It is historically well established that in 70 AD Emperor Vespasian had his son General Titus destroy Herod the Great’s Temple in Jerusalem. That was the second Jewish Temple, which was initially rebuilt around 515 BC. It was refurbished and added to by King Herod during Jesus’ time on Earth. The Temple’s destruction was then the end of Temple worship for the Jews. And after that they were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire.
There are orthodox Jews who believe that that was God’s doing and His will for them is to remain dispersed in other nations and not to establish a national state of Israel. Of course it follows that they would have no Temple worship either.
However in the modern era since the establishment of the nation of Israel there has been a lot of talk that plans are being prepared to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. That would be the third Temple.
There are even Evangelical Christian Zionists who actively support this endeavor as misguided as they are. Why do I say that?
It was God who destroyed the Temple, because He provided in His Son Jesus Christ the final and only sacrifice for sin. There can no longer be any Temple worship to atone for sin, not that the blood of bulls could save anyone anyway. The key point is not so much the building itself but the continual animal sacrifice for atonement from sin.
In Matthew 24 we read:
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, See you not all these things? truly I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone on another, that shall not be thrown down.
Matthew 24:1-2
This is a prediction because He knows what He will do. Jesus, though born into human flesh, is God. He has the Spirit of God and thus has foreknowledge of His own future actions.
19 Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days? 21 But he spoke of the temple of his body.
John 2:19-21
The Jews said that the Temple had been in building for 46 years. This was Herod’s refurbishment and extensions. Apparently it took years beyond that to finish it. But Jesus is likening the Temple to the temple of His body.
This is our first clue. He is not saying He will raise up the Temple made with stones but the flesh temple of His body.
Now if we look at the prophecy in Daniel 9, we read:
26 And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince [Emperor Vespasian under the authority of the King of kings] that shall come shall destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [the Temple]; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And He [Jesus Christ] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the middle of the week he [Jesus Christ] shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations He [Jesus Christ] shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured on the desolate.
Daniel 9:26-27 AKJV
26 And after sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And
Daniel 9:26-27 KJ3
the people of a coming ruler [Emperor Vespasian under the authority of the King of kings] shall destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [the Temple]. And its end shall be with the flood, and are determined the desolations, and war shall be until the end. 27 And he [Jesus Christ] shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week. And in the middle of the week he [Jesus Christ] shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And on a corner of the altar will be abominations that desolate, even until the end. And that which was decreed shall pour out on the desolated.
In the middle of that last week of Daniel’s prophecy, the 70th week, Jesus the Messiah is crucified for the sins of many, those who trust in Him. On the cross Jesus confirmed the covenant as the Apostle Paul taught to us.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot cancel, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Galatians 3:17 AKJV
Jesus ends the need for sacrificing animals by eliminating the Temple. Using His general Emperor Vespasian He destroyed the Temple, and thus Temple worship ceased. That is quite clear in the first part of Daniel 9:27. But what does the next part means? Many interpreters have said it describes the Romans who brought their false gods into the Temple. That may well be true but is there more to it?
The word ‘overspreading’ in Daniel 9:27 AKJV was translated from Hebrew word כָּנָף (kanaph), which has the meaning of ‘a wing’. The KJ3 translation uses the phrase ‘on a corner of the altar’. The word ‘abominations’ was translated from the Hebrew word שִׁקּוּץ (shiqquwts) and that has the meaning of ‘disgusting, i.e. filthy and (especially) idolatrous’. Thus, a disgusting idol.
What abomination or disgusting idol was being covered like the covering of a wing? What disgusting idol is ‘on the corner of the altar’?
The text says that because of the overspreading or covering of abominations ‘He [Jesus Christ] shall make it desolate’. What are the abominations in this context? And what does Jesus do that destroys the abominations?
15 When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Matthew 24:15-16 AKJV
Jesus then was telling His disciples (and all Jews) to flee Judea when they see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place. The Greek word used there βδέλυγμα (bdelugma) which has the meaning of a ‘detestation especially idolatry’. This is our second clue.
Jesus was saying, get out of Jerusalem because judgment will fall on those who reject Me as Saviour. Those are the last words of Daniel 9:27.
Now read this passage!
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! 38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
Matthew 23:37-38
Here Jesus said that He would that the Jews would come under His wings of protection, that they would come into the kingdom of God, but they refused. As a result their ‘house’ Jerusalem and the Temple worship is made desolate. It means He as God destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple because to continue animal sacrifice is an abomination to God. Jesus sacrifice on the cross paid for all sins of those who put their trust in Him (1 John 1:7).
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:11-14
The Temple was a shadow of the real thing to come. Once Jesus fulfilled God’s will on the cross the Temple sacrifice is not needed and, if continued, it would be an abomination. It would be equivalent to saying that Christ shed blood did not pay for our sins.
The Jews rejected Christ and His blood sacrifice which led to God destroying the Temple and Jerusalem at the hand of the Romans, and scattering them throughout the Roman Empire.
Thus the ‘abomination of desolation’ was Jewish animal sacrifice in the Temple that led to the desolation by God of the Temple and Jerusalem. After Jesus gave Himself as the final sacrifice on the cross, animal sacrifice in the Temple became filthy idolatry. That means the idolatry of the ‘abomination of desolation’ stood from 30 AD to 70 AD when it was destroyed.
The general Jewish rejection of Christ as Messiah and Saviour made the continuance of animal sacrifice in Temple worship idolatry.
This is closely connected to the gospel. Only through faith in Jesus the Son of God are we given grace for salvation. There are no works, no rituals, no Temple sacrifices that can achieve that.
So ….
Only when the Jews accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah can the Jews inherit eternal salvation via His sacrifice on the cross which forever paid for all sin in those who trust in Him. Jesus said to the Jews:
39 … , You shall not see Me from now on, till you shall say, Blessed is He [Jesus] that comes in the name of the Lord.
