The Abomination of Desolation

Having exhaustively developed my perspective on the possible chronology of the coming Gog/Magog invasion of Israel, and the possible nuclear attack upon America by a vengeful Russia, and how all this might well lead up to the Rapture of the church, I now must present a disclaimer for the apparent (but not certain) flaw in my biblical reasoning. It all centers around the juxtaposition of Jesus' warning about the Abomination of Desolation in the various accounts of His Olivet Discourse, and how he gives that first, and later expounds on what is obviously the rapture of the believers. While it all confirms the correctness of my belief that the rapture will occur immediately after the phenomenon of, "the sun (will) be darkened, and the moon will not give her light" (Matthew 24: 29), followed immediately by, "And then shall appear the SIGN of the Son of man in heaven...", which is obviously when He will rapture His church. I also explained that I believe that "the SIGN of the Son of man..." is different from the second coming of Christ to earth, when He will first stand upon the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. There is no mention of His actually landing on earth in His Olivet Discourse; merely that He would be seen coming in the clouds. The emphasis here is certainly the gathering of His elect (the church) to meet Him in the air, so there is no need for Him to actually touch down. And there is much more prophecy to be fulfilled before we see Him landing on the Mount of Olives (in Zechariah 14: 4), so it makes sense that we will go away with Jesus, (presumably to Heaven?) to await His real second coming at the end, when we will return with Him. Also, the place where Jesus intervenes to save His people from total destruction is "surrounding Jerusalem". Whereas the place where God destroys the Gog/Magog armies is on "the mountains of Israel", which extend all the way through central Israel, north, deep into Syria, and Lebanon. It is reasonable to me that these "mountains" are those north of Israel proper, in present-day Syria, (remember that King David conquered Syria about 1000 A.D., and it was considered part of Israel thereafter). But I get no sense from Ezekiel's account that the invasion force actually crosses the border into Israel proper because there is no mention of any harm to the Israeli people in the Gog/Magog war, whereas there is considerable violence to them immediately before Jesus returns to rescue the remnant of His people.

But the timing of His warning of the Abomination of Desolation clearly before all this is admittedly troubling to me, since we know that this will occur "in the midst of..." the seven year tribulation, yet I've already expounded on my reasons for believing that the Gog/Magog war concludes with what seems like a nuclear exchange between Russia and America ( with a brief angelic interruption that seems to be the rapture), and the likelihood that the seven year Tribulation will follow all this. Clearly there is an irreconcilable discrepancy here, as both can not be correct. At this point all I can do is throw up my hands, and shout, "Mia culpa!" you've caught me in my humanity. I'm not too proud to admit my human frailty: I simply don't get it. If someone out there can resolve this logically, I'd appreciate the comment. Otherwise, it'll be the first thing I'll ask Jesus when He comes for us. You'll please pardon me for not bothering to explain it in another post, when He answers me. I'll be somewhat distracted then!!!