78    The Bible and the Future of the World 

    After each time that Daniel is delivered from the lions' den, the king 

punishes those who tried to destroy Daniel by feeding them to the lions. 

Similarly, after each time that God delivers the Church  from persecution 

and suffering, God, the King of all, will destroy those who tried to destroy 

Christianity and the Church. This punishment and destruction of the 

enemies of Christ and His Church will occur at the end of the Forty Years. It 

will also occur at the end of the reign of Antichrist, that is, at the end of the 

nearly seven years of the Church's great suffering. 

The Forty Years (Dan 8:1 22) 

     And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a single ram stood before 

the marsh, having two high horns, and one was higher than the other and 

growing higher still.  (Dan 8:3). 

     The ram, which you saw to have horns, is the king of the Medes and 

Persians.  (Dan 8:20). 

    The two horns symbolize the two leaders of Media and Persia, areas 

which are now called Iraq and Iran. The height of the horns indicates the 

amount of power of each leader. Both horns are high, meaning that both 

have great power. But one horn is higher than the other, meaning that one 

leader is more powerful than the other. And the higher horn  continues to 

grow higher, so the more powerful of the two leaders will  continue to 

increase in power. 

    These two countries are represented in Daniel's vision as one ram, 

because these two countries, Iran and Iraq, will join forces and act as one, 

along with the other Arab nations.  These passages refer to  World War III 

(A.D. 2010's) and to the small war among the Arab nations that precedes 

World War III (A.D. 2009). 

The Small War Before World War III 

    In the year  A.D. 2009, extremist Arab leaders will fight against more 

moderate Arab leaders, and the extremist Arab leaders will win. Power 

among the Arab nations will be in the hands of extremist leaders, who 

oppose the western nations. Iran and Iraq will be the instigators of this war, 

and they will be the leaders among the other Arab nations when the war is 

over. Some of the moderate Arab leaders will be defeated in outright war; 

others will be defeated by insurrection and coups. Syria will be defeated by 

Iraq in war. The Saudi government and its royal family will be overthrown. 

Iran and Iraq will have either outright control, or a great deal of influence, 

over all the other Arab nations.