The Abomination of Desolation

In Daniel 11:31 we read of the “abomination that maketh desolate.”  In the next chapter Daniel also referred to this “abomination that maketh desolate” which would be “set up” (Daniel 12:11).  According the Savior, this would be fulfilled shortly after His time among the Jews.  He warned of “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem” and told His followers to “stand in the holy place” at that time (JS Matt. 1:12).  The first fulfillment of this prophecy appears to have been with the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD when, according to Josephus, an unconceivable amount of people—1.1 million—were killed.  In the same discourse the Savior warned that in the last days “again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be fulfilled” (JS Matt. 1:31-32).  According to the Bible Dictionary this means that “Jerusalem will again be under siege.”  So there will be some kind of specific event similar to what happened in 70 A.D. which is a frightening thought indeed.  This likely is the same event prophesied by Zechariah when “all the people of the earth” would “be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:2-3).       

The article in the Bible Dictionary also suggests, though, that there are other, broader interpretations: “In a general sense, abomination of desolation also describes the latter-day judgments to be poured out upon the wicked wherever they may be.”  The Doctrine and Covenants seems to liberally apply this phrase to describe a general destruction of the wicked.  For instance, Newel K. Whitney was commanded to warn certain cities “with a loud voice, of the desolation and utter abolishment which await them if they do reject these things” (D&C 84:114).  A few verses later the Lord commanded other servants to reprove “the world in righteousness of all their unrighteous and ungodly deeds, setting forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days” (D&C 84:117).  This seems to be clearly referring to a general type of punishment of the wicked in the last days and likely is not specifically referring to only another siege at Jerusalem.  The Lord also spoke of the righteous who would “escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked, both in this world and in the world to come” (D&C 88:85).  Here we get an even more general definition which includes punishment of the wicked in the world to come. 

President Benson had an interesting interpretation of the phrase.  He said this: “The great destructive force which was to be turned loose on the earth and which the prophets for centuries have been calling the ‘abomination of desolation’ (Matt. 24:15) is vividly described by those who saw it in vision. Ours is the first generation to realize how literally these prophecies can be fulfilled now that God, through science, has unlocked the secret to thermonuclear reaction” (Conference Report, October 1961, pp. 69-75).  It certainly seems that the power of the scriptural phrase matches the utter atrocity of the atomic bomb.  But at the end of the day, however we associate modern events with the abomination of desolation, our safety resides in standing in holy places.  That was how the early Christians were saved in 70 AD—they fled to the mountains as the Savior had commanded.  In our day we flee to the temples, our chapels, and our homes to find safety and refuge from the “wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God” (D&C 87:6, 8).