The Abomination of Desolation

I should start with a warning.

We’ll be going through the Abomination of Desolation step-by-step, moment-by-moment. Essentially, what we’re talking about is mass genocide, and when we get to that section, I’m not going to pull any punches about the violence and the carnage.

It’s awful. You’ve been warned.

Let’s consider the context. What happens right before the Abomination of Desolation? The Death of the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:1-14). The great showdown between Moses and Elijah vs. the antichrist, which took place on Calvary’s Hill, the very spot where Christ was crucified (Rev. 11:8).

These global figures have been engaged in a war of words for the last 3 ½ years while doing miracles. Now they’re going to battle to the death.

Somebody’s going to live and somebody’s going to die.

Or maybe they’ll all die.

The world watches with bated breath. They’re all rooting for the antichrist, because they think that if these Two Witnesses will die, then that’ll bring an end to all these plagues and calamities, and they can get back to living their lives. Little do they know.

Moses and Elijah are killed. I believe they willingly give themselves over to death, just as Christ had also willingly given Himself over to death on that very spot on Calvary’s Hill on the cross. This is their appointed time to die, and their death will serve a greater purpose of God.

But before Moses and Elijah die, they give the antichrist a deadly wound (Rev. 13:3,12).

Everybody gasps.

But then… the antichrist miraculously heals himself.

The world marvels. “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

Then the world celebrates. While the bodies of Moses and Elijah lie on the end of the Via Dolorosa, the road that led up to that spot on Calvary’s Hill, the entire unbelieving world will look at their dead bodies, and they will literally party for three days and three nights.

And then… Moses and Elijah come back to life.

The world stops partying.

Every unbeliever around the globe in this moment is shaken to their core, terrified at the sight of Moses and Elijah coming back to life and actually standing on their feet.

They hear a voice from Heaven say, “Come up hither.”

A stunned world watches as angels carry Moses and Elijah up into Heaven.

What a jaw-dropping moment that will be, and I suspect that moment will leave everyone around the globe feeling a constant sense of dread in the pits of their stomachs, because they now know that God was never defeated and this war ain’t over. In fact, this was just one phase of it. This war is about to get a whole lot worse before it’s over.

On the other hand, this seeming victory over the Two Witnesses is a big moment for the antichrist. The entire world tried to stop the Two Witnesses and failed but the antichrist succeeded. Many people have been hurt and died over the last 3 ½ years but… the antichrist can heal himself. The world will say of him, as quoted in Rev. 13:4, “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

This is the moment the antichrist literally becomes the king of the world.

He knows it, and the world knows it.

After this, I suspect that the antichrist will walk from Calvary’s Hill down the Via Dolorosa some 650 yards into Jerusalem. He will march straight into the temple to carry out the Abomination of Desolation.

As he’s walking to the temple, we would observe that Gentile armies have already surrounded Jerusalem. You remember what the Lord said about those Gentile armies?

Luk 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Luk 21:21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. Luk 21:22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Luk 21:23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. Luk 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Notice the reference here to armies. In vs. 20, the Lord spoke of armies encompassing Jerusalem, which tells them that the Abomination of Desolation is nigh at hand. And then notice in vs. 24, He says that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. These are Gentile armies that have surrounded Jerusalem, and the entire city will be destroyed by those Gentile armies.

If Gentile armies surrounded Jerusalem today, the Jews would be rather alarmed by that, wouldn’t you  think? But they’re not alarmed here by this. They’re not freaking out.

Why?

Because they know that these Gentile armies are the antichrist’s armies, part of that 10-nation alliance he has. Those are HIS armies. He’s one of them, and they’re okay with his armies being there. They’re thinking they are SAFE having his armies around Jerusalem, and they were probably assured by everyone that they are there to support the antichrist in his showdown with the Two Witnesses. They’re there to perhaps offer assistance if the antichrist needs help killing them, and more importantly, I’ve not doubt that everyone in Jerusalem has also been assured that the armies are there to even protect THEM from those terribly evil Two Witnesses.

What an upside-down world that the Jews would be okay having Jerusalem surrounded by Gentile armies, of all things, simply because they’re the antichrist’s armies.

