The title of today’s sermon is “Understanding the Abomination of Desolation, Part 2.”  As we talked about in part 1, ancient Israel was the one nation on earth to receive the favor of being God’s chosen people.  They made a covenant at Sinai, and because of that covenant with God, they became a holy nation.  They became a special people and a nation of kings and priests.  There was a holy relationship that developed between these people at Sinai and God.  It was akin to a marriage.  When you have a marriage, a home is needed.  Two come together and form a home.  Therefore, because of this unique relationship (the only people on earth to have this relationship with God), God had to, in some way, dwell with them and have a home with them.

Over the course of time a beautiful building was built.  It was a temple for God in a holy city called Jerusalem (the city of peace).  This awesome building was holy because of God’s presence there.  God’s presence is what makes something holy, or Him declaring something holy.  That makes it holy.  Just as when Moses came across the burning bush and God said, take your shoes off for you are standing on holy ground because you are in the presence of God.

FOUR SUPREME SANCTITIES
I would like to turn to II Chronicles, some of which we were reading in part one.  We will review how God’s presence came into the temple.  Read II Chronicles 5:11-14.  Indeed, this place was unique on the earth.  It was a fabulous place because of Christ dwelling there.  It was a place where heaven and earth actually made contact!  The heavenly throne out in the universe made contact with humanity at this holy place called the temple of God in the city of God!  It is a place so sacred that we are told in Exodus 25:8-10 and verses 21-22 that it was patterned after God’s holy throne in the heavens!  This was all built on a heavenly pattern.  Hebrews 8 also refers to the fact that these things are patterned after something in heaven (a throne where God exists).  It is a place where mercy and truth dwell.  Because this place was so sacred, it had an ark of the covenant which contained the law, and the lid of it became the mercy seat.  God dwelt above that mercy seat in the temple of God.

Within this temple there were two sacred places.  One was the holy place, and this was the place in front of the Most Holy of Holies.  In this area with the ten tables, that we are familiar with, is where the showbread was and the ever-burning lamps.  This is where God’s holy vessels were, and this is where the priests would meet.  This is where they would do their priestly duties, as well as sacrificing in front of the temple.  This is where they would get together, and this was called the holy place.  Beyond that was the Holy of Holies.  It was a place extremely holy and pure because that is where God Himself dwelt.  It was there that He sat over the mercy seat, which contained the ark and the law.  From there He dispensed mercy, forgiveness, truth and understanding.  This is where the divine presence actually made contact with humanity (the physical people of the earth)!

Only one man could ever enter that place and only once a year.  That was on the Day of Atonement when the high priest could actually go into the Holy of Holies before the Great God on behalf of all the people in the nation.  It was an extremely sacred moment.

Words fall far short of conveying the awesomeness of what it means to have God dwell in a home.  It was a home also inhabited by puny, filthy man!  There is just no way to describe such a thing!  The closest I have ever come across to describe this was a prayer of an ascetic rabbi, and I would like to read that right now.  This comes from a book called Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.  Here is this prayer of this rabbi.

“God’s world is great and holy.  The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel.  In the land of Israel, the holiest city is Jerusalem.  In Jerusalem the holiest place was the temple, and in the temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.

“There are seventy peoples in the world and the holiest of these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel was the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests the holiest was the high priest.

“There are 354 days in a lunar year. Among these the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among the Sabbaths the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.

“There are 70 languages in the world and the holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else is the language of the holy Torah. In the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all the words is the name of God.

“Once during the year at a certain hour these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and utter the name of God. Because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril, not only for the high priest but the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of a high priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed!”

That gives us some feeling of just how important that spot (the Holiest of Holies and the temple of God) is or was.  Within the temple was the presence of God!  To understand that and to realize that human kind can actually have contact with the Great God of the universe and bring supplications and needs to Him, to be cleansed as a people and have mercy and forgiveness dispensed to them, is just a thought beyond really what we can fully take in!  It is that amazing.

The importance of God’s home with man cannot be overstated because when you stop to think of what mercy and truth really means, it means that that place was incredibly pure. It was a place where profound and absolute forgiveness could be received!  It was a place of extraordinary mercy and overwhelming love and kindness toward the little people of the earth.  It was a place of healing, and a place where intercession could be sought by the littlest people of the world from the Great God of the universe.  It was a place for intercession for all their needs, for all of their desires, for all of their tragedies and all of their sorrows.  It was a place where teaching and instruction could be passed from the priesthood to the people, and then eventually to the world and all who would listen.  It was a place where the human and the divine could come together and bridge the gap that exists between heaven and earth!  That was how awesome the temple of God was in the holy city of Jerusalem.  That is why the place where Christ dwelt was called the mercy seat.  It was by God’s great mercy and love for mankind that He wanted to make contact with humanity.

