In the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus was asked by His disciples about the signs that would accompany the end of the age and time of His return. Since they were on the Mount of Olives at the time, the conversation is referred to as the "Olivet Discourse". You can find that discourse in (Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; and Luke 21), with those portions relevant to the Great Tribulation reading as follows:

Jesus' response at first described the general nature of troubles leading up to the End Times, then He focused their attention on a time when an Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation would occur,  seemingly  just prior to His apocalyptic return.

The Matthew and Mark scriptures pertaining to the time of the Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation are almost identical, so only the Matthew text is provided above. The Luke scripture that relates directly to those in Matthew and Mark is shown because it is worded differently. Although it omits the terms Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation, it speaks of a military siege against Jerusalem followed by an extended period of distress to befall the Jewish people, then also concludes with the Lord's return in power and great glory. Thus it deals with the same overall time period in question.

The following techniques are available to us to detect the occurrence of a prophetic event, so let's apply them to World War II.

• THE JUBILEE CALENDAR
  Since Israel experienced a rebirth  back in the Land of their promised inheritance in 1948, Jubilee years 1945 and 1995 are of particular interest for the purpose of exploring likely timeframes for prophetic events. Since World War II occurred during the years 1939-1945, causing it to dovetail with Jubilee year 1945, it becomes a prime candidate for closer examination.
  
  

• THE LEVITICAL CALENDAR
  World War II began on September 1 (Elul 17), 1939 and ended on September 1 (Elul 23), 1945. Although neither of these Levitical dates had any special prophetic or Biblical significance in connection with the Jubilee year 1945 timeframe, their 50th year anniversary date of September 1 (Elul 1), 1989 was a key Levitical date with respect to the Jubilee year 1995 timeframe for three reasons: 

1. Elul 1 was the same Levitical date recorded by the prophet Haggai when he began to receive prophecies from the Lord pertaining to the period following the Babylonian Exile, but then reaching forward to Israel's blessing in the End Times (Haggai 1.1).
   
   

2. September 1 (Elul 1), 1989 also began a 2300 day period of the same length as that recorded in (Daniel 8.14), reaching to Hanukkah in Jubilee year 1995.
   
   

3. Finally, September 1 (Elul 1), 1989 was the first of a whole set of time periods of the same lengths as those recorded by the prophet Daniel having to do with the 70th Week, all of them within the 1988-1995 seven-year timeframe ending at the advent of Jubilee year 1995. 
   

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Jews being executed

WORLD WAR II WAS AN  "ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION"  AGAINST THE JEWS

Did the "soul" and vile intent that motivated the character of World War II fulfill that required to be associated with the Abomination of Desolation of the Olivet Discourse? 

Colliers Encyclopedia of "The World's Great Events" lists the first century destruction of Jerusalem as one of the great tragedies of human history. Even so, that tragedy pales to insignificance when compared with the misery and death that accompanied the Nazi regime's treatment of the Jews during World War II. Although their "final solution" of extermination did not even begin until 1942, almost 6 million Jews were murdered in Nazi death camps by the end of the war. This is verified by recorded Jewish populations in Europe which dropped from 9.48 million in 1939 to 3.78 million in 1948, even though only a few hundred thousand Jews had managed to escape during the war, or migrate to other nations following it. Although sometimes overlooked in the slaughter, millions of Christians were also murdered during that same period. Therefore, in a short span of less that three years, the Jewish and Christian populations were decimated on the entire European continent.

In fact, it is probably safe to say that the efficiency of the Nazi extermination machine had increased so dramatically near the end that if it had been permitted to continue for even a brief time, God's Covenantal people would have been essentially eradicated from Europe. Therefore we need not look beyond World War II to find the fulfillment of the above text "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened."

To underscore the fact that Nazism, as conceived and executed, was not simply a war against all humanity, but was specifically a venomous discharge intended to annihilate God's Covenantal people, consider the following remark by one Jewish historian: 

If we are willing to consider World War II as the embodiment of that final Abomination of Desolation identified in the Olivet Discourse, it may be contrasted with the first century Roman "abomination" in a way that is oddly paradoxical. The Roman "abomination" intended to forever destroy Israel, and at the time, apparently succeeded in that aim by eradicating that nation from their Land at the advent of the Times of the Gentiles. Likewise, the Nazi "abomination" had the objective of annihilating the Jewish people, thereby preventing another Israel, yet its strategy backfired, for their extermination efforts had the net effect of putting the Jews back into the Land near the completion of the Times of the Gentiles. Here are two military operations conceived by man's wisdom with the very same objectives, yet they produced opposite results. Can we detect in this reverse effect the hand of God moving to bring about His ultimate purpose for these people?

