Posted on 06/20/2010 5:14:46 PM PDT by Ken4TA
If you would eliminate all the prophecy that has already been fulfilled, you would eliminate about 90% of today’s prophetic preaching and writing!
A classic example of modern prophets predicting something which has already come to pass is the one concerning the “abomination of desolation,” an expression used by Jesus in Matthew 24. Perhaps you have heard this futuristic interpretation given by a pre-millennial preacher: “The Jews (having restored Herod’s Temple) will have a visit by the False Prophet who shall bring an image of the Anti-Christ into Jerusalem and set it in the temple…that will be the sign Jesus mentioned in Mt. 24, the Abomination of Desolation.” Or this: “This image will be placed in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and is the “abomination of desolation…” (DeHaan).
These same futurist preachers, who make up the majority of radio and TV preachers, and fill most of the religious magazines with their interpretations, succeed in keeping millions from a settled faith in Christ and an understanding of His words.
The setting for the prophecy is the Temple in Jerusalem, so rich and grand that the disciples openly admired its magnificence. Jesus said, “Varily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mt. 24:2).
This was a shocking statement, considering the huge size of the temple stones. The disciples requested, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?” (Mt. 24:3). First, Jesus pointed out that there would be false messiahs, earthquakes, wars, etc., and that in the face of these the saints were to endure and the gospel was to be preached. Then, He answered the question concerning the destruction of the temple which then stood. For a right interpretation, we need to read the account as given in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Matthew: “When therefore you see the abomination of desolation, which spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that reads understand) then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains” (Mt. 24:15–16).
Mark: “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not (let him that reads understand), then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains” (Mark 13:14).
Luke: “But when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand. Then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains…and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:20–21, 24).
While Matthew and Mark quote directly from Daniel, using Daniel’s expression, “abomination of desolation,” Dr. Luke plainly reveals that what they would see would be armies surrounding the city, about to bring about her desolation.
Reference to Daniel has to do with his “70 weeks” prediction, at the end of which he writes “and upon the wing of abomination shall come one that makes desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27). The question of the disciples concerned the destruction of the temple, while the prophecy of Daniel predicted the complete desolation of both temple and city. According to Luke’s account the desolation was to be accomplished by armies.
To the residents of Jerusalem nothing was more “abominable” than the idolatrous Romans. As they looked out over the walls of the city and saw Roman legions advancing for the purpose of destroying them, they would easily understood the term “abomination of desolation” and realize that it was upon them.
The “abomination of desolation” was to be seen standing in the “holy place,” or “where he ought not.” Many have taken this to mean an object standing in the Holy of holies in the temple. But there are four things that disallow that interpretation. (1) Only the High Priests were allowed in the Holy of Holies, therefore the people would never see this object in order to be warned to flee. (2) The enemy would never be allowed to place an “abominable” object in the temple unless the city were already in enemy hands. By that time, it would be too late for the Christians to flee; therefore, this could be no sign to them to flee to the mountains. (3) Luke plainly says that what they are to see is “Jerusalem compassed with armies….” (4) The prophecy has to do with the destruction of the temple, not something placed inside it.
As for the “Holy Place,” this term was used not only for the temple, but for the surrounding court and for the entire city, which they often called the “Holy City.”
The prophecy is not nearly so cryptic as modern interpreters would have us believe. Jesus simply told the disciples that the great temple would be destroyed, along with the entire city. However, it was not to take place right away. These same disciples were told to remain in Jerusalem until they received power (the holy Spirit) and that they were to preach the gospel in Jerusalem first. Therefore they were told that there would be wars, rumors of war, famine and other great catastrophes, false Christs and persecution. When the destruction was imminent, they would know it in time to flee, and the clear sign would be the siege of Jerusalem by foreign armies. This was a sign that no one could mistake.
In 65 AD Florus was appointed Caesar’s procurator over Judea. Determined to put down the Jewish resistance to Rome and do away with radical rebels, he imposed such strong measures that thousands of Jews arose in violent rebellion. History records a period when all of Judea and Galilee were filled with violence. Roman armies would attack a village to smoke out the rebels; in retaliation, guerilla bands would attack Gentiles, slaughtering whole communities; the response would be an even greater blow by the Romans against Jews, followed by a massacre led by Jewish rebels.
