Getting our priorities in the right order is something we all know we should do, but something we all struggle with every day. Last week due to the constraints of time and text, I muddled through an important passage. Most of you were left confused and the rest bewildered. The situation is similar to a teacher who placed several large rocks in a jar till the rocks came to the rim. He asked his students if the jar could hold any more. All were certain the jar could hold no more. Then he took a bag of small pebbles and poured the pebbles around the rocks. Again he asked the students, "Can I put any more in this jar?" They were certain that it was now full. So he took some sand, pouring that around the rocks and pebbles. “Now is it full?” he asked. By this point there were unsure what next would come, and with that he took a pitcher of water and poured that into the jar with the rocks, the pebbles and the sand. “What’s the lesson here?” he asked. The students were sure they knew: “There is always room for more,” they responded. “No,” the teacher said shaking his head. “It’s simple; start with the big things first.” This morning we are going to go back through the passage from last week, put our large stones in first, then fill in with pebbles and sand, as time permits. This morning I’ll do something I’ve not done before. I want to go back over the passage we looked at last week and try it again - and this time hopefully I’ll make a bit more sense. For those of you who grew up in churches where prophecy and end-times stuff was the staple of your diet, this passage may have been presented as the “rocks” of the Christian faith. Within a week or two after I came to faith in Christ, I was reading The Late Great Planet Earth and clipping news articles on earthquakes, nuclear bombs, and the end of the world - all coming by 1978. Others of you have mentioned that this material is all new to you; it was never discussed in the churches in which you were raised. Still others may hear conflicting ideas about this, wondering “How will these rather convoluted verses and complex texts help me in my day to day life? What does this have to do with me?” This morning I want to sift out the rocks from the pebbles and sand so that we can ascertain what is important for us today. As I have said over the past few weeks, these passages often come up in conversations with Christians and non-Christians alike, with people who are well-read in Scripture and people who dabble in sensationalism and tabloid theology. The key issue in this passage is not the ability to interpret Scripture in light of current events, but the ability to understand how to live in light of Scripture.
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. 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 Christ!' or, `There he is!' do not believe it. 24. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible. 25. See, I have told you ahead of time. 26. "So if anyone tells you, `There he is, out in the desert,' 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. WHAT IS THE ABOMINATION THAT CAUSES DESOLATION? The phrase is a mouthful and it takes some unpacking to get at what it means. Simply put it is anything that contaminates the worship of God. An abomination is something loathsome, abhorrent, detestable. Its presence renders everything empty, barren, useless. In verse 15 the abomination that causes desolation is said to be in the holy place, the temple. Jewish law prescribed strict regulations so that nothing unholy would contaminate what was sacred. If a gentile came too close to the temple itself, he could only blame himself for his death, for his presence would desecrate the worship. The Jewish worship was very much tied into a place. What happened there affected how worship would be carried out. This makes it hard for us to relate, to understand the term. Since our worship is not tied into a locale we have a hard time identifying with what Jesus describes here. The assumption in this passage is that someone will come into the temple area, do something so horrible that the temple becomes useless. If a neo-nazi paints swastikas in a Jewish synagogue, if a white separatist burns a black church, if a wiccan enters a church and sacrifices a goat, we clean up the mess, shake our heads in disgust and go on. We may call the act an abomination, an impurity, or a detestable act, but we would not believe that it would make our worship utterly useless. Russell Weston’s act of violence in the Capitol building on Friday which killed two officers was horrible and revolting, but it does not invalidate the work of lawmakers there. Jesus also tells us that this act is not something which should come as a surprise; it was spoken through the prophet Daniel. The “abomination that causes desolation” is a phrase found several times in Daniel and was understood to be a horrible event. But Jesus’s use removes it from being a single event to a kind of occurrence which should serve as a warning to us. Daniel 11:31 is a prophecy from the 5th Century BC, fulfilled in the 2nd century BC. The Intertestamental book 1 Maccabees records how Antiochus, ruler of Syria, invaded Judah from the north. Antiochus sought to eradicate Judaism by not only making the practice a capital offense, but in December 168 BC he dedicated the Temple to Zeus, placed an idol of Zeus over the altar and then sacrificed a pig on the altar. Such a nefarious act rendered the temple useless. To enable us to better understand how monstrous that act was and since we don’t have quite the attachment to our places of worship, let me make a more suitable analogy. The horror of Daniel’s prophecy could best be understood by Wisconsinites if the prophecy would read: “The mangy grizzly will arise from the flatlands of the south and invade the righteous to the north. He will desecrate the sacred green and gold with blue and orange. The great temple will be desecrated when inhabited by the descendants of Ditka.” That is an abomination that causes desolation! But even though Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled in 168 BC, Jesus speaks of it as future. He does not deny the fulfillment by Antiochus. Rather the phrase is meant to describe a type of problem rather than