Q. What about the abomination of desolation and the winter flight in Matthew 24:15-20?
A. Many people, maybe most, in churches like mine generally think this refers to some time in the future related to the Antichrist. It is true that one of the questions Jesus is answering in Matthew 24 is about the sign of his coming, and of the end of the world. However, he is also answering the question of when concerning when the destruction of the temple: “There shall not be left here one stone [of the temple] upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” The abomination of desolation may best fit with this, when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. This also seems to fit best with what Daniel said on the subject (Daniel 9:27; 11:31, 12:11). Daniel connects the coming of the “abomination that maketh desolate” with the first coming of the Messiah in 9:24-27. The things following about being with child, winter travel, etc. would make the flight from the destruction more rigorous and troublesome. It may be that some of this includes that in the past and foreshadows something else in the future, too, as do several other prophecies.
See also Luke 21:20-21, which puts “desolation” at the time of the destruction of the temple.
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