Abomination of DesolationBible Truth for the End Times

Matthew 24:15-16 ...'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.'

The abomination of desolation affects every Christian on this earth, so it's an important issue to study and understand. The Bible clearly defines that it is the abominations done by God's very own people that causes desolation. Through their abominations, which are usually Pagan traditions, God brings down judgment upon His people by raising up a nation to cause desolation. So let's confirm from the Bible who it is that commits these abominations:

Jeremiah 4:1 ...'If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.'

Jeremiah 7:30 ...'For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.'

Ezekiel 6:11 ...'Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.'

Ezekiel 8:6 ...'He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.'

It is God's own people that have turned aside from Him and committed abominations in His sight, and have become a harlot ... Ezekiel 16:32,35 ...'But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband! Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD.' ... A woman in Bible prophecy represents God's people. A pure woman would be those who obey God and keep all His ways, and a harlot woman would be those who have turned aside from God and gone in the way of the heathen, practicing Pagan traditions. And as a result of these abominations that God's people commit, desolation is brought upon them and their land as the following Bible verses confirm:

Jeremiah 9:11 ...'And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.'

Jeremiah 18:15-16 ...'Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.'

Micah 7:13 ...'Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.'

Ezekiel 33:29 ...'Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.'

So we can see that it is the abominations of the people of God that causes desolation upon them. Now the important thing to find out is WHAT exactly were the abominations that they committed, which brought desolation?

Proverbs 28:9 ...'He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.' ... Do we have this in the professing Church today? Satan has done a great job in deceiving the professing church today into thinking that they need not keep the Ten Commandments of God anymore.

Now in Ezekiel 8, the prophet was given a vision from God, and given an insight into the abominations that God's people were committing.

Ezekiel 8:6-11 ...'He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.' ... We can see here that they had brought in pagan images and were offering incense up to them.

Ezekiel 8:13-14 ...'He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.' ... A greater abomination than the previous is going on here. The women are weeping for a Babylonian god 'Tammuz', who was the son of Semiramis (the mother and wife of Nimrod). When Nimrod died, Semiramis conceived a son on the 25th December, and believed it to be Nimrod reborn. Now Nimrod, when he died, it was believed that he went into the sun and became the original Pagan 'sun god', and Semiramis his mother-wife, was the Pagan 'queen of heaven'. We have a "queen of heaven" today don't we? And a sun god that is worshipped each SUN-day? Now when Tammuz died, there was great mourning, and 40 days were set aside to mourn for Tammuz each year, and this was to be done before the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which happens towards the end of March.

Ezekiel 8:15-16 ...'Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.'

Again an even greater abomination than the last is this one. These men had their backs to God's Temple and were worshipping the sun in the east. Now it's interesting to note that God had the temple made in a way to stop this from happening. The door to the temple was placed on the east side, so that coming to the temple, they would have their backs turned to the rising sun in the east. Also, the ark of the covenant was placed in the west side of the temple, again so that the men would have their backs to the rising sun. But unfortunately they incorporated the heathen ways and ended up with their backs to the temple and facing the sun instead. Does this happen today? How about the professing church replacing the true seventh day sabbath with SUN-day? How about sunrise service at easter? Backs to the church, facing the rising sun in the east?

So whether it is breaking the second commandment and worshipping idols, or breaking the first and having other gods, or breaking the fourth commandment and worshipping the sun over God's holy seventh day sabbath, they are all abominations in the sight of God and we must flee from them, otherwise desolation would be brought upon us. Willful breaking of God's Ten Commandments is an abomination in His sight. Now many professing Christians believe that Jesus abolished the law, but this is not the truth. See did Jesus abolish the ten commandments for the Bible truth.

Jeremiah was told by God to warn the people of Jerusalem to not break the fourth Commandment ... Jeremiah 17:19-22 ...'Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.' ... So Jeremiah warned God's people not to break the Sabbath Commandment, not to bear any burden on the seventh day.

