Signs of the Times (16)

The Sign of the Antichrist

 

In our discussion of the signs of the times as Jesus describes them in Matthew 24, we come to the sign of the Antichrist. This sign is described in verse 15 of Matthew 24: “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 Judea flee into the mountains. . . .”

The sign of the Antichrist is connected to the command of our Lord to flee, and flight is necessary because the rise of Antichrist is the beginning of the great persecution which shall come on the church. But we will save a discussion of this sign of persecution for a later article.

The sign of Antichrist, our Lord tells us, was already spoken of by Daniel the prophet. These are the references in Daniel to which the Lord refers.

The first is Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and 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,  even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The second reference is found in Daniel 11:31: “And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.”

The third place is Daniel 12:11: “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

Other passages in Daniel speak of this same event. One important one is Daniel 8:9-12, but I quote only those in which the abomination of desolation is literally mentioned.

The following things are said about this abomination of desolation. First, its name indicates that it is something utterly and totally repulsive, so much so that it is impossible to look at it without feeling dirty. It is truly an “abomination.”

Second the abomination creates desolation. What desolation it creates is further defined in the clause: “The daily sacrifice shall be taken away.” The meaning is that the place that is made desolate is the tabernacle and temple in which the people of God made sacrifices to God and worshipped Him.

In other words, this sign means that in the place where Judah made sacrifices to God, this utterly repulsive and abominable thing was set up.

Now, that literally happened twice in the history of the people of Israel. It happened, first of all, after Judah returned from captivity and rebuilt the temple. We can read of this, not in Scripture, but in various other books, such as I and II Maccabees and Josephus’ history of the nation of Israel.

After Judah returned from captivity at the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, the Persian Empire was destroyed by the Greek Empire under the leadership of Alexander the Great. He was king of Greece, and with his army conquered every country east of Greece all the way to India, where, it is said, he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer.

On the return to his country from India, he died, likely in a drunken brawl. His kingdom was divided into four parts, and one part given to each of his generals. Two parts are of interest to us. One part was centered in Syria; another part centered in Egypt. Palestine, where Judah lived, was in between these two. Canaan became the battleground between Syria and Egypt, the leaders of which countries fought each other for control of the lands east of the Mediterranean, including Palestine.

A king of Syria, by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes, conquered Palestine and ruled over the Jews. He was heartless and cruel and the Old Testament picture of the Antichrist. He set up an image of himself in the temple and forced the Jews to sacrifice to this image. To be sure they did, he made them sacrifice the flesh of hogs, an abomination to the Jews and a forbidden and unclean animal. In imitation of the Jews eating the meat of the sacrifices after they were finished, he made the Jews eat pig’s flesh. If they refused, they were killed or swine’s flesh was forced down their throats. The worship of God became impossible. It was the abomination of pigs’ sacrifices to a wicked ruler that made the worship of God in the temple impossible (desolate).

This is the historical fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

Much the same thing happened again. And to it Jesus refers specifically in this passage in Matthew 24. In 70 A.D., the Jews rebelled against Rome, and the general Titus was sent to Jerusalem to put down the rebellion. He showed no mercy to the troublesome Jews, but systematically destroyed them all. After a terrible siege, he broke through the walls of Jerusalem and conquered the city. He then put up in the temple the symbol of the Roman Empire, a golden eagle. He forced the Jews to sacrifice their offerings to that eagle, by which they were forced to say that Caesar was divine. If they refused, they were killed; in fact, many were crucified until the soldiers ran out of wood to make crosses.

Although this was after Pentecost, the people of God obeyed the Lord and fled to Pella, east of the Jordan, thus escaping the persecution of Titus and his soldiers. A Christian community survived in Pella for many years. But the destruction of Jerusalem was the end of the Jewish nation. And once again the abomination of worshipping Caesar as divine made the worship of God impossible (desolate).

This event, in 70 A.D. was the historical fulfillment of Jesus’ words as far as the nation of Israel was concerned. Now Jesus tells us that once more this same thing is going to happen at the time of his coming again to take his church into heaven. It will happen in the days of Antichrist.

With warmest regards,

Prof. H. Hanko