Copyright © 2026 Michael A. Brown
The sections below describe the various
events that will take place in the first half of the seven years.
1.
Confirmation of the
covenant
‘And he will confirm a covenant with many for one “seven.”’ (Dan. 9:27)
It is clear from this verse that it is the
confirming of a covenant which triggers the beginning of the seven-year period
and sets it into motion. As I said
above, it is not the rapture that does this, because by this stage the
rapture has already happened a while back.
The word ‘he’ as the subject of Daniel
9:27 evidently refers to Antichrist. It
is he who confirms the covenant which is being referred to; it is he who later
puts an end to sacrifice and offering, and sets up the abomination that causes
desolation, and it is he who then ultimately meets his demise, as the rest of
this verse indicates.
The word ‘many’ evidently refers to the
different parties with whom this covenant has been made. Many commentators believe that this refers to
the Islamic Arab nations which surround Israel, and hence that this covenant is
between Israel and these Arab nations.
So what is this covenant that is being
referred to? Many commentators believe
that it is Bible-speak for what we would nowadays call a political agreement or
treaty. Although some have thought that
it will be a new and fresh political peace agreement which Antichrist will make
with Israel, it is more likely that Antichrist as the new major regional power
broker will affirm an already-existing agreement that Israel has previously
made with surrounding Arab nations. The
Hebrew word gawbar used in v.27 means ‘to confirm,’ not ‘to make’ (which
would be the Hebrew word karath), implying therefore that this covenant
is pre-existing.[1]
Some people think that this covenant may
be the present ‘Abraham Accords’ which seeks to bring peace to the Middle East
and to solve this most intractable of political problems. Under the terms of this agreement, several
Arab countries have already normalised their relations with Israel, and more
countries are expected to do so. Of
course, only time will tell if the ‘Abraham Accords’ really are this covenant,
but developments in this area are certainly something to keep an eye on.[2],[3],[4]
It would seem then that this covenant, and
the confirming of it by Antichrist, aims to attain a continuing peace in the
Middle East. Antichrist will be acting
as an established major regional power broker, and therefore the continuance of
peace in the Middle East will depend on him agreeing to and confirming this
covenant. His rise to regional power, so
quickly and so close by, will make Israel, and the surrounding nations and
indeed the international community, nervous and wary that he may well have intentions
regarding Israel. Which of course he will,
but he plays that card later on, halfway through the seven years.
The fact that the confirmation of the
covenant aims for the continuation of peace in the Middle East seems to be
affirmed by the fact that one of the more contentious issues which exist
between Palestinians and Israel will be addressed by it, vis. that of
the desire of many orthodox Jews to re-build the temple, on Temple Mount. According to Revelation 11:1-2, this will
happen early on in the seven-year period, and therefore very soon after the
covenant is confirmed by Antichrist (see below).
The fact that Antichrist confirms this
covenant for a seven-year period, and thereby establishes a continuing peace in
the Middle East in the short-term, may well lead to him being hailed and lauded
as the man who has hopefully achieved a lasting peace. However, we should be clear on the fact that
Antichrist’s underlying intention will not be to achieve lasting peace in the
Middle East at all, because he will wilfully betray this covenant halfway
through the seven years. And, as we will see in the final section of
this chapter, he will also have intentions regarding some of the other Middle
Eastern countries as well, not just Israel.
So this so-called ‘peace’ with Antichrist will
therefore be deceptive and short-lived. His
confirming of the covenant will be nothing but political pragmatism. Furthermore, his agreement that the
re-building of the temple can go ahead will be duplicity and deceit, since he
will actually have his own intention for it: he plans to set himself up in it
after he has betrayed the covenant and invaded Jerusalem (see below and in the
following chapter). Final, lasting peace
in the Middle East will only come about during the reign of the Prince of Peace
in his millennial kingdom!
2.
The building of the third
temple
So the first thing we are told of that
will happen in the first half of the seven years, after the covenant has been
confirmed by Antichrist, is the re-building of the Jewish temple on Temple
Mount. For the Jewish people, the temple
in Jerusalem together with its priestly system of regular daily sacrifices was
always the focal point and the heart of their corporate faith in their worship
of Yahweh. Although they have not had a
temple since they returned to their historic homeland from 1948 onwards, it is
impossible to imagine Judaism in its full old covenant expression without one. The temple is inseparable from Judaism (cf.
Deut. ch.12).
The first temple, often referred to as
Solomon’s temple, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587/586 BC. After the return of the Jews from exile, the
re-building of the temple was viewed as the most important work that needed to
be done, and this received impetus through the prophetic exhortations of Haggai
and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14). This
second temple, often known as Herod’s temple because of the work he initiated
in order to extend it, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. After that time and the resulting dispersion
of the Jews from the land, there was no longer a Jewish temple on Temple Mount. Since 688-707 AD, that tract of land has been
occupied by the Dome of the Rock and then also by the Al Aqsa mosque. So, since 1948/1967, many orthodox Jews have
been waiting patiently for the day to come when they will finally be able to
re-build their temple, on Temple Mount.
