Was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem cause by a false messiah?

HTacianas

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Is there historical evidence of this?

A false messiah, no. The son of god, yes.

Vespasian led the invasion of Israel in 67 or so AD. During that invasion, he was declared emperor, a de fact god of Rome. He returned to Rome and left his son Titus to carry on the war. In August of 70 AD, at a point "mid tribulation" if you will, Titus, the "son of god", burned the temple, destroying it.

While the temple was burning the Romans rested their eagle standards against the walls and worshipped them. There was so much gold in the temple that when it melted it seeped between the stones of the walls. To get to the gold the Romans pried the stones apart so that "not one stone was left one upon the other". Many of those stones can still be seen at the base of the Western Wall.
 
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The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Army with the authority of the Roman emperor, because Judea a Roman province was in rebellion against Rome. There was no spiritual connotation to it. It was a simple and straightforward case of a rebellious city being put down by the legitimate authority of the time.

It was the same with the Confederate States of America in the Civil War. The Federal Government of the time saw these states as in rebellion against the Government, and went in, destroyed Richmond and Atlanta, and defeated the Confederate Army. I guess that there were many Christians on both sides asking God, "Whose side are you on?"
 
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Maria Billingsley

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Which reference in Matthew does it say that?


Matthew 24
24 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you,not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
 
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Presbyterian Continuist

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Matthew 24
24 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you,not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Thanks for that. Jesus predicted that it would happen, and I fully believe it did happen through the providence of God. In a sense, Jesus placed a curse on the Temple in the same way that He placed the curse on the fruitless fig tree, and in due time the fig tree died and withered. Once Jesus had said what He said about the Temple, it was doomed. It had the curse of God on it, and in due time, it was destroyed through the agency of the Roman army.
 
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Maria Billingsley

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Thanks for that. Jesus predicted that it would happen, and I fully believe it did happen through the providence of God. In a sense, Jesus placed a curse on the Temple in the same way that He placed the curse on the fruitless fig tree, and in due time the fig tree died and withered. Once Jesus had said what He said about the Temple, it was doomed. It had the curse of God on it, and in due time, it was destroyed through the agency of the Roman army.
Yes, and that being said I hope you are not supporting the building of the third temple.
He will not have it nor support it.
Blessings
 
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Presbyterian Continuist

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Yes, and that being said I hope you are not supporting the building of the third temple.
He will not have it nor support it.
Blessings
There is no need for a third temple, because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. There are millions of temples around the world now, because there are millions of believers filled with the Holy Spirit. They are the only temples that God acknowledges.

If a third temple is built in Jerusalem, it will be part of the false religion set up by the AntiChrist to deceive those who do not trust in Christ.
 
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Maria Billingsley

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There is no need for a third temple, because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. There are millions of temples around the world now, because there are millions of believers filled with the Holy Spirit. They are the only temples that God acknowledges.

If a third temple is built in Jerusalem, it will be part of the false religion set up by the AntiChrist to deceive those who do not trust in Christ.
Great! But as you know there are a lot of Christians supporting the building of the third temple. Millions of dollars are donated by Pentecostals and Evangelicals for this endevour. I am bringing this up because it is prevalent in your denomination. Sorry. ;(
 
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Presbyterian Continuist

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Great! But as you know there are a lot of Christians supporting the building of the third temple. Millions of dollars are donated by Pentecostals and Evangelicals for this endevour. I am bringing this up because it is prevalent in your denomination. Sorry. ;(
It is sad that so many a deceived by demons. Because of the nature of Pentecostalism and its support of the supernatural, many lay themselves open to demonic deception and get themselves sidetracked from God's commission to save souls for Christ.
 
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Quid est Veritas?

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A false messiah, no. The son of god, yes.

Vespasian led the invasion of Israel in 67 or so AD. During that invasion, he was declared emperor, a de fact god of Rome. He returned to Rome and left his son Titus to carry on the war. In August of 70 AD, at a point "mid tribulation" if you will, Titus, the "son of god", burned the temple, destroying it.

While the temple was burning the Romans rested their eagle standards against the walls and worshipped them. There was so much gold in the temple that when it melted it seeped between the stones of the walls. To get to the gold the Romans pried the stones apart so that "not one stone was left one upon the other". Many of those stones can still be seen at the base of the Western Wall.
Vespasian was only proclaimed a god on his death, and Titus conquered Jerusalem during his father's reign - so was not then a son of a god. Vespasian was really down to earth, in fact the son of a mule drover, so his last words were reportedly a joke: "I think I am becoming a god".