a single event. The abomination refers to any loathsome practice which would make the temple useless. The work of Antiochus was one such act, but others followed suit. They were all abominations that cause desolation. The term refers not to one event, but anytime this kind of thing takes place. The abomination to which verse 15 refers occurred between 66 and 70, when the Roman General Titus surrounded the city, erected earthen siege walls and broached the city’s defenses. Luke, writing to a Gentile who would be less aware of Daniel’s prophecy, makes the connection between the abomination of Daniel to the Roman army’s invasion when he says in Luke 21:20, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will known that its desolation is near.” This is a description of when anyone would disrupt the worship of God. This disruption was an abomination that makes the worship of God empty. The phrase was used of several different events that made Temple worship useless. Jesus warns the disciples that another desolation of the temple will soon come. What is described here is fulfilled in 70 AD. It is for that reason the Christians were told to flee Jerusalem as Titus approached. They knew the pax Romana was maintained at a price - Rome offered peace for the price of worship. But the problem of the abomination of desolation does not stop there. The singular events of 168 BC and 70 AD are repeated throughout history in a variety of ways. Throughout Church history any time the state demands to be worshipped in the place of God, and that demand is forced into the Church, that is an abomination that causes desolation. But what about today? How are we to understand this now? What is the abomination that causes desolation which should make us run for the hills as fast as we can now? Here is where we need to distinguish between rocks and sand. What is the central problem with the abomination that causes desolation? It is the intrusion of the false into the true. It is the confusion of true worship of God with false worship. For many Christians who spend great amounts of time on the minor issues and have a great taste for prophecy but care little for theology, the abomination that causes desolation is understood to be an issue of UN control, one world government, evil dictators and world leaders. But that is looking right past the central question - anything introduced into the worship of God which detracts from the worship of God will make our worship empty. This can be a governmental issue, when the state intrudes into worship and demands that all allegiance be sworn to it, when worship of the state becomes the worship of the church, then our worship is desecrated, desolate because an abomination has occurred. We worship ourselves, our human government instead of God. When we allow patriotism to be equated with Christianity, when we discuss our political affiliation with greater vigor than our biblical convictions, we quickly corrupt our worship of God. When we look to the state to solve our spiritual problems of alienation from God, to provide an answer for our lack of peace, this passage reminds us to run as fast as we can. When the state believes it is god, the redeemer of the people and demands worship, then true worship is emptied of its meaning and the horror of idolatry will trample those who reject the demands of state worship. At times like that - watch out! But this need not be seen solely as a political problem. An abomination that causes desolation that demands we flee will happen any time the worship of God is corrupted and another is placed before us to worship. When a church or denomination departs from the rocks and goes after the pebbles - watch out. When sand is the sum and substance of sermons - flee to the mountains. It is important to always ask “What is the focus of worship?” When it is human-centered, when the gaze goes no higher than the horizontal, such self-worship corrupts and invalidates true worship. When all is focused on me and my needs, rather than God’s glory - abomination. This flows into the next section; false worship, which demands that we run for safety, is worship which is promoted by a false Christ, a false prophet. WHAT IS THE FALSE CHRIST? Jesus gives us little information here, but notice how false Christs are characterized. They perform signs and wonders, they can almost deceive the elect, they are said to be in secret places (the desert or inner rooms). The warning given is to maintain a healthy unbelief regarding such people, those that operate outside the normal lines of Christianity. Those promoting special powers or special knowledge are immediately suspect. But these false Christs and false prophets are part of the problem of the abomination that causes desolation. That which nullifies our worship of God, which makes biblical faith an empty religion, is when false worship is promoted. The problem is a false Christ and Jesus Christ appear very similar. There is a bait-and-switch method used by these false teachers. You are no doubt familiar with the unethical practice of a retailer who advertises a well-known product at a very low price. When the buyer comes to make a purchase he is told they are out of stock. But he’s then offered an inferior line of merchandise in its place. The brand name gets the customer’s confidence but he receives a poor imitation. In the same way deceivers will use all the right vocabulary to make you think that what you are getting is the genuine article, but what you get is junk. They may talk about Redemption, the Cross, Christ, but these trusted terms are just come-on’s. How often have you encountered someone who professed faith, but the more you talked, the more you realized that while the vocabulary was the same, what they meant was very different? Many cults and marginal Christian groups often use points of similarity or moral issues to attract people. They will use the same words, but fill them with different meaning, often confusing people. The problem then is that this passage demands we be discerning, that we make decisions as to the validity of claims of others who may appear to be well-meaning. To do so means we must be willing to use the uncomfortable word “heresy.” Unfortunately the word “heresy” has