Nuremberg, 1945

WORLD WAR II WAS THE "GREATEST TRIBULATION"  THE WORLD HAS KNOWN

Can the overall intensity and scope of World War II fulfill the provisions of the Great Tribulation described in the Olivet Discourse? Consider the statistics of the biggest killing spree in the history of mankind, by nation:

Two points may be inferred from these statistics. 

• First, the war was carried out with an appalling level of intensity in terms of total deaths; these numbers total to some 50 million people killed in a multitude of ways, even without including countries like Canada and Australia or less prominent nations or provinces in the Pacific, Far East, or North Africa where intense fighting also occurred. As a general rule, conventional warfare will cause 4-5 people to be wounded for every person killed, so we may estimate conservatively that out of a mid-1940's world population of about 2,500 million, on the order of 10% of the world's population were killed or wounded in World War II, with a much higher percentage among Jews and Christians living on the Eurasian continent!
  
  

• Second, the title given to this war correctly describes its geographical scope, for although it was fought essentially on the Eurasian continent, it drew countries all over the world into the fray. This fact makes for an odd distribution of (civilian/military) deaths among the nations. Czechoslovakia was in the midst of the conflict, suffering greatly in civilian over military casualties, because they fell quickly under the military heel of the Nazis, and along with Germany, Poland, and Austria, had the dubious distinction of hosting death camps where Jews and Christians were executed. Conversely, the United States had almost half a million military deaths, but its civilian population escaped essentially unscathed, probably making succeeding generations of Americans more apathetic about studying its potential prophetic character.

Nonetheless, as severe as World War II was, it is agreed that a full-blown nuclear war among nations  would produce far more outright deaths. However, in terms of the "tribulation" it would impose on those living, instant vaporization might seem preferable to sitting in a death camp for a period of years, witnessing members of your family systematically be put to death in the most heinous ways, and wondering when you would suffer the same fate. In any event, we will not ruminate about a hypothetical future scenario, but simply set forth World War II as a legitimate candidate for the Great Tribulation of the Olivet Discourse.

In addition to the Olivet Discourse in the New Testament Gospels, the prophet Daniel has much to say about the subject of the Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation. Bible historians have been able to parse the historic portions of Daniel, relating them to known events. Of particular interest at this point in our study is the text shown below in (Daniel 11.35-12.4), because it appears to deal with a person and an event contemporary with the subjects under consideration. 

It is most natural to suppose that this is simply a continuation of the story of Antiochus Epiphanes, whose character traits and military actions can be related to the preceding verses. Indeed, Matthew Henry who was a 17th century Bible expositor, takes this view as seen by his interpretation of verses 44-45 above.

However, a majority of other conservative Bible scholars see at least some of these verses as having a dual fulfillment, describing another Willful King who will rise during the End Times to carry out a military campaign similar to that described for Antiochus. The argument for this view stems from the fact that (Daniel 12.1) refers to this same period as "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time". Since this time of "Jacob's trouble" is said to surpass anything ever to occur since there was a nation and to be followed by a resurrection, they see the final fulfillment of this Willful King to occur during the time of the Great Tribulation described in the Olivet Discourse.

Adolph Hitler

THE CHARACTER OF ADOLPH HITLER  WAS LIKE THE "WILLFUL KING" PROPHESIED FOR THE END TIMES

The execution of World War II may be laid directly at the feet of one man, Adolph Hitler. The August/September, 1989 World War II anniversary issue of U.S. News and World Report was titled, "Hitler's War Against the World." The report said, "millions struggled in it and millions died in it, but in many ways it was the war of just one man. Hitler made it, he fought it, he determined its barbaric character, and his will continuously enlarged and sustained it from the beginning almost to the very end."

We have just observed the way in which the Willful King in the above text is seen by many conservative scholars to be not only a description of Antiochus, but also of some End Times personality. In light of this, it is revealing to reflect on the similarity of the character traits between Antiochus Epiphanes and Adolph Hitler:  

• Both had a passion to plant their respective ideologies in the entire region under their control:
  
  In the case of Antiochus, it was Hellenism which he intended to impress throughout his Syrian controlled empire, and it was only the Jews who adamantly opposed his passion.
  
