In the years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, millions of abominable sacrifices were offered on those altars in rejection of Christ. At some point, the Zealots came into the temple, with the help of the Idumeans, and laid waste to their countrymen, destroyed the idolatrous priests, committed all kinds of abominable actions in the temple, and ended the regular sacrifice. Then, at the very end, the Romans came into the temple courtyard and finished the job by setting the temple on fire, robbing it of its treasures, and polluting its ashes with their idolatrous symbols. God’s judgment was complete by AD 70 and each of these four events played a part in its destruction.

As the sun was setting lazily in the western sky, the disciples were setting up camp atop the Mount of Olives, which overlooked the city to the East. With the tumultuous events of the day still ricocheting in their minds, none of them felt at peace, and all of them would have had more questions than they had answers. Not one of them, however, involved a new future temple.
Earlier that morning, Jesus went toe to toe with the Jewish elite in the city, riding in as the true King that they would reject (Matthew 21:1-10). Immediately after this spectacle, He defiantly cleansed the leprous temple, as the true Priest, whom they would soon be sacrificing on a Roman altar (Matthew 21:12-17). Before this happened, He took up the mantle of true Prophet, issuing three scathing parables of judgment, two humiliating rebukes at the leader’s woeful ignorance, and seven covenantal curses upon the city, all signaling its imminent demise (Matthew 21:28-23:39).
By these events, Jesus had more than certainly added jet fuel to the homicidal fires that were already smoldering against Him. Soon, the feckless Jewish aristocrats would succeed in butchering their creator and covenant God. Yet, by inflicting such malice upon God’s beloved Son, that generation unwittingly sealed its doom (Matthew 23:35; Matthew 24:34) and its temple, which was put under demolition order by the King of kings, would soon be reduced to rubble (Matthew 24:1-2).
But now, as the ephemeral rays of sunlight began dissipating amid their campsite, the time had come to pop the three biggest questions they had to their Lord. “Jesus”, the disciples asked, “When will these things happen? what will be the sign your judgment coming draws near? And will this be the end of the Jewish age?” As Jesus turned to see the last remaining photons of light dancing upon Herod’s magnificent temple, with a tear in His eyes He began to answer them accordingly.
Jerusalem Becomes the Mountain of Doom
Looking right at them, Jesus told them forty years had been set apart until the destruction of Jerusalem and that there would be many signs and evidence that the end was drawing near (Matthew 24:34). For instance, He told them that the people would appoint false messiahs to untangle them from Roman oppression and that the disciples must not be deceived when these things occur. He told them that the Roman empire, normally known for peace, would experience a heightened period of instability through an uptick in wars and rumors of wars that would shake the foundations of the entire known world. He alerted them that earthquakes and famines would also descend upon the land, signaling spiritually significant seismic shiftings were afoot as the old world lurched away from Jerusalem being the center of Yahwistic worship to Christ being the only Way, the only Truth, and the only pathway going forward to Life.
As these signs were happening, persecutions and tribulations would be ratcheted up against the fledgling church, who loved Jesus to the point of death. In the same way that a rabid dog attacks most furiously in the moments before the mercy-filled bullet enters its brain, so the Jews, led by various zealot factions, would lash out tirelessly in their final hours, beating, maiming, and executing Christians all throughout the Roman world for sport. And while in their staggering confusion, believing they were earning the favor of God, God mercifully put them down for their extreme lawlessness and hatred of love.
Yet, even while it seemed the entire world would be set against the earliest Christians, Jesus also promised that the Gospel would have a tremendous effect during those forty turbulent years. He predicted as Judah furiously protested like a king mackerel on the line, the Gospel would be preached in all the known world (Greek Word Oikoumene), which was an allusion to the Roman empire. And as we saw in the preceding weeks, this was fulfilled by the late fifties and early sixties AD as Paul tells us that the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven and was having an effect in all the known world (see Colossians 1:6, 23; Romans 10:16-18; & Romans 16:25-26).
