The abomination of desolation is described by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 as that which should be read and understood by the students of Bible prophecy and of the book of Daniel. While it’s immediate fulfilment relates to the destruction of Jerusalem, there is a fascinating end-time application that has long fascinated Seventh-day Adventists. We will dig deeper into this topic in this presentation.

<p>The abomination of desolation is described by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 as that which should be read and understood by the students of Bible prophecy and of the book of Daniel. While it’s immediate fulfilment relates to the destruction of Jerusalem, there is a fascinating end-time application that has long fascinated Seventh-day Adventists. We will dig deeper into this topic in this presentation.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Last Day Events Explained

Norman McNulty

01. The End-Time Prophetic Catalyst

I want to welcome you to a new series that we are starting here on Audioverse.

Over about the next 10 episodes, we are going to be looking at last day events.

And the title of this series of episodes is entitled, Last Day Events Explained.

And so, we're going to look at a lot of different things.

We're going to look at what triggers last day events, what's the signs that we should be looking for, and we're going to go through a number of different ideas.

What are the different stages of the Sunday Law?

When does the little time of trouble start?

When is a lot of rain going to be poured out?

What happens during Jacob's time of trouble?

What does the current pandemic mean for all of us?

Those are things that we are going to be addressing during this talk, or these series of talks, and so I just hope that you'll tune in and you'll continue to come back on a weekly basis for these episodes.

We're going to try to keep them brief within about 30 minutes.

And if you have questions, if questions are generated by what I share, or if you have other questions that you would like to have addressed, please feel free to send those in as well to Audioverse, and you can email contact to Audioverse.

And so we will have these things going forward.

I wanna encourage you to be studying and praying and preparing.

I also wanna let you know if you haven't seen already I have a book here on Daniel that I wrote, Daniel Practical Living in the Judgment Hour.

You can get a copy from Remnant Publications if you're interested in that as well.

So the first episode is entitled, In Time Prophetic Catalysts, And so this is going to be our first topic, and so I'm going to start with a word of prayer, and then we will get right into our first presentation.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to consider last day events.

I pray that as these events are explained that you would speak through me that things would be clear and that we would all have an understanding of what is happening in the world around us and how we should be prepared for what is coming.

So we thank you and we pray this in Jesus' name.

So as Seventh-day Adventists, there is always a desire among God's people to be looking at the signs around us and to see how what is happening at the present time, how that fits in with our understanding of last-day events.

And so we're going to look today at the catalyst for end-time events, for end-time prophecy.

What is it that will trigger the end of the world?

Because there's a lot of different things that are being said.

People are saying that once certain specific events take place, once the Pope does this or the President does that, then that would be the sign that the world's about to end.

What can we have confidence in with respect to the end-time trigger that everything else is dependent upon?

I want to start off by reading a statement in Testimonies Volume 9, page 11.

Now this should be a very familiar statement to all of us as Seventh-day Adventists, but in the times that we are living in right now, I'm recording this on Sunday, May 31, while we are living in momentous times with this COVID-19 pandemic, and now with the tragic death of George Floyd, an African-American gentleman who was killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the civil unrest that has followed, we can see the signs around us that Jesus is coming soon.

And so I want to read this statement from Testimonies, Volume 9, page 11.

The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand.

The days in which we live are solemn and important.

The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth." Now friends, if you can't see that the Spirit of God isn't being withdrawn, you're sound asleep to reality right now.

Clearly we see the Spirit of God being withdrawn from the earth.

And then the quote continues, "...plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God.

The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war are portentous.

They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude." And I know, as I've seen these events taking place in the last few months, there's definitely this unsettling feeling that events of great magnitude are about to take place.

And the quote continues, next paragraph, the agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating.

They are strengthening for the last great crisis.

Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones." And we know that statement, and we know that a certain trigger will come where when that trigger comes, the final movements will be very rapid.

Now the next paragraph isn't read as often, but it's so fitting for what's happening right now.

The condition of things in the world shows that troubleless times are right upon us.

The daily papers now that was this was written about a hundred years ago or longer now she would talk about social media and the internet and television and so forth but the daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future.

Bold robberies are a frequent occurrence.

Thefts and murders are committed on every hand.

Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children.

Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails." And we can see this.

Every species of evil is prevailing at this time.

Innocent people are being murdered without hardly a thought being given to it.

And these are clear signs that we are living in the time of the end and that great changes are soon to take place in this world and the final movements will be rapid ones.

