Background music is “This World Is Not My Home”

The first mention of tribulation in the Bible is Deut. 4:29-31, “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation , and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”

It is very clear from this verse that from the first mention of it to last, tribulation is something that God’s people must expect from time to time, but that there is also going to be a distinct period of tribulation that will come upon the people who are living in the “latter days.” There are two words translated as tribulation in the Old Testament. One is TSAR, which appears 102 times, translated variously as enemy: adversary, foe, narrow, tribulation, distress, too strait, trouble, anguish, close, affliction or afflicted, small, like flint, and sorrow. The second Hebrew word translated as tribulation is TSARAH. It is very similar to TSAR. TSARAH appears 72 and is translated into the same English words as TSAR. 

 The Greek words that are translated as tribulation in the New Testament are thlipsis and thlibo. Tlipsis appears 43 times in the New Testament, and is translated as tribulation 20 of those times, as afflicted or affliction 18 times, persecution once, anguish once, trouble 2 times, and burdened once. Thlibo appears 10 times, and is translated as narrow once, throng once, afflicted 3 times, and as trouble or troubled 4 times.

So, tribulation can be any thing that distresses, troubles, frustrates, persecutes, or otherwise impedes the progress of the church in her mission to spread the Gospel.  The New Testament says of itself that it is the covenant of the Last Days. (See 1 Pet. 1:18-21) It is pretty clear then that the phrase, “even in the latter days,” from Deut. 4:30 above refers specifically to God’s People during the New Testament period. 

Of the 19 times that the words thlipsis or thlibo are used in the New Testament, most of them refer to these periodic times and conditions that come upon all of the people of God, and we should expect such things in our lives to try and imporve our faith. (Rom. 5:3-5)  There are however 7 verses where the words tribulation, affliction, refer to that period of Great Tribulation Jesus referred to in Matt. 24:15. 

Because most expositors today equate this period of Great Tribulation with The seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy in Dan. 9:24-29, they expect the length of this period of Great Tribulation to be from three and a half years to seven years. THERE IS NOT A VERSE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE BIBLE THAT SAYS THE PERIOD KNOWN AS THE GREAT TRIBULATION WILL ONLY LAST SEVEN YEARS. 

Matt. 24:15 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:)...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.

Jesus said that the period of the Great Tribulation will begin when the church sees the abomination of desolation in Daniel’s prophecies standing in the holy place.  The clearest verse of scripture concerning the particulars of this abomination of desolation is Dan. 11:31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. The 11th Chapter of Daniel is a prophecy of how Jerusalem and the church will be effected by pagan kings from the time of Alexander the Great, on through the four divisions of the Grecian Empire, and then through ascendancy of Egypt and Syria out of those four divisions. The prophecies in the Eighth Chapter of Daniel tell us that there is a ‘King of Grecia” who will endure from the time of Alexander the Great until the time when he is supernaturally destroyed by The Prince of Princes. Therefore this King of Grecia has to be the demonic, spiritual power behind the rise and fall of the kingdoms that fight against the church in the regions of the former Grecian Empire. (See Daniel 8:21-26) For this reason we do not see either Israel or the Byzantine Empire mentioned in the prophecies, except as “the mighty and the holy people,” because the prophecies only deal with those kingdoms inspired by the King of Grecia who will fight against the Kingdom of of Heaven during the course of History.

Chapter 8 verse 23 of Daniel says of these empires inspired by the King of Grecia, “23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” This would be the same person of whom Jesus said, “25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you , Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” (Matt. 24:25-26) This particular individual is also the subject of the Apostle Paul’s prophecies in which he is variously called, the mystery of iniquity, the man of sin, and the son of perdition. (See 2 Thess, 2:3-10) Therefore, we should learn to look for events that fulfill the prophecies during the entire period from the time of Alexander’s Empire until the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, what should we understand about those verses that mention the abomination of desolation in the Book of Daniel?

The prophecy revealed in the 9th Chapter of Daniel has been given to us solely to explain to Daniel the meaning of the words of Jeremiah where Daniel had read that Jehovah would “accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem.” Daniel was expecting Jehovah to restore his people to Jerusalem after seventy years of exile. (See Dan. 9:1-20) For that reason God sent the angel Gabriel to explain to Daniel what the Prophecy from Jeremiah really meant. Beginning in Dan. 9:21 the Gabriel explains to Daniel that the seventy years in Jeremiah’s prophecy are not literal years, but separate periods of time that involve several seven year periods. Gabriel divided the period of time from the proclamation to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah would come to Jerusalem to be two periods of time that could be evenly divided into seven year periods. The first was a period of seven sevens or 49 years. The second was a period of 62 sevens or 434 years, after which Messiah would be killed for others. 

