The “little horn” from the book of Daniel describes a power that was already rising in ancient times and that will exist until the end of time. Today it has long been forgotten. Not everything that is new is automatically better than the old. This is especially true for literature that describes the history surrounding the papacy. Taking a look at “dusty literature” can definitely be worthwhile. Very insightful and also confirming.
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“The Little Horn” Daniel 7 and 8
The book “Romanism and Reformation” by Grattan Guinnes is one of the literature that has long since fallen silent. He was an Irish nonconfirmation Protestant preacher, evangelist and author. Guinnes is considered the great evangelist of the “third evangelical awakening.” He lived between 1835 and 1910. The book “Romanism and Reformation” was published in 1887.
In his book, the author specifically addresses exactly what the first reformers recognized and openly proclaimed as part of the “first evangelical awakening”. The knowledge of the papacy as the “man of sin”, the “son of perdition” described in the Bible, especially in the book of Daniel and in Revelation.
The adversary was recognized early on
The first reformers (Info), including Martin Luther, recognized the Roman Catholic Church as God’s great adversary, the Antichrist (Info). The line of reformers or Protestants who clearly recognized the actual nature of the papacy was very long (Info).
The individual statements in the Bible about God’s earthly adversary in Daniel 7, Daniel 8, Revelation 13 and Revelation 17 can be described can be read here.
In the book of Daniel 7 (and 8), the papacy is described as the power emerging from the Roman Empire in the form of the “little horn.” In his book, Grattan Guinnes compared these described characteristics with the peculiarities of the Church of Rome and broke them down accordingly. The result is clear and corresponds exactly to the findings from the time of the first reformers.
Today there is denial and cover-up
It is therefore no surprise that the Roman Catholic Church in particular, now that it is no longer able to ban the Bible from the general public, proclaims that it is the only institution that has the competence to even understand the Word of God. This church, in its innate arrogance, still claims that only a priest or bishop animated by the Holy Spirit can interpret Scripture correctly.
However, the apostasy of the once Protestant churches has now become so advanced that this institution has long since rejected the findings of its founding fathers. They no longer see the papacy as the Antichrist, but on the contrary, now as the high moral authority, the leading position within ecumenism.
Excerpts from “Romanism and Reformation”
The following are some passages from the book “Romanism and Reformation” by Gratten Guinness about the characteristics of the “little horn” described in the Bible and the clear application to the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. There was or is no other power where all attributes apply without exception.
Pages 39-40:
“The rule of Rome, we repeat, has never ceased. It was a secular pagan power for five or six centuries; it has been an ecclesiastical and apostate Christian power ever since, that is so said, for twelve or thirteen centuries. There lay a brief period between these two main stages, during which professing Christian emporers ruled from Rome, followed by an interval when, for a time, it seemed as if the great city had received a fatal blow from her Gothic captors.
It seemed so; but it was not so, for the word of God cannot be broken. The rule of Rome revived in a new form, and was a real under the popes of the thirteenth century as it had been under the Caesars of the first. It was as oppressive, cruel, and bloody under Innocent III as it had been under Nero and Domitian. The reality was the same, although the forms had changed. The Caesars did not persecute the witnesses of Jesus more severely and bitterly than did the popes; Diocletian did not destroy the saints or oppose the gospel more than did the Inquisition of Papal days. Rome is one and the same all through, both locally and morally.”
Pages 41-43:
The main points in the nature, character, and acting 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 saint: it would be a persecuting power, and that for so long a period that it would wear out the saints of the Most Hight, who would be given into its hand for a time.
7. Its duration: “time, time and a half,” or 1,260 years
8. Its doom: it would suffer the loss of its dominion before it was itself destroyed. “They shall take away its dominion, to consume and destroy it to the end.”
Here are eight distinct and perfectly tangible features, If they all meet in one great reality, if we find them all characterizing one and the same power, can we question that ‘that’ is the power intended? They do all meet in the Roman Papacy, whose history I have just briefly recalled, and we are therefore bold to say it is the great and evil reality predicted. A few words on each of these points, to convince you that this is the case.
Pages 43-46:
1. Its place
No one can question that the Papacy is a Roman, as distinguished from a Greek or an oriental, power. It seat is the seven-hilled city; its tongue is the Latin language of Caesar and of Pliny and of Tacitus; its Church is the Church of Rome, and is the only Church that is or ever has been named from a city. Others have been named from countreis, or from men; the Papal Church also bears the name of a city, and that city is Rome. The Papacy fulfills the first condition, therefore.
