Short answer:
The “abomination of desolation,” Christ said, will bring about the worst suffering mankind shall have ever known. A seemingly peaceful event will lead to the appearance of that object.
A
leader will confirm a covenant or agreement with other leaders. One probable covenant: the Abrahamic covenant wherein
God gave Abraham’s descendants ownership of the Promised Land. The end-time agreement among leaders will be for a seven-year
period. It seems that certain offerings and
sacrifices will be allowed under it.
Yet,
after only 3-½ years, the first leader will stop the offerings, bring in the abomination of desolation, and destroy the
site. The site could be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple
once stood.
For many years, end-time prophecy watchers have taught
that the abomination of desolation will be a statue of the Antichrist which
will be set up inside a rebuilt Temple.
Christ
implied, however, that the abomination of desolation will cause instantaneous,
far-reaching destruction. People in Judea, upon seeing it, will have to immediately
escape to high grounds.
Will
the “abomination of desolation” be… a bomb?
Detailed Explanation:
Christ
gave an inkling of the most terrible suffering which something called “abomination
of desolation” will bring upon mankind. “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 Judaea flee into the mountains… For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved…” (Matt 24:15-16, 21-22a).
A seemingly harmonious event will lead to the appearance of that dreadful object.
Seven-year
agreement. At the
start of the last seven years of the end times, a leader will confirm a
covenant or agreement with other leaders. “And
he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…” (Daniel 9:27a). The
Hebrew word translated “week” is shavua, which denotes a period with
seven parts, such as one week (7 days) or one sabbatical cycle (7 years). In
the context of the passage, seven years are implied. Hence,
the confirmed covenant will be in force for a seven-year period.
Abrahamic covenant? Among many possibilities, one
probable covenant is the Abrahamic
covenant wherein God gave Abraham’s descendants ownership of
the Promised Land. “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the
great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18).
The
covenant would thus confirm Israel’s right to the Holy Land, although for only
seven years.
Agreement broken. After only 3-½ years, however, “in the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations
he shall make it desolate” (Daniel 9:27b). The said leader will stop the offerings
and sacrifices apparently authorized under the agreement and then destroy the
site.
The
site, if the covenant is the Abrahamic covenant, will probably be the Temple
Mount, a hill in Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple once stood before it was razed by Roman legions in 70 A.D.
Abomination of desolation. For many
years, preachers, writers, and end-time prophecy watchers have taught that the
“abomination of desolation” will be a statue of the Antichrist which will be installed
inside a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Will it be that, really? Let us
scrutinize the term with the help of a dictionary.
“Abomination”
– anything that arouses strong disgust or loathing; hence, a revolting object.
“Desolation” – a ruined or deserted condition; thus, devastation,
destruction, or barrenness.
“Abomination
of desolation”, therefore, signifies something so disgusting because
it causes great ruin and destruction.
Instantaneous destruction. In the words of Christ, the abomination
of desolation will cause instantaneous and far-reaching destruction. “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 Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the
housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him
which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that
are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye
that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day” (Matthew
24:15-20).
People
in Judea will have to escape to high grounds without a moment to spare. Those
coming down from the flat roofs of their houses will have no time to get
anything from the ground floor, not to mention people away from home. Pregnant
women and breastfeeding mothers will be worse off, as they will not be able to
run away fast enough. If it happens in wintertime, the hills will be cold and
slippery; if on the Sabbath, pious Jews cannot escape far as they may travel
only 2,000 cubits (1,000 yards) on the weekly day of rest.
Total and final destruction. It appears that the abomination of
desolation will be the instrument of the Temple Mount’s total and final
destruction. Christ uttered a prophecy: “And Jesus went out, and departed
from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of
the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say
unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not
be thrown down” (Matthew 24:1-2).
The
prophecy has not been fully fulfilled yet, because the Temple Mount’s Western
Wall is still standing, with massive stone blocks on top of one another. When
Roman legions destroyed the Holy Temple in 70 A.D., they did not demolish the
Western Wall since it served as the retaining wall that kept the steep hillside
from collapsing. The abomination of desolation could fulfill the prophecy.
Did God play on words? Do you now have an idea of what
the abomination of desolation could be? Let us assume that the term is an
anagram whose letters we can rearrange and play with to form new words. The
results are quite surprising.
ABOM. The first four letters of “abomination” give us ABOM. Now, say it aloud – “A BOM”. Do
you hear “a bomb”? Will the abomination of desolation be a bomb?
MOAB. Juggle the letters a bit, and one result spells
MOAB, the name of the elder son by incest of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Moab became
the ancestor of the Moabite nation, which did not allow the Israelites to pass
through their territory in the latter’s Exodus from Egypt to Canaan, the
Promised Land. Much later, the Moabites became vassals of the northern kingdom
of the divided monarchy of Israel.
MOAB is
also the acronym for Massive
Ordnance Air Blast, the US
Air Force’s 9,840-kg (21,700-lb) bomb built for the Second Persian Gulf War in
2003, but used only once – in Afghanistan against the Taliban. It is the
largest guided air-dropped weapon in history. The bomb can spread a flammable
mist over its target area and then ignite it, creating a massive blast and
fireball 40% more powerful than any other conventional weapon in the U.S.
arsenal.
Also
nicknamed “Mother Of All Bombs”, MOAB
sounds like a rejoinder to Saddam Hussein’s boast in 1991 that the impending
First Persian Gulf War was going to be the “mother of all battles” (MOAB, too,
for short)!
OBAM. Curiously, ABOM further mixed up also produces
OBAM, the first four letters of former US President Barack Obama’s surname.
Will he in one way or another be involved with the abomination of desolation?
Bear in mind that, in 2017, although Obama had finished his two-term,
eight-year US presidency, a French group collected over 300,000 signatures in a
campaign for him to run for president of France. Will Obama again become a key
player on the world’s geopolitical stage?
Excerpted from the booklets Antichrist
and Nuclear War-Great Tribulation;
and the book End Time Decoded by M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at
Amazon.com – For free pdf copies of our e-booklets, click the Booklets and
Google Drive tabs on the menu bar.
Bible quotations are from the King James Version (KJV) unless
otherwise indicated.
