Daniel 7:25, commentary and pictures

The little horn is the papacy, the Roman Church and man of sin and antichrist, working in Satan's place in direct opposition to Christ through the succession of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Speaking great words against the Most High is blasphemy that lifts itself above God and all that is called worshiped, claiming divine power to legislate in divine things and to sit as God in His temple. Wearing out the saints is cruelly oppressing and killing God's people for a time and times and dividing of time, that is three and a half prophetic years or 1,260 years, from the establishment of papal supremacy in 538 to the taking of the pope in 1798. Thinking to change times and laws is a presumptuous attempt against God's law alone, centering on removing the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment and putting the first day, Sunday, a human institution without scriptural authority, in its place as the sign of power to change God's unchangeable law. The seventh-day Sabbath remains God's seal and memorial of creation, while the enforced Sunday is the mark of that apostate authority, and the final conflict turns on this same test when human laws exalt the false sabbath above God's holy day and God's faithful are called to vindicate His law.

Power Identified in Prophecy

The little horn that speaks against the Most High, wears out His saints, and thinks to change times and laws is the papacy, the Roman Church, the man of sin, the antichrist, and the great apostate power. It acts as Satan's representative, instigated and controlled by him in exact opposition to Christ. Its description is nearly identical to that of the beast in Revelation 13, and its deliberate attempt to change God's law, especially the fourth commandment by substituting the first day for the seventh-day Sabbath on mere church authority and thereby setting itself above God, fulfills the prophecy.

In the symbolism a horn can represent a church, and the little horn represents the Roman Church even before that church possessed civil power. The four beasts are the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, whose power held in succession the papal power represented by the beast inherits. This papal power was still to rise in Paul's day to wage war against God's people, trample God's law, and do its deadly and blasphemous work.

The verse belongs to the prophecies of Daniel 7-12 that reveal the mysteries of coming ages to coming generations, given in figures and symbols and unfolding in historical order toward the close of time and the close of this world's history. It was not fully understood even by Daniel himself, but was shut up and sealed until the time of the end, when Daniel will rest and then stand in his lot and place at the end of the days. Its days are counted as years, and this period with the other leading periods of Daniel and John expires about the nineteenth century, so its prophetic application must be guarded against misapplication that creates confusion.

Christ's coming could not occur until this power had carried out its deadly and blasphemous work of war against God's people and trampling on God's law. The papacy was to persecute the saints and hold supremacy for 1,260 years ending in 1798, and the message of His second coming was to be proclaimed after that time.

Words Against God

To speak great words against the Most High is to blaspheme, exalting itself above God and above all that is written in His word and above all that is called God or that is worshiped, claiming divine authority to legislate in divine things, and sitting in the temple of God showing itself that it is God. The little horn that does this speaks blasphemies against God, against His tabernacle and against them that dwell in heaven, while it oppresses His people and wears out the saints and drinks their blood by persecution. Its time and times and the dividing of time is three and a half years, or 1,260 prophetic days of oppression, begun in A.D. 538 and ended in 1798 when the pope was taken captive by the French army and the papal power received its deadly wound. In the final deception this same man of sin is united with fallen Protestant churches and spiritualism in a corrupt harmony under Satan, and those who worship it receive the blessing of the false christ.

Its thinking to change times and laws is meant to show supremacy over God, particularly in the Sabbath commandment, but he cannot change God's law because authority to make law belongs to God alone. The moral code is complete and cannot be amended or lessened by finite men, and not one of the Ten Commandments can be dropped out, for man to attempt it is to exalt himself to the place of God. He only thought and claimed to change them, though he could not actually change them, and the Sabbath remains binding as God's memorial of creation with its breach to be restored. To accept that presumptuous work is to accept the authority of the papal power, and the Protestant world in doing so has apostatized from God while all nations have been made drunk by partaking of the wine of Babylon in accepting it. God's commandment-keeping people stand under His protection, while commandment-breakers range under the man of sin's banner, and Sunday observance makes human commandments and church authority supreme in place of God's law by presenting a rival sabbath to the world to be worshiped.

