Page 12 - Signs of the End

6 THE SIGNS OF THE END

In verse 15, a new thought enters the Lord’s discourse and a set
of specific instructions follows. Verses 15 and 16 are worthy of careful
study:

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso
readeth, let him understand;) Then let them which be in Judea
flee into the m ountains.” (Italics added)

Daniel spoke of this “abomination of desolation” in Daniel 9:27,
in reference to the Antichrist. Prophecy analysts connect this reference
to the entry of the Antichrist into the rebuilt Temple of God in
Jerusalem , a s outlined by Paul in II T hess. 2:3,4. Obviously, the in­
credible trespass of the Antichrist into the central shrine of world
Judaism will cause an emergency situation in Israel. The Lord hardly
understates the matter in His dramatic warnings:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such a s was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shorten­
ed” (Matt. 24:21,22).

The Lord’s term, “great tribulation”, has thus been applied to the
time just preceding the second coming. Apparently the evil in the world
and the oppression of Israel will have reached a maximum, so that
“there shall no flesh be saved”. The reference must certainly be to
Armageddon, that last final calamity of mankind and the world as
we now know it, when the very threat of the annihilation of the human
race looms possible. The Lord plainly indicates that “those days shall
be shortened” or there would simply be nothing left of mankind.

And now, beginning with verse 24, the Lord reviews once again
the vital point that “there shall arise false Christs and false prophets”
as if to underline the importance of salvation by the authentic Saviour
only. At such times of panic as the Lord has described, we can well
imagine many false deliverers coming forth with inadequate solutions