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View Full Version : Daniel 8.8-9 Alexander the Great and Antiochus IV Epiphanes



Churchwork
06-22-2006, 02:30 PM
Alexander the Great died in his thirties at the height of his power. His kingdom was split into 4 parts under 4 generals: Ptolemy 1 of Egypt and Palestine; Seleucus of Babylonia and Syria; Lysimachus of Asia Minor; and Antipater of Macedonia and Greece.

That's why Dan. 8.8 says "The goat became very powerful. But at the height of its power, its large horn was broken off. In the large horn's place grew four prominent horns pointing in the four directions of the earth."

Then Israel ("the glorious land") was attacked by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the small horn) in the second century B.C.

That's why 8.9 says "From one of the prominent horns came a small horn whose power grew very great. It extends towards the south and the east and toward the glorious land of Israel."

He was the eighth ruler of the Seleucid Empire (Babylonia and Syria). He overthrew the high priest, looted the Temple, and replaced worship of God with a Greek form of worship. A further fulfilment of this prophecy of a powerful horn will occur in their future with the coming of the Antichrist (see 8.17,19,23; 11.36; 2 Thess. 2.4).

The phrase "evenings and mornings" means evening and morning sacrifices, and refers to the time from the desecration of the altar in the Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes to the restoration of the Temple worship under Judas Maccabeus in 165 B.C.

That's why Dan. 8.14 says "The other replied, 'It will take twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings; then the Temple will be restored'." The year-day theory fails.

As soon as the Temple is built it will be automatically unclean because it is during the 7 year false treaty with the Antichrist. Christ returns after 2300 evenings and mornings.

I probably should not have told you about this because Scriptures say: "This vision about the twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings is true. But none of these things will happen for a long time, so do not tell anyone about them yet" (Dan. 8.26).