Join us in a journey through biblical prophecies as we examine the characteristics and rise of the ‘little horn,’ a metaphor for a future world leader empowered by darkness. The episode uncovers the complexities of the end-time confederacy of nations, the unsettling authority of the Antichrist, and the prophetic forecasts of a renewed Roman Empire. Tune in for an in-depth understanding of how ancient writings connect with modern expectations of global change.
We have not as yet seen another world empire since Rome. Many have tried. But the world empire of the end time will be a confederacy of nations. And out of that confederacy will arise an individual who in and of himself will become the eighth world empire of the world. The Bible describes that as we looked last time in the book of Revelation chapter 17. This great world leader who in and of himself will be an empire. He will dictate all decisions. He will defile the temple of God that will be rebuilt in Israel. He is going to persecute Israel as they have never been persecuted before.
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You’re in touch with Hope for Today, the Bible teaching ministry of David Hawking. On today’s broadcast, it’s time for day one of David’s message from Daniel chapter seven called A Coming World Leader. A final beast rises out of the chaos, powerful, relentless, and backed by hell. And out of that beast comes a little horn, a coming world leader whom the Bible calls the Antichrist. He’s real, he’s coming, and his war is against God and against his people. But the Ancient of Days still rules. Well, stay with us. Our study time begins in just a moment. First, if you’d like to download individual messages from our current radio series in the book of Daniel, you can do that at davidhawking.org. Every message is available for just $3 and it covers two to three days of teaching time on the program. You can download them, have them instantly, and you can share them. And they’re perfect for going back to review or digging even deeper into the study, into a passage on your own time. Just head over to DavidHawking.org and download this message or any of the messages in our series in the book of Daniel, DavidHawking.org. Well, here’s David to take us into the Word.
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Turn to Daniel chapter 7, our subject, a coming world leader. In our last message from Daniel 7, we dealt with the empires of world history. Some say Daniel 7 is to be matched with Daniel 2. The empires of Daniel 2, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, they say they’re the same in Daniel 7. But as we pointed out last time, that’s not as easy to prove as one tries to do. There are many, many exceptions in this passage to following that pattern. One of the strongest ones is in verse 12. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. We suggested to you that it is very possible the lion with eagle’s wings does not represent Babylon at all. First of all, connecting Nebuchadnezzar with this is a little bit unrealistic since he’s already been dead for 12 years. It’s very possible that what is indicated is a nation that’s at the time when this little horn will arise. It’s very possible that this lion with eagle’s wings applies to, for instance, the British Empire. That’s one possibility. When we look at the bear, the bear in ancient history never applied to Persia. That’s just in prophecy books. Everybody knows who the bear applies to in history, and that’s Russia. It’s very possible the bear is referring to Russia, not the ancient Medo-Persia Empire, which certainly doesn’t continue until the end times of the Confederacy of Nations mentioned on the fourth and terrible beast. As to the leopard with the four wings on the bird that had four heads and dominion given to it, as to whether that’s the breakup of Alexander the Great’s empire or not, is extremely debatable in the light of the passage and the prophetic dimensions of it. It’s possible we don’t know what it’s referring to. Some even look at it as a possible Arab alliance. Some have suggested, by the way, that the three ribs in the mouth of the bear would not represent maybe ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and Lydia that Medo-Persia conquered, but perhaps it might indicate the three nations that are associated with Russia and its invasion in Ezekiel 38, Persia, Ethiopia, or Sudan, and Libya. Just a very interesting thing. The fact is we don’t know, but there is something about the fourth beast that we know. The fourth beast represents the Roman Empire and especially its final stage of the end time. And I’d like us to pick up our reading at verse 7. Daniel chapter 7, verse 7. “‘After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.’ I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. I watched till thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow. The hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times, ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were open. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. Apparently, as we said earlier, straight through these end times which involve the tribulation. Verse 13, His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. Those great beasts which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” Verse 2. Verse 3. I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Thus he said, “‘The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it, break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom.’ and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time. But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever.” Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed, but I kept the matter in my heart. And as we mentioned last time, so do the thoughts of all present commentators greatly trouble them, and their countenance usually change when they discover that their views are not correct. Will you join me, please, in prayer? Father, we thank you for your word. Help us to be careful with it. It’s your word, and we believe that every word in these prophecies is true and will come to pass. Help us to understand them with caution, carefulness, and And may it do something to our hearts to realize that we’re on the brink of the return of Jesus Christ. May it do something to us in our lifestyle to remember that Jesus is soon to appear. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. We looked at the empires of world history. Number two, if you’re outlining, we’re talking about the entrance of the little horn. The entrance of the little horn. The fourth beast… really parallels what is in the book of Revelation as the seventh head on the seven-headed beast of Revelation. The fourth beast of Daniel 7 is that seventh head, upon which are ten horns. This fourth terrible, awful beast is not speaking about Rome, though it is a revived Roman empire. It is ten horns on this fourth beast. And that is the terrible empire of the end time. We have not as yet seen another world empire since Rome. Many have tried. But the world empire of the end time will be a confederacy of nations. And out of that confederacy will arise an individual who in and of himself will become the eighth world empire of the world. The Bible describes that as we looked last time in the book of Revelation chapter 17. This great world leader who in and of himself will be an empire. He will dictate all decisions. He will defile the temple of God that will be rebuilt in Israel. He is going to persecute Israel as they have never been persecuted before. Through his efforts, all Christians who refuse the mark of the beast will in fact be killed. All Gentiles. The Bible teaches the Jewish people will be spared a remnant, one-third of them, by escaping to the wilderness. 144,000 of them who are appointed to preach the gospel will be supernaturally spared by God during this terrible time, known as the Great Tribulation. We are on that period right now as we look at Daniel 7. I want you to notice five things about the entrance of this little horn. First of all, his coming is described in verse 8. Chapter 7, verse 8, “…I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots, and there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouse speaking pompous things.” Two things about His coming. One, His beginning seems rather small and insignificant at first. That’s why the adjective, little. The horns represent kings and kingdoms of the end time. A confederacy of ten nations. You might be interested to know that there are many European Christians who believe that the little horn is in fact the United States. They believe the Antichrist will come out of the United States, and they have strong reasons for it. I happen to lean that way myself. I don’t know any other nation that would be so pro-Israel to start with. I don’t know any other nation that would emphasize human rights and deceive the world so quickly as the United States might. And I warn us about it. I think it’s possible that out of this country, with all of our freedoms and our blessings and our domination and superpower nature in this world, it’s very possible that we might be the little horn invading the European market in order to survive ourselves economically and not cause a serious inflation or worse, a depression and collapse. I think these are very interesting times, people. The coming, it seems, that is beginning is insignificant at first. He’s the little horn coming into the ten. The second thing I’d point out about his coming is the balance of power quickly changes in that European confederacy because of the little horn. Verse 8 says he plucks up three of the first. Who is he plucking up? It’s very possible that this little horn, in order to survive in this economic struggle of this confederacy, quickly gathers three others under his dominion and control. So the first thing we notice is His coming. The beginning is insignificant, but the balance of power quickly changes in the Confederacy. Number two, let’s look at His characteristics. What are the characteristics of this little horn? By the way, He’s spoken of frequently in the Bible, not just here in Daniel 7. But we’ll look and confine our remarks to Daniel 7. Number one, He is a man, verse 8. