The Triple Application of Prophecy: The Abomination of Desolation and the Last Days Warning to Flee
Key Takeaways
This article delves into the prophetic significance of the “abomination of desolation” as a sign for Christians in three distinct historical eras, each preceding a period of persecution. It explores the parallels between the siege of Jerusalem in AD 66, the rise of papal Rome in 538, and the Blair Sunday Law Bills of 1888, highlighting the importance of understanding these events in the context of the final warning to flee during the last days. The article critiques the flawed interpretation of modern Rome and the United States, emphasizing the need for a correct application of prophetic principles, particularly regarding the two distinct Sunday laws that are central to end-time prophecy.
- Understanding the Abomination of Desolation:
- Overview of the “abomination of desolation” as a prophetic sign in three historical contexts: AD 66 (pagan Rome), AD 538 (papal Rome), and 1888 (Blair Sunday Law Bills).
- The role of this sign in warning Christians to flee from impending persecution.
- The Triple Application of Prophecy:
- Explanation of the rules governing the triple application of prophecy, where the characteristics of the first two fulfillments are combined to establish the third.
- Importance of recognizing the historical patterns in prophecy to understand the end-time events.
- Historical Contexts of Fleeing:
- AD 66: The siege of Jerusalem by Cestius as a warning to flee before the final destruction in AD 70.
- AD 538: The fall of pagan Rome and the rise of papal Rome as a sign for Christians to separate from the corrupted church.
- 1888: The introduction of the Blair Sunday Law Bills as a warning for Seventh-day Adventists to leave the cities.
- Critique of Misinterpretations:
- Addressing the flawed interpretation that identifies the United States as modern Rome based on the soon-coming Sunday law.
- The distinction between the two Sunday laws in the last days: one in the United States and one globally enforced.
- The Two Distinct Sunday Laws:
- Pagan Rome’s Sunday Law (AD 321): Typifies the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States.
- Papal Rome’s Sunday Law (AD 538): Typifies the global Sunday law enforced by the threefold union of the dragon, beast, and false prophet.
- The Warning to Flee in the Last Days:
- The Patriot Act of 2001 as a modern parallel to the Blair Bill of 1888, signaling the time to flee the cities.
- The soon-coming Sunday law in the United States as the final warning for God’s people still in Babylon to flee.
- The Importance of Correct Prophetic Interpretation:
- The need for a clear understanding of type and antitype in prophecy.
- How misinterpretation of the abomination of desolation and the Sunday laws can lead to spiritual deception.
- The significance of recognizing the distinct roles of the United States and modern Rome in end-time prophecy.
- Conclusion:
- Reaffirming the importance of adhering to established prophetic principles.
- Emphasizing the urgency of preparing for the coming persecution by heeding the warnings given through sacred history.
- The ongoing need for vigilance and understanding in interpreting prophetic signs in the last days.
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The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet is a sign for Christians in three different eras to flee. The Christians in Jerusalem fled when they saw the standards of the Roman armies encompassing Jerusalem in the year 66 AD. The Christians of the late fifth and early sixth century fled into the wilderness when they saw the man of sin in the temple of God proclaiming that he was God. In 1888 there was a series of Sunday laws introduced into the Congress of the United States by Senator Blair. Those bills were called the Blair bills, and they were an effort to identify Sunday as a National Day of Worship. Sunday worship is the mark of the beast, the mark of papal authority and the Constitution of the United States directly opposes the enforcement of a national religion as a test for the citizens of the United States.
It is this fact that is left out of the flawed application connected with identifying the United States as modern Rome. A triple application of prophecy possesses specific rules that govern its application. The rules identify that the prophetic characteristics of the first fulfillment are to be combined with the prophetic characteristics of the second fulfillment in order to establish the prophetic characteristics of the third fulfillment.
The warning to flee, is a warning to flee from a coming persecution. In Christ’s era the persecution was the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 70. The warning sign of that approaching persecution was given in the year 66 AD. The warning to flee in the late fifth and early sixth century was identified by Paul’s as the recognition of a falling away of prophetic Pergamos, which represented pagan Rome. There was to be a falling away first, in order for the man of sin who would proclaim himself as God to be revealed. In the history approaching 538, pagan Rome that had restrained, or as Paul stated “withholdeth” was taken away, and as Pergamos fell away and the sign to flee arrived and directed the faithful to separate from the papal churches communion. Then in 538, at the Counsel of Orleans the papal power passed a Sunday law, and the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal persecution began.
