Abomination definition:
A thing that causes disgust or hatred
Extreme aversion or hatred
Desolate definition:
noun
a state of complete emptiness or destruction:
anguished misery or loneliness:
The state of being desolate, which includes devastation and ruin.
A feeling of loneliness and unhappiness, often associated with loss.
The condition of a place that is empty or destroyed.
The action of desolating, which implies widespread destruction.
In summary, desolation encompasses both physical devastation and emotional emptiness.
As events in the world become more turbulent and chaotic, people seek deeper answers to understand where we are heading and what all the events mean. The Bible mentions a great deal about the future, and as God’s word, predicts what will happen to humanity and how the events leading to the end of the age will unfold. Most people do not believe in God and therefore do not believe God. For this reason, they will be deceived by the many events that will take place and sadly, make the wrong decisions. The most frightening book of the Bible is the Book or Revelation. It depicts in symbolic language, events that will occur, which will impact all who live on earth. Everybody wants to know the future, and there have been numerous interpretations of the events depicted in this book. Already we are seeing and hearing various people in the world making statements that seem to fulfill what was prophesied long ago in the pages of the Bible.
One of the themes of the Bible that is weaved across time is the principle of duality. There is an Old Covenant and a New Covenant; a first Adam and a second Adam. There was a first Elijah, and a second Elijah. And then there is the abomination that makes desolate (or abomination of desolation), first mentioned in the book of Daniel 11:31, and then mentioned again by Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to Matthew.
As the Middle East becomes more turbulent many wonder how the current events “fit” with the prophecies in the Bible. This has become even more acute as various politicians in Israel, the epicenter of the turmoil, have begun to publicly mention the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.
Another important theme, which is directly related to what is occurring now in the geopolitical arena, is the Temple in Jerusalem. There is no temple now. The temple refers to the last temple that existed in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus Christ, which was subsequently destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. This event looms large in church and Jewish history. The reason why the Jews were scattered all over the world is because of that event, and the results are still with us today.
The first mention of the abomination of desolation refers to a specific event that occurred in 167 BC[1]. The Syrian king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a descended of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Seleucus I Nicator. Antiochus Epiphanes (he called himself Epiphanes which means “The Illustrious One, The Magnificent One” — it was his own appraisal of himself — but his courtiers called him Antiochus Epimanes, the Madman), is called “the Antichrist of the Old Testament,” a most despicable character, and yet a remarkable man in many ways. He reigned from 175 to 164 B.C.
He launched a campaign against Egypt, and led his army into Egypt, but this time the Egyptians had sent for help from the Romans. The Roman Senate sent a general named Popilius, who led a legion against Antiochus. They arrived in Roman galleys which are referred to in Daniel 11:30 as “ships of Kittim.” Popilius insisted that Antiochus return to his own land, keep the peace, and acknowledge the authority of Rome. Antiochus asked for time to consider these terms, but Popilius drew a circle around him with his sword and told him to decide before he stepped out of that circle. This is when the proverbial line in the sand first occurred.
So, Antiochus retreated and agreed to keep the peace, but on his way back to Syria returned to Jerusalem to take out his spite on the Jews. Instead of keeping peace, he did what is recorded in Daniel 11:31. Antiochus went up to Jerusalem, entered the temple, and erected there a pagan altar to Zeus. He offered a sow, an unclean animal to the Jews, upon the altar, took the broth of the pig and sprinkled it around the sanctuary, thus defiling it. Then he set up a statue of Zeus and insisted that the temple be dedicated to that pagan god. This is what is called “the abomination that makes desolate.” All this is extremely important because it was a preview of another abomination of desolation that was yet to come.
Note that Daniel was told that the vision was not concerning his own days but “pertains to many days hence.” The critics insist that this was fulfilled in the turbulent days of 70 A.D. when the Roman general Titus destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, which followed the same pattern of desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. But though that was undoubtedly an historic fore view of a second, final “abomination of desolation” it could not have been the complete fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, for Jesus would not have said that men could yet expect to see “the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place.” The “holy place” associated with the temple ended after the crucifixion, when the Old Covenant and the sacrifices came to an end.
