Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Daniel chapter 11. Daniel, chapter 11, for those of you that are doing a, are, are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Daniel and as we continue in our study of this book this morning, we come to Daniel chapter 11. verse 36 and my goal this morning is to cover verses 36 through the end of the chapter and the title of the message is The Raging End of the Despicable One. The raging end of the despicable one.
And this is a powerful passage that we'll be looking at today. for those of you that have been with us, you'll recall that we have spent two weeks, studying, Daniel chapter 11 verses 2 through 35. And pretty much everyone who studies These 34 verses I believe would say that the 135 prophecies that are found in these verses ended up being fulfilled with remarkable precision over a period of 400 years from the days of the Persian kingdom. All the way down to the ruthless reign of Antiochus the 4th, Epiphanes, who is described as the despicable one who arises in verse 21 of this chapter.
Of those 135 prophecies, I think we can say that 3 of them are found in verse 31 where the angel is clearly speaking of Antiochus the 4th, and he says, Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination of desolation. And we saw 2 weeks ago, when we were looking at this verse, how these things specifically happened with chilling precision. During the days of Antiochus the 4th, around 167 BC, he did away with the morning and evening sacrifices in the temple. He installed an altar or a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies, and shortly thereafter he had a pig offered on the temple altar.
And had the blood of that swine sprinkled throughout the temple, and his actions were clearly the abomination of desolation about which the angel is speaking to Daniel here in Daniel 11:31. However, Almost 200 years later. Almost 200 years after this prophecy of Daniel 11:31 was fulfilled, we see Jesus speaking in Matthew chapter 24, verses 15 through 21. Saying, and this is a part of what he says beginning in verse 15, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, and then verse 16, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, verse 21, for there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will....
