Signs of Impending Destruction
A VERSE BY VERSE LOOK AT MATTHEW 24 OF THE SIGNS.
[Matthew 24:5]
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
In Matthew 24 Jesus warned His disciples that false teachers would be numerous, more than ever before. Josephus, the historian, verifies the fact that near the time of the destruction of
Jerusalem many false Messiahs appeared, claiming to be Christ. He says these became more numerous before the siege of Titus. Luke, the historian, records such pseudo-signs and false
wonders as the magical deceptions of Simon Magus (Acts 8) which were employed on an accentuated scale before the destruction of Jerusalem by the professional deceivers mentioned
in the Lord's predictions.
[Matthew 24:6]
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Many smaller nations were at war with the Romans at that time, enemies at war with each other and rumors of war in abundance on every hand, and from every quarter as the destruction of Jerusalem drew near. Josephus verifies the fact
that from every part of the empire wars followed in succession, and in waves of revolt, like the swells of the ocean, to the final dissolution of the empire.
[Matthew 24:7]
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. In the days of Claudius Caesar, before the destruction of Jerusalem, there was an unparalleled famine the greatest famine the world ever knew occurred. The
record of Matthew 24 is corroborated by the Spirit in Agabus, the prophet, as reported by Luke in Acts 11:28
Acts 11:28
28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Again, Josephus testified that the famine actually occurred before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the fulfillment is a matter of historical record.
[Matthew 24:8]
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Jesus is not speaking of "El Nino" some 2000 years later, but to His disciples. The great earthquakes occurred during the reign of Nero is a historical fact, and the testimony of Jesus is added to that of Josephus of an unusual number of earthquakes occurring in various countries, before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Many cities of Asia Minor were destroyed by earthquakes.
[Matthew 24:9]
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Here are some final words for Paul, Peter, and James, and James the Less for they were all put to death before the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:10]
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. This is the Lord's warning of many apostasies, when the faith of the disciples
would fail, as under pressure of persecution many should become offended. Such apostasies were everywhere in evidence prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the evidences of which are not only mentioned in the sacred text, but in parallel secular history. The most valuable of such historical evidence is the testimony of Josephus, who was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:14]
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Within this period of gospel history the sound of the messenger's feet had been heard all over the Roman world -- Romans 10:15
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Colossians 1:23
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Before the death of Paul, this sign had been fulfilled, literally enough, indeed, to satisfy a most exacting literalist.
Eusebius says "the gospel was like a sun, enlightening the world at once." It was universally published; the Gentile nations were illuminated with Christianity, providing the events to correspond with the prophecies, a fact so striking as to be convincing
without disputation.
[Matthew 24:14]
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Here, at once, with one accord the millennialist jumps to the wrong conclusion that this "end" means the end of the world "then shall the end come."
Then end of what??? Is this the end of time, or is it the time of the end? THE END OF THE JEWISH STATE AND THE END OF JUDAISM!
Matthew 24:15
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand
This description refers to the heathen symbols and the Romans standards raised in the temple. Every orthodox Jew looked upon the temple as sacred and holy. When the Romans conquered the city, and entered it, the Romans Soldiers marched into the temple, hauled down the ornaments and images of the temple,
and raised instead the symbols and standards of paganism and Romanism. That is what was called the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. The "abomination of desolation" was fulfilled when those Roman standards and
pagan symbols were seen in the holy place "where they ought not to be." This was a part of the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:16-18]
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
The destruction of Jerusalem was regarded by all pious Jews as pestilence and desolation and was taken as a sign that the time for them to escape had come to do what Jesus had warned them to do to flee to the mountains. The disciples did as Jesus said they heeded the warnings and fled. From the flat
roofs of their houses in t he city or from their fields in the country, they saw the Roman army in full march, there was not time to go inside for goods or raiment.
Life was more than personal property. When they saw the sign of the standards and symbols of the Romans in the temple, they remembered that Jesus had warned them of that very thing, and the news of the Roman approach they fled to Pella, the northern boundary of Perea.
