Daniel 8:11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.
There is a few parts to this verse that I want to take a look at today.
First, who is the Prince of the host?
Secondly, what are these daily sacrifices?
And finally, what is this sanctuary referring to?
Let’s start with looking at the Prince of the host.
- There is a few places that identifies the Prince of the host.
- Daniel 8:25
“Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human means. - Daniel 9:25
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. - Daniel 11:22
With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. - And in the New Testament:
- John 1:41
He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). - Acts 5:31
Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. - This is clearly referring to Christ.
- The word Christ simply means “Messiah.”
But coming back to Daniel 8
- Daniel 8:11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. - The little horn, the Roman Catholic Church, would go and fight against the Prince of the host. How did he do that?
- The Bible says that the daily sacrifices would be taken away and the place of his sanctuary would be cast down.
First, let’s have a look at the daily sacrifices.
- When you actually have a look at your own Bible, you will notice something interesting about these two words.
- The word “sacrifices” is actually a supplied word. In most Bibles you will find that it is italicized.
- You see, the Bible was translated from the Hebrew and the Greek. And every word in English, except all the small words like the, and, of, if at, an, they have a corresponding Hebrew or Greek word attached to it.
- But this word sacrifices does not. It was added by the translators.
- Why? Because they encountered a problem when they came to translate this verse. The word “daily” was not a noun. It was a verb. It was describing something. But you can’t describe something by itself and let it abruptly end.
- But this is how the text should actually read.
- Daniel 8:11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. - So they had a problem with it and saw the word sanctuary at the end and so they just assumed it was daily sacrifices.
- That word “daily” means “to continue”
- And something continued from the Pagan Roman Empire into the Roman Catholic Church.
- In Daniel 2, we see the iron continue from the legs into the feet.
- In Daniel 7, we see the dragon continue into giving life to the little horn. It isn’t mentioned there, but by virtue of the fact that the little horn is alive, we assume that the dragon must be alive since it appeared on the top of the dragon’s head.
- Then in Daniel 8, we see something interesting about the Pagan Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church. The exact same symbol is used to represent them – a little horn.
- God is trying to tell us that there is something that is exactly the same that existed in the Roman Empire that continued into the Catholic Church.
What is it? Let’s continue looking at a few more clues.
- Well, in this comparisons that we see between the chapters, we see something interesting between the animals in Daniel 7 and the animals in Daniel 8.
- In Daniel 7 we see the lion, the bear, the leopard and the
- And then in Daniel 8 we see a ram and a goat.
- What is the difference between these 2 sets of animals?
- Well, one is very fierce and the other is more tame.
- One you cannot and should not have as pets, and one you can.
- One group eats meat. And the other group is vegetarian.
- But most importantly, in the setting of the words that we see used repeatedly in Daniel 8, this group of animals (the ram and the goat) are used in the sanctuary services. They are leaning more to the religious side.
- It’s almost as if in Daniel 7, God is focusing on the political aspects of these kingdoms, but in Daniel 8 He wants us to focus more on the religious aspect.
- The ram and the goat was used as animal sacrifices in the sanctuary.
What continued on from the Pagan Roman Empire into the Catholic Church? To the extent that they are using the same symbol here?
- Coming back to this verse in Daniel 8:11.
- Daniel 8:11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. - The daily was taken away.
- Now normally when we use these words “taken away” it’s like we lose it. We have it removed from us. It is subtracted. We are at a loss.
- That’s how we understand these words “taken away.”
- But when you look at the original meaning, this is actually not what we find.
- The words “taken away” actually mean to rise or raise, to exalt, to extol, to lift up.
- So this is how Daniel 8:11 now properly reads:
- Daniel 8:11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily was exalted, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. - Let’s put in our understanding of what we see here so far.
- Daniel 8:11
The Catholic Church even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by the Catholic Church the daily was exalted, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. - So something continued that was exalted.
- This is really important to grasp here at this point.
Please bear with me as we are getting a bit technical today.
- Something continued on from the Pagan Roman Empire into the Catholic Church that was exalted even more by them.
- And at the same time, something else is happening.
- The place of his sanctuary was cast down.
- Whose sanctuary is this?
- Well before we jump to any conclusions, let’s have a look at this word sanctuary.
- This word sanctuary is found a few times in Daniel 8.
- Daniel 8:11 – we have been looking at this verse a lot.
- Daniel 8:13
Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?” - Daniel 8:14
And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
- There is something interesting about these 3 words sanctuary. They are not all the same. In English they are, but not in the Hebrew.
- Let’s have a look at the Hebrew.
- Verse 11, the word sanctuary is miqdas.
- Let’s not worry about the meaning. This word sanctuary can refer to God’s sanctuary and also a pagan sanctuary.
- Verse 13 – qodes
- Verse 14 – qodes
- Verse 11, the word sanctuary is miqdas.
- Just by seeing the Hebrew word, you know that there are 2 sanctuaries mentioned here. You don’t see it in the English. But the Jews reading this knew that there was a difference.
Which sanctuary is referring to whose? Are they all God’s sanctuary? Not quite!
- In verse 11, you don’t know whether it is good or bad. Even though it has the word “His” capitalized, that is not correct as capital is not inspired, and many other translations it has a lowercase “his”.
