Understand that the vision concerns the time of the end…
I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of
wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end.
Dan 8:17,19
He makes it clear that the vision is not to be fulfilled in
Daniel’s time. It concerns the time of the end, and will be
fulfilled in the later "time of wrath". In the RSV this phrase is
translated as the "latter end of the indignation".
Daniel 8 has not yet been fulfilled.
We are seeing its fulfilment in our time. The first part of the vision is described in Daniel 8:3,4.
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. I watched the
ram as he charged toward the west and the north and the south. No
animal could stand against him, and none could rescue from his
power. He did as he pleased and became great.
This is what Daniel saw and the interpretation is given in
verse 20. The two horned ram represents the kings of Media and
Persia. The people of Media and Persia now make up the nation of
Iran. Daniel saw a future ruler of Iran, who would rise to power.
The fundamentalist Islamic
revival has radically changed Iran. This culminated in the overthrow of the Shah of
Iran, and the rise to power of Ayatollah Khomeini. Iran is now
an Islamic Republic and a key player in the Middle East. The the goat is
restoration of the empire of the Prince of Persia centred on the the Islamic Republic
in Iran.
It seems that Daniel's visions are being fulfilled in
our own time. Over the last two decades, the Islamic
revival has spread right across the world. The nation
of Iran has been at the spearhead of this growth in fervour.
The other more secular Moslem nations were frightened by what
happened. This is tied in with Revelations 6. The
bowmen in the first seal represents the advance of Islam and
Daniel's ram represents the first part of this advance.