What is the abomination of desolation?

What is the abomination of desolation?

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Jesus spoke of a coming abomination of desolation in the Olivet Discourse.

Jesus said, "'So when you see the abomination of desolation "'spoken of by the prophet Daniel,

"'standing in the holy place, "'then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.'".

An abomination is something that causes disgust or hatred, and desolation is a state

of complete emptiness or destruction.

Jesus warned that something or someone that people detested would stand in the temple someday.

When that horror occurred, residents of Judea should seek cover without delay.

Other translations speak of the abomination that causes desolation, the sacrilegious object that

causes desecration, and that horrible thing.

The Amplified Bible adds the note that the abomination of desolation is the appalling sacrilege that

astonishes and makes desolate.

Jesus referenced Daniel in his words in the Olivet Discourse.

The prophet Daniel mentioned the abomination of desolation in three places.

The wording in the above translations indicates that the abomination of desolation is an object.

In some other translations, the abomination appears to be a person.

On the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate.

Regardless of whether the abomination of desolation is a person or a thing, Daniel predicted

the following.

A ruler will make a treaty with the people of Israel.

The terms of this treaty will be for a week, which we take to be a period of seven years.

Midway through this time, the ruler will gather his troops and put an end to the sacrifices and offerings

in the temple.

At that time, the ruler will desecrate the temple, setting up some type of sacrilegious object.

The desecration of the temple will continue until the judgment of God is finally meted out on the ruler

and his followers.

1 ,290 days, three and a half years and one month later.

Daniel's prophecies about the abomination of desolation seem to have at least a partial fulfillment

in 167 BC, when a Greek ruler by the name of Antiochus IV desecrated

the temple in Jerusalem.

Antiochus called himself Epiphanes, or illustrious one, or God manifest.

He set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offering, and he sacrificed a pig on the

altar.

Antiochus went even further in his atrocities, slaughtering a great number of Jews and selling others

into slavery.

And he issued decrees forbidding circumcision and requiring Jews to sacrifice to pagan

gods and eat pig meat.

What Antiochus did certainly qualifies as an abomination, but still 200 years later,

Jesus spoke of Daniel's prophecy as still yet to be fulfilled.

The question then becomes, when after Jesus' day, was the abomination of desolation prophecy

fulfilled?

Or are we still waiting for a fulfillment?

We take the futurist view, which sees the abomination of desolation prophecy as still future.

In our view, Jesus was referring to the Antichrist, who in the end times, will establish a covenant with

Israel for seven years, and then break it by doing something similar to what Antiochus Epiphanes

did in the temple.

The sacrilegious object that Jesus called the abomination of desolation could be the image of the

beast that the false prophet will order to be set up and worshiped.

Of course, for Matthew 24, 15, to be yet future, the temple in Jerusalem will have to be

rebuilt before the tribulation begins.

Those who are alive during the tribulation should be watchful and recognize that the breaking of the covenant with

Israel and the abomination of desolation will herald the beginning of the worst three and a half years in

history.

Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen

and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.

That answers the question, what is the abomination of desolation?

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