We are told in Revelation 11:1-2 that this
temple, the so-called third temple therefore, will be built in the early part
of the first half of the seven years:
‘I
was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple
of God and the altar, and count the worshippers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure
it, because it has been given to the Gentiles.
They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.’ (Rev. 11:1-2)
This architectural language of measuring
is a prophetic allusion to the passages in Zechariah 1:16-17 and 2:1-4 which
speak specifically of the re-building of the temple and Jerusalem after the
return from the Babylonian exile:
‘Therefore this is what the Lord
says: “I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be
rebuilt. And the measuring line will be
stretched out over Jerusalem,” declares the Lord Almighty. “Proclaim further: This is what the Lord
Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will
again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.”’ (Zech. 1:16-17)
‘And
I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his
hand! Then I said, “Where are you
going?” And he said to me, “To measure
Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”… “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall
be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and
livestock in it.’”’
(Zech. 2:1-4)
So it is both hermeneutically and
prophetically sound to interpret Revelation 11:1-2 as referring to the building
of the third temple during the early part of the seven-year period. Furthermore, it would appear from the words
of Revelation 11:2 that, when the agreement is made to allow the re-building of
the temple, on Temple Mount, only part of this tract of land will be ceded to
Israel for the building of the temple.
The rest of it will remain occupied by the Dome of the Rock and the Al
Aqsa mosque.[5] In this agreement, the fact will be
recognised that Temple Mount is considered to be holy ground in both Judaism
and Islam.[6] The reference in this verse to the holy city
being trampled on for 42 months by the Gentiles is, of course, to the second
half of the seven-year period, the Great Tribulation (see the next chapter).
However, because we know the end from the
beginning through the revelation of the prophetic Scriptures, we also know that
the existence of this third temple will prove to be short-lived. Even if the fabric of the building survives
the Great Tribulation, to whatever extent, we know from the writings of the
prophet Ezekiel that it will then be replaced with what will be a fourth
temple, after the Second Advent when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem in his
millennial kingdom (Ezek. 40:1 – 44:31). So this third temple will exist for a maximum
of seven years.
There have been calls and a growing
movement among orthodox Jews to re-build the temple for several decades
now. As a result of this, proactive
planning and practical preparations have been ongoing for the day when an
agreement comes into force to allow the temple to be re-built. The fact that Jewish daily temple sacrifices
and offerings will one day be re-established on Temple Mount, is clear from the
statements that there will be worshippers in a temple, that there will be an
altar in it, and that Antichrist will later put such sacrifices and offerings
in this temple to an end:
‘Go and measure the temple of God
and the altar, and count the worshippers there.’ (Rev. 11:1)
‘In the middle of the “seven” he
will put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation…’ (Dan. 9:27)
Even a cursory browse through the Temple Institute website will
convince the reader that much of the furniture, the sacred articles and objects
used in religious worship, and the priestly garments needed for services have
been prepared, all to the exacting stipulations of the Mosaic covenant, and priests
are also being trained.[7] With the speed of modern building methods, it
would only take a matter of days or a few weeks at most to erect the building
itself, to consecrate it, and then to initiate daily sacrifices and services. So as things stand right now, the Jewish
religious authorities are more than ready and prepared for the day when this
agreement will be made!
The building of this temple will, of
course, be of major significance to orthodox Jewish believers. For them, it will symbolise the fullness and
culmination of the purpose of their re-establishment in the land, and so it
will no doubt be a time of great joy and rejoicing for them.
However, as I said above, this temple will
also be significant for Antichrist too.
His deceptive underlying motive all along in making this agreement to
re-build the temple will be so that, after he has invaded and conquered
Jerusalem later on, he can then set himself up in this very temple and demand
to be worshipped as a divine being. Satan will have no further meaningful use
for the Dome of the Rock or the Al Aqsa mosque nearby, as these will have
served their historical purpose. It is
the Jewish temple that Antichrist will use to set himself up in. This, of course, is the abomination that
causes desolation, and it is discussed further below.
I would like at this point to emphasise
that Antichrist will indeed set himself up in this physically re-built
temple. There are several verses that
support this.
Firstly, Jesus himself said that the
abomination would be set up in ‘the holy place’:
‘So when you see standing in the
holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation’, spoken of through Daniel
the prophet – let the reader understand…’ (Matt. 24:15)
When he said this, Jesus was talking to
religious Jews, and there is only one way that they would have interpreted the
words ‘the holy place,’ and that is as referring to the physical temple. Matthew recorded Jesus’ words, and he
expected the reader to understand what was being referred to.
Furthermore, that this is referring to the
physical temple is implied also by the fact that this is the end-times parallel
of what Antichrist’s historical predecessor, Antiochus Epiphanes, did. He set up his abomination inside the actual
physical precincts of the temple.
The apostle Paul says similarly that
Antichrist will set himself up in God’s temple:
‘…so that he sets himself up in
God’s temple…’ (2
Thess. 2:4)
This verse cannot mean that Antichrist
sets himself up in the spiritual temple of the body of Christ, i.e. that he will
be some kind of false ‘Christian’ religious leader who leads the worldwide
Church into her end-times apostasy, as some commentators think. To be consistent with Matthew 24:15 above,
and also with Daniel 9:27 below, it can only refer to him setting himself up in
the physically re-built temple.
