Abomination of Desolation
What is the Abomination of Desolation?
The prophet Daniel speaks more clearly about the condition of the world in the end times than any other Old Testament prophet. One of the most talked about prophetic events in Daniel is the “Abomination of Desolation.” Two of the gospels discuss the Abomination (Matt 24 and Mark 13 where Christ talks to his disciples about the future history of the world) and John alludes to this event in his Revelation when he talks about the end times Babylon being the mother of abominations. Daniel discusses this event in detail in four different chapters (Daniel 8, 9, 11 and 12).
So how important is it to understand this event? The authors of the gospels thought it was important enough to provide a note that says, “let him that reads understand”. But what are we to understand? Well, Daniel 12 gives us a clue when Daniel is told by the revealer of his vision (a Theophanes) that “O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end” and later “the words are closed up and sealed (kept secret) until the time of the end.” I believe readers of scripture for the past 2500 years were to understand that certain events would NOT be understood until the time of the end. Clearly, many of the prophecies of Daniel were reserved for the end times and as a result have not been fully understood.
However, I believe our generation is now positioned to better understand the Abomination of Desolation. Why? Because we can see that the events mentioned in other chapters about rulers and empires have already been fulfilled (read my book God’s Chessboard) AND, we are seeing events occur in our lifetime that are so terrible and evil that they can only be classified as “abominations” to God…a fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy. It is important to note that this is NOT a personal revelation of understanding, but a universal understanding brought about by the historical fulfillment over the past 2500 years of many of the events in other chapters/stories of Daniel. In other words, all the historical “blocks” are falling in place to help us understand what was sealed for so long. With that being said, let’s take a look specifically at the prophecy of the abomination.
What is it?
Daniel tells us in chapter 11:31 that the abomination is something that causes desolation, or another translation uses the word “ruin.” It is so vile that it ruins or destroys whatever it impacts. Daniel says it will involve a pollution of the sanctuary of strength. A better Hebrew translation is “the sanctuary the fortress” in chapter 9:31. The abomination is described as “sin or transgression” in chapter 8. A sanctuary is a place where people are protected and defended. However, during the Abomination of Desolation, this protected place will be polluted by vile sin. Further, we are told that there is a taking away of the “daily” (note the word “sacrifice” is not in the original text). So, whoever is causing this desolation and pollution is also taking something from the people that they do “daily.”
Who does the polluting and when does it occur?
Daniel 9 tells us that this abomination will be perpetrated by the “people of the prince that will come.” This prince to come is clearly identified in Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation as the one who opposes God…the Anti-Christ (also called the little horn). We can rightly conclude that the people perpetrating this event are the ungodly or unbelieving population of the world. Interestingly enough, the pollution and causation of this event occurs BEFORE the appearance of the prince. Yet in Matthew and Mark, Christ puts this event directly after the “preaching of the gospel in the whole world” and just before the “end” and a time where believers must “flee.” Finally, we are told in Daniel 11 that the event will be followed by a war on “the people that do know their God.” This war, very well may be the same war on the saints, referred to in chapter 13 of Revelation. If this is an event that occurs after the gospel has permeated the whole globe and before the end, and something is being taken away that occurs “daily” with God’s people, then what could be a daily occurrence that believers (Christians) practice that they will be prohibited from doing in the future? The only logical event I know Christians are commanded to do daily is to pray and stay in the Word of God (scriptures).
I firmly believe that the preaching of the gospel globally has already occurred. When you consider the use of radio, television, the internet, cell phones and text messaging, and the work of missions to both send missionaries and to use media to promulgate the message, there is no place on this globe where you cannot hear a gospel message. If I am correct, then the Abomination of Desolation is an event that is either happening or soon to happen.
Does scripture tell us where and exactly when this will occur?
If this event happens to the saints after they have preached the gospel in the whole world and before the end, it may behoove us to look to Revelation for further identifying information. In Revelation, we are told in chapter 17 that the cause of the vile and abominable sin is the woman referred to as the great city that rules over the earth (vs 18). She is further called Babylon the Great. John is giving us a clue to this future kingdom when he identifies it with the name Babylon, a city clearly taught about in biblical history. So, lets look at ancient Babylon for clues about a future Babylon.
