Continued…
CHAPTER XIII
“ABOMINATION OF
DESOLATION”
Now let us read verses 11 and 12 of Daniel 8
and it will be plainly seen that here is exactly the place where Paul found the
scripture from which he taught the Thessalonians concerning the “man of sin”
and the “mystery of iniquity:”
“Yea, he magnified
himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was
taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given
him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down
the truth to the ground; and it practiced and prospered.”
This plainly points
out that which took away the priesthood, the ministry, and the sanctuary of God
and of Christianity.
Let us read it
again. “Yea, he [the little horn—the man of sin] magnified himself even to the
Prince of the host [“against the Prince of princes”—Christ], and by him [the
man of sin] the daily sacrifice [the continual service, the ministry, and the
priesthood of Christ] was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary [the
sanctuary of the prince of the host, of the Prince of princes—Christ] was cast
down. And an host was given him [the man of sin] against the daily sacrifice
[against the continual service, of the ministry of Christ, the Prince of the
host] by reason of transgression cast down the truth to the ground; and it
practiced, and prospered.”
It was “by reason of
transgression,” that is, by reason of sin, that this power gained “the host”
that was used to cast down the truth to the ground, to shut away from the
church and the world Christ’s priesthood, His ministry, and His sanctuary; and
to cast it all down to the ground and tread it underfoot. It was by reason of
transgression that this was accomplished. Transgression is sin, and this is the
consideration and the revelation upon which the apostle in 2 Thessalonians
defines this power as the “man of sin” and the “mystery of iniquity.” In Daniel
8:11-13; 11:31; and 12:11, it will be noticed that the word “sacrifice” is in
every case supplied. And it is wholly supplied, for in its place in the
original there is no word at all. In the original the only word that stands in
this place is the word tamid, that is here translated “daily,” and in these
places the expression “daily” does not refer to the daily sacrifice any more
than it refers to the whole daily ministry or continual service of the
sanctuary, of which the sacrifice was only a part. The word tamid in itself
signifies “continuous or continual,” “constant,” “stable,” “sure,”
“constantly,” “evermore.” Only such words as these express the thought of the
original word, which, in the text under consideration, is translated “daily.”
In Numbers 28 and 29 alone, the word is used seventeen times, referring to the
continual service in the sanctuary.
And it is this
continual service of Christ, the true High Priest, “who continueth ever,” and
“who is consecrated forevermore” in “an unchangeable priesthood"—it is
this continual service of our great High Priest, which the man of sin, the
Papacy, has taken away.
It is the sanctuary
and the true tabernacle in which this true High Priest exercises His continual
ministry that has been cast down by “the transgression of desolation.” It is
this ministry and this sanctuary that the “man of sin” has taken away from the
church and shut away from the world and has cast down to the ground and stamped
upon and in place of which it has set up itself “the abomination that maketh
desolate.” What the former Rome did physically to the visible or earthly
sanctuary, which was “the figure of the true” (Daniel 9:26, 27; Matt. 24:15),
that the latter Rome has done spiritually to the invisible or heavenly
sanctuary that is in itself the true.” Dan. 11:31; 12:11; 8:11, 13.
In the footnote
quotation on page 91 [see below] it is shown that in the apostasy, the bishops,
presbyters, deacons, and the eucharist were made to succeed the high priest,
priests, Levites and sacrifices of the Levitical system. Now by every evidence
of the Scriptures, it is certain that, in the order of God, it was Christ and
His ministry and sanctuary in heaven and this alone, that in truth was the
object of the Levitical system and that is truly the Christian succession to
that system. Therefore when in and by the apostasy the system of bishops as
high priests, presbyters as priests, deacons as Levites, and the Supper as a
sacrifice was insinuated as the Christian succession to the Levitical system,
this of itself was nothing else than to put this false system of the apostasy
in the place of the true, completely to shut out the true, and finally, to cast
it down to the ground and stamp upon it.
And this is how it is that this great
Christian truth of the true priesthood, ministry, and sanctuary of Christ is
not known to the Christian world today.