And God warned that if they did not heed the warning to keep His Sabbath Day holy, then He would bring desolation upon the city ... Jeremiah 17:27 ...'But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.'

Did the Jews heed God's warning? No ... Jeremiah 17:23 ...'But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.'

And we can see the fulfillment of this, where God caused desolation for Israel in Jeremiah 25:11 ...'And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.' ... AND 2 Chronicles 36:21 ...'To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.' ... Threescore and ten is 70 years! If the Jews would not keep the Sabbath Day of God, then He would CAUSE the land to keep His Sabbath, by making it desolate.

Is the Sabbath Day important to God? Very much so!

Daniel also saw and understood this truth in Daniel 9, and through him, God gave the Jews the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel to put a final end to their rebellion, to keep His law, and to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Otherwise they would no longer be the chosen nation of God.

After the mistake of not keeping the Sabbath day holy and the desolation of the first temple, the Jewish leaders (Pharisees) not wanting to make the same error, went too far the other way and over legalized the Sabbath Commandment by adding hundreds of their own rules to it, which ultimately lead to disobedience again.

And guess what has happened to the church today because of the Pharisees? They have gone back to square one like the Jews in Jeremiah's day by not keeping the Sabbath at all!!

What a grand job Satan has done in deceiving God's people!

Even though the Pharisees thought they were being "religious" by adding all these rules to the Sabbath Commandment, Jesus confirmed that they were back to breaking God's law and worshipped in vain ... Mark 7:6-9 ...'Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.' ... Once again the people found themselves deep in vain and rebellious worship.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time He saw the consequences and desolation of their continued rebellion and abominations ... Luke 19:41-44 ...'And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.' ... This broke Jesus' heart, as He tried to show them the right way, but as is the way of God, we have our own freedom of choice. He is not going to force us to obey Him. We must choose to obey Him, which will result in Him protecting and saving us.

So now because of this continued rebellion and final rejection of Christ Jesus, when they nailed Him to the cross, the desolation which Daniel prophesied about in Daniel 9:26-27, which Jesus confirmed in Matthew 24:15-16 was to take place upon Jerusalem once more. When did this desolation take place? In 70 AD, when the Roman army surrounded the city and destroyed it. Although over 1 million Jews lost their lives in the siege, many Christians remembered the words of Christ and the prophecy of Daniel and they fled to the mountains just as Jesus told them to in Matthew 24, and were saved from the desolation at the hands of the Roman army.

How can we learn from the abomination of desolation today? In the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7, you will learn of an apostate church that arose to power who brought abominations into the Christian church. That apostate power is the Papacy, better known as the Roman Catholic Church. This Roman Catholic Church have brought many of the pagan traditions and abominations into the Christian church for which ancient Jerusalem was destroyed and laid desolate, including replacing the seventh Day Sabbath with a day devoted to the sun god (SUN-day). And the final abomination will be when the image of the Roman Catholic Church is set up in America (church and state union, see image of the beast for more info), and a man made Sunday law is enforced which is in direct opposition to the fourth commandment of our Creator God.

The Christian church today is mirroring literal Israel of the Old Testament, and are committing many of the same sins, and will ultimately reap the same desolations. The whore of Revelation 17, Babylon the great is none other than the Roman Catholic Church, and it says that she has daughters (harlots). Those daughters are the protestant churches that continue to hold on to those Pagan traditions that the Papal church incorporated into Christianity.

Revelation 17:2-5 ...'With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations> and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.'

And what will be the end of Babylon the mother, and her harlots? ... Revelation 17:16 ...'And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.'

Revelation 18:5-8 ...'For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.'

Revelation 18:4 ...'And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'

God is giving a clear warning to anyone who has joined with Babylon (Roman Catholic Church) in any way, or any other fallen churches, that they will share in her sins. And the abominations that she has done will bring desolation to all who stay with her. For more information about this subject, see what is the abomination of desolation.