The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

GREAT TRIBULATION
117
Then indicating, that these things will in no degree harm the noble and
the firm, He saith, Fear not, neither be troubled. For if ye show forth
the patience that becomes you, the dangers will not prevail over you. 1
But many who are hearers of the divine Scriptures, and have them in
their hand, and keep them in mind with understanding, will escape his
imposture. For they will see clearly through his insidious appearance
and his deceitful imposture, and will flee from his hands, and betake
themselves to the mountains, and hide themselves in the caves of the
earth; and they will seek after the Friend of man with tears and a
contrite heart; and He will deliver them out of his toils, and with His
right hand He will save those from his snares who in a worthy and
righteous manner make their supplication to Him. 2
For the Lord says, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then
look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And
there shall not a hair of your head perish. 3
But, the puzzling question is this, where is this place prepared by God
for His Church to sojourn in during the Great Tribulation? The
scripture does not tell us, it only gives us clues.
The first clue comes from the Lord’s admonition, “let them which be
in Judaea flee into the mountains.” (Matt 24:16) This means that
people in Israel should seek the high ground or get away as fast as
possible. This is logical since most of the Fathers agree that Antichrist
will reign from Israel and that Jerusalem will be his capital, a fact
alluded to in Revelation 11:8. Antichrist will reign primarily over the
Middle East, most of the countries in that region will voluntarily join
him except for three, which he will have to attack and subdue militarily.
We explained in our previous chapter that these three countries are
Egypt, Lybia and the Sudan. (Dan 11:42-43) We can understand from
this that the place of refuge of the Church must be as far away from the
Middle East as possible.
1 St. John Chrysostom: Commentary on Matt XXIV
2 Hippolytus: Discourse on end of the World and on Antichrist
3 Hippolytus: Treatise on Christ and Antichrist