In this chapter we will see Satan’s desperate efforts to block people from looking into the invisible realm and the work of Jesus in heaven. This warfare would naturally be conducted through the spiritual descendents of Nimrod who clung to the inherent power system and consequently a focus on the visible.

a. The Priestly Ministry of Jesus in Heaven

Heb 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The work of Jesus on earth was to connect the human race with the channel of blessing, cut down the mountains of pride and worthless, form a perfectly submitted human character that could be added to the channel of blessing and take the separation from the channel, caused by Adam, to the cross and the grave. This work was symbolized by the court in the Sanctuary service; the altar of sacrifice and the laver of cleansing. Armed with these victories, Christ entered into the invisible heavenly realm to then impart to His believing followers, the victories He had obtained. The victories are imparted to us through His Spirit.

Rom 8:9-11 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Phil 1:19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

Eph 1:17-21 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

As the followers of Christ focus their minds on the person of Jesus and pray for help to be like Him, He sends His Spirit to them full of the victories He has obtained and the Spirit residing in His followers is manifested in love, joy, peace, patience and all the other fruit of the Spirit of Christ.

If Satan allowed God’s people to focus on this wonderful work of Jesus in heaven, they would become too powerful for Him to overcome. He had to block the minds of the worshippers from looking towards heaven and the work of Jesus.

b. The Spiritualization of Rome

Of course, in the wisdom and foreknowledge of God, He knew that Satan would seek to do this and predicted 600 years before Christ came to earth that Satan would work to obstruct the heavenly Sanctuary and wipe out God’s true followers.

Satan would do this through the Babylonian system. Satan had managed to enslave Israel to Babylon physically, and after the shift of Jesus into the invisible, he would have to do it spiritually. Daniel Chapter 7 and 8 explains the process of how this would take place. The four world empires that culminated in Pagan Rome would have to take on a spiritual emphasis to compete with the true followers of Christ. It is true that pagan kingdoms all had a spiritual element, but this new spiritual emphasis via Rome would have to look similar to the spiritual focus of God’s heavenly kingdom. Therefore Satan transformed Rome in to a counterfeit spiritual power as well as an earthly power. By adding this spiritual dimension, he could then enter the new battlefield for the minds of God’s true worshippers, block their view from the heavenly work of Christ and cut off the channel of blessing through His mediatorial work as a priest.

Dan 7:19-21 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; 20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

The fourth beast which, we know to be Rome, would become diverse or different from the previous kingdoms in that it would add this spiritual or invisible dimension that was a counterfeit of the true invisible system. This transition is revealed in prophecy as a horn coming out of the fourth beast – Rome.

Dan 8:12-13 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?

This horn power is described again in Daniel 8 as casting the truth to the ground. This casting to the ground process was bringing all the elements of the Sanctuary system back into the visible and in this way the work of writing the law in the hearts of God’s people would be interfered with and confused.

c. Attack on the Heavenly Sanctuary

During the period of the 4^th to 6^th century A.D., the church of Rome focused on the doctrines of Christ on earth. It did this in four main ways:

1. It altered the law of God, by taking out the second and fourth commandment. The second commandment was vital to protecting the invisible focus and the fourth commandment points people to the source of the channel of blessing and the place where true power comes from.

2. It set up an earthly temple in Rome to focus the worshippers’ minds on an earthly visible structure.

3. It set up a system of earthly priests to hear confession and promise forgiveness of sins. This was counterfeiting the work of Christ and again would focus the minds of worshippers on the earthly and a visible priesthood system rather than on our invisible Priest in an invisible Sanctuary.

4. The Mass was introduced as a visible token of the death of Christ and also the power of absolution. Instead of the Spirit of Christ being the focus, the body of Christ eaten by the people would become the source of spiritual power. The shift is subtle, but powerful and again confused the minds of God’s followers.

As Daniel considered the terrible situation of this horn power tearing down God’s Sanctuary and persecuting His followers, he wondered how long this would go on for. In answer to this an angel poses this very question: How long will this horn power be allowed to trample God’s Sanctuary, His law and His people?

The answer comes immediately:

Dan 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

The word cleansed also means restored. The Sanctuary would be restored to its rightful heavenly place in the minds of the people. It would be restored to the invisible so that the work of writing the law in the hearts of the people could be finished. We will look at when this 2300 day period culminates in the next chapter, but before that we want to look at a few more points regarding the horn power.

Just as the Jews tried to oppose Jesus and His work for 3½ literal years and prevent Him from shifting the minds of the people to the fact they must be born from above, so the horn power of Daniel 8 would oppose Jesus for 3½ spiritual or prophetic years and keep people focused on an earthly visible worship program.