There are statements in Daniel 9:27
regarding Antichrist putting an end to sacrifices and offerings halfway through
the seven years, and setting up the abomination at the temple:
‘In the middle of the “seven” he will put an
end to sacrifice and offering. And at
the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation…’ (Dan.
9:27)
Taken together, these references to
sacrifice, offering and the temple can only mean one thing: that there will be
a physically re-built temple in Jerusalem in the first half of the seven-year
period, in which sacrifices and offerings will be made. Antichrist will later usurp this temple for
his own diabolical use.
3. The
ministry of the Two Witnesses
Parallel with the building of the third temple
and the establishing of its daily ministry, God will raise up, anoint and speak
through two very powerful prophetic ministries in Jerusalem during this first
half of the seven-year period. This
reminds us of similar events during the building of the second temple in the
post-exilic period when Haggai and Zechariah rose up and prophesied. These two end-times prophets will exercise
their ministry for the whole of these 3½ years, beginning from the very day
that the covenant is confirmed:
‘“And
I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days,
clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two
olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.’ (Rev. 11:3-4)
This allusion to the two olive trees of
Zechariah ch.4 brings to mind the high-priest Joshua and the royal leader
Zerubbabel during the time when the second temple was being built in the
post-exilic period. These two men were
the two historical olive trees that were anointed to serve the Lord of the
earth (Zech. 4:11-14). However, these
Two Witnesses of Revelation ch.11 will not necessarily represent kingly and
priestly offices, rather they will carry a genuine and powerfully anointed
prophetic gifting, just as Haggai and Zechariah did when they prophesied during
the time of the building of the second temple.
These Two Witnesses will have very
powerful, earth-shaking ministries indeed:
‘These
men have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time
they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to
strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.’ (Rev. 11:6)
This jaw-dropping description of the power
of these two prophetic ministries reminds us forcibly of those of the prophets
Elijah and Moses. So much so that some
commentators believe that Elijah and Moses themselves will literally return to
earth to fulfil these ministries during this first half of the seven
years. Others believe that these two men
will be Enoch and Elijah, on the grounds that, because neither of these two men
died physically, then they must return to earth at some point to experience death
(cf. Gen. 5:24, 2 Ki. 2:11-12, Heb. 9:27).
Others believe them to be symbolic of Israel and the Church.
Personally, I do not hold to any of these
views. I believe simply that God will
raise up and anoint two adult, male Jewish believers whom he has chosen for
this very powerful end-times ministry, and that their ministries will bear some
of the characteristics of their respective biblical forebears who represented
the Law and the Prophets of the old covenant.
Note that these two men are described as
being clothed in sackcloth (v.3). Their
message, therefore, like that of many of the Old Testament prophets, will be
one of mourning over sin (both individual and national), the gospel call to
repentance and faith in Jesus as Messiah, and strong warning of the terrible
judgement soon to befall Israel in the Great Tribulation. Their message will be forthright, and they
will certainly not mince their words! The
re-emergence of old covenant sacrifices and offerings in the third temple, will
not be sufficient for Jewish people to come to saving faith in Christ. They will still be in the spiritual blindness
and disobedience of the old covenant. So
they will need this kind of powerful prophetic ministry, in order to repent and
come to faith in Jesus as Messiah in this spiritually dark post-rapture period.
John describes the city of Jerusalem in
the time of this sixth trumpet as being like ‘Sodom and Egypt’ (v.8). ‘Sodom,’ of course, speaks for itself, and
alludes to the abominable moral state of many people in the nation, whereas
‘Egypt’ alludes to the lack of practical faith in God when it comes to national
affairs, and a reliance on pragmatic political alliances and relationships with
other nations (cf. Isa. 31:1-3).
These two men will be invincible for the
whole of the 1,260 days during which they minister. People do not necessarily have to minister
for a long time in order to be effective and fruitful. The quality of what we do in God’s work is
not measured by the length of time we spend doing it. These men will have a short, but very
powerful and highly effective ministry, and this ministry will come to a sudden
end after 3½ years. And for the whole of
this time, they will enjoy a measure of divine protection over them which is
unique in the word of God. Many
commentators believe that the description below is figurative:
‘If
anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their
enemies. This is how anyone who wants to
harm them must die.’
(Rev. 11:5, cf. 2 Ki. 1:9-15)
Their ministry will obviously be based in
Jerusalem, and their main focus will therefore be ministering to the Jewish
people. However, their ministry will
also have a worldwide impact, as I infer below, probably through the internet
and television, and through the powerful acts of judgement that will take place
in various parts of the world through their ministry.
As I said earlier in this chapter, this
period of Daniel’s seventieth week is the time when God will be working
redemptively to bring many Jewish people to faith in Jesus as Messiah. One of the very reasons why Satan so
unremittingly attacks and tries to overcome Israel in the present day is so
that he can then exterminate the Jewish people and prevent this end-times
harvest among the Jews from taking place. However, Daniel’s seventieth week will be God’s
time of redemption for the Jewish people, just as he had purposed it to be in
the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. It will be a time when God calls them to
repentance, leading up to the Second Advent of Christ. So God’s focus will be on the Jewish people,
and many of them will come to faith in Jesus during this first half of the
seventieth week.
