Matthew 24:15-21: The Abomination of Desolation

“There will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning…and never will be.” Jesus, Matthew 24:21

The study of theology is “exploring a mystery, not solving a problem,” (Dr. Imad Shehadeh, Arab Christian theologian).

“There are many difficulties in deciding between these interpretations,” (ESV Study Bible, notes on Daniel 9).

As a citizen of your country, what is hallowed ground for you?   Where is the one place that if you are there, your emotions are stirred?   For Americans, it may be Ground Zero in New York City, a graveyard at Normandy, standing next to the original Declaration of Independence in Washington DC or a MLK’s room at the Lorraine hotel in Memphis.   

For the citizens of Biblical Israel, it is likely that their most hallowed ground was the Holy of Holies, the inner-most room within the Jerusalem temple.  This is the place entered ONLY once a year and ONLY by the High Priest who sprinkled blood and burned incense on the altar.   This action cleansed the Jews of their sins for the year (see Leviticus 16).  Here is where sinful man was reconciled with Holy God, even if only for the next year.  This was very holy ground for Israel.

Now imagine as an American if a foreign army attacked Ground Zero again, or dug up the American graves in Normandy or destroyed the original Declaration of Independence or ransacked MLK’s room at the Lorraine hotel, what signal would that send to our country?   What emotions would that stir in you as a citizen?  

These are the emotions that Israel had to deal with when told a Gentile will enter the Holy of Holies.   This is what Jesus is referring to when He speaks of the abomination of desolation (v. 15).   The desecration of the Holy of Holies is the ultimate mocking of God’s holiness and the ultimate insulting of Israel as God’s son (see Exodus 4:22, Hosea 11:1).   

Jesus is teaching His disciples what are the signs of His coming and “the close of the age” (Matthew 24:3).   Mark’s version (Mark 13:14) also speaks of the abomination of desolation but Matthew adds detail that his Jewish readers, familiar with the Old Testament, would understand.  Matthew includes Jesus’ reference to the prophet Daniel (v.15).

There are three primary opinions among Bible scholars today as to when the abomination of desolation is to take place; each opinion fits into the mainstream of Christian thought.  One is that it happened in 168 BC as predicted in Daniel 11:31 and fulfilled by king Antiochus as detailed in 1 Maccabeus 1:54-61.   The other opinion is that this was fulfilled with the destruction of the temple in AD 70.   A third opinion says it has yet to happen and that Jesus is referencing the “seventy weeks” of Daniel 9:24-27.  I believe this option because when the abomination happens, there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be (v. 21).   

I believe it is likely that the abomination of desolation will happen with the rise and the world-wide worship of the anti-Christ (see Revelation 13:11-18).  The other two possible fulfillments are types, or fore-shadowings; the ultimate fulfillment of the abomination of desolation has not yet happened.  But when it does, tribulation such has never been seen and never will be seen will accompany it.   Revelation 14, 16 and 19 chronicle an unprecedented tribulation.

And when this happens, Jesus says, flee to the mountains!   Do not return to your house, or get your cloak, just go (vv. 16-18).   Have pity on those women who are pregnant or nursing infants (v. 19) because the journey will be rough.   Jesus adds, pray your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.   If the Jewish elite condemned the Sabbath healing of a man (see John 5:10; Matthew 12:9-14), how much more will they protest a Sabbath flight? A Sabbath day’s journey, according to the Pharisees, was a little over 2 miles, not far enough to disappear into the mountains (see Acts 1:12).  

We western Christians have had easy lives.   This ease is not guaranteed for tomorrow and certainly not for the next generation.  May we prepare our children and ourselves to abide in the vine, love Jesus with all our heart, soul and mind and to prepare to persevere for we do not know with certainty when the tribulation will be or what it will hold. 

Matthew 24:14: Proclaiming the Gospel and the Call for Martyrs

“this gospel…will be proclaimed [to] the whole world…and then the end will come.”  Jesus, Matthew 24:14

“The blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church.”  (Second century Church father Tertullian)

“There are no closed nations when men and women freely choose to lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel.”  (Adoniriam Judson, 1788-1850, America’s first international missionary) 

Today the missionary fervor of the church appears to be high.   Africans, Asians, Europeans and Americans (North and South) are obeying His call to the take the gospel to the remotest ends of the earth (see Acts 1:8).   Modern technology and political changes are allowing for new penetrations of the gospel.  The “bamboo curtain” surrounding China is proving to be porous and unprecedented revival is happening there.