War in Heaven

As the antichrist is heading to the temple, I suspect that something else happens around this time. There is war in Heaven.

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

We have the reference to Michael here. Michael is elsewhere called an archangel. “Archangel” means “over angel,” “chief angel,” or “the prince of angels.”

Notice who the instigator of this war is in Heaven. It was Michael. Notice carefully the wording here. Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Satan wasn’t the one who started this war in Heaven. It’s not that the dragon attacked Michael and his angels in Heaven. It’s that Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought back. And the dragon prevailed not, and they were cast down to the Earth. This war was started by Michael and his angels.

This moment, like much of the Tribulation, is God going on the offensive, and here at the 3 ½ year mark, this is the appointed time in Heaven for Satan to be cast down to the Earth. Down to the ground. When John writes “heaven,” I suspect this is meant to encompass the first, second, and third heaven. God ordered Michael and his angels to send Satan to the Earth, down to the ground. Michael, and all those angels, did a clean sweep of the first, second, and third heaven, and sent Satan and his angels packing to the Earth. Cast out of all heavenly places.

This is the moment when Satan becomes Prince of the Power of the Air no more.

Michael and his angels attack. Satan is outnumbered, overpowered, and he is helpless to stop God’s overwhelming heavenly force. This stirs up his rage. He’s beyond furious. He knows his time is short. There’s nothing he can do to stop the inevitable outcome of the Tribulation.

Bullinger wrote, “This reveals the fact that the initiative will be taken by Michael, and not by the Dragon: a very important point in the interpretation. The time has come in the Divine counsels for this great event of the ages. Satan, who has hitherto had access to the heavens is at length to be cast out.” Vs 8 says that the dragon and his angels prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Bullinger would write, “The great object with which that war is waged will be accomplished.” In other words, God initiates this battle because we have reached the very appointed time in human history in which Satan will be the Prince of the Power of the Air no more. Then we have the glorious proclamation in vs. 10 of the coming kingdom, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

Satan Possesses the Antichrist

I suspect this is the moment when Satan possesses the antichrist. This happens sometime after he killed Moses and Elijah and before he enters the temple.

The antichrist could not have been possessed by Satan before this moment because Satan was just cast out of Heaven. He can’t be two places at once. He can’t be in the heavens and inside the antichrist at the same time. I believe it’s after Satan is cast down to the Earth that he possesses the antichrist, and that is before he enters the temple to carry out the Abomination of Desolation. Now there is no verse that specifically says that Satan possesses the antichrist, but if you consider the totality of all that’s said of the antichrist, the idea that Satan would possess him HERE at this moment makes sense to me. Consider that Paul would say in 2Th_2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Jordan would make the case that man of sin is a description of the antichrist in the first half of the Tribulation and the son of perdition is a description of him in the second half. Why? Because Judas was also called the son of perdition in the Lord’s high priestly prayer in John 17:12 in view of the fact that he would not only betray him but also be possessed by Satan (John 22:3).

Look also at Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. This is a vision of the dragon that connects his rebellion in Heaven to his downfall on the Earth. John’s connecting the beginning to the end. But notice the description of the dragon. He has seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. Doesn’t that sound familiar? We read this same description about the antichrist in Rev. 13:1, and so I would suggest that here in Rev. 12:3, the antichrist and the dragon have now become one. The dragon has those ten horns and seven crowns because Satan has now possessed the antichrist and they will be operating as one unit. The whole chapter of Rev. 12 is about the dragon in his fury going to war with Israel. In vs. 13, the dragon is persecuting the woman who brought forth the man child. In other words, Satan is hell bent (pun intended) on killing every single Jew.

Look at Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. In other words, Satan verbally orders a flood of armies to go after Israel. How would he do that? He can do that if he has possessed the antichrist. He’s ordering the Gentile armies through the person of the antichrist to slaughter all the Jews, which is what the Abomination of Desolation is all about. Satan possesses the antichrist before he enters that temple proclaiming himself to be God. It’s Satan himself through the person of the antichrist who gives the order to annihilate all the Jews and to destroy all of Jerusalem.

