If there is Such a Thing, what Was Jerusalem’s Abomination that Caused Her Desolation?

Some preterists believe that the abomination that causes desolation is the slaughter of the wicked Jewish rebels in the Temple in Jerusalem. I strongly disagree. As I explain throughout this commentary, the abomination that causes desolation is the Roman armies with their abominable idols on their ensigns that caused the desolation of Israel. But if Jerusalem did something abominable that caused the Romans, the abomination that causes desolation, to leave her desolate, what was this abomination? In other words if there is such a thing, what was Jerusalem’s abomination that caused her desolation?

Verses 4-6 indicate that the cup containing the blood of the saints is “filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.” This is why Babylon is called “THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” in v. 5. As stated above, there are some preterists who believe that the abomination that causes desolation is the murdered Zealots in the Temple. However, vs. 4-6 imply that Jerusalem’s abomination that caused her desolation by the Roman armies, the abomination that causes desolation, was the unjust executions of the Christian saints, the true Temple of God, not the murder of wicked Zealots in the Temple as some preterists contend.

Thus the view that the Zealot slaughter in the Temple is the abomination that causes desolation ultimately confuses the punishment with the crime. The crime or abomination that caused Jerusalem’s desolation was the persecution of the early Christian saints. The punishment for this crime was, in part, the slaughter of Jewish rebels in the Temple.