Chapter 21—"God's Wrath: Abomination and Desolation"
As evil increases to the utmost level in these darkest of days, what was created for God’s glory and man’s joy has become corrupt and defiled. God hates man’s imitative religion, idolatrous ways, and liberal beliefs. Man hates God’s way. Having traded firstfruits of repentance for “evil fruit” of iniquity (Jacob 5:35, 77) and “the fruit of lies” (Hosea 10:13), “again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice” (Numbers 14:22, NLT). They “seek to destroy the things of God” (2 Nephi 26:27) and “are under the bondage of sin because they come not unto me” (D&C 84:50).
If ye will harden your hearts ye shall not enter into the rest of the Lord; therefore your iniquity provoketh him that he sendeth down his wrath upon you as in the first provocation, yea, according to his word in the last provocation as well as the first, to the everlasting destruction of your souls. (Alma 12:36)“They have chosen their own ways and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions and will bring their fears upon them because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not” (Isaiah 66:3–4). “There was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God” (Alma 42:4) but they didn’t. “Their wickedness and abominations had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction” (Ether 14:25). Should “the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord” (Numbers 16:30).
When corruption infiltrates everything, truth and light are lost so His wrath must come because souls will perish in current conditions. The sanctified cannot “look upon sin save it were with abhorrence” (Alma 13:12). With increased understanding and “thy Holy Spirit,” they are “filled with zeal against all the workers of iniquity and the men of deceit.”
How can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination—how can we expect that God will stay his hand in judgment against us? . . . My heart cries: Wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face! (Moroni 9:13–15)With ‘the wall of righteousness’ in urgent need of repair—and none willing to intercede to spare judgment against the wicked (for the righteous know that His judgments are just)—God’s wrath comes with such ferocity as to terrify even the most wicked.
I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one. So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger. I will heap on their heads the full penalty for all their sins. (Ezekiel 22:30–31, NLT)The full penalty is more than we can fathom. Calamity, pain, tribulation, illness, destructive weather, famine, captivity, or death “shall come on an evil generation” (Jubilees 23:14). They will be “brought low for their iniquity” (Psalm 106:43). “Their doings have been against the Lord to provoke” him (Isaiah 3:8). “God shall judge them with a sword and with fire for all the unclean wickedness of their errors, wherewith they have filled the earth with transgression and uncleanness and fornication and sin” (Jubilees 9:15). They will suffer “burning instead of beauty” (Isaiah 3:24). “Works of uncleanness will turn into sickness and judgments leading to plague and destruction.” Their wealth will be taken. Their priesthood and places of worship will be “cut off and fall to the ground” (Amos 3:14).
Why has he forsaken you? It is because you have hardened your hearts. Yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you. (Helaman 7:17–18)Calamity and confusion, division and disaster will come. They will come to know God, but only through destruction. The earth they defile shows her “wrath and indignation” with earthquakes, fires, tempests, and other natural disasters (D&C 88:89–90). Today “the earth is groaning under corruption, oppression, tyranny and bloodshed; and God is coming out of His hiding place, as He said He would do, to vex the nations of the earth. Daniel, in his vision, saw convulsion upon convulsion.”
God revealed three specific recipients of His wrath and vexation: (1) the Gentiles will receive “a sore vexation;” (2) the nation on the promised land will be vexed for refusing to heed the Lord’s warnings or remedy His people’s report; and (3) all who do not repent will be vexed with tribulation until His Coming.
This punishment is severe but just. They “sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger” (2 Kings 17:17). The blessings He offered become curses—their posterity, prosperity, power, and priesthood are taken. God will “break the pride of your power,” “send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken,” break what you built, “rob you of your children, destroy your cattle, and make you few in number” (Leviticus 26:22, KJV, 19, 25, NLT).
