Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the 'abomination of desolation' as a pivotal event in end-time prophecy, urging believers to take the teachings of Scripture literally rather than spiritualizing them. He highlights that this event, foretold by Daniel and referenced by Jesus in Matthew 24, marks the beginning of the great tribulation and requires a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Bickle explains that the abomination involves the Antichrist demanding worship through an image placed in the temple, leading to widespread persecution and desolation. He stresses the importance of understanding the implications of this prophecy for the future of the Church and the world, as it is central to recognizing the signs of the times.

Go ahead and turn to page 39, session 4. Father, we thank you that you gave us understanding of what's coming. Lord, we honor you, and we come to you with a spirit of faith and confidence. We want to believe what you say. Take what you say as what you really mean, and we say thank you for it. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. One of the great tendencies today is for Bible teachers to take end-time prophecy and spiritualize it to where it has no impact for the future. And they spiritualize it, and they make it so it was fulfilled in ancient times, so there's nothing that we have in the Scripture preparing us for the future except for heaven. And I think that's a tragedy, that's a great disaster in the body of Christ to take these chapters. I don't mean just Daniel or Revelation. There's actually 150 chapters in the Bible, 150, of which the primary topic is the end times or the age to come, 150. And to reduce those to symbolism and then to remove them from our future is a great, great loss to the body of Christ. And so I have, along with thousands of other Bible teachers, a great energy about seeing these as literal, honoring them, and that they say, God says what He means, it means what He says, and we take them at face value. Well we're going to look at this most significant subject called the abomination of desolation. And we need to understand the basics of what it is. And the reason is because this is the main thing that the great teacher Jesus, yes He's more than a prophet, He's more than a teacher, He's fully God and fully man, but He is a great teacher. And He told us, learn and understand what the abomination of desolation is, and He told us this in context of Matthew 24, His primary teaching on the end times, and He said go to the abomination of desolation, understand it, and if you understand it, you will understand many things about what I'm saying here in Matthew chapter 24. So He called us to see the abomination of desolation and He pointed us back to the book of Daniel. Jesus did. He said here in verse 15, and we're going to quote this a number of times in this session, He says, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, when you see it, talking about believers, they will see it with their eyes, or they'll see it unfold, a particular generation will. They'll hear about it in the news, they'll see it, the believers in the land, as well as those far away. When you see the abomination of desolation, He goes, I mean the one that Daniel talked about and he talked about it four times, and we're going to look at those four passages. And when that abomination is standing in the holy place, that's a key phrase, it's talking about the image of the Antichrist standing in the holy place of the temple, the rebuilt temple in the city of Jerusalem. Now this prophecy means the temple has to be rebuilt or this image can't stand in it. But Jesus said, when you see this image, this abomination, standing in the holy place, verse 16, if you are in the geographic area of Jerusalem, flee. He goes, because it will be trouble that you cannot imagine. Then He goes on in verse 21, He says, then there will be great tribulations such as never been before. So Jesus, this is the one political or religious event, because it's both political and religious, this is the primary one He points to, that the body of Christ will be able to recognize it if they have a teaching on it, and I believe that this teaching will, I don't mean my teaching, but I mean the teaching about the abomination will fill the earth before the Lord returns. And believers everywhere will understand what it means, though today most believers don't know what it means, they just look at that and go, wow, that sounds heavy. And well it's more than something that sounds heavy, it's something that is to be understood. Look what Jesus, I mean it's said here in verse 15, let's read it again. When you see the abomination of desolation spoken by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, whoever reads it, here's the exhortation, let that person understand the implications, that's the idea. And the way you understand the implications is by going to the four passages in Daniel that talk about it. And when that image is standing in the holy place, now it doesn't call it an image here, but it makes it clear it's an image in the rest of Scripture, and we'll look at that in a minute. Flee to the mountains and know that the great tribulation has started. So the great sign of the great tribulation is the abomination of desolation. Until that starts, until that happens, until that image is in the holy place in Jerusalem, the tribulation cannot start. Paragraph B, Jesus made it clear, made it clear Daniel's abomination of desolation is the central event to understanding his view in Matthew chapter 24. In Matthew 24, that's the chapter that we're referencing, Jesus is saying this is the primary political and religious event that will take place. And it is very much a political event and very much a religious event. It's the only event that he identified that will let his people know that the great tribulation is happening. Now there's many signs, many trends, but this is the actual only event that says the great tribulation has now begun today when this happens. And it will be unmistakable when it happens. Now there's many