THE PHYSICAL ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
We talked in part 1 about how an abomination of desolation could occur.  We noted that it could only occur in a place that had once been pure, because otherwise the world is an abomination because Satan rules it.  Something has to be pure before it can be abominated and desolated.

As we noted in part 1, the physical abomination of desolation could not occur unless Christ was out of the way.  It could only happen with Christ out of that temple.  No human being could do violence to God in His temple.  No one could even touch what was sacred.  This was beyond what a human being could do and survive.  There is an example that I did not go into before, and I will mention now.  Even with a good intention to touch the ark, Uzza could not touch the ark.  He was instantly, more or less, fried on the spot.  If God is there, Satan cannot be there, and mankind cannot do violence to the temple of God or the holy city.

We read that Jesus Christ did, indeed, leave the temple.  The reason He did is because the people had defiled themselves.  They had abominated themselves first.  The physical abomination of desolation was really only showing what God saw in the people already. He was allowing a physical punishment to come upon them for what they had done by not repenting of sin, by defiling themselves and defiling God’s temple.  He did not want to do that.  He was forced to do that, because God cannot dwell with people who do not want to change or repent and who insist upon defiling those things that are sacred.

It was done, of course, by breaking God’s law.  When we break God’s law and do not repent and seek intercession and forgiveness, that is a spot or a blemish on a people.  It becomes a putrefying sore.  It is the equivalent of filthiness.  Sin is filthiness.  Breaking God’s law is filthy.  In that ark of the covenant which the mercy seat was over, was the law.  Obviously, if the law is being broken, it is breaking the Ten Commandments.

One can go right down the list.  There is idolatry:  putting false gods before the true God.  There is blaspheming of God’s holy and righteous name.  We just saw how the rabbi said there is nothing more holy than the name of God.  Blaspheming God’s name is taking that precious name and using it flippantly.  It is beyond just swearing.  It is using the whole process and His name falsely.  It is attributing bad ideas and sinful thoughts to God.  We have addressed this in a sermon called, “For My Name’s Sake.”  It explains how precious God’s name is.  Speaking lies and deception in God’s name is blasphemy.  It also includes breaking the Sabbath and the holy days, killing and hating one another, causing strife, lying and stealing (especially stealing from God or lying about Him) and slandering His name and His people.  This is what makes the temple defiled.  We could go on and on with things like making the temple a den of thieves, or adultery and sexual immorality and not repenting of it.  This would also include coveting and jealously.  In short, sins against God and man that are not repented of cause our hearts to grow hard, so we do not care if we are not seeking mercy and forgiveness.  We get hardened to the point where we can do these things with impunity, and then God has to act.

When God’s special people break the law with impunity and do not seek proper forgiveness and mercy and try to address the sins, it provokes God to jealousy.  Why would that be?  Because these behaviors reflect the image and likeness of Satan and his world.  That is how the world operates.  That is how the world is run by Satan and his horrible tyrannical government.  In contrast, God’s people are to be like Him.  We are to become in His image and His likeness, which is pictured by truth, mercy, love, kindness and the dispensing of forgiveness.

Let’s turn to Ezekiel chapter 8 where God speaks of the abomination in His temple.  Read Ezekiel 8:1-3.  Jesus Christ is showing Ezekiel that there is an image of jealousy at the temple, and it is making Him angry.  It is making Him jealous for His people, for His home and for this special relationship He has with this marriage.  It is His family that He wants to have.  He is very upset.

Continuing on with verse 4 of Ezekiel 8:  “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.  Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.’  So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.”  It was getting ready to enter the actual temple.

Read Ezekiel 8:6-13.  These images portrayed in the darkness on the walls of these chambers mean the images of someone’s imagination portrayed as if in picture form from an observatory in the dark.  So they are hidden in their temple rooms where they are supposed to be working, and they are looking at things (possibly thinking about things) like the rabbi was saying you cannot do.  Especially the high priest cannot do these things when he goes into the Holy of Holies.  They are doing in there in the dark what are from the imagination.

We can draw some current analogies.  I will do that hopefully later on in the sermon if I have time.  This is what was going on in the temple back then, and God said that was an abomination.

Continue reading Ezekiel 8:13-16.  They were not worshipping the Son of God and not the Shekinah glory over the mercy seat.  They were worshipping part of creation (part of the sun god system and Tammuz, a false god).

Continuing in verse 17:  “And He said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man?  Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here?  For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger.  Indeed they put the branch to their nose.’”  In other words, they don’t care!

Verse 18:  “‘Therefore I also will act in fury.  My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.’”

This is the situation that abominated the temple in Ezekiel’s day.  We are going to draw analogies to what is actually happening today.  All of this occurred in God’s house, in His holy city, amidst His holy people!  These spiritual abominations and putting up of a false god led to the physical abomination of desolation.  It was when an actual physical image was put up on the altar of God and when the holy vessels were taken.  The people were taken captive.  There was much death and destruction.  Then eventually there was total devastation.  It became an uninhabited place where God’s people were scattered to and fro.  Even today ancient Israel has not recovered.  They are not together.  They are scattered throughout the world.