Things could change very quickly And that's the thing that we've seen through this COVID-19 pandemic and now with a civil unrest that has been taking even this last week, that very quickly the world that we live in can change.

Who would have thought back at Thanksgiving time or Christmas time or over New Year's that we would be in the midst of a global pandemic just a few short months later and that civil unrest would start to overtake the United States of America.

This is truly an unprecedented time to be alive.

We certainly didn't anticipate these specific events.

Yes, the Seventh-day Adventist, we have said, yes, we believe Jesus is coming soon.

Yes, we believe the signs are around us, but until these things actually start happening, we couldn't have predicted specifically that a pandemic would have taken the world over the way it has, and now this civil unrest that is taking place.

So it's a very unsettling time to be alive if you don't have faith in the Lord, but because of our trust in the Lord, we can have confidence to face the crisis that is happening.

This is from Second Selected Messages, page 402, and this is a very clear statement that we need to consider as well.

We are rapidly approaching the end of this earth's history, and as we realize that Jesus is indeed coming soon, We shall be aroused to labor as never before.

We are bidden to sound an alarm to the people, and in our own lives we are to show forth the power of truth and righteousness.

The world is soon to meet the great lawgiver over his broken law.

Those only who turn from transgression to obedience can hope for pardon and peace." Now, 1 of the things I want to point out about that statement is that we are to be aroused to labor as never before, and that the people should see righteousness in our lives, and the power of truth and righteousness in our own lives, or otherwise our witness will not be what it should be.

And the quote continues, the next paragraph, into the next page, "...we are to raise the banner on which is inscribed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Obedience to God's law is the great issue.

We must strive to arouse church members and those who make no profession to see and obey the claims of the law of heaven.

We are to magnify this law and make it honorable." So friends, right now, right now we need to be magnifying the law of God and exemplifying by the grace of God how the law of God is strengthening our lives, and how we love the law of God, and how we understand it's a transcript of God's character, and it's strengthening us to meet this final crisis, because we are living in very unsettling times.

We are living in times that are causing great unease and anxiety to the world around us, and as God's people we need to have answers for the world around us.

You know, there's many different theories about what will bring the end of the world.

You know, I hear lots of different things about how the Pope is gonna have a secret meeting with the President of the United States, or if you follow certain time prophecies, that will take you to when a Sunday Law will take place, even though we've been clearly shown that there's no time prophecy between 1844 and the Second Coming.

And so Adventists throw a lot of theories around.

I've even seen the idea that COVID-19 is the siege of Jerusalem, which we've always understood to be the Sunday Law, but people are now saying that COVID-19 is the siege.

And so there's a lot of ideas, and there's actually a lot of confusion right now among some people about what the end-time catalyst would be, and I would submit to you that what helps me to understand the trigger or the catalyst that will wake up the church and help us to understand that the end of the world truly has arrived is the picture that Jesus paints in Matthew chapter 25.

Now we understand that the 1260 year prophecy takes us to 1798, which identifies the time of the end, and the 2300 prophecy takes us to 1844, which is the beginning of the hour of God's judgment.

But when it comes to the end of the world, the end of all things, Matthew 25 paints a fairly clear picture of what causes the church to be aware that Jesus is actually at the door.

So Matthew chapter 25, if you look at this, we see Jesus tells a parable that the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, which is his church, is like 10 virgins.

And if you haven't heard a sermon that I've given on this before, you can go to AudioVerse and find the sermon, Sleeping at Midnight, where I go through this in great detail.

But I'm just giving you a few highlights here.

You have 5 wise virgins, you have 5 foolish virgins.

They both have lamps, which represents the Word of God, but only the wise have the oil, which represents the Holy Spirit.

The entire church is sleeping, even though based on their study of Scripture, they go forth to meet the bridegroom, meaning they expect Jesus to return.

02. The Abomination of Desolation

Greetings and welcome again to our Last Day Events Explained series here on Audioverse.

My name is Norman McNulty and it's a privilege to be with you again for part 2 in our series.

And today we are addressing the abomination of desolation.

Before we get into the presentation, I'm going to address a few questions that came in.

And for those of you who have questions, feel free to send them in to the email that you see here on the screen, contact at audioverse.org.

We've got a number of good questions this week, and I'm just going to go through a couple of them right now.

Julie asks a question, thank you for this series, My question is, how do we know that we are not 1 of the foolish virgins?

Also, how do we make sure that our faith and relationship with Christ is strong?