Jesus told them all of these signs would begin occurring before the final end was finally upon them, like labor pains setting an eventual delivery in motion. Today, we move from that initial phase to the active labor that immediately precipitated the end. When Jesus says “Therefore” in Matthew 24:15, He is narrowing His prophetic timeline to the events that would happen just before Jerusalem fell to the Romans, pushing us forward to the year 68 AD. This is what Jesus said:

15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), – Matthew 24:15

Dispensationalism’s New Techni-Colored Temple
Now, for a bit of snark. As insurmountable evidence for a first-century fulfillment has been steadily stacked up high as heaven, the balking futurist will nimbly look right past that colossus towering over him to retort “Wait just a minute! How do you think the temple will be rendered desolate if it is no longer in existence? Can you tell me that?” Just then, with the kind of twinkle of their eye, normally found among a starving predator chasing down some maimed gazelle in the Serengeti, the dispensationalist lunges forward into the attack, asserting: “Clearly, Jesus is talking to you and me about a future Antichrist, who will rise upon the world stage, turn his back on a newly reconstituted Israel, by polluting their newly rebuilt modern temple, with such disgusting abominations that it will be rendered desolate”… “That must be what this passage is saying”, he proudly attests with an air of thinly veiled self-righteousness that was never meant to be hidden. He concludes: “clearly you do not know your Bible.”
I can think of nothing more Biblically illiterate, intellectually pathetic, or downright laughable than the exchange I just hypothesized and yet so many people believe this is exactly what Matthew 24 is talking about. Instead of Jesus answering the disciples’ first-century questions, He must be looking past them to answer ours. Instead of judgment upon that generation, it must be a punishment upon the modern world for some unknown reason. Instead of Herod’s temple being brought under specific covenantal curses for her specific covenantal trespasses and left desolate in a single generation (which is what the text actually says), hermeneutical hula hoops must be jostled incoherently about gyrating hip flexors to even come close to making Jesus mean a future temple. The absurdity, given the mountain of context in favor of a first-century view, is about as hard to stomach as drinking dishwater after the family ate a large Italian dinner.
To be fair, a new shiny temple is the only possible way a futurist could ever claim Matthew 24 applies to the future. It is essential to their entire theological schema. It is the thread, that if pulled, will turn the entire sweater back into a ball of yarn the cat will play with. That is precisely why they will ignore the contextual evidence we have shared that comes right out of this passage. That is why they will scour the recesses of the interwebs looking for evidence of temple blueprints and future construction projects that will begin at any moment. Yet, with the third holiest religious site belonging to the world’s most violent religion standing defiantly in their way, they must adopt the Babylonian mantle of Belteshazzar to ignore that kind of unmistakable writing on the proverbial wall standing right in front of them! And, that is by far the easiest problem standing in their way!
Beyond the unassailable issues found within the context and beyond the even more impossible geopolitical situations found in modern-day Israel is the theological issue created by a new temple, since it would entirely invalidate the Gospel. The New Testament tells us that Christ is the final and perfect sacrifice that was offered for our salvation. It tells us that the blood of bulls and goats were altogether ineffectual for the cleansing of our sins and that they were only types and shadows serving as placeholders until the perfect sacrifice had come! To revert to such a regressive system of lambs and bulls would be akin to a man divorcing his wife to marry the picture of her hanging over the mantle. It is insanity upon insanities to think God would so easily nullify the sacrifice of His dear child in favor of the future blood of smelly livestock and dumb animals.
With all of this evidence before us, we rightly approach Matthew 24:15 fully expecting it to have a first-century fulfillment. This is because we know that no new temple is coming. Second, the context in this chapter has unmistakably led us here. And third, we believe Jesus wasn’t playing games or lying to us when He said “All these things will come upon this generation” (Matthew 24:34). To that end, we will explore the abomination that causes desolation to the Jewish temple and we will begin with the meaning of the words.
Time for Some Definitions
According to the Old Testament, an abomination occurs when one of two deviant things takes place. First, when something sacred is used in the service of or is dedicated unto the worship of an idol, then it becomes an abomination unto God (See Deuteronomy. 7:25; 27:15 for examples). Yet, even when things are offered to the one true God, they may be offered in such an unregulated and disobedient way, that God considers them detestable in His sight (See Leviticus 7:18; Leviticus 10; Deuteronomy 17:1 for examples). Thus, an abomination can be right worship offered to the wrong god or wrong worship offered to the right God.
Knowing this, we can see exactly what Jesus was prophesied in Matthew chapter 24. He is not looking ahead to a twenty-first-century rebuilt temple that will need to be defiled. He is looking at the temple right in front of Him, prophesying that it will be defiled, so much so that it will be left desolate forever. The question we have to wrestle with is did such an event occur in the first century?
