the abomination of desolations, but our Lord Jesus also refers to the abomination of desolations. I want to show today from the scripture that the real abomination of desolation, the ultimate abomination, was the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the Temple Mount. That is the abomination of desolations, but there's other aspects too. So we know that it's often referred to, this must apply to Antiochus Epiphanes and one of the Greeks who came in, and then of course the Romans also desecrate the holy place and temple by bringing in Idols and of course idols in the temple that does desecrate the holy place and they entered without going through the proper Cleansing rituals plus for pagans and unbelievers that those were definitely abominations which showed that the temple is desolate and desecrated But of course it was desolate and desecrated by the corruption and the apostasy of the priests long before that anyway but it goes with it further than that because when Pagan Rome became Papal Rome. Papal Rome continued an ongoing desolation, abomination that has brought desolation too, where they claim the daily sacrifice that was meant to be performed in the temple is being performed by the mass in the Catholic churches. That is an abomination too. Christ is the full and final sacrifice. There's no need for any others, and the temple was superseded by Christ. He is the temple. He is our true High Priest, and His sacrifice is a once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice. So, for the Roman Catholic Church to continue to pretend that every day their priests are performing a Mass, a sacrifice. is an abomination too. But worse than that is plainly the rejection of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, by these apostate corrupt priests. That was the ultimate abomination of desolation. And then the Romans destroyed the temple, putting a final full stop and drawing a line under the Old Covenant and the Old Testament, the Old Testament priesthood, the Old Testament sacrifices, and all of that, which were only a shadow. The reality is Christ. So let's start by looking at Matthew 21. Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 33. Our Lord Jesus gives the parable of the wicked vinedressers. Here another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard. He set a hedge around it and he dug up winepress in it. He built a tower and he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when the vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his own son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said amongst themselves, Come, this is the heir. Let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and they killed him. Therefore, Jesus said, When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these vinedressers? And the people said to him, he will destroy those wicked men miserably and leave his vineyard to other vine dressers who will render to him the fruits of their seasons. And Jesus said, have you never read the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, Jesus said, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. That's plainly in Matthew 21 verse 33 to 43. Now if we go on to Matthew chapter 23, starting in verse 23 to 39, we read, The Lord's condemnations of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But do not do according to their works. In other words, follow their teachings, do not follow their wicked example. For they say and they do not do. They bind heavy burdens hard to bear, and they lay them on other men's shoulders. But they themselves do not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their collectories broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at the feasts, and they love the best seats in the synagogues. They love greetings in the marketplaces. They love to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But you do not be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. Makes you wonder how the Catholic Church's priests are all called fathers when Jesus said, don't let anyone call you father on earth. And he says, do not be called teachers, for only one is your teacher, and that is the Christ. But he who is greatest among you must be your servant. And in fact, that's why you've got cabinet ministers in Christian countries and you have a prime minister as in the first servant in Britain and countries that have followed the Protestant tradition. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You neither go in yourself nor do you allow in others who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses. You make a pretense of long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. That Matthew 23 is relentless. There's only one film I know that puts the whole of Matthew 23, and that's the Matthew film, which was filmed right here in Cape Town on the very steps of Rhodes Memorial. The act of portraying Christ gives all of Matthew 23, every verse, without leaving out a word. And it's actually very hard to listen to because it's so relentless. Woe to you, you blind guides, you fools and blind. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, but you neglect the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you should have done without the others being undone. Blind guides, you strain out a net and you swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside, maybe clean water. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside you are full of dead men's bones and all kinds of uncleanness. Even so, outwardly you appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And you say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers within the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How can you escape the judgment of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send to you prophets, wise men, scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. And on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berkea, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. If I say to you that you will no more see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So here again we get the word desolate, Jesus making it clear that the generation that was rejecting him, this generation that was meant to be preparing for the Messiah, here he comes, he comes into the temple, they reject him, they illegally arrest him, they illegally try him, they have trumped up courts and it's like kangaroo court, and at the end he is crucified, scourged, treated disgracefully, and the high priests and the prophets and the priests are knocking him at the cross. And he's saying, your house has left you desolate. This is the abomination that brings desolation. They rejected the Messiah, the worst crime in the history of mankind, and therefore upon them came great tribulation. Notice that we are told in And this is where you can see the abomination brings desolations. Hosea 2 verse 23, Then I will sow her for myself in the earth. I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, You are my God. And then in Matthew 24, 15 to 16, Jesus says, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in this holy place, whoever reads this, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee for the mountains. And in fact, it happened that when the Christians saw the persecution that was going on in the temple. They fled to the mountains and when the Romans came and Titus gathered his troops around Jerusalem, the Christians were not in Jerusalem. They had fled because they realized Jerusalem is condemned, damned. And we've got to understand the most important person that ever existed was Jesus Christ. He's the only good person who's ever walked this earth. And the betrayal of Christ and the illegal trial of Christ and his crucifixion was the worst crime in the history of mankind. A crime is aggravated by whom it's done against, and you cannot find a more innocent or holy person than Jesus Christ. And what was done was so treacherous, so disgusting, so disgraceful, that is what brought the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation that was poured out upon that generation that rejected Christ. Upon Jerusalem, whose stones were prophets and crucified the Messiah. So, plainly, the Lord's taking the desolation and the abomination as referring to plainly what they did to him. And remember, he stood before them in the temple and said, destroy this temple. and I'll raise it up again in three days. And there's no indication he made an indication like pointing to himself. We don't know that he gave any hand signals, but they interpreted it to mean he was talking about the physical temple around him. But in fact, he must have been talking about himself, the killing of himself and his resurrection in three days time, because that's what the apostles interpreted later. But they didn't see it at that time immediately. So yes, the Greeks and the Romans did desolate the holy place. But bear in mind, it's not just the temple. Because Jesus said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, Now he's speaking to his hearers. He's speaking about an abomination of desolation that's coming in the future. So it can't just be what the Romans and the Greeks did before going into the temple. And it was assumed the holy place refers to the holy of holies within the temple. But bear in mind, you've got in Psalm 24, Psalm 24, we specifically read that the mountain itself is holy. And so we can read that blessed is this holy place. And so the whole mountain was actually holy. It was the mountain, Mount Moriah, where Abraham was sent to have the sacrifice of Isaac, where God provided the lamb. And for that, we should turn to Genesis 22, starting in verse 1. So Genesis 22, starting in verse 1. Now it came to pass off these things. God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here am I. Then God said, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there is a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I shall show you. But Isaac later said to Abraham, Father, I see we've got the wood and we have the fire, but where's the lamb for the offering? And Abraham responded, God himself will provide a lamb, which is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus, who John the Baptist pointed to and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So on Mount Moriah, where Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac, but God provided a ram to be sacrificed in this place. And it was also on that place where David later offered a sacrifice on a threshing floor. And the holy place, according to Psalm 24 verse three, is the mountain of the Lord, the hill of the Lord. And plainly, this place, it's not just the temple that was holy, the whole mountain there was holy. Golgotha is part of a low plateau in that mountain of Moriah. And so the very place where God had Himself provided the Lamb, foreshadowing the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, that is where they crucified Christ. And so Abraham had sacrificed at that mountain on that place, David had, and this is to stop the plague, and this is where Christ was rejected and crucified, on this holy mountain, Mount Moriah. The abominations of the Babylonians, abominations of the Greeks and the Romans had already been carried out, and even Pilate had mixed the blood of some of the worshippers with their sacrifices. And all of those were abominations, but the abomination that brings about desolation was the rejection of Christ. And you can see that because all of these terrible things done by the Babylonians, the Greeks and Romans, they pale into significance compared to what was done to Jesus. So in John chapter 2, when Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. And he's obviously speaking about his own body, and he in fact replaced the temple. All these were just shadows fulfilled by Christ. So the ultimate rejection, the ultimate abomination is the rejection, the illegal trial, the crucifixion of Christ, the worst crime in the history of mankind. And so when Christ declared it is finished, he is speaking about end of the Old Covenant, end of the Old Testament era, end of the Old Testament temple, end of the Old Testament sacrifices, the Old Testament priesthood. He