How do we know whether or not we're 1 of the foolish virgins.

The parable of Matthew 25 makes it clear that the foolish virgins don't have the oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 are a description of the Holy Spirit being in your life, and that's the fruits of a converted heart.

And how can we have a strong relationship with Christ is to spend time with him every day in Bible study and prayer, communicating with him, and that's how the fruits of the Spirit grow in our lives.

And so that's a great question, and we definitely want to make sure that we are wise and not foolish.

She wants to know what it means to prophesy again, and is this the message of the judgment of the living?

Well, the phrase prophesy again is found in Revelation chapter 10 verse 11, which comes immediately after what we see to be the great disappointment.

And this message of prophesying again is actually the call to give the third angel's message.

The Millerites gave the first and the second angels message up until 1844, but the third angels message, which includes the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, is given after 1844.

So when does the judgment of the living begin?

As best as I can tell, it's when the National Sunday Law begins.

And then probation closes sometime after the National Sunday Law begins.

There were a few other questions that came in.

1 of them that I thought was also important to discuss comes from Stan, and he wants to know on what basis do we conclude that the Midnight Cry is the same as the Loud Cry?

And this is a great question and it's worth mentioning as well.

You know, Ellen White says in Review and Herald August 19, 1890, referring to the Parable of the 10 Virgins, she says that this parable has been and will be fulfilled to the very letter.

Now what she means by it having already been fulfilled to the very letter is that the Millerite movement, they were a fulfillment of the parable of the 10 virgins, and the midnight cry in their history took place when the date was set for October 22, 1844.

They believed that Jesus was coming on October 22, but that date was not set very clearly until August of 1844, specifically at a camp meeting on August 12, a message given by Samuel Snow.

That was the midnight cry phase of the Millerite movement.

For the parable being fulfilled at the end of the very letter happens again at the end of the world with the Second Advent movement, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the midnight cry in the parable at the end of the world is the loud cry when the latter rain is poured out and the Church goes forth proclaiming the message, Behold the Bridegroom come, if ye will ye out to meet him.

That correlates with the loud cry message of Revelation 18, which as we saw last week, concludes with the message that her sins have reached into heaven, Babylon's sins have reached into heaven, God hath remembered her iniquities.

And Alan White says on Last Day Events page 198, that Babylon's sins reach heaven when the law of God is made void by legislation.

And 1 other question came in, questioning whether or not other incidents where God's law has been violated through legislation could constitute a fulfillment of that.

No other laws that have been passed that violates God's law, for example, even the law that allows homosexuals to marry, specifically meets what Revelation 18 is describing.

Because the law that is enforced nationally and then eventually internationally that changes Sabbath to Sunday is a sin that reaches all the way to heaven and is the fulfillment of the final events of Earth's history.

Thank you for passing them along and please keep them coming.

If I didn't respond to your question, we may address them in later presentations based on the topic at hand.

And so, 1 other thing, and then we're going to have an opening prayer here.

I just want to remind you, if you're interested in a copy of my book that I've written on Daniel, Practical Living in the Judgment Hour, you can get a copy from Remnant Publications.

Now is a great time to be studying and to be sharing with others, and so I want to remind you of that as well.

I want to go ahead and have a word of prayer now as we get into the heart of our study for today, And so let's just ask God to be with us as we study about the abomination of desolation.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to study and to learn.

I just pray in a special way that you will guide us through the study on the abomination of desolation.

I pray that it would be very clear to all of us.

I pray that my presentation would be clear.

I pray that the understanding would be clear for all those who are listening.

And I pray, Lord, that we would be ready when you come.

You know, this is a topic that many in the church find to be very fascinating, and it's an important topic because Jesus actually makes reference to it in Scripture, and so when Jesus makes reference to it in Scripture, we definitely want to study this as well and understand what he's talking about.

And so, let's look at these 3 gospel accounts.

There's 3 times where Jesus addresses this concept known as the abomination of desolation.

Matthew 24 verses 14 and 15, Mark chapter 13 verse 14, and in Luke chapter 20 verses 20 and 21.

If it's in these 3 Gospels, you know that it's important for us to study.

Jesus addresses it, He wants us to study it, and so we want to take a look at it.

Now, I want us to go to Matthew chapter 24, and we're going to look at verses 14 and 15.

And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to get them out and turn with me to this important passage where Jesus is speaking.

And again, Matthew 24 is a chapter where Jesus describes the signs of His coming and of the end of the world.

