Mark 13:14 “So when you see the 'Abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not" (let the reader understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” In Mark’s gospel quoted above, when our Lord referred to “the abomination of desolation” standing where he ought not to stand, He was referring to the Anti-Christ standing in the temple of God, for that is the abomination of desolation that the prophet Daniel spoke about in the vision that he saw (Daniel 12:11). In fact Daniel was shown two abominations of desolation. The first one that he saw occurred in the year 163 BC (Daniel 11:31). It was as a result of that event that the Jewish Feast of Dedication was introduced to the Jewish calendar (John 10:22). The Feast of Dedication is a celebration of the cleansing of the second temple after the Jews defeated Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian King who invaded Jerusalem, defiled the temple by placing an image of Zeus in the temple, and offering a pig on the altar. The second abomination of desolation that Daniel saw was the Anti-Christ standing in the temple at the end of the age. It is this second vision given to Daniel, to which our Lord Jesus was referring when He prophesied. The reason why Mark interjects in this passage of scripture the comment, “let the reader understand” is because some have thought that our Lord was referring to the destruction of the second temple that took place in 70 AD as the abomination of desolation. But that is not the case at all, and in fact Matthew’s account also records the words, “whoever reads, let him understand”, when recounting our Lord’s referral to the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15). For in both Mark and Matthew’s accounts, our Lord was referring to the Anti-Christ standing in the temple of God at the end of the age. As we will see later in this teaching, it was in Luke’s gospel account of our Lord’s teaching on end time events that our Lord referred to the destruction of the second temple (Luke 21:20). Which is why the Holy Spirit did not impress upon Luke to add the comment, “whoever reads, let him understand”, as He did with Mark and Matthew. And so, we see that Jesus clearly taught us that the third Jewish temple would be in place by the time that the Anti-Christ is revealed in the earth. Michael E.B. Maher
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