Let me back up here a minute. I do think that the antichrist and the false prophet are possessed by demons from the beginning of the Tribulation. We pointed out before they’ll be able to perform great signs and wonders such that they would deceive even the elect. The antichrist can heal himself. The false prophet will call down fire from Heaven pretending to be Elijah. They will be performing demonic miracles from the beginning.

I don’t think they would be able to perform those signs and lying wonders and demonic miracles without being possessed by demons. If you study demon possession in the Gospels, some of them had extraordinary abilities because they were possessed by demons.

For example, you remember the Nude Dude in a Rude Mood in Mark 5. People tried to bind him up in chains, and he could break the chains into pieces! People had extraordinary abilities they would not have had otherwise because they were possessed by demons.

So a takeaway from this could be that one has to be possessed by demons in order to carry out demonic miracles. I’d suggest that from the beginning of the Tribulation, the antichrist and the false prophet are not just possessed by demons but perhaps legions of demons. Rev. 13:2 said that the dragon gave him his power. Paul wrote in 2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Paul is saying that after his coming, the antichrist had always from the beginning been empowered by Satan to carry out all power and signs and lying wonders. If he wasn’t possessed by Satan until the midway point, then he had to have been possessed by other demons to be empowered to do those demonic miracles.

And now here at the midway point on the eve of the Abomination of Desolation, the antichrist is possessed by Satan himself. The other demons leave him and Satan himself takes up residence. And now Satan will speak through him and order the armies to annihilate all the Jews just as God had foretold. (Demons can speak through the person they’ve possessed. In Mark 5, the Lord asked the demon for his name, and he said, “My name is legion: for we are many.”) Which brings us to

The Abomination of Desolation

I suspect that over the course of those three days and three nights when the bodies of Moses and Elijah are lying on the street of that great city, there will be a massive influx of Jews into Jerusalem, because they’re all fooled into believing that the antichrist is their Messiah. And now, they want to see him. And they know that they will get to see him in the temple of Jerusalem. They think this is the moment they have been waiting for their whole lives.

Jerusalem is packed with people. Wall to wall people. Every inch of that city is filled with people. You couldn’t move around if you wanted to.

The antichrist marches down a street toward the new temple.

The people go nuts. They’re in a celebratory mood because of this recent victory over the Two Witnesses. They’re crying. Praising God. The roar of their cheers will be deafening.

The antichrist enters the temple.

He goes up the steps through the doors, and if the floorplans for the third temple are accurate, he’d first enter the outer courtyard, which may also be filled with people.

The people erupt at seeing him and scream all this praise and worship. There are so many people, he has trouble moving through the crowd.

He finally gets across the outer courtyard and reaches a door to the inner courtyard. He goes through. He walks down a short hallway, and he enters the inner courtyard, a large square-shaped room, where in the center there’s a platform and on top of that is an altar.

Except now, instead of an altar, there is simply a chair made for the antichrist.

Again, this room is packed with people, all eyes are on him, and here, in the inner court, I imagine we’d be seeing the elite of the elite in Israel. Only the elites would be allowed inside the inner courtyard when their so-called Messiah shows up.

The antichrist walks through the crowd to the center of the room. He goes up onto the platform. He sits on the chair. Silence falls over the crowd. They all prostrate themselves before him.

He speaks.

We know he will do two things when he’s in that temple. 1) He will proclaim himself to be God, and 2) he will cause the sacrifices and the oblations to cease.

Remember how Dan_9:27 told us that in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease? I don’t think that means he tells them to stop doing sacrifices. I think that means that as a result of everything that happens at the Abomination of Desolation, the sacrifices will just stop until the Lord comes.

As the antichrist sits in the inner court, speaking, the people respond to his blasphemies with praise. The praise builds. Euphoria reaches a fever pitch, until…

…Satan, speaking through the person of the antichrist, will give the order to the armies: kill them all. Then those Gentile armies around the city will move in on Jerusalem slaughtering everyone they see.

The city is so packed with people and surrounded by soldiers – everybody’s trapped. The Lord would say in Luke 19, thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.

They’re trapped.

All they can do is watch loved ones die around them until… it’s their turn to die.

There’s blood and bodies everywhere. Blood has literally soaked the streets of Jerusalem.

All the people inside the temple will hear the killing outside and all this wailing and screaming and death, and they’ll be wondering what’s going on.

