by John Holbrook Jr. A Biblical View, Blog #134 posted on December 21, 2022.
1 – Preamble
The Bible indicates the following: First, God (or the Godhead) is a triunity consisting of three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Second, God is holy and hates sin. Third, the only atonement for sin which God will accept is the shedding of innocent blood – (a) temporarily in the sacrifice of unblemished animals and birds then (b) permanently in the sacrifice of his unblemished Son, whom the Bible identifies as ‘the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”[1] Fourth, all of Adam and Eve’s descendants are sinners and therefore blemished and unable to atone for their sins. Thus, in the end, only God himself can atone for sin. Fifth, God is the personification of both perfect judgment and perfect love. Thus, one might say that God’s perfect judgment required the cross at Golgotha, and God’s perfect love put himself upon it.
2 – The Word “Christian”
Whenever people encounter the word “Christian,” most of them associate it with an individual or institution that is affiliated with Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in the New Testament (or Messianic Scriptures). Moreover, if they have any familiarity with Christians and Christian institutions, they will know that they vary in significant ways. Finally, if they are familiar with the Bible, they will also know that many Christians and Christian institutions do not adhere to what the Bible says about the Messiah – even regarding essential issues such as whether He actually existed and, if so, whether He is divine.[2] Thus, they probably recognize that the term “Christian” is extremely broad and almost defies definition.
In addition, most people assume that the word “Christian” derived from the word “Christ,” which is a natural assumption, but is actually incorrect. Thus, they are surprised to hear (a) that the word “Christian” does not appear in the Bible, (b) that the manner in which the word originated and worked its way into common usage is complicated,[3] and (c) that some followers of the Christ do not regard themselves as Christians and believe that fellow followers of Him should refrain from identifying themselves as Christians.
Despite the foregoing, I do not think that genuine followers of the Messiah need to stop referring to themselves as Christians. First, the word is too ubiquitous. It appears in written material of every form and from every era since the 1st century AD, and it is used in common discourse today by people throughout the world. Second, the word is a perfectly good adjective or noun for people who claim allegiance to the Holy One of Israel, to whom the Messianic Scriptures refer as the “Christ.” [4] Third, the word does not imply perfect conformance to what the Bible says about Him. The word refers to a community of people and institutions with many different beliefs and practices, many of which, unfortunately, are unbiblical.
3 – The Covenantal Community
To explain what I mean by community, I need to introduce the concept of the covenant. God uses covenants to define the relationship between himself and his creatures. The Bible lists ten of them: three universal covenants involving mankind in general and seven restricted covenants involving the Hebrews in particular.
The covenantal community in the three universal covenants is mankind in general. It is divided into two groups: (1) covenant-keepers, who honor God and observe the terms of the covenant to the best of their ability and (2) covenant breakers, who dishonor God and disregard the terms of the covenant. A moment’s reflection will indicate that covenant-breakers usually outnumber covenant-keepers by a wide margin.
The covenantal community in the seven restricted covenants is Israel in particular. It is divided into two groups: (1) covenant-keepers, who honor God and observe the terms of the covenant to the best of their ability and (2) covenant breakers, who dishonor God and disregard the terms of the covenant. A moment’s reflection will indicate that covenant-breakers usually outnumber covenant-keepers by a wide margin. Also note that these covenants do not apply to the Gentiles excepting in certain cases which I will note when appropriate.
Two examples of the restricted covenant are the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant:
The Mosaic Covenant was in force from 1464 BC to 33 AD. Its covenantal community was Israel, which it divided into two groups: (1) covenant-keepers, who did their best to observe the Mosaic Laws, and (2) covenant-breakers who made little attempt to observe the Mosaic Laws. The mark of the covenant was circumcision, and the sacred text of the covenant was the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (OT) in general and the Mosaic Law in particular. It identified the way in which God expected all members of the community to relate to him, to fellow Jews, and to Gentiles. (Gentiles such as Caleb and Ruth could join the covenantal community by pledging allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then serving Israel faithfully, but there were not many of them.)
