The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 19
God’s elect from both Jews and Gentiles. The reference to the Tribes
of Israel is here to be understood as referring to the New Israel, which
is the totality of God’s elect, for whose sake the days will be shortened.
This point becomes clear when we read on:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes,
and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about
the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their
faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and
wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be
unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in
white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. (Rev 7:9-14)
Here the picture becomes clear; a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. And who
are they? They are the elect that have come out of the Great
Tribulation, victorious, the same that were sealed and protected by
God’s own seal. Their number, no man could count, for only God
knows the number of His elect, the number that is symbolically given to
us as 144,000.
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS:
When the seventh seal is opened, we are told that there was silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour. (Rev 8:1) I could not find
any satisfactory explanation for this. Perhaps what it means is that the
plagues already mentioned, wars, famine, pestilence and persecutions,
will be separated from the coming plagues by a time interval
(symbolized by half an hour.) This really makes sense, for the Lord
tells us that “all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
(Matt 24:6) The plagues announced by the seven trumpets being closer
to the end, may be better indications that the end is near.