The Abomination of Desolation

 

I’ve finally got a lecture by Mike Winger, my favorite pastor-teacher lately, that is perfect for sharing.  This one does a great job of explaining “The Abomination of Desolation,” a surefire sign that will tell those that are alive at the time that the last 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation has arrived.  The reason that event is so important is, it is the first unique sign that we (or whoever lives then) are in the End of Days.  Scripture tells us (Rev. 6 and Matthew 24) that the first half of the Tribulation, the first 3-1/2 years, the “beginning of sorrows,” will have deception, wars, famine, earthquakes, and plagues.  But since those things happen with unfortunately some regularity, when they happen, we still don’t know if we’re in the last days.  The abomination of desolation is the first unique sign—but it’s after half of the Tribulation is gone.  But despite how bad things are in the first half, when we see that sign, those alive then must steel themselves for the last 3-1/2 years, because they are going to be horrible beyond imagination.  In the last half of the Tribulation, persecution of Jews and Christians will heat up to a deadly level; even beheadings are mentioned for those days in Scripture. 

In case you haven’t guessed already, I do not believe in a “pre-Tribulation” rapture of the saints.  The Bible clearly indicates that saints alive at the time, will see the abomination of desolation, will see the Antichrist unmasked for who he really is; and must endure chaos and persecution before Jesus comes at the end of the Tribulation. I have other blogs that prove this timing.  Other names that I will be using for the Antichrist in this paper (all from Scripture) include the Beast, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition.  Scripture has many more, depending partly on which Bible translation you are using.

Just a little background here; my words, not his:  the last 7 years of this current earth’s existence are explained by successive ‘seals,’ covered in Revelation 6 (I have discussed this in great detail in other blogs).  Without detailed annotating, so as just to get the big picture, here goes:  The 7 years begins with the man of sin making a 7-year covenant with the Jews for their protection.  But he gains world-dictator power through a highly successful wartime campaign, and becomes loved by most of the world (presumably because he brought the world some totalitarian order out of mass chaos.)  He is eager to be worshipped.  But there are famine and plagues, and severe shortages.  Then, halfway through the 7 years, he breaks the covenant, exposes who he really is as a hater of God, of Jews, and of Christians—and goes to war against them.  He builds an idol to himself in the rebuilt Temple, blasphemes God, and requires worship.  Anyone who won’t bend the knee will lose the ability to buy food and necessities.  God will allow him to kill most Jews and Christians.  This means God may require true Christians to give their lives because we can only worship Him; we must endure horrible persecution.  Many will go apostate, willing to bend the knee to the Lawless one to save their lives, and their families’ lives.  But they will have traded their lives for an eternity in hell.  Some Scripture verses to back all this up:  Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, Daniel 8 and 9, II Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 6, 13, 14:9 and 17.

At this point, Pastor Winger lectures at some length on the preterist interpretation, the belief that almost all these events have already happened by the year 70 AD.  After exhaustive research, he opposes it; he finds their arguments “weak.”  It’s in contrast to the harmony of the futurist account (see the last paragraphs of this paper for an example of that).  Believing, as I also do, that these prophecies are future, it’s possible we may see these events unfolding during our lifetime, so let’s be prepared, shall we?  We will not burden our lecture summary by his going over the preterist interpretation.  His lecture is already difficult enough. 

 

Pastor Winger is focused on the phrase “Abomination of Desolation,” as mentioned in Daniel 11 and 12, Matthew 24 and Mark 13, in this lecture.  Along with the son of perdition who brings it about.  What is this ‘abomination’?  What happens?  So let’s have a go on his lecture.

First, he says, as I mentioned before, that wars, famines, earthquakes, strange heavenly activity or “pestilences” (fatal epidemic diseases) do not pinpoint that the Tribulation is here, or are accurate signs of Jesus’ soon return--since we have these things throughout history. But Jesus does give a clear sign of end times, as Mark 13:14 points out, namely, the Abomination of Desolation.  Here is the verse: 

 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

So what is it? Before I say anything, I must add the abomination is NOT the Beast.   

