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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty

The Abomination Of Desolation

This month has been a busier month for me than usual.

I've been back in the hospital, but God is good and I'm glad to be here this Sabbath.

And I'm thankful for God's blessings in my life.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to have my 30th birthday on Thursday, so I'm thankful for another year of life.

I'm not as young as I used to be when I first moved here.

But God has been doing a special work in my life and in the life of many of you over the past few years.

So it's just a blessing to be here with each 1 of you this Sabbath.

And I've been looking forward to this message for a while and as Tim said in the introduction the title of the sermon is the abomination of desolation That sounds kind of like a scary title, huh?

But this is a very important subject that we will find in scripture.

And so I hope that as we go through this message this morning, that we will all learn something important that will help us To be ready for Jesus to come in them Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer Father in heaven.

Thank you for this beautiful Sabbath day, and I pray Especially that your Holy Spirit will be with us May we remove any distractions from our mind and may 07.21 we be filled with your spirit.

May the angels be in the room 07.22 so that we may have sweet communion with you over the next few minutes and 07.23 please be with me, may you guide my words and I pray that 07.24 many will be blessed today.

Matthew 24 is a parallel of the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ.

44 And in Matthew 24, verse 15, Jesus speaks these words, 45 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.

I think I've quoted this verse many times when I study the book of Daniel and a lot of times as Adventists And I've done this myself.

We'll take this verse and we'll say Jesus talks about the Prophet Daniel.

Therefore the book of Daniel must be important.

Okay, that's good, but that's not really the most accurate interpretation of that passage.

Now, I've said that many times, but if you look at Matthew 24 verse 15, Jesus is telling us to understand something specifically in the book of Daniel.

He's telling us to understand specifically the abomination of desolation.

Okay, so the book of Daniel, many of us have studied it.

But of all the things in the book of Daniel that are so important, you have the Prophecy we just studied this morning in our class about the image of the different metals.

You have the prophecy in Daniel chapter 7 about the judgment and death books being opened.

Daniel chapter 8 you have the 2300 day prophecy.

Of all of those prophecies Why would Jesus pick this 1 prophecy in particular in Matthew chapter 24 which parallels the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ and tells us that's the prophecy to read and understand?

Well, 1 thing that I know for sure, if Jesus tells us to read and to understand that prophecy, I really want to know what that prophecy means.

So that's why we are going to talk about the abomination of desolation today.

Now, the abomination of desolation is mentioned 4 times in the book of Daniel, and we will look at those briefly throughout this message or in more depth in some places.

Daniel 8, verse 13, we have a desolating power that takes us to the end of the 2300-day prophecy.

It's right before Daniel 8, 14, of course.

Then you have in chapter 9, verses 26 and 27, you have a desolating power that attacks the city or the the sanctuary in the city and we'll talk more about this then in Daniel chapter 11 you have a desolating power starting in verse 31 that persecutes God's people, starting in 508 AD and then in Daniel chapter 12 verse 11 you have basically the same thing.

The abomination of desolation is mentioned 4 times in the book of Daniel 1 time is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem the other 3 times are talking More towards the end of time before Jesus comes the second time So if you have 1 instance talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and you have 3 instances talking about the end of time, which do you think is more important of the 2?

It's the second 1, the 1 at the end of time.

However, in order to fully understand the second 1, you need to understand the first 1 so that you can have a clear understanding of what the last abomination of desolation is.

So let's look briefly in Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 26.

Now, we know Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 through 27 is the 70 week prophecy.

But in verses 26 and 27, you have the last of the 70 weeks and you have the abomination of desolation.

Now verses 26 and 27 follow the A-B pattern.

So part A and 26 and part A of 27 are talking about the same thing.

And then part B of 26 and part B of 27 are also talking about the same thing.

So the last half of verses 26 and 27 are talking about the abomination of desolation.

So notice the last half of verse 26 it says, 27.

And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary What's this prophecy talking about?

It's talking about the city of and the sanctuary or the temple being destroyed And it's in the context of the 70 weeks of probation that were given to the Jewish nation.

So after their probation closes, then their city and their sanctuary is destroyed.

And then the rest of the verses in the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." Now, then the second half of verse 27, after it talks about how Jesus is cut off in the midst of the weak and causes the sacrifice and oblation to cease in 31 AD, Then the second half of verse 27 takes us back to the abomination of desolation and it says, 20.

And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Now I'm reading from the King James Version here and in the marginal reading of the King James there's actually another way of reading the second half of verse 27 which I believe helps to make this a little bit clearer perhaps.

And I'm going to read the marginal reading and if you have a King James you may have that in your margin.

It says, And for the over, I'm sorry, and upon the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator with the abominable armies, Even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate.

Now who is the desolate that desolations are being poured out upon in the end of Daniel chapter 9 verse 27?

Well remember this is talking about the destruction of God's city and God's temple, Jerusalem, who had rejected Christ.

And if you go to Matthew 23, verses 37 and 38, this gives us a brief picture of who the desolate is Matthew chapter 23 verses 37 and 38 this is Jesus speaking.

This is when he is weeping about Jerusalem.

He says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

17.5 So here we have abominations or desolations being poured out upon the desolate.

And in this particular instance, it's none other than Jerusalem.

Now, you ask yourself, okay, so Jesus tells us to understand the abomination of desolation.

And clearly we have the abomination of desolation being spoken of by Daniel the prophet here in Daniel chapter 9 but what exactly is the abomination of desolation that's destroying the city of Jerusalem well I'm gonna read just a few points here in The book great controversy Ellen White takes some history from From the free and Josephus to help us understand what the holy place is that the abomination of desolation is standing in and so forth.

So this is coming from actually the historian Josephus that LMY is quoting from.

And here in this is Great Controversy page 25 says, 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.

So you have the walls around the city of Jerusalem and then outside the city wall, extending a certain measure of furlongs outside, I don't know how far, was considered the holy place.

So that encapsulated part of what Jesus is talking about.

When some abomination comes and stands in this area surrounding the city, you'll know that that's your time to leave the city of Jerusalem.

But it's a little bit more than that actually.

In a manuscript 126, 1901, Ellen White also says this.

185 The Jews after their long captivity would not make any image and she's talking about their captivity To Babylon the image on the Roman ensign or banner they called an abomination especially when these emblems were placed in a prominent place for them to respect.

Such respect they regarded as a violation of the second commandment.

When the Roman ensign was set up in the holy place in the temple they looked upon it with abomination.

We're also talking about the holy place of the temple and what we have here is we have the Roman banner being placed in a in an area that's considered sacred to God's people.

Now what was it about the Roman banner that the Jewish people would consider to be an abomination?

Well on the Roman banner was a sign or a mark of the pagan gods.

And so this mark of the pagan gods was a sign or a mark of the authority of Rome.

And when Rome brought this sign or this banner with their mark of authority and set it in a place that was considered to be holy.

This was considered an abomination to God's people.

Now, why is it considered an abomination?

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The Abomination Of Desolation

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