Elder Goh Kee Tai

 

'The abomination of desolation'

Matthew 24:15 (KJV) 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:)

 

Jesus Christ has revealed to His disciples the signs of His Second Coming (Mt 24, Mk 13, Lk 21). One of these is ‘the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place’ (Mt 24:15).What is this ‘abomination of desolation’ and who is the one to desecrate the holy place?

 

Daniel’s prophecy

Daniel prophesied five world superpowers and their destinies represented by a huge image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: Babylonian empire (head of gold); Medo-Persian empire (breast and arms of silver); Greek empire (belly and thighs of brass); Roman empire (legs of iron) and the empire of the Antichrist (feet of iron and clay). The stone cut out of the mountain without hand and which smote the image upon its feet and broke it to pieces is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ who will destroy the last world superpower before He establishes His millennium kingdom on earth (Dn 2:32-45).

 

These world empires are also represented by four beasts in Daniel’s vision: the first like a lion (Babylon), the second like a bear (Medo-Persia), the third like a leopard (Greece) and the last a beast with ten horns (Empire of the Antichrist) (cf. Dn 7:3-7). The ten horns are a confederation of ten kings of the revived Roman empire and the ‘little horn’ (Dn 7:8) that will arise after them is another king who will subdue three of the kings and emerge as the last and the most evil world dictator (Dn 7:24,25).

 

This end-time dictator is the Antichrist, the ‘man of sin’, the ‘son of perdition’ (2 Th 2:3) and the ‘Wicked’ one (2 Th 2:8). He is the arch enemy of Jesus Christ and who opposes and exalts himself above God (2 Th 2:4). He does according to his will and utters unbelievable blasphemies and insults against God (Dn 11:36; Rev 13:5,6). He changes laws (Dn 7:25) to abolish Jewish worship and desecrates the Temple in Jerusalem. He ‘shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate’ (Dn 9:27). In blatant defiance of God, the Antichrist usurps God’s authority by elevating himself to the position of deity and places an image of himself in the Temple to be worshipped: ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God’ (2 Th 2: 4).

 

Antiochus Epiphanes, a forerunner of Antichrist

Daniel’s vision of the ram (Medo-Persia), the goat (Greece), and the ‘little horn’ (Dn 8:3-25) revealed the great catastrophe that would overtake Jerusalem in the wake of the notoriety of Antiochus Epiphanes. In this he prefigured the Antichrist.

 

When Alexander the Great died, his empire was divided among his four generals (Dn 11:3,4). One of them took over Syria. The ‘little horn’ was Antiochus Epiphanes (Dn 11:21-35), a vile, ruthless anti-Semitic Greek-Syrian king. He came to the throne by intrigue and ruled from 175-164 BC. In one of his military campaigns in Egypt, he was defeated by the Romans there. He returned to Palestine and vented his anger on the Jews and plundered all the holy items of worship and sacred books in the Temple in Jerusalem, and declared the Mosaic laws and ordinances illegal. He defiled the holy sanctuary by erecting an idol altar, placed a huge statue of Jupiter in the Holy of Holies and forced the Jews to offer sacrifice to it (Dn 11:31). Those who refused to worship the idol were horribly persecuted and more than 40,000 martyred. The climax of his desecration took place three years later in 168 BC when he sacrificed a huge pig on the idol altar and forced the priests to swallow the flesh. These horrendous deeds of the wicked dictator gave us a preview of the ultimate ‘abomination that maketh desolate’ (Dn 11:31) in the holy place. Jerusalem was finally liberated by the Maccabees in 165 BC, the Temple cleansed and proper worship reinstated (Dn 11:32-35).

 

The coming Antichrist
His power from Satan

Antichrist rises to power by controlling all the ten nations of the revived Roman empire (Rev 17: 12,13). During his seven-year reign (Dn 9:27), he will exert absolute control over the political, commercial and religious systems of the world.

The power that actuates the Antichrist is, of course, Satan himself. To the Antichrist is given wisdom and unrestrained power, his throne and his authority over all nations (Rev 13:2,7). Satan energises him with ‘all power and signs and lying wonders’ (2 Th 2:9). To win men over, Satan affirms the Antichrist’s supernatural powers by his diabolical imitation of the resurrection of Christ, and raised to life the Antichrist from his fatal wound (Rev 13:3).

 

His desecration of the holy place

At the beginning of his reign, the Antichrist concludes a peace treaty with Israel and allows the Jews to offer sacrifices in the restored Temple, but at the midpoint of his reign, he breaks the covenant (Dn 9:27) and becomes ruthless and merciless and wreaks great persecution upon the Jews and untold sufferings the world has ever known in the Great Tribulation. He will desecrate the Holy Place the same way Antiochus Epiphanes did. He will do this by placing his image inside the Holy Place. This image is called the abomination of desolation. This is that which is spoken of as ‘the abomination of desolation’ by Jesus.

 

Later, with his counterfeit resurrection, the Antichrist grips and wins the hearts of men, except those whose names are written in the book of the Lamb (Rev 13:8), when astounded by his miraculous power, they worship him and Satan: ‘And they worshipped the dragon (Satan) which gave power unto the beast (Antichrist): and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?’ (Rev 13: 4).