The New Covenant has been in force since 33 AD and will last until the Parousia. Its covenantal community is Israel, which it divides into two groups: (1) covenant-keepers, who repent of their sins and accept the Messiah as their Lord and Savior, and who are called Israel of the Spirit or the Saved, and (2) covenant-breakers, who do not repent of their sins and accept the Messiah as their Savior and Lord, and who are called Israel of the Flesh or the Lost. The mark of this covenant is baptism, and the sacred text of the covenant is the entire Bible, which consists of both the Tenakh (OT) and the Messianic Scriptures (NT). It identifies the way in which God expects its members to relate to him and to others.
This covenant was promised to Israel in Jeremiah’s time (c.620-c.550 BC), and, when the covenantal period began on Passover in April 33 AD, the covenantal community consisted solely of Hebrews. When some Gentiles began repenting of their sins, accepting the Messiah as their Lord and Savior, and becoming baptized, God indicated to Peter in a vision[5] that such Gentiles could join the Christian community.
In Romans 11, Paul explains the new reality with the metaphor of two olive trees:
A Cultivated Olive Tree that represents Spiritual Israel, (a) in which covenant-keeping Jews – i.e. the Faithful Remnant of Israel – who repent of their sins and accept the Messiah as their Lord and Saviour, remain and (b) from which covenant-breaking Jews, who reject the Messiah as their Savior and Lord, are removed and cast away.
A Wild Olive Tree that represents the Gentiles, (a) from which covenant-keeping Christians are removed and grafted into the Cultivated Olive Tree and (b) in which the rest of the Gentiles, both non-Christians and covenant-breaking Christians, remain.
Please note that the covenantal community and its covenant-keepers are not synonymous and must not be conflated, which occurs when people use the word Christian to refer to both groups. Rather, the Christian Community consists of two groups: (1) covenant-keeping Christians and (2) covenant-breaking Christians.
Covenant-keeping Christians repent of their sins in their hearts, accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and obey Him to the best of their ability, and adopt beliefs and behavior that conform to the canonical Bible, which can be defined as the Tenakh (OT) and the Messianic Scriptures (NT).
Covenant-breaking Christians often do not repent of their sins in their hearts, often do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and adopt beliefs and behavior that do not conform to the canonical Bible, but to Bibles that often include the Apocrypha and even the Pseudepigrapha, and then sometimes not even to them.
We must keep in our minds and articulate in our discourse the difference between covenant-keeping Christians, whom I call either Bible-believing Christians or Biblical Christians, and covenant-breaking Christians, whom I usually call Nominal Christians. Moreover, we should recognize that Christian covenant-keepers are in the minority and covenant-breakers are in the majority, just as Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount: “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. But narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”[6]
4 – Nominal Christianity
There are many characteristics of nominal Christianity, and I will not try to enumerate all of them. The most obvious among them are the following:
Denying the divinity of the Messiah. The Bible indicates that He is the Son of God and a member of the triune Godhead.
Denying the depravity of mankind, which contradicts what God says in the Bible[7] and renders the incarnation and crucifixion of the Messiah unnecessary.
Claiming that anyone must be good in order to enter Heaven. People get into Heaven when they repent of their sins and accept the Messiah as their Savior and Lord, at which point God imputes the Messiah’s righteousness to them. Salvation cannot be earned. It is the free gift of a merciful and forgiving God.
Claiming that all baptized Christians are saved and headed to Heaven. Baptism signifies only that a person is a member of the Christian
covenantal community[8] – not that one is a covenant-keeping Christian.
Claiming that anyone other than God is infallible, such as a member of the clergy or priesthood. Only God and, I believe, His Word (the canonical Bible) are infallible.