  

Today the gospel is being heard for the first time in hundreds of years in places like Bosnia and Albania.   More Muslims are coming to Christ now than ever in history.    I have heard accounts of great awakenings currently happening in places most of the Christian world considers to be totally shut-off to the gospel.  

Yet there is still a long ways to go.   The Joshua Project (joshuaproject.net) estimates that 2.83 billion people today live in an “unreached people group,” meaning they have no active gospel witness within their culture.

David Robinson is a friend and a pioneering missionary of our generation.   He uses an illustration to show how much work must still be done to proclaim Christ throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, “ethnos”:  Line up 2 billion people (still shy of the 2.83 billion unreached peoples); put each person one meter apart.  If you started at one end of the line and drove a car at 50 mph, 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, how long will it take to drive the length of that line?  7 ½ years.  Friend, there is still much work to be done.    

Also there is a connection between suffering and reaching the world with the gospel.  That is why I believe this passage here in Matthew 24 about proclaiming the gospel is in the midst of many promises of suffering.   All of the easy places to preach Christ have already been reached; the places that remain unreached today are hostile to the gospel.   We must be willing to suffer and die if we are to push the gospel into new frontiers. 

One must wonder if we are willing to suffer and die for the gospel.  Never has so much abundance been given to the church as it has today.   Yet instead of using that wealth to proclaim Christ, Who is the greatest treasure, we are using that wealth to pad our comforts.  World Magazine (February 23, 2002) reports on “the rule of 3s”.  American Christians give approximately 3% of their income to Christian causes and a scant 3% of American Christians tithe.  Of the money that is given, 3% makes it to Christian causes beyond the borders of America.    I sometimes wonder if the Lord is preparing to remove our lampstand (see Revelation 2:5).

Meanwhile the Chinese church, hardened by persecution, is taking the gospel “back to Jerusalem.”   Jerusalem is where the gospel began 2000 years ago, then it moved to Europe, then America and now East Asia is becoming the epicenter of our faith.   The Chinese want to proclaim Christ across the Muslim Asian Republics, fully aware of the hardships required, and thus complete the process of taking the gospel “back to Jerusalem.”

One hundred years from now, what will you wish you did with your life today?   Will we dream big dreams of proclaiming the gospel throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations?    Or will we pursue small dreams that stop at the grave?  Oh Christian, dream big dreams!  As John Piper says, “Don’t Waste Your Life!” 

Matthew 24:14: Proclaiming the Gospel and His Return

“this gospel…will be proclaimed [to] the whole world…and then the end will come.”  Jesus, Matthew 24:14

It is our unspeakable privilege to be caught up with Him in the greatest movement in history — the ingathering of believers “from all tribes and languages and peoples and nations”...then the supremacy of Christ will be manifest to all.   (John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad)

Here Jesus says one of the great verses, in my opinion, in all of the Olivet Discourse.    As western Christians today, we fervently snatch up any book, movie or ministry about the End Times, no matter how embarrassingly done or poor in its exegesis.   As a result, many well-meaning Christians do extreme and strange things.  We approach His return as a jigsaw puzzle to be solved, yet largely remain uninvolved in proclaiming Christ.  

Yes, scholarly effort is needed when reading the eschatology passages.  Yet one main point is plain to see:   “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come,” (v. 14).   The Lord has pegged His return to the world-wide witness of the gospel.  

The “Left Behind” series has its place.  But if we truly hunger for the “Parousia” (the second coming of Christ), we must be willing to invest and even lay down our lives for the sake of the proclaiming Christ to the world.

When Christ speaks of “nations” (v.14), He is not speaking of a country or political entity such as Australia or Zimbabwe.  Rather the word here for nations is ethnos, meaning a people distinguished by the same language and culture, such as the 12 million Magyar people of central Europe spread across five countries or the 2.5 million Dhanger people who are a subset within the cultural mosaic of the vast Indian subcontinent. 

