LESSON 13 – A TIME OF TROUBLE IS COMING
A TIME OF TROUBLE IS COMING
Matthew 24:15-22:
“Then shall the end come?” With these words, Jesus begins his answer to the disciples’ second question about the sign of His coming. He referenced them to the prophecy from the Book of Daniel called “the Abomination of Desolation.” This is not a sign of His return, but a forewarning to it. Then Jesus’ focuses on the far distant period that he calls “the end of the age.” Remember in lesson 10 we described the age of deception and confusion. Jesus, in Matthew 24:15-22 describes the sin of the close of the age:
“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”
The Lord’s words here are very dark indeed. He is speaking about a time of trouble that is coming, the like of which has never seen before in all human history. For those living in Judea, it is a time to act quickly and get out of the city. In the words that are in parentheses, “let the reader understand,” we must be diligent and relate these words to other Scriptures, and especially to those in the Book of Daniels which Jesus specifically mentions. Daniel accurately predicted centuries in advance the rise and fall of kingdoms including Babylon, Persia, Greece and now Rome.
Daniel’s prophecies have proven so accurate that the only argument that modern, atheistic scholars use as an excuse for disbelieving them is to claim that they were added at some point after they occurred. They make this bold assertion without any historic or linguistic evidence to base their claim, but rather on the supposition that God is not real. Our Lord clearly regards the Book of Daniel as a valid prophecy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and accurate in detail. There appear to be four possible fulfillments of Daniel’s prophecies regarding the “Abomination of Desolation”.
Daniel’s first fulfillment of the prophecy about the “Abomination of Desolation” occurred around 168-165 B.C. when King Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, offered a sow upon the alter, and erected a statue of Jupiter to be worshipped.
The second possible fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy occurred in 60 B.C. when the Roman General Pompey entered the temple upon conquering Jerusalem. This instance occurred about 500 years after Daniel’s prophecy and roughly 90 years before the crucifixion of Jesus.
The third possible fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy occurred in 70 A.D. when the Roman General and future emperor Titus crushed the Jewish revolt and destroyed the temple.
The fourth fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy about the “Abomination of Desolation” is still yet to come, and it is certain. It will mark a clear precursor to Christ’s return to earth. There are two reasons for this certainty. Jesus said that this abominable event would take place before the Great Tribulation, which has not yet transpired, and the tribulation would be so terrible that it would be unlike anything that has happened in the history of the world. (Matthew 24:21)
Also in Daniel, there is a reference to this sacrilege found in chapter 9. It is amid this tremendous prophecy that is called “the vision of the seventy weeks.” The angel Gabriele announced to Daniel that God had marked off a period of 490 years (seventy weeks of years), that would begin when the Persian king, Artaxerxes, issued a commandment to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (fulfilled in 445 B.C.) It would end with a period of terrible trouble during which a coming prince would cause the Jewish sacrifice and offering to cease, and it would thus establish the abomination which makes desolate.
The angel said that first seven, and then sixty-two of those weeks (a total of 483 years) would end just before the Messiah would be “cut off.” An Indeterminant period of length would then intervene before the 70th or final week (seven years) would. The angel said that the first seven, and then sixty-two begin. During indeterminant period, the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the Jews would endure wars until the end. The words in Daniel 9:26, 27:
“And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one [literally Messiah] shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; [that is clearly the crucifixion] and the people of the
prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. [This was fulfilled by Titus forty years after the crucifixion]. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. And he [the prince who is to come] shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week, he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate, [the abomination of desolation], until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
One additional note of “the prince who is to come” is stated in Daniel 11:36-39. There he is called “the king.”:
“And the king shall do according to his will; he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation [the great tribulation] is accomplished; for what is determined shall be done. He shall give no heed to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women; he shall not give heed to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these; a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god; those who acknowledge him he shall magnify with honor. He shall make rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.”
The apostle Paul describes the same man in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4:
“Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”
Jesus referred to this coming man when he said to the rulers of the nation, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” (John 5:43)
This is the Antichrist which has been predicted in all the Scriptures, and who shall symbolize in his person all that stands against God. Jesus said, “When you see the man who fulfills the qualifications in the Book of Daniel, sitting in the temple claiming to be God, then you will know that the end of the age has arrived.”
You might be wondering that if the temple was destroyed by Titus in 70 A.D., what is the ‘holy place’ in which the Antichrist will appear? The simple answer is that the temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The Jews regained the possession of the temple site in 1967 Six Day War; however, the site is now occupied by the Moslem Mosque called the Dome of the Rock. There is no other place it can be built because God decreed in the Old Testament that Jewish sacrifices can be offered there and nowhere else on earth.
When the lawless one sits in the Temple of God, it will be because humanity has already enthroned itself as the only god man needs. When he appears, the world will be ready to follow him to the end. The event in the Temple will be a visible picture of that world-wide fact. The day is coming that will bring man to declare himself in the delusion that he is his own god, and he does not need any other. God will have the last word although man seems to triumph for the moment.
There is a “holy place” in the human spirit that God intended to be the royal residence for His Holy Spirit, so man could be what God intended him to be: the human expression of divine life, how the invisible God is made visible in human affairs. But in that place man enthrones himself and renounces and rejects all other forms of authority and declares there in nothing greater than man.
Against this background of desolation, the gospel comes as glorious news. When Jesus sensed the emptiness in the lives of many in his own day, he said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink . . . ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’’ There is an old hymn by Horatio Bonar that puts it very nicely,
“I heard the voice of Jesus say,
‘Behold, I freely give,
The living water, thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.’
I came to Jesus, and I drank,
Of that life-giving stream,
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.”
Jesus is the answer, but something stands in the way. It is man’s pride. There was a question I read the other day. It was what do you say to God when he asks you, have you read and understood my book? How will you answer that question.
Until next time, may peace, love and joy be with you always.