‘I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you
to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.’ (Ezek. 36:26-27)
‘And
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have
pierced…’ (Zech.
12:10 ASV)
‘On
that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.’ (Zech. 13:1)
Therefore, many people will be brought to
faith and saved during this time, but the ministry of these two prophets will
at the same time also bring torment to the unrepentant. The intermittent judgements that will fall on
various parts of the world through their ministry in this first half of the
seventieth week, will certainly mean that these 3½ years can be considered to
be a time of tribulation for the world, even before the Great Tribulation
begins later on.
Jewish people have always been amongst the
hardest to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ, ever since the Pharisees
rejected the gospel and excluded Christian Jews from synagogues following the
catastrophic events of 70 AD. However,
in this first half of the seventieth week, it is as though the gospel wave that
surged out from Jerusalem in 33 AD and has reached the whole world since then,
will finally have converged again at the point where the stone was first thrown
into the water, Jerusalem and Israel, in returning from the farthest corners of
the earth, as it were.
In addition to the ministries of these two
prophets, there will also be 144,000 Jewish men who will be saved and sealed by
God. These men are those who were sealed
in Revelation 7:3-8. Many commentators
believe that the ministry of these men will go out to the Jewish people of
Israel, and that it will perhaps also extend much further and reach many people
in the world. It seems that these men
will eventually be martyred as a result of the persecution they will undergo
(Rev. 14:1-5). This will be God’s
last call to people to repentance and faith before the Great Tribulation begins. [8],[9],[10]
The Jews must forsake the old covenant to
which they have been trying to cling since apostolic times. This old covenant is obsolete (Heb.
ch.8), so they cannot afford to stubbornly continue trying to re-establish
it. They must also recognise that
adherence to the rabbinic traditions of modern Talmudic Judaism is ultimately a
worthless exercise; it cannot save them. The Abrahamic and Davidic covenants can only
be fulfilled when the Jews, or a sizeable remnant of them, have come to faith
in Jesus as their Messiah in the new covenant in Christ. This will happen during the first half of
Daniel’s seventieth week. God first
has to deal with their sin, through Christ as redeemer, before he can then lead
the believing remnant into a fulfilment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants together
in the millennial reign of Christ on earth (see chapter 24).
So do I believe that people can still
repent and get saved after the rapture and during the seven-year period? Yes, I do.
The purpose of the rapture is to remove restraint so that the rise of
Antichrist can take place, in order to fulfil many prophetic Scriptures, and to
take faithful believers at that time away from the end-time outpouring of God’s
judgements and wrath. But it is my
belief that Gentiles as well as Jews will certainly be able to believe and
receive Christ during this post-rapture period.
The rapture will not stop the Holy Spirit from working in this world,
despite the dense spiritual darkness and delusion that will then prevail. Perhaps many so-called believers, who did not
get raptured, will finally repent of their nominal faith and truly believe
after the rapture? How many unsaved
relatives of believers will reconsider their position and come to faith after
the rapture? Perhaps many. However, in most if not all cases, embracing
Jesus at that time will lead directly to persecution and martyrdom, because Antichrist’s
end-time one-world system will persecute those who believe. These believers will have to face the issues
of worshipping or not the image of the Beast and receiving or not the mark of
the Beast, with execution being the sure and certain penalty for refusing to
comply (see the following chapter).
As I said in chapter 6, this time of the
first half of Daniel’s seventieth week after the rapture is described in
Matthew 24:4-14. This latter passage
speaks of the same period of time, and it helps us to fill in some details of
what spiritual life will be like at that time, especially in Israel. It will be a time of widespread spiritual
deception with many false prophets appearing and deceiving people, just as
there often were in the time of the old covenant when God’s true prophets spoke
(vv.4-5,11). There will be increasingly
regular, frequent and intense birth pains all over the world (vv.6-8). Jewish believers who have embraced Jesus as
their Messiah will be persecuted and even martyred for their faith, and they
will be hated by people everywhere (v.9). This implies that many Jewish people will
still refuse to believe in Jesus as Messiah, even though these two powerful prophetic
ministries are happening right in their own country. They will heed the false prophets, and they
will simply cling onto and give their allegiance to the newly founded old
covenant temple ministry, just as many Jewish people did in the time of Christ. Also, many people will abandon the faith
(vv.10-12), and the gospel of the kingdom will be preached all over the world
(v.14, cf. Rev. 14:6-7).
4. Betrayal
of the covenant
As I have intimated above, Antichrist will
prove himself to be a thoroughly duplicitous and treacherous character, just
like his historical predecessor Antiochus Epiphanes. About halfway through the seven-year period,
‘in the middle of the “seven”’ as Daniel expressed it, this end-times king of
the north will take off his mask and finally reveal what he secretly intended
to do all along: he will betray the covenant with many that he had confirmed
(Dan. 9:27). He will invade and conquer
Israel and Jerusalem, and furthermore he will also invade and conquer other
Middle Eastern Arab countries as well (this last point is summarised below in
the final section of this chapter).
‘He
will... invade the Beautiful land.’
