Misrepresented Prophecies of the Book of Daniel
Matthew 24:29-36
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that the summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of the day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
I know this isn't the Book of Daniel, but this one is used quite a bit. Going back to Matthew 24:15, Jesus speaks of the abomination mentioned by Daniel the prophet. But what exactly was Daniel referring to? To get a better understanding, we'll have to tackle the wider scriptures.
1 Maccabees 1:54
On the fifteenth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, the king erected the horrible abomination upon the altar of holocausts, and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.
This passage refers to the actions of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple.
Daniel 12:11
From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the horrible abomination is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Feel free to cite 1 Maccabees the next time someone tries to use this passage with the wrong intention. Daniel's prophecy is referring to King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, not the Antichrist. It stands clear that the Messiah, the Son of Man, would have to come into the world as a response to oppression. By taking a look at the history of Palestine, one finds that many different rulers have taken control of the land. Alexander the Great was responsible for the spread of Hellenism through much of the world. King Antiochus was simply attempting to Hellenize the Jews. That did not work out very well.
Jesus spoke of a time to come, but it was already upon the world. The temple would be destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. The Apostolic generation would pass away after this with the death of John, the beloved disciple.
Daniel 7:78
After this, in the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast, different from all the others, terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength; it had great iron teeth with which it devoured and crushed, and what was left it trampled with its feet. I was considering the ten horns it had, when suddenly another, a little horn, sprang out of their midst, and three of the previous horns were torn away to make room for it. This horn had eyes like a man, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly.
The fourth beast is a reference to Alexander the Great, who crushed the mighty Persian Empire. The ten horns represent the ten kings of the Seleucid dynasty. And who was the little horn? King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the worst of the Seleucid kings, who usurped the throne.
Read more and you get to Daniel 7:23-25, which describes the scenario.
He answered me thus:
“The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all the others; It shall devour the whole earth, beat it down, and crush it. The ten horns shall be ten kings rising out of that kingdom; another shall rise up after them, different from those before him, who shall lay low three kings. He shall speak against the Most High and oppress the holy ones of the Most High, thinking to change the feast days and the law. They shall be handed over to him for a year, two years, and a half-year.”
The persecutions of Antiochus IV are chronicled in 1 Maccabees, confirming that the prophecy in Daniel about the little horn referred to him, not the Antichrist. I'd go into Daniel 8, but it simply reiterates the vision in Daniel 7.