In II Chronicles chapter 7 God warned that this would happen.  When you watch the news today, so often you will see devout Jews up at the Wailing Wall bewailing what happened to their temple, that beautiful building where God once dwelt among them.  In II Chronicles 7 we have God’s warning.

II Chronicles 7, verse 12:  “Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him,  ‘I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.  When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people…’”  I want you to remember the phrase, “the locusts and pestilence.”

Continue reading verses 14-22.  All of this calamity occurred because of the abominations, and God warned them ahead of time.  He said I will have to do this if you forsake My law and My statutes.

The temple and the holy city were abominated three times in history and desolated twice. It was abominated and desolated in 586 B.C. when this beautiful temple was destroyed.  It occurred in 167 B.C. when Antiochus Epiphanes set up an idol and tried to force the Jews to give up the truth of God.  And it occurred in 70 A.D. when Titus of Rome completely destroyed the city once again.  The temple at that time, however, did not have the Shekinah glory in it, but it was a total abomination of desolation of that sacred place.

In Leviticus 18 God compares this abomination of desolation with something very interesting.  Turn to Leviticus chapter 18.  God compares it to vomiting out.  He said when I allow this happen, it is like vomiting you out of the land.

Leviticus 18, verse 24:  “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.  For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.’”  God forced the inhabitants out of Canaan, along with their idols because the land was defiled, as indeed the entire world.  Then He put in His own people, this special people.

Continuing reading Leviticus 28:26-30.  We see here that abomination leads to vomiting out, and that is what makes the land desolate.  The vomiting out of God’s people is what makes the land desolate.

Turn, if you would, to Ezekiel chapter 5.  It talks about how this was done.  Ezekiel 5, verse 1:  “‘And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair.  You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword and one-third you shall scatter in the wind:  I will draw out a sword after them.’”  This is often called the prophecy of thirds.

Verse 3:  “‘You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment.  Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire.  From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.  Thus says the Lord God:  “This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.  She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.”’” The other nations at least did not know better, but Israel did.  They were God’s chosen and special people.

Continue reading Ezekiel 5:7-12.  He said, This is something I will do.  I have never done this before, and I will never do it again.  On the physical earth, the Shekinah glory only dwelt one time in the temple, and He only removed Himself one time.  This allowed all of this to happen, eventually allowing Antiochus Epiphanes and Titus to do the same thing.  So only once did God ever remove His presence from physical Israel, and look at all of the suffering and the pain that has occurred ever since.

A SPIRITUAL ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
Matthew 24:14-15 tells us the abomination of desolation is going to happen again at the end of the age.  “‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.  Therefore when you see the “abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand)…”

 I want you to notice, after the gospel of the kingdom is preached to the entire world as a witness, this abomination of desolation will take place.  In the Philadelphia Era we know the gospel of the kingdom went to the whole world as a witness.  Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong told us that this was a sign from God.  It was something to watch for because we have done this great work by God’s power and strength, obviously.  But verse 15 tells us that after that it will take wisdom to see and comprehend that another abomination of desolation would take place.  Yes, brethren, it has happened again!  Before we go into that segment of the sermon, I want you to turn back to Isaiah 28.

God has warned us through Ezekiel, through the messages of the prophets and through Mr. Armstrong.  We were warned.  Let’s turn back to Isaiah chapter 28 and read about a conundrum that God has at the end of the age.  It is a conundrum with His own people.
After he talks about the heads of the Church (the crown of pride for Him), He goes into verse 5.

Verse 5:  “In that day the Lord of hosts will be for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of His people…” He says, There will be a remnant and in that day I am going to do something with this remnant.

Continuing:  “…for a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.”  God will be a crown of glory for a remnant.  It will be a few at the end of the age.  But look at the conundrum He faces at the end of the age in verse 7.

Verse 7:  “But they also have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet [that means the teachers] have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through intoxicating drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.”  They cannot see properly.

Verse 8:  “For all the tables are full of vomit and filth; no place is clean.”  Remember the place where the priest worked the ten tables.  We are going to talk about this more in the near future, but the ten tables represent, I believe, the ten virgins.  Where they sit (part of the ten tribes of Israel) is all full of vomit at this point.  Remember what vomit signified earlier that we read.

Isaiah 28, verse 9:  “‘Whom will he teach knowledge?  [This is God’s conundrum when the Church is in this condition.]  And whom will he make to understand the message?  Those just weaned from milk?  Those just drawn from the breasts?  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.’  For with stammering lips and another tongue he will speak to this people, to whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,’ and, ‘This is the refreshing;’ yet they would not hear.”  When God is ready to bring the Millennium (the time of refreshing, the time of rest), He has a message.  It is a message that He wants to deliver, and He says, Who is going to take this message?  Babes?  Don’t I have well-trained people to take this message?  Are there not any people who want to stand in the gate and turn back the battle?

