The End Of The End Series

What is the Sign of the End of the Age?

Anybody know?

As Jesus came to the end of his life and ministry, He was sitting with his disciples in Jerusalem as they marveled at the great buildings, and the huge stones that were used to construct the temple, when Jesus told them that a time would come when not one stone of the temple would be left on another.

The statement prompted the disciples to ask questions. And the question they asked which we are going to focus on this morning is this: And what will be the sign of the end of the age?

Jesus gave a specific answer to what the sign of the end of the age would be. However, before He got there, He mentioned many great and terrible events that would not be the sign of the end. Finally, He tells us the precise event which would ultimately be the sign of the end times, that the end of the world has come upon us.

Can anyone tell me what that definitive sign was?

Yes, it’s the Abomination of Desolation. Look for a moment at Matthew 24:15. There Jesus said in answer to his disciples question about what the sign of the end of the age would be: Let’s start in verse 14: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole [a]world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Notice here, that he’s telling us that the end will have come next. And the sign of the end is what He mentions in verse 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), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. 22 Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

Now notice that Jesus points us to the Book of Daniel here to help us understand what the Abomination of Desolation is. And more than that, the Apostle Matthew, as he writes this, encourages us, I believe, to go there, to the Book of Daniel, to understand what Jesus is talking about. And this morning we are there. We are in the first passage in the Book of Daniel which speaks of the Abomination of Desolation, in Daniel 11:21-45. And it not only explains to us what the Abomination of Desolation will be, but it explains to us the whole series of events and the major personality who will be involved in erecting it in the temple—both through a description of the Old Testament Antichrist, and the New Testament Antichrist.

So turn with me this morning to Daniel 11 to find out with me what the Abomination of Desolation is, and how it will be central in determining, first, that the end of the world, the end of this age has come upon us, 2.) who the Antichrist is and 3.) and what to do when we realize the Apocalypse, all the horrors of the Great Tribulation have come upon us.

If you’ve been with us you know that Daniel, the great prophet, has been in the midst of 21 days of a modified fast and he’s been praying all this time for the welfare of his people Israel in the future. A very strong angel, perhaps an archangel, has come to him in 536 B.C., as the Jews have just been permitted to return from 70 years captivity in Babylon to the Promised Land, to reveal the difficult history ahead for Daniel’s people Israel. And he reveals in remarkable detail that history going forward for about 350 years, and then at the end of chapter 11, skips ahead to the end-time Tribulation period and the time of the Antichrist.

He’s given a series of remarkably detailed prophecies concerning Israel’s history once it has returned to the Promised Land so far, especially as it will be affected by the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South—that is two prongs of the kingdom of Alexander the Great which had been divided among his four generals. One of his generals, Ptolemy, had become the King of Egypt, the King to the south of Israel. Another of Alexander’s generals, Seleucis, had become the King of the North, headquartered in Syria. And these kings, and their royal descendants would control the destiny of Israel for most of the next 350 years as they warred against one another and ran over Israel in the process of invading each other’s land.