Mike Bickle discusses the profound implications of Daniel chapter 8, focusing on the vision of the little horn, which symbolizes the Antichrist. He emphasizes the historical accuracy of the prophecies regarding the rise and fall of empires, particularly Persia and Greece, and how they foreshadow future events. Bickle highlights the significance of Antiochus Epiphanes as a precursor to the Antichrist, while asserting that the full fulfillment of the prophecy extends beyond him. The sermon encourages believers to understand the prophetic timeline, particularly the 2,300 days leading to the abomination of desolation, and to remain vigilant in recognizing the signs of the times. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper engagement with Scripture to grasp the weighty truths contained in these visions.

We'll go ahead and turn to page 47. We'll do this session, then take a 20-minute break. We've got coffee in the gym, and then we'll come back and do a second session. Both sessions tonight will be focused on Daniel chapter 8, which is the second of four visions. This is quite a—well, all four of them are quite amazing. This is truly a weighty, relevant, important vision. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus. And Lord, we ask you that you would give us understanding by the Holy Spirit that we would see what's written in the Word of God, that we would grasp it. Father, we ask that the fog would lift and things would come into clarity as we read the words that Gabriel said, as we read over the vision that you gave your servant Daniel. We thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, in the notes, go ahead and turn to page 47, Daniel chapter 8. We'll look at the introduction. This is the second of Daniel's four visions. And this vision starts by Daniel describing what's going to happen in the empire of Persia. Now, this is a pretty powerful reality because Daniel's working for the Babylonian government, and Persia has not defeated Babylon yet. But he's actually saying here, that neighboring empire is going to rise up and defeat us. That's a pretty dangerous thing to be prophesying in the court of a king. So he sees that Persia is going to rise up, the neighboring empire. We know Persia is modern-day Iran, and Babylon is modern-day Iraq. So a Jewish prophet in Iraq says, Iran is about to invade us and defeat us in a few years. Not such a good vision to say. Paragraph C. Then the angel shows, or the vision shows Daniel what happens after the Persian empire. It goes on for a couple hundred years. Then there's another empire that's going to rise and defeat Persia. And that would be Alexander the Great and the Grecian empire. And the whole point of telling about these two empires that are going to suddenly overcome the one before them is that the Lord is verifying in history that this is a true vision. There were not that many people that would have believed in that day that the mighty Babylonian empire could be suddenly overthrown. But it was. And then nobody would have believed that the mighty Persian empire would be suddenly overthrown. But it was. And the point is, if those two things happened with that kind of precision, with that kind of accuracy, then the last part of the vision, the main part of the vision, is going to come to pass as well. And that's the vision of the little horn, which is, we know, the Antichrist. And that's the rest of the chapter, verse 9, or the most of the remaining chapter, verse 9 to 26. Now paragraph D. Say Antiochus Epiphanes. I want everybody to know this name. Don't name your children after this name. So this is not a name to pass on. Say Antiochus Epiphanes. This is one of the, there's only about 15 facts in the book of the visions of Daniel you have to get. Remember the four empires. You've got to get those four. What are those four again? What's the first one? What's the second one? What's the third one? What's the fourth one? Rome as a picture of the Antichrist empire. Okay, you've got to have those facts or you're not going to understand the vision. You have to know Antiochus Epiphany or some people say Antiochus. You can say it either way that you want. Antiochus or Antiochus. Okay, look at your neighbor and say Antiochus Epiphanes. Say I'm going to name my next dog Antiochus Epiphanes. Now he's a Seleucid king. Now Seleucid was an empire. We're going to get to in a minute. That's important. It's basically the region, I mean in the most broad strokes of Syria and well beyond that as well. But I think of him as a Syrian, but his kingdom as you'll see, we'll show you a map, extends far to the east beyond that. But just to make it easy for today, though it's not entirely accurate, think of him as Syria which is just north of the nation of Israel. And let's picture him being based there though his empire extended far beyond Syria even on to India. And so Antiochus Epiphanes, this Syrian plus a lot more king, is a picture of the Antichrist. And all through, if you read any commentaries on the book of Daniel, you're going to run into this figure Antiochus. He only reigned 12 years. From 175 B.C. to 163 B.C. 175 B.C. and that's on the notes to 163 B.C. He reigned 12-year reign and then he died suddenly. So Antiochus Epiphanes lived in the region of Syria though his reign was far bigger than that. He's one of the main figures because Daniel 8 is constantly referring to him, but yea more than him. It's like Daniel 11. Daniel 11, Antiochus Epiphanes is featured throughout Daniel 11, but more than Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus fulfills some of the details, but all of them are fulfilled only in the Antichrist. Paragraph E. Wait, tell me that guy's name again. Who are you going to name your dog after? No, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that, but you're not going to name your next son that. Okay, that's for sure. Okay, paragraph E. Gabriel makes his first appearance in the Scripture here in Daniel chapter 8. Now the reason that's so significant