Claiming that Christianity’s Eucharistic Rite – i.e. the eating of bread and the drinking of the juice of the grape[9] together in a worship service – is not just an act of remembrance, but actually recapitulates the death of the Son of God on the cross. His passion and death on the cross on Passover in 33 AD was a unique, one-time, all sufficient, unrepeatable sacrifice for our sins.
Claiming that any person or any institution other than the Messiah is a mediator between God and men. The Bible makes crystal clear that the only mediator between God and men is the Promised Messiah of Israel.[10] – not a church, not a clergyman, and not a dead person who has been canonized as a “saint” by a church. [11]
Praying in the name of anyone but the Messiah or Christ, which implies that this person is a mediator between God and the one who is praying.
Praying to anyone other than the three persons of the Trinity, such as praying to Mary (the mother of the Messiah),[12] a canonized saint, or an angel. Doing so constitutes idolatry.
Picking and choosing what to believe in the Bible. The Bible opens with the Creation Story, in which the reader is called upon to believe that God created Universe and all its contents and creatures in six, normal, 24-hour days simply with the power of his word, over which even many Christians stumble. We must remember that “…without faith, it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”[13] When Job questioned God about his treatment by God, God responded to Job with another question, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”[14] and then proceeded to devote three entire chapters[15] to an elaboration on the Creation Story. God does not need to establish his credentials or explain himself. God’s omnicompetence, omnipotence, omniscience are beyond our ability to imagine, but they are evident in what he created. All we need to do is look at the heavens above, the earth below, and our fellow creatures,[16] and then take him at his Word, which means that we must believe the whole Bible.[17]
Promoting or participating in the Abomination of Desolation at the end of this age.
5 – The Abomination of Desolation.
Before identifying the Abomination of Desolation, I must set the stage.by looking at the most important event in history, which ended the Mosaic Covenantal Period and began the New Covenantal Period.
5A – The Pivotal Life in History
God sent his only Son into the world to atone for the sins of Mankind and to make possible the restoration of Creation to its original perfection, which will occur after the Parousia. Here is a summary of His life.
He was born on Tishri 1, the Feast of Trumpets (August 28, 2 BC).
He lived a sinless life[18] for just over 33.5 years (2 BC-33 AD) by observing the Mosaic Law perfectly.
He was betrayed, scourged, crucified, and buried on Nisan 14 (Tue-Wed), which was the Passover, in early April 33 AD: (3a) He was betrayed by one his disciple, Judas Iscariot, for 30 pieces of silver; (3b) He was tried by the Sanhedrin and judged guilty of blasphemy, a capital crime; (3c) He was interviewed by Pontius Pilate and King Herod and then turned over to the Roman soldiers; (3d) He was scourged for roughly nine hours; and (3e) He was forced to carry his heavy cross from the Roman Garrison in Old Jerusalem to Golgotha, just outside the city’s Damascus Gate.
He fulfilled the requirements of the Mosaic Law perfectly when He provided the unique, one-time, all sufficient, never-to-be repeated sacrifice to atone for sin: (4a) He was nailed to the cross at the third hour ( 9:00 am);[19] (4b) He hung there for the next six hours; (4c) darkness fell on the land at the sixth hour (12:00 noon); and (4d) He died at the ninth hour (3:00 pm).
Immediately afterwards, a Roman soldier refrained from breaking His legs, as was customary, but did thrust a lance in His side, from which water and blood fell to the ground.[20] (Just as God put Adam to sleep and formed a bride for him using flesh and bone from his side, so God put his Son to sleep and formed a Bride for Him using flesh and bone from His side.)
He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in a garden adjacent to Golgotha at the twelfth hour (6:00 pm), which was the end of Passover (Nisan 14) and the beginning of an Annual Feast Day (Nisan 15).
He spent 3 days (72 hours) in the grave,[21] which (7a) included (Nisan 15 (Wed-Thu; an annual feast day), (7b) Nisan 16 (Thus-Fri; a normal weekday), and (7c) Nisan 17, Fri-Sat; a normal Sabbath Day), which was followed by Nisan 18 (Sat-Sun; a normal First Day of the Jewish week). .