The soldiers enter the temple. They slaughter everyone in the outer courtyard.

Everyone in the inner court realize now this is a trap and they’re all doomed. They all look at the antichrist with total confusion on their faces. Then the soldiers enter the inner court, and they kill everyone as the antichrist coldly watches on, perhaps even yelling blasphemies at them.

This is genocide that’s worse than the holocaust.

The antichrist leaves with all the soldiers.

What follows is the destruction of the temple. They blow it up. There will not be one stone left on top of another. It’s obliterated. Remember how Dan 8:11 told us 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.

Not only that, the entire city of Jerusalem will be destroyed and left desolate until Christ’s return. Everyone will die and all the buildings are bombed and brought down. Again, the Lord would say in Luke 19, they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another. The entire city will be leveled, laid waste, as if it was a distant memory.

Remember how Gabriel told Daniel in Dan. 9:27, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. He emphasized twice how Jerusalem will be utterly desolate.

And he says, For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, meaning, for the purposes of advancing his cause to spread all his abominations around the globe, the antichrist will first destroy Jerusalem, kill all her people, and the city will be left utterly desolate until the consummation, until Christ returns. In other words, he killed his own people and destroyed Jerusalem so he could be king of the world. This is another reason the world will accept this Jew as their global king because the world wanted to see Israel gone and after he wipes them out, they’ll submit to him.

Consider also how Daniel told us that the antichrist shall regard not the God of HIS fathers, plural, and I made the case that I personally think the antichrist is a pure Jew. Why should Israel accept the antichrist as their Messiah if he’s a mixed race, which was strictly forbidden in the OT? Here he is, a Jew, who dismissed the God of His fathers, and yet, he’s pretending to be the God of his fathers. He’s fooled his own nation into thinking he’s their Messiah, and when he actually achieves his goal of deceiving Israel, he turns on them and slaughters his OWN PEOPLE.

And he was one of them.

They were his family, his friends, his kinsmen in the flesh. And he was their son, their brother, their close friend in whom they all trusted! And now he just systematically kills them all.

The antichrist will carry out a betrayal of mass genocide on a scale that would even make Hitler blush. This is the ultimate insult to Israel, the ultimate act of terror against God Himself. And this is also the greatest betrayal in Scripture since Lucifer himself betrayed God in Heaven and took with him a third of the heavenly host.

When Jesus first arrives at Jerusalem for His triumphal entry, the moment He first sees Jerusalem, He weeps because of the tragedy of the Abomination of Desolation. Look at Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. Luk 19:43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

That last verse is just jaw-dropping. I can’t get over that verse. Look again at what He says. He’s talking about their enemies having compassed the city, which have to be the antichrist’s Gentile armies, and He says Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground (meaning the city will be leveled to the ground), and thy children within thee (slaughtering the people of Jerusalem); and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. The point He makes here is that the city will be ruined, the people slaughtered, even the children, and none of this would happen if they had simply accepted Christ as their Messiah in His first visitation with them! This moment of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem happens after the disciples got Him that colt. He’s descending the Mount of Olives, as He rides into Jerusalem as their King. He’s entering Jerusalem as their King, and He’s already weeping about the Abomination of Desolation. And this happens as He descends the Mount of Olives! That very same Mount of Olives where Christ ascends into Heaven in Acts 1:9 and the very same Mount of Olives where His foot will touch when He returns to the Earth. And it’s here He also visibly weeps over Jerusalem about the tragedy of the Abomination of Desolation, all of which could have been avoided had they simply accepted Him as their Messiah.

Let’s look again at what the Lord says of the Abomination of Desolation.

Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Consider what the Lord said first in Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) It’s interesting to me that when we read Luke 21 earlier, the Lord said that when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Luk 21:21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains… But here He says that when you see the antichrist stand in the holy place, flee into the mountains. I suspect that the point here in Matthew is that if you wait until the antichrist is in the temple and then you flee into the mountains, the journey for you will be even more difficult than if you left when you first saw the armies surround the city.

Notice how the Lord defines the Abomination of Desolation. He first reveals that the Abomination of Desolation is something they’ll see. If they know Christ, if they’re familiar with Scripture, then they’ll know what this event is all about when they see it begin, which means that they MUST immediately flee into the wilderness to save themselves.