implications to this. And that's what the Scripture means with let the reader understand. The idea is understand the four passages in the book of Daniel that talk about the abomination of desolation and understand the implications that are obviously events that have to happen for this abomination of desolation to take place and understand the implications of what will happen after it takes place. So that's what Matthew means by inserting this, let him understand. Understand what needs to take place before the abomination and understand what will happen after the abomination. Understand the implications. Paragraph C for instance, for the abomination to be there, Israel has to be a nation. Well for 2,000 years they were not a nation. There can't be an abomination in the temple of Jerusalem unless there's a nation. So this passage right here tells you Israel has to be a nation. Well for 2,000 years many Bible teachers said that's not possible. Well in 1948 they became a nation. The next thing, Jerusalem has to be under the jurisdiction of the Jewish people. Well Israel became a nation in 1948 and it was 20 years later, 1967, about 20 years later, they get the authority over the city of Jerusalem. They have to have jurisdiction over Jerusalem in order to have a temple there because the temple's in Jerusalem. If they don't have authority over Jerusalem they can't establish a temple there. Then the temple has to be built on the original site of Solomon's temple. That's a critical point to the Jewish people. Then after it's built there has to be functioning sacrifices, animal sacrifices. Someone says well what about those animal sacrifices? No they don't in any way enhance our salvation. Believers, we don't participate in them, this is unbelieving Jewish people, Orthodox and devout. They think that the law of Moses, that they're still under that and they are God-fearing Jewish people who don't have a relationship to God through Jesus. They don't understand it. They're not born again. They're not saved. They're the ones that do it. And the sacrifices don't help salvation at all. And so we don't participate in it at all. But it's a sign of the times. They will put, they will start those sacrifices because until those are in place the abomination can't happen. And so again these are some of the many implications, there's more than this. Well for the Jewish people to have the land, to have Jerusalem, to build the temple, to build the temple on the site of Solomon's temple, well there's the dome of the rock, the golden dome is in the way that's under the power and the authority of the Muslims. An Islamic dome, one of the most sacred sites of Islam is on that site. Hmm. Well Jesus, if you would have known that, maybe you wouldn't have prophesied this. Because that dome wasn't in place for, you know, seven, eight hundred years later, Jesus knew that. He says that dome's exactly at the right place. It's right on the site that the temple will be built. That means something has to happen and I don't know exactly what. I don't think they're going to get a big truck and like pull the dome over a few feet so they can build the temple there. I don't think that's it. But this to me implies clearly there has to be some kind of peace in the Middle East for the Jewish people to build that temple on that site in proximity to that dome. There has to be a huge peace treaty for this to take place. They can't have the state of hostility that exists now and build that temple. It can't happen. Well, the Scripture makes it clear, number two, that the Antichrist is going to make a covenant. He's going to, it says that he's going to confirm a covenant, not make a covenant, I'll say it more accurately, he's going to confirm one. And he's going to confirm it with many. It will involve the Jewish people, it will involve Islamic leaders, it will involve undoubtedly Western powers. It will be a covenant, it's a political covenant that he makes with many, many nations. Number three, in other words, the abomination of desolation is the single key event. Because then when the Antichrist defiles that temple, that's the event that all these other events are connected to and point to. Paragraph D, the abomination of desolation is referred to eight times in the Scripture. Daniel uses the phrase, abomination of desolation, different ways, but four different times. And we're going to look at them in a minute. Then two passages quote Jesus making reference of this phrase from Daniel. And then Paul describes it, he doesn't use the term abomination of desolation, but he describes it. And then John describes it. So Paul gives some of the details, and then John gives the other details. And so if we take the four passages of Daniel, the two statements of Jesus, or the two references that Jesus quotes it, and then we take the two descriptions, one by Paul, one by John, those eight passages, we compare them to each other, then we can obey what the Scripture says, let the reader understand the implications of these verses. And so that's, that's what we're doing in this session. Now we will best understand the implications by comparing all eight of the passages. All eight of them have a, a different piece of information to bring to the composite of, of the whole storyline that's involved here. Paragraph E. Now very significant is that Matthew 24, Jesus gave His most detailed teaching on the end times. I mean by far Matthew 24 has the most detail. And in Matthew 24, He made three direct references to Daniel. I mean Jesus really appreciated Daniel's end time teaching. That seems a little trite to say it just that way. But He picks Daniel out of all the other prophets. He highlights Daniel in a very specific way. The first direct reference is right here. He says the abomination of desolation that Daniel talked about. Understand that. Then a few verses later in verse 21 when He talked about the great tribulation, such has never ever occurred. That's a direct quote from Daniel chapter 12 verse 1. We'll look at that in a few minutes as well. Jesus is quoting Daniel again in verse 21. And then later Jesus talks about the