The second mention of the abomination that makes desolate is in the Gospel according to Matthew 24:15-22, where the Lord Jesus Christ mentions events that will occur at the time of the end of the age, when His return approaches. He specifically refers to and draws special attention to the events that will happen in Jerusalem, involving the temple and seemingly, acts that will put an end to sacrifices. However, he does not mention any stopping of sacrifices which would cause desolation of the temple, but rather He mentions only the abomination, or rather something that causes abomination.
Many interpret all these events to be similar, involving a literal temple made of stones, animal sacrifices, actual Levite priests. It is important to realize that several events have occurred and passed, rendering such interpretations improbable.
First, lets us examine in detail the events in 167 B.C. The Jews were under the Mosaic Law, the Old Covenant, which was a physical covenant between God and His people. What specifically, under the Old Covenant, made the actions of Antiochus an abomination?
He offered a sacrifice in the temple. What made the act abominable was that it was the wrong sacrifice offered by the wrong person. Pigs were considered unclean animals, to be avoided by God’s people. They were not the only unclean animals, just one of many. It was a means of distinguishing God’s people from the rest, to depict, in a physical way the difference between cleanliness (purity) and uncleanliness (impurity). A person became ceremonially unclean if exposed to unclean animal, but that was until evening that day; it had an expiration and it could be “corrected.”
Sacrificing a pig was therefore the wrong sacrifice. It was not only wrong, but it was meant as a direct insult against God and against the people of God. Antiochus knew this but did it anyway. It was a deliberate act of blasphemy. Nonetheless, the consequences were temporary, and eventually the effect of the act would pass. It would not have a permanent effect on people, and in that sense, it was not unredeemable.
The second factor that made the desecration of the temple an abomination was that the wrong person made the sacrifice. Only Levites were allowed to serve in the temple, to perform priestly duties. No one else was allowed to serve as priest. Appointment of non-Levites as priests was condemned by the prophets as idolatrous and rebellious (1 Kings 12:31).
The events that occurred in 167 B.C. will be “mirrored” or repeated later, in fact prior to the end of the age and the return of Christ. The description in Daniel of the abomination of desolation uses such extreme language, that it leaves the strong impression that the historical events that have already occurred somehow do not reach the magnitude and seriousness of what is described. The events that will occur at the end will be worse, and more consequential than the previous ones. Jesus himself mentions (or perhaps Matthew inserts it; some translations attribute (let the reader understand) to the writer, Matthew). In Matthew 24:15-16, Jesus said
So, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
That there will be a terrible event that will lead directly to great world upheaval and eventually culminate in His return. This event will be so awful, that those in Judea are told to flee to the mountains to escape what will happen. This was interpreted to pertain to the events in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, but clearly, the comments that follow imply an upheaval in the entire world prior to the end. Most readers, commentators and scholars of the Bible assume that that there will be a temple in Jerusalem, that there will be a priestly class who will offer sacrifices that will have some kind of theological meaning. Interruption of these sacrifices will usher terrible consequences.
Notice that Jesus did not specify that these elements will exist in identical ways as under the Old Covenant, but rather said that it will be like the prophet Daniel described. So, we must analyze and discern how will the events yet to occur be the same but different from the ones in 167 B.C.
So, at the time of the end, there will arise a series of events that will be an abomination that brings desolation. Broadly speaking, there will be an attempt to offer sacrifice to God, but it will be the wrong sacrifice made by the wrong person, just as in 167 B.C. It will not be Antiochus Epiphanes, but another person doing this. Many believe that the person fulfilling this role is the person whom the Bible calls the Antichrist.
How will it be?
The Old Covenant
The Old Covenant that was initiated at Sinai by Moses has ended at the cross. Jesus Christ came into the world to atone for man’s sins, the ultimate sacrifice that brings forgiveness and reconciliation with God. This event was demonstrated physically after Jesus died on the cross, when the curtain that separated the Holy of Hollies was torn (Matthew 27:50-51).
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, thecurtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
This event signified that the separation between God and people due to sin no longer existed, and that now there was no longer any obstacle for man to enter God’s presence. This event atoned for sin once and for all and ended the old covenant with its animal sacrifices. There is never to be a return to that. Jesus Christ, with his death on the cross, established a New Covenant, which is discussed in detail in the Book of Hebrews (Hebrews 8:13).
In speaking of a New Covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
So, any mention of the reinstitution of an animal sacrificial system based on the Old Covenant would never be according to God’s will.