The first two witnesses identify clearly that the third fulfillment of the warning to flee given by Christ preceded the actual persecution. The destruction of Jerusalem came exactly three and a half years after the siege of Cestius began in 66 AD, thus allowing the Christians to flee in advance of the horrors of the second siege which was instigated by Titus and concluded with the destruction of the temple and city. In advance of the year 538, the Christians separated from the church of papal Rome, and prophetically fled into the wilderness, which represents the destruction of spiritual Jerusalem.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. Revelation 11:2, 3.
In both illustrations of the warning to flee, the warning precedes the persecution, and the persecution is represented by Rome, whether pagan or papal, trampling down Jerusalem, whether literal or spiritual. The warning to flee for Seventh-day Adventist was the Blair bill in 1888. In the first fulfillment in the history of pagan Rome the Christians were to flee from Jerusalem, and in fulfillment of papal Rome the Christians fled into the wilderness. For Adventism the warning was to flee into the country.
“It is no time now for God’s people to be fixing their affections or laying up their treasure in the world. The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.” Testimonies, volume 5, 464.
“The assumption of power on the part of our nation in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us,” was fulfilled when the abomination of desolation, in agreement with Mark’s words was “standing where it ought not.” In 1888, the Congress of the United States was considering a law in direct contradiction to a primary element of the Constitution, and at that point Seventh-day Adventists were to leave the cities and move to the country.
“Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ had given His disciples warning, and all who believed His words watched for the promised sign. . . . Without delay they fled to a place of safety—the city of Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.” The Great Controversy, 30.
The prophetic characteristics of the first of the warning signs to flee, represent the third and final fulfillment. Sometimes those prophetic characteristics produce a double fulfillment in the third fulfillment. An example of this is the three Elijah’s. The line of Elijah in his confrontation with Jezebel, Ahab and the prophets of Baal, combined with the characteristics of John the Baptist, the second Elijah, in his confrontation with Herodias, Herod and Salome establish that in the last days, for the third and final fulfillment of a triple application is always in the last days, Elijah and John represent two classes of God’s people. One class represented by Elijah do not die, and the other class represented by John do die. The two classes are also represented in Revelation chapter seven as the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who do not die, and the great multitude that do die.
In the three Babylon’s a similar element of the prophetic message is that the first Babylon is represented by Nimrod, but the second Babylon is represented by the first and last kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar represents those in Babylon who will be saved, and Belshazzar, those in Babylon who will be lost.
In the last days there are two Sunday laws that are the subject of Bible prophecy. The first is the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States, and the second is the Sunday law that is forced upon the entire world. Those two Sunday laws were typified by the Sunday law of pagan Rome, when in the year 321, Constantine enforced the first Sunday law, followed by the Sunday law of Papal Rome in 538. Pagan Rome is one of several prophetic types that prefigure the United States, and the Sunday law of 321, typifies the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States. The papal Sunday law of 538 typifies the Sunday law that is enforced upon the entire world. The flawed view that the United States is typified by the robbers in Daniel eleven tries to employ the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States as evidence to claim that the Sunday law in the United States proves that the United States is modern Rome, and disregards that there is another Sunday law that is forced upon every nation of the world by the threefold union of the dragon, the beast and false prophet.
If a Sunday law in the United States identifies the United States as Modern Rome, then what does the worldwide Sunday law identify? The three Rome’s identify that Modern Rome, which is threefold, will enforce two distinct Sunday laws. The first is in the United States and was typified by Constantine’s Sunday law in 321, and the second is the entire world, as typified by the papal Sunday law of 538. To employ the Sunday law in the United States in the context of a triple application of prophecy to claim that the Sunday law proves who is Modern Rome, is to disregard the prophetic characteristics established by pagan and papal Rome. There are two distinct Sunday laws in the last days, and neither is a proof to identify the robbers of the people are the United States. When the testimony of pagan and papal Rome is misrepresented to uphold a private interpretation, as is currently being done, it demonstrates that those seeking to uphold their private interpretation do not understand type and antitype.
Pagan Rome is a type of the United States, and papal Rome typifies modern Rome. Along with this misapplication of a triple application of prophecy, and the claim that what is being taught is set in the context of “type and antitype,” is the other failure of defining the “abomination of desolation” as it is represented within the context of a triple application of prophecy.
From the year 66 to the year 70 AD, two Roman generals attacked Jerusalem. Both generals, Cestius and Titus began with a siege, but only one withdrew from the siege for a brief period of time, which providentially allowed the Christians to flee. It was the first siege under Cestius that the Christians recognized the warning to flee. When Titus arrived to carry on the warfare against Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, he began with a siege and did not cease until Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. The warning of Jesus contains two steps. First is the sign to flee, and thereafter the persecution. In the fulfillment of the warning in the fifth and sixth centuries the Christians separated from the corrupt Roman church before 538, and then the persecution began.