Matthew 23:39
Postscript:
For those who think the abomination of desolation is some supercomputer or AI in the third Jewish Temple, which is yet to be constructed, I say that you are missing the point of Christ’s sacrifice for sin. It is taking away from Jesus the glory He only deserves. He was telling His disciples, that after He pays the price on the cross to redeem us, the Temple and Temple animal sacrifice are filthy idols and the disciples needed to get out of there asap, because God’s judgments are coming. They had 40 years to do so, which interestingly is the warning of Jonah, with a day year prophecy (Leviticus 25:8; Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6).
24 Seventy weeks [490 years] are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Daniel 9:24
This prophecy was fulfilled by Christ on the cross in 30 AD. Those who look for the third Temple and support its construction to reinstate animal sacrifice deny Christ His work and His glory.
Recommended Reading
- Book: Apocalypse Now: On the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Premium membership needed)
- Book: Merchants of Death: Global Oligarchs and Their War On Humanity
- Book: The Physics of Creation, The Creator’s Ultimate Design for Earth (Premium membership needed)
Free Subscribers
Subscribe to our Newsletters as a Free Subscriber and be notified by email. Just put your email address in the box at the bottom of your screen.
You’ll get an email each time we publish a new article. It is quick and easy to do and totally free. You only need do it once.
Premium Subscribers
Subscribe to our Newsletters as a Premium Subscribers at $5 USD/month or $30 USD/year (you choose). Cancel anytime.
Paid Premium Subscribers will get exclusive access to certain content I publish. That will only cost you a cup of coffee per month.
Also you’ll be able to download, for free, a PDF of my book Apocalypse Now and also a PDF of my book The Physics of Creation The Creator’s Ultimate Design for Earth.
You can download them from the link below.
This is how you can support my work. I have been publishing this website for 10 years now and up to 2024 I never asked for any support.
Press the button “Premium” on the front page to find a list of Premium content. Thanks so much to all supporters.
At a minimum, please join as a Free Subscriber. It’ll cost you nothing. It may also help me beat the shadow banning of some posts.
Bible Science Forum 
4 responses to “The Abomination of Desolation is Jewish Temple Worship”
You’re going too far here Dr Hartnett. I remember once when you narrated how a student came to you with the news that a paper you both had submitted was wrong. You replied, Well write it up again and we can get another paper out of it! That might be fine with physics but not scripture. You know (or should know) that the apostles continued to attend the temple and make sacrifices and vows throughout the Acts period and that such actions are incompatible with the Jerusalem temple being the arena of the ‘abomination of desolation ‘.
LikeLike
Stephen, Thank you for your comments. That is interesting that you reminded me of
Acts 5:42 “And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”
When the disciples had been locked up the Lord sent an angel
Also Acts 5:19-20 “But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”
The temple was still standing and the disciples taught there daily preaching Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is the final sacrifice for all sin. He is the last high priest and there can be no other. Anything or anyone else is an abomination.
LikeLike
But they didn’t just preach there did they? They carried out the vows and the sacrifices eg Acts 21 in response to James concern that Jews think Paul is ‘forsaking Moses (!) ..nor walking according to the customs’ Paul agrees to enter ‘the temple giving notice of the days of purification *until the sacrifice was offered* for each one of them’ (vv20-26). If the temple was the seat of the abomination what was any believer in Jesus doing in there? They had no business there. In fact the very words about the abomination command them to ‘FLEE'(Matthew 24:16)!
Furthermore Jesus celebrated the Passover *with a sacrificial lamb* while using that very feast to point to himself! Since that feast according to you was about to become ‘without form and void’ why confuse things by actually linking the two rather than just replace it? Surely what it serves to prove is that the continuation of the sacrifices *as pointing to the Messiah’s death for Israel* was to continue for faithful Jews until the Judgement of 70AD or at least the end of Acts.
Your last paragraph can’t be correct because they didn’t preach those words and the Jews who are in the temple after Jesus resurrection are never reprimanded for blasphemous sacrifices but only for murdering the Christ. And the apostles join them rather than fleeing.
Why did Paul ‘hurry to get back for Pentecost in Jerusalem’? (Acts 12:16) If you say ‘well, he just wanted to be there for the Church’s birthday’ well we know that can’t be true because no Gentile was admitted into the community of the saved *until Cornelius and the Eunuch!* Was the salvation and empowerment of a ‘non-Gentile, Jew only ‘ assembly really what the apostle of the Gentiles was desperate to get back for?
Finally in Acts 15 at the Council, James and the Church agree that even Gentiles ‘abstain from ..what is strangled and from blood. *For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him.* Why make such demands if the whole ritual system for purity was not only null and void but blasphemous? You might get away with it if it was just irrelevant but not if its blasphemous. But again the answer is the same as with Jesus Passover: it was for the sake of the Jews.
LikeLike
The Jews of the concision had a hard time letting go of the rituals and that would have to include the temple worship. Who knows to what extent they compromised or to what extent they did not yet fully understand Christ message.
Sure Jesus celebrated the Passover, but He had not yet fulfilled the final sacrifice as the Lamb of God. I don’t know even faithful Jews could continue the sacrifice of animals once the veil was rent and the Holy of Holies was opened to all to see, God had opened it because He was messaging that the temple worship was finished. And where was the ark of the covenant at that time? It no longer had any significance. Jesus had become that ark.
Your point “Jews who are in the temple after Jesus resurrection are never reprimanded for blasphemous sacrifices” is an argument from silence.
In Acts 15 ‘abstain from ..what is strangled and from blood.” was more compromise. We know this because it is works. The Gentiles are not under the law, they never were.
LikeLike