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. Some say, well, this is just a simile, like the eyes of a man. But I think it’s very clear in other passages that we, in fact, have a man. As a matter of fact, he is called the man of sin in the Bible. He’s also called the Antichrist. He’s also called the worker of lawlessness. There are a lot of names given to him. He is the prince that will come that Daniel 9 will talk about. He’s the exact same person. There are many descriptions of him. He is a man. A man who’s going to exert a great deal of world influence. But at first, he’s going to be so Mr. Clean and so amiable and tolerable by other nations, we won’t think of him in that way. People often ask me, do you know who the Antichrist is? We’ve even had films that have been produced from Hollywood emphasizing who the Antichrist might be. And people are always fascinated by that, who he might be. The Satanists say that they already know who he is. There are people around the world who claim they know who the Antichrist is. Well, I don’t believe we do know. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the man of sin will be revealed, but apparently not now, but in the tribulation period. We don’t know. If the Lord comes for His church, needless to say, He’s already in the world and probably in power somewhere. And that can be a frightening thought when you think about it. You will not recognize him as an antichrist. You will not recognize him as a world deceiver. You will not recognize him as the vicious beast that he will be in slaughtering millions of people. But I remind you, the world can be easily deceived. For an example, Joseph Stalin. This nation was deceived about Joseph Stalin. Stalin was respected and honored. We had treaties and consultations with Joseph Stalin. And at the same time, he murdered, literally murdered, over 30 million Russians. Joseph Stalin. If you’re interested in that argument, you should read the book by Lloyd Billingsley from Multnomah Press called, “‘A Generation That Knew Not Joseph.'” And it’s talking about Joseph Stalin and how Christians were deceived in this country many years ago. You’ll read reports of how we acted and what we thought. And here was a man we thought was almost like a savior when he came on the scene. Now we look back and know that he was a devil from hell in physical garb. We know that Stalin himself, like Hitler, destroyed and murdered and tortured more people than you can possibly dream. The reason why I’m pointing this out is don’t think that automatically people are going to know that this person has the character of an antichrist. They’re going to be deceived, the Bible says. In fact, the religion of the world that’s going to somehow amalgamate into one central headquarters with a false prophet leading the way, they’re going to encourage everybody to worship this man and to say he’s the answer to all the problems in the world. Evidently, he’s going to be able to pull off some peace processes. He’s going to be able to get people to negotiate with one another. But listen, folks, we’re going to be deceived, and the Bible says so. He is a man. Number two, he has great speaking ability. That’s what the Bible says. Because of television and multimedia, we are all now very much aware that we don’t often get the best candidate. We get the guy who knows how to communicate. We get the guy who knows how to use the tube. The guy who can speak. And the Bible says he’s going to have great speaking ability. It was mentioned in verse 8, pompous words. Again, verse 20, he’s going to speak pompous words. Very powerful in his speaking ability. Number three, interesting remark, isn’t it, in verse 20? He appears to be of larger size than his contemporaries. Now, I’m not really thrilled about that. Being tall myself. But it says, whose appearance was greater than his fellows. Now, what does that mean? I mean, I don’t want to spiritualize this, think of some holy glow coming off of him. But it’s very possible that he’s going to be larger than most people. A tall and a big person. Many, many commentators have spoken about this in the past and tried to guess who might be a likely candidate. He appears to be of larger size than his contemporaries. Number four, he is empowered by Satan to do amazing things. Turn to 2 Thessalonians, please, chapter 2. Verse 3, “…let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” It means there’s no hope for his salvation whatsoever. “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Verse 8, Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Many writers point out, and I think it’s valid, that he is going to be religious. Amen. And one of his chief means of deceiving people is going to be he’s going to be a major leader in terms of the religious people of the world. They’ll be awestruck by his ability. Perhaps speaking about his gifts from God, he’s going to be able to show great signs and wonders, and people are going to be fascinated with him.
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Well, that’s Bible teacher and author David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David will be back to wrap up today’s message with some additional teaching, so don’t go away. First, Matt Hawking’s here, and together we’re going to share something I think is very special.
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Matt? Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. You might remember this classic gospel song from a children’s Sunday school, but it really belongs everywhere. It does indeed.
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And Matt, the song captures the courageous testimony of an Old Testament saint whose life provides an abundance of inspiration and encouragement for every one of us today. Amen. Amen. That’s why I’m so pleased.