The Difference Between A Jewish and Gentile Gospel
The least shocking thing I may say in this blog is that when Jesus spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He was communicating to them in a very ancient and very Jewish way. It would only make sense for a Jewish Messiah, whose ministry existed 2000 years ago, to think, feel, and communicate to a very ancient group of Jews in ways that were profoundly consistent with their ancient context and Jewish orientation, right? This would naturally make the meaning of this passage much easier to come by if one were ancient, Jewish, or even better yet, both. Therefore, we must be very careful, as modern-day Gentiles, when reading this passage, so that tremendous confusion does not arise from our contextual ignorance.
When Jesus delivered His Olivet Discourse, He employed some of the most richly Jewish language found anywhere in the New Testament. This is especially true in the record given by Matthew, which is by far the most Jewish of all the Gospels.
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As the Temple housed the ark of the covenant containing the law of God so too Christ is the incarnate Word and consummate revelation of God. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1). As the temple was the meeting place between God and man where his people would come to worship, so we meet God in Christ Jesus and only through Him is our worship made acceptable.

In 1516, Johan Tetzel was dispatched by Pope Leo X to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by selling indulgences. According to the Roman Catholic Church, when one purchased an indulgence, the Pope would remit the punishment of their sin by applying the merit of Jesus and the saints. Tetzel told the poor peasants whom he preyed on, “When a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” This blasphemous greed sparked the righteous indignation of a German monk named Martin Luther, who on Oct. 31, 1517 nailed a document to the cathedral doors of Wittenberg, listing 95 complaints, or theses, against the Roman Catholic Church. Luther insisted that God alone, not the Pope, could remit the guilt and penalty of sin; that the sale of indulgences was a crime against humanity and heaven for the merit of Christ alone, not of Mary, martyrs and saints, was able to save the soul. The Lord used Luther’s zeal to ignite the Protestant Reformation. And as the Roman Catholic Church still sells indulgences, we are still protesting Protestants.
In John 2:12-22, we read of another infinitely greater zealot, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was so incensed by the greed and corruption that had infected the church, his Father’s house, he broke out in holy fury to reform it, for Jesus is zealous for pure worship and we should be too.
First, Jesus displays his zeal. From the wedding in Cana, to Capernaum, Jesus “went up to Jerusalem because the Passover of the Jews was at hand” (John 2:13). Passover was 1 of 7 feast days instituted by God in the Old Testament, whereby the church would celebrate his past faithfulness. Passover honored the Lord’s mercy when the angel of death killed all the firstborn of Egypt but passed over Hebrew homes which bore the blood of the lamb. Since proper Passover observance required a sacrifice, the faithful journeyed to Jerusalem every year.
See the zeal in Jesus religious observance. Despite the cost, danger and difficulty of the journey, he was committed to observing the holy ordinances of God. Can you say the same? Though Christ fulfilled and abolished the feast days of old, “there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9), on which the Lord has commanded his people to cease from all worldly employment and recreation to rest in the finished work of Christ chiefly through corporate worship. But all too often we are not zealous in our observance of God’s holy day.  Consistent church attendance is interrupted by work, school and sports. We easily forget how desperately we need to be sanctified through the truth of God’s Word. We forget that we who are members vowed to support the church in its work and worship. We forget that God promised the one who “calls the Sabbath a delight and honors it” (Isaiah 58:13-14) will delight in the Lord, and ride on the heights of the earth, and feast upon the heritage of Jacob. Jesus was willing to travel three days, on foot, through the wilderness, uphill, because he remembered and believed God’s promise to bless the means of grace. May Christ’s zeal burning in us, joyfully drive us to the same observant faith… remembering all the while that it was Christ’s observance, not ours, that saves us!
Recently, a headline caught my eye: “Florida man banned from ocean after being arrested in human-sized hamster wheel off Tybee.” Sadly, this was Ray Baluchi’s 4th attempt to cross the Atlantic in his “Hydro Sphere.” He made it an impressive 70 miles across the 4,000-mile span between continents. We laugh because it’s absurd. How much more absurd to think that you could span the infinitely greater distance between earth and heaven in your hamster wheel of good works, spiritual discipline and church attendance. Christ’s righteousness, no ours, that has the power and perfection to saves us.