Looking at the above verse, it’s very important to see Israel as the first focus of this event, not Europe or the Roman Empire; specifically “Judea,” the southern area, including Jerusalem.  That is where the man of sin, previously covenanted with the Jews for their protection, at the midway point of the covenant, shows his hatred of Jews, which shows his true character, and begins a murderous campaign of slaughtering Jews, many by beheadings, causing the Jews to flee for their lives.  They have one instruction from God in response to seeing his real character:  Flee!  Go into hiding!  Here’s more on this subject from Mark 13:

 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁷ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ¹⁸ And pray that your flight may not be in winter. ¹⁹ For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

You can see how Jews must act quickly to escape capture, and you get the idea that there is nowhere to find a place to sleep while fleeing (perhaps they must keep their identity secret).  You can also see how this last half of the Tribulation will exceed the Hitler genocide in its intensity, since he kills most Jews alive in those last 3-1/2 years. He is also after killing Christians (the ‘elect’).  Finally, note that there will not be a “secret” return of Jesus to rescue from this horrible time period.  Satan, in fact, uses that false pre-Tribulation rapture doctrine to deceive people that are confused and scared (did Christ come?  Did I miss it?  We were supposed to be raptured before this guy appeared). He also provides false Christs who show miracles.  They are willing to grab onto this, since they no longer have a foundation to trust God. After all, they will think, He promised to protect us, and He ‘did not keep’ His ‘promise,’ according to their pre-Trib theology.  So, not sure of their religion any more, they might be willing to eventually bend the knee to the Lawless one—exactly what Satan wants.  The pre-Trib theology was just made for him to manipulate.  

All right, so let’s dig in about our subject matter. The word “Abomination” in the phrase refers to an idol, an object of worship other than God.  How do we know that?  Because we see the word “abomination” in the Old Testament many times; and the terrible thing the people are doing is worshipping idols and not obeying God’s rules (II Kings 21:11, for example).  Secondly the idol causes “desolation.” That term probably refers to some kind of spiritual impurity of the Temple (which will be rebuilt in the future). In the Old Testament, when the Jews set up idols, this caused God, and His blessings, to depart Israel, or leave them desolate of His protection. When they were ready to repent and return to God, one of their duties was to purify the Temple by destroying stone and wood idols, and then performing certain rituals (read up on the Jewish cleansing of Hanukkah, in late November each year—not a “holiday” item, by the way, so don’t confuse it for a Jewish celebration of Christmas or Thanksgiving). 

Now, what did Mark mean by the idol “standing where it ought not?” We can obtain this from Matthew 24:15-16, a “parallel passage” (i.e., same subject).  Here it is:

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶ “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 

Jesus refers to Daniel (we’ll tackle that too).  But “where it ought not,” as Matthew says, clearly refers to the placement of the abomination, or idol, in the ‘holy place.’  The Temple had a Holy of Holies place, where the high priest could only go once a year.  Still within the inside chambers, then there was the holy place, where priests did rituals with the golden candlestick, or lampstand; also the altar containing incense, and shewbread as they were commanded to do in the year.  Finally, there was the outer court, outside the building—where Gentiles could observe and be present. So we’re speaking of an inner chamber, the holy place, where the idol was placed.

