TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 53: 66, The Ram, the Goat, and Four Persian Kings; 67, The Little Horn of Daniel Chapter 8

TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 53

Throughout the past several presentations in this series we have been discussing the great world empires which Daniel had prophesied first from a vision experienced by Nebuchadnezzar, and then from a vision of his own, which are recorded in Daniel chapters 2 and 7. From there, we presented an interpretation of the little horn of Daniel chapter 7, and the two beasts of Revelation chapter 13. The first beast of that chapter was described as the same series of empires, and the second as the Roman Catholic papacy, an office which had acquired its power when it was ordained by the emperor Justinian, for which reason we identify him with the little horn of Daniel chapter 7. Now we shall take the next step into Daniel chapters 8 and 11, and discuss the visions of the ram and the goat, and of four Persian kings. After that, we hope to discuss another little horn, which is prophesied later in Daniel chapter 8. As we already hope to have elucidated, once it is realized that all of these prophecies of future history recorded by Daniel and John were fulfilled in the White tribes of Europe and Mesopotamia, then there should be no doubt that the White nations of Christian Europe are the descendants of the ancient Israelites, who were certainly also White.

66) The Ram, the Goat, and Four Persian Kings

The vision in Daniel chapter 7, of the four beast empires followed by a little horn, is broad in scope and was experienced by Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar, who was the son of Nabonidus, the fourth and final successor of Nebuchadnezzar II, and the last independent Babylonian king. Belshazzar served in Babylon as regent for his father for most of his rule, but never had the title of king which belonged to his father. Nebuchadnezzar ascended to the Babylonian throne in 605 BC, and soon thereafter had defeated Pharaoh Necho II at the battle of Carchemish. After the fall of Assyria in 612 BC, the Egyptians had hoped to gain portions of the empire to which they had historical ties or claims. In 609 BC Josiah, King of Judah, was also killed in that endeavor, as he confronted Necho when he had passed through Judah with his armies. But the defeat of Necho ensured that the Babylonians would succeed the Assyrians as rulers of the Adamic world. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC, and the next four kings were all relatively short-lived up to Nabonidus, who along with his son Belshazzar had orchestrated a coup against his predecessor and had then ruled for about 17 years.

Then the visions of Daniel chapter 8 are said by the prophet to have come to him in the 3rd year of Belshazzar. Since Belshazzar was never more than crown prince and regent in Babylon, counting from the beginning of his regency in 553 BC we can approximate the time of the vision to late 551 or early 550 BC. By this time Daniel must have been quite old, as old as 64 years of age but perhaps even older, since he was a young man, but is described as a mature man, when he was first taken into the captivity. The canonical portions of the book of Daniel begin by explaining that Daniel went to Babylon with the captives of the time of Jehoiakim, which was about 597 BC. We are not told when Daniel died, but he lived for at least the first 3 years of the Persian rule of Babylon which began in 539 BC, according to Daniel chapter 10.

In Daniel chapter 8, we read of a vision which Daniel also had written was “after that which appeared unto me at the first”, which his apparently the vision described in Daniel chapter 7. So then we read:

2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. 5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. 8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

Now before we interpret this vision, we should place it on a back burner, because a later vision which Daniel experienced and which had come to him “in the first year of Darius the Mede”, prophesies an earlier period than the vision of the Ram and the Goat, and it is important to understand that period first. This is where we read in Daniel chapter 11, where the prophet refers to himself in the first person, that “1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.”

Before we may truly understand this, we should understand that many Persian words that were interpreted and assigned to various rulers as names by the Greek writers, were actually mere titles, and they were not truly personal names at all, in the sense that we use personal names. So it is with Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes or Ahasuerus and other terms. Although the Dead Sea Scrolls version of Daniel chapter 11 also has the reference to “Darius the Mede”, in the Greek Septuagint it is “the first year of Cyrus”, and either reference is a reference to Cyrus the Great, the first king of the post-Babylonian Persian Empire. The Septuagint translators must have understood that the title “Darius the Mede” had referred to the Persian king more popularly known as Cyrus the Great.

So counting from Cyrus, whom Daniel had evidently called after the title “Darius the Mede”, as his mother was a princess of the Medes, we then read further in the words of Daniel from that chapter: “2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. 3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. 4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.”

Cyrus, technically Cyrus II, became king of Persia in 550 BC, but he did not conquer Babylon until 539 BC. So where Daniel said “in the first year of Darius” he must have meant to refer to 539 BC, which is the first year in which Cyrus had ruled over Daniel. Cyrus himself was killed in a battle with the Massagetae in 529 BC. The next king was Cambyses, his son, who was badly injured as he returned from a campaign in Egypt for the empire, and died in Ecbatana, the capital city of the ancient Medes.