The prophecy foretells the attempt to replace God's law with human laws and thereby bring the world under human control, with coercive enforcement that will oppress people and set human authority against obedience to God. This is the reign of antichrist, when Scripture is displaced by human traditions and human authority sets its laws in place of God's law, making void His law. Sunday laws imposed under the name of religion are the example of this opposition, the making of Sunday laws and giving them to the world under the solemn name of religion, even by Christian governments that legalize the destructive liquor traffic. This making void is being fulfilled in America, the home of the oppressed and witness for liberty of conscience, through a religious amendment movement that sets aside God's law and thus gives ascendancy to the man of sin. It is known by studying the Bible for truth and studying movements for their part in prophecy, and seeing it calls for direct warning to arouse the churches to their danger rather than letting things drift and giving Satan the victory, while Satan rules as prince of this organized empire of evil and wears down God's people through despotic power and scientifically organized temptation. The saints answer by showing loyalty to God in keeping holy His rest day and by working earnestly to proclaim His law and spread the light of present truth to counter Satan's efforts.

Rome's religious power claimed to represent Heaven while exalting itself above God and seeking to change His law, claiming God's prerogatives, ruling arrogantly, crushing human liberty, and cruelly persecuting and slaying the saints of the Most High. Its spirit remains cruel and despotic, with the pride and despotic spirit that ruled during the Reformation, and its character remains unchanged despite a more appealing outward appearance presenting a changed and Christlike appearance. Its influence seeks to restrict civil and religious liberty, and when church and state unite persecution of the true church follows as it did in earlier times. Under its rule people who remained faithful to the gospel were persecuted and put to death, then falsely branded as evildoers and allies of Satan. The same pattern applies in the final conflict, when civil thrones and churches unite to oppose God's purposes and those who honor God's law will be accused of breaking the law and bringing judgments on the world, while Satan works to destroy them.

Wearing Out Saints

To wear out the saints of the Most High is to cruelly persecute, oppress and slay God's people through a union of church and state for 1,260 years. During that time Christians were compelled to accept papal ceremonies and worship, and refusal brought imprisonment, torture and death. That oppression is measured as a time and times and the dividing of time, that is three and a half years or 1,260 prophetic days understood as 1,260 years. The years run from 538, when the papacy was established and became firmly established in the sixth century, to 1798, when French forces entered Rome, abolished the papal government, took the pope captive and confined him, and he later died in exile, marking the loss of its former power.

In that long oppression the faithful church found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. Obedience in peace was possible only by fleeing the power of Rome, because that power trampled God's law, exalted human traditions and Sunday observance, and by pressure and denunciation demanded that the Bible Sabbath be profaned. Yet despite its supremacy and persecution, faithful people preserved the knowledge of God's law and continued to honor the creation Sabbath, whose obligation and permanence endure.

The same persecuting pattern falsely brands those faithful to the gospel as evildoers and allies of Satan. Those who honor God's law are accused of breaking law and bringing judgments and troubles upon the world, while the power claims to represent Heaven and to act for Heaven even as it exalts itself above God and seeks to change His law. That deception and accusation recur in the final conflict, when Satan works to destroy those who honor God's law. The prophecy applies also to a future crisis in which human laws opposing God's law will be rigidly enforced, a spurious rest day exalted, and innocent servants of God suffer humiliation and abuse from those driven by Satan, envy and religious bigotry.

Changing Times and Laws

To think to change times and laws is to make a deliberate, presumptuous attempt upon God's time and God's laws alone, for secular powers may change the laws of secular governments as they see fit. The power only thinks and claims to change them and has no power to do so, for the authority to make law belongs to God alone. The moral code given at Sinai is complete and unchangeable, and not one precept can be amended, lessened, or dropped without exalting finite man to God's place.

The attempt included introducing the worship of images and relics into Christian worship, formally establishing it by a church council, removing the second commandment against image worship, and dividing the tenth commandment to keep the number unchanged.

The attempt centers on the fourth commandment by removing the seventh-day Sabbath and substituting observance of the first day, Sunday. That substitute is a common working day and a human institution and humanly invented Sabbath with no scriptural evidence or divine sanction, openly admitted to lack Bible authority and resting on church authority as the sign of power to legislate. To place it within the Decalogue in place of the seventh day is an attempt to exalt human authority above God and to set the power above Him.