(Dan. 11:41)
‘I
will gather the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city shall be
captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped...’ (Zech. 14:2)
Scripture seems to suggest that, when he
does make his move, it won’t take long at all for Antichrist to overcome and
conquer Israel, probably just a matter of a few days at the most. He is given power to overcome Israel, and he
will make Jerusalem his new home and the seat of his evil reign. John’s reference to ‘the saints’ in the verse
below from Revelation 13:7 uses the language of the book of Daniel in which
‘the saints’ refers to the Jewish people (and especially those who believe):
‘He
was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.’ (Rev. 13:7)
‘He
will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain.’ (Dan. 11:45)
In reference to the Great Tribulation
which lasts for ‘a time, times and half a time,’ i.e. 3½ years, an angel told
Daniel that it will not begin until the power of ‘the holy people,’ i.e.
Israel, has been finally broken. So
Israel’s repeatedly successful resistance and defence of herself and her people
in times when she has been under attack, ever since she became a nation again
in 1948 and which has made her feared by all her Arab neighbours, will one day
come to an end. It is through
Antichrist’s invasion that this will happen, and the time of the Great
Tribulation will then follow:
‘It
will be for a time, times and half a time.
When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these
things will be completed.’
(Dan. 12:7)
The fact that the Two Witnesses are killed
by Antichrist on the final day of this 1,260-day period, and the fact that Antichrist
will obviously have had to invade Israel and Jerusalem in order to do this,
suggests that his act of treachery in betraying the covenant will have begun
before this, i.e. a short time before the end of the 1,260 days.
When he has successfully taken the city of
Jerusalem, Antichrist will make a beeline straight for these two men, in order
to shut their mouths and rid the earth of them just as soon as he can. Their anointing and blunt, direct message
will already have tormented him for three and a half years, and, in his
unrelenting hatred for the word of God, he will be unable to endure or tolerate
them anymore. Although Antichrist will
happily accommodate religious activity, and will take up and use the recently
built temple for his own purposes, yet the powerful anointing of the Holy
Spirit and the uncompromising message of the prophetic word of God will be
something he hates and cannot endure:
‘And
I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days... Now when they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower them and
kill them.’ (Rev.
11:3,7)
The death of these Two Witnesses at this
point marks the end of the 1,260 days of the first half of the seventieth
week. However, the events of the sixth
trumpet / second woe continue on for three and a half more days.
As we would probably expect from people
with an evil, unrepentant character, Antichrist and his supporters will treat
the Two Witnesses with disdain, hatred and mockery even in their death. They will leave their bodies unburied on the
street in Jerusalem for three and a half days, and they will gloat over
them. That the ministries of these two
men had a worldwide impact is shown by the words of Revelation 11:10
below. Many people in the world, blinded
by the dense spiritual darkness of the post-rapture period, were tormented by
their message and the acts of judgements which took place around the world
through them, and they hated them for it.
So the whole world will know that the Two Witnesses are dead, and people
all over the world will rejoice. It
seems that it will be on the news and internet everywhere.
Again, effectiveness in ministry is not
shown only by fruitfulness. The purpose
of the word of God is to expose sin, and, as it does this, many people reject
its message and turn away from God’s offer of salvation. The purpose of the message is to act as a
witness to the truth, regardless of how people may respond to it. Some people want to remain in darkness rather
than coming into the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be
exposed (John 3:19-21). Just as it is
true that righteous people rejoice when the wicked die, it is also true that
evil people rejoice when the Lord’s prophets are killed (cf. Prov. 11:10).
‘Their
bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called
Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every
people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them
burial. The inhabitants of the earth
will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because
these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.’ (Rev. 11:8-10)
However, after three and a half days,
Antichrist along with everyone else who witnesses it, will get the shock of
their lives when God unexpectedly and without any warning raises these two
faithful prophets from the dead in full public view of everyone who happens to
see it. Fear and terror will strike
their hearts, as it no doubt would!
Furthermore, not only will these two men be raised from the dead, they
will also be taken up into heaven very soon afterwards in a way which is
similar to how Jesus himself ascended, leaving their enemies dumbfounded and
bewildered (cf. Acts 1:9).
‘But
after three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they
stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven
saying to them, “Come up here.” And they
went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.’ (Rev. 11:11-12)
It is God himself who has the last word
with his Two Witnesses. Antichrist will
have power over people ultimately because of their fear of death (cf. Heb.
2:14), but there is a realm in which he (and Satan too) will be powerless to
influence or control people, and that is the realm of the resurrection power of
God, because this goes beyond death.
Antichrist’s power will not be able to reach or operate there, so
blessed are all those in that time who will hold on to this glorious hope of
the gospel of Jesus Christ! (cf. 1 Peter 1:3-5).
Furthermore, God will also act at that
time in Jerusalem in a measure of judgement which will affect much of the
city. Very soon – within an hour – after
the Two Witnesses have ascended into heaven, there will be a severe earthquake
in and around Jerusalem which will cause major structural damage to buildings
and in which seven thousand people will die.
Jerusalem lies just a few kilometres from a major fault-line between the
Arabian and African tectonic plates which runs all along the Jordan Rift Valley
to the east of the city. So this area is
unsurprisingly subject to occasional quakes and tremors.