Son of Man coming on the clouds. Well that's Daniel 7. We just looked at that. The Son of Man will come on the clouds. I mean it's Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. He emphasizes Daniel much more than any other. The only other man He mentions by name is Noah. So Noah and Daniel are the two that Jesus highlights. And Noah He said that the people would behave in the nations like they did in the days of Noah. And so He references Noah and He references Daniel. So that gives a heightened importance to the ministry and the message and the situation of those two men related to the end times. Roman numeral 2. What is the abomination of desolation? Well it refers to specific deeds that are done that are abominable to God. There's these deeds that are such an abomination to God. So they're deeds. They're evil deeds. That's what the abomination is. It's one primary deed but many deeds associated with it. They are deeds that lead to desolation. Now another word for desolation, you could use the word destruction. These abominable deeds, because they're done at the level the Antichrist will do them and enforce them and the way that the nations will respond to them, receiving them, they will cause great desolation or destruction in the nation. So kind of say it in another way. They are abominable deeds that lead to desolation or destructions. Those deeds lead to judgments or destructions because it's not just the judgment of God we're going to see in a moment. It's also the rage of the Antichrist. Paragraph B. What are these abominable deeds? What are these desolations that result from them? Well if you, if you read the New Testament, the main thing emphasized in the New Testament as the abominable deed is the Antichrist places his image in the temple. He sets up an idol or an image of himself in the holy place. That's what the New Testament focuses on as the primary abomination. If you read the book of Daniel, the primary negative is the stopping of the sacrifices and replacing the sacrifices with this idol. So they get rid of the sacrifices and in the place of it they are to worship the Antichrist in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Paragraph D. This abomination to God will incur in two different ways. Number one, the first part of the abomination is the demands of the Antichrist. He will demand, not, it's not optional. That's what makes it so abominable. He will demand that he is worshipped as God when he puts his idol in the temple. But it's more serious than his image or his idol. He actually sits, he himself goes in and sits there and says, I'm God. So it's not just his idol, he himself, but because he's running the nations he can't stay there all the time. But that image stays there permanently and he goes in and makes it like a throne where he is worshipped by the nations from there. So he demands it. The second part of the abomination is that millions, hundreds of millions, they accept it. I mean, it's one thing for him to demand it. It's another thing for hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two, I mean, we don't know the number, huge amounts, they go, good. And they worship him as God. That is an abomination to God. So what he does is an abomination and what the people do is an abomination. Together, his demand at the threat of death, by the way, is a huge abomination and the fact of the response of the people, that's the abomination that Jesus is talking about. Now the desolation will occur in two ways. Paragraph E. Number one, the Antichrist will cause desolation. If people, cities, nations say no, we're not going to worship you. He says, what do you mean no? You don't have an option. And he will use military force to demand they worship and that will cause great destruction. Part of the desolation will be the Antichrist responding to people who say no. And he will say, in essence, no is not an option. I'm not asking your permission. I'm demanding you at the threat of death. So there will be wars fought over the Antichrist's authority in nations and when he gains authority in a nation, he will demand that he is worshipped as God in that nation. Now the Antichrist will influence all the nations of the world. He will have an influence, some more, some less. He will only have domination over a certain number of nations. I mean, it's a good number. We don't know how many. There's 238 nations in the world, depending on how you define a nation. 238 nations. And that number changes a little bit over the years. And so the Antichrist and the 10, that's only 10 of the 238. There's still 128 nations that aren't part of those 10. Many of those nations will be defeated and dominated and come under the Antichrist regime. Some will voluntarily come under it. But there will still be plenty of nations that say no. And they will resist him to the very end. So don't confuse the passages that talk about his influence in the nation. Don't confuse that with he will have full domination and political authority in every nation because he won't. He will not be able to enforce his will. He will be in every nation. He will be resisted to the end by a number of nations. But he will have the biggest empire of any man in history. He will go far beyond some of the famous conquerors and leaders of history. I mean, maybe double, triple, maybe 10 times bigger, I don't know. But there will be no kingdom like his kingdom. But don't have the idea that every nation will be totally under his domination. That's not how the Bible describes it. So he'll cause the desolation for the people who say no, meaning he'll declare war on that city, that region. You can't say no. Well there's another cause for the desolation. It's God will cause desolation. If the people refuse it, the Antichrist will bring destruction to them, or he'll try to. And if they accept it, God will bring destruction on them. So either way it goes, this abomination will lead to desolation, some by the Antichrist, some by God. So I'm just wanting you to get the bigger picture of what's going on. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral three. A closer look at the abomination. John described it in Revelation 13. And we know the tax is pretty famous, but it's still kind of a Christianese kind of thing that shows up in a few movies that's kind of like, wow, but we're going to be gone anyway, so does it really matter? It really does matter. This isn't just a kind of an incidental, kind of eccentric, kind of prophetic event that takes place. This is the most central sign of the times is this, in terms of the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Here's what John described. He described the two components of the abomination. And they're well known. One is the image of the beast, the statue, the idol, and the second one is the mark of the beast, the economic policies that go along with those who refuse or those who accept or worship Him. It says in verse 15, talking about the false prophet, he was granted power to make, to give breath to the image. I don't think we can really picture the supernatural dimension of this image. It will be something so sophisticated, my assumption in technology, plus empowered supernaturally. My guess is it will be the highest technology available to man at that time with a supernatural dimension. I'm imagining that the image is a hologram. It's more than just a little, like a little statue with a little gold covering on it. My guess, it's a hologram of the Antichrist. My guess is it will look exactly like Him in person. And my guess is the images around the world, I mean the local Antichrist sanctuaries around the earth will have technology and holograms that will have the exact image right there in the local shrines all over the earth that reflects the one in Jerusalem. That's just an idea. That's just a theory. I can't prove that, but my point is, He's going to be worshipped in forced worship in the nations of the earth. And it's going to be more than just a small kind of little, like I said, a little wooden statue with a little gold on it saying, well, we don't really believe you're God, but we sort of do. And this image will actually talk and appear to breathe. It will have, it will have the properties of a living, breathing human being, or at least it will appear to. Now, I don't know if it will or won't, but it will certainly appear that way. Let's read it. Verse 15, the false prophet was granted the power to give breath to the image. I mean, how does an image have breath? And the image will speak, and the idea speaks on its own. And it's reflecting what the Antichrist once said, and again, it may not be a hologram. My, my, my guess is it's something that or more sophisticated than that. And it will cause as many as will not worship Him to be killed. That's the desolation I'm talking about. The Antichrist will desolate. The Antichrist will kill and destroy people who say no. Now he won't be utterly successful, totally. He will attempt to. He will be successful to a measure, but he'll never reach the full measure he's after. Jesus returns three and a half years after this image is set up, and He cuts him off, and He, the Antichrist never completes the mission that he's on from at least the vision of his heart. This image will be the greatest abomination in human history, because it not only says worship me, it says worship me or I will kill you. And not only says worship me or I'll kill you, it says worship me, and the image talks and has power and millions, maybe billions are responding to it with great intensity and they're saying yes. So the collection of the whole thing is the abomination that, that Daniel was talking about. Top of page 41, paragraph 3, the image of the beast is one of the most significant signs of the end times. It might be the most significant. It is the same as the abomination of desolation. It's synonymous. And the reason I say it might be the most significant, and I don't think we have to rate them, we can have a few of them that are the most significant, because of the amount of times it's stated in the Bible, ten times. Very few details of prophecy are stated ten times. I mean that's a remarkable amount of emphasis from the scripture. I mean can you imagine ten times this is stated. I don't know that any other event is stated ten times. I mean the second coming with the trumpet in the archangel, that's not said ten times. That's said only a couple times. And so there might be something else right up there with it, but my point is this is not an incidental kind of, kind of understand it if you get around to it. This is a critical end time event. This is the, again it's John's description of the abomination of desolation. Number four, there will be a mark of the beast. And this will obviously, it's well known what this mark is. I mean in the popular understanding it has, the mark is to identify the people that are loyal to the antichrist and that have agreed to worship him. And this mark will indicate who can buy and sell, who can buy the necessities of life and who can't. And if you don't have the mark, you can't buy the necessities of life. Now I believe there will be supernatural miracles. I believe in the way the Lord fed the nation of Israel in the wilderness for forty years with Moses. I believe those kind of things will happen. The Lord knows, He's figured it out ahead of time. Now, the fact that Jesus had three distinct events where He multiplied food, there's not many miracles that are mentioned of Jesus three times, the same exact miracle three times. Three different events, not just one event told three times, but three distinct events multiplying food. That's not a small thing, that's significant. I believe there will be multiplication of food, but I don't think it will be such that everyone will have all that they need everywhere. There will be people really under the persecution of this and they won't get a miracle and others will get a miracle and we don't know who will and who won't. But I believe there will be supernatural supply of economics. But refusing this mark, you will be seen, a person will be seen as a criminal of the state. It won't be a casual thing. They will be seen as one of the religious fanatics undermining