The Abomination of Desolation

This article looks at three questions:

What is the abomination of desolation?
What is meant by ‘the beast that was, and is not, even he is…?’
Does ‘all’ the world worship the beast?

What is the abomination of desolation?

At first glance as with many of the subjects surrounding the return of Christ, it appears not much detail or not enough detail to firmly sort the issues out are present. It seems we are left hanging in the air. People give up and leave Revelation altogether.
Despite the difficulties, Revelation and the subject of the return of Christ carries special words of encouragement from Christ to pay attention to all aspects of His return, and warnings to beware if you don’t.

In many instances timing is the ingredient that will put clarification back in the picture.
Timing is everything as they say and with the specific information that is given to us we can pinpoint the moment and circumstance the ‘abomination’ is committed. Once the exact moment of this event is known, it can be correlated and dovetailed with other events. Then we can make a confident assumption as to what exactly the abomination entails.

We will start at the sixth seal. The whole world sees Christ at the same time and is terrified.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Rev 6:15

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matt 24:30

Whenever extreme fear is experienced the immediate response is to comply with the demands of who/what is the source of the fear. Why do they not then turn to Him (comply) if they are so frightened yet at the same time completely convinced it is Christ?
To know beyond doubt it is the Christ; to be in full fear of Him (in subjection) and yet still defy Him is not logical. This is the crux of the matter and this conundrum also provides the answer to the question.

As the sixth seal commences, a series of powerful events all unfold at the same time. We will take the individual events separately and then see how they fit into one very neat package, clearly planned well in advance by Christ.

First, at the juncture of the sixth seal we can be sure that the beast has not yet declared himself as God. That should be obvious since if he had already said he was the real God and then Christ appears with the entire world recognising the true Christ for who He is, then the beast would be without any wind in his sails, a laughing stock there and then.

The beast commits the abomination in the ‘midst’ of the week:
…and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate... Dan 9:27
All indications show we are just about at, but have not quite reached the ‘midst’ of the week. This ‘midst’ of the week infers a three and a half year period to follow as well as three and a half years before. The ‘midst’ of the week and this length of time is confirmed in Rev 13.

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. Rev 13:3

These verses contain a great deal of information. For now, it confirms the three and a half years (42 months) that the beast continues – after he has been apparently assassinated and miraculously brought back to life. When he continues the forty two months he “opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven”. This is when he declares that he is God. Paul confirms this in 2 Thess 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

It certainly constitutes an ‘abomination’ but no ‘desolation’ per se. We need some more detail before we draw a final conclusion.
However we do have the timing in more detail. The sixth seal occurs right at the ‘midst of the week’ also. (It cannot occur later since the beast says he is God with forty two months remaining and Christ needs to appear first).
This detail is one line of reasoning demonstrating the timing issues. The following is a second.

One of the vital and very overlooked details of the day of the Lord is what is being described in the Matthew 24:30 verse we quoted above. What is not commonly realized is it is reciting the sixth seal almost word for word as found in Rev 6:12. The definition of what constitutes the sixth seal is very clear in the Revelation passage. These are the essential features:

A giant earthquake.
The sun’s appearance changes.
The moon changes appearance also.
Spectacular sights are seen in the sky.
The whole world sees Christ, they recognize that what they see is the true Christ and are suitably fearful of the sight.
They fully realize that they have fallen short of what God required.

The Matthew account:

The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matt 24:29 (See also Mark 13:24)

In this passage the exact same details are encountered:

The sun’s appearance changes.
The moon changes appearance also.
Spectacular sights are seen in the sky.
The whole world sees Christ, they recognize that what they see is the true Christ and are suitably fearful of the sight.
They fully realize that they have fallen short of what God required.

What about the earthquake? In the parallel Luke 21:25 passage it mentions the sea and waves roaring: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

We have become accustomed in these precarious days to expect Tsunamis, giant waves causing severe damage accompanying earthquake activity. If there is a very large earthquake then it follows that the sea and waves will be ‘roaring’. The earthquake is covered, so we can add that one.

A giant earthquake.

Taken as a whole it is impossible for this sequence of events to be duplicated. This is definitively a second description of the sixth seal.

