Page 35 - Heavenly Signs II by Mel Gable

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Daniel also prophesied about the abomination of the Temple in the End Times. Christ, after being asked by His
disciples “what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age,” gave us signs to look for marking the end of the
age. In Matthew 24, Christ gave us multiple signs throughout the chapter. Wasn’t one of those signs the
“abomination and desolation” written about in Daniel and recalled in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark?

Matthew 24:15-16 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of
through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are
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in Judea must flee to the mountains”
Paul knew the believers should be aware of the timeframe and the signs that Christ had given. We should be
aware of the timing as well. Christ just said we would not know the day or the hour; but that was in reference to
the New Heaven and Earth and not the End Times mentioned in Matthew 24:35-36. Therefore, we should know
as His Bride the time is near, so that the day would not overtake us like a thief, which was understood by Paul.

1 Thessalonians 5:4 “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a
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thief;”.

The Church and the Last Things: by Lloyd-Jones, D.M.

The first is: When will the Temple and the city of Jerusalem will be destroyed? The disciples had asked that question. Our Lord had
told them about the coming destruction of the Temple, and they asked, ‘When will, this happen?’ As our Lord answered that
question, He also dealt with the second question which is: What are to be the signs of His coming? Then, in addition to that, He
went on to discuss the end of the age and the final judgment. So when the commentators and the expositors throughout the centuries
have come to read these Chapters, there have been three main schools of thought. There have been those who say that in those Chapters
our Lord deals with nothing but the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the spread of the gospel. Then there is a second school
which teaches that our Lord certainly did deal with that, and in a sense it was His main concern, but He did not stop there. He
made use of that to say that the events of AD 70 were also a picture of what would happen on a much bigger scale at the end of the
age and on the Day of Judgment. In other words, what would happen in AD 70 was a fact, yes, but also a picture, a parable, of a yet
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greater event that would happen when the age was summed up and the final judgment pronounced.

The historian, Josephus, described Titus as a moderate commander, who initially ordered the thousand-year-old
Temple to be spared. Josephus records that Caesar gave the order to Titus to demolish the entire city and the
Temple. The Roman soldiers set fire to an apartment adjacent to the Temple. Later, the stones were removed.

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they
would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the
entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as they were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and
Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp
for such as were to lie in garrison as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and
how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall (surrounding Jerusalem), it was so thoroughly
laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe
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it (Jerusalem) had ever been inhabited.

How do we know that Daniel’s northern kingdom is the Roman Empire? We know that it must follow the
kingdom of Greece. The Roman Empire “extremely strong with large iron teeth” according to Daniel 7:7 is the next
great kingdom after Greece. Greece is symbolic of a “shaggy goat” which is stated by Gabriel, the Archangel.

43 New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Mt 24:1-2, 15–17, 1Th 5:4). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
44 Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1998). The church and the last things (98–99). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

45 Flavius Josephus. The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem. Containing The Interval of About Three
Years. From The Taking of Jerusalem by Titus To The Sedition At Cyrene. Book VII. Chapter 1.1