is Gabriel only appeared four times in the Scripture. And every time that Gabriel appeared, his main message was the coming of the Messiah every time. The reason I'm making that point now, though he didn't appear until session 2 after the break, so to the last half of Daniel 8, but I'm telling you ahead of time because there's a lot of energy by scholars to take Daniel 8 and to completely have it fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes, that it's all past, there is no future Antichrist. He fulfilled all of it 100%, and the facts of history are such that he did not fulfill many of these details. But many men of God who really love Jesus, women of God that are scholars, and they love Jesus, they love the Word, they just have this energy to get rid of a future Antichrist. But he's looming so big in Daniel 8, what are you going to do with him? Ah, let's say that Daniel 8 was only prophesying about a Syrian king. Let's reduce it to that, that it was all taking place, you know, in 175 BC to 163, that 12-year period. It's over, it's done, we don't have any little horn to think about in the days to come, and we can have a nice tidy set up and the situation is fine. Now let me show you this. Gabriel appeared four times in Scripture. Every time he appeared in Scripture, it was to announce the first or the second coming of Messiah, or both comings. He did not appear for the first time in human history in the Bible to announce Antiochus. He did not appear to announce something as small as a Gentile emperor, or a king, let's say it that way. He appeared to talk about the Antichrist that would oppose the true Christ and the people of God at the end of the age. So I just wanted to make that point. Okay, top of page 48. Okay, the vision starts with the Persians are moving westward. So, Iraq is west of Iran, so Iran is moving westward, and the next nation over is Iraq, which is ancient Babylon. And so, Daniel sees this, and again, that's a pretty intense implication for a guy that was in the king's court that worked for the government of Babylon. Verse 2, let's look right at verse 2. Daniel's in this vision. It's 551 B.C. He says, I saw in a vision, and it so happened that while I was looking, I was in, and he's into this city, this Persian city. He says, I'm looking, and suddenly I'm in this faraway city. Now, what's happening is that in the spirit, just like Ezekiel did, he was transported in the visionary way, and we don't know exactly how all that goes. Some of you know Bob Jones. He says, I was there, and I go, where were you at? He goes, I was there, and I said, where's there? He goes, when you go there, you'll know. But anyway, those of you that know Bob Jones, you'll know what I mean. So, Daniel's transported, or at least in visionary form, to this faraway city that becomes the capital of Persia. Okay, let's go to Roman numeral 4. And so he sees what's happening in the city, which is pretty intense. He sees a ram, and this ram speaks of this emerging empire. It's just a few years away from invading Babylon. He says, I lifted up my eyes, and there standing besides the river was a ram. And again, the ram speaks of Persia. And how do you know it speaks of Persia? Because in verse 20, Gabriel tells Daniel, oh, by the way, the ram speaks of Persia. He says it real direct. Somebody was asking a question earlier today, how do we know for sure that the second empire is Persia? Because Gabriel identified it. And then Gabriel, the next verse, in verse 21, right here in chapter 8, he says, oh, yeah, and the next empire is Greece. So we have crystal clear information straight from Gabriel himself. Well, anyway, this ram had two horns, verse 4. The ram was pushing westward. Again, right next door to Iran is Iraq, ancient Babylon. They're pushing, and they invade them in a few years. And they're pushing northward, they're pushing southward. And we know from history those are the three directions that the king of Persia made military advancements. And he said nobody could stop him. And he did according to his will, and he became great. Okay, let's look at the top of page 49. And you can get familiar with the details of this later. And the point for us today of knowing this detail is that if the seemingly invincible Babylon was overcome by this new emerging nation, and this new emerging empire of Persia then is seemingly invincible, and they're overcome by this new empire of Greece, if those two facts happened with absolute historical precision, and the details of the vision, the symbolic parts of the vision, actually came to pass with historical precision, the point is the rest of the vision will come to pass with precision in terms of being walked out in history. That's the point of the angel giving or Daniel receiving this open vision with those kind of details. Now they had other implications back in his day. They mattered to the political situation. But for our day, we say, Lord, you showed your zeal to make this knowledge known to us. You really, really wanted us to know this knowledge. You went out of your way. God doesn't really go out of his way, but just as a phrase. You went out of your way to make it clear that you know history, you know the end from the beginning, and you set up a scenario to give proof that this is a true vision. So we know the last part, verse 9 all the way to 26. We know it's going to be fulfilled with precision. That's the reason why these two kingdoms are mentioned. He goes on in verse 5 and 6. He says, then I saw a goat, a male goat coming out from the west, and he was going across the surface of the earth without touching the ground. And this speaks of Alexander the Great, meaning his conquests were so fast, nobody conquered more ground quicker than Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great became the king of Greece when he was 21 years old. He only is king for 12 years. He dies suddenly nearly at his 33rd birthday. In 12 years, he conquered the largest area ever conquered. He had the largest empire in