He was resurrected at 6:00 pm on Saturday, which marked the end of Nisan 17 (Fri-Sat; the Sabbath) and the beginning of Nisan 18 (Sat-Sun; the First Day of the Jewish week).
He left the tomb sometime during the night (6:00 pm to 6:00 am) on Nisan 18, before Mary Magdalen and the other women arrived there at dawn.
He appeared to more than 500 of his disciples during the next 40 days.[22]
He ascended into Heaven on Iyyar 27 in 33 AD,[23] where He now sits on the Throne of God at the right hand of the Father.[24]
In the course of the above events Messiah fulfilled most of the prophecies concerning Himself (the rest will be fulfilled at the end of this age). The Jewish Messiah, the Son of God, is undoubtedly the central and pivotal figure in the history of Creation.
5B – The Pivotal Events in History
The pivotal events in history of Creation from Creation Week to the Parousia are undoubtedly (a) the scourging and crucifixion of the Son of God on Passover in 33 AD, which was a unique, one-time, all-sufficient, never-to-be-repeated oblation to atone for the sins of all men, women, and children who repent of their sins and accept Him as their Savior and Lord,[25] and (b) the resurrection of the Son of God, which was a victory over death and represented the first fruits of the General Resurrection.
5C – A Few of the Changes Which Occurred at 3:00 pm on Passover 33 AD
When Messiah died at the ninth hour (3:00 pm) on Passover 33 AD, some significant changes occurred, including the following:
The Relocation of the Shekinah Glory – To mark the moment of Messiah’s death and the import of what it meant, something momentous happened in the Temple. The veil concealing the Holy Holies in the Temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom,[26] which indicated that the Shekinah Glory, God’s Presence, had moved from the physical Temple in Jerusalem to a spiritual Temple of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the Messiah’s followers.[27] Because of what the Messiah did on the cross, the sacrifice of animals and birds in the Temple was no longer necessary, efficacious, or even pleasing to God. In fact, it was the most egregious affront to God which mankind could devise. Daniel called it “the abomination that makes desolate,” [28] and Messiah called it the Abomination of Desolation.
The Abomination of Desolation #1 – Despite God’s all-sufficient sacrifice of his Son on the cross, the Jewish Sanhedrin allowed the priests to sacrifice animals and birds in Jerusalem’s Temple for the next 37 years (33-70 AD). Again, it was the greatest offense against God which they could have devised or committed. It constituted the Abomination of Desolation about which Daniel wrote and Messiah spoke. It invited God’s wrath on themselves and their people, which was duly manifested in the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Roman armies under Titus in 70 AD and the subsequent banishment of the Jews from Judea for almost two millennia.
The Abomination of Desolation #2 – The Messiah indicated in the Olivet Discourse that, in spite of the above, the Abomination of Desolation will be repeated in the End Times, which means that (a) the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt and (b) the sacrifice of animals and birds to atone for sin will be resumed. In fact, preparations for achieving these objectives are already underway.[29]
The Great Apostacy or Falling Away – Jesus indicated in the Olivet Discourse and Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11 that, during the New Covenantal Period (33-Perousia) and in order to test the quality and seriousness of church-goers professions of faith in His Son and thereby separate the wheat (Biblical Christians) from the chafe (Nominal Christians), (a) an antichrist will appear with a counterfeit religion and false doctrines that will deflect mankind’s attention from the real King of kings in Heaven to a false monarch here on Earth and (b) and a strong spirit of delusion will appear to tempt members of the churches to succumb to the antichrist’s lies. The antichrist and the spirit of delusion have been at work now for almost two millennia, and the results of their work (1) were particularly evident during (1a) the persecution of the Messianic Jews for 443 years (33-476 AD) by the Rabbinic Jews and the Roman emperors and (1b) the persecution of the Protestants for 1260 years (538-1798 AD) by the Roman Church, and (2) will be particularly evident during the persecution of the saints for an unknown number of years by the antichrist in the End Time. During this time, (1) the saints will demonstrate their faithfulness by (1a) believing God’s Word Written (the Scriptures) and (1b) rejecting the antichrist as the head of the Universal Church and opposing the Jews’ resumption of animal and bird sacrifices to atone for sin, and (2) the apostates will demonstrate their faithlessness by (2a) ignoring Gid’s Written Word and (2b) accepting the antichrist as the head of the Universal Church and supporting the Jew’s project to rebuild Solomon’s Temple and resume the sacrifice of animals and birds to atone for sin.
