JESUS AND THE GREAT DISTRESS
In The Words Of The King!
MATTHEW 24:15-30 NIV
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time. 26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 29 “Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
MARK 14:14-25 NIV
14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. 20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time. 24 “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
LUKE 21:20-28 NIV
20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
What Was Jesus Talking About?
In these scriptures, Jesus is speaking to his fellow Israelites, the disciples, not to the Gentiles, as it is written in Matthew 15:24. There are three different accounts of the same event recorded by the disciples who were present. Jesus refers to us seeing something standing in the holy place that shouldn’t be there, which is also mentioned in the book of Daniel the Prophet. He directs his followers to look for the answer there. Jesus predicts the occurrence of a unique and unparalleled event in human history. He is referring to the Temple as the holy place, but for over 13 centuries, the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine has stood in its place. So, what was Jesus talking about? Was he mistaken? “I will demonstrate that Jesus was referring to the Dome of the Rock and the Muslim slave trade. Jesus was saying that his people would fall to it. He shows special concern for women, saying it will be a terrible time for them.” In the subject of interest, we are obligated to answer many questions, such as:
1. What is the specific connection between the events described in the text and the Muslim-Arab slave trade?
2. How do the events described in the text align with historical records and interpretations?
3. In what ways do the prophecies described in the text relate to the present or future?
The Great Distress Was Not In 70 AD!
I will break this down and answer it in later posts. Contrary to what most people believe today, Jesus was not talking about the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. Yes, at the time, there was destruction, but the Hebrews were never scattered into all nations by the sword as from the perspective of Luke 21:20-24. This did not happen in 70 A.D., and nothing was built in its place until the second century. However, the Bible does talk about the events of 70 A.D in the book of Daniel 9:26, which says:
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”
See my post explaining sixty two sevens
This passage discusses the events when Roman Emperor Vespasian and his son General Titus, destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. It also mentions that further desolations would continue, including the revolt of Bar-Kochkba in 132-136 A.D. These events provide evidence that the Hebrews were not scattered in 70 A.D. by the sword, as stated in the scriptures we are examining. Roman Emperor Hadrian built a temple to Jupiter on the site of the holy temple and erected a statue of Jupiter in the holy of holies. However, this was not the Abomination that caused desolation according to Christ and Daniel because it did not meet the criteria given in the Book of Daniel or the words of Christ in the Gospels.
A Christian Zionist Perspective
From a Zionist perspective, modern Israel was established before these events could take place. In an attempt to reconcile the scriptures with reality, many wild theories about the prophecies in the scriptures have been concocted. The issue with this is that God promised that his people would no longer suffer once he established Israel. So what is happening here? Is this the actual return? Is biblical prophecy even of a divine nature? Did Jesus and the prophets know what they were talking about? If this were in relation to the current state of Israel, it would mean that God had destroyed Jerusalem and scattered them for centuries only to reestablish Israel and judge them again with terrible slaughter. It also means that he rewarded them with a home without first repenting for their sins in between the judgements. They will need to accept Christ as the offering made for their sins and repent of their trespasses.
Have the Divine Regulations Been Adjusted?
From whatever angle we wish to observe, this conflicts with God’s nature because, as Christians, we all know that we have to repent and ask God for forgiveness before we can receive the gift of salvation. Have the divine regulations been adjusted for Modern Israel? Why was God’s Judgment not completed in the years Israel was destroyed? If the conditions were changed for modern Israel, who had sinned against God by arousing his jealousy, why couldn’t he use those conditions for Adam and for Eve, who had only eaten a fruit that was forbidden to them? This amendment to God’s divine regulations could have saved mankind aeons of warfare, hostility, genocide and so on. From another angle, it is tantamount to completely invalidating the sacrifice Jesus had to make for us all.
What A Fine Mess We’ve Gotten Into!
As you can clearly see, there are no small amount of problems to rectify with this ongoing interpretation, yet it remains unchallenged in the Christian community. So it would seem that the only thing that the nation of modern Israel has in common with ancient Israel, in terms of biblical prophecy, of course, is the actual name and nothing else. Was this a problem that God had seen before, and was it addressed in biblical prophecy? Did the Spirit of God warn the church before it happened? This is a matter for further investigation, and we, as the church, must get the answers we require to make sense of the prophecy. In another way of putting it, we must make sense of the prophecies to be better equipped for the impending judgments to come. So, it is imperative that the interpretations of our prophetic timelines must go through a process of defragmentation to give clear and concise instructions to the church in the last days. A state of confusion can and will lead to the demise of a larger portion of the modern church.
The destruction of the second Temple is part of ongoing events in the 70 weeks of Daniel chapter 9 that lead to the “Abomination that causes Desolation.” We will investigate further in later chapters.
So, the criteria that Jesus has given us for the great distress and the Abomination of Desolation are:
- It will be spoken of and confirmed in the book of the prophet Daniel (Matthew 24:15, Mark 14:15)
- It will be a challenging time for pregnant women & nursing mothers (Matthew 24:19, Mark 14:17)
- Something will happen when this thing is standing in the place it should not be (Matthew 24:15, Mark 14:15)
- Jesus says that this will be in fulfilment of what has been written and declared so that we can find evidence in the prophets (Luke 21:22)
- Jesus tells his people to leave and never return. The true Israelites had to leave that region. (Matthew 24:16-18, Mark 14:14-17)
- The days will be shortened because of his people, the elect; they will not return until the angels gather them from the four winds of heaven (Matthew 24:31, Mark 14:27)
- A time of distress will appear in mankind that will never be equalled again (Matthew 24:21, Mark:14:19 Luke 21:24)
This list is further updated in another post
The True Genius of Jesus Christ
For added context, Jesus and his disciples were near the temple during the time of this conversation. Remember, Jesus is the Son of God, which means His prophecies must be perfect. As He Himself declared in Matthew 24:35, not a single word can fail. Can we trust Jesus at his word? Has the time of the Gentiles come to an end in line with the prophecy of Christ?
It Doesn’t Make Sense
The problem Christians face with this criteria so far is that it doesn’t align with the Modern state of Israel. For many years, I believed that this was the fulfilment of prophecy. Well, if it is the fulfilment, then the bible is not very accurate in its prophecies, and that is something, unfortunately, that we will have to come to terms with. To reconcile this, many Christians say that the abomination that causes desolation has not happened yet. This is a very common practice with us when we do not understand the scriptures. We fabricate a reality that matches our beliefs. This is dangerous and has been. We need to trust that Jesus spoke the truth and that his word must come to pass. There are so many scriptures and prophecies that have been flagrantly contradicted if this is true. However, during the course of these posts, you are going to see that Jesus was beyond all the prophets in the Bible in wisdom and understanding. You will appreciate the way he has summed up all the prophecies and describes everything in a way we can understand. You will even come to appreciate him as a one-of-a-kind genius, which is something I have not heard the Lord being called before. So be prepared to appreciate Jesus, not just as a moral teacher but as a master and Lord of the prophetic.