is our high priest. He is a temple. He is the sacrifice. No need for daily sacrifices anymore being done by priests. In fact, plainly, those things are now an abomination because Christ had fulfilled all of these requirements. And these were just shadows. So to continue acting like nothing had happened, On the day that Christ was crucified, the temple veil was split from top to bottom, the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the holy place. And doubtless, the priest later sewed it up and put it back up again. But after the crucifixion of Christ, it was an abomination to continue to pretend that the Messiah had not come and the ultimate sacrifice of which all of these were just Our shadows had not occurred. And so the temple itself became an abomination. And so God sent full destruction 40 years later. AD 70, the complete destruction of the temple mount, where not a stone was left on another, where they burned up everything, even the temple records. You don't even have the genealogies of the priest. They cannot reconstruct. the priesthood's genealogies. They cannot reinstitute temple sacrifices, even though there are those who talk about it, and that would be an abomination. The whole book of Hebrews and Galatians refute the need for future sacrifices. When Christians talk about a rebuilt temple and restored sacrifices, why? Christ has come. There's no more need for it. In fact, it's an abomination to pretend that we need further sacrifices, as the Catholic Church does with their daily Mass. And so, plainly, when we talk about the abomination of desolations, we are talking about, first and foremost, the rejection of Christ himself. And he is taking away the kingdom from those who are not worthy, and who had stoned the prophets and murdered the Messiah, the heir, and he's taking it away from them and giving it to a nation that will bear fruit. So what we are seeing in the abomination of desolations, we shouldn't see it as fulfilled just by what was done before Christ came. Those were foreshadowings as well. But some outside pagan coming into the temple and desecrating it with his idols is not as bad as the corruption of the Altestan priesthood and their rejection of the Messiah, their murdering of the Messiah. And they're turning the temple from something that was pointing to the coming of the Messiah to something that was pretending he had not come and that he had not achieved salvation. So I think, again, many people's interpretation of end times and abomination of desolations doesn't take into consideration the importance of Christ, the centrality of Christ. We should interpret everything in the Bible in a Christocentric way, and we should certainly interpret all the Old Testament prophecies in a Christocentric way. Christ is at the center of all the Old Testament prophecies, and he's the fulfillment of them all. Does anyone have any questions or extra comments you'd add? The abomination of desolations. I was wondering, does it tie into revelation? I checked the word desolate in the dictionary. Barren, laid waste, devastated, abandoned, alone, forlorn, dismal, gloomy, These depict more what we're talking about, what happened after AD 70. Because yes, there were abominations before where some pagan Greeks, Babylonians, Romans desecrated the holy place. That did not leave the place completely devastated, abandoned, alone, forlorn. Those previous abominations, adultery in the temple and so on, that got cleansed and patched up and they tried again. But after destroying the Messiah murdering him when he was there, what more could be done? And they pretended that it hadn't happened. They continue to pretend to this day that this didn't happen and that Jesus is not significant. You've even heard some of these modern day Jews stating that Jesus was just a false prophet and is a product of an immoral relationship with Mary, and they deny the virgin birth, they deny that Jesus is the Messiah. And there's a lot of conservatives who like following these Jewish people. You just think that we've got someone there who calls himself Rabbi. Carney keeps giving us these harbingers. I mean, he's obviously a false prophet. Everything he's prophesied doesn't happen. But just the fact that he calls himself Rabbi, there's a problem. And he's wearing all the old Jewish insignia as though that's still valid. And meanwhile, Jesus has come, and there's Christians buying up his materials all the time, the harbinger and so on. And he, what's it, Rabbi Kahn? I mean, I think that goes with Kahn. There's a false prophet for you pretending that Jesus is not the central figure in all of history and that all these things have been fulfilled and now the temple is finished. There's no place for a new temple, no place for renewed animal sacrifice in the future. That's an abomination. Read Hebrews and Galatians. So we've got people today who still don't understand the centrality of Christ. He is the central figure of history as even our dating system shows. But the crime against Jesus is the greatest crime in the history of the world, which explains why the great tribulation came upon the people in the first century surrounding the destruction of the temple. Not to say there won't be future tribulations. People in our lifetime have experienced tribulation in Russia and China, Cuba, Sudan, Mozambique and Congo. There's been some horrific tribulations. And the idea that we, Laodicean lukewarm western believers are going to get raptured before there's any tribulation is wishful thinking. The scripture says in the world you will have tribulation, be of good cheer, overcome the world. So tribulation may still be in the future but the great tribulation happened in the first century as documented by Josephus' history, and we've got a book on our shelves in the library also called The Great Tribulation, written by David Chilton, examining what happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. That was the time of Jacob's travels. And to put it in the future, the Great Tribulation, as opposed to just tribulation, is to undermine the importance of the crime committed against