Daniel 7:24-25

One difference between the description of the little horn here and earlier (Daniel 7:8), is that here the little horn is a king, not a kingdom. Another is that he will be different from the previous 10 kings (cf. Revelation 13:1; Revelation 17:12). His boastful words will be against the Most High and His saints (Daniel 7:25). He will wear down the saints, evidently by persecution (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9; Revelation 12:13-17; Revelation 13:1-10; Revelation 13:16-17). He will also desire to make changes in times (the calendar?) and in law. Archer recorded an interesting account of an unsuccessful attempt during the French Revolution to replace the Christian (Gregorian) calendar with a Revolutionary calendar. [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 94.] Someone, obviously the sovereign God, will allow this ruler to have his way for "a time, times, and half a time" (cf. Daniel 12:7). Even some liberal interpreters concede that this is a period of three and one-half years (cf. Daniel 4:16; Revelation 11:2-3; Revelation 12:6; Revelation 13:5). [Note: E.g., Montgomery, p. 312.] Young took it to stand for a period of testing and judgment in a metaphorical sense without specifying its length. [Note: Young, p. 162.] This three and one-half year period evidently refers to the last three and one-half years before the little horn’s destruction and the return of Jesus Christ. This corresponds to the "Great Tribulation," the phrase Jesus used to describe the last half (three and one-half years) of the seven-year Tribulation (Matthew 24:21).

"When the hordes from the north conquered the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D., they did not unite to form another empire. Instead individual nations emerged out of the old Roman Empire. Some of those nations and others stemming from them have continued till the present day. The present Age, then, is the 10-horned era of the fourth beast. (Other premillenarians, however, hold that the time of the 10 horns is yet future, that the present Church Age is not seen in this vision, and that 10 kings will coexist over a future revived [or realigned] Roman Empire.)" [Note: Pentecost, p. 1354.]

"The ten-nation confederacy of the future anticipated in these prophecies would naturally be considered a revival of the Roman Empire if for no other reason than that it is portrayed as an integral part of the fourth empire." [Note: John F. Walvoord, "Revival of Rome," Bibliotheca Sacra 126:504 (October-December 1969):317-28.]

"Our Lord ministered on earth three and a half years, and the Antichrist shall enact his Satanic ministry for the same length of time." [Note: Joseph A. Seiss, Voices from Babylon: Or the Records of Daniel the Prophet, p. 311.]

Young also believed a literal Antichrist is in view in this passage. [Note: Young, p. 163.]