abomination, the words of Christ clearly prove that it was to lead directly to the destruction of the temple by the Roman army in 70 A. D. The destruction then wrought shall be final, it shall "continue even to the consummation, and to the end."
Julian the Apostate attempted to rebuild the temple in the fourth century but the undertaking was frustrated in a miraculous manner. "The place was made inaccessible by fearful balls of fire that broke out near the foundations and so scorched and burned the workmen that they were forced to retire. The frequent attacks finally caused the work to be abandoned." [1]
The "temple of God" in the above passage from St. Paul probably means all places of Catholic worship in general, and in particular the churches of Rome and Jerusalem. The "abomination of desolation" has been wrought in many Catholic churches by heretics and apostates who have broken altars, scattered the relics of martyrs and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. At the time of the French Revolution a lewd woman was seated upon the altar of the cathedral in Paris and worshipped as the goddess of reason. Such things but faintly fore shadow the abominations that will desecrate churches in those sorrowful days when Antichrist will seat himself at the altar to be adored as God.
13-15. The prophet, of course, shall have power to perform the wonderful works of his master. Among
- ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus xxiii, 1; Catholic Library. Archeology Series, vol. iv, 153.