But we also see Jesus zeal in his objection to the profaning of religion: “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there” (John 2:14)
Jerusalem’s streets would have been flooded with pilgrims; her air would have been electric with anticipation. But what Jesus found when he came to the temple broke his heart. Instead of saints singing psalms he heard the lowing of cattle and bleating of sheep. Instead, the sweet aroma of burning incense, he smelled the septic stench of animal dung. Instead of a people bowed in prayer he witnessed all the commotion of commerce and trappings of trade. What may have begun as a sincere service to travelers by offering a one stop shop where they could exchange foreign currency and acquire lambs necessary to participate in the feast, had devolved into a feverish flee market. Blinded by greed, the priests and merchants were profiting from Passover! The sacred had been profaned and the temple tainted. And Jesus would not stand for it. While the other gospels record Jesus’ second cleansing of the temple two years later, John alone records this first cleansing. And John alone includes Jesus’ whip. Some commentators suggest that Jesus used it to drive animals only, but that’s not what the text says. John wrote, “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade’” (John 2:15-16). Malachi spoke of this day in Malachi 3:1; the day the Lord would “suddenly come to his temple, to purify the sons of Levi,” asking “who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
What do you do with this side of Jesus? Our sinful hearts predispose us to approach scripture like a buffet line: picking and choosing only what we like and leaving the rest. We like the thought of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, healer, teacher, servant, and friend of sinners (and he is!) But what about King Jesus, the man of war in blood-stained robes who treads the wine press of the wrath of God? What about the demon slayer who came to destroy the powers of darkness? What about the serpent-stomping Seed of the Woman? What about the all-terrible Lamb of God in whose presence the beast and his followers will burn in the lake of fire forever? What about this table flipping, whip-wielding zealot? If you’re embarrassed by Jesus, if this passage makes you feel a tinge of shame, could it be that you are not sufficiently offended by the pollution of God’s worship? Could it be that we aren’t sufficiently zealous for pure worship? Let us never be ashamed of Christ! Let us own him and praise him for his courage and zeal.
In one of the iconic scenes of C.S. Lewis’, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver was telling the children about Aslan, the king of Narnia, and Lucy asked, “Is he a man?” Mr. Beaver replied, “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond- the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion…” Susan asked, “Is he – quite safe?” “Safe?” asked Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” So too, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah isn’t safe. But he’s good. So, may we be gripped by the ferocious goodness of Christ who was willing to stand alone to defend the honor of God.
As the disciples watched Jesus clean house, they didn’t withdraw from him or make apologies for him. Instead, they remembered the words of Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” In Greek, to be zealous is to be jealous over something that belongs to you but is being threatened… like the loving wife who is jealous for the eyes and desires of her husband. So, you see, this was no sinful outburst. Jesus was consumed with zeal because pure worship in the splendor of holiness was being withheld from the Lord to whom it was due. So, like Josiah and Hezekiah, King Jesus purged the temple of its idols; in this case the idol of money.
Paul warned Timothy, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10). So, you elders and deacons must vigilantly guard your own hearts and the hearts of our people from the love of money. Should the church be engaged in commerce of any kind? Pew taxes, book tables, gift shops, or fund raisers? Is it safe to say that if you need a cash register at church, you’re doing it wrong? Shouldn’t the needs of the church be met by the Lord himself through the faithful tithing of his people?
But this passage speaks more deeply to the spiritual mission of the church. The tragic error of the church growth movement is that it looks to Starbucks instead of Scripture to determine it priorities and strategies. Today, many churches are built to look and feel like a coffee shop or a concert hall instead of a traditional meeting house, built for preaching and singing. Everything from the music to the message is geared towards the comfort of the consumer. While all Christians should long to see the church filled, we must remember that the mission of church is not firstly our comfort but the glory of God. Richard Phillips said, “Our success in worship is measured not in the amount of money we take in, not in the number of people we attract, but in the purity and truth with which we worship God and cause his name to receive glory.” So let us burn with Christ-like zeal for pure, holy, and biblical worship that pleases God, the true consumer of our worship, the true seeker, seeking those who would worship him in Spirit and truth.
