“We are living in a dangerous time,” former judge Jeanine Pirro said on December 5 during an opening statement on Fox News. “The jackals are at the door.” She said this in response to the December 2 San Bernardino terrorist attack, during which two radical Islamists massacred 14 people and injured 22 others at a holiday party.

In the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, Pirro offered five points to America surviving and becoming safe. One of them in particular was alarming: “Get a gun. Buy one legally, learn how to shoot, and be primed to use it. I don’t care if you get a long gun, a handgun, a revolver, a semi-automatic.”

In the days following Pirro’s opening statement, it went viral on social media and received over 60 million views. You can be sure that a good number of people who watched the video agree with her. The American populace is alarmed, anxious and fearful. Americans are buying up guns at a record-setting pace.

The problems this nation faces cannot be solved with guns because they are spiritual in nature! A dual prophecy in Daniel 8:12 exposes the hideous spirit being behind America’s decline. There is only one solution.

A Little Horn

“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land” (Daniel 8:9). Bible authorities agree that the little horn was Antiochus Epiphanes. (For proof, request our free booklet History and Prophecy of the Middle East.)

Antiochus led his Seleucid Empire southeast in 168 b.c. to attack the Ptolemys in Egypt. Before he got there, a Roman ambassador stopped him and said invading Egypt would spark a war against the Roman Empire. Antiochus withdrew his forces to avoid provoking Rome, and instead turned his wrath on the Jews.

The book of the Maccabees states that Antiochus killed 40,000 Jews and sold 40,000 more into slavery—in three days. He also erected a Seleucid stronghold next to the temple, commanded the Jews to worship Zeus, and sacrificed swine on the altars.

“Throughout the turbulent changes of its past history,” Werner Keller writes in The Bible as History, “Israel had been spared none of the horror and ignominy which could befall a nation. But never before, neither under the Assyrians nor under the Babylonians, had it received such a blow as the edict issued by Antiochus Epiphanes by which he hoped to crush and destroy the faith of Israel.”

“And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 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” (verses 10-12). The abominations of Antiochus Epiphanes clearly fulfill this prophecy. He was so evil that several diabolical leaders in this end time are named after him!

A Demon Army

The Prophet Daniel addressed his end-time book to spiritual Israel, or the Church, and two nations of Israel: America and Britain. (Request The United States and Britain in Prophecy by Herbert W. Armstrong to learn the identity of biblical Israel.) We must watch for an Antiochus-type in both the Church and the nation today.

Let’s take another look at this pivotal passage in Daniel. “The host of heaven” from Daniel 8:10 is translated “the host of the stars” in the Revised Standard Version. The stars, or the angels of God, help God’s people when they obey. We lose that help when we rebel. A hideous invisible force stamped on God’s own Church “by reason of transgression”—because of the people’s sins! This happened after Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986. It is happening in America right now. (For more information, request our free booklet America Under Attack.)

The word “host” is a military term. Strong’s Concordance defines it this way: a mass of persons, especially organized for war; and soldiers; army. The expression also means to muster soldiers for warfare. Host can refer to an army of demons, angels or men.

God has an army of angels and saints; Satan has an army of demons and men, in this case sinning saints turning away from God. This is a real war! Spiritual war is more dangerous than any physical war.

Verse 11 should read, “Yea, he magnified himself even against the prince of the host, and by him the daily … was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.” Satan and his army violently confronted the “prince of the host,” or Jesus Christ! Christ explains the meaning of this prophecy to His loyal remnant.

The end-time religious Antiochus subverted God’s Church from within. “And an host was given him against the daily … by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered” (verse 12). “It,” or the demon army, “cast down the truth to the ground.” Antiochus is a physical man swayed by Satan to overthrow the Church. The real power comes from the demon army. For 1,150 days, God gave no new truth to His people. For 1,150 days, Satan suppressed the gospel message (Daniel 8:14; English Standard Version).

Here’s what I wrote in America Under Attack:

The obvious question arises, why would God allow such a terrible thing to happen? The answer is back in Daniel 8:12. That verse describes this satanic spirit army wreaking destruction within God’s Church. And notice: It says it was “by reason of transgression.” The sins of the people gave Satan his opening. Their prayers to God are not being answered. That is why Antiochus can do all of his dirty work: because there’s so much sin going on inside Israel. … The sin within gave the devil his opening. Once Satan got inside, he went right into the sanctuary,working through the leaders at the top, and cast the truth to the ground! That is how Satan destroyed God’s Church.

Communist Infiltration

Something is not right in America. Many Americans will tell you that. Way back in 1956, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about a new kind of warfare undertaken by Russia against America:

What we fail to grasp, in the struggle with Russia, is this: We are not fighting a single nation in a military war, but a gigantic worldwide, plain-clothes army, masquerading as a political party, seeking to conquer the world with an entirely new kind of warfare. It’s a kind of warfare we don’t understand, or know how to cope with. It uses every diabolical means to weaken us from within, sapping our strength, perverting our morals, sabotaging our educational system, wrecking our social structure, destroying our spiritual and religious life, weakening our industrial and economic power, demoralizing our armed forces, and finally, after such infiltration, overthrowing our government by force and violence! All this, cleverly disguised as a harmless political party! Communism is worldwide psychological warfare!

As I wrote recently, Communists infiltrated the Democratic Party in the 1960s and the 1970s. Just as he did to the Church, Satan is overthrowing America from within. He is using a political Antiochus to destroy the faith of the American people—not their bodies or physical possessions.

Lawlessness

Constitutional law professor Louis Michael Seidman made an appalling statement in a 2013 cbs Sunday Morning commentary. “If we are to take back our own country, we have to start making decisions for ourselves, and stop deferring to an ancient and outdated document,” he said, referring to the Constitution. This is the equivalent of a pastor saying the entire Bible is useless! Anti-constitutional reasoning is becoming quite popular today.

“The Constitution is the supreme law of the land—much of it based on biblical principles,” I wrote in America Under Attack. “That means we are descending into deadly, anti-God lawlessness!”

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Satan hates truth. He has totally rejected all truth from God. It’s no wonder we see the Constitution under siege in America today.

Faith-filled men wrote the Constitution. This document has its flaws, but it is the greatest writing on law that man has ever produced! Straying from the Constitution means diving headlong into human reasoning, which is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Without the Founding Fathers’ guiding hand, America will descend into chaos and anarchy.

The Solution

It is obvious that our main concern should be the invisible evil powers destroying America, not any physical threat. We need much more than guns to solve America’s problems. God says the American people are to blame—not any national leader or political party. Everyone is ensnared in sin. We must face our sins to even begin to turn things around.

God protects His loyal remnant with an angelic army. He leads the people through a physical man. We have the awesome power of God on our side! Satan and his demon army are no match for that. God can easily defeat Him—if we have the faith.

Jesus Christ will soon return and replace the systems of man with the perfect rule of God. Satan knows his time is short, so he is causing as much destruction as possible before God personally stops him (Revelation 12:12). God will bring man the peace and happiness he has always sought, in spite of man’s rebellion. We are being cursed instead of blessed, but that won’t last for long. There is great hope in man’s future.