Rome's Two Little Horns

Daniel speaks only of a single "little horn" coming out of the iron kingdom (Rome). However, when John gives us further details in Revelation 13, we find that there are actually two horns in succession. From the perspective of Time, one is a continuation or extension of the other. But from the standpoint of characteristics, they are two separate horns.

The horn in Daniel 7:20, 21, and 25 was not described (except by his actions), but Rev. 13:2 pictures him as a leopard with feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion, empowered by a dragon. In other words, he is a strange combination of Greece (leopard), Persia (bear), and Babylon (lion) as seen in Daniel 7:4-6. The dragon alone was not mentioned by Daniel.

Daniel sees this little horn making great boasts and making war on the saints for "a time, times, and a half a time." John sees the first beast doing the same for 1,260 "days," which are really years, as we will see. Rev. 13:6, 7 says,

⁶ And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

To read some of those "boasts" and blasphemous statements made by the popes over the years, see chapter 5 of my book, The Seven Churches. The fifth "church" was that of Thyatira, the "Jezebel" church, correlating with the Old Testament "church" under king Ahab and Jezebel. These were times of intense persecution of the saints and prophets (1 Kings 18:4). So also in the New Testament parallel, for the Thyatira church extended from 529-1517 A.D., or from the Justinian Law Codex to Martin Luther and the Reformation.

The time of this first "horn" began properly with the establishment of Orthodox Church Law as the law of the land in 529. Under this law, the saints were persecuted off and on for 1,260 years, even past the time of Martin Luther. The 1,260 years ended with the French Revolution in 1789, when the Roman Church suffered its first real disaster. Thirty thousand priests were killed in the 3-4 years of the Revolution, and all Church property was confiscated.

In 1798 the pope was taken captive by Napoleon, who rose to power out of the ashes of the French Revolution. Pope Pius VI remained three months in the convent of St. Augustine in Sienna, and then when an earthquake destroyed the convent, he was moved to a country house called "The Lower Regions." This very brutal and very unpopular pope, it was said, had finally arrived in his place.

The pope continued to engage in intrigue, so he was sent into exile at Valens in Dauphiny, where he died in exile on August 29, 1799 after being robbed one last time by his illegitimate son, the duke de Braschi.

John tells us that this beast would receive a fatal wound in Rev. 13:3,

³ And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast.

Napoleon's ambition to be Emperor of France meant that he needed a pope to crown him. He then ordered Pope Pius VII to put the crown on his head. In legitimizing his own crown, he also legitimized that of the Papacy. A few years later, Napoleon was overthrown, and the heads of state in Europe met to redraw the boundaries of Europe that Napoleon had disrupted. The Pope's representatives were among them, and the fatal wound was healed.

But out of this arose a new horn of power, described by John in financial terms. It was the power of modern banking, led by the newly-formed Rothschild Trust. In the following years, the power of money and banking eclipsed the religious power of the Popes. The "image" of the beast was money and currency, without which no man could buy or sell. Using money is not the problem, of course. The love of money is the worship of money, and this is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10).

Thus, the temporary collapse of the Papal beast from the sea allowed the rise of the new Rothschildbeast from the earth. These two beasts were allies since the so-called "Holy Alliance" in 1815 when the European map was redrawn. However, they also competed for the allegiance of men. The Rothschilds financed the rise of secular Socialism and its Communist extension in the 1800's. The popes appealed to men's religious tendencies. These two broad competitors are still with us today.

One must keep in mind, however, that these two beasts, though distinct, were seen as a single "horn" in Daniel's visions. The first was given 1,260 years, but we are not given the time frame of the second. All we see from Daniel and John is that it ends with the saints being given dominion and jurisdiction over the earth. When the authority of the beast empires is concluded, then the Stone Kingdom arises to crush the entire image, beginning with its "feet."

This is where we stand today. Since 1993, when the 40 Jubilees of the Pentecostal Age concluded, the Stone has been undermining the foundations (crushing the feet) of this Babylonian image in the end times. Our Jubilee Prayer Campaign began in November of 1993 and concluded in October of 2006. The economic collapse that we have seen since that time is now coming to a historic climax.

As I have related, the little horn of Greece and the little horn(s) of Rome were rebellious additions to each of those empires. Both persecuted the saints and both were blasphemous. Antiochus desecrated the temple in 168 B.C., while the little horn of Rev. 13:6 blasphemed "His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven." Those who dwell in His tabernacle are those who live in the Holy Place (true Pentecost) and the Most Holy Place (Tabernacles).

Hence, we see that Antiochus' desecration of the temple in 168 B.C. was a type of the later desecration of the temple that is the body of Christ. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 3:16, 17,

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

So let us no longer consider structures made of stone and wood to be the temple of God. Let us instead build the true Temple of God, whose Foundation is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). We are the living stones of that true Temple.

Let us no longer follow the example of the Israelites who wanted a man to rule them instead of Jesus Christ (1 Sam. 8:7). Though Saul was a legitimate king, anointed by Samuel on the day of wheat harvest, or Pentecost (1 Sam. 12:17), he was only to be obeyed insofar as it did not conflict with the commandment of God. Let us remember that it is better to live as an outlaw with David than to find honor with Saul.

Prophetically speaking, Saul's reign came to an end after 40 Jubilees in 1993. It is time to swear allegiance to David, under whose reign the two little horns are being overthrown. Press in through spiritual warfare, and give no ground until the glory of God covers the earth and fills His Temple.