"Proof that Matthew 24 was fully fulfilled in 70 AD!"
The statement above is not in the book.
Get a copy of the book and read it for yourself.
.
As I told you before,
take it up with the site.......
It is concerning
Josephus ,
the 1st century Jewish Wars, the Olivet Discourse and Revelation..............
[6] - Josephus has collected the chief of these portents together, and introduces his account by a reflection on the strangeness of that infatuation, which could induce his countrymen to give credit to impostors, and unfounded reports, whilst they disregarded the divine admonitions, confirmed, as he asserts they Were, by the following extraordinary
signs :
1. "A meteor, resembling a sword,
[7] hung over Jerusalem during one whole year." This could not be a comet, for it was stationary, and was visible for twelve successive months. A sword too, though a fit emblem for destruction, but ill represents a
comet.
2. "On the eighth of the month Zanthicus, (before the feast of unleavened bread) at the ninth hour of the night, there shone round about the altar, and the circumjacent buildings of the temple, a light equal to the brightness of the day, which continued for the space of half an hour." This could not be the effect of lightning, nor of a vivid aurora
borealis, for it was confined to a particular spoil and the light shone
unintermittedly thirty minutes.
3. "As the High Priest were leading a heifer to the altar to be sacrificed, she brought forth a
lamb, in the midst of the temple." Such is the strange account given by the historian. Some may regard it as a "Grecian fable," while others may think that they discern in this prodigy a miraculous rebuke of Jewish infidelity and impiety, for rejecting the ANTITYPICAL Lamb, who had offered Up Himself as an atonement, "once
for all," and who, by thus completely fulfilling their design, had virtually abrogated the Levitical sacrifices. However this may be, the circumstances of the prodigy are remarkable. It did not occur in an obscure part of the city, but in the
temple ; not at an ordinary time, but at
the passover, the season of our LORD'S crucifixion in the presence, not of the vulgar merely, but of the
High Priests and their attendants, and when they were
leading the sacrifice
to the altar.
4. "' About the sixth hour of the night, the eastern gate of the temple was seen to open without human assistance." When the guards informed the Curator of this event, he sent men to assist them in shutting it, who with great difficulty succeeded. -- This gate, as hath been observed already, 'Was of solid brass, and required twenty men to close it every evening. It could not have been opened by a "strong gust of wind," or a
slight earthquake;" for Josephus says, it was secured by iron bolts And bars, which were let down into a large threshold; consisting of one entire stone."
[8]
5. "Soon after the feast of the Passover, in various parts of the country, before the Setting of the sun, chariots and armed men were seen in the air, passing round about Jerusalem. " Neither could this portentous spectacle be occasioned by the
aurora borealis, for it occurred
before the
setting of the sun ; or merely the fancy of a few villagers, gazing at the heavens, for it was seen in
various parts of the country.
6. "At the subsequent feast
of Pentecost, while the priests were going, by night, into the inner, temple to perform their customary ministrations, they first felt, as they said, a shaking, accompanied by an indistinct murmuring, and afterwards voices as of a multitude, saying, in a distinct and earnest manner, "LET US DEPART HENCE." This gradation will remind the reader of that awful transaction, which the feast of Pentecost *as principally instituted to commemorate. First, a shaking was heard ; this would naturally induce the priests to listen : an unintelligible murmur succeeds; this would more powerfully arrest their attention, and while it was thus awakened arid fixed, they heard, says Josephus, the voices as of a multitude,
distinctly pronouncing the words "LET US DEPART HENCE." -- And accordingly, before the period for celebrating this feast returned, the Jewish war had commenced, and in the space of three years afterwards, Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman army, the temple converted into a citadel, and its sacred courts streaming with the blood of
human victims.
