The Abomination of Desolation.
By E. C. Stiles
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet (whoso readeth let him understand)." Daniel also says, "The wise shall understand." And we find they have understood, not only in our day, but even in the time of that great tribulation such as never was before or shall be again. At the time of the reformation, among other sufferers who left the church of Rome was one Leonhard Schoener, who afterwards became a Baptist preacher. He is said to have been a thorough scholar like Luther, and others, "who instructed many, yet fell by flame, captivity and spoil many days." He was beheaded and burnt at Rotenburg Jan. 1528. He left the following admonition for the consolation of all who suffer for the name of Christ. Mark what he says of the abomination. "We beseech thee, O eternal God! incline the ear of thy mercy, Lord of Sabbath. Thou Lord of hosts! hear our complaint, for great affliction and calamity prevail, and pride has come into thine inheritance. To it many pretended christians have united themselves, and have set up the abomination of desolation. In their rage they destroy the sanctuary of the christians. They have trampled it down and the abomination of desolation is worshiped as God. They have laid waste thy holy city, thrown down thy holy altar and murdered such of thy servants as they could apprehend. And now that we remain as a remnant, they have driven us with reproach and disgrace into all countries. We are scattered abroad as sheep that have no shepherd. We have to leave house and home, and be like the night birds that lodge in the rocks. Cave and cliffs are our chambers; they lay nets for us as for birds of the air. We retire to the forests, they hunt us with dogs. They lead us bound and captive, like lambs that open not their mouth. We are proclaimed as mutineers and heretics. We are led like sheep to the slaughter. Many are afflicted in bonds—their bodies putrefying. Some succumb under intensity of pain. Here is the patience of the saints on earth—thus we must be proved by suffering. Believers have been hanged on trees, butchered, hewn to pieces, secretly and publicly drowned; not only men, but old and young ladies have [sic] have borne witness that Christ is the truth, and the only way to eternal life." Martyr's Mirror, p. 352. Truly when men have treated God's children according to the above description, thinking to do God service by laying his church desolate and waste; father arising up against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, betraying one another and causing one another to be put to death; it must have been indeed according to the term used by Daniel an "abomination" in the sight of a just and holy God. Therefore he says "Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid; be ye very desolate saith the Lord; for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jer. xi, 12. After they forsake God they add insult to injury by destroying his children and then in their broken cisterns which they hew out, they offer up their "forms of godliness without the power," which is only an abomination in his sight.