I believe that it is significant that Daniel, Jesus, and Paul all talked about the Abomination of Desolation. These passages hold keys to understanding the timing of the rapture of the church.
Da 9:25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 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." (NIV)
Mt 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-- 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-- and never to be equaled again.
Mr 13:12 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 "When you see 'the abomination that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong-- let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now-- and never to be equaled again. 20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
2Th 2:1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
In Daniel 9:27 we see Daniel telling us about a coming world leader who will make a covenant with Israel for 7 years and then break it half way through. Most Bible commentators believe this person is the anti-christ.
Daniel also says this person will:
Da 7:25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.
Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 as an important event of timing that will mark the beginning of something terrible.
- It is the time to flee
- It will signal the start of a time that is so terrible that Jesus says it will be unequaled by any other time in world history.
In 2 Thessalonians an event is described that seems very similar to what Daniel and Jesus talked about. A person called the man of lawlessness is to appear. He will go into the temple and " exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.'
This would appear to be the same event that Daniel and Jesus talked about. Commentators agree that this man of sin is the antichrist and he is seen going into the temple to declare himself God. Daniel says he breaks the covenant with the Jews and stops the sacrifices in the temple. A logical conclusion is that the reason he stops the sacrifice is that he is changing worship to focus on him rather than Jehovah. Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 seems to fit together beautifully.
If Paul is writing in 2 Thessalonians about this event Daniel and Jesus called the abomination of desolation then we find here some very important timing elements. Paul's was writing to the Thessalonians because they were concerned that the "gathering together" with Christ had already occurred or was about to happen. Paul writes to comfort them and to say that there were certain things that must happen first before the gathering will occur..
He says these things will happen first:
1. The man of lawlessness will be revealed
2. He will go into the rebuilt temple (rebuilt from our perspective, during Paul's time it still stood) and declare himself to be God.
3. A great falling away of believers will happen. NIV says rebellion, but this is a poor translation because the Greek word used here is "apostasia" and means a defection from truth, not a rising against truth. I believe this is a reference to a persecution of Christians that the antichrist will start that will cause some to turn away from Christianity because the cost is too high. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 24:10,12
So these things will be seen before the rapture, gathering together, takes place. According to Daniel this will be half way through the 7 year period known as the tribulation period. According to Jesus just after this event of the revelation of the antichrist as the abomination of desolation a time of distress will come that will be unequaled by anything that has ever happened in world history.
So why were the words "abomination of desolation used to describe what the antichrist does in the temple?
One way to see this is that something will happen that is an abomination that will result in a condition of desolation - this is how Daniel uses the words. The Hebrew word "shiqquwts" translated as abomination is defined in Hebrew as: disgusting, filthy; especially idolatrous, detestable.
The Hebrew word "shamem" translated desolate is defined as: to stun (or intransitively, grow numb), i.e. devastate or (figuratively) stupefy --make amazed, be astonied, (be an) astonish(-ment), (be, bring into, unto, lay, lie, make) desolate(-ion, places), be destitute, destroy (self), (lay, lie, make) waste, wonder.
In Greek the word "bdelusso" translated in English Abomination is: a detestation, i.e. (specially) idolatry, to stink.
The Greek word "eremosis" translated in English desolation is: to lay waste (literally or figuratively):--(bring to, make) desolate, come to nought.
The meaning here is that something will happen that will be spiritually disgusting and make what was holy to be desecrated and profaned and no longer a place of worship but instead a place of disgust.
What could make the temple into this sort of place? The antichrist changing it into a place for his worship rather than God's. He starts with a declaration that he is God. He stops the worship of Jehovah and probably sets up some kind of an idol or idolatrous system that promotes him as God or in some way divine, or even poses as the true Messiah. The result of this is a pollution of the temple making it no longer a fit place to worship God.
Another thought is that Revelation chap 13 says that an image of the antichrist is going to be created that will have special abilities. It will be able to speak and cause all who do not worship the image of the beast/antichrist to be killed. The next verse refers to the infamous mark of the beast.
Since this is an obvious idolatrous image either statue of some other kind of physical representation of the antichrist it makes sense to speculate that this image will probably be set up in the temple, thus truly making it a event of idolatrous abomination in God's eyes. The whole place would become a place of filthy desolation unfit for true worship of the only true God of the universe.
Therefore the implications to the timing of the rapture are obvious. The antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews for a 7 year period. Half way through that he will go into the temple claim to be God and stop the Jewish sacrificial worship of God. An image/idol will be created and placed in the temple and all who will not worship it will be killed. After the antichrist is killed and resurrected people will buy into everything he has claimed and he will start an aggressive persecution against all who worshiped the God he replaced. Many will choose to "apostasia" leave the truth during this time.
According to Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, Christians will see these things and some time after this abomination of desolation occurs the church will be raptured.
This is different from much of the accepted doctrine of the timing of the rapture that is out there today. While I would prefer that the rapture happen before the tribulation starts I do not see the scripture supporting this. The word of God always has to have the last word no matter what preconceived ideas we have or whatever doctrine we have been taught in the past.
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