7. As the last and most fearful omen, Josephus relates that one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a rustic of the lower class, during the Feast of Tabernacles, suddenly exclaimed in the temple, "A voice from the east a voice from the west -- a voice from the four winds- a voice against Jerusalem and the temple -- a voice against bridegrooms and brides -- a voice against the whole people !" These words he incessantly proclaimed aloud both day and night, through all the streets of Jerusalem, for seven years and five months together, commencing at a time (A. D. 62) when the city was in a state of peace, and overflowing with prosperity, and terminating amidst the horrors of the siege. This disturber, having excited the attention of the magistracy, was brought before Albinus the Roman governor, who commanded that he should be
scourged. But the severest stripes drew from him neither tears nor supplications. As he never thanked those who relieved, so neither did he complain of the injustice of those who struck him. And no other answer could the governor obtain to his interrogatories, but his usual denunciation of "Woe, woe to Jerusalem !" which he still continued to proclaim through the city, but especially during the festivals, when his manner became more earnest, and the tone of his voice louder. At length, on the commencement of the siege, he ascended the walls, and, in a more powerful voice than ever, exclaimed, "Woe, woe to this city, this temple, and this people !" And then, with a presentment of his own death, added," Woe, woe to myself "' he had scarcely uttered these words when a stone from one of the Roman engines killed him on the spot.
Such are the prodigies related by Josephus, and which, excepting the first, he places in the Year immediately preceding the Jewish war. Several of them are recorded also by Tacitus. Nevertheless, it ought to be observed, -that they are received by Christian writers cautiously, and with various degrees of credit. Those, however, who are most skeptical, and who resolve them into natural causes, allow the "superintendence of GOD to awaken his people by some of these means." Whatever the fact, in this respect, may be, it is clear that they correspond to our LORD'S prediction of
"fearful sights, and great signs from heaven;" and ought to be deemed a sufficient answer to the objector, who demands whether any such appearances are respectably recorded.
The next prediction of our LORD related to the persecutions of his disciples : "They shall
lay their hands on you (said he), and
persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and
into prisons, being brought before kings and
rulers for
my name's sake :" Luke xxi. 12. "and they shall
deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten :" Mark xiii. 9.
"and some of You shall they CAUSE TO BE PUT TO DEATH."- Luke xxi. 16. In the very infancy of the Christian church, these unmerited and unprovoked cruelties began to be inflicted. -- Our LORD, and his forerunner John the Baptist, had already been put to death ; the Apostles Peter and John were first imprisoned, and then, together with the other Apostles, were scourged before the Jewish council ; Stephen after confounding the
Sanhedrim with his irresistible eloquence, was
stoned to death ; Herod Agrippa "stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church,"
beheaded James the brother of John, and again
imprisoned Peter, designing to put him to death also ; St. Paul
pleaded before the Jewish council at Jerusalem, and
before Felix the Roman governor, who trembled on the judgment-seat, while the intrepid prisoner "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come !" Two years afterwards he was brought
before the tribunal of
Festus (who had succeeded Felix in the government,) king Agrippa the younger being present, who, while the governor scoffed, ingenuously. acknowledged the force of the Apostle's eloquence, and, half convinced, exclaimed, "Almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian." Lastly, he pleaded before the
emperor Nero at Rome ; he was also brought with Silas
before the rulers at Philippi, where both of them were
scourged and
imprisoned. Paul was likewise imprisoned two years in Judea, and afterwards twice at Rome, each time for the space of two years. He 'was
scourged by the Jews five times, thrice
beaten with rods, and owe stoned ; nay, he himself, before his conversion , was an instrument of fulfilling the predictions. St. Luke relates of him that "he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
hating men and women, committed them to
prison ; when they were
put to death he gave his voice against them ; he punished them oft in every
synagogue, and,
persecuted them even into strange cities and to this agree his own declarations. (Vide Acts xxvi. 10, 11. Gal. i. 23.) At length, about two years before the Jewish war, the first general persecution commenced at the instigation of the emperor Nero, " who," says Tacitus, "inflicted upon the Christians punishments exquisitely painful ;" multitudes suffered a cruel martyrdom, amidst derision and insults, and among the rest the venerable Apostles St Peter and St. Paul