 

His alliance with the false religious system

Scripture tells us the Antichrist partners the false world religious system (Rev 17:3) to deceive the nations. This is that apostate, ecumenical, idolatrous, super-world church which is unfaithful to Christ and centred in Rome (Rev 17: 18), described as ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE WORLD’ (Rev 17:5). The Antichrist subsequently overthrows the harlot church (Rev 17:16), probably midway, after 3 ½ years of his reign, as he desires the worship of all nations.

 

His right-hand man, the false prophet

The false prophet (Rev 13: 11-18) is the Antichrist’s right-hand man. With the empowerment of the Antichrist, he executes the former’s decrees. An image of the Antichrist is erected that the world may worship him (Rev 13:14). Every man has to identify himself with the Antichrist by receiving his mark or his name, or the number of his name (666) in his right hand or forehead, otherwise he could not buy or sell (Rev 13: 16,17).

 

The false prophet’s cardinal responsibility is to draw men away from worshipping the one true living God. By his deception of lying wonders and counterfeit miracles with fires coming down from heaven in the name of the Antichrist (Rev 13:13,14) and giving life to the Antichrist’s image (Rev 13:15), the false prophet deludes the souls of men to worship his master. Death awaits those who refuse to worship the devil incarnate.

 

His persecution of God’s people

The seven-year reign of this most cruel and diabolical dictator the world has ever known,is termed the Great Tribulation Period. Jesus described it as the ‘great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be’ (Mt 24:21).This will be the first and the last of a great terrifying era on earth.

 

The Antichrist will kill the two witnesses sent by God to evangelise the world during the last half of the Great Tribulation Period (Rev 11: 3-14). Scripture says that 144,000 Jews and a great multitude of Gentiles are converted to Christ (Rev 7:4, 9). The Antichrist will unleash an unprecedented pogrom of great monstrosity on the Jews with the ultimate aim of total annihilation of this race. But he will not succeed (Rev 12:13-17). The same fate awaits those who defy him because of their association with the Lord. Brethren, pray that we may not be part of this end-time holocaust with the most heinous attack on body and soul. Now is the time to prepare for our destination: to be part of the rapture to be with our Saviour or to stay behind for the cataclysmic crisis that is to dawn upon earth. To be where we want to, that choice has to be made now.

 

His defeat at Armageddon

Towards the end of his reign of terror, kings from the north and south will attack the Antichrist (Dn 11:40), but both are defeated. He will then enter Palestine and establish his worldwide headquarters at Mt Zion (Dn 11: 45). Subsequently, he will be threatened by huge enemy forces from the north (Dn 11:44; Rev 9:16) and east (Dn 11:44; Rev 16:12). All these armies are finally gathered at the great battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:16). It is here that the Antichrist is utterly defeated by Jesus Christ (Rev 19:19,21) ‘whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming’ (2 Th 2:8).

 

The Antichrist and the false prophet will be captured and both cast alive into the lake of fire: ‘And the beast (Antichrist) was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone’ (Rev 19:20). Those who worship the Antichrist and persecute the Lord’s people will stand in judgement before Jesus Christ.

 

Conclusion

We are living in perilous times, because we are living in the last of the last days. Jesus compares this godless end-time world to that of Noah before the global flood (Mt 24:38) when ‘the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually’ (Gen 6:5). Our days are also like the days of Lot (Lk 21: 28,29) before God, in His fury, sent fire and brimstone to destroy the homosexual city of Sodom.

 

The signs of the soon return of Christ are rapidly unfolding before our eyes. False Christs and prophets are here to deceive the world, even Christian brethren, with their great signs and wonders. May God grant us great spiritual discernment to ward off this end-time deception of Satan. It is imperative to be ardent students of the Word that we may recognise evil when it comes.

 

The current political, economic and religious environment is ripe for the coming of the Antichrist, though the revelation of this man is temporarily restrained by the Holy Spirit until the rapture of the church occurs (2 Th 2:6,7). Scholastic speculations abound as to whether the Antichrist is a Gentile (Rev 13:1), or of Jewish descent. Scripture describes him as a man with no ‘desires of women’ (Dn 11;37). In view of the increasing global trend for homosexuality to be accepted as an alternate lifestyle, it is believed that he may be a homosexual.

 

The actual identity of Antichrist is not important. Many speculations of his identity made over the centuries have been proven wrong (e.g. Nero, Hitler).

 

What is needful and most crucial is: are we truly saved in the Lord? Hide the Word in our hearts. Take heed of God’s warnings. Be spiritually discerned. The time is at hand (Rev 1:3)! Be vigilant. Watch and pray (Lk 21:34,36) and of course, cleave to the Lord all our lives.

 

Only the redeemed in the Lord will be ‘caught up’ to be with our Saviour when He comes in the cloud in the sky with power and great glory. Ensure that we will not come under the treacherous regime of the Antichrist, a world system of terror and horror unparalleled since time immemorial. May God help us. Amen.