2. Its time
We have shown that the last Bishop of Rome and the first pope was Boniface III, 607. Now the western empire of Rome came to an end with the fall of Romulus Augustulus, 476; that is, 130 years earlier. During that time the ten kingdoms were forming in the body of the old empire, and during that time the simple pastor of the Church was transformed into a pope. The little horn grew up among the ten. The Papacy developed synchronously with the Gothic kingdoms.
3. Its nature
The power symbolized by the little horn is of course a ‘kingdom’, like all the other ten; but it is not ‘merely’ this. It is ‘diverse,’ or different, from all the other ruling dynasties with which it is associated. It is a horn of the wild beast, but it has human eyes and a human voice, denoting its pretensions to be a seer, or prophet, and a teacher. It takes the oversight of all the ten, it is an overseer or bishop, and it has ‘a mouth speaking great things.’
Its paramount influence depends, not on its mere material power, for it is small as a kingdom, a ‘little horn’, but on its religious pretensions. Does not this exactly portray the Papacy? Was it not diverse or different from all the Gothic kingdoms amid which it existed? Was it a ‘mere’ kingdom? Nay, but a spiritual reign over the hearts and minds as well as the bodies of men – a reign established by means, not of material weapons, but of spiritual pretensions. It was founded not on force, but on falsehood and fraud, and the superstitious fears of the half-civilized and ignorant Gothic kingdoms.
The popedom has always been eager to proclaim its own diversity from all other kingdoms. It claims ‘a princedom more perfect than every human princedom,’ surpassing them ‘as far as the light of the sun exceeds that of the moon.’ It arrogates to itself a character as superior to secular kingdoms as man to the irrational beasts.
Its laws are made not with the best human wisdom; but ‘auctoritate, scientia, ac plenitudine’, with the fullness of Divine knowledge and the fullness of apostolic power. Is not the Papacy sufficiently diverse from all the rest of the kingdoms of Western Europe to identify it as the little horn? What other ruling monarch of Christendom ever pretended to apostolic authority, or ruled men in the name of God?
Does the pope dress in royal robes? Nay, but in priestly garments. Does he wear a crown? Nay, but a triple tiara, to show that he reigns in heaven, earth and hell! Does he wield a scepter? Nay, but a crosier or crook, to show that he is the good shepherd of the Church. Do his subjects kiss his hand? Nay, but his toe! Verily this power is ‘diverse’ from the rest, both in great things and little. It is small in size, gigantic in its pretensions. It is, or was for centuries, one among many temporal kingdoms in Europa. It is the only one which claims a spiritual authority and universal dominion.
4. Its moral character
The salient feature here is the ‘mouth speaking very great things.’ Great words spoken against the Most High, and ‘a look more stout than his fellows.’ Audacious pride and bold blasphemy must characterize the power that fulfills this point of symbol.
We ask then, Has the Papacy exhibited this mark also? Time would fail me to quote to you verbatim its great words, its boastful self-glorification, and its outrageous blasphemies against God! You will find pages of them quoted in my work on “The Approaching End of the Age,” and volumes filled with them exist, for Papal documents consist of little else.
Pages 52-54:
5. Lawlessness was the next feature we noted in the little horn. We have given above some specimens of the Papal claim to set aside all laws, Divine and human. ‘The pope has also annulled the only surviving law of paradise, confirmed by the words of Christ. The Lord ordained, ‘What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.’ The pope ordains, ‘We decide also that, according to the sacred canons, the marriages contracted by priests and deacons be dissolved, and the parties brought to do penance.’
The Papacy has further annulled the second commandment, given on the mount by the lips of God – in theory, by the childish and false distinction between heathen idols and Christian images; and in practice, by hiding it from the people, and blotting it out from the catechisms of general instructions. The pope has further annulled the main laws of the gospel. He forbids the cup to the laity, although the Lord Himself has commands, ‘Drink ye all of it.’
He forbids the people of Christ, in general, to use the word of God in their own tongue; though Christ Himself has charged them, ‘Search the Scriptures.’ He forbids the laity to reason or converse on the doctrines of the gospel; though St. Peter has commanded them, ‘Be ye ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you.’
The pope, finally, sanctions the invocation of saints and angels; though St. Paul has warned us, ‘Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angles’; though St. John has renewed the charge to the disciples of Christ, ‘Little children keep yourselves from idols’; and an angel from heaven renews the caution, in his words to the same holy apostle, ‘See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant; worship God.’
Paul gave some pointers
Paul had already described it in his day and warned against it, 1. Timothy 4:1-5:
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Grattan Guinness points out biblical warning that this God-defying power will pose as pious and Christian and the majority of humanity will follow the moral dictates coming from Rome. Paul described it in his letter 2. Timothy 3:2-5:
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.“
Bible verses from King James Version
