The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

DAY OF THE LORD 169
The “unlearned and unstable” use these verses as “proof” of a thousand
year rule of Christ on earth, the so called millennial rule. The Church
has condemned this teaching in the Second Ecumenical council. What
these people say is that this description of the wolf co-existing with the
lamb and the lion eating straw must happen on earth during Christ’s
millennial rule. What they fail to understand is that these prophecies
pertain to the new earth that the Lord promised us: to the heavenly
Jerusalem. They shake their heads when we tell them this! They ask,
“Will the heavenly Jerusalem have animals?”! We answer, Why not?
The new heaven and the new earth are a restoration of heaven and
earth to their pure state before the fall of man. And, before the fall of
man, the lamb and the wolf co-existed, and the lion ate straw, as we are
told in Genesis 1:30:
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to
every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have
given every green herb for meat.
The whole creation was vegetarian, including man, as we are told in
Genesis 1:29:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Animals lived in peace with each other and with man. There was no
violence among humans nor among animals, nor between humans and
animals. The whole creation of God lived in perfect harmony, until that
fateful day when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
When Adam and Eve fell, human nature fell too. Adam’s first born
killed his brother because of that fallen nature. The rest of the creation
suffered because of the fall. The earth was cursed:
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee. (Gen 3:17-18)