“Bible History IS Secular History when given the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Following is a quote from Wikipedia; a reference source ahabiblemoments.com seldom encourages and often discourages as a reliable source for knowledge, total truth and research information. They are obviously changing their historical perspectives at the expense of bible facts. In some resource reference they go so far as to simply call the bible a book of stories that at best are half-truths, not historical reports. In this case (below quote) the reader is initially given historical facts and future reality perspectives on history and theology. Keep in mind that the bible is not a religion and history is not the truth, whole truth and nothing but the complete truth. The Bible is part of secular history; not separate to or removed from the annals of history.

Daniel 8 (the eighth chapter of the Book of Daniel) tells of Daniel‘s vision of a two-horned ram destroyed by a one-horned goat (a possible allegory for the transition from the Persian to the Greek eras in the Near East), followed by the history of the “little horn”, which is Daniel’s code-word for the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes.

The subject of the vision is Antiochus’ oppression of the Jews–he outlawed Jewish customs such as circumcision, Jewish monthly/Lunar calendar, dietary restrictions, and Sabbath observance, made ownership of the Torah scroll a capital offense, and built an altar to Zeus in the Temple (the “abomination of desolation“). His program sparked a popular uprising which led to the retaking of Jerusalem and the Temple by Judas Maccabeus (164 BCE). [Wikipedia, opening paragraphs]

Note: Beginning in this chapter through the end of the book, Daniel is written in Hebrew… TO THE HEBREW (Israelites) people. Daniel 2:4b – 7:28 is written in the language of Babylonian Gentiles at that time; Aramaic sometimes called Chaldean. The reason for the switch from Aramaic to Hebrew is a modern day marketing rule-of-thumb. “Write to the intended target market even at the expense of those not part of the targeted market.” From here to the end of Daniel it is all about Jerusalem, Israel, Israelis, anti-Christ and the second coming of the King of kings; Jesus. Also often missed is the fact that up until now, Daniel was involved in dream interpretation (Chapters 24b-7:28). This chapter is called a “VISION”…a view into the future. Daniel had a dream (7:1). Within it was a vision.

What was this vision? It was of a ram (two horns) and a goat (one horn). There is an abundant amount of historical evidence for these animals being representative of Greece and Persia. Most simply is the fact that the Ram “did not touch the ground.” This refers to the rapidity of Alexander’s army conquests. The ram had two horns; i.e. the Medes and Persians. The goat had but one horn; i.e. Alexander’s Greek/Macedonian army. It moved with the speed of a leopard. Daniel 8:3 states:

(NIV) I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer. than the other but grew up later.

Simply put… The Medes had been an empire far longer then had the Persians. However, the Persians turned on their Mede allies after defeating Babylon, conquered them, and with combined powers of both became the larger (longer) of the two horns. Verse four describes its growth as a power…until it bumped up against the Greek city-states (Sparta and Athens) and Macedonia (490’s B.C.). It was with regards to this history in which Aristotle taught his student Alexander, son of Macedonian King Philip; i.e. Alexander the Great. He grew up and was well trained as a military leader. He sought revenge on Persia but had to conquer many other kingdoms while in-route.

JIV NOTE: Xerxes, son of ‘Darius the Great’ is one of the Persian kings identified as Ahasuerus in the biblical Book of Esther. In contrast, the 62 year old Darius who initially conquered Babylon was “made king” over Babylon, not the Babylonian Empire. That ruler was Cyrus, king of Persia. He appointed Darius as a satrap-king over Babylon, but not the entire Persian Empire.

Ray C. Stedman wrote back 1969:
[https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/daniel/the-great-propagandist]

The eighth chapter of Daniel contains a different kind of little prophecy than any we have seen before. In the other prophetic sections of the book we have had a more or less direct view of future events brought before us Chapter 2 was a long-range telescopic view, looking down the whole range of time beginning with Daniel’s own day and running on down to the end beyond our own day. Part of it is now fulfilled and part of it is yet unfulfilled. In Chapter 7 we had what we might liken to a zoom camera approach, which moved in to the events of the last days before our Lord’s return, wherein we saw the condition of the earth politically, and especially centering around the Mediterranean Sea. We were stirred to note that events of our own day were perhaps beginning to produce the final shape of things.

But now, in Chapter 8, we see events which were future as far as Daniel was concerned but have and have yet to be fulfilled in history. Some three hundred years after the prophet Daniel uttered these words, they were, for the most part, fulfilled….we have an historic fulfillment which in turn becomes a prediction of another event. That is exactly what we find in the eighth chapter of Daniel.

Now that we have identified the ram with two horns and the leopard-like speed of the goat with one pointed horn…out of the west (8:5), consider another unique factor per Daniel 8.

(ESV)”…a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.” This verse begs the question: might this also represent a missile fired from across the Atlantic? The one horn perhaps between the eyes of the missile guidance or painted on the missile itself? “…across the face of the whole earth???? Hmmm? Fired from afar across the FACE OF THE EARTH!

Let’s pause here for a moment and look more closely at verses 5-9.

We use the YLT [Young’s Literal Translation] in the following as it is very close in context, content and verbiage of the original Hebrew. Note the highlighted text.

Dan 8:5 `And I have been considering, and lo, a young he-goat hath come from the west, over the face of the whole earth, whom none is touching in the earth; as to the young he-goat, a conspicuous horn is between its eyes.

Dan 8:6 And it cometh unto the ram possessing the two horns, that I had seen standing before the stream, and runneth unto it in the fury of its power.

Dan 8:7 And I have seen it coming near the ram, and it becometh embittered at it, and smiteth the ram, and breaketh its two horns, and there hath been no power in the ram to stand before it, and it casteth it to the earth, and trampleth it down, and there hath been no deliverer to the ram out of its power.

Dan 8:8 `And the young he-goat hath exerted itself very much, and when it is strong, broken hath been the great horn; and come up doth a vision of four in its place, at the four winds of the heavens.

Dan 8:9 And from the one of them come forth hath a little horn, and it exerteth itself greatly toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beauteous land ;

In the time following Daniel’s vision and in verse 8 we read that the GREAT HORN of the goat was broken off being replaced by “four horns.” Alexander the Great had many Generals. After his death and after some infighting, the Alexandrian conquered lands were divided between four of his generals; eventually becoming the empire of the Seleucides (Kings of the north) and Ptolemy’s (Kings of the south primarily Egypt). Judah, today’s Israel, became the battle ground of these wars and conflicts between these kingly empires and future leaders of the north and leaders of the south [study Daniel 11]. Armageddon? The valley and lands of Megiddo is only 60 some miles north of Jerusalem on today’s modern maps.

Daniel 8:9 begins a transition from a historical time to a future prophetic time that closely relates to the yet unfulfilled time of times with anti-Christ; the small horn that comes up from one of the four. He throws down the worship and sacrifices in Jerusalem and sets himself up to be the center of worship. Verse 14 tells us this will be 2,300 evenings and mornings. Angel Gabriel, in 8:14 – 26, explains to Daniel precisely what this vision means and that it has a double interpretation; one that followed in the next 300 to 400 years of history and one that refers to End Time. The final verse assures us that this is a spiritual battle with earthly subjects. The rise of the “power” against God is not defeated by human hands. Verse 25…And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. (emphasis mine)

As we move through the remainder of Daniel, keep in mind this has to do with Jerusalem. Not Washington D.C., Moscow, London or any other center of power. They, as was Nebuchadnezzar, may well be the pawns that play out a history yet to happen, but this boils down to the original problem on earth that began with the fall of Adam and Eve. It is between God and Satan.