history up to that time, and maybe since then. I don't know exactly what the square miles would be if we compared it with other empires. Well, you can read the details on Alexander the Great, and they come to pass with absolute precision, and that's the point. Okay, let's go down to, let's look at paragraph B. Then I saw him, this ram, or this goat I mean, and he was confronting, Alexander and Greece was confronting Persia. And he was moved with rage, and he attacked Persia. And he broke the power of Persia. Let's go down to paragraph C, verse 8. I'm just giving you the sense of it. You're going to read this more on your own to really kind of lock into the details of it. Verse 8, this male goat, which is again young Alexander in his 20s, he grew very great. But when he became strong, his life was broken is what it means. He dies suddenly at actually age 32, nearly 33. Suddenly he dies with the largest empire in history that he's gained in 12 short years. Here's the key point, because that's a nice history lesson, but it's not a history lesson just for fun. It's a history lesson that's bringing us to a very important point. Here it is here at the end of verse 8. And in the place of Alexander, four notable ones came up towards the four winds of heaven. What that means, very important, when Alexander died, four of his generals, which the vision calls them notable ones, they fought each other and divided Alexander's kingdom into four separate empires. They fought for about 20 years. So young Alexander dies on his bed, and the generals immediately turn on one another and say, hey, I'm the heir apparent because nobody thought he was going to die at age 32. They thought he had many years to go. It was a sudden death. So these four generals, they ended up fighting about 20 years of conflicts, and it ends up just like the vision said, four kingdoms emerged out of this. And the reason it's important, because one of these kingdoms is where Antiochus Epiphanes emerges, who is the foreshadowing of the Antichrist. That's the reason we're hearing this story. Because to understand the Antichrist, we've got to look at this Syrian king, and he's more than Syrian, so I realize I'm reducing it, but I'm trying to make this Daniel 101 just to kind of get your brain around it. His empire is bigger than Syria, which I'll show you a map in just a moment. Of course, you have it right there in your syllabus. Well, these four notable ones, number three. So I list the name of the generals. And these four generals, each of them had their own kingdom, and they were not so friendly with each other. But the fourth kingdom, Seleucus, and each one of these generals actually named their kingdom after themselves. So the Seleucid kingdom, that's a strange name. The Seleucid kingdom is really just the name of one of the four generals, Seleucus. And he took, look what it says, Syria, Babylon, Persia. He takes quite a bit. Matter of fact, his kingdom is bigger than the other three combined. So this Seleucus, he was a pretty intense dude to get all of this territory. I mean, his area was bigger than the three others combined. Now again, the reason you have to know about this, because Antiochus Epiphanes, say it again, Antiochus Epiphanes, a few generations later, he's one of the grandsons of this king, Seleucus. And so it's called the Seleucid dynasty. And so you need to know that. Again, it's a technical point of history. But if you're going to read commentaries or research on the Internet about Daniel 8, you're going to run into the Seleucid dynasty. Who's Seleucid? He's just one of the four generals. And he named a dynasty after himself and his great, great, great grandson. It's eight generations down the road. He emerges and he becomes a foreshadowing of the Antichrist. But the amazing thing is all of this was shown to this prophet, this Jewish prophet in Babylon years ahead of time with incredible precision and detail. Top of page 51. Now here's a next very, very important phrase here. This is a very important phrase, verse 9. Out of one of them. Out of one of who? Out of one of the four. Out of one of the four of these generals. Now we know now it's out of Seleucus. It's out of him. But it's out of one of the four divisions of Alexander the Great's Grecian empire, the little horn emerges. The future Antichrist is going to come from the region and the people group identified by one of the four of the division of, the four divisions of the breakup of Alexander's kingdom. So I'm going to say that again. So he's seeing the vision and the Lord shows him that Alexander the Great's kingdom is going to break up. It's the largest kingdom in history and it's going to break up into four divisions. Out of one of those divisions, which we know now, it's the Syrian division. The Antichrist is going to come out of that region and out of that people group. I'm not saying he's coming from Syria because the area is far bigger. It's Iraq, Iran, southern Turkey. It's quite a vast area, which we'll look at in a moment. But we know the Antichrist, the little horn is coming out of that area. So the little horn here, number two, the little horn is the same little horn from chapter 7, verse 7 and 8. It's the same man. It's the exact same man as back in chapter 7. So some people try to make the little horns different. They say, well one of them is Antiochus and that's it because Antiochus is a picture, but there's many things that Antiochus does not do here in Daniel chapter 8. To make Daniel 8 fulfilled in Antiochus, you have to ignore a number of very important details. You just have to look the other way and pretend like they didn't happen or they were not in the vision. You can't do that. If you want to be true to the Scripture, you have to see every detail fulfilled. If we're going to be true to a prophecy, and Antiochus fulfilled a few of them. Number two, the little horn of Daniel 7 is the same little horn of Daniel 8. But the first mention of the little horn in Daniel 7, where he's mentioned four