Matthew 24:15
Matthew 24:1515So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),
The Watchtower teaches that the "disgusting thing that causes desolation" has a dual fulfilment: a first-century application to Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and a modern application to the League of Nations (1919) and its successor the United Nations. This modern reading is part of the broader 1914 eschatological framework and serves to validate the Governing Body's prophetic authority — they alone can identify the modern "disgusting thing."
Jesus provided his own commentary on the "abomination of desolation" in the parallel passage. Where records "the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing in a holy place," records "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near." Luke is Jesus' own interpretive key: the abomination is not a modern political institution but Rome's armies surrounding Jerusalem. The early Christians understood this and fled to Pella before the siege (Eusebius, Church History 3.5.3). Roman legionary standards, bearing images of Caesar and pagan deities, were carried into the temple precincts — a literal abomination in the holy place. and 24:34 ("this generation will not pass away") form an inseparable unit: the generation is Jesus' contemporaries, and the events are first-century.