the unity of the nation. They will be seen more like a terrorist that is calling the most wonderful leader that brought unity like no one else has, calling him a devil. Now again, it's set up that way. I mean, you know, here we are praying for unity, we're praying for blessing, so finally unity comes. And then Christians will prophesy, he's a devil, and they will say, what is it you religious fanatics want? I mean, we finally have world peace, at some version of it, it says they'll cry peace and safety, there'll be peace, a substantial peace like never before, and there'll be safety, meaning there won't be a terrorism threat like there is now, and you guys, instead of saying, praise God, you're saying, he's the devil? And a lot of believers will jump on the other side and say, this is the unity we prayed for, this is the peace we prayed for, how can we not say thank you to Jesus? And they'll fall away, actually, in the unfolding of all the deception that's going on. And that's why it's important that we understand the biblical storyline, because many will be deceived by this, even believers, professors of, of, of relationship with Jesus, those that say, I love Jesus, at one time of their life, they will go with the covenant and the world peace as being the real deal instead of being the counterfeit. And they will actually stand against, like, oh my friends, they've always been a little fanatical, I don't know what the deal with them is, you know what, they are just such troublemakers, but the state will see these people as, as treason, as, as sinning against the tranquility of society. It will be a very difficult position, because to, to be silent and to yield to this will be paramount to denying your faith. We have to say it, and there'll be families torn apart over this. One, I mean Christian families, some mothers and fathers will turn against their children and children against their parents. And it will be over this, not just unbelievers, but believers as well. Thinking, you know, that church you go to, we warned you about them years ago. And here we now have peace, and you're not going to let my grandchildren participate in the goodness of what's going on, you know, it's grandma talking to, you know, her son or her daughter, etc., etc., or vice versa, the scenario just opposite. Now this is all just like a, a story, you know, it's like a Christian movie until you know somebody who dies in this. Until then, it's just kind of a dramatic story, like, tell me the more, this is real. This isn't just a, a, a left behind movie that is kind of neat that we can sit and watch and have popcorn and then just go out to the football game afterwards. This is, this is a real thing that's going to happen in society. And, and people don't really grasp it, I don't say that I do either. We haven't grasped the enormity of the reality of this, of this event. This will be so invasive to human life on the planet. Well paragraph B, Paul now describes the abomination. He says, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come until the falling away comes first, until the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Now the Antichrist is called here the man of sin and the son of perdition. He's got two titles here. But here's verse four, the description of the abomination. This man will oppose everything that's called God, everything related to the God of Israel. This man will exalt himself above everything related to the God of Israel. And this man, he will demand to be worshiped. And look at this, he will sit as God in the temple. So it's not just John says his image will be in the temple. Paul says, well it's more, it's more intense in that he will actually himself sit in the temple. And again, though I believe this is physical, he literally does this. Whether there's a hologram dimension, it seems like he is permanently or not, who knows and we'll know in that time. But I'm just saying that to you so that you catch the sophistication and the grandeur of this. Meaning, it says in Revelation 13 that the nations will marvel at him. They will go, wow. They won't go, ooh. They'll say, wow. This is, we've never seen anything like this before. This is another level of power. And then it says in verse, he'll show himself to be God. So verse 4 is a very detailed description of the abomination of desolation that's unique. Paul's the only one who breaks it down that way. John's the only one that talks about the image in the mark. Daniel's the only one that talks about the removing of the sacrifice. You put them all together, you get the whole picture. Let's go to Roman numeral 6. Now Jesus, we're going to go back to it again, he referred, excuse me, he referred to Daniel's teaching on the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation. See, he didn't just refer to Daniel's teaching on the abomination, he referred to Daniel's teaching on the great tribulation. Because when he quotes the great tribulation, we'll see in a minute in verse 21, he's actually quoting Daniel 12-1. So Jesus said, when you see the abomination, and he says this abomination that Daniel talked about, flee. Verse 21, there will be a tribulation such as there's not been since the beginning of the world. That's the language that the angel told John, I mean told Daniel back in Daniel 12. That's the same language that Daniel received from the angel. Now Jesus adds to it. He says, let me add to what Daniel received. It's not only going to be a tribulation like never before or never after, there's nothing like it in human history. He says, let me add my own commentary that Daniel didn't know. So Jesus prophesied. He says, unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. And he means physically saved. He's not saying nobody will become born again. That's not what he's saying. He's saying nobody will physically survive if this period lasted 20 years instead of three and a half years. I'm just randomly picking 20 years. If this period lasted like, you know, Stalin for 30 or 40 years, the reign of terror of Stalin instead of three and a half years, Jesus said no human being would survive