The Abomination of Desolation

Matthew 25:14; Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11

1

President Raul Castro and the Pope

2

3

The pontiff “is a Jesuit, and I, in some way, am too,” Castro said at a news conference. “I always studied at Jesuit schools.” (http://

www.cbsnews.com/news/a-catholic-communist-raul-castro-says-maybe-after-pope-

visit/)

4

“As I’ve already told my council of advisers, I read all of the Pope’s

speeches. “If the Pope continues to speak like this, sooner or later I will start praying again and I will return to the Catholic Church — and I’m not saying this in jest.” (http://aleteia.org/

2015/05/12/raul-castro-may-return-to-catholic-church-he-says-after-meeting-pope-francis/)

5

“I am from the Cuban Communist Party, that doesn’t allow (religious) believers, but now we are allowing

it, it’s an important step.”(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/

2015/05/10/pope-francis-raul-castro/27079241/)

6

Pope Francis heads to Cuba after months of

secret diplomacy.(http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/18/world/pope-

francis-cuba-diplomacy/index.html)

7

Men in responsible positions will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves,

but from the sacred desk, will urge upon the people the observance of the first day of the week, pleading tradition and custom in behalf of this man-made institution. They will point to calamities on land and sea—to the storms

of wind, the floods, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire—as judgments indicating

God’s displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed.

8

These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another; and those who make void the law of God will point to the few

who are keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as the ones who are bringing wrath upon the world. This falsehood is Satan's device that he may ensnare the unwary. (Signs of the Times,

January 17, 1884)

9

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:) Then let

them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains. (Matthew 24:15, 16)

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that

be in Judaea flee to the mountains. (Mark 13:14)

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains. (Luke

21:20, 21a)

10

Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would come upon them for

their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would come suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: “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:) then let them which be in Judea flee

into the mountains.” Matthew 24:15, 16; Luke 21:20, 21.

11

When the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign should be

seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be immediately obeyed.

He who chanced to be upon the housetop must not go down into his house, even to save his most valued

treasures.

12

Those who were working in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for

the outer garment laid aside while they should be toiling in the heat of the day. They

must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the general destruction. (The

Great Controversy, p. 25)

13

Christ presented before them an outline of the prominent events to take place before the

close of time. His words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people should need the

instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.

(The Great Controversy, p. 25)

14

15

Footnotes

16

Footnote:

17

Those who hold to the view that the “daily” represents “paganism” (see on ch. 8:11) subtract 1290 from 1798 and arrive

at the date 508. They see in the events surrounding this date, such as the

conversion of Clovis, the king of the Franks, to the Catholic faith, and in the

victory over the Goths, an important stage in the establishment of the supremacy of

the Catholic Church in the West.

18

Those who hold to the view that the “daily” refers to the continual priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary and to the

true worship of Christ in the gospel age (see on ch. 8:11) find no satisfactory

explanation of this text. They believe that this is one of those Scripture passages on which future study will shed further light.

(SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 881)

19

20

I have words to speak to my brethren east and west, north and south. I request that my writings

shall not be used as the leading argument to settle questions over which there is now so

much controversy. I entreat of Elders H, I, J, and others of our leading brethren, that they make no reference to my writings to sustain their

views of “the daily.” (Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 164, First published as, Pamphlet 20, A Call to

Watchmen, July 31, 1910.)

21

In 1909, when Arthur G. Daniells asked Ellen White about her 1850 statement, she recalled that “some of the leaders who had been in the 1844 movement endeavored to find new dates for the termination of the 2300 year period . . .

for the coming of the Lord.” Whereas this caused confusion among those who had taken part in the Millerite movement, the Lord showed her that the old dates were correct for the 2300

days and should not be revised to set new times for the Second Advent.

22

When asked about the “daily,” it being taken away, the casting down of the sanctuary,

etc., she replied that “these features were not placed before her in vision as the time

part was,” and that she did not want to provide an explanation of those points. To

sum it up, she said, “I do not know what the daily is, whether it is paganism or Christ’s

ministry. . . . That was not the thing that was shown me.”

23

When asked about her 1850 statement on the “daily,” she always pointed to the aspect of the settled prophetic time periods and dates as well as the renewed time setting after 1844. In her thinking the “daily” was

apparently a kind of concept that was always related to the time periods but

never to the specific identification of the “daily.”

24

Therefore, if the pronoun “it” or the phrase “correct view” in her 1850 statement had referred to the identification of the “daily”

as paganism, Ellen White would have contradicted herself, for the Lord would have shown her the “correct view” of the “daily,” while later she denied such a fact. (Dennis Kaiser, Ellen White and the ‘Daily’

Conflict, p. 18) End of Footnote

25

Josephus says (War vi. 9. 3 [420]), more than one million people perished during and after the siege of the city and 97,000 more were taken captive. However, during a temporary respite, when the

Romans unexpectedly raised their siege of Jerusalem, all the Christians fled, and it is said that not one of them lost his life. Their place of retreat was Pella, a city in the foothills east of the Jordan River, about 17 mi. (c. 27 km.) south of the Lake

of Galilee. (Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 499)

26

27

28

29

30