DANIEL - CHAPTER EIGHT

   I.       INTRODUCTION

A.   A detailed vision of the rise of the Antichrist

B.   Foreshadowed in the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes

C.   Secondary fulfillment scheduled for the Tribulation Period.

  II.      INSIGHT (vs. 1-14)

A.   Animals (vs. 3-5)

1.    A ram with two horns (v. 3)

2.    A male goat (v. 3)

B.   Advancement (vs. 5-8)

1.    Comes from the west (v. 5)

2.    Conquers swiftly (v. 5b)

3.    Led by a great general (v. 5c)

4.    Defeats the ram in battle (vs. 6, 7)

5.    The death of the invader (v. 8b)

C.   APPORTIONMENT (v. 8)

1.    After the death of Alexander the Great his empire was divided among four of his generals

2.    The division:

a.    Seleucus - Syria, Babylonia, Media

b.    Cassander - Macedonia, Thessaly, Greece

c.    Ptolemy - Egypt, Cyprus

d.    Lysimachus - Thrace, Cappadocia, Asia Minor

D.   ASCENDANCY (vs. 9-15)

1.    Out of these generals came another who is called “The Little Horn". (v. 9)

2.    He comes out of the Seleucid Empire which also included the territory of Israel.

3.    In his treatment of the Jews he becomes a type of the antichrist.

a.    Comes out of the same region as the antichrist - a Gentile nation.

b.    His great power (v. 9)

c.    He exalts himself (vs. 10, 11)

       (In defiance of Israel’s God, Antiochus set up a statue of Jupiter in the Temple)

d.    He persecuted Israel. (v. 10)

e.    He takes away the daily sacrifices. (v. 11)

f.     He casts down the truth. (v. 12)

4.    He has great success in his efforts. (vs. 12, 24)

E.   APPOINTMENT (v. 14)

1.    The question the second saint asked of the first was, “How long shall be the Vision concerning the ‘Daily Sacrifice,’ and the ‘Transgression of Desolation,’ to give both the Sanctuary and the Host to be trodden under foot?” This question was prompted by the previous treatment, that the “Little Horn” would take away the “Daily Sacrifice,” and that the “Place of His Sanctuary” (the Temple) would be cast down, or desolated. The answer to the question was--”Unto two thousand and three hundred days.” Now as these days are literal days, and date from the time when the “Daily Sacrifice” shall be taken away by the “Little Horn” (the Antichrist), which is in the “Middle” of Daniel’s “Seventieth Week” (Daniel 9:27), then these 2300 days begin in the “Middle of the Week,” and as the “Week” is seven years, half the “Week” would be three and one-half years, or forty-two months of thirty days each, or 1260 days. This would make the 2300 day overrun the last half of the Week 1040 days, or two years, ten months, and twenty days. And as the “Sanctuary” is not to be cleansed, or the “Daily Sacrifice” renewed until then, it would appear as if the Temple services are not to be re-established until Ezekiel’s Temple has been built. Ezekiel 4:1-43:27.

                                                                                                                  ---Copied

  III.      INTERPRETATION (vs. 15-22)

A.   The announcer (v. 16)

B.   The age (vs. 17, 19, 26)

C.   The agents (vs. 20-22)

1.    The ram with two horns = Medo-Persia 

2.    The male goat = Greece

3.    The “large horn” = Alexander the Great (v. 21)

4.    The four horns = the divided empire             

 IV.       INDIGNATION (vs. 23-27)

A.   Antichrist (vs. 23)

B.   Authority (vs. 24; Revelation 13:4; 17:13)

C.   Activity (vs. 24, 25)

D.   Accounting (v. 25)

E.   Agony (vs. 27)

                                                                   End of Chapter 8