And so, Matthew 24, verse 14, He says, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." Then verse 15, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, whoso readeth let him understand, and let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." So, Jesus is saying that the gospel is going to go to the whole world and then the end will come, and then he says when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place.

Now, the fact that Jesus tells us that you should go to the book of Daniel, read it, and understand it, tells us that we want to do that and so that's important for us and we're going to go to Daniel here in just a few minutes.

That's not the only account we go also to Mark chapter 13 verse 14 this adds some further information So in Matthew 24 we see that the abomination of desolation is standing in the holy place and he says go to Daniel to understand this further.

In Mark 13 verse 14 here we read, But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand, then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains." So, Matthew 24, the abomination of desolation is standing in the holy place.

And then in Mark 13, verse 14, the abomination of desolation is standing where he ought not, or standing where he's not supposed to be.

1 last Gospel account is in Luke chapter 21 verses 20 and 21, and this makes things even clearer.

So notice what Jesus says here, And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh, then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto." So Matthew 24, abomination of desolation is standing in the holy place.

Mark 13, abomination of desolation is standing where it ought not, or where it's not supposed to be.

But in Luke 21 we see that it's the Roman army surrounding Jerusalem.

And so, well, specifically it's mentioned as armies surrounding Jerusalem, and we're going to see that this is the Roman army.

And remember, Jesus mixes the signs of his coming and of the end of the world with the destruction of Jerusalem, so you have this initial application or Interpretation for these passages that relate to the destruction of Jerusalem But we're also going to see how this applies to the end of the world Now lmy weighs in on this concept of the abomination of desolation and tells us further, or gives us some helpful clarity on this topic.

Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would come upon them for the rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah.

Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax.

The dreaded hour would come suddenly and swiftly.

And the Savior warned his followers, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." And she's quoting Matthew 24 and Luke 21 in that paragraph.

And then she goes on to say, when the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight.

When the warning sign should be seen, those who would escape must make no delay.

Throughout the land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be immediately obeyed." So notice the holy place is a territory of ground outside the city wall of Jerusalem that extended a set of furlongs or a certain amount of space beyond the city walls.

So that's where the Roman army ought not to stand.

And then she concludes by saying, He who chants to be upon the housetop must not go down into his house, even to save his most valued treasures.

Those who were working in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for the outer garment laid aside, while they should be toiling in the heat of the day.

They must not hesitate a moment lest they be involved in the general destruction." So Ellen White makes it very clear that when the Romans surrounded Jerusalem in the territory considered to be holy territory or holy space, This is not the holy place of the sanctuary.

This is a territory of space outside of the city of Jerusalem.

Now, just to add some further clarity to the abomination of desolation here.

The abomination that is taking place here is that you have idolatrous Roman standards from a pagan nation being placed in what is considered sacred ground.

So an abomination is to unite the sacred with the profane, the sacred with the idolatrous, the sacred with the common.

03. The Four Stages of the Sunday Law

Greetings again, and welcome to part 3 in our Last Day Events Explained series here on Audioverse.

My name is Norman McNulty, and I'm so glad that you have chosen to join me for this study, and I hope that you have been blessed and challenged as we've been going through these topics.

Part 1 we talked about the trigger for end-time events and we saw that that's the National Sunday Law.

Last week we looked at the abomination of desolation and saw how that develops through Scripture, culminating with the National Sunday Law at the end of time.

Today we're going to look at the 4 stages of the Sunday Law, so I'm looking forward to going through that.

Before we do that, though, we are going to answer a few questions, and we've had some more good questions come in this week, and just as a reminder, here on the screen you can see that you can send in questions to the email on the screen which is contact at audio verse org so I encourage you to keep sending the questions and we had some more good questions come in and so I'm going to address some of them now this question is from Terry and her question is will the shaking take place after the Sunday Law is in place?

And what I would say to that is that the Bible makes it very clear that everything that can be shaken will be shaken and Clearly after the Sunday law is passed that will be the final shaking of Adam tism but there's a shaking taking place even now in the church as people debate things such as creation and evolution, whether or not Ellen Wyatt has authoritative validity in the church, all those things are shaking out the wheat and the tares even now, and then the final harvest will come together once the Sunday walk comes together.

Terry also mentions that there's a statement in Great Controversy, page 589, that talks about how Satan will appear as a great physician who can heal all our maladies, but he will bring disease and disaster until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation." And she was wondering if COVID-19 is phase 1 of the diseases he will bring to persuade men we are displeasing heaven.