  

This meaning is reinforced in Revelation 7:9-10: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude…from every nation [i.e., ethnos] from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”  

John MacArthur believes that Matthew 24:14 is fulfilled in Revelation 14:6-7, “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth to every nation and tribe and language and people.  And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give Him glory…’”  (However, other commentators, like William Lane Craig, find language like this in Revelation to be highly symbolic.) 

Reports are coming out of Muslim countries saying that many are coming to faith not through missionaries but because Jesus Christ has appeared to them in a dream.   A friend of mine has recently trained pastors in Iraq and said that of the 14 pastors he trained in one session, 8 of them had become Christians through dreams.

The point is this: the Lord does not need us to communicate Christ to the world.  He could use rocks as His witnesses if He so desired.  But He has made us His “ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:20).   This is a humbling charge; a great stewardship has been bestowed on us.  And I want God to use me; I want to be a sharp tool in His tool belt.    I am but a jar of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7); yet may He show His grace by using me as His witness.  

There is no greater pursuit than the pursuit of God; there is no greater cause than the cause of Christ.   What are you pursuing?  What is your cause?   Are we giving our lives to that which does not survive the grave?  Are we passively on the sidelines of world-wide gospel proclamation?  Or are we living for that AWESOME eternal moment when we, along with one from every nation, will stand before the throne praising the Lamb?    

Matthew 24:13: Enduring till the End

“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”   Jesus, Matthew 24:13

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  (Jesus in John 10:27-29 ESV)

 “Heston, you just stay in the race, and I’ll make sure you win.”  (A quote commonly attributed to Cecil DeMille, director of Ben Hur to Charlton Heston when Heston told him, regarding the movie’s chariot race, he could drive the chariot but he wasn’t sure he could win.)

Jesus is speaking of the difficulties that His disciples, of all ages, will have in following Him, especially as time nears the “close of the age” (24:3).   Disciples of Jesus will be delivered up to death and hated by all (see 24:9).  Jesus adds, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved,” (v.13).   Jesus did not mean by this there will be a great cosmic test to see if one is worthy of heaven.  No one is worthy of heaven (see Psalm 130:3-4).

As we wrestle with the idea that he “who endures to the end will be saved,” we must not isolate one verse and make it a pillar of our soteriology (a big word meaning, “the study of salvation”).  We must interpret one verse by the rest of Scripture and not vice versa.  That said, I wish to make three points about the relationship between our salvation and our own efforts to live the Christian life, particularly during distress and tribulation. 

First, salvation is a gift that cannot be earned (see Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:24; 6:23).  Our salvation is based not on our worthiness but on the worthiness of Christ’s death on the cross to pay for our sins.  With salvation comes justification and peace with God (Romans 5:1), as well as the knowledge of God.  Scripture speaks of intimacy with God as a mark, a result or a fruit of salvation (see Matthew 7:21-23; John 17:3; 1 John 5:11-13).   

Second, there is no room for human boasting before God.  If good works or endurance resulted in salvation, then man could boast that he earned salvation.  But there will be no talk like that among those in Christ (see Romans 3:27; Ephesians 2:8-9).   He has worked so that in our salvation we would praise His grace and glory (see Ephesians 1:6, 12; 2:7), not our own glory.   He will share His glory with no one (see Isaiah 42:8).

 

John MacArthur says it succinctly in his commentary on Matthew chapter 24: “Endurance cannot initiate salvation any more than can any other human effort.” Some have asked a good question: “Isn’t faith a ‘work’?”   I like how my friend and Denver Seminary graduate Gary Rickard answered this question: “Faith is the acknowledgment that our good works cannot save us.” 

Third, it is God who is at work in growing our faith.   Paul says that he is sure of this: “that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:6).   In a few verses later, Paul admonishes “to work out your salvation in fear and trembling,” but so we know where the burden lies, Paul adds, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

What Jesus is saying in this verse is that those who have salvation will endure to the end; true saints will persevere.    We must abide in the vine for apart from Him we can do nothing (see John 15:5); our enduring until the end will be the result of our abiding not of our striving.     And when hard times come, we will lean on the truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God (see Romans 8:38-39).  Even those who deliver us to death cannot snatch us from His hand.  We are His.  Let us encourage one another with these words.