Verse 13:  “…but the word of the Lord was to them, ‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,’  that they might go and fall backward [which means to be caught by Satan], and be broken and snared and caught.”  God said, This takes people who understand My word and who are trained in the word of God to put precept upon precept and line upon line.  It takes a long time.  The miracle at the end of the age is that He could have anyone understand these things, but He wants the Church to wake up and understand what has happened to the Church.  This is the purpose of this sermon.  The purpose is to understand with wisdom what really occurred at the abomination of desolation.

Drop down to chapter 29 where we will read about this very strange abomination of desolation that occurs at the end of the age.  It starts with a dual prophecy and then goes into the end of the age.

Isaiah 29, verse 1:  “‘Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!’”  Ariel is another name for Jerusalem.  King David dwelt in physical Jerusalem, but because he had the Holy Spirit, he was part of spiritual Jerusalem as well.  God goes on to say here, “‘Add year to year; let feasts come around. Yet I will distress Ariel…’”  I will distress Jerusalem, He is saying.  ‘“…there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be to Me as Ariel.  I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, and I will raise siegeworks against you.  You shall be brought down…’”  That occurred in 586 B.C.  Right up to that point, you could say that occurred in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar had the place surrounded.  Then the siege eventually broke down the wall to the city and broke into the temple, ransacked it, defiled it and hauled off God’s holy vessels.  They killed many people.  Verse 4 does not quite fit that scenario.  This is what starts to go into the latter days.

Verse 4:  “‘You shall be brought down.  You shall speak out of the ground; your speech shall be low, out of the dust; your voice shall be like a medium’s out of the ground; and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.’”  What is a medium and what is out of the ground?  The serpents are there.  This is Satanic.

Verse 5 of Isaiah 29:  “‘Moreover the multitude of your foes shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones like chaff that passes away; yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.  You will be punished by the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire.  The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel [Israel]…’”  Nations has a dual definition in the Hebrew.  It is non-Jew or goy.  The word is goy, number 1471 in your Strong’s Concordance if you want to look it up, or a bunch of beasts or locusts, a flight of locusts. It is very interesting.

Continuing in verse 7:  “‘…even all who fight against her and her fortress, and distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.’”  In 586 B.C. that was not a dream.  They were surrounded by physical armies.  They were ransacked and destroyed by a physical army from Babylon.

Verse 8:   “‘It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and look he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is still empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and look he drinks; but he awakes, and indeed he is faint, and his soul still craves:  so the multitude of all the nations shall be, who fight against Mount Zion [Jerusalem].’”

Against God’s people at the end of the age, there is an enemy that causes a famine.  There is a lack of the water of the word (a lack of understanding the truth).  That is exactly what we will see as we continue to read here.

Isaiah 28, verse 9:  “Pause and wonder!  Blind yourselves and be blind!  They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.  For the Lord has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.”  We can see why in Matthew 25 it says the ten virgins go to sleep.  We are all asleep at the end of the age because of all that has happened.

Verse 11:  “The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’  And he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’  Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’  And he says, ‘I am not literate.’  Therefore the Lord said:  ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise man shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.’  Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; they say, ‘Who sees us?’ and ‘Who knows us?’”

This is like Ezekiel 8 speaking of being in the dark.  People think they are going to get away with these things.  But God said a blindness will come upon them, a famine of the word and a desiring for the water of the truth, but it is gone.  It is all like a dream (like a nightmare).  Haven’t we been living a nightmare for the last twenty years or so?  Haven’t we been living a nightmare?  That is why it takes wisdom to see and comprehend the abomination of desolation at the end of the age.

HISTORY REPEATED ITSELF
Brethren, it is sad to say, but history has repeated itself at the end of the age in a most horrible way.  We are going to see in Hebrews 3 and 4 that we were warned that it could happen again and will (as we have read many times).  Let’s turn back to Hebrews chapter 3.  Mr. Armstrong often said Hebrews is the most misunderstood book in the Bible, and he was sure right.

Hebrews 3, verse 1:  “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling [you know what it takes to be holy], consider the apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.  For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.  For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.  And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward…”  Everything that happened to the house that he was given a pattern of, was going to be duplicated at the end of the age.  We need to understand that.

Continuing in verse 6 of Hebrews 3:  “…but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose  house we are [we are His house] if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”  This is why Philadelphia was told, Hold firm to your crown, hold fast and persevere lest someone else take your crown.

Verse 7:  “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:  ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years.  Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.”  So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.”’”  And they did not, save Joshua and Caleb!  That was typifying entering the Millennial rest.  Going into the Promised Land was a type of going into the Millennial rest.

Verse 12 of Hebrews 3:  “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”  It is unrepentant sin that causes the hardening of the heart.