Paul is very clear that all the recorded history of ancient Israel was written for those living in the last days, and that all those histories were types, although the Greek word “typos,” meaning types is translated as ensamples in his classic presentation of this truth.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1 Corinthians 10:11.
The histories in chapter ten which Paul uses to set the context for this truth was not a history of ancient Israel acting righteously.
But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 1 Corinthians 10:5–9.
Sacred history is a record of both the righteousness and unrighteousness of God’s people, but in either record the history is still a type for God’s people living in the last days. The history of the rebellion in Minneapolis in 1888, is a record of unrighteousness, in spite of what Adventist historians’ claim. The rebellion was so profound that Ellen White determined to leave the meeting, and only stayed because an angel told her it was her responsibility to stay and record the rebellion that was a parallel to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in the history of Moses. At that meeting the mighty angel of Revelation chapter eighteen descended, but the message He brought was rejected.
That history typified September 11, 2001, when the great buildings of New York city were brought down. That history included the first Sunday law bill that was to be introduced by Senator Blair. His efforts to enforce Sunday as a National Day of Worship failed, but it was part of a sacred history that typified the last days. Senator Blair’s bill was the warning to flee the cities. Before 1888 when Sister White spoke of the necessity of living out of the cities, she spoke in the future tense. She pointed to a time in the near future when God’s people must move to the country. After 1888, all of Sister White’s references to the necessity of country living placed her counsel in the context that the time to be in the country had already arrived. The Blair bill in 1888, was the sign of Sunday enforcement, as Luke put it, in a place where it ought not be. Sunday enforcement was not to be brought into the Congress of the United States, for it was a denial of a primary principle of the Constitution.
The history of 1888 was recorded in order to typify the prophetic history that began on September 11, 2001. The Blair Bill in 1888 typified the Patriot Act of 2001. It was the warning that preceded the actual enforcement of the mark of the beast. No one who is following Christ should be living in a city after September 11, 2001. It was the prophetic siege that directed God’s people to flee. And just as there are two Sunday laws that are the subject of the prophetic model of the last days, as represented by the Sunday laws of pagan and papal Rome, both Sunday laws are preceded by the warning to flee.
For those who profess to be Seventh-day Adventists, they were to prophetically recognize the Patriot Act as a sign to flee the cities for the country in advance of the soon-coming Sunday law. That very same Sunday law was the sign for God’s other flock who are still in Babylon to flee out of Babylon in advance of the Sunday enforcement that is to be brought upon every nation.
“As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the Papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” Testimonies, volume 6, 18.
Just as the triple application of the three Elijah’s establishes that there are two classes of God’s people in the last days, the triple application of Rome identifies that there are two distinct Sunday laws. Those who wish to claim that the United States is the robbers of thy people, and therefore the prophetic role of the United States establishes the vision suggest that the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States is the abomination of desolation that Christ identified as a warning for His people to flee from the coming persecution. They fail to identify the distinction between the siege, which is the warning sign to flee, and the second siege that represents when the actual enforcement of a Sunday law begins the persecution of the last days. They fail to address the distinction established upon two witnesses that there is to be two distinct Sunday laws that fulfill prophecy in the last days. In doing so they argue the soon-coming Sunday law in the United States is the warning represented as the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, and it is, but not as they define it.
The Sunday law in the United States is the warning for God’s other flock that is still in Babylon to flee from her communion. It is therefore a warning of the coming Sunday law that is enforced upon all the nations.
“Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.” Testimonies, volume 6, 395.
Their claim is that the Sunday law in the United States is identifying the United States as the symbol which establishes the prophetic vision, but in the context of the warning to flee given by Christ, that Sunday law represents a world-wide warning to the eleventh-hour workers to flee from Babylon.
When Sister White addresses the warning to flee, she addresses the Sunday law issue that overtakes the whole world. That movement begins at the Sunday law in the United States. She identifies that the Sunday law in the United States is the warning of the coming persecution.
“By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
“As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return. The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress which prophets have described as the time of Jacob’s trouble. The cries of the faithful, persecuted ones ascend to heaven. And as the blood of Abel cried from the ground, there are voices also crying to God from martyrs’ graves, from the sepulchers of the sea, from mountain caverns, from convent vaults: ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’” Testimonies, volume 5, 451.
Sister White is identifying the Sunday law in the United States, and identifies it as a “sign” that probationary time for the United States is over. But God’s people in the other nations of the world are also to be confronted with the same test. There is a period of time from the Sunday law in the United States until Michael stands up and human probation closes. When it closes, “the angel of mercy takes her flight.”