When Florus couldn’t quell the rebels Cestius Gailus took over, and marched the Roman armies into Palestine, destroyed resistance in all the towns on his way toward Jerusalem, and laid siege to that city.
Here was the sign, the “abomination of desolation” standing in the place holy to all Israelites. But how could they flee? The city was under siege, and the armies of Cestius were easily winning the battle. Then for some unexplained reason, as the historian Josephus says, “without any reason in the world,” he withdrew all the troops. The Jews thought that God had given them the victory, and pursued the Roman army and inflicted heavy casualties. Soon a new General, Titus, would take command and return with greater forces, but in the meantime there was an interval during which all the Christians, following Christ’s warning, fled. According to Thomas Newton: “We learn from ecclesiastical histories, that at this juncture all who believed in Christ departed Jerusalem, and removed to Pella and other places beyond the river Jordan; so that they all marvelously escaped the general shipwreck of their countrymen; and we do not read anywhere that so much as one of them perished in the destruction of Jerusalem” (Disertations on the Prophecies, pg., 389, See “great Prophecies of the Bible,” Ralph Woodrow and “The Olivet Discourse” by Dallas Meserve).
After the Christians had fled, Titus besieged the city, and the woes that befell Jerusalem were what Jesus called “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Mt. 24:21). Josephus, a Jewish historian, was an eye-witness to the events and describes them in “Wars of the Jews,” published about 75 AD. He wrote of cities filled with the dead, houses plundered and burned. In one hour over 20,000 were killed in Caesarea, and Galilee was filled with fire and blood!
In Jerusalem the Zealots “fell upon the people (who disagreed with them) as upon a flock of profane animals, and cut their throats.” Over 12,000 prominent people died in this way. As the siege continued food became scarce, so that neighbor preyed upon neighbor to obtain food. When it was known that someone possessed food, he was tortured to make him reveal his source, and then usually killed by his greedy countrymen. Josephus relates horrendous systems of torture they used on each other to extract money, in order to buy food from the powerful ones, who had hopes of being delivered before themselves perishing. “The number of those that perished by famine in the city was prodigious, and their miseries were unspeakable. For it so much as the shadow or any kind of food did anywhere appear, a war was commenced presently, and the dearest friends fell fighting one another about it….” One prominent woman killed her infant son and roasted him. After eating half of the body, the other half was hidden. She was forced to uncover the remaining half of the little body, saying: ‘Come, eat of this food,’ for I have eaten of it myself…’.”
Titus had wanted to preserve the temple. But when he finally entered the city one of the enraged soldiers entered the temple with a torch and set it afire. The heat became so intense that it melted the gold inlay so that it ran down into the crevices of the building stones. Eager to extricate this valuable metal, the Romans pulled down one stone from off another, to fulfill Christ’s prophecy, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel (Dan. 9:25–27) was completed by the events during the ministry of Christ, His death, and the three and one half years following His resurrection during which time thousands turned from the Old Covenant and received the New Covenant of Christ. As in other times a grace period of 40 years was given before the final destruction and end of the nation. During that time the Jews fulfilled another of Christ’s predictions, that the disciples would endure great persecution from their countrymen and unbelieving members of their families, by which the Jews would “fill up the full measure of God’s wrath for them” (Mt. 23:32, 34–36). Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation” (Mt. 23:36), plainly indicating that the destruction of Jerusalem was the result of their rebellion against Christ and His people. At the end of that 40 years, God’s wrath was poured out upon the nation through Roman armies in 70 AD. It is History.
Although it was Titus and pagan armies that made up the abomination of desolation, they were merely carrying out the divine judgment of God, the sentence of destruction Jesus had pronounced upon the city over 40 years earlier.
As Ralph Woodrow comments, “This interpretation is solidly built on the Bible. With it, the gospel accounts are complementary, not contradictory. It is confirmed by history. It glorifies Christ, for it plainly demonstrates how his words were fulfilled and his warnings heeded — thus providing a great deliverance and blessing for the Christian people of that time!”
To place fulfilled prophecy yet into the future is to deny the word of Christ. To show His prophecies fulfilled establishes His words, exalts Him and gives great assurance to the believer.
bflr
I forgot to mention before that the section of Daniel we are talking about is not in Hebrew ... its in Aramaic.