Dan 7:25 And he 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.

The time, times and a dividing of time is equal to 1260 prophetic days which equals 1260 literal years. The Roman church was most dominant from the time of 538 A.D. when the Ostrogoths were destroyed (the last of the Arian powers that stood in their way), right though until 1798 when the Pope was taken prisoner by France. The book of Revelation speaks of this situation as follows:

Rev 13:5-8 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

42 months is equal to 1260 prophetic days or 1260 literal years.[1] This work of the horn power cut off the channel of blessing and once again broke down the family kingdom of God. The hearts of God’s people were once again hardened by this false system of worship and left desolate. This is why this power is referred to as the transgression of desolation.

Dan 8:13 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?

This period of history is rightly named ‘The Dark Ages’. The light of truth was hidden under a worship system that attacked God’s law, Sanctuary and the family.

d. The Horn Power Attacks the Family Kingdom.

As we learnt previously, the creation of Adam and Eve in a headship and submission relationship was in the image of the Father and the Son. It is a Father and Son relationship which is the focus of heaven.

The Roman system introduced Mary as the mother of God and through this doctrine introduced the primary relationship of heaven as the mother and son, exactly the same way that Nimrod and Semiramis were seen in the original Babylon. The mother and son relationship does not reflect the Father and Son relationship of heaven and confuses the channel of blessing.

The Roman church also introduced a confused view of God as three beings in one literal substance.[2] This created greater confusion regarding the roles of God as a Father and a Son. Added to this was the conception of God burning sinners in hell forever and ever. This was not the picture of a loving Father, but a raging tyrant like Nimrod who cut down his enemies in vengeance. Even the death of Christ on the cross was portrayed as the satisfaction of vengeance and a clamouring for blood. All of these teachings have terribly damaged the view of God as a heavenly Father that loves us and a submissive Son that shows us how to stay connected to the source of blessing.

To further attack the family, the Roman church forbade its leaders to marry. Marriage, rightly conducted, is the most powerful demonstration of the kingdom of God and this could not be tolerated. The Bible clearly tells us that the elders or bishops of God’s church should be the husband of one wife, so they would understand the principles of blessing. The church leaders scorned this principle and act as Bishop without being a husband. Such a man can never really be qualified to act as a shepherd of God’s flock from a family kingdom context.

How could this terrible situation come about? As in the days of Samuel where the leaders of Israel wanted to be like the other nations and did not want to be different, so the Christian church found it hard to be so different having a worship system that was almost completely invisible.

The Christians were pronounced atheists, because they were destitute of temples, altars, victims, priests and all the pomp in which the vulgar suppose the essence of religion consists. For unenlightened persons are prone to estimate religion by what meets the eyes. To silence this accusation, the Christian doctors thought to introduce some external rites which would strike the senses of the people, so that they could maintain themselves really to possess all those things of which Christians were charged with being destitute, though under different forms. A.T Jones - The Secrets of Sun Worship and the Great Falling Away, p 32.

The introduction of these external or visible rites opened the door for this horn power to emerge and once again take God’s people captive. In captivity, God’s people could no longer keep His protective law or stay connected to the priestly ministry of Jesus that would provide the power they needed to overcome the lie of the serpent.

e. Plagues of Judgment Sent to Release the Woman

Just as God sent mighty plagues or judgments on Egypt to release the woman, Sarah, from her captivity; so in Egypt when the woman (the church of Israel) was again captive, God sent judgments on spiritual Babylon to allow the woman to be released once again. These judgments are detailed in the trumpets of Revelation 8, 9 and 11.

The judgments came against Rome in both its pagan and papal phases. The first four trumpets brought pagan Rome to its knees; and the 5^th and 6^th trumpet describe the work of the Islamic powers and the French Revolution, which weakened the papal system and then gave it a deadly wound.

It was after this deadly wound that knowledge increased and the way was opened for a recovery of the true principles of God’s kingdom to again be restored. In the same way that Moses was used to lead God’s people to the commandments and the Sanctuary, the same thing would occur when Israel would be gathered again the second time.

The other key point of course that needed restoring was the blessing or seeding role of the father and the recovery of the family system. It would be the work of Elijah to bring this about just before the return of Jesus.

Mal 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

It is to this story we turn next and see a movement that would arise at the end of the Sanctuary being trampled under foot at the end of the 2300 days that would recover the law, the heavenly Sanctuary and a true view of the Father and Son relationship.