Pastor Winger now covers the Daniel references:  Here is Daniel 8:13:

Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”

The “transgression of desolation” translates the same thing as abomination of desolation.  In the difficult Daniel 9:24-27 (NIV), here are the verses relevant to our purpose:

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city….²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’… After the sixty-two “sevens”, the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary….. ²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one “seven” In the middle of the “seven” he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him

I have dealt with these difficult verses on another blog, but here’s the short version:  The word “seven” has been proven, by historical dates on the 62+7 of them, to be seven years.  Jesus’ death is predicted here (He is the Anointed One), and the destruction of Jerusalem (which happened at 70 AD), is prophesied as well. But verse 27 is a jeweled verse for those looking forward to end times. It really says “He will confirm a covenant with many for one 7-year period.” With the help of other verses, this is the 7-year Tribulation, and “He” is the covenant-maker, the Antichrist.  “In the middle” means after 3-1/2 years, He will reveal himself as a Jew-hater by setting up an idol in the Temple. This transgression of God’s holy things makes the Temple spiritually impure and desolate of God’s blessing.   And he (the Antichrist) will ‘put an end to sacrifice and offering.”  He will not let Jewish ritual in the Temple continue, so great is His intolerance of them.

Still more can be learned at Dan 11:31:

And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation

This shows that he uses troops of soldiers to take over the Temple.  These Gentiles will tromp through the Holy Place (defiling it) and they will install the idol (offending God further)—and stop Jewish religious rituals. 

Pastor Winger then tells us that the Jews listening to Jesus relating these things will think back to a Jew-hater known as Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in 167 BC set up an idol to Zeus, told everyone to worship Zeus, and sacrificed a pig in the Jewish temple. He forbade sacrifices and circumcision—upon pain of death.  This was prophesied by Daniel, who lived around 600 BC, thus predicting this 400 years before it happened (Wikipedia has a different slant on this, but we already know they are not God-lovers).  The Jews of the 167 BC era thought that Antiochus Epiphanes was the Antichrist, and his idol of Zeus was the Abomination.  But Jesus is making it clear that His discourse in Mark 13 is the future, so it is not the Jew-hater of 167 BC, who had also set up an idol.  The Bible has many such echoes; a type, then the reality. 

Paul no doubt had the same Antichrist in mind when he gave us II. Thessalonians 2:1-4:

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,…. as though the day of Christ had (already) come. ³Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Note the phrase “coming (Greek, parousia) of our Lord” is the subject of these verses.  The word Parousia, and “gathering together to Him” suggest clearly he is speaking of the timing of the Rapture. This is further proved by the phrase “day of Christ”—whenever that term is used, it’s referring to rapture.  And note “that (rapture) Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed.  As Daniel 9:27 suggests, that will not happen until the Tribulation is midway through.  So, the rapture is after mid-Tribulation at least, NOT before the Tribulation.  As we have shown elsewhere in this paper, the rapture is actually at the end of the Tribulation.

Paul calls the Antichrist the “son of perdition’ here.  He shows his egomania for worship, even sitting in the Temple, in effect saying he is God.  Possibly this means that his idol that he sets up, previously mentioned, is a self-portrayal.  This is accompanied by an apostasy (a falling away), as presumably people will not trust God, since their belief about Him taught them that they were supposed to be raptured before this! (This is where they are open for deception, looking desperately for the Christ, willing to believe someone who can do miracles.) Verse 9 of II Thessalonians 2 shows that the Antichrist can do supernatural signs and wonders, too; so many people will be duped into thinking HE is the Christ.  (that’s actually the Muslim doctrine). They will be deceived.  Yet he hates God. 

Keep in mind, there is no excuse that will keep you out of hell if you do not endure faithfully to your belief in God and Christ.  God lays the blame for believing deception on sinning people, as he lays the hammer down in vv. 10-12:

….unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness

This shows that God allows Satan to set up this delusion because of the people’s long history of not wanting the truth; they had “pleasure in unrighteousness.”  The world has too many goodies for these people; they prefer wallowing in it rather than obeying God, who told us not to wander into it, for fear of our eternal lives. 

Pastor Winger tells us of an apparent conflict in the translation of Mark 13:14, as one translation suggest the idol is not human, the other translation says it is human.  Simple explanation:  The Antichrist at some point was in the holy place, claiming to be God, demanding worship; and when he is elsewhere, he has set up the idol, possibly a self-portrayal, saying we should face it and bend the knee.  I have the feeling he expects this to be done daily. He may give away cell phones and require that we facetime it (I have another blog which has a strange but intriguing explanation for this idol and the Antichrist; see my blogs with “DNA” in the titles).  A further strange talent of the idol is in Revelation 13:15. THAT will get the people quaking in their boots.

