Appendix: The 2300 days of Daniel
The Abomination of Desolation
Of the five time sequences in the book of Daniel, three mention the abomination of desolation:
- The third vision: "He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered" (Dan. 8:11 - 12).
- The fourth vision: "Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate" (Dan. 9:27).
- The fifth vision: "And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days" (Dan. 12:11 - 12).
The five time sequences overlap, so the latter three give details missing in the first two. The last vision, which spans chapters ten through twelve, also includes another reference to "the abomination of desolation," this under Antiochus IV during the time of the Grecian Empire. The time of this does not match the other references, and is only a foreshadowing of what is to come. Jesus placed the event in the future, confirming this:
"Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains ..." (Matt. 24:15 - 16).
"no other gods"
God had established a covenant with Israel beginning with Moses. They were to be His chosen people and were to represent Him as the only true God. The first of the Ten Commandments states, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:2 - 3). God established His holiness and righteousness before the people with the tabernacle and a sacrificial system to show He could not be approached without sin and disobedience being dealt with. God required His people to subject themselves to Him fully, and to have a humble attitude before Him.
The "abomination of desolation" is an attempt by a man to reject the position God has as sovereign Almighty God and to replace His reign and standing with that of a false god, that being a man himself. It is to reject the holiness of God and the method God established to have a right relationship with Him. It is to elevate self to the position of God. This is how Satan fell from heaven, and how he deceived Eve in the Fall of mankind. (See "The Fall and the Restoration")
Death to self
God established Jesus Christ as the intermediary between God and man: "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). In the redemption from the Fall, God established that subjection back to Him would be through His Son Jesus Christ—and this through the cross. As Jesus died on the cross, in subjection to the Father, to atone for sin, those who come to God through Jesus must also reckon that they too are dying to themselves and their rebellion. Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). And again, speaking of Jesus, "For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet ... Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:25, 28).
It is through Jesus Christ that mankind removes himself from being his own god and comes back into a right relationship with the one true God. But in the "abomination of desolation," the Antichrist will show the same rebellion of Satan in his fall from heaven, and of Adam and Eve in their fall in the garden. Scripture shows the Antichrist, the "man of sin," is one "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4). This event carries implications beyond a physical happening since the temple and the sacrifices are only shadows of a reality found in Jesus Christ.
The true temple
Scripture shows the physical temple is only symbolic. John records Jesus and the Jews: "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said" (John 2:19 - 22).
The book of Hebrews shows the true tabernacle in regard to Jesus: "But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption ... For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:11 - 12, 24).
The true tabernacle, or temple, is in Jesus Christ. Those in Christ are considered part of that dwelling place of God: "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19 - 22).
In subjection to God
The true temple is spiritual, in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, God established a covenant with Israel to represent this reality with a foreshadowing in the physical temple in Jerusalem. But as each believer is a "dwelling place of God," and that believer must take himself off the throne of his own life and be in subjection to God through Christ, even so the shadow must represent this. The nation of Israel can only represent that reality by being in subjection to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There cannot be a physical temple with its sacrifices that represents the reality in Christ without the people obeying God in the way He established to relate to Him. As Israel enters the final seven years of the seventy weeks, they will be, as a nation, still in rebellion to this.
And so Isaiah wrote, "Just as they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations, so will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them" (Isaiah 66:3 - 4). The Antichrist who brings abomination to the temple will represent the reality of a people who have done the same spiritually: they have placed themselves above God by rebelling against God's way to reach Him, so that they are sitting as god in the temple of their own bodies. This is the real abomination that brings desolation. God says, "... their soul delights in their abominations, so will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them ..." (Isa. 66:3 - 4).