It a a remarkable fact of history that Cestius Gallius, the Roman general, for some unknown reason, retired when they first marched against the city, suspended the siege, ceased the attack and withdrew his armies for an interval of time after the Romans had occupied the temple, thus giving every believing
Jew the opportunity to obey the Lord's instruction to flee the city. Josephus, the eyewitness, himself an unbeliever, chronicles this fact, and admitted his inability to account for the cessation of the fighting at the time, after a siege had begun.
Can we account for it??? We can. The Lord was fighting against Jerusalem --
Zechariah 14:2
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. ------ The Lord was besieging that city! God was bringing these things to pass against the Jewish state and nation. Therefore the opportunity was offered for the disciples to escape the siege, as Jesus had forewarned, and the disciples took it. So said Daniel; so said Jesus; so said Josephus.
And so it was it was left for Titus, the Roman general, to execute the siege, after the faithful had fled [Matthew 24:19-22]
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days
shall be shortened.
These verses (19-22) deal with the hindrances to flight from the besieged city, the tribulation of the siege, and the lifting of the siege for the escape of the
disciples.
[Matthew 24:23-26]
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you befor.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers;
believe it not.
Here was the Lord's warning against deceivers, fake prophets, false alarms and fraudulent signs the forewarnings to enable the disciples to discriminate between the spurious and the genuine.
[Matthew 24:27-28]
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
The "coming" here refers to the approach of the Roman armies. The Jewish nation was the "carcass' which the Roman eagles were sent to devour.
These verses describe the swiftness of the events and the suddenness of all the occurrences connected with the siege of Jerusalem. The illustration of the eagles gathering where the carcass is found, is a figurative description of the
Romans as the eagles swarming over Jerusalem and Judea as the carcass, to loot and spoil the city and all of the land of Judea.
Due to the length of this, I am making a "B" to follow this writing.
A VERSE BY VERSE LOOK AT MATTHEW 24 OF THE SIGNS.
[Matthew 24:5]
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
In Matthew 24 Jesus warned His disciples that false teachers would be numerous, more than ever before. Josephus, the historian, verifies the fact that near the time of the destruction of
Jerusalem many false Messiahs appeared, claiming to be Christ. He says these became more numerous before the siege of Titus. Luke, the historian, records such pseudo-signs and false
wonders as the magical deceptions of Simon Magus (Acts 8) which were employed on an accentuated scale before the destruction of Jerusalem by the professional deceivers mentioned
in the Lord's predictions.
[Matthew 24:6]
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Many smaller nations were at war with the Romans at that time, enemies at war with each other and rumors of war in abundance on every hand, and from every quarter as the destruction of Jerusalem drew near. Josephus verifies the fact
that from every part of the empire wars followed in succession, and in waves of revolt, like the swells of the ocean, to the final dissolution of the empire.
[Matthew 24:7]
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. In the days of Claudius Caesar, before the destruction of Jerusalem, there was an unparalleled famine the greatest famine the world ever knew occurred. The
record of Matthew 24 is corroborated by the Spirit in Agabus, the prophet, as reported by Luke in Acts 11:28
Acts 11:28
28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Again, Josephus testified that the famine actually occurred before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the fulfillment is a matter of historical record.
[Matthew 24:8]
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Jesus is not speaking of "El Nino" some 2000 years later, but to His disciples. The great earthquakes occurred during the reign of Nero is a historical fact, and the testimony of Jesus is added to that of Josephus of an unusual number of earthquakes occurring in various countries, before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Many cities of Asia Minor were destroyed by earthquakes.