We know from both biblical history and from archeology & ancient historians that Babylon was one of the most wealthy and beautiful cities in ancient Mesopotamia. We also know that they defeated one the most brutal and militaristic empires to ever exist in ancient history: the Assyrians. The Assyrians had defeated and controlled Egypt, all of Israel and Palestine, and all of the “fertile crescent” nations of Mesopotamia. Assyria completely wiped out the lost ten tribes of Israel by taking them into captivity and dispersing them among other captured nations. In 612 BC, Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar the Great led the Babylonian Empire in battle against the Assyrian Empire. They completely destroyed the city of Nineveh and killed King Sinsharishkun. The Assyrian Empire quickly ceased to exist. The Babylonians also destroyed Jerusalem and hauled the Jewish people from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah off to resettlement in and around the Babylonian province (It is important to note that they were not slaves in their new home land).
So, what made Babylon so wealthy? Historians tells us they were very proficient in the minting and use of money. Also, their location in the “fertile crescent” placed them on the trade routes from all of their surrounding neighbors. It is interesting that one of the books I read in college in the 60s while a business major was “The Richest Man in Babylon”. Written in 1926, it was a mythical account of how ancient Babylonians developed monetary and investment strategies that produced wealth by savings, proper distribution of available income, elimination of debt, and wise investment in known enterprises. In short, it was about “capitalism” and capitalization of wealth (please note I am not condemning these financial principles). The principles attributed to ancient Babylon are the same used by 21st century financial advisors. While these stories in this book are probably fictional, it does not change the historical fact that Babylon was one of the wealthiest and most prosperous cities in ancient times.
We also know from history that Babylon’s political influence was short lived. After defeat of the Assyrians, they remained the principal power in Asia for only about 74 ½ years until they were replaced by the Meads and Persians. In the fall of 538 BC, Cyrus the Great took the city of Babylon without a fight. They are believed to have breached under the walls, diverting the river, entering the city covertly and capturing the city without hardly any resistance. Babylon was destroyed without a fight! They executed Belshazzar the ruler of Babylon, and Cyrus is believed to have merged the two empires together and ruled from Babylon for a number of years before building his own capital.
So, in addition to the where (Babylon the Great), Daniel gives us one final revealing clue as to when this event (Abomination) will occur. In Daniel 8:13-14, we are told the question was asked (quoted from the Hebrew Interlinear): “Until when is the vision the regular (or daily) and the trespass desolating, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled? And he said unto me, For evenings and morning two thousand and three hundred (2300 days).” Note, that the text implies that the questioner wants to know the time from the beginning of the vision until the time the sanctuary is trampled (or polluted). The vision begins with an event that discusses a future war between Persia and Greece. Persia is described in the vision as a Ram with two horns, Greece is depicted as a goat with one great horn. The great horn was broken and gave way to four notable ones. Out of one of the notable ones would come a little horn. This little horn is clearly identified in verse 23 as “in the later time of their kingdom, when transgressors are come to the full”. This description and the following verses (24-26) points directly to the Anti-Christ of other biblical prophecies. So, we know there is a huge gap between the main event (war between the Ram and Goat) and the coming evil and the little horn. A little history will put this in perspective.
Persians. During the reign of Darius the Great, and his successor Xerxes (third and fourth kings of Persia), Persia aggressively pursued war against the Greeks; the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) was fought between the Greeks and Darius, and the Campaign of Thermopylae (480 BC) occurred while Xerxes ruled Persia 10 years later. Both of these rulers were foretold by Daniel. Daniel 8: 3-4 and 20, mentions the two horned Ram which represents the Persian Empire and two prominent kings (which were clearly Darius & Xerxes). Note that Daniel 11:2 also prophetically mentions this conflict and the Persians, and the first four kings of Persia (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius I, Xerxes I).
