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The Little Horn, Part 2

Well, If you haven’t guessed it yet, It’s the Roman Catholic Church. It’s the only organization that matches all 12 of the descriptions in great detail. This is not to say that all people in this church organization are filled with the devil or demonically oppressed. God has his people in every organization. It would be better said that the Roman Catholic Church has done more to keep people from the real truth and stopping those who are truly following God more than any other organization.

There are 12 identifying marks of The Little Horn. We’re going to run through each one and simply present the facts as dictated by history. Once again we need to remind the reader that if you’ve taken the short cut and decided to read this article first, it won’t make a lot of sense to you.

 

Birth of the Catholic Church

The bible describes The Little Horn as having a major role in World Government, so when we discuss the Little Horn we are looking at world-wide movements. The Roman Catholic Church is a world-wide organization that’s been very involved in secular governmental affairs ever since the beginning. It all started when the Roman Emperor Constantine discovered Christianity in 312 AD and embraced it. In 313AD he issued the Edict of Toleration which granted freedom to all religions in the empire. Roman Citizens were now free to become Christians without having to fear persecution from the state. In his zeal, he decided that everyone should be a Christian and that the Christians should run the country, so he appointed many of the church leaders as Bishops and gave them powerful positions in government. He set them on thrones with the political nobles of the empire, wedding the church and Roman government together. The church leaders were responsible for civil functions as well as spiritual responsibilities

The church was ecstatic. They felt as though they finally arrived and now ruled the country. The local governor controlled the church, made governmental decisions, handled all the income from taxes and church offerings, and set people in place to govern the land.

Over time, it seemed like everyone was a Christian, even those without a salvation experience. These high positions paid well and were sot after by the general population. Eventually the marriage of the church and state put the church under control of the ruling political parties, and for the next 1,500 years the church remained under the control of the state. It wasn’t until the constitution of the United States forbid the government from establishing a state religion that the structure of church government finally changed.

The unsaved political leaders were bored with the church services so they started bringing in images (idols) from their heathen temples, thus slowly statues of the apostles, Mary, and other biblical characters started appearing in places of Christian worship.

The Nicolaitans believed and taught that the clergy should be elevated above the lay people. They started calling the church leaders “priests” and they asked to be addressed as Father. All this is a direct violation of scripture.

After Constantine and other political leaders became benefactors of the church, the congregations looked to political leaders for their church leadership. When Constantine moved the political capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, his absence from Rome caused the church in the West to call upon the Bishop of Rome for important religious and political decisions. 

The position of Bishop of Rome, became the most powerful figure in Rome and in the world. All the other Bishops would look to Rome for advice and considered the Bishop of Rome as their superior. The position eventually evolved into the papacy (papa, father) with the Pope as the head of the church.

Unfortunately the celebration of church as state was very short lived, as the local Bishops passed away and they were replaced with Bishops that didn’t care a hoot about God. In one short generation, Satan beheaded the church and had total control over the church, tax base, and local government. It would take another 1,500 years before a non-governmental church structure would arise.

12 Identifying Marks

Let’s take a look at those 12 identifying marks and compare them with the Roman Catholic Church.
Daniel 7:8 While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

1. It’s a nation, as it’s represented by a Horn.

Yes, The Roman Catholic church is a nation and not just a church, it was first officially recognized as a country in 538AD. They have their own King, The Pope. They are governed by their own sets of laws and basically have all the structure you would find in any nation or state.

2. It’s a little nation.

Yes, The Roman Catholic church (The Vatican) is one of the smallest nations on the face of the Earth, but probably has the largest influence of any nation on the face of the Earth.

3. This little nation came up among the other 10 Horns, so it must be located in the same territory as the Roman Empire.

Yes, The Roman Catholic church is not only in the territory defined as the Roman Empire. It’s ruling from the very city the Roman Empire was ruled by. No wonder why the description in Daniel 8: 9-14 describes a horn that started small, grew in power to the South, East, and toward the beautiful land. (It’s describing Rome here). Then it reached the Host of heaven and threw some of the starry hosts down to earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the Host. Here it’s describing the Antichrist. So the horn from Rome gets converted to the Antichrist in a couple of very short statements.

4. This horn had eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully, so it has a human king leading it. This king is a boastful talking as though he is god.