Then Gabriel told Daniel that after Messiah was killed, the people of the prince that would one day come into the world would destroy the city and the sanctuary. Therefore, none of the prophecy in verses 21-27 can be applied to any event before Messiah was killed. Those prophecies concern desolations in a war that will be continual from the death of Messiah until the end of the war. So that war began with the crucifixion of Jesus and will not end until he returns. At some point during that war, someone called only as “he” will confirm the covenant with many for one week, then break it in the midst of the week; none of those things can be said to have been fulfilled before Jesus was crucified. All of the prophecies in Daniel 9:26-27 begin with the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins and must be fulfilled after that event. “26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one 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, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:26-27)  The one referred to here as “he” can only be the same as the King of Grecia we have been told about in Daniel the 8th chapter because he is referred to as the prince that shall come after Messiah is killed, and we are told the war he is waging is will continue from the time Messiah is killed until the end of this war between him and Jesus. No human being will be the embodiment of that prophecy until Satan himself becomes incarnate and receives his kingdom from the ten kings around the Mediterranean Sea who are even now coming into their kingdoms. See Rev. 17:12-14.

However, nothing that is written in the rest in the Book of Daniel that follows after verses 9:26-27 has to be accomplished after the Crucifixion of Jesus, because Chapters 10 through 12 are concerned with an entirely separate vision at an entirely different time. The Tenth Chapter of Daniel begins with a vision Daniel had in the third year of the reign of Cyrus king of Persia. In verse 14 of that chapter we read Gabriel telling Daniel, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” Therefore, we should understand that the things that thinks written in the 10th, 11th, and 12th Chapters of Daniel concern things that will befall the Jews in the latter days. That does not mean that they are of no interest to the church because the church will exist in the same world as the Jews, and will experience many of these things as well.

In Daniel 11:1 we are told that Gabriel had been helping establish the kingdom of Persia since the first year of Cyrus, so this information is being relayed to Daniel two years after the Spiritual warfare to establish the Persian Empire began. Then in verse 2 of that chapter Daniel is told about the succession of kings in the Persian Empire and the rise of the Grecian Empire within the regions around the Mediterranean Sea. From chapter 11 verse 4 onward to the end of the book, the subject is that of the kings and kingdoms that will rule over that region from the time when Alexander’s Grecian Empire was divided into four parts until the return of Jesus Christ. This part of the prophecy is focused most sharply on the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria as they had the power over Jerusalem. (For a detailed account of these things see Albert Barnes’ “Notes On The Bible,” available for free down load with the eSword Bible Study Program.)

So the question that comes to mind is: “Are these prophecies only about the struggles between Egypt and Syria in the times of the Ptolemies and Seleucids, or should we also look for some meaning to the church?” Daniel 11:6 says, in part, “And in the end of years they shall join themselves together;...”  This would certainly allow for an understanding that the verses subsequent to verse 6 should be seen to cover from the time of the prophecy until the end of the age. The Hebrew word translated as, “And in the end,” is “qets” Qets is defined as, “an extremity (of anything to which it is applied).” The Hebrew word that is translated as, “of years” is “shaneh,” which is defined as a revolution of time such as a year, or a lifetime, infinity, or an age.  Therefore, the sense of the verse could be anything from the end of one year after the prophecy to the end of the age in which the prophecy was given. Commentators from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries almost universally believed that the two terms coupled together should be understood as meaning that after the lifetimes of the first King of the North and King of the South the prophecy would be fulfilled by their ancestors, which it very nearly completely was. (Many such Commentaries are available with the free Bible Study software at www.esword.net) And some of those commentators saw the Saracens (Arabs) as occupying a place in these prophecies, but none of them guessed how prominent that place would be. Therefore, the term, “and in the end of years,” ought to be understood to mean from the time the prophecy was given until the end of the age in which it was given -- which age is known in scripture as the Age of the Gentiles and includes the Church Age. So when we see an event or study about something in history that seems to match up with the prophecies, we should understand that they are an antetype or prototype of the final type that will be seen at the end of the age. Thus, Antiochus Ephiphanes is the antetype of Antichrist who will come to earth in the last days.

The reason it is important to understand the prophecies concerning this abomination is because Jesus Himself told us that His Church would see this abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place. “ 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:) ” (Matt. 24:14) If Antiochus Epiphanes had been the only fulfillment of Daniel’s prohpecy, the church will never see the Abomination of Desolation that Jesus has said we will see. Therefore, either Jesus has deliberately mislead the church, or at some point in time the church will truly see the Desolating Abomination, of which Daniel was told, standing in the Holy Place even though others may have seen types of it previously.

