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Pt. 17 DAY 1,290:
JERUSALEM’S DESOLATION DECREED
Daily Worship is Abolished at the Temple Mount &
Antichrist’s Abomination is Set Up
Two Anointed Witnesses Are Killed
The anointed prophets will give a final charge
against Antichrist and his repulsive act in Jerusalem, but he will not heed it.
Matthew 17:1-4 identifies the two prophetic voices—Moses and Elijah—who have for
centuries lived above but will leave Paradise to once again lead God’s people
and confront sin. Rejection of God’s closing counsel leads to dire
consequences: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the
knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful
expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of
God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the
testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a
man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the Covenant that sanctified him, and
who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26-29). The three religions
of Jerusalem and the worldwide community will reject the final warning.
The tide of sin can be restrained no longer. A
demonic power from the Abyss will overcome and kill the prophets, and they will
die a martyr’s death as their Savior did many centuries before at the same
location. Revelation 11:7 states, “Now when they have finished their [1,260
day] testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and
overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city
[Jerusalem], which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their LORD
was crucified.” Jesus said, “Surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” (Luke
13:33-34).
Throughout the book of Revelation the “great city”
depicts the city of Jerusalem;
this title and the reason for her final destruction originate in Jeremiah
22:7-8: “I [the LORD] will send destroyers against you, each man with his
weapons… People from many nations will pass by this city and ask one another,
‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city [Jerusalem]?’ And the
answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the LORD their God
[Ten Commandments] and have worshiped and served other gods.’” Christians and
Jews alike should know better, but they will betray the LORD and His
commandments in allegiance to Antichrist.
The ancient city of Jerusalem is the holy site of
our faith, and we love her heritage and history; but the great city is not the
hope of our salvation. Even Abraham, the father of our faith, did not long for
an earthly city, but for the Heavenly: “for he was looking forward to the City
with foundations, whose architect and builder is God,” (Hebrews 11:10). Great
personalities of faith throughout the ages, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, “were
longing for a better country—a heavenly one… for He [God] has prepared a City
for them,” (Hebrews 11:16). Paul wrote, “for we do not have an enduring city
[Jerusalem, on earth], but we are looking for the City that is to come [from
Heaven above],” (Hebrews 13:14). Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be
troubled… In My Father’s house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and
take you to be with Me [above] that you also may be where I am,” (John 14:1-3).
The New Jerusalem is the hope of our faith and the eternal capital of the
redeemed.
Elijah’s (and Moses’) eventual murder at the end of
the appointed time can be found in the 70 Weeks of Daniel 9:26. Gabriel says,
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ [434 days] the anointed one [Elijah] will be cut
off and will have nothing” [or, “but not for himself,” NIV f26] (Daniel 9:26)
which means, Messiah’s warnings through the voice of the prophets, Elijah (and
Moses) will be cut off. There will be no one left to hold back the man of
lawlessness from entering onto Jerusalem’s most holy site.
In God’s Word “an anointed one” is a term
associated with a “set apart” individual such as a king,
a prophet,
and more specifically the two prophets of the last days (“two olive
trees… these are the two [witnesses] who are anointed to serve the LORD
of all the earth,” Zechariah 4:11-14; Revelation 11:3-4). Suffice it to say, an
anointed individual or a ruling prophet will arrive in Jerusalem at the exact
appointed time prophesied in the sacred text. Elijah, with Moses, will be hated
messengers of truth.
Psalm 2:1-3 speaks of the world’s disdain for God’s
chosen witnesses: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the LORD, and against his anointed saying: Let us break their
bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
Amos warns concerning the death of God’s prophetic
voices, “In that day [death of my witnesses],” declares the Sovereign LORD, “I
will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight [as at
His death on the cross]. I will turn your religious feasts [High Holy Days]
into mourning and all your singing [celebration at their deaths] into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads… the days are coming…
when I will send a famine in the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for
water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea
to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but
they will not find it [for they have killed God’s anointed ones],” (Amos
8:9-12). Elohim warns the nations, “Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets
no harm,” (Psalm 105:15).
Matthew 27:39-45 relates events surrounding the
crucifixion, which parallel the fate of the two witnesses who will also die at
the delight of Jerusalem’s modern-day religious leaders. The three days of
darkness at the appointed time of the end following the death of the two
witnesses are pictured in the three hours of darkness at the death of Jesus. In
three days the two witnesses will be raised back to life, while Jerusalem is
slated for destruction. “Those who passed by hurled insults at Him [Yeshua],
shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and
build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the
Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the
elders mocked Him. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can't save Himself!
He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will
believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He
said, ‘I am the Son of God.’… From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness
came over all the land.”
