I agree. Josephus had no idea that what he was writing would later provide historical record that Christ was as good as His word in fulfilling those "AT HAND" prophecies in that first-century generation.
False!
Respected by who, and for what reason?
Respected for an Biblical explanation of the meaning of Matthew 24 and the abominations that makes desolate. Respected to detail the fleeing from Judaea to the mountains, or the fall of the Holy Temple? How about its rebuilding or restoration?
No, not him, not ever!
First of all 70 A.D. doesn't qualify as an abomination that made
anything desolate, much less the Holy Temple of God--which "
that" Temple in Jerusalem at the time
was not! That Temple Christ spoke of was left desolate in 33 A.D., along with the Holy City Jerusalem. It was left desolate by the abominations that, to this day, its people still don't recognize. Not abominations as Josephus and assorted Premils think they might refer to, but as defined and spoken of throughout God's word. The abominations of "
His People."
Ezekiel 43:7-8
- "And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.
- In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger."
Flavius Josephus doesn't know any more about "this" abomination that makes Desolate prophesied against the people of Israel, as the majority of the people of Israel themselves did. Nor do many professing Christians today
understand the "real" abominations that they themselves have wrought that will make their house desolate as well. They all are all too busy looking at the temporal things like physical armies, cities, materials of buildings, literal stones and mountains, geopolitical wars, golden thrones, "generation," and the power of the rulers of this world. In doing so, like Israel before them they completely miss the point, just as you do! The
Biblical fact is, the Romans didn't make the Temple Desolate by any act they did in it, it was the
people of Israel by the acts they did in it. Contrary to Josephus, the abominations were not by the Romans, but by the Israelites themselves, and the desolations were not of physical city having all its stones falling or being thrown down (Luke 19:41-4), but of a spiritual fall of a city, a spiritual kingdom removed, and a spiritual Holy Temple whose stones were all thrown down. As we see there is not really much difference between the eschatology of Flavius Josephus, the Premillennialists and the Judaizers. They all have their collective heads in earthly Jerusalem seeking physical fulfillment there, rather than an archetypal Jerusalem that represents the city from above. Selah!
Moreover, According to Josephus a lot of things are and were, that aren't and weren't. Your own word (contradictorily) says much. Contradiction does not make for a sound, systemartic, analytical, Biblical, Sola-Scriptura interpretation of God's word,
by God's word. Interpretation
by the
words of Josephus God would never advise. It's a known "fact" that many of Josephu's writings are biased and some just plain not true. Which says it all as far as using him as an authority on Hebrew (God authored) prophecy fulfilled and Christian doctrine or understanding. Wisdom manifests itself in accepting the Bible alone as the authoritative revelator of prophesy. Not the "well respected" writings of the unbelievers who write their views of history.
Proverbs 1:5-8
- "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
- To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
- The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:"
God says a man of understanding will attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation. ...that would
not be Josephus nor those who depend upon his writings for validation, but the inerrant authoritative word of God. When God tells you what abominations are in His Holy Temple, it's inerrant so we should listen. When God defines desolation there because of abominations, it's inerrant, so we should listen and compare. So while according to Josephus, the fundamental cause of the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple was God through the abominations of Romans acting out in it and tearing it down, God says it is "His People" who practiced the abominations in His house, and it is "His People" themselves as spiritual stones that will fall down with not one left as a stone in that building. It is Christ who is the New building, the corner stone of their Temple that was rejected is become head of the corner anyway, and the restoration of stones from every nation! The Holy Temple is reestablished in the nations, as the judgment of His people is that the Kingdom has been taken from them and given to another. God's words, not mine. Not the words of Josephus, Calvin or John Walvoord, but God's inerrant word of truth and interpretation.
As righteous Joseph said, "Do not interpretations belong to God?" Indeed they do. Flavius Josephus notwithstanding.