I have no doubts that Mohammed was a type of Abomination of Desolation, and that the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi, who many Moslems believe will be the ultimate savior of mankind, will one day appear and fulfill the Biblical Prophecies of The Antichrist. This will be the man of sin who will overcome the saints, bring about the great apostasy, and unite the Ten Kingdoms from around the Mediterranean Sea into an Anti-Israel, Anti-Christian empire. The belief in this Imam is Messianic in the sense that many Moslems believe he will be the savior of mankind just as Christians and Jews believe Messiah is the savior of mankind. But there is a huge difference between the two beliefs. Christians and Jews believe that they must watch and be ready for their Messiah to return and subdue his enemies. Moslems who believe in the Mahdi believe they must first convert the world to Islam and destroy his enemies themselves before he will appear. (See 2 Thess. 2:7-12) Jesus has told us before it happens that when The Antichrist appears and the church sees him standing in the holy place the Great Tribulation will begin.

There is some information in circulation today that proposes that the Dome of The Rock built on Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the site of the Jewish Temple is the abomination that makes desolate. It is one possibility, but not necessarily the best possible understanding of the abomination that makes desolate. This proposition uses Dan. 12:11-12 below as the basis for its appointing the days. I would like to believe it because it places the end of the warfare very near. But there are a great many problems concerned with it. I include it here for you to decide for yourself. The word written in green ink below summarize this notion. See the pages at www.bibletruth.cc/Body_AbominationofDesolation.htm as an example of this proposition.

Dan. 12:11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

In the year 607 BC, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and carried off the temple vessels used in the continuous (Daily) sacrifices, thus stopping the continuous, daily, sacrifice for the first time since Solomon had dedicated the temple. This stoppage broke the continuity of the daily sacrifices, for that reason it can be said that the continuous sacrifices ceased at that time. When they started again, they were no longer continuous, and the vessels Solomon that had used in dedicating the original Temple were not used. Any thing that happened at that site for the next 1290 years had nothing to do with the continuous sacrifices.  Then 1290 years after the daily sacrifices were stopped the Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple site in 684 A.D. People could see it standing in the Holy Place that Jehovah had set aside for himself.  This abomination truly made the Holy Place desolate. 1335 years from that date will be 2019 A. D. Seven years before that date it will be 2012, the date that would have been a presidential; election in the United States, but, because our failure in the 2008 election to find leadership and representatives who would put an end to abortion and the rampant iniquity in our country, we will either be destroyed before that, or be so corrupt that we join the forces of the Kingdom of the Dragon before that time.

At present, the unresolvable problem I see with this proposition is that Daniel 9:26 says that the prince that will come (who will be The Antichrist) will be the prince of the people who destroy the temple, and the Temple destruction of which it speaks will occur after Messiah has been killed. Therefore, the destruction of this Temple cannot be applied to the time when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the first Temple in 684 B. C. There are therefore only two other possiblities. 1) It must refer to the temple destruction by the Romans in A. D. 70; or, 2) It will apply to a temple that will one day be rebuilt after the one the Romans destroyed. If it is applied to the Roman destruction, then the prince that shall come must be a Roman. But if it is applied to a future Temple that is destroyed, the prince that will come will be of those people. Since we are told in Dan. 9:27 that this prince, the one who will come after the Temple is destroyed, will confirm the covenant with many for one week, and this the Romans did not do, we must look to the future for the total fulfillment of the prophecy.

I believe that one day soon, a treaty will be reached between Israel and the Arabs that will allow them to build a temple on the Rock of Mount Zion where the Dome of the Rock now stands. This may well be after an all out war in the Middle East brings such destruction on the Arab nations that they sue for peace. Part of that brokered peace will allow Israel to tear down the Dome of the Rock and rebuild their Temple. Soon thereafter, the Twelfth Imam will appear and unite the Arab nations and establish the Kingdom of The Dragon using supernatural signs and wonders. The United States of America allied with Israel will probably be instrumental in the destruction of the Arab Nations, but then America will suffer a series of natural disasters that will eliminate her from world power, This will open the way for the nations listed in Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39 to ally themselves with the Arab Nations that have been united by the Twelfth Imam and attack Israel. At that time the Great Tribulation will begin. This war and the tribulation associated with it will end when our Lord Jesus Christ returns and destroys The Anichrist by the brightness of His Appearing. For more information about the Return of Jesus and how this great Tribulation will effect the church see the page The Return.