I realize that. And I'm sure the Hebrew scholars who translated the OT into the LXX understood and had parts that were in Aramaic. They did the tranlsation and I think that they knew better than we moderns do, so they translated the whole OT into the Greek LXX.
That's one, just a small one. See my FRMAIL to you.
Me neither :-)
And come to think of it ... you should be arguing FOR the presence of the article! Since you believe that “he will confirm” the Mosaic covenant the presence of the article would lend support to your position. If the article was missing (as you are arguing for as the preferred reading) the better rendition would be one of unfamilarity ... i.e., “confirm a covenant” ... one that was presumably not in existence as of yet.
Nope, I go by the exact wording of the LXX. Injecting articles is a modern convention that started centuries after the spread of the manuscripts we have. That is not to say I don't agree with the addition of articles, but that it is not to be found in the manuscripts. Is it true or not that Jesus said that not one "jot" or "tittle" would not be fulfilled? Those publishing what is supposed to be the words of the manuscripts in the Greek - not the translation - and saying that those are the words written are ridiculous. The addition of Greek "articles" is not faithfully transmitting the Scriptures in the Greek language. Does that make sense?
And I’m not really sure why you are preferring the LXX for your translation and interpretation of Daniel. You say you trusted the Hebrew scholars who translated from Hebrew to Greek; are you implying you DON’T trust the Hebrew scholars who translate the Hebrew into English today?
And, as you probably know, the LXX diverges quite wildly in many places from the Hebrew.
There are 2 predominant texts of the LXX, BOTH were used by the early church fathers who commented on Daniel occassionally. Using the one without articles is a preference, not a dictate. Personally, I used both while looking at the lexical data to support my partial translation. You would do well to heed the words of Augustine quoted in the preface to the KJV. He said (my terrible paraphrase from memory) "its best to use a multiple of translations because you could get the wrong sense by committing to just one."
Augustine said many things that are good (and some far out). Your terrible paraphrase of him is fine: and I follow that all the time. My library has 29 versions of the Bible, and while I don't pull everyone out all the time to check how they translate or interpret the manuscripts, I seldom don't check a few when writing articles. That is a good practice that more should follow - congratulation are due to you!
There are 2 predominant texts of the LXX, BOTH were used by the early church fathers who commented on Daniel occassionally. Using the one without articles is a preference, not a dictate. Personally, I used both while looking at the lexical data to support my partial translation.
Okay, not bad. I do similarly. I have access to quite a few texts of the Old and New Testament books. The list of varients I have on the manuscripts are way to large to look at each and every one all the time. So, I have to pick and choose, maybe missing one that someone else may comment on. O'well, what will be wil be, as the saying goes. If you ever have the chance, visit the library in London, England: it has the largest collection of manuscripts that I've ever seen - although the Vatican library claims much more.
I don't read Hebrew is why I go to the LXX. It's not a matter of trusting modern Hebrew scholars, it's a matter of the OLD Hebrew scholars who did the original translation of the Hebrew (and Aramaic) into the Greek language, and whose translation was quoted by Jesus and His Apostles: also, it's the version that was in use in the 1st century and a few centuries after. Anything wrong with doing that?
And, as you probably know, the LXX diverges quite wildly in many places from the Hebrew.
I'm aware of that. However, there was no controversey from Hebrews of the 1st century over any divergences until the argument about whether to use the LXX or the Masoretic text. However the Masoretic has many varients when compared to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and that is an even bigger argument among scholars today. While the precise meaning of some texts of the NT are sometimes uncertain, that is more often the case with the Hebrew and Aramaic texts. Thus my use of the Greek LXX.
Many in the Catholic and in Reformed theology teach many outstanding doctrines of the Church over the past 2 millenia, but their eschatology was weak.
Eschatology, building upon the other doctrines of Scripture, is reinforced by His Word and Prophecy of things yet to come.
The key I have found in studies through faith in Him, builds upon other doctrines, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, Kenosis, the Shekinah Glory, the Tabernacle, and His Indwelling of the believer.
This key focuses, not upon what we define His temple to be, nor what we provide Him, rather what He decides in His Sovereignty to be His temple, His locative dwelling place.