The seventh-day Sabbath remains binding because God hallowed and sanctified it at creation as His memorial of creating in six days and resting the seventh, the commandment given to cause man to remember his Creator. It was placed in the bosom of the Decalogue, sustained by the miracle of the manna, and left unchanged on the stone tables in the heavenly ark as given to Moses at Sinai. It was not abolished at the cross but remains a distinguishing mark and point of unity, declared to endure forever as God's sign.

By seeking to change God's holy, just, and good precepts the power makes itself equal with God and exalts itself above Him to show supremacy. This carries on earth Satan's rebellion begun in heaven over whether the law is changeable, repeating Satan's effort to show the law faulty and the Lawgiver fallible and to lead men to regard God's expressed commandments as of less force than human tradition and policy. Substituting a human sabbath breaks the first commandment and is idolatry like Israel's handmade substitute and heathen sun worship on the first day, worked by Satan upon human minds through the man of sin to tear down the memorial of creation and unite the world in disloyalty.

Prophetic Time Period

The time and times and the dividing of time is three and a half years, or 1,260 prophetic days understood as 1,260 years, during which the power oppresses God's people. This period of persecution and control over times and laws marks the loss of the papacy's former power at its close.

The 1,260 years run from 538, when the papacy was established and the bishop of Rome gained authority over the churches in the sixth century, to 1798. In 1798 French forces entered Rome and the papal government was abolished, the pope was taken captive by the French army and the power over Europe's governments was broken. On February 10 Berthier entered and took Rome, and on February 15 the pope was taken prisoner and confined in the Vatican, marking the removal of the little horn's dominion. Pius VI was taken captive and later died in exile, and the papal power received its deadly wound.

Active persecution did not fill the whole period, for the tribulation was shortened for the elect's sake through the Reformation and the refuge opened in the New World. It had almost wholly ceased about twenty-five years before 1798 with its duration shortened. The tribulation was shortened in 1776, and the darkening of the sun and moon in 1780 and the falling of the stars in 1833 fall after that tribulation in the prophetic timeline.

Sabbath Mark and Seal

The first day, Sunday, set up as a rival and spurious idol sabbath and child of the papacy, is the mark of the beast and the sign of papal authority and jurisdiction. It stands opposite the seventh-day Sabbath, which is God's memorial of creation and His seal and sign of His authority between Him and His people. Daniel 7:25 is fulfilled in the attempt to change God's times and law by changing the Sabbath commandment from the seventh day to the first day of the week. God has not changed the Sabbath, for the commandment remains written in heaven's ark as given on Sinai, identifying the seventh day as the Sabbath, not abolished at the cross, remaining a distinguishing mark between God's true Israel and unbelievers and a point of unity among God's waiting saints. The change rests on church authority alone with no scriptural evidence or divine sanction, openly admitted to lack Bible authority, and its enforcement by law expresses the power's claim to authority against God. This change repeats Satan's attempt to show God's law faulty and its Lawgiver fallible.

Knowingly obeying the altered law gives allegiance to the pope in God's place and bears the man of sin's signature. Knowingly keeping the counterfeit Sabbath in place of the true Sabbath pays homage to that power and constitutes receiving the mark of the beast. Yet earlier Sunday keepers who believed it was the Bible Sabbath, and sincere Christians who hold that belief today, have not received the mark. The test comes only when Sunday observance is enforced by law and people are informed of the true Sabbath's obligation; those who then choose human commands over God's commandments receive the mark.

The change made a breach in God's holy law by trampling His sanctified day under foot and putting in its place one of the six laboring days, robbing God of His holy time every week. By seeking to change God's immutable precepts of holiness, justice and goodness, the power makes itself equal with God and even exalts itself above God. The deception would continue until Jesus' second appearing, while faithful people would remain witnesses by keeping God's commandments amid error and persecution. God's people now make up the breach and build the waste places by restoring the Sabbath, and just before the great day of God a warning message calls people back to loyalty to God's law and the true Sabbath by both teaching and example. In this they testify against Sunday worship as His witnesses.