“The day of the Lord is near . . . a day of wrath . . . a day of the trumpet and alarm.” God “will bring distress upon man” and “the whole land” because of their sins (Zephaniah 1:14–18). “The awesome day of the Lord’s judgment is near. The Lord has prepared his people for a great slaughter and has chosen their executioners. On that day of judgment, says the Lord, I will punish the leaders . . . and all those following” them (Zephaniah 1:7–8, NLT) for they are “insolent, evil, idol-worshipping, godless; accusers and plotters and accepters of persons.” These “lovers of money . . . shall take away government from the earth” and “destroy many men.” For a time they prosper “and while their power is over all the world because of their evil sins and blasphemies against God, the Lord shall send wrath upon them.”
“After our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of” enemies (Ezra 5:12). Vengeance is unleashed at the highest levels by evil conquerors who are permitted a temporary, but terrifying, reign over those who forsook His covenant. Their society is ravaged and ruined.
“The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand” (Deuteronomy 28:49). “I will send him against a hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge” (Isaiah 10:6) to “bring the land into desolation . . . and your cities waste” (Leviticus 26:32). These ruthless armies will eventually be destroyed, but only after they execute God’s wrath by annihilating the wicked.
Similar events occurred in 587 b.c. when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, killing many and leaving both city and temple in ash, rubble, and ruin. The result was famine, invasion, plagues, cannibalism, pillaging, and slaughter. Jeremiah mourned as he witnessed these gruesome events. Such events will occur again in the end times.
What led to Jerusalem’s destruction? The simple answer is disobedience and turning from God’s word as revealed. While religious organizations remained, a century prior, significant reforms in doctrine and the ‘high places of worship’ were made. During Manasseh’s rule (687-642 b.c.), policies to return to God’s way were reversed, causing people “to err and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before” (2 Chronicles 33:9). Josiah’s reforms did not reestablish holiness.
They have “not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly” and were “not at all ashamed when they had committed abomination” (Jeremiah 3:10, 6:15).Perverse worship was so prevalent that God would “pardon” Jerusalem if there was “a man, if there be any, that executeth judgment, that seeketh truth” (Jeremiah 5:1). But they believed they were righteous and that their works were sufficient to not warrant (or at least turn away) God’s growing wrath. Priesthood leaders sought Jeremiah’s life for rebuking them (Jeremiah 26). Rejecting true prophets proved their light was extinguished and “the day of grace was passed” (Mormon 2:15).
Lehi and Nephi, who were fortunate to escape Jerusalem a few years before its destruction, knew that God’s wrath was justified when a society ripened in wickedness and iniquity. Refusing truth extinguishes the light of Christ, which brings (and justifies) destruction. “When the spirit of the Lord ceaseth to strive with man, then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul” (2 Nephi 26:11).
All who do not believe God is justified in destroying wicked nations do not understand “it must needs be that there is opposition in all things” to preserve agency and “bring about his eternal purposes.” Without it, “righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad” (2 Nephi 2:11, 15).
There must be opposition. Both options must be enticing. If we are only enticed for good, then we could not be proven true and faithful. If we are only enticed by evil, then eternal life would be impossible. Fortunately, God described these opposing forces: “the Spirit of Christ is the agent that entices men and women to do good” (Moroni 7:16–17) but “the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein . . . giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate” and entice men (2 Nephi 2:29).
The light of Christ, our conscience, encourages us to do good but rationalizing sin prevents the Spirit and hardens our hearts until we are “without principle and past feeling” (Moroni 9:20). This comes from choosing sin, indulging “in every kind of impurity,” and being “full of greed” (Ephesians 4:19, NIV). Having refused to be enticed by the Spirit of Christ to do good, their “destruction is made sure” (Mormon 5:16).
When we see it among us, we should be greatly concerned. Early saints expected “the overthrow of this nation and their destruction.” Joseph said if we are not righteous, foreign nations would try to “divide up the lands of the United States.” When Nebuchadnezzar’s later successor King Belshazzar rebelled, mocked God, worshipped wealth, and “lifted up [himself] against the Lord of heaven,” a divine finger wrote on a wall that their kingdom was finished and divided among the enemy, whom God permitted to overtake them.