As the story was told by the Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote not long after 450 BC, the next king of Persia was one of the Magi, called Pseudo-Smerdis because he pretended to be Smerdis, Herodotus’ name for the brother of Cambyses. The Persian name for the impostor is Gaumata. He ruled for perhaps about 9 months in 522-521 BC, before the fraud was discovered and he was ousted in a coup. One of the leaders of the coup was Darius Hystaspis, who ruled from 521 to 486 BC. Some modern historians now hold that Smerdis, whose Persian name was Bardiya, was the legitimate son of Cyrus II and that the Darius I and his companions invented the account of the impostor Gaumata as an excuse to seize the throne. Herodotus describes Darius I as having made war against the Scythians and others, as part of a greater plan to invade Greece, a task which was not fully undertaken until the rule of his son Xerxes I, who ruled Persia from 486 to 465 B.C.

So Darius was still king, 40,000 Persian soldiers invaded Greece in 490 BC and were confronted by the Athenians in the famous Battle of Marathon, where they were badly defeated. This developed from earlier intrigues, as the Athenians were attempting to aid Greek cities in Anatolia in their attempts to break free from Persian rule. Suffering the defeat at Marathon, after Darius had died, Xerxes assembled an army of over a million soldiers, according to Herodotus, and a navy of over 2,500 ships, to invade Greece again in 480 BC. Upon defeating Leonides at Thermopylae and marching to Athens they found the city deserted and burned it. But in the aftermath they were defeated in the subsequent battles at Salamis, Mykale and Plataea and turned back from Europe in 479 BC. Of course we are only offering a summary description of the war here, but as the Persians invaded Greece, the Carthaginians invaded Sicily. Carthage maintaining its loyalty to ancient Tyre, a vassal state of Persia, it is evident that this must also have been planned as it prevented the Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy, which at the time was called Magna Graecia or “Greater Greece”, from coming to the aid of their Fatherland.

So Xerxes, the fourth king from Cyrus the Great, was “far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.” That is precisely what he did, and all he did, since the prophecy does not say that he would overcome “the realm of Grecia”, but only “stir up all against” it. Then Daniel said “3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. 4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.” This must describe Alexander the Great, and we shall speak more of him when we return to the vision of the Ram and the Goat.

The uncanny and clearly Providential prescience through which Daniel was able to reveal future history in his prophecies is clear, and we also see once again that the visions given to the prophet were centered around the people of Europe and Mesopotamia. If the White nations of those regions are the subjects of Daniel’s prophecies, then they are also the children of Yahweh God, since the purposes of the prophecies are to reveal what things which He would do with His people. If the children of Israel were in Africa, Asia, or the Americas at that time, then why would Daniel be prophesying about Europe, while ignoring Africa, Asia, and the Americas?

Now to return to Daniel chapter 8 so that we may interpret the vision of the Ram and the Goat, which we have already read, we will present a verse or two at a time and offer our interpretation, which is in part verified by Daniel’s vision of the four kings which we have just discussed.

In the second verse of chapter 8, Daniel wrote: “2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.” The province of Elam was only a small portion of the Babylonian empire, the seat of the Persian people, and it was east of the Tigris River bordering the Persian Gulf. It was not in Mesopotamia, but it was adjacent to Mesopotamia on the east. Wherever we see Persia in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is Elam, who was a son of Shem mentioned in Genesis chapter 10. The capital city of Elam was Susa, or Shushan here, so we see that even before the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel the prophet had moved east to Persia.

Continuing with the chapter, he writes: “3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.” So like the two arms of silver in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, we can see the Persian empire described much the same way in this vision. Yet here Daniel is also portraying Persia as an empire, some years before it came to be an empire, since Belshazzar is still ruling in Babylon in 550 and Cyrus did not conquer Babylon until 539 BC. At the core of this future empire were the Persians and the Medes, and the Persians had come to dominate the Medes. Once again, according to Herodotus, the last great king of the Medes, whom he had called Astyages, had also ruled over Persia. His daughter married a noble Persian, from whom Cyrus was born. When Cyrus attained the empire, whereas the Medes formerly had the leading role, the situation was reversed.

Reading on in Daniel chapter 8: “4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.” So this describes the Persian conquests of the remainder of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires which preceded it. Now in the very next verse, the goat is introduced, where Daniel wrote: “5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.” So Daniel foresaw that this Ram, the empire of the Persians and Medes, would be attacked from the West. Then he wrote: “6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.”

The father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon, was assassinated when Alexander was only 16, in 336 BC. In 334 BC Alexander set off on his campaign of conquest. By 324 Alexander had conquered not only Persia, but many of the tribes of the Scythians as far east as to the north of the Indus and Ganges Rivers. By 323, Alexander had returned to Babylon, where he evidently died from poisoning. So as soon as he was secure in his empire, and had conquered more territory than the Persians themselves had ever possessed, Alexander was dead, just as we read in the very next verse of Daniel chapter 8 where it says: “8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.”

Alexander had left a wife and son behind in Macedonia, but the son never inherited any of his father’s empire. Rather, his empire was divided into four pieces by his generals, something which is described in detail in the pages of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus. These circumstances fulfilled with great precision what Daniel had prophesied in chapter 11 where he said: “3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. 4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.”