I mean clearly COVID-19, this whole pandemic, is a sign of the coming of Jesus.

And if it doesn't get better and if more unrest takes place, that can certainly be a fulfillment if things continue to escalate.

It would be something that could lead to a Sunnylot.

I got another question from Kylie and she or he asked the question, can you please address Satan's counterfeit appearing of Jesus in terms of what, how, when, where, and why.

We are going to address that in this presentation, in fact.

And then the question is asked, could you please comment on this Ellen White quote that appears to be a dual prophecy attributing Satan and the beast power, the first piece of Revelation 13, ruling for 42 months in the future.

Now, before I read the statement, I will mention that this is a favorite quote of those who like to make dual applications of end time prophecy.

Last week we talked about the 1290, the 1335, and even the 1260, and how some try to make a dual application for those.

This statement is found in manuscript 153, 1902.

You can also find it in manuscript releases volume 19 Excuse me page 282 and this statement says in the last day Satan will appear as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory And claim to be the Lord of the whole earth He will declare that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, and as Lord of the first day of the week, he will present the spurious Sabbath as a test of loyalty to him, then will take place the final fulfillment of the Revelator's prophecy." Now, Elamite says once Satan appears, you're going to see the final fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 13 and then Ellen White quotes verses 4 through 18, which is basically verses 4 through the end of the chapter.

Now I'll mention Kylie, as you shared this quote, you just quoted verses 4 and 5 and you did mention that the whole chapter is quoted, but It's not just verses 4 and 5 that Ellen White quotes here, it's the entire chapter.

And so verse 4 talks about how the dragon is worshipped as well as the beast.

So Satan will be worshipped, but he's personating Christ, and Ellen White then says that the final fulfillment of this prophecy will take place.

If you want to say that there's a final fulfillment of this prophecy, what will be fulfilled, what the final fulfillment is, is that which has not yet been fulfilled in the chapter, and that would be the death decree and the whole fulfillment of Revelation 13.

But what we're going to see in our study this week is that there's actually 4 stages to the Sunday Law, that's what the purpose of the study is, and that Satan impersonating Christ happens in the last stage of the Sunday Law.

So in fact, the image to the beast has already been formed when Satan impersonates Christ.

It's not as if he comes onto the scene initially to start us on a new life, he comes on at the very end.

And so much of Revelation 13 will have already been fulfilled, and so Ellen White says the final fulfillment of Revelation 13 takes place once Satan personates Christ, but by then you'll have already seen the image to the beast formed, you'll have already seen the restriction of not being able to buy and sell, and so This is leading up to the death decree when Satan impersonates Christ.

So is there a 42-month literal re-fulfillment at that point?

Ellen White and I read the statement last week, this is last day of events, page 36, our position has been 1 of waiting and watching, with no time proclamation to intervene between the close of the prophetic periods in 1844 and the time of our Lord's coming." So there's not 42 months of literal time between the time that Satan impersonates Christ to the Second Coming.

That would be a time prophecy, and Ellen White is clear on that.

Furthermore, again, by the time Satan comes and impersonates Christ, the Sunday Law has already been in gear, and now we're just waiting for the death decree which leads to the close of probation and we'll get into that so Don't be confused by some of these fanciful interpretations that are out there Another question was you mentioned in session 2 in response to 1 of the questions that in your understanding the judgment of the living begins when the Sunday law is passed by implication then would you disagree with the belief by some of The church that probation closes for seventh-day Adventist when the Sunday law is introduced.

Yes I do not believe that probation closes for seventh-day Adventist when the Sunday law passes There is 1 close of probation and that's when Michael stands up in Daniel 12, verse 1, and in Revelation 22, verse 11, where we see He that is unjust, let Him be unjust still, and so forth.

However, the opportunity for Preparation ends when the Sunday law passes.

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Series

Last Day Events Explained

02. The Abomination of Desolation

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Parts

01. The End-Time Prophetic Catalyst

34m

02. The Abomination of Desolation

40m

03. The Four Stages of the Sunday Law

40m

04. The New World Order

46m

05. The Little Time of Trouble

39m

06. The Latter Rain and the Loud Cry

43m

07. The Death Decree

34m

08. Jacob’s Time of Trouble

41m

09. God’s People Delivered

36m

10. The Second Coming

43m

11. Last Day Events Q&A Session

1h 5m

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