Continuing, II Thess. 2:8 seems to suggest that (1) after the lawless one is revealed, (2) Christ comes (remember, this speaks of the Rapture); and (3) He destroys the Antichrist.  Here’s the verse:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

But, first of all, we know from the verses further above that the Antichrist, once he is unmasked, still has the last 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation to kill Jews and Christians with fury.  So he is not destroyed immediately at the midpoint of the Tribulation at his unmasking.  So if he is destroyed at Jesus’ coming, we must conclude His Coming is at the end of the Tribulation.  We do find, from other Scriptures, that the Antichrist is not totally destroyed. (The Greek for “destroyed” doesn’t have that finality in meaning.) When Jesus comes, the man of sin is bound and helpless for a thousand years (the Millennium), then temporarily set free, to stir up people to turn against Christ, and is finally sent to hell after he starts the last war on earth (Rev. 19:19).

Pastor Winger then shows how the many pieces of all this are in many books of Scripture, and quotes from a commentary to prove the absolute harmony of Scripture in prophesying has to be God-inspired.  To give you a small quote: 

“This person is the end-time Antichrist (Daniel 7:23-26 and 9:25-27, II Thess. 2:3,4,8,9; Revelation 13:8-10 and 14-15).  He will make a covenant with the Jewish people at the beginning of a 7-year period preceding Christ’s second coming (Dan. 9:27).  The Temple will be rebuilt and worship re-established (Rev. 11:1).  In the middle of this period after 3-1/2 years the Antichrist will break his covenant, stop Temple sacrifices, desecrate the Temple (Dan. 9:27), and proclaim himself to be god (Matt. 24:15, II Thess. 2:3-4, Rev. 11:2, Mark 13).  This launches the terrible end-time events of the great Tribulation (Rev. 6:8-9 and 16).  Those who refuse to be identified with the Antichrist will suffer severe persecution and be forced to flee for refuge (Rev. 12:6, 13-17).  Many Jews and Gentiles will be saved during this time (Rev. 7), but many will also be martyred (Rev. 6:9-11).”

Obviously, prophecies of the end times are deliberately difficult to figure out, and there are many other issues and questions.  But I got the main stuff, with Winger’s help. 

Finally, Pastor Winger speaks of Luke’s slant on Jesus’ lecture being considerably different than those of Matthew and Mark, even though they seem to be on the same subject.  For instance, Matthew and Mark emphasize the abomination of desolation occurring in the Temple, our main subject matter.  But in Luke, there was no such reference.  They were to flee when there were armies surrounding the city of Jerusalem, not in the other two books, when God will depart Judea and allow the land to be desolated by the enemy.  Luke also goes on about Gentiles ruling in Judea, until the “times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” in the future—which is irrelevant IF the time period we’re talking about is at the tail-end of the present world.  The Gentiles’ ruling days is not mentioned at all in the other two books.  Particularly due to these differences, Winger believes that Luke is covering two subjects at once, when the other two documents emphasize only the last days.  Luke’s change in emphasis (he wrote about 55 AD) is also to warn people of the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when the Jews were surrounded by Roman armies. Despite being surrounded, they got a couple weeks of grace to escape when the Roman army got temporarily distracted elsewhere, giving them an opportunity to slip out of the city to hide in the countryside.  But as usual, most people ignored the prophecy, and about one million Jews were slaughtered that stayed in the city.

Luke also has many phrases on the end of days, as well. That part of his discussion is to warn us, if we are in the last days.  Let’s hope we do better than the Jews in paying attention to the warning.  It’s just not smart to disobey God’s explicit instructions.