NoHype
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- Jan 20, 2014
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There is clearly a dilemma into today's Churches about understanding what the "abomination of desolation" from the Book of Daniel is about. It's a question I'm asked about quite a bit. Note what the early Church fathers below had to say about it:
Hippolytus (AD. 170-236)
"As these things, then, are in the future, and as the ten toes of the image are equivalent to (so many) democracies, and the ten horns of the fourth beast are distributed over ten kingdoms, let us look at the subject a little more closely, and consider these matters as in the clear light of a personal survey. The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians; the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander's time; the legs of iron, and the beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part clay and part iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms that are yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up among them meant the Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ." [Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 27,28]
Irenaeus (AD120-202)
"In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned. ... And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight. After that they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord." [Against Heresies, Book V, XXVI]
"This he does, in order that they who do [now] worship the devil by means of many abominations, may serve himself by this one idol, of whom the apostle thus speaks in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians: 'Unless there shall come a failing away first, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.' The apostle therefore clearly points out his apostasy, and that he is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped - that is, above every idol - for these are indeed so called by men, but are not [really] gods; and that he will endeavor in a tyrannical manner to set himself forth as God. 2. Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I have shown in many ways, that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person, distinctly called it the temple of God. Now I have shown in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directions the temple which is at Jerusalem was constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned; in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: 'But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; and he who is upon the house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: for there shall then be great hardship, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.'" [Against Heresies, Book V, XXV,1&2]
Those early Church fathers understood the "abomination of desolation" our Lord Jesus quoted from the Book of Daniel to be about false worship setup by the Antichrist in a literal temple in Jerusalem for the last days just prior to Christ's second coming. In that they made that prophecy from Daniel about the "one week" (Dan.9:27) a prophecy for the very end of this world involving what the coming Antichrist is to do in Jerusalem.
Hippolytus also understood the beast kingdom of ten toes of part iron mixed with clay associated with the ten horns and little horn prophecy of the Book of Daniel. Irenaeus understood the Dan.9:27 prophecy to be about a coming final Antichrist ending the daily sacrifices in Jerusalem and setting up the abomination of desolation. He even showed understanding about the final "one week" of Dan.9:27 being for the end of this world in the era of Christ's second coming.
In their days, the doctrines called Preterism (16th century), Historicism (19th century), Dispensationalism (1800's), and the Pre-tribulation rapture doctrine (1830's) were not doctrines held by the Christian Church. They were what some call futurists (but not the later Futurists idea), for they obviously saw those events for the future, at the end of this world.
Irenaeus even understood Apostle Paul's account in 2 Thess.2:3-4 about the "man of sin" involving the coming of a false one in place of our Lord Jesus Christ to setup false worship in a literal temple in Jerusalem at the very end of this world.
So why have the later doctrines of men developed to get away from that early understanding those early Church fathers held?
Hippolytus (AD. 170-236)
"As these things, then, are in the future, and as the ten toes of the image are equivalent to (so many) democracies, and the ten horns of the fourth beast are distributed over ten kingdoms, let us look at the subject a little more closely, and consider these matters as in the clear light of a personal survey. The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians; the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander's time; the legs of iron, and the beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part clay and part iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms that are yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up among them meant the Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ." [Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 27,28]
Irenaeus (AD120-202)
"In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned. ... And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight. After that they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord." [Against Heresies, Book V, XXVI]
"This he does, in order that they who do [now] worship the devil by means of many abominations, may serve himself by this one idol, of whom the apostle thus speaks in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians: 'Unless there shall come a failing away first, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.' The apostle therefore clearly points out his apostasy, and that he is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped - that is, above every idol - for these are indeed so called by men, but are not [really] gods; and that he will endeavor in a tyrannical manner to set himself forth as God. 2. Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I have shown in many ways, that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person, distinctly called it the temple of God. Now I have shown in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directions the temple which is at Jerusalem was constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned; in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: 'But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; and he who is upon the house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: for there shall then be great hardship, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.'" [Against Heresies, Book V, XXV,1&2]
Those early Church fathers understood the "abomination of desolation" our Lord Jesus quoted from the Book of Daniel to be about false worship setup by the Antichrist in a literal temple in Jerusalem for the last days just prior to Christ's second coming. In that they made that prophecy from Daniel about the "one week" (Dan.9:27) a prophecy for the very end of this world involving what the coming Antichrist is to do in Jerusalem.
Hippolytus also understood the beast kingdom of ten toes of part iron mixed with clay associated with the ten horns and little horn prophecy of the Book of Daniel. Irenaeus understood the Dan.9:27 prophecy to be about a coming final Antichrist ending the daily sacrifices in Jerusalem and setting up the abomination of desolation. He even showed understanding about the final "one week" of Dan.9:27 being for the end of this world in the era of Christ's second coming.
In their days, the doctrines called Preterism (16th century), Historicism (19th century), Dispensationalism (1800's), and the Pre-tribulation rapture doctrine (1830's) were not doctrines held by the Christian Church. They were what some call futurists (but not the later Futurists idea), for they obviously saw those events for the future, at the end of this world.
Irenaeus even understood Apostle Paul's account in 2 Thess.2:3-4 about the "man of sin" involving the coming of a false one in place of our Lord Jesus Christ to setup false worship in a literal temple in Jerusalem at the very end of this world.
So why have the later doctrines of men developed to get away from that early understanding those early Church fathers held?