Along with the resurrection and ascension
of the Two Witnesses, this act of judgement will speak clearly into the hearts
of many people (both in the city and elsewhere) at the very time when
Antichrist (and many other people worldwide) were believing that they had
gained a great victory for themselves (cf. Rev. 11:10). Many of the survivors of this earthquake will
have no problem making the simple connection between the resurrection/ascension
of the Two Witnesses and the earthquake, and they will understand that the
earthquake was an act of God in judgement.
They will be terrified and will give glory to God:
‘At
that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city
collapsed. Seven thousand people were
killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to
God.’ (Rev. 11:13)
The
abomination that causes desolation
The key event that links the two halves of
Daniel’s seventieth week is the setting up of what the Scriptures call the
‘abomination that causes desolation.’
This happens at the midway point between the two halves of the
seventieth week: after the end of the first half, but before the second half
begins. It is the sign that the second
half, the period we know as the Great Tribulation, is about to begin (Matt.
24:15).
It is appropriate and natural that its
description be placed in this chapter, because the setting up of the
abomination is an act of the king of the north, Antichrist, and he does it very
soon after he takes over Jerusalem. So I
have placed its description here, after the sub-section above which dealt with
Antichrist taking Jerusalem and killing the Two Witnesses. The setting up of the abomination takes place
very soon after those events, and its description therefore flows on naturally
from them.
As I will show at the end of the following
chapter, the abomination is set up after the three and a half days during which
the Two Witnesses lay dead, i.e. it is set up immediately after their
resurrection/ascension, and therefore on that very same day. The reader can see this from the full layout
of the chronology of the seventieth week which I give at the end of the
following chapter.
However, the passage in Revelation 11:1-14
contains no mention of the abomination being set up, perhaps because the
emphasis in that passage is on the Two Witnesses. It is not there, so we have to try to fit the
pieces of the prophetic jigsaw together as best we can. The lack of clarity is
over the chronology of two separate events: the abomination is set up after the
Two Witnesses have ascended up into heaven, but is it set up before or after
the earthquake which gives Jerusalem a massive shaking at that very same hour?
One thing is certain. As surprised and shocked as Antichrist may be
when the Two Witnesses are resurrected and ascend to heaven in full public view
of all those who see it happen, he will want and need to get people’s attention
back onto himself as soon as he can. He
will not be fazed by what happened, he will simply continue on in his wilful
satanic defiance and act quickly to re-establish his authority over the people
by setting up the abomination.
It is difficult to imagine him doing this
after such a severe earthquake, because people’s attention will necessarily be
elsewhere. So it seems that he may set
the abomination up just as soon as he can after the resurrection/ascension of
the Two Witnesses, very quickly in fact, and then the earthquake strikes. But I am only conjecturing here…
So that would raise the question: is the
severe earthquake an almost immediate response in judgment from God to the
setting up of the abomination, as well as towards the taking of Jerusalem by
Antichrist and his killing of the Two Witnesses?
Furthermore, it is interesting that Jesus
gave a warning to believers that they should flee from Judea immediately when
they see the abomination that causes desolation set up. He even told them not to go back to their
home to get anything, but to get out of Judea (including therefore getting out of
the city of Jerusalem, cf. Luke 21:21) just as fast as they can:
‘So when you see standing in the holy place “the abomination that causes desolation”, spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no-one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no-one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress…’ (Matt. 24:15-21)
Although this evidently has to do with the
beginning of the Great Tribulation, I wonder myself whether Jesus was thinking
of and intimating to believers the fact of this severe earthquake happening
very soon after the abomination is set up.
To be caught in one’s home during a severe earthquake can mean death,
pure and simple. Therefore, was he
saying in effect, get out of there just as soon as you can, and just as you
are, so that at least you might escape the worst effects of this earthquake
that will strike almost immediately? This earthquake is the harbinger of the
Great Tribulation that will then be almost ready to unfold.
a.
So what is the end-times abomination that causes
desolation?
We saw in the first part of this chapter
that, after the king of the north Antiochus Epiphanes took control of
Jerusalem, he proceeded to desecrate the temple and began to persecute and kill
the Jews. He also set up the
‘abomination that causes desolation’:
‘It set itself up to be as great as
the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from
the Lord, and his sanctuary was thrown down.
Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were
given over to it.’
(Dan. 8:11-12)
‘Then he will turn back and vent
his fury against the holy covenant. He
will return and show favour to those who forsake the holy covenant. His armed forces will rise up to desecrate
the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that
causes desolation.’
(Dan. 11:30-31)
Similarly, just like his historical
counterpart, when he has taken Jerusalem and killed the Two Witnesses,
Antichrist, the end-times king of the north, will put to an end the daily
Jewish sacrifices and offerings in the recently built temple. He can do this easily by decree (and then
enforce it with his soldiers) as soon as he has taken over the city. Furthermore, he will then desecrate this holy
place of God. He too will set up an
abomination that causes desolation.
