The Little Horn

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 9, 1915

Fourteen Definite Marks of Identification

POPERY is here found [in the seventh chapter of Daniel] completely described by thirteen or fourteen marks. I will try to make you understand how, at each of these marks, you are forced to exclaim, not only, “This is indeed the Pope!” but, “There is nothing under the sun, nor in the history of all ages, to which these divine descriptions can be applied, unless to the Pope! I can be nothing else than the Pope!”

First Mark.—The nature itself of this power prefigured by the little horn. Plainly, according to the prophecy, this must be a priest king. It is a king; for it is written: The little horn came up among the other ten, and another king shall arise after the ten. It is a priest king; for it is written that it shall be diverse from the other kings; and all that follows is designed to tell us in what it shall be diverse, and to show it to us at once in a political and religious character. . . . Where will you find, in the whole history of the world, unless in popery, a priest king who has pretended to change times and laws, who has reigned with power, and who has made war upon the saints?

Second Mark.—You have here, too, the geography of this power. Where must we seek for the little horn? Where is its “Holy See”? Where its lands, its patrimony, its “domain of the church”? Where must we place the theater of its baleful operations? No point is clearer in this prophecy. The prophecy is given on purpose to point you to the Roman monarchy; to locate this Holy See in Rome; these lands of the church in Italy; and this theater of a wicked power in the vast empire of the ten Latin kingdoms. . . .

Third Mark.—The origin of this power, and the nature of its growth. How did it come into the world?—Slowly, little by little, by constant increase, as the horn grows on the head of a bullock. . . . And now inquire of all historians if this is not an exact description of the origin of the papal tyranny. . . .

Fourth Mark.—The chronology of this apostasy; by which I mean to say, the time of its commencement and of its end. When ought it to commence, according to Daniel? This is a striking mark. According to the vision it is immediately after the division of the Latin Empire into its ten Gothic kingdoms; that is to say, toward the sixth, or seventh century; and, according to the same vision, this divided state must continue till the coming of Christ. Now I ask if it is possible to find anywhere but in the Papacy so clear and distinct a problem?

Fifth Mark.—The territorial acquisitions of this power. Here is something marvelous. Three of the first horns, says Daniel (verse 8) were plucked up before the little horn; and these horns John represents to us as each wearing a crown. Take now a map of Italy, and find how many of the ten kingdoms the pontiff's power now occupies. You will see that it has supplanted three. . . .

Sixth Mark.—The extraordinary sagacity, consummate skill, incomparable policy, constant vigilance of this power. What has given Rome her power for twelve hundred years is the superhuman sagacity, that perpetual policy, of which the eye is emblematic. . . .

Seventh Mark.—Its deceivableness, its falsehoods and lying wonders. This is a striking mark, and without a parallel in history. To this head we must refer the false legends, false books, false relics, the wonder-working medals, false cures, and more especially the false decretals. . . .

Eighth Mark.—Its more than royal pomp. Daniel tells us (verse 20) that although this horn was “the least,” his “look was more stout than his fellows.” The pomps of Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, and Bonaparte were very great; but were they comparable to that of the Roman Pontiff? The greatest kings were obliged to hold his stirrup, to serve him at table,—what do I say?—to prostrate themselves before him, and to kiss his feet; he was even seen to put upon their necks his arrogant foot! . . .

Ninth Mark.—Its language, its great, swelling words. The little horn had “a mouth” (says Daniel), and this mouth spake very great things. . . . Let the most superficial scholar in history, in one of our schools, be asked to search in the whole course of the nine hundred years of the Dark Ages and the four hundred years of modern history, for the power which has unceasingly filled the world with the noise of his great, swelling words,—words of threatening, words of pride, words of command, words of cursing, and also words of fire, sending nations obedient to him on remote expeditions and exterminating wars.