Greeks. The Greeks successfully repelled the invading Persians at Marathon and later at Thermopylae (despite initial victories by Xerxes). After a series of internal Greek conflicts called the Peloponnesian Wars, the Greek state of Macedonia gained dominance over the other Greek city-states by the mid 300’s BC. The first significant ruler in Macedonia was Phillip II. His son was the famous Alexander the Great, the first true ruler of a Greek Empire. After the death of Phillip, Alexander took control of Greece and not only defeated the Persians, but also the Egyptians, most of western Asia and most of the then civilized world. He is depicted as the Goat, with a single large horn, in Daniel 8: 5-6 and 21. Note he is also mentioned in Daniel 11:3-4.
Battle of Gaugamela/Arbela & clash of the Persians and Greeks. After the assassination of his father Phillip, Alexander consolidated the Macedonian throne and made plans to deal with Persia for their long opposition to Greece. In 331 BC, he crossed the Aegean Sea and struck against the Persian empire. In an epic battle, with an army of approximately 50,000, Alexander defeated a Persian army nearly 10 times larger (led by Darius III) and destroyed the Persian Empire. Daniel 8: 6-8 and 21-22, describe this conquest and the subsequent division of Alexander the Great’s Empire into four domains. This is exactly what happened after Alexander’s death at the young age of 33 in 323 BC.
Consequently, if we want to look for a beginning point for the vision, it would be the clash or decisive battle between Persia and Greece, which occurred in 331 BC. Thus the 2300 days from the vision to the transgression of Daniel 8:12 would be 2300 days from 331 BC. It is obvious that it was not just 2300 days! As most biblical scholars agree, the days of most of Daniel’s visions are years (as in 70 weeks of chapter 9, or 490 days, being 490 years). If we apply the day-year theory, with no zero in the Julian Calendar, 331 BC plus 2300 years comes to 1970 AD.
Interpreting the Vision.
We need to look for kingdoms or nations that exist in conjunction with the promulgation of the gospel to the whole world; nations who are wealthy and prosperous like ancient Babylon; nations that are world dominating powers; nations with powerful militaries; nations that function as a sanctuary or fortress; nations that have been polluted or desolated from their previous state; nations that have taken away privilege from the saints to practice a daily activity; nations that incurred a desolation or transgression of immense evil around 1970.
While there are a number of nations that may fit these parameters, I believe there is only one that fully qualifies as a sanctuary or fortress for the people of God. A nation that is the wealthiest nation to ever exist upon the face of the earth. That nation would be the United States of America. Consider the following:
1970 is the year in which the Roe v Wade ruling on abortion, was first upheld by the Federal District Court in Texas (Federal Court overturned a State of Texas law prohibiting abortion by declaring it was unconstitutional). Because it was appealed by the State of Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court, the ruling did not become universally applicable for all states until the 1973 US Supreme Court vote. However, it was first upheld that the restriction of abortion by a state was unconstitutional, in 1970, by a Federal Court. I cannot think of a more abominable sin towards God than the U.S. decision to permit the killing of unborn children out of convenience to those carrying the child. Since those rulings, over 61 million US human beings (babies) have been killed or eliminated by the use of destructive abortion. While the Supreme Court has recently struck down the Roe v Wade ruling, it did not stop abortion. It simply pushed the decision about abortions back to the state level.
If we step back just a few years to 1957 – 1963, the U.S. court system also adjudicated a series of legal battles that culminated in two rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court: one, to ban daily prayer (no longer could schools acknowledge a Creator) and second, to ban regular Christian Bible reading (study of the truth claims of the Christian faith) from public schools. From 1960s on, nearly 200 million American children have passed through the US public school system. In nearly every school in the United States, children have been denied the opportunity to be exposed to Christian truth. Please note, I certainly acknowledge some exceptions exist where teachers choose to not follow these guidelines…however, the majority of school systems banned both acknowledgement of God and teaching of Christian truth. In essence, the majority of the 340 million Americans alive today have not been exposed to Christianity during their public education. Christian truth has been trampled to the ground.
Both of these court rulings were the direct result of rejection of the existence of a Provident/Sovereign God creator. If there is no God then mankind is free to make his own rules about life, human sexuality, and human behavior. And what has been the result in the 21st century Western Civilization? It is the direct cause of the sexual revolution and gender dysphoria we see exploding in our society and tearing American society apart. We have a complete generation of young people who believe that they, not God, will determine their gender status and their sexual norms (and our educational system is reinforcing that belief).