However, in his case, this will take the form of setting himself up in
the temple (to reign) and proclaiming himself to be God. He will set himself up and demand to be
acknowledged and worshipped as a false Messiah and divine being:
‘In the middle of the “seven” he
will put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation…’ (Dan. 9:27)
‘He will exalt and magnify himself
above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods.’ (Dan. 11:36)
‘…nor will he regard any god, but
will exalt himself above them all.’
(Dan. 11:37)
‘He will oppose and will exalt
himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets
himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.’ (2 Thess. 2:4)[11]
Furthermore, his infernal sidekick the
False Prophet will also set up an image of Antichrist in the temple, and he
will demand that people everywhere worship this image. This is discussed in more detail in the next chapter.
‘[The False Prophet] ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.’ (Rev. 13:14)
This setting-up in the holy place of the
abomination that causes desolation is the sign that Antichrist’s end-times
persecution of the Jewish people and the final holocaust is about to
begin. Jesus himself was quite specific
about this. When Antichrist proclaims
himself in the temple to be God and his image is set up, this abomination will
be the sign that the time has come for Jews who believe in Jesus as their
Messiah to get out of Judea just as fast as they can, because the time of the
Great Tribulation with all its distress is about to begin:
‘So when you see standing in the
holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation’, spoken of through Daniel
the prophet – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee
to the mountains. Let no-one on the roof
of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no-one in the field go back to get his
cloak. How dreadful it will be in those
days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the
Sabbath. For then there will be great
distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to
be equalled again.’
(Matt. 24:15-21)
Table 20.4 below gives a summary of the events of the first half of
Daniel’s seventieth week and the three and a half days which follow it:
|
Sixth Trumpet: Part C Dan. 9:27, Rev. 11:1-14 The first half of Daniel’s seventieth week The covenant with many is confirmed by Antichrist. The temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt. The Two Witnesses prophesy from Jerusalem for 1,260 days. Antichrist betrays the covenant with many, invades Israel, and takes over Jerusalem. He attacks and kills the Two Witnesses. He puts an end to sacrifices and offerings in the temple. The three and a half days The Two Witnesses are resurrected and they ascend to heaven after 3½ days. [Antichrist sets himself up in the temple together with his image as the abomination.] There
is a severe earthquake and a tenth of Jerusalem collapses. 7,000
people are killed.
|
Table 20.4 Part C of the sixth
trumpet: the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week and the three and a half
days
A summary of
Antichrist’s activities in the Middle East
As I said in Part A of this chapter,
commentators are agreed that the prophetic passage in Daniel 11:36-45 refers to
Antichrist as the end-times king of the north rather than to his historical
counterpart, Antiochus Epiphanes.
It is not clear exactly when the end-time
events described in this passage will happen, but, being that Antichrist’s
invasion of Israel is certainly included as one of them, it is very likely that
they will begin to happen towards the end of the first half of Daniel’s
seventieth week, and perhaps extend into the earlier part of the second
half. Antichrist’s invasion of Israel is
just one part of his wider military intentions in the Middle East, just as it
was with Antiochus Epiphanes. This will
all be a treacherous betrayal of his confirmation of the covenant with many.
So, because this passage deals with the
theme of the activities of the king of the north in the Middle East, it is
therefore appropriate that these events be included here as the final section
of this chapter, rather than in the following chapter. But I do this with the caveat that some of
them may well take place in the earlier part of the second half of the
seventieth week. These events are summed
up in the following bullet points:
·
Antichrist
will invade Israel, and he will make Jerusalem his new home and the seat of his
reign (vv.41,45).
·
He
will be engaged in battle by ‘the king of the south,’ whoever that proves to be
in the time of the seventieth week. So
Antichrist will certainly meet with some resistance, but this will prove
futile. He will take Egypt, Libya, and what
is now northern Sudan (vv.40,42-43).
·
He
will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. Many countries will fall to him, and he will
extend his power over them (vv.40-42).
·
He
will rule these countries as an emperor through local rulers that he appoints
(v.39).
·
Modern-day
Jordan (biblical Ammon, Moab and Edom) will be delivered from his hand, but we
are not told exactly why this is (v.41).
·
At
some stage he will face problems from the east and the north, and many people
will be killed as he deals with these problems in a great rage (v.44).
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[1] An alternative viewpoint sees this
covenant as being the Mosaic covenant.
In this scenario, Antichrist would affirm the Mosaic covenant with the
Jewish people, and thereby deceive them into thinking that he is their true
Messiah. Therefore, he would be a man of
Jewish heritage. He would allow
sacrifices etc. to continue in the third temple until the mid-point of the
seventieth week, and then betray this covenant.
In this scenario, the apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 then becomes a
Jewish apostasy as they embrace Antichrist as their (false) Messiah.
[2] See
https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords.
[3] Egypt and Jordan have held to
their peace agreements with Israel since 1979 and 1994 respectively. Arab nations which have recently normalised
their relations with Israel through the ‘Abraham Accords’ are the UAE, Bahrain,
Sudan and Morocco. More nations,
hopefully including Saudi Arabia, are expected to follow soon. See https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-724437, accessed 17.12.2022.