times, that is where his Antichrist role is clearly defined. So he's mentioned first in chapter 7, and that's where his job description, he's defined as a biblical entity, as a biblical personage. And so we have that definition set in place in Daniel 7. So now we go to Daniel 8, and we carry that definition with us over into Daniel chapter 8. Daniel 7 emphasizes a number of things. The little horn of Daniel 7 has overwhelming power. He crushes nations. The little horn of Daniel 7 not only has overwhelming power and crushes nations, he has this dynamic relationship with ten kings. The little horn of chapter 8, he's not a different man, but it's a different face. Because we're going to find that the Antichrist again appears in Daniel 11, again foreshadowed by Antiochus, but Antiochus doesn't fulfill all the details, just some of the details. Then we find another face of the Antichrist. So we find one face of the Antichrist in Daniel 7, that he has overwhelming power and he relates to ten kings and more besides. Daniel 8, we find his intense cruelty and his particular role to the Jewish people and to the Jerusalem temple. Then in chapter 11, we find his religious attitudes, we find his military strategies, and we'll look at that tomorrow. Okay, paragraph 3. Now here's one key thing that was not fulfilled in Antiochus. And the reason this matters, you think, well, so what? No, it matters because the scholarship of today, a large number of Bible scholars, again, they have reduced Daniel 8 to only Antiochus, therefore it's entirely fulfilled, so therefore there's no relevance in the future because there is no Antichrist coming. And these are persuasive, smart men and women that have their PhDs, they know Greek and they know Hebrew, and you might read it and go, wow, I'm just a student, what do I know? Beloved, the Bible was not written just for Greek and Hebrew scholars and PhD people, it was written for the common man to be able to read what it says, it says what it means, it means what it says at face value. Now there are times when the Bible clearly, like here, a couple times in Daniel, where symbolism is given, but the symbolism is then made clear by God that it's symbolism. So when a passage is indicated as symbolic, then you take it as symbolic, if it's not indicated as symbolic, you take it at face value as something that's really going to happen. Well, number 3, the little horn of Daniel 8 was only partially filled by Antiochus. Like, for instance, let's put up the slide number 2, and you got it right there in the chart there on page 50, look at the Seleucid kingdom, look how big it is. It is a massive kingdom, it's that green one. Now the 3 yellow circles are the other 3 generals. Look how big Antiochus' kingdom is. My point is, he's the most powerful leader in the world, he's not a little regional power, he is in no way, shape, or form a little horn. Although he fulfills some of the ideas of the little horn, but to take the whole passage and say it's him, you would have to say the man with the biggest empire in the world was merely a little horn, a little regional leader, and that's just not true to history. So that's the reason I'm showing you the vastness of his empire, to show you that he cannot fulfill all the details of Daniel 8, and particularly the fact he's not a little horn. And his rulership over the Seleucid empire was his first appointment, meaning he was not a mayor or a governor for 10 or 20 years in an out-of-the-way region, then he got promoted like the Antichrist, will have a small sphere of authority, and then get promoted gradually by stages. This man, his brother dies, and he's instantly the king of the biggest empire of the whole world in one step, in one moment, so there is no little horn who grows up into a big horn, so to speak. So when you read the commentaries and they say it's all past history, you say, no, that man was not a little horn, and the prophecy is mostly about a man who has a little sphere of authority, the Antichrist. So I spent a little too much time on that, but I don't want you to get intimidated by some theologian and throw away this chapter to antiquity and just say it was in the past, in the past of the past, what does it have to do with today? Let's move on. Don't do that. This is a very, very important vision for the future. That's my point. Okay, let's look at number four. Well, I just said number four, the Seleucid empire is one of the four noble horns. It's a noble empire. Number six, I just said that, that out of one of these four, of the breakup of the Grecian empire, out of one of the four, I'm just repeating what I've already said, will come one of these kings, and Antiochus is that king. Let's turn to page 52. Now we're going to look at the most difficult verse in the book of Daniel, in my opinion. Now it's describing with the little horn. Now Antiochus didn't even get close to fulfilling this verse. This is an intense verse, and I don't know what it means, so I'm going to give you just a few possibilities of what it means. It says, and this little horn grew up. Okay, so there's a process. He grew up to the host of heaven. What? How does a man on the earth grow up to the host of heaven? And the word host often in the Old Testament means army. The word host and army are interchangeable. He grows up. In other words, he grows in stature to where he affects the armies of heaven some way. How does that happen? And he casts down some of the host. How does a man on the earth do activities that affects the spiritual powers in the heavenly realm? That's what it's suggesting. At face value, that's what it's saying. That's just so intense that we've got to scramble to reduce this to symbolism somehow. Surely there's not a man on the earth that's going to have such a stature in the spirit negatively that he affects the host spiritual beings in the heavenly realm. Surely there is no such man. Surely Antiochus was not that man. That's for sure. Well, the Antichrist, being this very mysterious relationship