The United States is the only country in the world founded for the express purpose of providing a sanctuary for Christianity. There can be little historical argument with the fact that the majority of those who settled in the U.S. in the early 1600s undertook the perilous journey for freedoms sake and more specifically for religious freedom. That is why the first of our Constitutional freedoms (1st Amendment) supports religious freedom. That would, in my opinion, make us a sanctuary for saints. For nearly 350 years, the US was recognized publicly as a Christian nation and we were the primary force behind the great missionary efforts (along with England) of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. I believe I can say, without much contradiction, that we are no longer a nation under the authority or guidance of God or Christian principles. We are a one-time sanctuary for Christianity that has been polluted/trampled by anti-Christian progressive thought and law.
The US is without question, the greatest and most wealthy kingdom that has ever existed on the planet earth (yes, greater than Rome). We are a nation of bountiful food, resources, and wealth. We are also the leader of Western Civilization (the largest group of democratic first-world countries). As this leader, we have spread our ideals, technology, and wealth worldwide over the past 100+ years. In post-World War II, we nearly single handedly rebuilt Western Europe and Japan (Marshal Plan). Yet, we are also the leader in the world in cultural ideals and trends. Our morally vacuous movies, our entertainment, our cultural move towards sexual freedom, our leadership on the abortion issue, and our drive towards wealth and self-gratification are also products we have exported to the world.
Anyone who will fairly evaluate the past few years of American history, can easily understand the depths of depravity to which our country has plummeted. One political party removed “one nation under God” from the oath of their party platform during their recent political convention. Human sexuality, marriage, and sexual identity are completely disconnected from the teachings of the Judeo-Christian Ethic and scripture. Public schools are completely devoid of Christian teaching and Christian organizations are now frequently banned from school campuses. Recently, riots have broken out in our major cities and businesses & property are being destroyed in defiance of order and justice. Christian businesses and organizations are being forcibly shut down by Progressive leaders and prosecutors if they do not comply with acceptance of the LGBTQ agenda. Scandals and moral failures by Christian leaders are rampant and have become a daily subject in the media and news in the last few years. Gun violence, murder, drug abuse, and violent crime are exploding all across America. Finally, civil discourse has become nearly impossible and Christians are increasingly afraid to try to express the convictions of their Christian worldview.
If all of this is true, then the only prophetic thing the world is still waiting to experience is the arrival of a “literal human leader” who supports the desolation of Western Civilization. Once in power, this individual will lead humanity in a war on the Church (i.e., on believers….as mentioned in Revelation 11, 12 and 13). That also is hard for us as Americans to fathom…. that someone would rule over us or have authority over our country, with the intent of destroying our faith and testimony. However, having watched the descent of the United States (and all of Western Civilization) into a state of spiritual rot over the past 50 years, it is not that difficult to imagine how quickly the political situation could change and Christians would find themselves as the “enemies of the state.” In fact, I would argue that more than half of America already considers us the enemy of progress in America.
So, am I correct in my assessment of the period of history in which we live? Am I correct in applying the prophecy of Daniel to the current period of U.S. history? Only time will tell. However, if I am correct, then it is imperative that Christians take a realistic view of our current spiritual condition. Christian Americans must stop defending the present condition of our country. We must stop looking for political solutions to spiritual problems. We also must realize how precious little time may remain for us to both witness to our fellow citizens and to experience what remains of our religious freedom. Christ, relationships, and family must be made a priority…wealth, politics and worldly success must take a back seat in our lives/worldview. We must be ready!
Since I believe the hour is late for the human race, I am cautious in putting my trust in any one man or any political solution to fix what is primarily a spiritual problem. I do not believe the spiritual rot of Western Civilization can be reversed. The best we can do is to “be watchful”, be vigilant, and be faithful to our Christian calling. The Bible says that if it were possible, even the elect could be deceived (Matt 24:24). Let that not be spoken of each of us!