been blacklisted by many in the church, but such a response is only a sign of our theological impoverishment. It is now heretical to call a false teaching heresy. The underlying presuppositions are that there is no core doctrine. There are no rocks of the faith which always must be put in first. The prevailing notion of universal validity of all claims, that truth is amorphous, makes the search for truth impossible. As people deny a core to the Christian faith, we can no longer ascertain when we step over the line; we can no longer instruct others as to what is true and what is false. Then when false prophets speak, when signs and wonders sensationalize certain leaders, people will travel to any desert or any inner room looking for Jesus. Another term people often associate with these false Christs is the Antichrist. This is the popular end-times figure. Often he is pictured as a political personality, as a world leader who will persecute believers and who embodies Satan himself. But specific term is found only in John’s epistles and is used in a broad, rather than specific sense. 1 John 2:18 repeats the common conception of antichrist: “He is coming!” But John corrects that pervasive belief of a singular person coming at the final cataclysm, when he says “even now many antichrists have come.” Not only are there many and not one, they are already here. Their presence is seen in that they were among the believers and then left. Their presence was detected only in their departure. There is no idea of a popular political leader who woos countries to follow him. So antichrists are detected as they depart, but also by what they say. The next reference to the antichrist is found in 1 John 2:22: the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Again the antichrist is not portrayed as some future leader, but a present person. John mentions the antichrist again in 1 John 4:3, but this time refers to the spirit of antichrist as the one who does not acknowledge that Jesus is from God. The people had heard he is coming, but John says that he is already here. Just as in 2:18 he says there are many antichrists, here he refers to the spirit of antichrist. The central issue is not identifying a specific person, but knowing their characteristic beliefs: the antichrist is one who denies Jesus Christ. It is that simple. For that reason we talk about there being many antichrists. The only other time this word is specifically used is in 2 John 7 where John refers to anyone who denies that Jesus came in the flesh is a deceiver and the antichrist. John removes the idea of antichrist from a specific person predicted to come to any form of heresy. Again, the pattern we’ve seen in Matthew 24 is that what Jesus predicts, what we are told to be on the look out for is not just a specific fulfillment at the end of all time, but a type of fulfillment. Anytime one acts in this manner, he is an antichrist, he is a false christ. The key problem is doctrinal error and heresy regarding the work of Jesus Christ, His incarnation and His relationship to the Father. Another similar term is the "man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. This is much more a personification of evil, evil in a person than just the more vague "antichrist." But Paul’s image of the man of lawlessness bears striking similarities to John’s antichrist and the false Christs of Matthew 24. The focus of all three is religious, theological, rather than political. In all three cases there is a present reality. John says there are already many antichrists and Paul says in 2:7 that the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. There is also a connection between this man of lawlessness and the abomination that causes desolation. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4 he sets himself up in the temple to be worshipped just as Antiochus did centuries before. This is not something Titus did in 70 AD and appears to be future. The arrival of the man of lawlessness bears similarities to the false christs for he too will display all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. So here again Scripture talks about a present reality and here a stronger idea of a future reality, too. But the problem once again is that of false worship; people will be deceived because they refuse to believe the truth (2:10). The danger is false teaching, heresy, lies. The danger is not the world banking system or El Nino. What should we understand when the Scripture talks about the abomination or the antichrist? The major point, the rock in all this, what has to go into the jar first, is that the event and the person center around truth claims, not around political power plays. What is important for the believer in all this is not knowing the movements of the European Common Market, but knowing the core truths of Scripture. We will stand firm not by being engrossed by the latest fads and end-time speculators but by knowing what we are to believe. Being grounded in truth is our greatest protection against the false Christs, the antichrist, the abomination that causes desolation. A mall in British Columbia had a problem. Groups of teens were loitering in their parking lots. Some caused property damage, others scared off potential shoppers. They puzzled over how to discourage them without causing friction and came up with a brilliant solution. They played classical music over loudspeakers in the parking lots. The kids left immediately. In that same way, sound biblical teaching will not only prepare people to defend the faith, but will drive off those who do not believe. So the question each of us must ask is, “How well grounded am I? How well do I know the truth of the Gospel? Can I sort out the rocks from the pebbles and know what to put into the jar when?” That is the benefit of doctrinal instruction, of catechetical teaching for our children. It is like looking at the box top of a jigsaw puzzle as you try to put the pieces together. To think that you will intuitively know what goes where is a mistake. By way of application I have prepared a short test. It is nothing definitive and final, but it is designed to help you ask the question of yourself, “Are you able to distinguish between the rocks and the pebbles?" |