Continue reading verses 14-19.  Those spies, who came back with the bad report and said even God cannot defeat these giants, were blaspheming God’s name and denying His power!  When we say God cannot save the Church, or He cannot save this world and that this world where the Millennium is going to take place is going to be totally destroyed at the end of the age, it is denying God’s purpose.  It is denying His power and akin to blaspheming His name at the end of age!

If we would drop down to chapter 4 of Hebrews, we will begin in verse 1.  “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.  For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.  For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:  ‘So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest,”’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

God said this was going to happen from before the world was actually formed (before its foundations were laid)!  He knew He would defeat Satan.  He knew there would be a Millennium.  He knew He would have a temple for His Son to dwell in.  He said, Do not deny these things!  Have faith!  I can do this!

Verse 4:  “For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way:  ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;’ and again in this place:  ‘They shall not enter My rest.’  Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said:  ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’”  It has been a long time since Solomon’s temple went down because of hardened hearts, but we should not be following in those footsteps.  Unfortunately, we can and we have.

Drop down to verse 11 of Hebrews 4:  “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  The word is a very sharp sword.  God sees our hearts and our minds, and He can separate the good from the bad.  It is an amazing thing that God is doing in a spiritual way at the end of the age.

THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE
Since Christ’s first coming, God has built Himself the most beautiful building that has ever existed, but it takes spiritual eyesight to see the spiritual temple of God composed of living stones.  It is composed of gold, silver and precious jewels in the hearts and minds of men made clean by our High Priest.  They continually repent to be cleansed to form a spiritual temple of God.  Let’s just look at a couple of scriptures to confirm this.

Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and read verses 19-22.  This is truly a glorious building.

Turn to I Peter 2 and read verses 1-8.  Christ can actually be somebody we stumble over.  We can stumble over the body of Christ, offending one another.

 Continuing in the last half of verse 8:  “They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.”  We are talking about people appointed to a calling.

Verse 9:  “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”  Jesus Christ is dwelling over the mercy seat.  He is our High Priest acting on our behalf.  We have tasted these things.  We should continue to hold fast to what we know and to grow in holy righteous character by getting rid of every spot and blemish.  Then Jesus Christ can return to a beautiful bride and a wonderful temple.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 18:  “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.”  That is at Sinai.

Verse 20:  “(For they could not endure what was commanded:  ‘And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.’  And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.’)  But you have come to Mount Zion [a spiritual mountain] and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect…”   We can all be made perfect by Christ’s sacrifice, but we have to go to Him.  We need to seek mercy and forgiveness, just as ancient Israel had to go into the temple and seek mercy from Jesus Christ over the mercy seat.  They did it through their high priest.

Verse 24:  “…to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

That is what we have come into contact with, brethren.  This is a marvelous spiritual temple in a spiritual city on a spiritual hill.  We have become part of this beautiful dwelling that Jesus Christ wants to dwell in now as the body of Christ, and then to return to in power and glory in the not-too-distant future.  It is an awesome place on the earth, brethren.  It is now where the divine and physical man meet.  It is now where the heavenly throne can come and have contact with humanity.  It is through the Church! What an awesome thing!  It is amazing.

We can actually just not even care!  We can get to the point where our calling does not matter to us.  We can get to where we do not feel this is some great honor to be in a covenant with God (an agreement), to let Him have contact with the earth through living people who allow Him to dwell in their minds and hearts (giving themselves over to be part of the body of Christ).  This is a place where Jesus Christ writes the law on our hearts and minds.

Turn back a couple of pages to Hebrews chapter 8.  Read verses 7-11.  He is dwelling in the Church.  We should know Him as the One who dwells in us.  A little bit of His mind is in our mind, writing His law on our hearts.  He is teaching us to follow Him.

Read Hebrews 8:12-13.  That is the Old Testament covenant.  It is all going away.  We have a new High Priest, but we have to continually go to Him and repent.  We need to get rid of every spot and blemish, and grow in character, meaning we break the law less and less.  We love God’s people more and more.  We pick up our cross and follow after Jesus Christ, willing to lay down our lives for our fellow man and not be selfishly looking for some sort of special physical protection.  We need to be willing to lay down or lives for our fellow man, this poor world that is suffering and groaning waiting for the liberty of the sons of God.  It is waiting for God’s people to be revealed.  God’s Church should be directed by the mind of Christ.  We saw where He is writing His law on our minds and hearts.

Turn back to I Corinthians chapter 2.  Read verses 13-16.  Can you imagine that!  Living people form a spiritual temple in which Jesus Christ can dwell with a bit of His mind and with a bit of His Holy Spirit.  It is a miracle that not even Solomon could comprehend when he built that beautiful temple in Jerusalem.  It is a fantastic thing.  We have to understand and live this every day.  We are that temple if we are in the Church and have the Holy Spirit.  We are part of this beautiful dwelling from God.

