The only "holy place," outside the human heart, is Jerusalem—in particular, the Most Holy Place of the Temple in Jerusalem.

If, as we believe, Antichrist (in imitation of Christ) will take his place between the cherubim in the Most Holy Place of a rebuilt Temple, then there would be standing in the Holy Place an abomination that causes desolation.

Such a blasphemy would cause enormous desolation and destruction in the earth, beginning in Jerusalem. The devout Jews would be well advised to flee for their lives from Judea in that day.

It may be at this point that the spiritual darkness converges with the physical realm so there is an actual, tangible, visible darkness surrounding the people who have striven to gain security, pleasure, and achievement apart from the Presence of God and His Christ.

The "civilized," sophisticated peoples of the earth, the nations that just a short time before had been boasting of peace and safety under their godless world system, will find themselves in spiritual and perhaps physical darkness, their bodies swollen with grotesque tumors, boils, and other disfigurements. They will be in agony from their pain. The superheated sun will enhance the effect of monsters moving about in a hell, roaring their obscenities in their rage against their Creator.

How different this will be from the scene of the first man and woman in the garden of Eden!

Rather than repent of their deeds, the response of the wicked to the pain and darkness will be to blaspheme the God of Heaven.

The sixth bowl.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

The Scripture declares that Antichrist will maintain his headquarters in or near Jerusalem.

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace [the tents of his palace] between the seas in the glorious holy mountain [toward the holy mountain of beauty]; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:45)

Although there are variant readings of Daniel 11:45, it appears that Antichrist will be encamped in or near, Jerusalem—perhaps in the Jezreel Valley, maintaining a standing army in the Great Plain. Megiddo, the site of the Battle of Armageddon, is in this area. So is Nazareth, the city of the true Christ.

The "holy mountain" of Jerusalem is between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern tip of the Dead Sea. The Jezreel Valley and the Great Plain are toward Jerusalem and between the seas. They are surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea.

"Between the seas" may be interpreted spiritually to mean between the nations of the East and the West, which would be true of any site from Babylon to the land of Israel.

To be continued.