ALMOST 2000 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING – BLOG 9
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
April 29, 2011
Matthew 24:3 – And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
JESUS ANSWERED 3 QUESTIONS BUT NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER!
THEY ARE LINGUISTICALLY SEPARATED FROM ONE ANOTHER BY THE FOLLOWING EXPRESSIONS IN LUKE’S OLIVET DISCOURSE:
(1) “BUT THE END IS NOT BY AND BY’ – LUKE 21:9
(2) “THEN SAID HE UNTO THEM” – LUKE 21:10
(3) “BUT BEFORE ALL THESE” – LUKE 21:12
(4) “UNTIL THE TIMES OF” – LUKE 21:24
(5) “AND THERE SHALL BE” – LUKE 21:25
Luke 21:24 – And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles
be fulfilled.
Blog 8 ended with the city of Jerusalem under siege in a horrible state of butchery, pestilence, and starvation, and on the verge of being overrun by the army of the Roman Prince Titus. The siege had lasted some seven months. It began in March of 70 A.D., the first two walls were captured in May,
the Fortress Antonia in July, the temple was fired in August, and the city was desolated in September.
The generation of the cross did not pass before it happened, exactly as Jesus had stated earlier in the Olive Discourse, in Matthew 23:36-38. The temple Jesus rendered spiritually desolate on the cross, was made physically desolate by Titus in 70 A.D.
Matthew 23:36-38 – Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
[37] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Josephus describes the final onslaught of the Romans, when they came into the city like a flood, as a great wave of sheer horror: “They poured into the streets sword in hand, cut down without mercy all within reach, and burnt the houses of any who took refuge indoors, occupants and all. Many they raided, and as they entered in search of plunder they found whole families dead and rooms full of the victims of starvation.
Horrified by the sight, they immerged empty handed.
They ran every man through whom they met and blocked the narrow streets with corpses, deluging the whole city with gore, with some of the fires being quenched by the blood of the slain. At dusk the slaughter ceased as the fire gained the mastery, and when the sun rose over Jerusalem it was all in flames.” And it was all because they did not know Christ’s time of visitation as their Messiah.
Luke 19:41-44 – And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, [42] Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
[43] For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, [44] And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
During the siege, 1,100,000 Jews perished by the sword, pestilence, and famine.
Some 97,000 were taken captive, most of which were sold
off as slaves across the world of the Roman Empire. Jerusalem was trodden down under the control of many different Gentile (non-Jewish) nations continuously until June of 1967.
In 1967 the Israeli army took it back from the Jordanians, and for the first time in almost 1900 years it was militarily in the hands of Israel. It will remain under control of the Israeli military until the Gentiles retake it to begin the fulfillment of Revelation 11:2, after which it will once again be under the control of Gentiles for 42 months (1260 days), but “the fullness” of the Gentile Age of Romans 11:25 will then come in to close out the 42nd month.
Revelation 11:2 – But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given un to the Gentiles:
and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty
and two months.
Romans 11:25 – I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
The “times of the Gentiles” for Old Jerusalem, and its Temple Mount, were fulfilled in June of 1967.
But the “fullness of the Gentiles” is still to come in, and refers to the absolute end of the Gentile Age, at which time all of Israel is grafted back into God’s Olive tree for Christ’s reign.
I believe the following events represent the pattern that began in 1967, which will be finished at the end of the tribulation period when Christ returns at his Second Advent to win the battle of Armageddon.
1. Jerusalem and its Temple Mount were captured in June of 1967.
2. Jerusalem and its Temple Mount will again fall to the Gentiles. I believe this is likely to happen at a point in time between 2013 and 2015.
3. Forty-two months after it falls to the Gentiles, the Israelis will take it back as the fullness of the Gentile Age comes in to end the period of tribulation, and Israel is restored to power.