Having displayed his zeal in observance and objection, Jesus defends his zeal. Why do you think nobody tried to stop Jesus? Where was temple security? I mean, he was throwing furniture! I suspect it’s because the righteousness of his cause was so undeniable, and the hand of God was so evident in his work none could object. Instead of attacking his actions the Jews attacked his credentials, demanding a sign: “So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:18-22). Jesus defended his zeal by appealing to his future resurrection. And his cryptic language did exactly what he intended: it veiled the truth to those outside the kingdom while revealing it to those inside.
Jesus was speaking figuratively, it’s true. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t saying something spectacular that we must hear. Why does he refer to himself as the temple? Because he is! As the Shekinah glory cloud of God rested upon and filled the temple, so too the Spirit of God descended and remained upon Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews marveled, “He is radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3).
As the Temple housed the ark of the covenant containing the law of God so too Christ is the incarnate Word and consummate revelation of God. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1). As the temple was the meeting place between God and man where his people would come to worship, so we meet God in Christ Jesus and only through Him is our worship made acceptable. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). As the temple was the place where priests made atoning sacrifices to expiate the sins of God’s people and propitiate the just wrath of God, so too Jesus, our great high priest offered himself as our substitute upon the cross to satisfy the demand of divine justice, put away the guilt and shame of our sin forever, and reconcile us to God.
As the Passover pilgrims had to enter into the temple so too you must enter into the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you done that? Or are you still on the outside looking in, thinking to yourself, “Oh I would! I would enter into Christ if only I knew how! Where is the door by which I may enter into Christ and be saved?”
There is an ancient church in Bethlehem which some claim was be built upon the sight of Jesus’ birth. Though the church is grand and its walls are made of great stones, the door is small, just four feet high. It is called “the door of humility,” because to enter in you must bow down. So must we to enter into Christ… we must bow down in humble adoration, repenting of our sins, and putting our trust in him.
This you must do, for one day the Lord Jesus will come again, like a thief in the night he will suddenly appear riding on the clouds of glory, to sift the wheat from the chaff. Even now, he stands at the door, his winnowing fork in hand! Those who have rejected him and his overtures of love and forgiveness will hear the most dreadful words: “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). And they will be cast into the furnace of the fury of God. But those who have entered into Christ through faith as their soul’s refuge, hiding place, high tower and temple can rest secure behind the stone walls of his steadfast love and unassailable righteousness, beneath the waving banner of God’s favor, which bears these words, written in the blood of Christ, “Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). So warns, and so promises the sweet psalmist of Israel: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:12). Won’t you come and take refuge in Christ!
Jim McCarthy is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Trinity PCA in Statesboro, Ga.
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Christian theology is a means of knowing the triune God: the Father in His eternal love, the Son in His saving grace, and the Holy Spirit in the sweet fellowship He gives us with God and each other (2 Cor. 13:14). The knowledge of the Lord is worth more than all human wisdom, power, and wealth (Jer. 9:23–24). God uses His Word to set us free and make us holy, as He is holy (John 8:31–32; John 17:17).

I remember a meeting I had some years ago with a couple of brothers in Christ. We needed to find a speaker for a men’s retreat. One man said, “The last thing we want is theology. We need something practical.” Too often, that’s the assumption: theology is not helpful. But when the retreat was done, the speaker proved to be quite helpful precisely because he was theological. He taught the doctrines of God’s Word with clarity, conviction, and a call to respond.
What is Helpful Theology?
Theology is serious thinking about Christian doctrine. The doctrines of the faith summarize and explain the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible commends “sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1), which means healthy teaching.
Systematic theology is the study of what the whole Bible teaches about a given doctrine and its connection to other doctrines. For example, how can a sinner be justified or counted righteous by God? What does justification show us about God, Christ, and ourselves?
The purpose of systematic theology, like all Christian teaching, is not to cause arguments but to strengthen faith and godliness (1 Tim. 1:4–5). As Reformed theologians have said, “Theology is the doctrine of living to God by Christ.”
But that does not mean that all theology is helpful. When I opened the first systematic theology I ever read, I thought, “This is great! The author is thinking deeply about the faith.” But in that book, the author said that it is absurd to talk about the resurrection of Christ’s physical body from the dead. The author was an unbeliever. Needless to say, I put that book down.
Systematic theology is only helpful if it is faithful to the Word of God, especially the gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:3–4). Therefore, we should exercise discernment. We can learn something from virtually anyone, even unbelievers. But when we study doctrine and theology, we must choose our teachers wisely.
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