[2] The Bible records that God the Father identified Him as his Son in Matthew 3:16-17, 12:18, & 17:5; Mark 1:10-11 & 9:7; Luke 3:21-22, 9:34-35, & 20:13.
[3] Daniel Gruber provides an interesting analysis of this subject in Chapter 10 – A Little Case of Mistaken Identity of his book, The Separation of Church & Faith – Volume 1 – Copernicus and the Jews, Elijah Publishing, Hanover, NH, 2005, 2016.
[4] He bears the title “Mashiach” in Hebrew, “Khristos” in Greek, and “Messiah” or “Christ” in modern English, all of which mean “the Anointed One.” Hereafter, I will refer to Him as the “Messiah” in order to remind my readers continually that He is both Jewish and the Promised Messiah or Holy One of Israel.
[7] Psalms 14:2-3, 53:2-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Jeremiah 17:9; 1 John 1:8,10; Romans 3:10-12, 3:23, 5:12, 7:14-20; Galatians 3:22; and James 2:10, 4:17.
[8] Consider the number of Christians who tortured and killed others – Christians and non-Christians alike -because they differed on matters of faith and practice.
[11] The biblical definition of a saint is a sinner who repents of his or her sins and accepts the Messiah as his or her Savior and Lord. No saint deserves canonization – let alone adoration – as a particularly holy person who can serve as a mediator between God and a supplicant who is praying to him or her.
[12] She was a normal, mortal woman, who was born a sinner, lived an imperfect life, died a sinner, and now lies in the grave. She will not be resurrected until the Rapture at the end of this age, when her Son will return to Earth (the Parousia) and resurrect all who have died. Thus she cannot even hear prayers to her, let alone act on them. I imagine that she will be horrified to learn that some people claimed that (a) she was full of grace (the doctrine of the Mother of God), which implies that she was semi-divine, (b) she was born without original sin (the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, she remained a virgin throughout her life (the doctrine of Perpetual Virginity) despite the Bible’s references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters, who then would have been either adopted or the product of Joseph’s continually engaging in adultery, and (d) her body was taken up into Heaven without undergoing putrefaction (the doctrine of the Assumption).
[17] Some Christians waffle on this issue, claiming that the Bible is “authoritative” or that the Bible contains the Word of God, but does not constitute the Word of God. They have not, however, thought through the implications of their claims. If only some of the Bible is divinely inspired, what criteria are available for discerning between the passages that come from God and the passages that do not come from God? Such criteria do not exist! One cannot escape the necessity of deciding this issue by faith – by a faith informed by reason, but nonetheless by faith.
[25] God wrote their names in the Book of Life before the foundations of the world were laid (Philippians 4:3 and Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, & 22:19).
[27] 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. See my essay, The Two Temples.
[28] See Daniel 9. Alas, our Lord mentioned in the Olivet Discourse that the Jews will repeat the offense toward the end of this age (Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14).
[29] See Randall Price’s Ready to Rebuild – The Imminent Plan to Rebuild the Temple the Last Days Temple (1992), The Coming Last Days Temple (1999), and The Temple and Bible Prophecy – A Definitive Look at Its Past, Present, and Future (2005).
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