that he has with Satan himself, somewhere he grows up, meaning his influence increases in his humanity. He has this spiritual dynamic where he impacts the host of heaven. And what he does then, he casts down some of the host. He casts some of the host down to the earth. So he does something in his activity where spiritual beings are cast down. That's how it looks. You know, our team, we talked this over. Someone says, what does it mean? And I go, man, if it means what it says, that's so intense. I would just rather claim the fifth and say, you know what, let's wait until Daniel 105. Let's wait some years down the road and get some understanding. But that is what it's saying. But not only does he cast down some of the host. And I'm going to give you an interpretation that some have. And I don't know if it's true, but at least it needs to be considered. But he doesn't just cast down the armies. Some form of armies in the spiritual realm. And again, this view that some suggest that it's demon spirits in the heavenly realm. That's where that view is going. That what he's doing actually affects the demonic realm. He has a relationship to the demons being cast down to the earth. And we'll look at that in just a moment. I'm getting ahead of myself. And again, I don't know if it means that. But it's certainly something that we need to consider. But he does a second thing. His activities cause the stars to be cast down to the ground and trampled. Now we know that stars are not trampled down on the earth. You can't fit a bunch of stars on the earth to trample. So it's obvious that that's symbolic, the stars are. Because the simple physical properties, you can't get like a couple hundred stars landing on earth and step on them. It just doesn't work. Never tried it, but I'm just sure it doesn't work. Okay, paragraph 1. The host of heaven seems to speak of an army related to the heavenly realm. In what sense does the Antichrist cast down an army related to the spirit realm or to the heavenly realm? Is it a demonic host? That's one possibility. And I think it's one that should be considered. Is it the armies of Israel? Is it like the human armies and he casts them down? And they're just because the God of heaven is so identified with them that when he casts down the armies of Israel, physical armies of Israel, in that sense he's casting down the armies of heaven? Well that's a possibility. Some people take that. I think that needs to be considered. Or are the armies of heaven the saints? And this is just another word for another description of persecuting the saints. Well I think that needs to be looked at as well. So is it a demonic host? Is it the Israel army or is it the saints? I have written here, this has made me feel comfortable here. There are different positions on this by theologians. No one seems very sure. I've read a bunch of them. And I went to Alan Hood and I said, Alan, what do you think? He goes, I don't have a clue. Don't even ask me that. I said, okay, there you go. Next. Then I went to the other guys. Number two, he grew up. Again, there's this element of his spiritual stature is growing and escalating. And he does something that has a chain reaction effect in the realm of the spirit. And it affects the host of heaven somehow. Now here's a verse that a number have appealed to. And I think, you know, it's worth looking at. That the host of heaven might be the demonic host. Because we know that at the three and a half year mark, the final seven years of natural history, at the three and a half year mark, Daniel chapter 12, I mean Revelation chapter 12 verse 7 to 9, describes something that really happens. It has not happened yet. Again, some theologians want to make that in the past and make it symbolic. There's going to be a war that happens in the realm of the spirit. And Michael the archangel, who has mentioned three different times in the book of Daniel, yeah, three times in the book of Daniel, his name is mentioned. And so he's involved in this as well. And here's what happens. There's a war in the heavenly realm three and a half years before the Lord returns, right when the abomination of desolation takes place, Michael and his angels are fighting the dragon, Satan and Satan's angels. And Satan is literally cast to the earth. And this is, he does not like this. This makes him so angry because this limits his influence dramatically. He has far less power when he's not in his position in the heavenly realm. Because the principalities and powers are in heavenly places. That's a strategic position where they have far greater influence. There is a time where Michael's going to rise up with a host of angels. They're going to do battle against Satan and his angels. And these angels are literally going to be cast down to the ground. And the angels, these fallen angels, the demons will be, there will be more demonized people on the planet after this happens. There will be more demons. I can't fully picture it. I don't even want to picture it. I can't imagine what the implications for evil of having the entire demonic realm bounded to the earth. And they can't get into their heavenly realm place of influence. And they're here and it says in Revelation 12 right here that Satan, if you read the whole passage at the end of verse 9, Satan is filled with rage because he only knows he has a very short amount of time, which is precisely three and a half years to go. But all the demons are now earthbound. I think it's possible that the Antichrist casting the host of heaven down, it's possible it could have a reference to that. I don't know. Again, I'm just looking at it going I just, I don't have it yet. Okay, let's go to number three. I just said number three. Okay. Number four, he doesn't just cast the host of heaven down. He says two things. He casts the stars down too. Now the host of heaven, there are hosts of heaven, so we're not mandated to make that symbolic because there are heavenly hosts, good and bad. And surely he's not casting down good