on the planet. I mean, that is intense. So Jesus is adding to what Daniel received. Daniel received it would be the most severe ever. Jesus said, Daniel, it's more intense than you understood in your day. Number one. So we'll look at what Daniel actually received from the angel. You can see when you compare the passages together and you can put them together with your Bible and get the whole text instead of the abbreviated version of it here. Daniel 12 verse one, the angel's talking to Daniel. He says, at that time, there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that day. And at that time, here's the good news. He says, by the way, the Jewish people will be delivered. He says the Jewish people will be delivered. Well, the body of Christ as well. But we're talking right here. This is a Jewish prophet talking about the destiny of Israel. And so we know that that it's more than the Jewish people. It's the born again body of Christ. Jesus comes and raptures his people. But the nation, the Antichrist is trying to exterminate and completely destroy the nation. But the angel tells Daniel, be sure of this, that the son of man that's on that cloud, he's coming. In essence is what it means. And he will deliver. I mean, the angel doesn't tell Daniel who's going to deliver them. But we know later it's the son of man, the man on the cloud is going to come and deliver them. Look what it says. No flesh would be saved. There are, I'm guessing, if I'm thinking of my handout I have, there's probably 15 verses, 10 or 15 verses. I only have two or three of them here. But I could have 10 or 15 verses that lay out the severity of the death tolls, totals that is going to happen in the great tribulation. Look at this one. Revelation 9, 15. I'm just giving three passages out of about 15 that I could put here. John saw that the four angels were released to kill a third of mankind. So a third of mankind will be killed. Do you know what a third of mankind is? That's a couple billion people. That is already like, what? And so commentators, Bible teachers, are just under the pressure to make this symbolic. It's like, if that's real, if two or three billion people are going to die, surely that deserves more than one verse. So I've read many take it at face value, which I do, but others take it, they go, that has to be symbolic. That can't be real. Nothing that terrifying could take place. Well here's what Jeremiah said, chapter 25, verse 33, the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth to the other. Isaiah said, again I could give about 15 of these, the Lord will make the earth empty. He means of people. For the land shall be entirely empty. The inhabitants of the earth are burned and few human beings are left on the earth. Now it's billions, but relative to the billions, I mean it's hundreds of millions are left. But the still, there's billions that are, that die in this carnage and many are killed directly by the wars of the Antichrist and his oppression because they refuse to come under his rule and worship him and the others are killed by the judgments of God because they are an Antichrist nation and the end time judgments in the book of Revelation are actually against the Antichrist empire. Some people say, I don't really like those judgments in the book of Revelation. I say, that's because you don't know who the Antichrist empire is and the judgments are locked in on those. It's like the people under the Nazi regime, you know, when the allies came in to help, they, they were praying that the, the other nations would come in and destroy Nazi Germany. Well, the judgments of God destroy the end time Antichrist empire in the book of Revelation. Those are what the judgments are about. Some people read the book of Revelation and they go, ah, it's so scary. I go, no, no, no, it's not wrong. You're reading it wrong. The three judgment series, the seals, the trumpets and the bowls are against the Antichrist. The praying church is actually releasing them like the 10 plagues of Moses were released by Moses. The plagues were not on the Jewish people. They were on the oppressors. You know, there's 403 verses in the book of Revelation, just call it 400 just to make it easy. Only 12 verses in Revelation are persecution. So 3% of the book of Revelation is about persecution of the saints. The majority of the book is the destruction of the oppressor. It's I call it the end time book of acts. It's the, it's the acts of power against the most evil regime that ever existed on the earth. Let's look at top of page 42. Now this is my, top of page 42. This is one of my favorite themes related to the Antichrist. I mean the abomination is that it's tied to the great harvest. Look at this. In verse 14, in the gospel of the nation, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all nations. As a witness to all the nations, then the end will come. Therefore, when you see the abomination spoken of by Daniel standing in the holy place, here's my point. Paragraph B, there is a dynamic relationship of verse 15 that says the word therefore to verse 14, which says the gospel is preached in all nations. Many people start reading verse 15 at verse 15. They start reading therefore, well, if you read therefore, you want to know what the therefore is. Therefore, you got to go to the verse before and even the passage before it actually speaks of the whole passage. But in a very poignant, in a dramatic way, it's even talking about verse 14. Jesus said the gospel will go to the nations in power in essence, because that's the only way it will work is in power. Therefore, when you see the abomination, here's the point. Jesus linked the two together. Because as the gospel is being preached in that hour to the nations, there will be an escalation of deception and there will be an escalation of martyrdom and that will be the environment that the gospel is being preached in all the nations. And so the people that are committed to the missions movement, they need to know the level of deception and the level of carnage of martyrdom taking place in context to this promise the gospel will go to all nations. A lot of people that read verse 14 stop at verse 14. They don't read therefore. A lot of people that read 15 don't start at 15. I mean they only start at 15. They don't go back a verse. The two are dynamically related together. It's going to take a release of power in the presence of the greatest deception. The power of deception and the threat of persecution is in context to the gospel going forth in all nations. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral six. So paragraph A, the abomination of desolation was referred to four times by Daniel. We will understand it best when we re-read all four of these passages together with the two references that are made of Jesus quoting it in the gospels with the two descriptions by John and by Paul. Paragraph B, the abomination of desolation needs to be set up. The angel told Daniel for the time will come, for the time the daily sacrifices are taken away and the abomination, notice the phrase, is set up will be 1,290 days. But here's the point I want to make. There's many points to make on that one verse. That's a very, there's many levels to this verse here of implications is what I mean. But the point I want you to get is the abomination is something that has to be set up. In what way is it set up? Number one, the image is set in the temple. Number two, the antichrist sits in the temple, again probably in short term and intermittently. Number three, there needs to be a worldwide system in which a mark with an economic repercussions is set up in the nations and I'm imagining, this is again it doesn't say this, but I'm imagining local antichrist sanctuaries all over the earth that are connected by technology. That system of global worship that is enforced at the penalty of death needs to be set up. It will take some time to set the system up, but the system isn't, it's not just one day he makes an announcement and it's all in place. This is a very dramatic global event when this thing is set in motion. While I talk a little bit more about the setting up in the rest of this page, let's go to page 43, just watching the time here. I spent a little bit too much time on the image and the mark of the beast, but they are the central points of the abomination. Top of page 43, now this is my, can you call it your favorite verse, passage on the abomination of desolation, is there such a thing? Please don't put that on social networking, Mike Biggle has a favorite verse on the abomination of desolation, but let's read it first. Because seven things come together in a very, very dramatic way related to the image being placed there. Now the Antichrist armies are placing something there, there meaning in the temple, and the thing they're placing, again Daniel doesn't know it's an image of the Antichrist, he doesn't know that, John tells us that and Paul tells us that the Antichrist sits there. But John only, I mean Daniel only gets 2,500 years ago, 2,500 years ago he gets this, that the armies will place something there in the temple that we know it's the image. Look at verse 31, but I'm going to highlight seven things and I have them written in paragraph D, but I'm just going to mention them real briefly as I go. They will take away the daily sacrifices, OK that's defiling the temple, that's, that's, that will be an offense against the nation of Israel, and they will place there the abomination, again that's the image. Something is placed in the holy place and we know Jesus makes it clear in the holy places where it's placed, but so that's the first thing is the, this defilement of the temple of Israel, but look, look at verse 32, but the people that know God shall carry out great miracles. So in the context of this abomination there will be people who know God in a deep definitive way and they will do great miracles. So the greatest miracles will actually happen in context of the final three and a half years where this abomination is being set up in Jerusalem and in the nations of the earth. Verse 33, and those who understand will teach many. There, here it is, the global harvest. The Lord is saying I'm going to raise up men and women of understanding and they will teach instead of the word many, put the word multitudes, they will teach multitudes. This is multitudes of believers and unbelievers. So here we have a great impact. We have the gospel going forth to the nations. This doesn't mean just a one-off conference. They will be teaching multitudes in the earth, the men and women of understanding and it doesn't mean the understanding in this context of general just Bible information or Bible truths I'll say about salvation which is a very, which is the main thing we need to know. This is talking about they have understanding of the end time plan particularly that's associated with Daniel but beyond just the prophets in general. Below it I want to be a man of understanding. I want to be one of these people of understanding who teach others these things. And I want my children and grandchildren, I want my spiritual and physical sons and daughters to be people of understanding that teach many. And you don't need a pulpit to teach many in the age of social networking and I mean social media and all of that. There is so many avenues of teaching the nations. Set in your heart to be a person of understanding. Again this is not just the general truths about salvation which are obviously the most important thing to understand. This is talking about being people of understanding of this storyline. They will teach multitudes. Then verse 34, now when they fall, when martyrdom happens, there some will be aided. There will be supernatural aid. Some of them. It says they'll be aided with a little help meaning a small number but it will still be substantial. We'll have supernatural deliverance from persecution. Then it goes on to say verse 35 that the sum of those who have understanding will fall. They'll be martyred. But at the end of the day, when even these men and women of understanding are martyred and they stay true to what they've been preaching, they stay committed to the truth, this is going to cause a refining