[4] If the present ‘Abraham Accords’
are indeed the ‘covenant with many’ mentioned in Daniel 9:27, then, assuming
that the previously hostile Arab nations surrounding Israel are among the
‘many,’ Israel would enter into a period of relative peace and stability as
this covenant is established. However,
surmising and without being dogmatic, this might suggest that the stage is then
set for the Gog – Magog attack described in Ezekiel chs.38-39 to take place. Most of the hostile nations in this alliance
are from much further north and they are well beyond Israel, and it seems that
they invade Israel when she is enjoying a time of relative peace and prosperity
(as we saw in chapter 13). The nations in
this Gog – Magog alliance would evidently not be party to this covenant. Satan would then stir up his age-old violent
hostility towards Israel through these nations, rather than through the
surrounding Arab nations (as he had so often done previously) which by then are
at peace with Israel. God will deliver
Israel miraculously from these invading Gog – Magog forces. She would then continue to live in relative
peace within the terms of this ‘covenant with many’ until Antichrist’s eventual
betrayal of this covenant and his invasion of Israel around the midpoint of
Daniel’s seventieth week (see later in this chapter).
[5] By political agreement, this tract
of land has remained under the control and oversight of the Jordanian
government since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967. It will be finally and completely liberated
from Gentile control only at the Second Advent of Christ.
[6] In
Islamic tradition, this is the place from where Muhammad is believed to have
made his ascent into heaven (a journey that Muslims call Al Miraj),
after having travelled by night from Mecca to Temple Mount in Jerusalem on a
winged creature.
[7] See https://templeinstitute.org.
[8] It is a fact of history that, for
the most part, the Jewish people have been very resistant to the gospel. Indeed, as the apostle Paul said and as their
own recorded history shows, they rejected and killed many of their own
prophets, they killed their own Messiah, and they then went on to persecute the
apostles and those among their fellow-Jews who did receive Jesus as Messiah. In Jesus’ ministry, they rejected both the
Father and the Son, essentially displaying an antichrist attitude (Luke 10:16;
John 5:23, 15:18-21,23; 1 John 2:21-23).
Since 70 AD and until recent times, their rejection of the gospel has
been almost total, except for occasional, small trickles of converts here and
there. Both Jesus and Paul affirmed that
this consistent rejection of the message and messengers of God means that they
are heaping up their sins to the limit, thereby provoking God to wrath (Matt.
21:33-46, 1 Thess. 2:14-16). The Jews
are loved by God on account of the patriarchs, but they are enemies of the
gospel (Rom. 11:28). For religious Jews
today, the Talmud (which emerged in medieval times and has its roots in the
Oral Torah of the Pharisees) has higher authority than the actual Old Testament
scriptures, and it blinds them to the truth of these scriptures, especially
those passages which point to Jesus as their Messiah. The continued stubborn rejection of the
gospel message by many unbelieving Jews in the end-times will certainly be a major
factor in the pouring out of the wrath of God upon them during the reign of
Antichrist in the Great Tribulation. In
many ways, this will be the end-times parallel of the events of 70 AD.
[9] The present re-gathering of Jews
to their ancient homeland is a matter of God’s faithfulness to his promises to
the patriarchs which were also confirmed through the prophets (e.g. Ezek.
chs.36-37). As people, many modern Jews
in Israel are secular and atheistic (about 75% in total), and their lifestyle reflects
western values and morality, whereas among the religious Jews (about 25% in
total) many hold extreme views about Zionist expansionism. Talmudic statements reject Jesus as a sorcerer
and a false prophet, and some statements are highly racist towards the Gentiles
(goyim). Jews generally are still
in a hardened state of spiritual blindness and disobedience (Rom. 11:25,30-31). God will first re-gather them to their
ancient homeland, and then bring to them another opportunity to come to faith
in Christ as their Messiah (Ezek. 36:24-25).
[10] Judgement eventually came upon the
Jews of Christ’s day, because they did not repent under his ministry. Many of them rejected it with hardened
hearts. This judgement came upon them in
70 AD. Similarly, during Daniel’s
seventieth week, Jews who stubbornly refuse to repent of their unbelief and
embrace Jesus as their Messiah under the ministry of the Two Witnesses, will
simply be condemning themselves to the execration which will take place under
Antichrist’s rule during the Great Tribulation (cf. Matt. 11:20-24, 23:33-36;
Luke 12:54-56, 13:1-9, and see the relevant part of the following chapter).
In the history of the Jews recorded
in the Old Testament, God only allowed Israel to be invaded by their enemies
when they were living in idolatry, rebelliousness and sin. Major judgement took place on three occasions:
in 721 BC (against the northern kingdom due to their unrepentant idolatry), in
606-587 BC (against the southern kingdom for similar reasons), and in 70 AD
(because of the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as their Messiah and their rejection
also of the gospel message through the apostles). Jewish rejection of the message of salvation
through the end-times ministry of the Two Witnesses will similarly result in
the invasion of Antichrist as an act of divine judgement, followed by his
attempted execration of the Jewish people.
[11] When he wrote these words, Paul
may also have had in mind the failed attempt of the Emperor Caligula a few
years earlier to have a statue of himself erected within the precincts of the
temple in Jerusalem. This attempt was
successfully resisted by the Jewish authorities. At this point, readers can also read through the
Appendix to gain a fuller understanding of the abomination of desolation.
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