However there is more. The complete passage was not quoted for either Matthew or Luke and this is where so much confusion comes from. The missing section in Matthew is:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

The sixth seal comes ‘immediately after’ the first five seals. The tribulation of ‘those days’ are seals two, three and four; the world war that claimed a quarter of the world’s population through fighting, disease and starvation.

The confusion arises since virtually all commentators take these words ‘the tribulation of those days’ to mean that this section of scripture applies to the ‘great’ tribulation which the majority of people understand is the seventh seal with its trumpets and vials. The seventh seal is the ‘great’ tribulation, however we are still firmly well before that since the introduction to the sixth seal is prefaced with “Immediately after the tribulation of those days”. That can only be referring to what immediately came just before which was the previous five seals. Making it even clearer is the wording of Mark 13:24 where it uses the phrase ‘after that tribulation’ clearly indicating another one to follow.

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

The next piece of information to be digested is the fact that at the sixth seal in the passages of Matthew and Mark and Luke we have been reading, the resurrection that everyone is waiting for takes place.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matt 24:31

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Mark 13:27

Rev 12:14 clearly shows that the Church is taken ‘into her place’ for the last three and a half years of the great tribulation before “the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord” (Rev 11:15). One last scripture on this subject; the Church has a promise to be spared the great tribulation – the ‘hour of trial’ in Rev 3:10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

A Quick Summary

At the ‘midst of the week’, when three and a half years of the ‘end time’ have passed and another three and a half years are left to unfold:

The sixth seal takes place. The whole world sees Christ.
The resurrection takes place.
The beast is assassinated “as it were wounded unto death” – his deadly wound was healed and the whole world wondered after the beast.
The beast then exalts himself and commits the abomination.

What else can we add to this list? There are two more notable events.

The King of the North

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41 He shall enter also into the glorious land… 45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. Dan 11:40

The ‘him’ referred to here is the beast:
And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Dan 11:36

The beast invades the Middle East and takes it completely and utterly including Israel and Jerusalem. He sets up his new headquarters in Jerusalem. We can place the time for this event quite easily from Matt, Mark or Luke. Here is the Mathew version.
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:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Matt 24:15

At the time the abomination occurs (midst of the week) the troops enter Jerusalem. The ‘great’ tribulation will immediately follow. These two events lock the time setting to the sixth seal.

The ‘War in heaven”

Here is yet another event that takes place during this same interval in time.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him…
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. 14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Rev 12:7

In brief, Satan is cast out of heaven and now confined to the earth. This is a ‘short time’ before the time he will be bound up for a thousand years, so he is very angry. ‘Woe to the earth’ signifies that the great tribulation is about to start. Satan tries to take revenge on the Church however the resurrection takes place; the Church is now out of his reach on the ‘sea of glass’ (God’s throne). Satan tries using his power to ‘get at them’, however he is confined to the earth and so is his influence. He no longer has the capabilities he had before and the resurrected Church is safely out of his reach. In fury he seeks out the remaining Church members not resurrected (Matt 25: the wise and foolish virgins, those not ready did not make it to the wedding, but this is not a final salvation issue, just the first resurrection they have missed out on).
Satan, the dragon now fully possesses the beast, resurrected for the purpose, who for the last three and a half years will in fact be Satan by proxy. This is how the world by default ‘worships the dragon’.

Summary: What is the Abomination of Desolation?

The sixth seal is a very busy time. The events are going to be so close to happening simultaneously it is hard to precisely state what the order will be. The overall picture is clear nonetheless and as usual the actions of Satan are diabolical hence the term ‘abomination of desolation’.
Here is the outline.
The ‘war in heaven’ is more than likely to be part of what is seen in the sky that has the world so worried, ‘the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken’.
The ‘sign of the Son’ of man is the ‘sea of glass’; God’s throne which is thousands of miles in dimension (Rev 21 ‘that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven… as clear as crystal’) with Christ visible in it. This becomes visible while the resurrection of the Saints takes place. The world sees and recognizes Christ. The very next moment resurrected back to life and fully possessed by Satan, with a lot of demonic power, none other than the beast steps into the picture and says ‘Here I am’!
This is the ultimate magicians trick. With perfect timing the world sees Christ and is terrified, they would do anything to placate Christ to save their own skins. Satan takes the initiative (via the beast) and from Jerusalem says ‘Here I am’.
The world in fact believes it has surrendered to Christ. The world was not prepared to argue once it saw Christ.