So here also, in Daniel chapter 8, it says that when the great horn, Alexander himself, was broken that “it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” By this also we see that these visions in Daniel chapters 8 and 11 are indeed describing the same phenomenon which would appear in history at some point future to Daniel’s time, after the time when Xerxes had made war “against the realm of Grecia.”

Putting these two visions in Daniel chapters 8 and 11 together, we can see the clear fulfillment of these prophecies in history in the wars between the Persians and the Greeks. But later on in Daniel chapter 8, the prophet himself told us these things where he wrote: “16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. 17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. 18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. 19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. 20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. 21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. 22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.”

Now with that background, we should move on to discuss:

67) The Little Horn of Daniel Chapter 8

After the vision of the Ram and the Goat in Daniel chapter 8, we see a vision of another Little Horn, and after it says that the Goat’s kingdom would come to “four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven”, we read: “9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. 10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. 11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. 13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.”

So first, this man, or angel, goes on to describe to Daniel the meaning of the vision of the Goat and the Ram, which we have already discussed. But then, it describes this Little Horn, and we read from where we also already left off, where it referred to the four kingdoms come out of the Goat: “23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power [indicating that he would be a puppet]: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. 26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. 27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”

That this vision would not happen “for many days” indicates that it would be a long time until these things occurred. Putting the vision of the Little Horn together with the interpretation of the Little Horn, it does not come immediately after the Goat passes, but “in the latter time” of the kingdoms which arose after the Goat had passed. Then where it says that it will wax great “toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land… even to the host of heaven”, it is evident that the people of God are the ‘host of heaven’ and therefore they are not in the south and east, but in the north and west, in Europe. Where it further says that it “cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them”, we must interpret that according to the explanation where it says that he “shall destroy the mighty and the holy people”. Then in the vision where it says “it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered”, we should interpret that according to the interpretation of the angel which says “he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes”.

So while the Little Horn of Daniel chapter 7, which we interpreted to be the same as the second beast of Revelation chapter 13, “had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon”, and “shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time”, that describes an entity which would rule over all of the people of God under the pretense of having authority from God. But this Little Horn of Daniel chapter 8 is different, since it is prophesied to destroy the people of God overtly and to speak against Christ directly. The people of God are also represented by the phrase “host of heaven” and they are the stars cast down to the ground, as Abraham was told that his seed would be as the stars of heaven.

Therefore we must find a historic entity which arose out of one of the four portions of Alexander’s empire and made war not only against Jesus Christ, the Prince of princes, but also directly against the people of the Prince. [I would interpret the reference to the “Prince of Princes” according to Daniel’s references to “Messiah the Prince” in Daniel chapter 9.] This may be arguable, as it is not generally recognized that Arabia was within the authority of the four portions. However Mohammed was descended from Jews that were in Arabia because they were no longer welcome, or found it difficult to live within the Christian Byzantine empire. Then where it says that this Little Horn would take away the daily rituals, or sacrifice, but also that a host would be given to this Little Horn against the daily sacrifice for reason of transgression, it is plausible that Daniel is describing a change of religion forced upon men overcome by this Little Horn. So we can only conclude that this Little Horn is Mohammed, who is presumed to be the prophet of Islam.

Here we would cite the example of Isadore of Seville as an indication of the political climate of the time and the circumstances of the Jews: In 633 AD, he contributed two decisions to the Fourth Council of Toledo: Canon 60 calling for the forced removal of children from parents practising Crypto-Judaism and their education by Christians, and Canon 65 forbidding Jews and Christians of Jewish origin from holding public office. There were other actions againt the Jews from the time of Constantine, and especially from the time of Justinian and subsequent emperors, But these Canons by Isidore became law throughout the empire as well as within the Church, and were quite severe as not even Jews who claimed to be Christians would keep their children or hold public office. So Islam was a vengeful response on the part of the Jews, who used it to destroy the empire.

It can be established that Mohammed was a Jew, that his mother and perhaps even his father were Jews, and that Jewish scribes had written at least most of his so-called holy book, called the Quran, on his behalf. So where it says in verse 24 that “his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power”, we see that Mohammed was an agent for Jewry, as they had brought him to power so that they may have a weapon against the people of Christ. From the time of Mohammed, the mongrel races were being converted to Islam wherever there were Jews, which was primarily in Khazaria and Arabia. As the Jews were being run out of the empire, the Jews were bringing in Muslims, both Turks and Arabs, to invade and destroy the empire.

The writings of the Quran pretend to acknowledge Christ and His apostles, but actually they make a mockery of Christ and His apostles, while speaking blasphemies against Christ and maintaining a form of control over men which is hospitable to the designs of Jewry. While Jews and Muslims pretend to be opposed to one another in Palestine, outside of the recent history of the region they have always been close allies.

At this point I will refer to Clifton Emahiser’s Watchman’s Teaching Letter # 55 for November of 2002 with information indicating that Mohammed was indeed a Jew.

We shall continue our discussion of this Little Horn of Daniel chapter 8 as we present our next proof, identifying the locusts of Revelation chapter 9.