Accepting and promoting the substitute dishonors God and shows disregard for His law. Churches join this opposition by claiming that the law of God has been changed or abolished, and by ridiculing its claims. Satan's master stroke to defeat God's purpose is an attempt to change the law itself, so as to lead men to violate its precepts while professing to obey it, turning the way-sign from obedience and the path to happiness and life toward disobedience, misery, death, and apostasy. The widespread disregard of the Sabbath and broad veneration of Sunday are results of this attack, serving Satan's purpose of securing obedience to his will rather than God's. It estranges the Protestant world from God and leads almost the whole world to worship human opinions and institutions.

The professed Christian world was blinded so the false takes the place of the true, uniting the world in disloyalty to tear down His memorial of creation. The Christian world accepted, cradled, nourished, and cherished this papal child in defiance of God. Human authorities accepted the papal observance of the first day and presented it to Protestants as the true Sabbath, and the Protestant world accepts and honors this change. Protestants who accept the church's Sabbath while rejecting the Bible Sabbath effectively acknowledge Rome's claim to legislate in divine things and draw under her influence and supremacy. That same work of Sunday exaltation will be repeated when Protestants follow in the steps of papists and unite with papists for enforcement in Protestant America, opening the door for popery to regain the supremacy she lost.

Final Crisis and Loyalty

The prophecy meets a second fulfillment when councils of the nation and Christian governments make laws that lift the man of sin's sabbath above God's holy day. Those laws enforce observance of the first day of the week, suppress the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, compel conscience, and trample the true Sabbath out of sight. This is done through a confederacy in which Protestantism reaches across the gulf to clasp hands with the papacy, uniting with papists to honor Sunday by state power. The movement centers especially in Protestant America, where Protestants follow in the steps of papists in seeking state support for church institutions and usages, and thereby open the door for popery to regain the supremacy she lost in the Old World and restore her lost ascendancy. In that national apostasy God's law is made void by setting human laws against His commandments and by exalting a spurious, rival, idol sabbath, the child of the papacy, instituted without scriptural evidence and claimed as the sign of her authority, in place of the day He blessed and sanctified as His memorial. The same work repeats the old assertion that God's judgments are visited upon men for violation of the Sunday-Sabbath.

In that renewed wearing out of the saints, God's commandment-keeping people come into a most trying position, with support withdrawn and with harassment pressing them toward a decree permitting their death if they refuse the first day. Persecution even unto death is brought upon those who keep holy the seventh day, yet persecutors may torture and kill the body but cannot control conscience, tarnish the soul, change character, or harm the soul. The saints remain calm and trust God rather than abandon faith and law, and He protects them through angels, honors those who have kept His law, acts in their behalf, and stands as their refuge and protection when all looks forbidding and deliverance is near. Commandment-breakers range under the man of sin's banner while the faithful stand under God's protection, and the proud persecutors must answer to God.

God calls His people out of Babylon and out of Egypt-like bondage so they will not worship the beast nor his image by keeping the false sabbath, but will keep His Sabbath. They are to let their light shine concerning His law, thereby withstanding His enemies and the enemies of truth, vindicating and magnifying the law when it is made void, and standing as truthful witnesses testifying against Sunday worship. They are to proclaim the seventh day as the seal of the living God, bear God's warning message to the world, and warn the churches of danger. When apostasy becomes a national sin God will act for His people and manifest His power for His church as the God of gods, working in behalf of those who stand firm. That witness is to defend worship according to conscience without provoking others, and to present the Sabbath claims strongly with His love and mercy.

The question of obedience to that unrevised law divides people into the loyal and the disloyal, into worshipers of the living God and worshipers of the beast and its image. The coming test forces a choice between the counterfeit sabbath introduced by the man of sin to display his greatness and the true seventh-day Sabbath that remains in full force without loss of jot or tittle. Those who follow the change go in the way of transgression, stand condemned under obligation to a law they oppose, and take their stand on his side under his banner. To them there will be a revelation of Christ in glory, and confronted with His majesty they will be terror-stricken as the great day of His wrath comes upon them. But those who are taught to return and seek the Lord with the whole heart, who withstand enemies and remain true to God's requirements and follow Christ, will receive eternal life when human pride is humbled and truth triumphs with the Lord alone exalted.