Matthew 24:15-20 “Therefore when you see the 'Abomination of Desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), (16) “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (17) Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. (18) And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. (19) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! (20) And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.”
This brings us to the second occasion where our Lord warned those living in Judea to flee to the mountains. This account has been recorded for us in Matthew’s gospel quoted above. Mark’s gospel records this same account for us almost word for word. In both Mark and Matthew’s gospel accounts, our Lord was speaking privately to Peter, James, John and Andrew, while they were seated on the Mount of Olives. In this account our Lord elaborated on what He had already taught in the temple earlier (as related in Luke’s gospel account), with one major difference. The difference was that Jesus now spoke of the end time event, and not the event that would occur in the year 70 AD. And so we see that on the second occasion when our Lord warns the disciples living in Judea to flee to the mountains that His instructions were different. The reason for that is because the scenario on the second occasion will be completely different to what occurred in 70 AD. The sign given to the saints at the end time event will be the Antichrist himself physically standing in the temple, and our Lord tells His saints to flee Judea when they see that sign. As we have already seen, on the first occasion that our Lord told His saints to flee Judea, His warning sign was given to them four years before disaster overtook those dwelling in Jerusalem. On the second occasion however, the saints will not be afforded the same timeframe of warning to flee Judea. In fact the time frame from the time that the saints see the sign and disaster striking will be extremely short, for notice that on this occasion that our Lord tells His saints to not even go into their homes to pack. He tells them to drop whatever they are doing and leave. Our Lord would not give His saints their warning sign when it will be too late to do anything about it, and so when the saints see the sign of the Antichrist standing in the temple they will have time to flee Judea, but they must do so immediately.
Michael E.B. Maher
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