I saw a Facebook post that really bothered me. The post referred to J Vernon McGee (an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister) preaching on the Rapture of the Church. Here is the post: He reminded us that Christians are looking for Christ, not for the Abomination of Desolation. His quote was, “I wouldn’t even know an Abomination of Desolation if I met one on the street.”😂
The post bothered me because it is so unscriptural that it is nearly heretical. Jesus himself told His 12 disciples to look for the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24. They ask, “What will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age?” (v. 2). And Jesus gives them the sign of Daniel 9:27 (v. 15). Pause for a moment and think about what I just said. The disciples want to know when Jesus is coming again, and Jesus gives them the sign that J Vernon McGee says he would not even know if he met on the street.
Some will say that Jesus is giving the Jews a sign for His return for them at the end of the tribulation in Matthew 24 (Daniel’s 70th-week concept) and does not reveal to the disciples a pre-tribulation rapture of the church in the Olivet Discourse. The problem with that argument is that it doesn’t synchronize with the rest of the New Testament and, in particular, 2 Thessalonians 2.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul describes with great specificity that one of the things that will happen when Jesus returns is “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” The Latin translation of ‘caught up’ is rapiemur cum, from which we get the English word rapture.
Before we move to 2 Thessalonians, I would like you to see how similar Paul’s writing in this passage (1 Thess 4:16-17) is to Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:31
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Matthew 24:31
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Do you think Paul is describing a different event or the same event?
In Paul’s second letter to the church at Thessalonica, he addresses questions they have and the issues they are going through. One of them is that some thought they had missed the rapture of the church—the second coming of Christ described in his first letter. Let’s read the first four verses of 2 Thessalonians.
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Now the question is: Is Paul describing the ‘abomination of desolation’ of Matthew 24:15, or is this something completely new that neither Jesus nor Daniel previously foretold?
It seems absurd not to conclude that opposing and exalting oneself against every so-called god and proclaiming himself to be God is the most abominable thing anyone could do. Notice that he ‘takes his seat in the temple of God’, which is the ‘holy place’ of Matt 24:15.
Notice how specific Paul is: he says let no one deceive you. The coming of the Lord and our being gathered will not happen until the abomination of desolation occurs. Paul reminds the church of the same thing Jesus told his disciples. One of the signs which will proceed the Second Coming of Christ (including the rapture) is that the man of lawlessness reveals himself to the point of demanding that the world worship him as God.
While some still struggle with what I am showing you from the Scripture, the connection points are too many not to make the linkage. For example, one of the strongest is the “our being gathered together to him” (v. 1) compared to Matthew 24:31 ‘gather his elect from the four winds.’ The Greek is nearly identical; Paul uses the noun, and Jesus uses the verb form of the same word.
Finally, who is the book of Revelation, which tells so much about the signs that will proceed the Second Coming of Christ, written to? The letter was written to and hand-carried to the seven churches that are in Asia. Churches filled with Christians whom God intended to know an ‘abomination of desolation’ if they met him on the street. And in this letter, more detail is given about this beast, who is the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2, and the responsible agent for the abomination of desolation of Matthew 24:15.
Read Revelation 13:5-6:
There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
The holy place, temple, sanctuary, dwelling place, and tabernacle are all words to describe the assault against God and His people. If today’s Christian does not need to know what this incredible act of defiance looks like, the abomination of desolation, why is it described in Daniel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 2 Thessalonians, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ?
This is the number one sign that the Coming of Christ is imminent.