And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene: God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Peres: Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. (Daniel 5:25–28)In addition, Daniel wrote of ‘the abomination of desolation,’ a most grievous sin that comes at time when iniquity is so broad and deep that it brings spiritual and physical death. Three indicators are given of the time it is fulfilled: (1) an alliance is made between apostates and an evil ruler; (2) divine rites are changed; and (3) worship in the temple is replaced by ‘an abomination of desolation’ or ‘the abomination that makes desolate.’ All three have religious implication.
An abomination is a “detestable or accursed thing, something that emits a foul odor or stench, figuratively a stench to God, such as when people refuse to hear and obey His voice.” Opposite the sweet savor of acceptable sacrifice, abomination is same word for ‘idol.’ Desolation is to be cut off or come to naught. Not having God’s spirit brings desolation.
In Daniel’s vision of the last days, when iniquity is full, a powerful one emerges who “removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary.” This leader will “throw truth to the ground . . . and will destroy the powerful along with the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper through his cunning and by his influence, and in his own mind he will make himself great. He will destroy many in a time of peace” (Daniel 8:11–12, 25, 24, HCSB). Removing a daily sacrifice is serious, even in post-Mosaic times. Sacrificing an unblemished lamb was a constant reminder of Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf. Offered every day all year, it was the foundational sacrifice on which all other sacrifices followed so without this first offering, God can accept nothing else. Also called ‘the perpetual offering,’ its removal would shatter the faith of many.
Whole sacrifice ties to divine knowledge. When consumed by fire, its sweet aroma arose to heaven, a sign of divine favor and blessings. Burnt offering, olah, means stairway, to ascend. Without ascending, God cannot accept their offerings. They
have polluted the sanctuary, the [place of refuge and protection (H4581)], and have turned aside the continual sacrifice and appointed the desolating abomination. (Daniel 11:31, Young’s Literal)By placing or allowing (H5414) a most grievous abomination in the temple, a wicked leader will “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation” is poured out. By removing “the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation . . . both the sanctuary and the host [will] be trodden under foot.” Only after great turmoil will “the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 9:27, 8:11, 13–14).
In second century b.c., a similar event occurred in Israel. The harsh rule of Antiochus IV caused the Maccabeans to revolt. Angered, Antiochus attacked Jerusalem then enslaved or violently killed 80,000 Jews (2 Maccabees 5:11–14). An already-weakened Jewish religion was persuaded to “abandon the holy covenant” by accepting worldly ways and not properly observing the Sabbath. “They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil” (1 Maccabees 1:14). In 145th year, “they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Judah on every side” (1 Maccabees 1:54).
A century before Christ, another Jesus—Antiochus’s high priest—was on the scene. This Jesus, who changed his name to the Greek form Jason, “obtained the high priesthood by corrupt means.” Once in power, he “immediately initiated his compatriots into the Greek way of life . . . He set aside the lawful practices and introduced customs” contrary to divine law. Jason’s priests gained advantage of position by making big donations. The temple treasury was pillaged to compensate priests or gain political favors. By embracing worldly ways and abandoning God’s decreed ordinances, Jason “transformed Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city by building a gymnasium there and persuading the Jewish youth to participate in athletic games” and other cultural activities “for the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen” (2 Maccabees 4:7, 9–10).
The Jews’ need for spiritual fortitude was overcome by a stronger desire for sport, culture, accomplishment, building projects, and other distractions. Many “exchanged their holy tasks in the Temple for sports” and networked “to be further accepted into Greek society.” “The craze for Hellenism and the adoption of foreign customs reached such a pitch through the outrageous wickedness of Jason, the renegade and would-be high priest, that the priests no longer cared about the service of the altar. Disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened, at the signal for the games, to take part . . . What their ancestors had regarded as honors they despised. What the Greeks esteemed as glory they prized highly” (2 Maccabees 4:13–15). Jason’s priesthood successors continued loving the world, and were tempted by corrupting influences.