Go now to I Corinthians chapter 3.  We will see how precious this is to God.  Read I Corinthians 3:9-17.  He could not be spelling it out more clearly!  We are God’s temple, and we must not defile that temple.  We must grow in character of gold, silver and precious jewels and offer it up to God for His use, just as ancient Israel had to bring the gold, the silver, and the jewels to the temple and offer them to the priest to build that beautiful temple.  It is a free-will sort of thing.  God did not force us to come into this agreement with Him, but the rewards for allowing Him to use this body (this temple) are so awesome that we cannot comprehend them.  We just can’t, but understand, it is truly amazing.  It will be fantastic and well worth whatever sufferings we go through in this life.

WARNED BY HERBERT ARMSTRONG
Mr. Herbert Armstrong did explain a lot of these things to us before he died.  Unfortunately, I do not think we comprehended it very well.  I want to read from this letter that I often quote from.  It is his letter dated March 19, 1981.  I want to read segments from page 3, 4 and 6.  If anyone wants a copy of this, you can write and ask us for one.  We will be glad to furnish you a copy of this letter that he sent out in 1981.

Page 3:  “But REMEMBER GOD’S PURPOSE WORKS IN A PROCESS OF DUALITY!  John the Baptist was a TYPE or forerunner, of one to prepare the way for His Second Coming.  Jesus is to come to His TEMPLE (Mal. 3:1).  He came to a material temple of stone, wood, gold and materials in A.D. 27-31.  To what Temple will He come IN OUR TIME, SOON NOW?

“Hold this prophecy of Malachi 3 in mind, and turn to Haggai 2, beginning in verse 3.  Zerubbabel  was a governor of a colony of Jews sent from Babylon back to Jerusalem 70 years after the destruction of Solomon’s temple, to build a new temple.  This also was the days of the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah.  Zerubbabel was builder of this second temple.  It was the temple to which Jesus came at His first appearing as a human.

“Verse 3, the former temple of Solomon was then as nothing compared to its original physical glory.  God commands Zerubbabel to be strong and work to build the temple (verse 4).  Verse 6 goes into a far-future prophecy of a time just before Christ’s Second Coming, when God will shake the earth and shake all nations, and the GLORY OF THIS LATTER HOUSE SHALL BE GREATER THAN OF THE FORMER (verse 9).  The temple Zerubbabel built of stone, wood and physical materials was nowhere near as glorious as the former temple of Solomon!  This is a PROPHECY speaking about the temple to which Christ shall come the second time, in supreme POWER and GLORY-a temple far more glorious than Solomon’s!

“To WHAT temple will Christ come very soon now?  Are the Jews going to demolish the Moslem temple, Dome of the Rock, which stands on that site now, and build a new super-glorious new temple?  NO!”  No, he says here, yet so many in God’s Church point to that as a sign we are looking for.  Then he turns to Ephesians 2:19-22 that we just read.

“Turn to Ephesians 2:19-22.  The Church at Ephesus was composed of former gentiles.  They are no longer foreign gentiles, but fellow-citizens with the saints-a spiritual NATION.  They are also a FAMILY-of the “household” of GOD-the GOD FAMILY.  As a BUILDING they are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being chief cornerstone.  As a BUILDING, they are fitly framed together (in UNIFIED ORGANIZATION) growing into a HOLY TEMPLE!”  This is something we knew in 1981, but did we really comprehend it?

Continuing with page 4.  “Zerubbabel built the second temple to which Jesus came the first time.  John the Baptist prepared the way before the FIRST coming.  But WHO was to build the SPIRITUAL temple to which Christ shall soon come the second time?  Who was to prepare the way before His Second Coming?

“Remember God does things in DUAL stages.  As Zerubbabel built the first temple of MATERIAL stone, wood and other materials, he was a forerunner or type of one through whom Christ would raise up or build the SPIRITUAL TEMPLE-His Church of our time, prior to the Day of the Lord and Christ’s Second Coming.  As John the Baptist prepared the way, in the PHYSICAL wilderness of the Jordan River for the first coming of the HUMAN Jesus (both man and God), then coming to His MATERIAL temple, and to His PHYSICAL people Judah, ANNOUNCING the Kingdom of God to be set up more than 1,900 years later, SO God would use a human messenger in the SPIRITUAL wilderness of 20th-century religious confusion, to be a voice CRYING OUT the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD, about the SPIRITUAL CHRIST, coming in SUPREME POWER AND GLORY to His SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, to actually ESTABLISH that spiritual KINGDOM OF GOD.”  We all heard these words back then, brethren.

“Brethren, HAS THAT BEEN DONE BY THIS CHURCH?”  Mr. Armstrong puts it in big letters.  Yes, it had been done.  All the material had been brought together.  It was our job to cleanse ourselves and get ready for Christ’s return.  And what a mess we have made since those days!

I want to read from the final page of this letter.  “I have NEVER SAID I expect to live until Christ comes.