The “man of sin” has
taken it away and cast it down to the ground and stamped upon it. The “mystery
of iniquity” has hid this great truth from the church and the world during all
these ages in which the man of sin has held place in the world and has passed
itself off as God and its iniquitous host as the church of God. And yet, even
the “man of sin,” the “mystery of iniquity,” itself bears witness to the
necessity of such a service in the church in behalf of sins. For though the
“man of sin,” the “mystery of iniquity,” has taken away the true priesthood,
ministry, and sanctuary of Christ and has cast these down to the ground to be
stamped upon and has completely hid them from the eyes of the Christian world,
yet she did not utterly throw away the idea. No, she threw away the true and
cast down the true to the ground but, retaining the idea, in the place of the
true, she built up in her own realm an utterly false structure. In the place of
Christ, the true and divine High Priest of God’s own appointment in heaven, she
has substituted a human, sinful, and sinning priesthood on earth. In the place
of the continual, heavenly ministry of Christ in His true priesthood upon His
true sacrifice, she has substituted only an interval ministry of a human,
earthly, sinful, and sinning priesthood in the once-a-day “daily sacrifice of
the mass.”
And in the place of
the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man, she
has substituted her own meeting-places of wood and stone, to which she applies
the term “sanctuary.” Thus, instead of the one continual High Priest, the one
continual ministry, and the one continual sanctuary in heaven, which God has
ordained and which is the only true, she has devised out of her own heart and
substituted for the only true, many high priests, many ministries, many
sacrifices, and many sanctuaries, on earth, which in every possible relation
are only human and utterly false. And it can never take away sin.
No earthly
priesthood, no earthly ministry, no earthly sacrifice or service in any earthly
sanctuary can ever take away sin.
In the book of
Hebrews we have seen that even the priesthood, the ministry, the sacrifice, and
the service in the earthly sanctuary—the very service which the Lord Himself
ordained on earth—never took away sin. The inspired record is that they never
did take away sin, and that they never could take away sin. It is only the
priesthood and the ministry of Christ that can ever take away sin.
And this is a
priesthood and a ministry in heaven, and of a sanctuary that is in heaven. For
when Christ was on earth he was not a priest and if He had remained on earth
until this hour, He would not yet be a priest, as it stands written, “If he
were on earth, He should not be a priest.” Heb. 8:4.
Thus, by plain word
and abundant illustration, God has demonstrated that no earthly priesthood,
sacrifice, or ministry can ever take away sin. If any such could take away sin,
then why could not that which God Himself ordained on earth take away sin? If any
such could take away sin, then why change the priesthood and the ministry from
earth to heaven? Therefore, by the plain word of the Lord, it is plain that the
priesthood, the ministry, the sacrifice, and the sanctuary which the Papacy has
set up and operates on earth can never take away sin, but, instead, only
perpetuates sin, is a fraud, an imposture, and the very “transgression” and
“abomination of desolation” is the most holy place. And that this conclusion
and statement as to what the papal system really is is not extravagant nor
far-fetched, is confirmed by the words of Cardinal Baronius, the standard
annalist of the papacy. Writing of the tenth century, he says: “In this century
the abomination of desolation was seen in the temple of the Lord; and in the
See of St. Peter, reverenced by angels, were placed the most wicked of men; not
pontiffs, but monsters.” And the council of Rheims, in 991, declared the papacy
to be “the man of sin, the mystery of iniquity.”
Footnote: “The
bishops now [the latter part of the second century] wished to be thought to
correspond with the high priest of the Jews; the presbyters were said to come
in place of the priests;
and the deacons were
made parallel with the Levites. “In like manner the comparison of the Christian
oblations with the Jewish victims and sacrifices produced many unnecessary
rites, and by decrees corrupted the very doctrine of the holy Supper; which was
converted, sooner, in fact, than one would think, into a sacrifice.”—Mosheims
Ecclesiastical History, Cent. II, part II, chap. II, par. 4; and chap. IV, par.
4.
The Consecrated Way
— Alonzo Jones
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