Such things paved the way for the true Messiah to be rejected when He came. Forsaking the ancient order gives antichrists power.
You have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour . . . Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is already in the world at this time. (1 John 2:18, 4:3, Berean)The “spirit of the antichrist” desensitizes many to prepare them to receive the Antichrist, who demands their unyielding loyalty and worship.
Antiochus strategically plotted “to compel the Jews to depart from the law of their fathers and not to live after the laws of God: and to pollute also the temple in Jerusalem . . . [They] brought in things that were not lawful” to God (2 Maccabees 6:1–2, 4). “King Antiochus wrote to all his kingdom that all the people should be one and everyone should leave his own law” (1 Maccabees 1:43). He made “a strong covenant with many” (Daniel 9:27), an act some believe refers to Antiochus’s camaraderie with “Hellenising Jews, who were regarded by the Hasidim and other faithful Jews as apostates and traitors to the covenant made with the God of Israel . . . [Those] willing to exchange a divine covenant for a human” idol and man’s reforms.
Persecution of the faithful continued as Antiochus sided with liberals, outlawed traditional worship, encouraged deviance from God’s laws, and forced people to worship Zeus as their only god, an act tied to Baal worship. Eventually scripture was forbidden and burned, and “whosoever was found with any of the book of the testament, or if any committed to the law, the king’s commandment was that they should put him to death” (1 Maccabees 1:56–57). Similar persecution occurred on this land millennia ago, and it will occur again. As it was, so shall it be.
In latter days, a powerful ruler again will “have indignation against the holy covenant,” favor those who forsake it (Daniel 11:30), and afflict all “who confess our Lord Christ because they shall hate to the very end the name of the Lord, and shall bring to nought his covenant; and truth shall not be found among them.”
[This ruler] will flatter and win over those who have violated the covenant. But the people who know their God will be strong and will resist him. Wise leaders will give instruction to many, but these teachers will die by fire and sword, or they will be jailed and robbed. During these persecutions little help will arrive, and many who join them will not be sincere.
And some of the wise will fall victim to persecution. In this way, they will be refined and cleansed and made pure until the time of the end, for the appointed time is still to come. The king will do as he pleases, exalting himself and claiming to be greater than every god, even blaspheming the God of gods. He will succeed, but only until the time of wrath is completed. (Daniel 11:32–36, NLT)Wicked leaders do not appear evil to the deceived who eagerly embrace the new culture, but they are “destructive and godless men, who represent themselves as being righteous” (Testament of Moses 7:3). The faithful courageously resist temptation and preach His gospel amidst great persecution. The valiant choose to suffer rather than sin against the covenant. All who remain faithful despite persecution are promised, “I will protect you from the time of Great Tribulation and temptation, which will come upon the world to test everyone alive” (Revelation 3:10, TLB), but only a few are strong.
Having removed God from so much of their culture and life, they “pollute the sanctuary of strength,” the last tie to the God of this land (Daniel 11:31). “The altar [is] covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden” by holy laws (2 Maccabees 6:5). Worship becomes so corrupt that “all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean . . . The priest and the prophet have erred . . . They stumble in judgment” (Isaiah 28:8, 7). “Priest and scribes have gone astray, not one of them is ‘innocent of oppression’ (Isaiah 28:7-8; cf. Targum Isaiah 5:7).
Weary of His revealed way, they “offer polluted bread upon mine altar” (Malachi 1:7). Half-hearted sacrifice cannot glorify God. “O ye priests, this commandment is for you!” (Malachi 2:1).
How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of heaven’s armies, and I will not accept your offerings. (Malachi 1:10, NLT)In other words, God would rather that a temple not operate than be polluted by allowing unholy people inside it. People were to “sanctify my sanctuary and hold it in awe,” and “none of those brought into the covenant shall enter the Temple to light His altar in vain.” Uncircumcised hearts meant attendees were strangers to God (Ezekiel 44:7). God “will search with lanterns” in the “darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the Lord will do nothing to them . . . [but] that terrible day of the Lord is near . . . because [they] have sinned against the Lord” (Zephaniah 1:12, 14, 17, NLT).
