God’s Word for You

Daniel 8:24-25 The strong enemy

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, December 10, 2025

24 He will become very strong, but not from his own power. He will cause fearful destruction and will succeed in what he does, and he will destroy powerful men and also saints. 25 By his cunning he will make deceit prosper under this hand, and he will be great in his own mind. Without warning he will destroy many. He will even rise up against the Prince of Princes. But he will be broken—yet not by human hands.

The ram’s horn “will become very strong.” This may seem like only a vague prophecy that could apply to anyone, except that we were already told that this little horn came from one of the four horns or rulers that grew out of the first king of Greece, who was Alexander. Therefore this is surely Antiochus, the terrible king who persecuted the Jews and who desecrated the temple. He did not become strong “from his own power,” because Satan’s power was behind the things that he did.

Professor Jeske adds one of his usual excellent and succinct comments here: “The words ‘he will cause deceit to prosper’ make us think, first of all, of the treachery Antiochus showed in his treatment of the Jews. He pretended to be interested in bringing them peace, but be brought tyranny and heartache instead” (People’s Bible: Daniel, p. 162).

The Antichrist would do even worse. He would oppose God and God’s word, even the true way of salvation, in public. And he would condemn those who spoke up for the truth. In the years following Martin Luther’s death, this statement was made by the Catholic Church:

“If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in God’s mercy, which remits (forgives) sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is trust alone which justifies us, let him be eternally damned.” (Council of Trent).

What could more obviously stand opposed to the words of Scripture, against “the Prince of Princes,” which is Christ? Paul says: “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are told that Antichrist will rise up from within the church of God, a religious teacher at work from inside the Christian Church. “He sets himself up in God’s temple” (2 Thessalonians 2:4). And he will “wage war against the saints (the people of God) and will prevail over them for a time” (Daniel 7:21).

But about Antiochus, Gabriel also tells us that he would be broken—yet not by human hands. This is how the account unfolds in 1 Maccabees: When Antiochus found out that the Jews had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem and defeated his army, “he took to his bed and became sick from grief, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. He lay there for many days, because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying” (1 Maccabees 6:8-9). He became depressed and ill, and called his friends to his bedside. He said, “I was kind and beloved in my power. But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem” (6:11-12). He made his friend Philip regent until his son Antiochus IV was old enough to reign as king. And then he died (6:14-16).

And the same thing will happen to the Antichrist. Jesus will overthrow the Antichrist with his word. “The Lord Jesus will consume him with the breath of his mouth” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). And this overthrow will completely destroy the Antichrist. “He will not honor the God of his fathers… Yet he will come to his end, and there will be no one to help him” (Daniel 11:37,45).

Yet if only a sinner—any sinner—will trust in Christ, he can be saved. But the sinner too often thinks “that I may bear my evils alone” and somehow do away with them, or, deserving punishment, he yields to a punishment that is more than he ever imagined. Yet Christ offers his grace to anyone. To everyone. He could hardly have put it more simply than he does in the Gospel: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be damned” (Mark 16:16).

Returning to our text, notice in verse 24 that the Antichrist (and, in a lesser way, Antiochus) will destroy “powerful men and also saints.” That is to say, leaders and ordinary Christians will be harmed, persecuted, and even killed. Not all of them, of course—Gabriel does not say “all of the saints,” nor even “the saints,” but simply, “saints.”

When Martin Luther was still a boy, a Catholic preacher named Savonarola (1452-1498) criticized the church and the pope. Even though he himself had written a part of the prayer now used as the “Hail Mary,” he warned that the church no longer relied on the Word of God alone for its doctrines or for salvation. He cried out, “Prepare thyself, O Rome, for great will be thy punishments!” Arrested as a heretic, he was condemned to a trial by fire. When a sudden rainstorm burst over the crowd, he was not set free but was put back into prison and hanged a month later. And a hundred before this, the Czech priest Jan Huss (1369-1415) was also arrested (after being promised safe conduct) and executed for criticizing the Catholic Church’s errors and outrages. These are only two of thousands and tens of thousands of saints who died on account of the Antichrist’s murderous hatred.

This passage proclaims the law to us in the form of a warning against the Antichrist. But we also know that Christ will overcome this enemy of the church with the power of his holy Word. But how are we to protect ourselves from this enemy’s lies? We can’t be certain that we or our loved ones will be safe from the Antichrist’s hatred, and like Huss or Savonarola, they or we could be hurt or even killed on account of our faith. But we can arm ourselves against losing our faith (which is the true goal of the Antichrist) by remaining steadfast in the Word of God, so that we are not misled by those who would tempt us to believe in being saved by our own choosing or our own works.

In addition, we can be comforted that even when someone we love, or even if we ourselves, have been tempted at one time or another by the lies of false teachers, false prophets, or the Antichrist himself, such temptations are also covered by the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross. For the only sin that condemns is unbelief, and so we put our trust in Jesus and rely on him alone for everlasting life.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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