“But, just in case of my disability for any reason, to prevent Satan from causing division, I feel God has inspired me to delegate power to the Advisory Council, during any such complete disability, to take full charge of the Work and all its assets and activities.

“The CHURCH must not be scattered.  It must not become scattered, because there is no COMPETENT, CHRIST-CHOSEN SPIRITUAL SHEPHERD, TO BECOME MEAT FOR BEASTS (human) OF THE FIELD!  (See Ezekiel 34:5.)  This is a safeguard for YOUR protection.”

Mr. Armstrong knew Satan would try to cause divisions after he left.  He took every precaution he could to prevent that, and it happened anyway because we did not accept his warnings.  We did not understand with full import the meaning of our calling, how to defend it and how not to be deceived by Satan.  Of course, the abomination of desolation attacked the Church.  God had to allow it.

THE BRIDE IS NOT READY
Let’s read from The Good News Magazine 1979.  This was two years before that letter I just read from.  This is from The Good News Magazine, May 1979, from his “Personal Column.”

“For our part now, in this present ‘Philadelphia era,’ each of you is called for the mission of loyally backing up the GREAT COMMISSION of proclaiming the true Gospel to the whole world - and one important thing more:  When Jesus comes to RULE, His Wife THE CHURCH will have made herself ready - to be holy and without blemish, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.  And we in the Church as a whole HAVE NOT ATTAINED FULLY TO THAT HOLY STATURE AS YET.

“And our work is not finished until we do allow God to bring us unitedly to that state - ready to leave this world of flesh and blood - and to enter an entirely NEW WORLD - the Church made immortal, composed of SPIRIT!  Our job to which God has called us is far from finished!”  He knew that back in 1979, and he told us.

“In this connection, I have been thinking recently and coming to understand better WHY God brought me back to life, after both heart and breathing had totally ceased.  If mouth-to-mouth resuscitation had not been successfully employed, I would have remained totally unconscious until the resurrection.  Incidentally, regardless of number of days or years till the resurrection, it would have seemed like the next second to me.

“And in this train of thinking, I have had to ask myself, ‘What has Christ been doing with my life since I was brought back, in August, 1977?’  I know God called me to reestablish on earth His GOVERNMENT and the proclaiming worldwide of the GREAT COMMISSION [the gospel preached to the world as a witness, Matthew 24:14] - the now imminent KINGDOM OF GOD.  All that has been my job since conversion in 1927 - and that job is not yet finished.  (Although we have no way of knowing HOW FAR we must reach people in all parts of the world.  God does not expect us to reach every human on earth with His message, and we may be closer to what He expects than we think.)

“But my efforts as Christ’s apostle, since the heart failure have been almost wholly devoted to preparing God’s Church -- the spiritual temple to which Christ will come.

“Repeatedly The Good News headlines have blared forth, ‘And NOW, Christ sets (this, that and other thing) BACK ON THE TRACK.’

“The living Christ as HEAD of this Church has been using His chosen apostle to TURN HIS CHURCH AROUND - set it back on GOD’S track!

“I could write much more along this line, but I want to leave that thought with you now.

“As we come to God’s Feast of Firstfruits (Pentecost), let us bear forcibly in mind we in God’s Church must be MADE READY - for Christ is coming SOON - and we are NOT YET FULLY READY to be instantly changed and caught up to meet our Lord as He comes in the clouds!”

TIME TO REPENT
Brethren, it is high time we get ready.  We should certainly understand with more import and more gravity now with the situation we are in, and some of us need to do something about it.  The Church has been making the same mistakes as ancient Israel.  Through our unbelief, the hardening of our hearts and not valuing our calling, we have defiled God’s temple.  We have been breaking that covenant that we made with God at baptism. We have been doing it the old fashioned way just like they did.  We have been breaking God’s law.  We have been going back to idols.  It wasn’t long after Mr. Armstrong died that a third of the Church really did go back to paganism (idolatry).

We have been despising our calling by how we treat each other.  We have been defiling the temple with unrepentant sin, and that sin has hardened our hearts.  It has caused a lot of unbelief.  The temple truly has become a den of thieves just like it was when Christ came the first time.  People are stealing from God.  People are stealing His tithes and His offerings.  People are robbing from each other in the Church and dealing deceitfully with one another.

I could go into bribes and the whole nine yards about hirelings in the Church. We have been dealing very poorly with God’s treasures, which are His people.  We have been withholding mercy, forgiveness, kindness and love from one another, and Jesus Christ said they will know you by your love for each another!  It is no wonder that the Church is almost totally camouflaged to the world today.

We will turn to some scriptures that define our time.  We will go to the very famous Revelation chapter 3 about Laodicea.  Revelation 3, verse 14:  “‘And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:   ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I could wish you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.’”’”  This is the same thing that happened to ancient Israel.  They were vomited out of the land, vomited out of the temple, vomited out of beautiful Jerusalem.