Only those who know God will “recognize that desolation is near” (Luke 21:20, NASB). Iniquity has increased dramatically since Joseph said that “bondage, death, and destruction are close at our heels.” And
after the power of God begins to fall upon the nations, and the light of the latter-day glory begins to break forth through the dark atmosphere of sectarian wickedness, and their iniquity rolls up into view, and the nations of the Gentiles are like the waves of the sea, casting up mire and dirt, or all in commotion, and they are hastily preparing to act the part allotted them, when the Lord rebukes the nations, when He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
The Lord declared to His servants, some eighteen months since, that He was then withdrawing His Spirit from the earth; and we can see that such is the fact, for not only the churches are dwindling away, but there are no conversions, or but very few. And this is not all, the governments of the earth are thrown into confusion and division; and Destruction, to the eye of the spiritual beholder, seems to be written by the finger of an invisible hand, in large capitals, upon almost every thing we behold.When iniquity is full, “desolations are determined . . . On the wing of abomination will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out” (Daniel 9:26–27, NASB). ‘Wing’ may refer to a temple’s pinnacle, in Hebrew ‘an overspreading influence.’ In other words, a human idol leader, at the highest level of the temple, provokes God’s fullest wrath through his perverse ideologies and works: ‘upon the overspreading influence of idol worship shall come one that makes desolate’ by committing an ‘abomination that appalls’ God, but not the people.
This Wicked Priest “forsook God and betrayed the precepts for the sake of riches.”34 Although he was “called by the name of truth when first he arose,” He got proud and “forsook God and dealt treacherously with the ordinances for the sake of wealth.”
We are warned, “There shall come a falling away” and this idol, a great deceiver, will sit “as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” by receiving the people’s adoration and worship (JST 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4), seeking honors that are God’s alone. A man with top church position becomes the object of their worship and devotion, just as the antiChrist Nimrod did as “he set himself up as a god and made a seat for himself in imitation of the seat of God.” “The Lord of Spirits is angry with them because they act as if they were like the Lord” (1 Enoch 68:4), but truth is, they are unholy and condemned. Their idol “brought in things that were not lawful” to God (2 Maccabees 6:1–2, 4), the same sin that caused Lucifer’s fall. He sets up an abominable ordinance in the temple that fully removes God’s protection and brings desolation.
Compromise and avoiding persecution to gain worldly wealth or approval occurs in phases, but culminates in the abomination that desolates. Today, LDS policy changes have been created, reversed, justified, acknowledged, and announced as “revelation from the Lord,” so we must discern well. In 600 b.c., Lehi left Jerusalem amidst corrupt worship and widespread rejection of righteousness, prophecy, and truth. Not long after he departed, Jerusalem was destroyed. “I am going to destroy it for the multitude of the sins of those who inhabit it” (4 Baruch 1:8). Many serious sins and changes to His ordinances over time paved the way for the ultimate abomination in the temple, defiling and desecrating people, nation, and temple in the most abominable way. This perversion of performing sacred ordinances for changed ones insults God’s nature and is the ultimate rejection of His eternal plan.
Alternative marriage contracts in Noah’s day brought desolation by flood and in Abraham’s day, destruction by fire. When people utterly refused to repent of their evil and redefined the boundaries of marriage, Noah was spared but the world was made desolate. Sodom was likewise destroyed for accepting “strange flesh” and tolerating a nation of people who “sin against their own bodies; they despise God’s authority and insult the glorious beings above” (Jude 1:7–8, KJV, Good News). “At the time of the desolation of the land there arose removers of the bound who led Israel astray . . . [and] turned Israel away from following God.”
Distracted and deluded, covenant makers accept the prevailing but corrupt ideology that curses and destroys people and nations. What they saw as social progress has led to spiritual death.
The ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed; otherwise their Priesthood will prove a cursing instead of a blessing.The Lord said this abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, will again be fulfilled. At a time when temple worship is utterly defiled, we must “stand in the holy place; whoso readeth let him understand” (JST Matthew 24:12). What is ‘the holy place’ where we are to stand? A ‘holy stand’ at church does not make it holy. Moroni warns not to rely on churches—“your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted” and “defiled” (Mormon 8:36, 28). Only those who have “clean hands and a pure heart,” not giving in to vanity and unbelief, “stand in his holy place” (Psalm 24:3–4).
When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, then you shall stand in the holy place; whoso readeth let him understand . . . He that shall not be overcome, the same shall be saved.
And again, this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, or the destruction of the wicked; and again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be fulfilled. (JST Matthew 24:12, 11, 32–33)God communes with the sanctified in the holy place. When Moses sought the Lord on the mount, he was told, “I am the God of thy fathers . . . put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground” (Acts 7:32–33, cf Exodus 3:5). God then revealed Himself to Moses. Removing and replacing shoes is part of ascension. In 2019, the LDS no longer remove their shoes as part of the endowment (though God commands it when standing on holy ground). This change either demonstrates ignorance or implies removing shoes is no longer necessary because the temple is no longer holy. “Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) is part of the armor of God—but they no longer shod feet. Without clean hearts, hands, and feet, peace shall be taken though they say, “This is a time of peace” (D&C 101:48).
You need an endowment, brethren, that you may be prepared . . . When you are endowed and prepared to preach the gospel to all nations . . . you must faithfully warn all, and bind up the testimony, and seal up the law, and the destroying angel will follow close at your heels, and exercise his tremendous mission upon the children of disobedience; and destroy the workers of iniquity, while the Saints will be gathered out from among them and stand in holy places ready to meet the Bridegroom when He comes.We must find, and stand in, the holy place when temples are no longer holy. Covenant makers have rejected His fulness, their responsibility to gather the remnant, and the power of Melchizedek priesthood. They have rejected patriarchal authority, further light and knowledge, and the Patriarch’s keys and office. They have rejected the doctrine of Christ, the fulness of scripture, and the privilege of receiving Christ’s personal manifestation. They no longer seek spiritual gifts or knowledge that leads to higher laws and greater glory. They refuse the law of consecration, having wealth on their mind. They dismiss true prayer and reject preparatory priesthood, handing duties to boys. Without the foundational Aaronic priesthood, there is no priesthood. His wrath must come.
The law was given under Aaron for the purpose of pouring out judgments and destructions.“When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where it ought not . . . flee to the mountains” (Mark 13:14). Jesus’s words came after he “departed from the temple,” prophesying it would be “left unto you desolate” (JST Matthew 24:1–2). Desolate means devoid of Spirit. The faithful “take their leave of a church not busily engaged in realizing the kingdom, but fast falling asleep: the lights are going out, the Master has departed.” But did they notice?
There is none that speaks and none that hears, except only one that says, Woe! Woe! What is come to pass in our generation!“The Lord could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse” (Jeremiah 44:22). God used similar language in modern times: “Behold this temple . . . which ye call the house of God . . . Verily I say unto you, that desolation shall come upon this generation as a thief in the night, and this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations. And this temple which ye now see shall be thrown down that there shall not be left one stone upon another . . . until every desolation which I have told you concerning them shall come to pass” (D&C 45:18–21).
Their temples, like Jerusalem’s, will be “thrown down” and made desolate. They call it His, but God is not there (D&C 132:10–14).
Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people. Because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. (Jeremiah 7:11–14)What was done to Shiloh? Although dedicated to God, Shiloh was a city of Ephraim, a tabernacle and place of rest once the center of Israel’s worship (Joshua 18:1). Because of wickedness, His presence and spirit ceased to dwell there. They erred by believing that just by having the Ark of the Covenant the Lord would protect them. The Ark was captured, their battle was lost, and people and tabernacle were destroyed. Their temple later built in Jerusalem lost His presence and was eventually destroyed also, a pattern prophesied again in the last days.