Yes, The Roman Catholic church has a human leader, The Pope, and the Catholic church claims that the Pope is God.
In the Catholic National, July 1985 we read, “The Pope in not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh”. In Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, “The Reunion of Christendom” (dated June 20th, 1894) we read, “We (the popes) hold upon the earth the place of God almighty”.

5. It rooted up three other horns in order to come into power. So three other nations were subdued in the process.

Yes, When King Odoacer first defeated the Roman Empire he had control over the territory we now know as Italy. Some history books have this nation listed as Heruli. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church approached King Odoacer and asked him for control of their own territory, (Rome). After King Odoacer stopped laughing he promptly denied their request. The King had just defeated the mighty Roman Empire and was not about to give any land to anyone.
The Catholic emperor Zeno (474-491) arranged a treaty with the Ostrogoths located Northeast of Italy in 487.  As stated earlier, anything the Pope said was and is from God, so helping the Pope is like serving God. The Ostrogoths were quick to defeat King Odoacer (Heruls) in 493, but when it came time to give the Pope his own rights as a country the Ostrogoths denied their request. After all they just had to fight for this land and they were not going to give it away to anyone.
The Catholic emperor Justinian (527-565) exterminated  the Vandals in 543. The Vandals ruled in Northern Africa were frequently in Italy helping themselves to whatever they so desired and destroying everything that they did not want to take (thus, we have the name Vandals). The emperor Justinian also defeated the Ostrogoths, and in 538, the Roman Catholic Church was declared a nation.
Here you have one nation having to subdue three other nations in order to come to power.

Daniel 7:21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
He gave me this explanation: The Fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on Earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole Earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The 10 horns are 10 kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another King will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three Kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.
But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.

6. The Little Horn made war against the saints and was defeating them. (also in Rev 13:7)

The time period from AD 500-1500 is called the Dark Ages and rightly so. The Roman Catholic Church of this period was known for its immoral church leaders, its religious idolatry, superstitions, and religious ceremonies. Anyone who raised their voice against the church was promptly killed or exiled.  It was estimated that the Roman Catholic Church is responsible for the deaths of over 52 million people. Think about all the wars (Crusades) between the Catholic Church and the Muslims, the Protestants, Inquisition of Spain, French Revolution.

Think about The Dark Ages and Mid-evil times. During The Inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church was responsible for introducing torture into almost all European penal systems, without any of the original Roman safeguards. It’s hard to think about these times as Christians were tortured on racks, sawn in two, and burned alive for their faith.

The Pope was directly responsible for these Inquisitions. When two Inquisitors were sent to England in 1310 to extract confessions from Knights Templars, they insisted on using torture. The king allowed some torture to be applied "according to ecclesiastical law", but apparently not enough to satisfy the Inquisitors. The Pope wrote to the King:
We hear that you forbid torture as contrary to the laws of your land; but no state can override Cannon Law, Our Law; therefore I command you at once to submit these men to torture...Withdraw your prohibition and we grant you remission of sins.

7. The King will be different from a normal King.

When you look at the Pope, you don’t think of him as a king as he’s a religious leader. He is different from a normal king as most kings are not saying that they are speaking on God’s behalf.

8. He will speak against the Most High commit blaspheme against God, Revelation 13:5-8 also talks about the Antichrist and says “great things and blasphemies”

The term blaspheme has one of two meanings. Either you’re stating that you are God, or that you have the authority to forgive sins. The Roman Catholic Church fits both of these criteria. First of all, the Catholic doctrine says that anything the Pope says should be taken as if God were speaking to you. The other area the Roman Catholic Church is in great error is having people confessing their sins to a priest. Only Jesus can forgive sins. Neither the priests nor the Pope have this kind of authority.  Placing a priest between you and God is nothing short of robbing you from salvation and a relationship with God.

9. He will attempt to change the set Times and Laws

The Roman Catholic Church has changed the set times and laws. If you pick up a bible published by the Catholic church you’ll find the 10 commandments have changed. Yes, they still have 10 commandments, but they got rid of the commandment saying you shall not bow down to an idol or worship an image. They then took the 10th command and split it into two commandments. After all, everyone knows that there are 10 commandments so no one would accept nine.

