179. (7) This is the source of that "abomination of desolation, and that tribulation such as has not been nor ever shall be," which the Lord foretold in Daniel, and in the Gospels, and in the Apocalypse. In Daniel we read:
Upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation even until the consummation and decision, it shall drop upon the devastation (9:27).
In the gospel of Matthew the Lord says:
Many false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray. When, therefore, ye shall see the abomination of desolation predicted by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him that readeth note it well (24:11, 15);
and afterwards in the same chapter:
Then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be (verse 21).
This tribulation and that abomination are treated of in seven chapters of the Apocalypse; they are what are meant:
By the black horse, and the pale horse going out of the book, the seal of which the Lamb opened (6:5-8).
Also by:
The beast coming up out of the abyss which made war upon the two witnesses and killed them (11:7 seq.).
Also by:
The dragon which stood before the woman about to be delivered, that he might devour her child, and which pursued her into the desert and there from his mouth cast out water as a river that he might drown her (12).
Also by:
The beasts of the dragon, one from the sea and the other from the earth (13).
Again:
By the three green spirits like frogs which went forth out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (16:13).
And finally by this:
That after the seven angels had poured out the bowls of the wrath of God, in which were the seven last plagues, into the earth, the sea, the fountains and rivers, upon the sun, upon the seat of the beast, upon the Euphrates, and at length into the air, there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth (16).
The "earthquake" means the overturning of the church, which is done by falsities and falsifications of truth, and this is signified also by:
The great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world (Matt. 24:21).
The following words have a like meaning:
And the angel thrust in his sickle and gathered the vineyard of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the anger of God; and the wine-press was trodden and there went out blood even unto the bridles of the horses for a thousand and six hundred furlongs (Apoc. 14:19, 20);
"blood" signifying truth falsified. Besides other things contained in those seven chapters.