angels. The Antichrist didn't have power over good angels where he's stomping on good angels. That's not what's happening. That's not what's happening. But the stars in the Scripture are a number of times used as a symbol or believers, the faithful are compared to stars. There's a number of references. Like right here in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 12, the wise and the righteous ones, they will shine like stars. So they're compared to stars. When the Lord spoke to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he said to them, the number of descendants will be as vast as the stars of heaven. So there is some connection between stars and the faithful. And so most commentators, most of them, those that are more liberal and even those that are conservative, they agree the stars here speak of persecution of believers. It's not so hard to figure out the stars are the faithful believers. What's hard is to figure out who that heavenly host is that comes down to the earth because of the relationship of what the Antichrist does. Okay, let's go to top of page 53, verse 11. He even exalts himself as high as the prince of the host. That's Jesus. Now Antiochus did not do this. He did not liken himself to the God of Israel. He did not take on that kind of persona. He was an arrogant man, and he was a defiled man, but he didn't go to that degree where he claimed to be God. At least there's no record of that in history. And by this man, verse 11, the Antichrist, the daily sacrifices will be taken away. Now Antiochus did take away the daily sacrifices for three years. So he did fulfill that part. And the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Verse 12, because of transgression, and the idea is Israel's transgression at this point in time, but it's also the transgression of the nations, the Gentile nations. It really covers both. An army, this is by God, has given him liberty to have authority over an army. Because God is disciplining Israel and disciplining the nations, it's bigger than an Israel story, because the discipline goes to the ends of the earth as well. An army was given over to the Antichrist, to this little horn. But its relationship to Israel here is apparent, because when this army is given over to the little horn, what happens is the army goes in and enforces the stopping of the daily sacrifices. Now this is the situation we find in Daniel 11, verse 31. Again, that speaks of Antiochus, but it also speaks of the Antichrist in full fulfillment as well, where they both use their army to invade Israel, surround the temple, and stop the daily sacrifices. Okay, let's go to page 54. I'm looking at my time, and I need to get to this one very interesting, the last main point here. I want to take a few moments on it to where you can grasp it. Now this is a little bit complicated, but I encourage you, once it connects, once about three dates, three pieces of information connect, then you go, oh, it's not that complicated. It really is not that complicated, but at the first reading, you know, people have read this, they go, what is this, in verse 14, it's talking about 2,300 days. This is a very, very significant prophecy for the end-time church. So this is part of what Jesus intended when he said in Matthew 24, go study the abomination of desolation, go study it, because you need to understand some very important implications, and this passage gives us one of those implications. Well, it starts in verse 13. He said, I heard, now Daniel's overhearing two angels talking. He goes, I heard one holy one speaking to another. They were going back and forth, and one of the angels said, how long will the vision be? How long will the vision, how long will these events continue that are related to the daily sacrifices? Not just stopping them, but even resisting them. I'm adding that dimension that the daily sacrifices are resisted. I think that's what it's talking about, because the daily sacrifices are somehow, and we'll look at that in a minute, resisted before they're officially stopped at the abomination of desolation. And that's what this prophecy is talking about, even before the abomination of desolation, at the three-and-a-half-year mark, even before that. And we find out when you tabulate it all up, and we're not going to break down all the details, but I'm giving you the info on the paper if you really want to know it. It's about two years and nine months before the abomination. There's this resistance. There's this hindrance of the daily sacrifices. Something is the Antichrist is going to do. He's going to tip his hand, and he's going to get a little bit ahead of himself, and he's going to hassle Israel while he's masquerading as a man of peace. And this is going to be two years and nine months before the abomination of desolation. Now you say, how do you know that? Well, you've got to read this page. And again, in a public setting like this, in five minutes, it would be hard to land it to where you could just grasp all the details crystal clear. But I think that they're laid out on the paper where you can work through them, if this is something that interests you, get together, three or four of you, debate it, talk about it, prove it wrong. Try to prove it wrong. That will really get you energized. And that would be really cool. With the students, they can prove the teachers wrong. That's kind of fun. So I challenge you students, prove this wrong, so that will make you learn every detail of it. So anyway, what happens, let's read the passage again. These angels are talking, and one angel asked the other, how long is it going to be with this troubling of the Jerusalem temple and the transgression of desolation? By the way, that phrase, transgression of desolation, is the first reference of the abomination of desolation, because it's not transgressions plural, it's singular. It's the transgression, it's the primary transgression for which the book of Daniel highlights in the four visions, which is clearly the abomination