Antichrist Desecrates the Rebuilt Jewish Temple by Deifying Himself

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy units of seven years have been decreed for the benefit of your people as well as for the benefit of your holy city in order to put an end to the rebellion and in addition to bring sin to an end as well as to atone for iniquity likewise to bring about everlasting righteousness as well as to seal up prophetic vision and in addition to anoint the most holy place. 25 Therefore, please know, yes please carefully consider: From the issuing of the command to restore, yes to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven units of seven years and sixty-two units of seven years. It will be restored, yes it will be rebuilt with a public square as well as a defensive trench even during distressful times. 26 Then, after the sixty-two units of seven years, the Messiah will be executed so that He possesses nothing. Next, the people of the coming leader will destroy the city as well as the sanctuary. Indeed, its end will take place with a flood. Yes, there will be war up to the end. Desolations have been decreed. 27 Then, he will establish a firm covenant with the leaders, which will be one unit of seven years. However, he will cause the sacrificial offering to stop in the middle of this unit of seven years while between the wings which results in abominations, he will cause desecration. Indeed, until a decreed complete destruction is poured out against the desecrater.” (My translation)

In Daniel 9:27, Gabriel informs Daniel that the coming leader who is the little horn in chapter seven and the Antichrist in Revelation, will cause the temple to enter into the state of desecration in the sense that his sinful actions will defile the temple and make it ceremonially unclean.

He will defile the temple between the wings of the cherubim on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant which results in abominations and this act constitutes making oneself God.

This corresponds to Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 that the Antichrist will take his seat in the temple of God and display himself as being God and amazingly, he will sit between the wings of the cherubim.

This event will also take place roughly simultaneously with the Antichrist putting a stop to the sacrificial offering in the temple.

That these two events occur simultaneously is indicated by the fact that they both occur in the midway point of the seventieth week.

In the previous statement here in Daniel 9:27 Gabriel informed Daniel that the coming leader will put a stop to the sacrificial offering in the middle of the seventieth week.

We know that on the wing of abomination, the Antichrist will cause the desecration of the temple in the middle of the seventieth week as well as indicated by the Lord Jesus’ statement in Matthew 24:15-21.

The Lord taught the generation living during the seventieth week that when they see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, they must flee to the mountains because there will be great tribulation which has never occurred up to that point in history.

So the abomination of desolation marks the last three and a half years of the seventieth week.

Therefore, just as the stopping of the sacrifices in the temple will take place in the middle of the seventieth week so the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place will take place in the middle of the seventieth week.

The Lord taught that this event marks the beginning of the great tribulation, which will take place during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week.

“Between the wings” is in the emphatic position of this temporal clause emphasizing the terrible actions of the Antichrist in sitting on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim.

This prepositional phrase refers to the location in which the Antichrist will sit and display himself as being God.

The “wings’ are a reference to the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant.

This prepositional phrase in Daniel 9:27 coupled with Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians suggests that the Antichrist will sit on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant since the divine presence in the Old Testament was said to be seated on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim overshadowing the Mercy Seat.

This act would certainly constitute an abomination in the judgment of God.

“Abominations” speaks of two events and the first is the Antichrist taking his seat in the temple and sitting on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant between the cherubim while displaying himself as being God.

The second is mentioned in Revelation 13:14-15, which teaches that the false prophet will set up an image of the Antichrist and will compel the whole world to worship it.

So this temporal clause in Daniel 9:27 indicates that by sitting on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant between the cherubim will result in these two abominations or in other words, these two abominations will be the result of Antichrist sitting on the Ark of the Covenant between the cherubim.

By sitting between the cherubim, he will declare himself as God which results in another abomination, namely the false prophet erecting an image of the Antichrist and demanding the world to worship this image.

One leads to the other but the first, namely sitting on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim and declaring himself to be God will result in the erection of the image of himself.

This first abomination produces destruction since it results in God’s judgment and the Lord Jesus said this much in Matthew 24:15.

Matthew 24:15 “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).” (NASB95)

“The abomination of desolation” is composed of the following: (1) articular accusative neuter singular form of the noun bdelygma (βδέλυγμα), “the abomination” (2) articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun erēmōsis (ἐρήμωσις), “of desolation.”

The erēmōsis functions as a genitive of product meaning that it is the product of the noun bdelygma indicating that this abomination “produces” desolation.

This echoes Daniel 9:27 since Gabriel informs Daniel that the Antichrist will cause desolation or destruction by sitting on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.

In other words, Gabriel is telling him that this abomination of sitting on the Mercy Seat and thus displaying himself as God will produce destruction since it will result in God’s judgment upon the Antichrist and those who worship his image.

Preterists interpret the “abomination of desolation” (as they do most prophetic events) in Daniel and the Olivet Discourse as having its ultimate fulfillment in the events surrounding the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70., however, history has proven this is not the case.

First of all, none of the actions of Roman officials during the first revolt against Rome by the Jews in 70 A.D. match the details given to us by the Scriptures in which this phrase “abomination of desolation” occurs.

Also, the entrance of the Roman general Titus took place only after the Temple was already in flames and had been largely ruined and after the Jewish sacrifices had ceased.

This is critical to see since the “abomination of desolation” which Gabriel informs Daniel about and to which the Lord Jesus Christ alludes, speak only of the cessation of sacrifice in the Temple, not of its destruction.

Interestingly, Daniel’s seventieth week, and especially its signal event of the “abomination of desolation,” seems to have influenced the literary structure of the Olivet Discourse in the Synoptic gospels and the judgment section of the Book of Revelation (chapters 6-19).

The Lord Jesus Christ’s interpretation of the order of the events of the seventieth week in the context of prophetic history appears to confirm an eschatological interpretation for Daniel 9:27.

In Matthew 24:7-14 it is predicted that persecution, suffering, and wars would continue to the end of the age, climaxing in a time of great tribulation unparalleled in history to that point, verses 21-22.

He only makes a reference to Daniel 9:27 after these events with regards to the pivotal event of the tribulation, namely “the desolating abomination.”

Therefore, if the seventy weeks were to run sequentially, without interruption, then why does the Lord place this intervening period before the fulfillment of the events of the seventieth week?

Matthew reveals that the Lord’s prediction of the future was to answer His disciple’s questions concerning His Second Advent and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3).

He explains why His coming is necessary (divine intervention and national repentance, verses 27-31; cf. Zechariah 12:9-10) and when it will occur (“after the Tribulation of those days”, verse 29).

If we listen to Matthew, we can see that the events described in this period prior to the Messianic advent could not have been fulfilled in A.D. 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem for the simple reason that these events usher in and terminate with the coming of Messiah.

Gabriel completes his communication of the prophecy of the seventy units of seven or seventy weeks, four hundred ninety prophetic years by informing Daniel that the coming leader who we know is the Antichrist will continue to desecrate the temple until a decreed complete destruction has been poured out against him.

Throughout the last three and a half years of the seventieth week, Antichrist will continue to desecrate the temple by sitting on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant between the cherubim and displaying himself as God.

He will be completely destroyed by God through the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

The demise of the Antichrist was decreed by God in eternity past to take place in human history.