The ‘abomination of desolation’ is nothing other than the worst of cruel deceptions to hijack almost the entire world in one go.
Satan is able to convince the world he is Christ. It is an abomination and will result in terrible ‘desolation’.

Several verses now become much clearer. Rev 13:4
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

This verse explains that by default the world is worshipping Satan. The statement ‘who is like the beast, who can make war with him’ is not a declaration of how powerful the beast is but more a reflection on the assumption that this is the all powerful Christ. Many nations will in fact now take up war with the beast for the remainder of the last three and a half years with terrible consequences.

Through all this, what is Christ doing about it? Is He powerless to stop this deceit?
On the contrary, Christ is always in full command. It is actually Christ who has orchestrated the whole event:

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thess 2:11

For this cause Christ sends them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Because they had refused to believe the truth delivered to them by the Church during the previous three and a half years. The Church had given their all, “they loved not their lives unto death”. The world hated them for it.
Man must choose (and demonstrate) for himself where he stands.

Does ‘All’ The World Worship the Beast?

These are two of the verses on this subject:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev 13:18

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Rev 13:16

Does ‘all’ literally mean all in this case? No it doesn’t. The expression ‘all’ is used in several places in the New Testament and only means ‘all’ as in what is relevant to the situation.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. Luke 2:1 Not all the world was taxed by Caesar.

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Matt 3:5 It would not be reasonable to suggest that literally all were baptized by John. A lot were.

Those that don’t worship the beast include all of the Church, both resurrected or not. These are mentioned as an exception ‘being written in the book of life’.

The whole Middle East does not worship the beast.
They certainly did not worship him. You can imagine how the Muslim followers would react when the Beast enforces his religion on all Muslims throughout Europe. An immediate ‘Fatwah’ would be announced. This is the reason for the ‘push’ from the king of the south. The ‘push’ in combination with a ‘fatwah’ is the most logical reason for the assassination attempt on the beast – and it succeeded, temporarily.
However, the beast conquers the whole Middle East in retaliation.

The whole Far East does not worship the beast.
Immediately after the beast and his empire has conquered the Middle East the nations ‘from the North and the East, from across the Euphrates’ are stirred to full-scale battle with the beast. A further one third of mankind are killed in one engagement alone. If this war were not stopped by Christ ‘there would be no flesh saved’ (alive).
The following verses show an army of 200 million from the direction of Asia (China) engaged in battle with the beast (Europe).

But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. Dan 11:44

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. Rev 9:13

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Rev 16:12

Many other nations do not ‘worship the beast’. This is more than evident since billions of people will survive to live under Christ and the Saints who rule all the nations once He returns. However, those that took ‘the mark of the beast’ are excluded.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Rev 14:9

The Beast That Was, And Is Not, Even He Is…

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. Rev 17:8

With all the information above we have the answer to this riddle.

The seven heads are seven successive revivals of the beast in various guises through history. At all times he has persecuted the true followers of Christ starting from the very early days of the Church. At the root of it all is Satan who uses willing (and willful) human agents.
Countless millions have died at the hands of ‘inquisitions’ in Europe over the last two thousand years. More is to follow in the last revival of the beast.

There are seven eras of the beast in total. Five are fallen, that is they have passed into history. ‘One is’. The sixth one is the one in focus at the ‘end time’. This sixth one is in existence but the ‘seventh is not yet come’. When he does it will be for a short time. Then there is mention of an eighth one who is ‘part of the seven’ but will end up in perdition. There are only seven beasts in total so who or what is the eighth?
The sixth beast is the one that arises in the end time.
This sixth one is assassinated in the ‘midst of the week’. Technically that is the end of that beast. However, he is raised back to life by Satan to continue for a ‘short while’; the final three and a half years as the seventh beast.
The seventh beast is in fact the same person on the surface as the sixth but since he is now possessed by Satan this beast acts differently and is a defacto for the eighth who is Satan himself who was involved and motivating all seven of them all of the time. He was ‘of the seven’. When Christ returns, Satan will be bound for a thousand years, released for a short while and then permanently destroyed which is his ‘perdition’.