Emperors weren't considered gods in their lifetimes, except for the insane ones like Caligula that tried to enforce his worship. Some were deified after their death though, like Augustus. Often this was thought ridiculous, hence Seneca wrote a satire on Claudius' deification called the Pumpkinification (The Apocolocyntosis). They did offer sacrifice to the Genius of the Emperor, sort of a guardian spirit, during their lifetimes, but this was not the same as worshipping the man. People often make this mistake, but Romans didn't worship living men; though they would on occasion allow semi-barbarous provincials to do so, but coupled with a personification of Rome as a goddess.
 
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ViaCrucis

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There was a kind of two-tiered destruction of Jerusalem. The most well known was during the First Jewish-Roman War as has been described in this thread.

In 136 AD a man by the name of Simon bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans, Bar Kochba was heralded by many as the messiah. Bar Kochba's revolt resulted in defeat, and in response the Emperor Hadrian had the city virtually razed to the ground, he built a pagan temple upon the Temple Mount in honor to Jupiter Capitolinus, the city was renamed to Aelia Capitolina, turned into a Roman colony, and Jews were forbidden from ever entering the city. This law remained in effect, with one exception, until the Muslim conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. That one exception was when Emperor Julian (known as "The Apostate") reallowed the Jews to enter into the city and helped finance a rebuilding of the Jewish Temple--this project was cut short with Julian's sudden death and the ascension of Jovian as emperor in 363 AD; and the anti-Jewish law was restored. When the Rashidun conquered Palestine in the 7th century, the Muslims reopened Jerusalem to the Jews*.

*Upon fact checking myself, it appears that Byzantine Aelia fell first to the Sassanids, and then the Rashidun took it as part of their conquest of Sassanid Persia. The Persians were aided by Jews in Palestine in the taking of the city, so it would seem the Persians first opened the city back up to the Jews, and the Muslims continued that with their taking of the city several decades later.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Quid est Veritas?

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There was a kind of two-tiered destruction of Jerusalem. The most well known was during the First Jewish-Roman War as has been described in this thread.

In 136 AD a man by the name of Simon bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans, Bar Kochba was heralded by many as the messiah. Bar Kochba's revolt resulted in defeat, and in response the Emperor Hadrian had the city virtually razed to the ground, he built a pagan temple upon the Temple Mount in honor to Jupiter Capitolinus, the city was renamed to Aelia Capitolina, turned into a Roman colony, and Jews were forbidden from ever entering the city. This law remained in effect, with one exception, until the Muslim conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. That one exception was when Emperor Julian (known as "The Apostate") reallowed the Jews to enter into the city and helped finance a rebuilding of the Jewish Temple--this project was cut short with Julian's sudden death and the ascension of Jovian as emperor in 363 AD; and the anti-Jewish law was restored. When the Rashidun conquered Palestine in the 7th century, the Muslims reopened Jerusalem to the Jews*.

*Upon fact checking myself, it appears that Byzantine Aelia fell first to the Sassanids, and then the Rashidun took it as part of their conquest of Sassanid Persia. The Persians were aided by Jews in Palestine in the taking of the city, so it would seem the Persians first opened the city back up to the Jews, and the Muslims continued that with their taking of the city several decades later.

-CryptoLutheran
A couple of corrections here:

Hadrian proposed to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman Colonia in 130 AD. It was a part of his attempts to pacify the Jewish population that had recently revolted under Trajan during his Parthian wars. Hadrian was busy with an inspection of much of the Empire, shoring up borders and such. The Jews initially thought he would rebuild the Temple, but Hadrian thought the best way would be to assimilate the Jews. Hence he planned to build a syncretic temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, the Summus Deus or Iovis of the Romans, which was assumed equivalent to YHWH.

This was one of the major causes of the Bar Kohba revolt, not a consequence of it. Jerusalem was to be rebuilt as Aelia Capitolana which precipitated the revolt, but Hadrian was not very accomodating afterward - preferring to crush the Jews henceforth, and thus prohibitting any Jews in his new city thereafter.

The destruction of Jerusalem after the first revolt was quite thorough though, as Josephus and the Babylonian Talmud notes.

Further, the Eastern Empire under Heraclius managed to retake Jerusalem prior to the Arab conquest. The Arabs took it from the Byzantines, who had recently taken it back from the Sassanids, and the siege in 636 was a Byzantine/Arab affair.
 
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