of desolation. It's the translation that leads to the desolation of the nations. It says, how long is the sacrifice is going to be troubled? The abomination of a desolation going to continue? The sanctuary trampled underfoot? The host trampled underfoot? How long is this going to happen? And the other angel answered in this seemingly cryptic answer, 2,300 days. Daniel's listing 2,300 days, and you'll know the 2,300 days is over because the abomination of desolation will be removed and the temple will be cleansed. So when the troubling of the temple starts, and again, 2,300 days is actually six years and four months. Well, I thought throughout the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation it's only three and a half years. Well, this angel is saying it's six years plus. All the other places say three and a half years, because the three and a half years is when the intensity begins. The three and a half years is when the Antichrist fully takes his mask off and shows himself as a devil, as a man demonized who demands to be worshipped at the pain of death. That's at the three and a half year mark. It's at the three and a half year mark the abomination of desolation is set in place. But here at the six year, four month mark, it's only nine months into the last seven years. It's only nine months into the last seven years. Again, you can study the math to see how we get those numbers. Something happens. Number four, the key is the sanctuary is cleansed at the end of 2,300 days. So we go to the wind of sanctuary is cleansed, and we count 2,300 days back, and that's when the big event is going to happen that is going to be a tremendous prophetic sign to the people of understanding. Now Daniel doesn't learn, we're in number four, he doesn't learn until his fourth vision. He's only on his second vision now. He doesn't learn for some years later, 17 years later, I guess it's 15 years later after this one. He doesn't learn for 15 more years that the sanctuary is not going to be cleansed for 1,290 days after the abomination of desolation is set up. You might say, okay, you're losing me. You've already given me five numbers here, and that's why I have it written down, so you can get together twos and threes and work this thing out and say, okay, okay, that number adds up, okay. So let's look at Daniel chapter 12, verse 11. This is 15 years after Daniel 8. Daniel gets another vision, and the mighty angel comes, and he says, oh, you need to know this. Remember 15 years ago when we showed you that the sanctuary was going to be cleansed and you didn't know how long it was going to be cleansed? Well, let me tell you here, Daniel 12, verse 11. I want you to know the sanctuary is going to be cleansed and the abomination of desolation is going to be undone. It's going to be thrown out in over 1,290 days. You say, okay, Daniel's a little perplexed because the end-time prophecies are always talking about 1,260 days. This is 30 days longer. The end-time prophecies are talking about 3 1⁄2 years, 42 months, 1,260 days, but this is the 43rd month. It's 30 days longer. What's going on here? And I'm not going to answer that right now, but I'm just letting you know there's a 30-day extension. There's a 43rd month where this drama goes for 30 days past the 3 1⁄2-year mark. But two things happen. The sanctuary is cleansed from chapter 8 and the abomination of desolation is removed from chapter 12. Those two things are actually two sides of one coin. They are both inseparable. They have to be connected together because when the sanctuary is cleansed, it's only when the abomination of desolation is gone, when that image is gone and the Antichrist is killed, that's when the sanctuary is cleansed. So this happens when Jesus comes. That's the point. Matter of fact, Jesus marches into Jerusalem. Here's the storyline. He marches into Jerusalem. He confronts the Antichrist. There's all the armies of the nation surrounding Jerusalem. I call it the battle for Jerusalem, the battle of Jerusalem. Many people call it that. The armies of the earth are there, and they're moving in on Jerusalem, about to overtake them. I mean Jerusalem has been just on their last breath. They're holding out, holding out, holding out, and suddenly the greater son of David comes. Not David the warrior. The greater David comes, and he's standing outside the city, and he defeats the end-time Goliath. He casts him down and throws him into the pit. Well, actually, Jesus just blows on him and gazes, and the Antichrist is absolutely immobilized, and then there's somebody else, I don't know who, they capture him and they throw him alive into the lake of fire. Then Jesus goes into the city, and the leaders of Israel are going, you are the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus 2,000 years ago said, you won't see me to the leaders of Israel. Say with their lips, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, blessed of God. And they will do it on that day. And in Psalm 24 it says, open up the gates, open up ye gates. And they will say, who is it? For the king of glory, mighty in battle, is entering, and the king of glory, mighty in battle, is the Jesus who just defeated the Antichrist at the battle of Jerusalem. So he goes into the city. He marches into the city, and they receive him. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Just like he said, they receive him as the Messiah. He walks right over to the temple. He cleanses the temple himself. And then he's crowned king in the city. But beloved, this is very similar to what happened in Matthew 24. After his triumphal entry and his procession into the city, they're all crying, Hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Then he cleansed the temple. This is going to happen again. He's going to literally cleanse the temple again. At the 1,290 days. So he returns at the 1,260 days, at the three and a half year mark. But 30 days, there's a lot of human things going on. Jesus is not in a hurry just to end it. I mean, if you watch the movies about this, there's not very many of them, but there's a few of them. Jesus comes. He waves his hands. Everybody disappears. Everything is made whole in one moment. No, there's real human dynamics and human process in this whole drama. And there's a 30-day series of events that actually happens after Jesus lands. As he's marching in Jerusalem, liberating the Jewish captives. He's setting the captives free, literally. He's destroying the armies of the Antichrist. And he's savoring every moment of it. I mean, he's not trying to do this like in one hour, let's get this thing over. It's like this is the hour of vindication he's been waiting for before his beloved people. And they see him and they receive him. Well, I enjoyed that. But let me bring this to a close. I mean, none of that was on the notes, but that was just for my own enjoyment. But here's the point. Where am I at on the notes? Let me see. Hang on. Let's go all the way to page 56, 57. Let's go to page 57. I'm just going to describe it, but I want you to know where it's at. It's page 57. Here's what happens. We start at the cleansing of the temple where the abomination of desolation is removed and the temple is cleansed by Jesus. That's at 1290 days. You count back 2300 days. That's when the trouble starts. Again, there's a seven-year period. The seven-year period starts with a covenant of peace. Everybody's saying this man is a man of peace. Beloved, he's hiding his true identity from the nations. He's the most evil man that will ever walk the planet, but he looks like a prince of peace. He made a covenant. The nations are exalting the covenant. We're saying, no, no, this man is a devil. You religious fanatics, here we have world peace, and all you can see is that man is the devil. He is the devil. And we say, here's what's going to happen. In nine months from now, nine months from now, this is the power, this is the practical application of this vision. Nine months from now, it's nine months into the final seven-year period, which is 2300 days from the end counting backwards. It brings you to the nine-month mark, and again, I have the numbers written out there for you. We're going to tell, or the church, whoever's here, they're going to tell the people who they've studied the book of Daniel, they say, you wait, in nine months from now, this man is going to show the first sign that he is a deceiver. He is not a friend of Israel. Yes, he is a friend of Israel. He swore he made a covenant with Israel. He made a covenant with all the nations. They go, you wait for nine months, and then suddenly nine months will go by, and this will be 2300 years from the end, counting backwards. All of a sudden, the Antichrist is going to disturb the temple sacrifices. He's going to say, you know, on second thought, I think that we're going to do this, and the Jewish leaders are going to say, wait a second, this is a complete backing off of what you vowed to us. He says, yeah, but that's how it's going to be. They're going to say, wait, the first sign of his betrayal, and then the people that you have or whoever is alive at that time says, they're going to say, how did you know that this man of peace was going to show his false colors at the nine-month mark? We say, right here in Daniel, and they'll say, where? 2300 days, 1290 days, the temple goes, what? But it's right here in the book. Then we're going to tell not only the nation of Israel, but we're going to tell the nations, you have two years and nine months before the abomination of desolation. This is a warning because the prophetic scriptures are true. The man did show his deceit right here for anybody that's paying attention, but it's going to get far worse at the abomination of desolation, which will be two years and nine months. Then we have that much time to warn them with the sign of the times of this prophetic event happening at the 2300 day mark. Now, again, I realize you've only heard this for seven minutes, and you're going, the last seven minutes I focused on this, you're going, what? The 2300. So I don't expect you to walk out of the room and somebody quiz you and you be able to say this. But here's what I want to leave you with. I want to stir up your holy interest and hunger to say, okay, he said something's going to happen nine months into the seven years that we're going to be telling people once this man makes the covenant, we're going to say you wait nine months. Something is going to happen. He's going to show his betraying heart. We're going to show his deceit. We don't exactly know what the event is, but it will be crystal clear. And you say, okay, that sounds pretty important if that's really what this is saying. And so I want to stir up your holy hunger and imagination and your curiosity and to go after and find, learn these details because, again, they're a little bit hard to communicate if it's the first time that you've seen it. Now, we have a little map for you. Let's look at slide number four, and we'll end with slide number four. I have it all. We have it written out there. Nick Syrett made this. It's brilliant. It's very, very clear. And so I'm not going to go through this right now, but it's no. No, no, wrong map. Yeah, there you go. That's the one. And you're going to take these notes, and you're going to take this map, and you're going to get a couple friends, and I want you to find a loophole of this. Find where it's wrong. So, again, I'm giving you a little human motivation. Go after this. Okay, let's find that. And you'll learn because all you have to learn is what the 1290 days and the 1260 and the 2300 days counting backwards, and it's not that hard. And once you get it, it would be like, I got it. I got it. It's not that, wow, I get Daniel. Well, don't go there yet. It's still Daniel 101. Remember that. Amen. Let's stand. We're going to take a little break here. Take a 20-minute break, and then we're going to come back, and we're going to finish Daniel chapter 8, the next part of the vision.