Moses and Elijah will lie in the streets of
Jerusalem as unburied corpses in open disgrace. Great excitement, in lightning
speed, will flood the globe. The way has been made for the world’s religious
leader to enter the Temple area in Jerusalem as priest for the people. Surely,
the world believes, this will bring everlasting peace.
Daily Worship is Abolished at the Temple Mount &
Antichrist’s Abomination is Set Up
The Western Wall in the midst of the Old City in
Jerusalem is the same section of the Western supporting wall of the Temple
Mount, which has remained intact since the destruction of the Second Jerusalem
Temple (70 A.D.). It has become the most sacred spot in Jewish religious
tradition by virtue of its proximity to the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies
in the Temple. It became a center of mourning over the destruction of the Temple
and Israel’s exile, and a shrine of hope for Israel’s restoration. Because of
the association to the Temple’s destruction, it became known as the “Wailing
Wall.” The Wall has been guest to thousands of worshippers who arrive day and
night in a continual procession of worship, a place where requests rise up to
the Holy One of Israel. However, this daily worship will be taken away at Purim
early in the appointed last days (Point 8), then eventually restored through the
rebuilding of Jerusalem (Point 13), and finally taken away once again (Point
17): “He [Antichrist] will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’ [one
week]. In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering
[the daily]. And on the wing of the Temple, he will set up an abomination that
causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him,” (Daniel
9:27).
Prophecy offers a mysterious time frame associated
with this act: “From the time the daily [“tamid,” or “continual”
worship]… is abolished (Point 8) and the abomination that causes desolation is
set up (Point 17), there will be 1,290 days,” (Daniel 12:11). Because
sacrificial rituals and offerings are restored during the last days, at the time
this prophecy is fulfilled near the end of time, we will know that daily worship
has resumed at Jerusalem’s holy site.
These worshipful activities will be abolished so the
abomination can be set up on the Temple Mount. Antichrist will step onto the
Temple Mount and announce that he is not just the Vicar of Christ, but he is God
revealed. Blaspheme will reach its pinnacle. Just when it seems as though
peace will finally reign over this troubled planet, then sudden destruction will
come.
As the last moments of grace linger for our fallen world, the sun will grow dim,
and the whole earth will be shrouded in darkness.
Paul wrote, “The Day of the LORD will not come until
the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness [Antichrist] is revealed [the
evil impostor of good who will eventually proclaim himself deity]. He opposes
and exalts himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, and even
sets himself up in God’s Temple [in Jerusalem], proclaiming himself to be God,”
(2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). This outrageous declaration will expose the evil
motives of the false messiah. For the first time, the followers of Antichrist
will understand the depth of his iniquity. Heaven will respond. Paul predicts
the man of sin’s fate: “whom the LORD Jesus will [quickly] overthrow with the
breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming.”
This Jewish leader will “show favor to those who
forsake the Holy Covenant [Decalogue]” to follow after vain idols. He will “set
up the abomination that causes desolation [ruin],” according to Daniel
11:30-31. Peter once wrote that pagan Gentiles indulge in all sorts of sins,
including “abominable idolatries,” (1 Peter 4:3). Many times in God’s Word,
idol worship is referred to as an “abomination,” so we should not think it
strange that one day Antichrist will take his own abomination onto the Temple
Mount. This crowning act will bring about the final destruction upon the Temple
site, Jerusalem, Israel, the Middle East and eventually the entire planet. God
will unleash His divine retribution upon those who scoffed at His prophecies of
warning—warnings which clearly aligned on the Hebrew Calendar of events,
foretelling the coming apostasy and the end of the age. Daniel writes of a
blessing for the living saints left behind—the 144,000—who hold onto their faith
during the short, but severe, 40 day period of Great Tribulation until the end
of the 1,335 days and the visible return of Messiah.
Jesus endorses and confirms Daniel’s warning when He
spoke to His disciples about last-day events: “when you see standing in the holy
place [in Jerusalem] the abomination [Antichrist] that causes desolation, spoken
of through the prophet Daniel [day 1,290]—let the reader understand [what the
prophecies are telling them]—then let those who are in Judea flee to the
mountains [for desolation begins at the Temple in Jerusalem and with false
Christianity]…
for then there will be great distress [Great Tribulation—Daniel 12:1-3],
unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled
again,” (Matthew 24:15, 21).
Although this repulsive deed on the part of
Antichrist is often repeated in this book, it is the crowning act of sin which
brings about terrible devastation to Planet Earth, the death of untold millions
and the end of civilization as we know it. It is the dire warning, the striking
of midnight, to which so much of prophecy points.
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