66. It is obvious that this vision is predicting future states of the church, since it says that the goat took the daily offerings away from the Leader of the Host, that it cast down the dwelling place of his sanctuary, and that it cast truth to the ground. It also says that a holy one said, “How long will this vision last concerning the daily offerings and this destructive sinning, the trampling of the holy place and the host?” and that this would continue until the evening and the morning: then the holy place will be set right. Evening serves to mean the end of a church when there must be a new one.

The kings of Media and Persia later in this chapter [Daniel 8:20] mean much the same as the ram, and the king of Greece means much the same as the goat, because in the Word the names of realms, nations, and peoples, as well as those of persons and places, mean matters of heaven and the church.