The sacredness of a place does not save it from overthrow if men have desecrated it by their wickedness.The Apocalypse of Weeks describes this second temple period as a time of apostasy, the same pattern in this dispensation. The first temple in Kirtland was accepted by God, but subsequent temples have not. Enoch knew that after a first temple they would “become blind and the hearts of all will stray from wisdom . . . There will arise a perverse generation and . . . all its deeds will be perverse.” In the end, “the temple of the kingdom will be burned with fire” (1 Enoch 93:8–9).
I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." (Jeremiah 7:15–16)
“Stand Ye in Holy Places and Be Not Moved”
Not being sanctified, the foolish cannot stand in the holy place. Man “becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord” (Mosiah 3:19), but the meaning of, way to, and necessity of sanctification has been lost. They refuse to come to Him for atonement. Loss of His spirit and priesthood power eliminates the holy place.
True saints are to (1) “gather together and stand in holy places,” (2) not be hasty for “all things must be prepared before” them, (3) separate from the wicked, (4) obtain land for this purpose, and (5) not be weary in seeking redress and bringing hidden things of darkness to light. Men’s inventions, reforms, and modifications hinder us, but when darkness is exposed, truth is received, and hearts are pure, Zion will be established.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully [‘trust in an idol or swear by a false god,’ NIV]. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:3–5)God communes with and reveals Himself to the sanctified in the holy place. “It is my will that all they who call on my name and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel should gather together and stand in holy places; and prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil shall be taken off and all flesh shall see me” (D&C 101:22–23). His first laws and ordinances prepare us for this endowment.
When faith disappears and great tribulation comes, the penitent find comfort in God’s promise to “send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion” (Psalm 20:2). We must hold to the knowledge that the Father will “leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage” (Ezra 9:8). “Stand ye in holy places and be not moved until the day of the Lord” (D&C 87:8).
All who “seek the Lord . . . who have kept his ordinances” in righteousness will “be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3, NASB) but all who love sin receive His wrath in this world and the next.
Prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come, that their souls may escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked, both in this world and the world to come. (D&C 88:84–85)A careful reader will notice that the Bible speaks of an ‘abomination of desolation’ while modern revelation references a ‘desolation of abomination.’ Both occur in the last days, but the abomination of desolation necessarily precedes the desolation of abomination. Abominations provokes God and then His wrath desolates the wicked and their abominations. In other words, the abomination of desolation solidifies the fulness of iniquity, which brings a fulness of God’s wrath, which will destroy the wicked and desolate their abominations.
The earth mourns and withers . . . The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. (Isaiah 24:4–6, RSV)Natural disasters, military invasions, plagues, famines, civil wars, and economic collapse will come. Houses will be taken, harvests will not produce, money will fail, and blood will be shed “because they have sinned against the Lord” (Zephaniah 1:17). “Your sons and daughters have been taken away as captives” (Jeremiah 48:46, NLT). National security is breached, transportation disturbed, mothers struggle to feed their young, cities are left desolate, and inexpressible terror and desperation come as fierce enemies invade. “Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies” (D&C 105:15).
As Creator and Judge of earth, the Most High can create or destroy. What God built they destroyed, so nothing deserving of wrath is spared. Zephaniah lists creatures destroyed in the judgment in reverse order of their creation, a sign of how full God’s fury and wrath will be. The desolation is beyond compare. “They shall hate their lives and shall wail and weep, and there is no voice nor discourse except Woe, Woe!”
Only after the terror will a few understand that they reaped ruin because of their evil ways. “Then shall they know that I am the Lord when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed” (Ezekiel 33:29). The Lord’s servants have a duty to righteously reprove the world so the willing may understand.
Verily I say unto you, the rest of my servants, go ye forth as your circumstances shall permit . . . reproving the world in righteousness of all their unrighteous and ungodly deeds, setting forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days.
For, with you saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms. I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble. For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people. (D&C 84:117–119)
For footnotes and references, click HERE.