Prophecy

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by Clive Campbell
02/08/20
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My last posted article argued against a narrow view of "this generation" in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. Now I will go through the prophecies and signs in Matthew 24 to argue that all or even most could not have occurred by the destruction of Jerusalem and Herod's temple in 70 AD.

Verse 2 says:

And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

Now this certainly happened in 70 AD and may well happen just before 2030 AD, because Revelation 11:2 says this:

Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.

I do not believe that this verse relates to 70 AD, but rather to Daniel's 70th heptad of years, split into two 42-month (3 1/2-year) periods. These 7 years of judgment and destruction centered around Jerusalem parallel the 7 years of creation (after 14 billion without macro evolution) at the beginning of history, centered around Eden (the site of Jerusalem, I believe). These 7 years will begin with the Resurrection and Rapture, as the "two witnesses," Moses and Elijah (remember the Transfiguration?) descend to Jerusalem to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in the first 3 1/2 years before they are killed by the Jewish Antichrist, possessed by Satan himself.

So, as we go through these prophecies and signs, remember that it is possible that they have a dual fulfillment--one in 70 AD and one just before 2030 AD.

Let's go through them briefly.

1. False Christs: certainly happened before 70 AD and even more since.

2. Wars and rumors of wars: ditto. But note the comment that "is not yet the end." Clearly, "end" refers to Jesus' "coming, and of the end of the age," which the Apostles asked Jesus about in verse 3. I don't doubt that Jesus came "down from heaven" (Revelation 20:1, 2) in 70 AD to throw Satan and the unbound demons into hell after He had allowed them to destroy Jerusalem and Herod's temple, but that is only a preliminary end. Jesus did not come to sit in Jerusalem as King at that time and the final harvest with the angels throwing the unrighteous into the fire of hell did not happen, at least in its ultimate sense. Also, nation against nation and "kingdom against kingdom" happened far more after 70 AD than before.

3. Famines and earthquakes: far more after 70 AD than before.

4. The beginning of birth pangs: the metaphor of a woman giving birth is a frequent one for Israel in the Old Testament. E.g., Isaiah 66:

7 “Before she travailed, she brought forth;
Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8 “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day?
Can a nation be brought forth all at once?
As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.
9 “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God.

Verse 7 seems to refer to Jesus. Verse 8 seems to refer to the birth of Israel on May 14,1948. Many more Jews than ever before are now being "born again" as Messianic Jews (Christians) and there will also be a remnant "born again" in the last 7 years (the perhaps literal 144,000 Jewish men of Revelation 14 with perhaps a similar number of women and children). Anyway, this "beginning of birth pangs" certainly fits far better after 70 AD than before, unless you see 70 AD as the birth of the Gentile Church. But that is not the metaphor of the Old Testament.

5. Tribulation and Christians killed and hated by all nations: happened before 70 AD, but "nations" fits better with after 70 AD. Most Christians were only in the Roman Empire before 70 AD.

6. Some Christians will fall away, betray and hate one another: I'm sure that happened before 70 AD, but the great apostasy has been happening since Satan and the demons were released from hell in 1910. Since then, we have been "paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1). Read my article, ANOTHER 120 YEAR COUNTDOWN TO GOD'S SECOND DAY OF WRATH, for more on that. This time will climax with the appearance of the Jewish Antichrist, possessed by Satan himself. 2 Thessalonians 2:

3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the Second Coming of Christ] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

7. False prophets: happened before 70 AD, but even more afterwards, especially after 1910.

8. Lawlessness increased, love will grow cold: I'm sure that one could see this before 70 AD, but "lawlessness" makes one think of the "man of lawlessness" mentioned above and Satan, who knows his "time is short," his last 120 years before he and his demons are again sent to hell. They have been working overtime to make the world more and more lawless and hateful. Compare 2 Timothy 3:1-9.

9. The Gospel of the Kingdom preached in the whole world as a testimony to the nations and then the end will come: certainly this happened to a degree by 70 AD but not nearly to the degree that it has happened today. And I have already covered what "end" means.

10. Flee when the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of through Daniel, is standing in the Holy Place: this is not a reference to the pig which the Syrian King, Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), sacrificed on an altar to Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple in 167 BC. Neither is it a reference to Pompey or Titus, which Wikipedia mentions:

Josephus records that Pompey profaned the Temple by insisting on entering the Holy of Holies in 63 BCE. When Titus captured the city during the Great Revolt, Roman soldiers took down the curtain and used it to wrap therein golden vessels retrieved from the Temple.

It would be pretty silly of Jesus to suggest that the Jews of Judea "flee to the mountains" when they see the Roman soldiers already standing in the Temple. No, this is a reference to the Jewish Antichrist, possessed by Satan himself, who will take "his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thess. 2:4)." Daniel 12 seems to make it clear that this happens in the middle of the last 7 years before 2030, when the Jewish Antichrist stops the regular daily sacrifice at the Temple, which had been going on for 1150 days (2300 evenings and mornings, Daniel 8):

11 From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! 13 But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”

To be continued, but I think you are getting the picture.

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