“[Jesus probably] “telescopes” A.D. 70
and the end of the age in a manner reminiscent of the prophets, who frequently
looked at the end of the age through more immediate historical events.”
D.J. Moo, The Case for the Posttribulation Rapture Position.
“The divine judgments in history are, so
to speak, rehearsals of the last judgment and the successive incarnations of
antichrist are foreshadowings of the last supreme concentration of the
rebelliousness of the devil before the End.” Cranfield, Mark, p 404.
“Another sign of the times [of the end of
the age] which indicates opposition to God and to his kingdom is the sign of apostasy…we should note that the
apostasies of the NT era were often foreshowed in the OT…Already during the
wilderness wanderings there occurred such a wide-scale apostasy that an entire
generation of Israelites died in the desert without being permitted to enter
the promised land. During the time of the Judges one apostasy followed another
with almost monotonous regularity. The later history of both the northern and
southern kingdoms, as recounted in the historical and prophetical books of the
OT, is a disillusioning tale of growing apostasy leading ultimately to the
deportation of both kingdoms…it is clear from the rest of the NT that apostasy
is not restricted to the end-time [Heb
6.6; 10.29; 2 Peter 2.20; 1 John 2.19].” The Bible and the Future, Anthony A. Hoekema, pp 151-152.
Temple/Jerusalem destroyed [8th-6th
BC]: Micah 3.12; Jer. 7.8-15; 9.10-11;
26.6, 18; Isa 29; 4 Ezra; 2 Baruch [1st-2nd
AD].
- It was NOT “completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another.” (Mar 13.2; cp. Mat 24.2; Luke 19.44; 21.6.)
“Josephus says that [the city was so completely levelled to the ground as to leave future
visitors to the spot no reason for believing that it had ever been inhabited,
Bell. 7.1-4]. But in addition to the
towers much of at least the southern part of the Temple enclosure was spared.
The wall surrounding the present Haram es-Sherif is founded on the Herodian
wall, and from the ‘Wailing Wall’ at the southern end of the west wall, where
the fall of the city is still lamented, right along the south wall and round
the south east angle the massive Herodian masonry, reaching in places almost to
the top of the Haram wall, stands today as an impressive memorial to its
builder…For the excavations round the south west angle, where, inter alia, fallen architectural
fragments from the wall and portico have been found, see B. Mazar, The Excavations in the Old City of
Jerusalem, Preliminary Report on the First Season, 1968 (Israel Explor.
Soc., 1969); Second and Third Seasons,
1969-70 (1971).” The Jews Under Roman
Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, E. Mary Smallwood, p 328.
“At Jerusalem he founded a city in place
of the one which had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina, and
on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This
brought on a war of no slight importance nor of brief duration, for the Jews
deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and
foreign religious rites planted there.”
Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.12.1-2.
- A future rebuilt Temple, Ire. Ag. Haer. 5.30.4; Ep. Barn. 16.3-4.
Babylon & the end of the age: Isa 13.
Many Anti-Christs?
- Antiochus Epiphanes IV, Dec. 6, 167 B.C. 1Macc 1.54, “The desolating abomination”; cp. Dan 9.27; 11.31
- Caligula, A.D. 37-41 [Jos. War 2]: Mark 13.14, “The abomination that causes desolation standing where HE shouldn’t be.”
- Titus, A.D. 70 [Jos. War 6]: Luke 21.20, “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.”
Disasters by unnamed foe(s): Zep 1-2; cp.
Amos 7.4; 8.8-9; 9.5.
