THE BIBLE PROPHETS
Imagine the scene two thousand years ago….
The disciples are sitting on Mount Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem waiting for Jesus to tell them about the future….
Matthew 24:3-30
And as he sat on Mount Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
And Jesus answered them and said to them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places.
All these things are the beginning of sorrows.
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you; and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another.
And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.
But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.
When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoever reads let him understand).
Then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains;
Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house;
Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe to those who are with child, and to those who nurse children in those days!
But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day;
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Jesus outlines to the disciples events which will happen in the future. They are…
•The Abomination of Desolation
•The Great Tribulation
•The Darkening of the Sun and the Moon
•The Return of Jesus
The Abomination of Desolation
What is an abomination of desolation? It is a term that refers to the desecration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This desecration occurs when a sinful object is brought into the sacred part of the temple, where only the priests are allowed to enter. An example would be if a pig were offered on the holy altar, or if an altar to a pagan god were built in the holy place. A Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, defiled the temple in just such a manner in 165 B.C. In order for another abomination of desolation to occur, the Jews must build a new temple. The last Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the invading Romans. However, since the Israelis recaptured Jerusalem in the 1967 war, they have begun excavating the ancient temple site. This has created a problem because the Moslem holy place, the Dome of the Rock, is built on the site of the old Jewish temple. This makes the Temple Mount sacred to both the Moslems and the Jews, and both claim it as their own. We can see how important the temple site is to the Jews from this description of the Israelis’ capture of the Temple Mount in 1967 after 2,000 years of dispersement:
“The Israeli paratroop commander Mordechae Gur from atop Mount Olives ordered the final assault on the Temple Mount, ‘For two thousand years our people have prayed for this moment. Let us go forward.’
Colonel Gur could not wait. He raced his halftrack down the mountain at top speed, hurling past the burned-out hulks of tanks and the sprawling bodies of slain paratroopers, then dodged by a flaming truck partly blocking St. Stephen’s Gate and burst right into the Old City.
White flags were beginning to appear on all sides. While his paratroopers reared in behind him, the colonel turned left, crashed through another gate and then sent back his message to GHQ: ‘The Temple Mount is ours. Repeat: The Temple Mount is ours.’ And despite the crackle of continued sniper fire, the first paratroopers rushed to the Western Wall, touched and kissed the sacred stones, then burst into tears at their triumph.”* *Time magazine, April 12, 1982, p. 30, New York, N.Y., “City of Protest and Prayer,” Otto Friedrich. The Western Wall is a holy place to the Jews because it is the outside wall of the temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. Recently they have begun to excavate the area near it and the steps that led to the temple on the other side of the mount along the Southern Wall. Over the years layer after layer of debris has built up on the site of the old temple, and it will take some time to uncover it.
In the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament are instructions for the construction of the temple and also instructions on how to perform the temple worship. Part of this worship involves the sacrificing of animals. This sacrifice is so important to the Jews that when they recaptured the Temple Mount in 1967, they wanted to begin again this daily ritual. The reason they did not is that they did not know the location of the old altar, since it is buried beneath the site of the Dome of the Rock.
The exact location of the temple’s altar is important because according to Jewish law the sacrifice can only take place on the exact spot of the original altar. For many years it has been theorized that the altar was located under the Moslem holy place, the Dome of the Rock, from where, according to legend, Mohammed ascended into heaven.
Jesus tells us that the abomination of desolation will “stand in the holy place.” This is a very specific reference to part of the temple. The inner sanctuary of the temple has two parts: the holy place and the holy of holies. Only the priests in their daily ritual are allowed to enter the holy place. It is the spot where they burn incense and light the lampstand. The holy of holies is the most sacred part of the temple, which only the high priest is allowed to enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. On that day, the high priest enters the holy of holies and sprinkles the blood of the sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of the Jewish people. So the abomination of desolation will not take place in the innermost sanctuary but in the holy place just outside.
It is possible, however, that the abomination of desolation could occur without the temple being rebuilt. The term could refer to the desecration of the Temple Mount itself rather than a rebuilt temple. For this reason events involving the Temple Mount should be watched closely in the future.
The Great Tribulation
After the abomination of desolation Jesus tells us that there will be a great tribulation, a time of trouble more tumultuous than any time that ever has been or will be on the earth. The events in this time period may involve war in the Middle East and earth changes. There will not be a full-scale nuclear war, however. In Matthew 24 Jesus says that if this time were not cut short, then no one would be saved. So, clearly, any conflicts during this time will end before they lead to all-out nuclear war. Jesus’ reference to total destruction shows that Jesus foresaw the invention of nuclear weapons and the ultimate question that we are now faced with, “Do we live in peace or do we destroy ourselves?”
The Darkening of the Sun and the Moon
The above-mentioned verses from Matthew are quotes from Jesus, just after He has told the disciples about the abomination of desolation and the tribulation. He tells them that immediately after the tribulation, the sun and the moon will be darkened. This reference to the darkening of the sun and the moon is predicted in at least half a dozen places in the Bible: in...