[Matthew 24:9]
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Here are some final words for Paul, Peter, and James, and James the Less for they were all put to death before the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:10]
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. This is the Lord's warning of many apostasies, when the faith of the disciples
would fail, as under pressure of persecution many should become offended. Such apostasies were everywhere in evidence prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the evidences of which are not only mentioned in the sacred text, but in parallel secular history. The most valuable of such historical evidence is the testimony of Josephus, who was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:14]
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Within this period of gospel history the sound of the messenger's feet had been heard all over the Roman world -- Romans 10:15
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Colossians 1:23
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Before the death of Paul, this sign had been fulfilled, literally enough, indeed, to satisfy a most exacting literalist.
Eusebius says "the gospel was like a sun, enlightening the world at once." It was universally published; the Gentile nations were illuminated with Christianity, providing the events to correspond with the prophecies, a fact so striking as to be convincing
without disputation.
[Matthew 24:14]
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Here, at once, with one accord the millennialist jumps to the wrong conclusion that this "end" means the end of the world "then shall the end come."
Then end of what??? Is this the end of time, or is it the time of the end? THE END OF THE JEWISH STATE AND THE END OF JUDAISM!
Matthew 24:15
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand
This description refers to the heathen symbols and the Romans standards raised in the temple. Every orthodox Jew looked upon the temple as sacred and holy. When the Romans conquered the city, and entered it, the Romans Soldiers marched into the temple, hauled down the ornaments and images of the temple,
and raised instead the symbols and standards of paganism and Romanism. That is what was called the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. The "abomination of desolation" was fulfilled when those Roman standards and
pagan symbols were seen in the holy place "where they ought not to be." This was a part of the destruction of Jerusalem.
[Matthew 24:16-18]
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
The destruction of Jerusalem was regarded by all pious Jews as pestilence and desolation and was taken as a sign that the time for them to escape had come to do what Jesus had warned them to do to flee to the mountains. The disciples did as Jesus said they heeded the warnings and fled. From the flat
roofs of their houses in t he city or from their fields in the country, they saw the Roman army in full march, there was not time to go inside for goods or raiment.
Life was more than personal property. When they saw the sign of the standards and symbols of the Romans in the temple, they remembered that Jesus had warned them of that very thing, and the news of the Roman approach they fled to Pella, the northern boundary of Perea.
It a a remarkable fact of history that Cestius Gallius, the Roman general, for some unknown reason, retired when they first marched against the city, suspended the siege, ceased the attack and withdrew his armies for an interval of time after the Romans had occupied the temple, thus giving every believing
Jew the opportunity to obey the Lord's instruction to flee the city. Josephus, the eyewitness, himself an unbeliever, chronicles this fact, and admitted his inability to account for the cessation of the fighting at the time, after a siege had begun.
Can we account for it??? We can. The Lord was fighting against Jerusalem --
Zechariah 14:2
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. ------ The Lord was besieging that city! God was bringing these things to pass against the Jewish state and nation. Therefore the opportunity was offered for the disciples to escape the siege, as Jesus had forewarned, and the disciples took it. So said Daniel; so said Jesus; so said Josephus.
And so it was it was left for Titus, the Roman general, to execute the siege, after the faithful had fled [Matthew 24:19-22]
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days
shall be shortened.
These verses (19-22) deal with the hindrances to flight from the besieged city, the tribulation of the siege, and the lifting of the siege for the escape of the
disciples.
[Matthew 24:23-26]
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you befor.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers;
believe it not.
Here was the Lord's warning against deceivers, fake prophets, false alarms and fraudulent signs the forewarnings to enable the disciples to discriminate between the spurious and the genuine.
[Matthew 24:27-28]
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
The "coming" here refers to the approach of the Roman armies. The Jewish nation was the "carcass' which the Roman eagles were sent to devour.
These verses describe the swiftness of the events and the suddenness of all the occurrences connected with the siege of Jerusalem. The illustration of the eagles gathering where the carcass is found, is a figurative description of the
Romans as the eagles swarming over Jerusalem and Judea as the carcass, to loot and spoil the city and all of the land of Judea.
Due to the length of this, I am making a "B" to follow this writing.