the Messiah and the natural consequences that came upon the people who said, we have no king but Caesar. Crucify Christ, release Barabbas. His blood be upon us and upon our children. I mean that was such a serious crime and as depicted in the Passion of the Christ very effectively. to assume that the great tribulationist future is also very presumptuous and underestimates the importance of the rejection of Christ, which is certainly the worst crime anyone could commit in history, even in our time, to reject Christ. But for the chosen nation that had been preparing for this for centuries, and the priesthood and the temple, to have rejected Christ at that time, when he is physically present, that is the worst thing that anyone could possibly do. And of course, today, if we reject Christ's own life, that also is about the worst thing we could do. But historically, I think we need to recognize the abomination of desolations, the abomination of borderline desolation was the rejection of Christ. Yes. Revelation 11, 1, 2, because he measures I think that is because in fact that matches the amount of time that The temple and Jerusalem were being besieged to the 42 months each and the Romans coming in and just the timing as well And it wasn't just the Gentiles trampling it down, it was a whole lot of Edomites who joined in the rebellion against Rome, and these people were not true believers at all. And the people who took over the Temple Mount, there were three different factions. And the zealots were one of them. And they were fighting amongst themselves, and they were corrupt and vicious as anything. They were murdering innocent civilians in the city. They were involved in all kinds of corruptions, too. So the temple was being desecrated even before the Romans put an end to it. So the Romans aren't the only ones who desecrate the temple. It was being desecrated ahead of time by different groups who call themselves Jews, even though some were not. Some were probably just Edomites. Yeah, the preterist position needs to be considered more because a lot of it was fulfilled. Of course, the Lord still to return physically to this earth, but he returned in judgment in AD 70 in a sense that it speaks, look, he's coming on the clouds and coming on the clouds is a biblical imagery of judgment. And bearing in mind that it even says says the Lord predicted in Matthew 24 that every hour will see him even those who pierced him so he came back to Jerusalem in the lifetime of of the people who had crucified him and Brought judgment upon him in the person of the Romans and also some of these different factions were fighting one another There's also people here They're expecting the temple to be rebuilt, the mosque is, which actually isn't known to arrive, that's not a good thing. And they've already made all the furniture, the park and the... We've been hearing this for a while. No, no, they've literally made the stuff out of pure gold. They're just waiting for the new temple. It's really very interesting. Well, how are they going to get rid of that mosque, just for starters? But to rebuild the temple now would seem but pointless. The Messiah has come. That's what I think some people have in mind. In fact, I've even heard some of these dispensationists from Texas saying that Jesus will return to reinstitute animal sacrifices in the Temple Mount. Why? What's the point? That's a refutation of Hebrews. Yeah, no, that is pretty bad. Yeah, it's finished is the word. There was no salvation in the Old Testament sacrifices. They were only pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And that is a once for all never to be repeated, all sufficient sacrifice. Any other points, comments, observations? about some family members who have started using the PC to prepare this general conversation, but then they're afraid to talk for a moment. It is so strange, and I actually felt it was, it felt so disrespectful to me. It is. You know, but that's very interesting. I don't know if anyone else has heard that before. Yes. But it is kind of, Have you heard of that? That is an attempt to replace our Christian heritage, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still dated from before Christ. Because if they want to say this is 2024, 2024 what? It's Jesus' life that separated the centuries and divided all time into before Christ and after Christ. Whether they want to rename it into before common era and after the common era, well really, now we see E, then there will be C. But they're still using the same dating system, which the venerable beads instituted in England in the 7th century. So really and truly, it's something we should resist. Bear in mind, it has been tried before. The French Revolution tried in 1792 to make that the year one. And when they became a republic after they abolished the monarchy and beheaded the king, King Louis XVI, and they tried to move it to a 10-day work week, not a 7-day work week. Which failed, obviously. The Soviets also tried it, the Bolsheviks. They tried to have a 10-day work week and they tried to re-date everything from 1917. Obviously they failed. So, this present one will fail too, especially if we deliberately ignore it. I'm very insistent on putting in BC and AD and I think as Christians we should continue to resist this intimidation or this temptation to try and get us to write Christ out of history in our daily calendar. Our calendars point to Christ. And that's so important. Even the way we greet people. You go to Switzerland, they greet people in the words of Grüezi, which is an abbreviation of greetings in God. And if you go in Austria, they still talk about Grüezi Gott. They'll greet you in the words Grüezi Gott. Even our goodbye comes from the old English prayer, God be with you. So there's a lot in our calendar, in our whole structure of society that points to Christ. And the stone's ground, the greatest buildings in the world, the cathedrals. So we should keep these heritages and keep reminding people of them. But the world is trying to ignore Christ or deny Christ or disgrace and blaspheme him. And of course, we must just resist.