and a purity. The ripple effect of the men and women of understanding that are actually martyred, that they believe what they've said with such intensity, they will gladly lose their life. That will bring a purifying effect as well as the threat and the reality of martyrdom outside of them and the angel says this is going to bring purity to the church. So I give a little bit more of the detail there in paragraph D and E. You know I'm running out of time here but I'm just going to kind of advertise the rest of the session here. In paragraph F, I go through to each one of the passages and just give a few little phrases on it. But I just kind of want to jump start you on this subject of the abomination of desolation. And so I just give a little bit of the four passages in the notes here. Go to page 44. Next year in Daniel 102, this is Daniel 101, we're going to break it down but again you need to have the foundational understanding of this because if the whole thing is new to you then it will just be just too confusing. But we want to break down a number of the implications that are contained in these four passages of the abomination of desolation in Daniel. And again we're only doing Daniel 102 because that's the best we know. There's a Daniel 105 and a Daniel 110 that's coming by others years from now but there's a lot more to say about these passages than we're giving right now. Top of page 44. I'm just going to highlight one last point is that one of the main things that Bible teachers do is they want to make this whole thing symbolic. And the reason this is, I care to embolden you and equip you to resist that. Because to make it symbolic they take the sacrifices, they make them symbolic or they put it all in 70 A.D., they remove it all to the past. The idea is that none of these prophecies have any future implications. That's the idea. And I can't think of anything more disastrous than taking the 150 chapters that God has given to the body of Christ, particularly to the generation the Lord returns. I mean those 150 chapters are valuable for 2,000 years of church history but they are a premier gift to the generation that faces the conflict. And to reduce those passages to having been fulfilled in the past or to reduce them to just being symbolic is a disaster of the highest magnitude. And I know many Bible teachers, they love Jesus intensely and they love God and I respect their life in God and I respect their ministry in many ways but this one issue of reducing end time prophecy to symbolism or all past fulfillment and leaving the end time church without a road map of all the details that God quote went out of his way to make clear. And I say that quote unquote that God was zealous to make clear. I think that is such a disastrous loss of glorious truth. And so I talk a little bit about the sacrifices here. They're real sacrifices, they're really in the future and they're meant to be understood exactly like they're written. In Roman numeral 7, I mean Roman numeral 8, one of the main passages that people who make the end time prophecy just symbolic or they just fulfill it all in the past is right here in Daniel chapter 9. They say when He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week but in the middle of the week He shall put an end to the sacrifice. They say this is Jesus not the Antichrist. They say that 2,000 years ago Jesus came and confirmed the covenant when He went to the cross. Well that sounds good. And then they say in the middle of the week He put an end to the sacrifices. Well that's a bit of a stretch. Certainly when Jesus died on the cross the animal sacrifices they had no impact on our forgiveness. That is true. That's a true point. But that's not the point being made here. And I have written in here, paragraph B, and this may not matter to you right now but as soon as you leave here and you go home you're going to find some guy who takes the posture of the symbolic view of all of this and they're going to say this is Jesus. He's the one that made a covenant. You're going to go oh my goodness. Some of you might say I didn't know that. He did do away with the animal sacrifices by His blood. Wow. Well they ignore most of the rest of the passage because the details of the rest of the passage aren't fulfilled remotely in the ministry of Jesus in terms of the wings of the abomination and those kinds of things. But look at paragraph B. Number one, Jesus didn't make a seven year covenant. He made an eternal covenant. The Antichrist is making a covenant for one week or for seven years. And that's clear in the scripture that the one week means a seven year period. Jesus didn't make a one week, a seven day covenant. He didn't make a seven year covenant. He made an eternal one. So this is not talking about Jesus. Number two, Jesus pointed to this passage as a sign of the end times of the great tribulation. He said go back to Daniel and study the abomination of desolation to get ready to understand the great tribulation. This is the passage Jesus pointed to. He wasn't pointing to a passage already fulfilled. Paragraph C, Jesus didn't stop the sacrifices in the middle of the week. The Romans stopped them 40 years later. Not three years later. They stopped them 40 years later. Jesus didn't stop them. The Romans did. The next one in paragraph C is that the sacrifices, they were stopped for 1,290 days. That's the context of the sacrifices. They're stopped for 43 months is what they're stopped for. And so that's another thing that is not related to Jesus' ministry. And then number, the next one is the consummation of judgment was not poured out on Titus because if Jesus is the one that made the covenant, then Titus is the one that got the judgment. Titus of Rome. And some of you are saying, okay, I lost you way back on point three. That's okay. But just read this when you get home. If somebody comes and says, oh man, you went to that place that told you that stuff was liberal. Come on, get a life where you have a life. Believe the word of God. Amen. And amen. Let's end with that. Okay. I'm just going to end with that. I'm just going to dismiss.