Meaning of ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

This expression is found in Dn. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mr. 13:14. It is therefore related to the great tribulation mentioned by the Lord in the Gospel passages.

Daniel's prophecy had a partial fulfillment in the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC. It is evident that this fulfillment does not exhaust the prophecy, since the Lord Jesus, in the evangelical passages mentioned above, places its fulfillment in the future.

In Dn. 9:27 this abomination is shown to take place in the second half of the last of Daniel's seventy weeks (Dan. 9:24). He who makes a pact with the Jews in those days and then breaks it is the leader of the future restored Roman empire.

(See SEVENTY WEEKS) An image will be made of this person, and everyone will be forced to worship it (Rev. 13:14, 15). However, it is not said that it will be taken to the future temple, while the Lord announces that the abomination will be in the holy place.

Of the Antichrist it is announced that “what is called God or is an object of worship is exalted above everything; so much so that he sits in the sanctuary of God as God” (2 Thes. 2:4).

It is evident that the "abomination of desolation" is related to the trinity of evil described in Rev. 13, and that it will be the work of Satan, the Beast, and the false prophet. This will end in terrible desolation.

The desolator is the Assyrian (Is. 8:8, 9; 28:2, 18), the king of the north who will then dominate the territory of Assyria (Dan. 11:40).

This final and definitive fulfillment also had a partial fulfillment during the siege of Jerusalem by the troops of Vespasian and Titus; The holy place was desecrated by the Jewish zealots, and the Christians of Judea, knowing the warning of the Lord, fled to Pella (Mark 13:14-16).