The Abomination of Desolation is both an event and a person. If you take out the aside about Daniel, look at what the Lord says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation… stand in the holy place.” The antichrist IS the Abomination of Desolation. The Lord calls him THE Abomination of Desolation. How is that possible? What does that mean? He is the abomination who will bring about desolation in Israel. He’s the catalyst to the desolation that will befall not only Jerusalem but also most of Israel during the Tribulation.

The phrase, Abomination of Desolation, is really interesting in that this phrase highlights both cause and effect in the person of the antichrist. The cause is when the abomination stands in the holy place, and the effect is the desolation of Jerusalem. He’s the abomination who will bring about desolation in Israel. The antichrist IS an abomination who will also PERFORM an abomination by standing in the holy place proclaiming himself to be the Messiah, which brings about the desolation of Jerusalem.

Interesting to me that the word “abomination” can BE something defiled and condemned. Yet, an abomination can also be the ACT of defiling something sacred, which is condemned.

So, first, the antichrist is himself an abomination. He’s a man possessed by the devil at the midway point able to perform miracles claiming to be Christ. He IS an abomination. I remember that Kevin Sadler in an Oct. 2018 issue of the Searchlight made the point essentially that God in time past spoke of idols as having mouths but cannot speak (Psa. 115:4-8) and yet, here, in the person of the antichrist, we have the first and the ultimate living idol, a creation of the devil, a walking, talking person possessed by Satan able to perform miracles claiming to be the Messiah. That is why he IS an abomination.

Yet, an abomination can also be the ACT of defiling something sacred, which is condemned, which is what the antichrist does when he exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

So the antichrist at the midway point who is an abomination himself will perform an abomination by entering the holy temple claiming to be the Messiah which will bring about the desolation of Jerusalem and the deaths of an untold number of unbelieving Jews.

The angel Gabriel would say in Daniel 9, “unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” He meant that God Himself has determined to allow not only Jerusalem but also many other regions of Israel to become desolate, destroyed, empty, as judgment upon an unbelieving Israel. These are HIS determined desolations. God determined that all these desolations will take place. And this tragedy in Jerusalem is strongly emphasized throughout prophecy related to the Tribulation because this is a key event in which God will literally separate His wheat from His chaff on the Earth. He will kill off most unbelieving Jews in judgment.

Thus, it’s necessary for them to be forewarned about this event, prepared for this event. And if they’re to have any hope of surviving this tragedy and avoid dying in their sins and eternal damnation, they must come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be familiar with Scripture. Otherwise, if they’re an unbeliever, this is the moment they’ll be killed. There will be no more hope for redemption, and their souls will be lost forever in the Lake of Fire.

The Lord makes a few more points about the Abomination of Desolation. Look at Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Interesting to me the Lord says Judea here. Judea is a big region, which contains Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bethany, Emmaus, Jericho, and so many other cities. So when the Lord says Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains, He doesn’t mean to flee into the nearest mountains outside of Jerusalem. He means that everyone who is in Judea must flee all of Judea and then go into the mountains. The entire region of Judea will become a death trap. No one is safe anywhere in Judea.

Then the Lord says in Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

These passages emphasize the speed with which they must take off, especially if they wait until after the antichrist enters the temple, because armies will soon be coming after them. They should leave as soon as they see those Gentile armies surround Jerusalem.

The Lord also expresses concern about how difficult all of this will be for them to travel if they wait too long to leave. He says woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! He also says and pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day. Why does He say these things? Because this is not some quick trip. This will be a long, treacherous, arduous journey leaving the entire region of Judea to escape into the mountains. It’ll be that much more difficult for a woman if she’s pregnant or nursing an infant. It’ll be that much more difficult to travel if this happens in the wintertime, and it’ll be that much more difficult to convince loved ones to leave with you on the Sabbath because Jews would fuse Isa. 58:13-14 to say that they shouldn’t take long journeys on the Sabbath.

Then the Lord says inMat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. What we had in the first 3 ½ years was tribulation and what we have in the second 3 ½ years is GREAT tribulation, the most horrifying judgments that will ever take place in the history of the universe.