in Daniel Chapter 8
talking about?
Rome came from the West and first conquered Macedonia, the Western portion of Alexander’s divided empire in 168 BCE. But Daniel 8:23 says the horn would arise In the latter period of their rule… so when did the fourth and final division of the Greek Empire fall to Rome? In 30 BCE when Cleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt and descendant of the Greek general Ptolemy, killed herself and Octavian (later the Roman Emperor Augustus) claimed Egypt as a province of Rome.
So does this mean Octavian is the
horn of Daniel Chapter 8? Yes, and no.
The angel Gabriel told Daniel that
this particular vision …pertains to the time of the end. (Daniel
8:17) How can it pertain to the end of
time when we know Egypt became a province of Rome over 2000 years ago? That is because this vision has a dual
application. We saw in chapter one of
this book that Jesus’ prophecy in Matt. 24:6-8 applied to both the fall of
Jerusalem in 70 CE and to the end of the world at the end time. So, too, does the vision of the horn in
Daniel Chapter 8 apply to two time periods: the emperors of Rome in ancient
times and the power that grows from Rome in the end times. One produces the other and, just like from
parents to children, similar traits are passed down.
So if we look at the
power that followed Greece in Daniel Chapter 8 as being a twofold prophecy, we
can break it down like this.
Ancient Times:
Rome, Emperor, Destroyed Temple at Jerusalem.
Demanded Emperor to be worshiped.
End Times:
Offspring of Rome, blasphemous horn, trample the Holy Place.
Calls itself equal to God and removes Jesus' sacrifice.
Daniel 8:11 and 14 say that the
horn …removed the regular sacrifice from Him (meaning God), and the
place of His sanctuary was thrown down…For 2,300 evenings and mornings;
then the holy place will be properly restored. In Gen. 1:5 we see that an evening and a
morning is another way of saying ‘one day’, and we have proven that a day in
prophecy is actually one year, so here we have a timeline of 2300 years. This vision applies to events in both ancient
times and the end times. It also covers
the old system of religion practiced by the Jews (the …small horn which
grew…toward the Beautiful Land where the temple in Jerusalem was) and the
new system set up by the sacrifice Jesus made for us and that he is offering in
our place in the temple in heaven (the horn …grew up to the host of
heaven…and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him…), so the 2300 years
must cover Rome and its offspring, and time periods before and after Jesus was
crucified.
Daniel 8:14 says that at the end of
the 2300 years the …holy place will be properly restored and, as
mentioned above, this now applies to what Jesus does for us in heaven. Since this occurs in the spiritual and
heavenly realms, we will not have any visible evidence to know when the
restoration has taken place. So when might the regular sacrifice have been
removed from God and when might the holy place be restored? There are several theories.
Theory #1
We saw that the 70-week probation period given in Daniel Chapter 9 was the last chance for the Jewish nation to get with the program. They failed and the spread of the gospel to all people began with the scattering of Christians. After the vision containing the 2300 days, but before giving Daniel the 70-week prophetic warning for the Hebrews,
the angel Gabriel told Daniel that he had come to give him …insight with understanding. (Dan. 9: 22)
How does the 70-week prophecy of
Daniel 9 give help in understanding anything else? It could give us a starting point for the
previous vision’s timeline…457 BCE. So
if the 2300 years also begins in 457 BCE, then its end would be 1843 CE.
Theory #2
Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE
and his four generals divided his empire.
Some use this date as the start of the 2300 years and that would put the
end of it at 1977 CE.
Theory #3
Antiochus Epiphanes was a descendant of Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, who gained control of Mesopotamia and the Middle East after Alexander’s death (see Appendix 1). In 168 BCE Antiochus occupied Jerusalem and desecrated the temple by, among other things, offering a pig on the altar. His desecration of the temple was so heinous to the Jewish people that many of them (and many Christians) consider Antiochus and his blasphemous acts to be the first step in the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 8:9-14. If 168 BCE were the start date for the 2300 days, then the end date would be 2132 CE, or well over a century from now.