  In the case of Hitler, it was Nazism which he was driven to spread throughout all of Europe and ultimately the world, and it was only the Jews and dedicated Christians who refused to accept it.

• Both had an intense form of idolatry based on their respective ideologies:
  
  For Antiochus it was not enough that Hellenism be adopted culturally but also that all of his subjects worship the Greek gods of Hellenism.
  
  In the case of Hitler, it was not enough for Nazism to be adopted as a socialistic state throughout his realm, but also he demanded that the entire religious mystic associated with Nazism be honored and "worshipped", e.g. the concept of a superior Aryan race, the denial of a God independent of the Nazi state to whom each person is ultimately accountable, and the total submission of one's will to a supreme earthly authority mandated by the term "Heil Hitler".

• Both promoted forms of personal deification:
  
  In the case of Antiochus, he promoted his deification at least in some respects as evidenced by contemporary coinage that displayed his image.
  
  In the case of Hitler, he took for himself a more direct form of deification by his official title of "Der Furher", which means "the father".

• Both practiced guile and deceit in their rise to military and political power.
  
  Antiochus began his conquest against Egypt by dealing deceitfully with young Ptolemy Philopater, posing first as a friend but later taking the choice regions of the province for himself.
  
  Hitler always preceded his conquests by appearing to show compassion for the poor and oppressed, but secretly he despised the weak regarding them as inferior and considering it to be his destiny to trample them down, putting them under the heal of his authority.

• Both were infuriated by God's Covenantal people, who steadfastly maintained their separatist culture, tradition, and religion.
  
  For this reason, Antiochus began a directed policy of intimidation against the Jews within his province to force them to submit to his Hellenistic culture and religion. This was brought to a climax when he abolished all forms of Jewish worship, setting up the Greek god Zeus in the Temple, and forcing them to sacrifice unclean animals on the altar.
  
  Likewise Hitler instituted a directed and progressive policy of intimidation against the Jews, first attacking their economic influence (1933), later their political influence (1935), then their basic human rights (1938), all designed to force them into the mold of his ideology and idolatry. It is significant that those Jews who were willing to renounce their faith and become "non-Jewish" were spared. For example, Alfred Rosenberg, a vociferous "non-Jewish" Jew from Moscow, was elevated to the position of Hitler's philosopher and party strategist. Similarly, the majority of "nominal" Christians in Europe who capitulated to Nazism and its cultural and "theological" tenants did not end up in those death camps where dedicated Christians, unswerving in their allegiance to their Lord, were martyred.

• Both possessed an intense and fierce disposition toward cruelty.
  
  When many Jews refused to yield to Antiochus' edicts, he retaliated by putting them to death.
  
  Similarly, when the vast majority of European Jews who had been raised under democratic forms of government and remained faithful to Judaism, refused to yield to Hitler's maniacal will, he began confining them into concentration camps in 1939, eventually instituting his "final solution" in 1942, by the merciless killing of men, women, and children in some of the most hideous ways ever conceived.

For these reasons, it is perhaps not altogether surprising that an abomination of desolation originally associated with Antiochus' terrible persecution of the Jews, was repeated in an even more intensified form by another Abomination of Desolation during the World War II Holocaust.

The correlation between World War II and Daniel's description of Jacob's trouble to be fulfilled during the End Times provides more evidence that it was the Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation depicted in the Olivet Discourse. The inset map shows Germany, with England and France to the North and South of each other. A summary of the primary military campaigns conducted during World War II is provided in the following chart, placed alongside each of the prophesied verses in Daniel. Notice how the prophetic description accurately depicts the chronology of the entire World War II campaign conducted by Nazi Germany, identifying England as the "kingdom of the North" and France as the "kingdom of the South".

The correlations between World War II and the chief personality who orchestrated it, with specific End Times Bible prophecies in both the Olivet Discourse and Daniel, seem too absolute to require additional evidence, so they are simply left for the reader to evaluate and judge. Rather, it may be of some value to reflect on two final questions that might remain in the minds of readers.

1. Why does the Bible apparently employ two sets of prophecies, i.e. those in the Olivet Discourse and in Daniel, to describe the same End Time event, i.e. why was this final End Time event, setting  the stage for Israel's return to their inheritance, not completely forecast by a single prophecy?
   
   Consider the following historic patterns: