The
prophet Daniel prophesied an abomination of desolation: And
he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the
week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the
overspreading [kanaph: uttermost] of abominations he shall make it desolate,
even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the
desolate
(Dan 9:27). Josephus records the fulfillment of this prophecy by Antiochus
Epiphanies in 167 B.C. when, after forbidding observation of Jewish law and
circumcision, he erected an altar to Zeus upon the altar in the temple and
sacrificed unclean swine upon it, but there is to be another fulfillment at the
time of the end of which Jesus spoke as one of the things which would precede
the gathering of His elect: When
you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (he who reads, let him understand:) then let
them which are in Judaea flee into the mountains
(Matt. 24:15-16, 24:17-31).
Dual
fulfillment of prophecies is a Christian concept of a near-term fulfillment,
which confirms that the one prophesying is a prophet (Deut 18:22), followed by
the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy in the distant future. The prophecy of
Isaiah: Behold,
a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel
(Is 7:14),
for
example, had a near-term fulfillment in the child born as a sign to king Ahab
(Is 8), and a distant future fulfillment in the birth of Jesus (Matt 1:23). Jews
have a problem with this Christian concept, in general, but the dual fulfillment
of Daniel’s prophecy presents a greater problem, for Daniel prophesies of a
worst possible
abomination. Jews object that there cannot be two worst
possible
abominations. However there can be, for there is a difference in what
was
possible
in the temple of the desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanies and what will
be
possible
in the temple desecrated by the by the man of sin, and that the Lord spoke of a future
fulfillment confirms that there will be a future worst possible abomination. The
first abomination, the near-term worst possible abomination at that time, was
committed in the temple in which the Ark of the Covenant was not present. The
presence of the ark in the temple of the future fulfillment will make a yet
worse abomination possible. Over the Ark of the Covenant is God’s seat, the
mercy seat: And
there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy
seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of
all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of
Israel
(Ex 25:22).
In
the future fulfillment, the antichrist will sit in God’s seat, the mercy seat,
showing himself as God: that
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God
(2 Thess 2:3-4).