The Roman Catholic Church is also responsible for inventing a lot of their own ideas including; exalting the Mother Mary, Purgatory, prayers to the Saints, Confession to the Priest, and infallibility of the Pope. All of these items practices, including many other things Luther came up with, are ways in which the Catholic church strayed from the truth and created their own laws.   

10. He will rule for a time, times, and half a time. The bible speaks of a time being equal to a year or in biblical times it would be 12 moons with 30 days between each moon or 360 days. So a time (1-year), times (2-years), and half a time (one half year) would be three and a half years or 1260 prophetic days.

To calculate the ruling time you must first establish a starting time. Our starting time will be the official year the Roman Catholic Church was established as a nation. That happened in 538AD right after they defeated the third nation. 1260 prophetic days would be calculated as 1260 years so it matches up with the other prophecies in Daniel. For more information on why 1 day is equal to a year read the other articles. This brings us to the year 1798.

It’s interesting that there was a noteworthy event in history that occurred in 1798 that started a turn of events that would eventually remove the Roman Catholic Church from power. Napoleon looked around and asked himself, “who’s creating all these wars”. The answer was the Pope. He sent French General Berthier to Rome, arrested the Pope and placed him in prison. This started a series of events that eventually dis-banned the Vatican from being declared a country. Wow, this all started exactly 1260 years later, God decides to execute judgement on Satan and shuts him down. This time period (1798-1844) deserves a lot more attention as it outlines a major shift in world politics begins the start of God’s judgment against Satan. To read more on it, we will soon be posting an article called, God judgment begins.

Rev 13:3-4 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”
5-7) The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

11. The Little Horn would receive a fatal wound and yet recover. Rev 13:3

As we just discussed, The Roman Catholic Church was shut down as a nation between 1798 and 1870 AD. Amazing, it was resurrected again in 1929 and declared a nation again. This prophecy is not about a person, it the resurrection of an organization. It should also be noted that although it was resurrected, it did not have the same power as it had before.

Before 1798 the Catholic Church dominated the world through ruthless behavior. It you didn’t agree with them you were killed. They were directly responsible for starting many wars. Millions were killed in the name of religion. Now, the world looks at the Pope as the biggest religious leader of the day, not for starting wars or killing people. The times truly have changed.

The world is looking to the Catholic Church to find out what the Church is doing but God has another plan. God is raising up the real church, and it’s not part of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s filled with people who call Jesus their Lord and are willing to let god call the shots. Very soon the world will be looking at these new leaders and wondering where they came from.

12. The Little Horn will have World-wide influence. Rev 13:7

Yes, we all know the answer to this one. The Roman Catholic Church has more World-wide influence than any other organization in history. If you read the bible you would be asking yourself, how could a king, from one of the smallest nations on earth, have World-wide influence. You might also ask, how could the Antichrist show up as a trusted church leader? Now we all know the answer. The devil has been at this for a long time and most people don’t even know when they’re being deceived.

Many people are upset with the church and are using it as an excuse for not following God. The first rule to follow is to not blame God for something man has done. God was not involved with any of the wars or other bad things that took place in the past. Simply because someone says that God told me this, doesn’t mean that God said anything. The Word says that you should not kill or harm anyone. So anyone who knows God would be able to discern that this was not from God. God did say that if you know the truth, you will recognize the lie. That’s why God said that it’s important to know what the Word says. If you would know what the Word says you won’t be deceived by a bunch of hypocrites.

The Antichrist has taken many forms over the years (Egypt, Babylon, Little Horn, Hitler) as Satan’s battle plans have changed many times. It should be noted that there will always be some sort of an Antichrist spirit working among the people. It will probably continue until the Day of the Lord when Jesus finally returns to earth and sets up an earthly kingdom. After Jesus comes, the devil will be chained and not allowed to deceive the nations for 1,000 years.

The good news is that the reign of the Little Horn is over. Judgment has begun and God has ruled in favor of the saints.
Daniel 7:26  But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.

This means that in 1798 when the rule and reign of the Little Horned ended, God entered into judgment. The seals were opened and now God will complete His plan and restore the people of the earth to their original calling and destiny. Welcome to the book of Revelation, Gods Judgment Begins, gives us a lot of details of how this shift occurred between 1798 and 1844. It’s probably the next article you’ll want to read.

 

Last Updated: Feb 21, 2016	Contact Us