- So verse 13 is not clear. Good or bad.
- Verse 13. Let’s take a closer look.
- Daniel 8:13
Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?” - In regards to the question asked, do you notice that there are 2 groups there?
- There is the daily with the transgression of desolation.
- And it is treading underfoot the sanctuary and the host.
- Now for certain, we know that there is one entity there that is bad. That is the transgression of desolation.
- Jesus is given many names, but never is He called anything with transgression of desolation in it.
- Transgression gives a bad connotation.
- Sin is the transgression of the law.
- Daniel 8:13
Who is the transgression of desolation?
- Transgression – religious connotation.
- Desolation – what desolates or destroys? Armies. That’s more
- We see the coming together of religious and political.
- That’s just like the feet of iron and the clay.
- This is none other than the antichrist, the Roman Catholic
- And it is showing us here in Daniel 8 how it would persecute God’s people.
- Just like what we have seen in Daniel 7 where it would wear out the saints of God by persecuting them also.
So since we know that transgression of desolation is bad, we can see there that the daily is bad also but it is put in the same group with the transgression and it is treading down the sanctuary and the host.
- And then in the next verse, the same sanctuary is being
So here are some conclusions based on our observations.
- The sanctuary here must be referring to God’s sanctuary that is being trampled underfoot.
- The daily must be a bad entity because of its relationship with the transgression of desolation, the Roman Catholic church.
- And it is the Roman Catholic church in verse 11 that exalts this daily – it does not remove it or take it away.
Then the last question we have to ask ourselves here is – whose sanctuary is that that is being cast down in Daniel 8:11 if that is not referring to God’s sanctuary?
- It leaves us with only one option left. And that is the sanctuary of the Pagan Roman empire.
- Did they have sanctuaries? Yes they did.
- Let me list a few:
- The Pantheon which is also known as the Temple to All The Gods
- The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.
- The Temple of Hadrian.
- The Temple of Hercules Victor.
- The Temple of Portunus.
- The Temple of Romulus.
- The Temple of Saturn.
- The Temple of Vesta.
- These are all in Rome. There are actually over 50 temples in Rome itself.
- But you see, what did the Catholic Church do?
- They cast down the Pagan Roman temples and they brought all those gods into the Catholic church. In fact the temples were converted into churches.
- Why did this all take place?
- It began with Emperor Constantine the Great and his reign (306-337AD).
- He converted to Christianity during one war in which he sought for more help than through his soldiers only.
- It was claimed that he saw a flaming cross in the sky and he heard these words – by this sign you shall conquer. He took that as a sign to convert to Christianity.
- A major switch would take place.
- Rome would go from being Pagan to Papal Rome. From paganism to professed Christianity. Many historians debate the authenticity of the conversion. Was it a deep rooted biblical conviction or was it a political ploy to keep a divided empire together?
- Pagan practices began to creep into the Christian church as a result.
- The Pantheon in Rome was actually converted to a Christian
Let me show you what has continued from the Pagan Roman Empire that crept into the church and how the Catholic church exalted it. It would take a big step to cast truth to the ground and trample of God’s sanctuary up in heaven as verse 13 spoke about.
PLEASE REFER TO THE SLIDES ON THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE PAGAN ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TODAY
What is the daily? It is paganism that came into the church.
What did this daily do again?
- Daniel 8:13
Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?” - It would trample of God’s sanctuary.
- But how did the Catholic Church trample of God’s sanctuary?
- Where is God’s sanctuary today?
- Hebrews 8:1-2
1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. - God’s sanctuary is up in heaven.
- And how has the Catholic church attacked it?
- By bringing all those symbols and keeping them on the earth.
Today we as Christian’s don’t go to a priest anymore or kill a lamb to have our sins forgiven. All that was fulfilled by Jesus at the cross. And He has become our great High Priest up in heaven.
- This was shown at Christ’s death on the cross.
- Matthew 27:51
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. - The veil was not a small thin piece of cloth. Human hands did not rip that veil in 2.
- God was showing that the temple was no longer relevant here on earth.
- Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. We did not need to kill lambs anymore.
- Jesus, when He ascended, would then become our great High Priest.
- He would make intercession for us.
- He was the One that would be able to cleanse us from all sin.
But the little horn would try to take the focus away from the heavenly.
- They would create priests after their own order.
- And they would claim to be able to forgive the sins of any person on the earth.
- Through their understanding of mass, they would change the people’s understanding of salvation and how we approach God.
- People would no longer look to heavens and directly to Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary, but to an earthly counterfeit one.
- The Pagan temples were converted into Catholic sanctuaries.
This is just more detail that Daniel 8 gives us.
- It is focused more on the religious aspect as we see the different animals here used.
But today, I want to remind you of Christ who is our High Priest up in heaven.
- Hebrews 4:15-16
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.- We can look to Him and depend upon Him as our all-powerful Saviour.
- He sympathises with us when we are tested and tried.
- Hebrews 2:17-18
17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.- He can help us to face any temptation.
- And he can give us strength and supply all our needs.
- 1 John 2:1
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.- He is our advocate and fights for us.
- Hebrews 9:24
For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. - 1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.- He is our only Mediator. No human can take the place of that.
- Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. - And He is the Only One that can save to the uttermost.
It’s all about Jesus Christ!