The Abomination Of Desolation
By "Got Questions Ministries"
The phrase “abomination
of desolation” refers to
Matthew 24:15: “So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that
causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader
understand.” This Scripture is referring to Daniel 9:27, “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 on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an
abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out
on him.” In 167 B.C., a Greek ruler by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes set up an
altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offerings in the Jewish temple in
Jerusalem. He also sacrificed a pig on the altar in the temple in Jerusalem.
This event is known as the “abomination of desolation.”
In Matthew 24:15, Jesus was speaking some 200 years after the abomination of
desolation described above had occurred. So, Jesus must have been prophesying
that some time in the future another abomination of desolation would occur in a
Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Most Bible prophecy interpreters believe that Jesus
was referring to the Antichrist, who will do something very similar to what
Antiochus Epiphanes did. This is confirmed by the fact that some of what Daniel
prophesied in Daniel 9:27 did not occur in 167 B.C. with Antiochus Epiphanes.
Antiochus did not confirm a covenant with Israel for seven years. It is 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 the abomination of
desolation in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Whatever the future abomination of
desolation is, it will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the one perpetrating
it is the person known as the Antichrist.
Revelation 13:14 describes him making some kind of image to which all are forced
to bow down and worship. Turning the Temple of the Living God into a place of
worship for himself is about as much of an abomination in God’s eyes as there
could possibly be. Those who are
alive and remain during the Tribulation should be watchful and recognize that
this event is the beginning of 3 1/2 years of the worst of the Tribulation
period and that the return of the Lord Jesus is imminent.
“Watch therefore, praying in every season that you may be counted worthy to
escape all these things which shall occur, and to stand before the Son of Man”
(Luke 21:36).
-----------------------------------