Consider for a moment what the Temple in Jerusalem was at the Incarnation. It was His dwelling place. It was manifest by the Shekinah Glory of His presence in the Holy of Holies.
At the Cross, when all of mankinds sins, past, present, and future were imputed upon our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, and He was judged for those sins, Jesus Christ redeemed our sins, by his atoning work for our judgment, propitiating the righteous judgment of God the Father, providing for so great a salvation, which in his faith and personal love for God the Father and His Plan for all humanity, and the impersonal love of Christ for all mankind, that after that Cross bearing the Judgment of those sins, He established the foundation upon which every believer, by the same faith in Him, through Christ, is now able to be blessed by God the Father with the regeneration of our human spirit, by His grace, for salvation through Him.
It is very true, that this judgment for sin is now finished.
Additionally, upon the death of our Lord Christ Jesus, the Temple veil was rent in two, from top to bottom.
It also should be noted that even when believers of high stature, sought to build a Temple for God, their volition to build the Temple, was not the criterion God sought for the production of a location where He would dwell.
He was the arbiter of His dwelling place. He would provide for His dwelling place. Where He dwelt was by His volition, not abiding by the sacrifice of others, because a sacrifice was not what He sought, rather He sought the righteous just fellowship of His believers and provided a dwelling place so that He was dwelling amongst those whom He chose.
The same happens today.
The believer today, post-Pentecost, upon saving faith is given a regenerated human spirit, is born again in the human spirit, and still has a body and soul scarred from the old man influencing his thinking.
While we remain in fellowship with Him, through faith in Him, we are living as the new man, not the old sin nature which still influences and tempts us.
We are commanded to remain in fellowship with Him.
We are never commanded to be indwelt by Him, because He decides where He will dwell.
Today, blessing us with the favor of the request of our Lord and Savior, He, God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer through faith in Christ. Even when we fall out of fellowship, He remains faithful and the indwelling remains, not by our volition, by purely by His volition and grace.
God was not indwelling the Temple at the time of the Roman invasion of 70AD, rather the Temple by His choosing at that time and since, is in each and every believer, whom He indwells.
This is not imaginary, nor philosophy, but a report of His very real presence in every believer, manifest in our remaining in fellowship in Him and His working in us, continuing to sanctify His believers by His Plan for each and every one of us.
We still need teaching to continue to grow in Him, through faith in Christ, but this will not be the case in the Millenium, when we will not need to teach one another.
The Great Tribulation is an event triggered by Israel’s decision to enter into a covenant with another for their security, rather than remaining faithful to God through what He has provided.
The Church, will experience a Great Apostasy.
The Abomination that makes desolate, is also marked by events causing the sacrifice to not have effect.
There is strong warning against taking the mark of the beast.
When these things occur, there will be a time when believers are unable to return into fellowship with God, through simple repentance and confession. Please note that several things always remain true with our God. He never has anything to do with something that is good for nothingness. Everything He does bears fruit. He has redeemed us from the slave market of sin and we are His, no matter what we do.
There is just a traumatic turning of events in the last week as there was at the Cross. Our Lord remains victorious, but there will be many whom He loves who will suffer from lack of faith.
The world is changing, but it isn’t getting better, except through faith in Him, and generally those remaining in faith frequently do not bare the worldly fruits of their spiritual faith in Him, but many rewards await at the bema seat.
Even after the Second Coming, there still are many physical and mental issues which require further sanctification as a result of original sin. That Millennial Reign has not yet begun. In the interim, we are proof, that only with His Reign, will all of humanity and the angelic conflict ever succeed in living by His Plan, and any and all alternatives, ultimately lead to evil and failure.
A final note, even if the physical building called the temple by others was destroyed, His Word and His Prophecy regards the true Temple, the place determined by Him and Him alone as to where He would reside. The abomination of 70 AD was not an abomination of where He was dwelling, because that time was in the Church Age, and His Dwelling place was in the spirit of His believers at that time as it is today. His Prophecy will come true, and literally where He has said it will occur. There is no mystery in it, other than associating with the mystery Church Age, not known prior to Pentecost and the Ascension.
By simply studying His Word, He lets us understand clearly exactly what is occurring in His Plan, at least with sufficiency for us to perform His Will by His Plan and we need no other.
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