Tenth Mark.—According to Daniel, it must last till the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven; and you see, gentlemen, it lasts still. Who could have believed beforehand that in Europe, after so much civilization, after the blessed Reformation, after twelve hundred years of scandals, a priest king in Rome could continue with impunity such language among the nations?

Eleventh Mark.—Its blasphemies. Daniel says (verse 25) he shall utter blasphemies against the Most High; but where is there anything more blasphemous than the pretensions of the Roman Pontiff? To call himself “the Holy Father,” the name which Jesus gives to his Father; “the Most Holy Father;” “the Church’s Spouse;” “the Head of the universal church;” the incommunicable name of the only Son of God; to call himself “His Holiness;” to declare himself infallible; to dare to put his decrees above even the word of his God; to command to release men from the commands of their Creator; to maintain that he alone creates priests, who alone, in their turn, create their God in a bit of bread, by four Latin words, that he may be eaten by the people; to pardon sins committed against the Lord of lords; to open to men at his pleasure the gates of heaven,—are these the blasphemies of one of the worms of the dust? Was there ever under heaven any power which, in this respect, is comparable to the Pope? . . .

Twelfth Mark.—His homicidal hatred and his persecutions of true Christians. Daniel tells us (verse 21): “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them,” and he adds (verse 25), He “shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” Alas! here the voice of history responds loudly to that of prophecy. All its pages, even to that of the last century, when it speaks of the popes, show them to you as persecuting men who would live according to the word of God, and putting them to death like sheep for the slaughter. . . .

Thirteenth Mark.—His audacious heresies. This perhaps is the most striking mark of all; and on the Roman Pontiff has never had his equal. Daniel says of the little horn, that the king diverse from the other ten shall “think to change times and laws.” This denotes the unparalleled attempt which the Pope has made upon the law of his God. He pretended to change it in its sovereignty, in its sanction, in its use, in its contents, in its moral, and in its doctrine.

Fourteenth and Last Mark.—The exact duration of his persecutions against the people of God. Daniel and John declare several times that it shall be until “a time and times and the dividing of time,” or twelve hundred and sixty years. Who would have believed beforehand that a priest king so violent, so proud, so cruel, so blasphemous, so contrary to the Scriptures and so well described by them, so outrageous against nations and kings, would last twelve hundred years? But the Holy Spirit tells us that it shall last twelve hundred and sixty! and this was so! . . .

Lastly, gentlemen, the same prophecies have also foretold its judgment and its overthrow. I do not mean to go into this subject; but I love to call it to your minds in conclusion, for your encouragement. Read the words of Daniel: “The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”

Gentlemen, this sketch of the seventh chapter of Daniel will suffice, I trust, to let you see with what abundant evidence the Scriptures establish the doctrine which I desired to bring before you. —Extracts from a lecture delivered in the School of Theology at Geneva at the opening of the school year, Oct. 3, 1843, by L. Gaussen, D. D., professor of theology.

Another Testimony

The main points in the nature, character, and actions of this “little horn,” which we must note in order to discover the power intended, are these:— 1. Its place: within the body of the fourth empire. 2. The period of its origin: soon after the division of the Roman territory into ten kingdoms. 3. Its nature: different from the other kingdoms, though in some respects like them. It was a horn, but with eyes and mouth. It would be a kingdom like the rest, a monarchy, but its kings would be overseers or bishops and prophets.

4. Its moral character: boastful and blasphemous; great words spoken against the Most High. 5. Its lawlessness: it would claim authority over times and laws. 6. Its opposition to the saints: it would be a persecuting power, and that for so long a period that it would wear out the saints of the Most High, who would be given into its hand for a time. 7. Its duration: “time, times, and a half,” or 1260 years. 8. Its doom: it would suffer the loss of its dominion before it was itself destroyed. “They shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.”—Romanism and the Reformation, H. Grattan Guinness, D. D., F. R. A. S., London, J. Nisbet & Co., 1891, pages 26, 27, 42, 43.