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We’re not only airing David’s Daniel teaching series here on radio, but we’re also offering it as a special resource pack this month on MP3 for just $30 or as an audio CD set for $50. The complete 17 message series several weeks on radio are included.
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And you’ll even hear extra material that we’re not able to include on radio. Right. And some of the message titles, Matt, your dad’s message in chapter one, dare to be a Daniel. Chapter four study is titled, How Pride Destroys.
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And this is where Nebuchadnezzar’s pride leads to a lost mind as he becomes like an animal until he repents. Exactly. And then Daniel in the lion’s den, which is dramatically retold in chapter six.
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And the five chapters of Bible prophecy, including messages, the coming world leader, a vision of the Messiah, the 70 weeks, and there’s even more. And more, whether you’re five or 95.
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Dare to be a Daniel. Study Daniel with us and save and share the series with a special package. Our Daniel series on MP3 is just $30 and on audio C $50. Now we also have your dad’s original message outlines and study notes in Daniel. And those are just $10. A perfect way to follow along with your dad as he teaches. Totally. And you can order and download the MP3s at davidhocking.org. That’s davidhocking.org. Or call us in Canada at 1-888-75-BIBLE. In the U.S., call us at 1-800-75-BIBLE. And Bible by the Numbers is 242-53.
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Oh, and just before David returns, I want to quickly mention his book, Daniel, Prophecies of the Last Days. This is a clear, biblically sound walk through the entire book of Daniel. It’s a perfect companion to our current radio series. In fact, it shares more information, additional teaching, verse by verse, no fluff, no speculation. And it’s designed to help you understand God’s plan for the future. through the lens of Scripture, particularly the book of Daniel. To get your copy of Daniel, Prophecies of the Last Days by David Hawking, visit davidhawking.org. Or give us a call. In Canada, call 888-75-BIBLE. 888-75-24253. And in the U.S., call 800-75-BIBLE, 800-75-24253. And if you’ve been blessed by this broadcast and you’d like to send in a special gift to help this ministry keep going strong, you can do that by mail. Write to Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. Or, or in Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 8P1. You can also make a donation on our website, davidhawking.org, or call us at 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. Let’s get back to our study.
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Thanks for listening to Hope for Today. I hope you’re enjoying our study of Daniel 7. You talk about empires and history and the coming of Antichrist. It’s all here. Antichrist is a man. He has great speaking ability, and he appears to be bigger and better than his contemporaries because he is empowered by Satan. He has a conflict with God as well as God’s people. You can read about that in verse 21 and following. And he has control. His decisions, he’s going to try to change times and law. He’s going to exist for three and a half years or 42 months. Revelation 13 calls it time, times, and half a time. But his final conclusion, his destiny is going to be hell forever. But I do thank you for being with us. Daniel 7 is critical to our understanding. And the establishment of God’s kingdom is also in Daniel chapter 7. As we read about the coming of the Son of Man, and that everybody’s going to serve Him, and the control of the kingdom will be given to the saints. Praise God! Well, I also want to thank you all for your kindness to us. We depend upon the listeners in each area to support this broadcast. We have no organization or church behind us. We’re just trusting the Lord that as God’s people are blessed, They will be generous and help us to stay on the air on the radio in their area. We’ve got a lot more for you in the book of Daniel. Thank you for listening.
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And friends, as David mentioned, your generous financial support is so very important. We cannot remain on the air without it. This ministry is a partnership between us and our listening family. And if you’re able to help out, we need to hear from you as soon as possible. If you’d like to give now, you can call 875-BIBLE in the U.S. That’s 875-24253. And in Canada, call 888-75-BIBLE. 888-75-242-53 or give online at davidhawking.org. And thanks so very much for anything you can send our way. Well, in our next broadcast, the little horn steps onto the scene, arrogant, defiant, and dead set against the most high. He’s not just an end time symbol. He’s a coming world leader, empowered by darkness and determined to wear down God’s people. Be sure to invite a friend to listen along with you for day two of A Coming World Leader, next time on Hope for Today.
