What is the abomination of desolation?
Question 10031
The abomination of desolation is one of the most significant prophetic markers in all of Scripture. Jesus Himself identified it as the critical warning sign for those living during the Tribulation, and He expected His hearers to understand it by reference to the prophet Daniel. The phrase links Old Testament prophecy, intertestamental history, and New Testament eschatology into a single thread that runs from the sixth century BC to the midpoint of the future Tribulation.
Daniel’s Prophecy
The phrase originates in Daniel, where it appears in three distinct contexts. In Daniel 9:27, the coming prince “shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” In Daniel 11:31, forces “shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.” In Daniel 12:11, “from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.”
The Hebrew phrase shiqquts meshomem combines two ideas: an abomination (something detestable, often associated with idolatry) and desolation (ruin, horror, the emptying of a place of its proper inhabitants and worship). The abomination of desolation is an act of sacrilege so severe that it renders the holy place desolate, driving out true worship and replacing it with something detestable to God.
The Historical Fulfilment: Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Daniel 11:31 found its immediate fulfilment in 167 BC, when the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the Jerusalem temple. He erected an altar to Zeus Olympios over the altar of burnt offering and sacrificed swine upon it (1 Maccabees 1:54-59). He prohibited the daily sacrifices, banned circumcision, and destroyed copies of the Torah. The Jewish revolt that followed, led by the Maccabees, resulted in the rededication of the temple in 164 BC, commemorated annually in the festival of Hanukkah.
This historical event is significant for the interpretation of the broader prophecy, but it does not exhaust it. When Jesus referred to “the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel” in Matthew 24:15, He was speaking decades after Antiochus had come and gone. Jesus treated the abomination of desolation as a still-future event, which means that Antiochus was a partial or typological fulfilment rather than the complete one. The historical desecration foreshadowed a greater desecration still to come.
Jesus’ Reference in the Olivet Discourse
In Matthew 24:15-16, Jesus warns: “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” The parenthetical “let the reader understand” is striking. It signals that Jesus expects those who encounter this warning to pay close attention, to connect His words with Daniel’s prophecy, and to act immediately when the sign appears.
The context places this event at the midpoint of the Tribulation. It triggers the Great Tribulation, the second and more severe half of Daniel’s seventieth week. Jesus describes what follows as “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Matthew 24:21). The urgency of the flight is emphasised by the instruction not to go back for a cloak or come down from the housetop. The event is the turning point of the entire Tribulation, the moment at which the Antichrist’s true nature is fully revealed and the persecution of Israel intensifies catastrophically.
Paul’s Identification: 2 Thessalonians 2
Paul provides the most explicit identification of the person behind the act. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, he describes the man of lawlessness “who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” This self-enthronement in the temple is the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist, who has presented himself during the first half of the Tribulation as Israel’s protector and covenant partner (Daniel 9:27), now reveals his true identity. He breaks the covenant, halts the sacrificial system, desecrates the temple, and demands worship for himself.
The act is the ultimate expression of the satanic ambition described in Isaiah 14:13-14: “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly…I will make myself like the Most High.” Satan, working through the Antichrist, attempts to seize the worship that belongs to God alone, and the temple in Jerusalem becomes the site of this ultimate blasphemy.
The Temple Question
The prophecy presupposes a functioning Jewish temple in Jerusalem with an active sacrificial system. This does not exist at present, but its future construction is assumed by both Daniel and Paul. The rebuilding of the temple is a necessary precondition for the abomination of desolation to occur as described. Whether this temple is built before the Rapture or in the early stages of the Tribulation is not specified, and no timescale is given. What is clear is that Daniel’s seventieth week involves a temple in which sacrifices are offered, a covenant that protects that worship, and a midpoint violation that desecrates it.
So, now what?
For the Church, the abomination of desolation is a Tribulation event that occurs after the Rapture. Believers in the present age will not witness it. Its significance for the Church lies not in preparation for the event itself but in what it reveals about the character of God’s prophetic programme. God has told Israel in advance exactly what to expect and exactly how to respond. The specificity of the warning is an expression of His faithfulness: He does not leave His people uninformed or unwarned. The same God who will warn Israel to flee when the abomination appears has already told the Church to live in readiness for an event that requires no warning signs at all. The Rapture is imminent. The abomination of desolation is predictable. Both truths reflect the character of a God who speaks plainly, keeps His word, and can be trusted absolutely.
“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” Matthew 24:15-16 (ESV)