Verse 17:  “‘Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…’”  I think many people in the Church are starting to realize we are, indeed, miserable, wretched, naked and blind.  We have all of these characteristics.  It is something we need to work on.

Verse 18:  “‘I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of our nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Therefore be zealous and repent.’”

God wants us to repent of these things.  He says, I will help you see your condition, and I have clean clothes for you.  I have good food for you.  You just need to understand and admit what is going on and then do something about it.

Now let’s go back to Ezekiel 34 that Mr. Armstrong was talking about.  Read Ezekiel 34:1-4.  So many of our brethren are under harsh and cruel task masters.  It’s not everybody, but so many of them are.  They are not fed properly.  They, of course, are becoming lame, hurt and sick sacrifices.  The sheep of God are full of injuries.

Continue reading Ezekiel 34:5-10.  It is a very grave time to be a minister.  I do believe we are going to have some of us repent.  I know I am deeply sorry for anything I have done to hurt the sheep, and I know there are other ministers who feel the same way.  We should all just take this as a warning.  Don’t just point your fingers at the ministry, because God has words for the sheep as well.

Drop down to verse 17:  “‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God:  “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.  Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture - and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet?”’”  We have fouled God’s doctrines something fierce.

Verse 19 of Ezekiel 34:  “‘And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.’”  I raise cattle, and I see what a mess cattle can make of a pond or a stream.  I had to fence mine off a few years ago because they were polluting a pond that I have.  Brethren, the ponds and the springs represent God’s truth.  Under Mr. Armstrong, we could have imbibed of that truth and could have grown since then; and if we were not careful, we could have turned from it. We could have fouled the water and passed foul water on to others.

Verse 20:  “‘Therefore thus says the Lord God to them:  “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep.  Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”’”  Brethren, we all  have a responsibility in this situation.  It is time that we pull together, for the Church is full of walking wounded.  Everywhere you turn there are the walking wounded.  It is a sad state of affairs, but we can do something about it because there is still time.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 1.  In the first chapter, Christ describes what is the Church in this current condition.  Read Isaiah 1:2-6.  These putrefying sores are from stripes, from beating one another and not forgiving one another.  If you were to look that up you would find that is true.

Continue reading Isaiah 1:7-14.  God is fed up with our hypocrisy, brethren.

Read Isaiah 1:16-17.  The world is the fatherless.  They have no Father yet.  We are to take care of them, provide for them and defend them.

Continuing with the last half of verse 17:  “‘Plead for the widow.’”  This is the bride who is dying out there (the Church).

Verse 18:  “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord [let’s reason about this He says], ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;’ for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  The sword is chasing the Church.  Those who have survived are being chased by the word of God, yet the love of many still grows cold.

God gives us a number of parables you could look up (Luke chapter 12:35-48 and Matthew 18).  I am speaking of the time when Christ delays His coming for a bit, and the servants start beating each other.  We will look at one.  Turn to Matthew 18.  You can look up Luke 12 on your own.

Read Matthew 18:21-35.  Brethren, a lack of forgiveness and pounding on one another has made the Church full of putrefying sores.  It is sick and filthy.  God says it is enough. Have we not been punished enough to understand that we have to do something now?

God says in Proverbs chapter 6 there are seven things He hates.  He says in Proverbs 6:16 we need to have compassion and avoid these things.  Let’s quickly turn to Proverbs chapter 6.  Verse 16:  “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him:  A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

Look at the discord among the brethren!  The lying and the deceit that have gone on in the Church of God and how we have treated each other has made us an abomination, and God let it happen to us.  We have been abominated and desolated because He had to step out of the way at the end of the age and let us see what we are really like.

Horrible things have happened since Jesus Christ stepped out of the way.  II Thessalonians 2:1-4 tells us that there is a being sitting in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.  That could only be Satan, because Satan is sitting in a spiritual temple.  You must be a spiritual building to dwell in a spiritual temple.  And the Church has taken on the image and the likeness of Satan by taking on his attributes in the way we treat one another.

Turn to Revelation chapter 13 please.  Revelation 13, verse 5:  “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.  Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.  It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.  And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.  [Once he has the Church, he has it all.]  All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  If anyone has an ear, let him hear.  He who leads  into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.  Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

To overcome the saints, as it said in verse 7, means to gain the victory over.  Combine that with Daniel 12:7 where it says the power of the holy people will be completely shattered and scattered, and you have the condition of the Church today.  But what are we told in Daniel 12:7?  When that is complete, it is over.  Christ is going to return!

Luke 11 tells us that a house that is divided cannot stand, and we could not stand.  We have fallen, brethren, but we have time to get up.  We have time to seek God and do something about it.  On the Day of Trumpets, we are going to talk about that.  I do not want to make a third part in this series, but it will go with this.  It will be about how we can stand up and do something about the condition of the Church.

Hopefully you now understand what the abomination of desolation is in the holy place, and it certainly took God’s help and wisdom to understand.