But this is exactly what some Jews in Israel are planning, and, sadly, some alleged Christians in the world support these efforts. If the wrong sacrifice by the wrong person was the cause of the first abomination of desolation, in a similar way, the wrong sacrifice by the wrong person will cause the second abomination of desolation which will be so awful that it will lead to world calamity culminating in the end of the age and the return of Christ.
Who is the wrong person to offer sacrifices?
Under the Old Covenant, only the Levites were authorized to officiate in the temple to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people, whom they represented before God. The High Priest only was allowed to enter the Holy of Hollies, and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make a sin offering. The Levitical priesthood was abolished with the Old Covenant.
We now have the real high priest, Jesus Christ, as written in the Book of Hebrews 8:1-2:
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is
seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy
places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.
Our High Priest is Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can and has made true atonement for man’s sins, and only He can officiate before God. Anybody else who tries to perform, in effect usurp, His duties, is guilty of blasphemy and would in effect be an abomination. Such a person would set himself up in the place of Christ, as if he were equal or better than Christ, the Son of God (Hebrews 4:14-15).
Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
What is the wrong sacrifice?
The purpose of the animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant was to atone for sin. They were a temporary measure, a shadow of things to come, to be offered by the priests continuously on behalf of God’s people. They were a temporary substitute, pointing to the actual effective sacrifice, that Jesus would make (Hebrews 9:11-15).
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
The mediator of the New Covenant is Jesus Christ, who, having offered a perfect sacrifice of his own blood, forever purified God’s people. There is no need for further sacrifices or for any repetition (Hebrews 11:24-28).
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so, Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Any return to the Old Covenant is blasphemy, a true abomination. It would be a complete rejection of the blood of Christ, and insult to God. In effect, the ones attempting to do this declare that the blood of the Son of God is not enough, no, that we need to offer animal blood instead. Based on what was mentioned in this article, clearly, such a scenario is completely wrong. As stated in Hebrews 10:14-18:
For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
When the resumption of sacrifices will occur, as it is being planned now, that will be the abomination of desolation. It will be an act of supreme blasphemy, which God will not tolerate or allow to continue. It will trigger severe retaliation (Hebrews 10:26-31)
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These warnings should not be ignored. The apostle Paul echoed the same warning when he addressed the Galatians, whom he called foolish and bewitched, for returning to practicing “the works of the law.”
The abomination of desolation will be the resumption of animal sacrifices. It will be a blasphemous act or rebellion against God and Jesus Christ. But will those doing this not realize that? The Jews who are planning this know what Jesus did and what he represents. But because they rejected Him and His word, they will deliberately offer animal sacrifices to show their contempt, in the same way Antiochus Epiphanes showed his contempt for God and His people, now the Church. It is deliberate rebellion, to insult and mock. Those who participate will come under the direct and immediate wrath of God. The events that lead to the sacrifices will lead further to the cataclysmic events described in the Bible in the book of Revelation.
Will there be another temple?
We are now in the ministry of the spirit. God is a spirit and as Jesus said in John 4:21:
God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
The relationship between God and His people is now a spiritual one, far deeper than the ministry of the Old Covenant could offer. God does not dwell in buildings made by human hands. The temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. had outlived its purpose. There was no further need for it, and in fact its usefulness ended at the cross. Any mention of temples in the New Testament must be viewed through a spiritual lens.
The first such indication can be found in John 2: 18-21:
So, the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Here we see Jesus referring to his body as the temple. Why? Because where God is, that is where the temple of God is. This is further clarified in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.
So, in the New Covenant, the real temple of God is the body of Christ, or the Church, because the Holy Spirit dwells in all believers. With that in mind, when the prophecy of the book of Daniel and Revelation are examined, whatever will occur will occur in the Church, where the Antichrist will appear and seek to reinstitute the animal sacrifices pretending to honor God, but in effect adding or seeking to replace the sacrifice that Christ made.
This will be the abomination that makes desolate (or the Abomination of Desolation), which will bring about the wrath of God, manifesting in the terrible events before the end of the age. True believers will never participate in these practices, but those heading for judgement in the lake of fire will.
Footnotes:
1.Stedman, R ”The Time of the End,” Ray Stedman.org, https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/daniel/the-time-of-the-end.
