Immortality or Resurrection, William West [best romance books of all time txt] 📗

which must be added, above TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND who perished in other places, AND INNUMERABLE MULTITUDES WHO WERE SWEPT AWAY BY FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE, AND OF WHICH NO CALCULATION COULD BE MADE. Not less than two thousand laid violent hands upon themselves. Of the captives the whole was about NINETY-SEVEN THOUSAND." George P. Holford, "The Destruction of Jerusalem." He also says that at this time bands of robbers and murderers plundered the other towns and slew the resistance of many of the towns.
"No history can furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews:-rape, murder, famine, and pestilence within: fire and sword, and all the horrors of war, without. Our Lord wept at the foresight of these calamities; and it is almost impossible for any humane person to read the relation of them in Josephus without weeping also." Adam Clarke, Commentary on Matthew.
"And indeed the multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench, which was a hindrance to those that would make sallies out of the city, and fight the enemy: but as those were to go in battle-array, who had been already use to ten thousand murders, and must tread upon those dead bodies as they marched along, so they were not terrified, nor did they pity men as they marched over them." Josephus, The Wars Of The Jews Or The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem, Book VI, Page 1. This is only a small sample of the pages in Josephus's history of the destruction of the Jews as a nation, of the wars of the Jews with the Romans before, during, and after the destruction of Jerusalem, of the famines, pestilence and earthquakes through out all Israel unto the entire nation was destroyed. It is not for those with a weak stomach.
"The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews and thus, cause them to surrender. Those prisoners, who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the Valley Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terrible was the visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate: 'His blood be on us, and on our children Matthew 27:25'" “The Great Controversy” The nation of Israel sowed a cross and reaped thousands of crosses.
"Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another" [Matthew 24:2]. Titus wanted to save the temple and give command that it be not destroyed, but Christ had said it would be. It was set on fire against the command of Titus, and the gold melted and ran down into the foundation stones and the soldiers dug down to the foundation stones looking for the gold; not one stone was left on another. In Luke's account of this [Luke 19:41-44] he says the temple would be even with the ground. After the destruction of Jerusalem one could not know by looking at the spot that the temple had been on it. A Moslem Mosque, called the Dome of the Rock, is now on the spot where the temple was.
"Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them." Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews" 10.11.7.
IN THEIR BOOKS OF FICTION THE COMING MILLENNIUM TRIBULATION IS OFTEN BASED ON MATTHEW 24 WHICH HAS ALREALY CAME IN A. D. 70 BEFORE THAT GENERATION PASSED AWAY [MATTHEW 24:34]. "For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world (aion-age)." The purpose of this discourse was not to give his disciples signs of His coming at the end of the world but signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, to warn believers in that generation of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and to give them a sign for them to flee from the destruction coming in their lifetime. [Matthew 24:21].
THE CARCASS OF ISRAEL
"Where so ever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together" Matthew 24:28.
"I wonder and can any understand these words of pious men flying to Christ, [in the rapture] when the discourse here is of quite a different thing: they are thus connected to the forgoing: Christ shall be revealed with a sudden vengeance; for when God shall cast of the city and people, grown ripe for destruction, like a carcass thrown out, the Roman soldiers, like eagles, shall straight fly to it with their eagles (ensigns) to tear and devout it." John Lightfoot, Matthew 24:28 "A Commentary on Matthew."
NOT JERUSALEM ONLY BUT ALL THE NATION OF ISRAEL WAS DESTROYED, AND ALL THE LAND THAT WAS THE NATION OF ISRAEL WAS TAKEN OVER BY OTHER PEOPLE. THE NATION OF ISRAEL CAME TO AN END. The Jewish religion was centered round and totally dependence on the sacrifices which could only be performed at the Temple and only by the Levitical priesthood. Both came to an end and have not been restored to this day.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE DESTRUCTION
OF JERUSALEM AND ALL ISRAEL
Matthew 24:29-31: "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (30) and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (31) And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Matthew 24:1-28 is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. Then in the next verse Christ says, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days" and gives a list in verses 29-31 of things that are to happen then, immediately after the destruction, not at His second coming. Then in verses 32-44 He gives us the parable of Israel the fig tree in which His coming was "nigh, even at the doors." These verses are highly symbolic of something that took place immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem. In symbolic language the sun is a great ruler on this earth, and the stars are lesser rulers. There were no rulers or teachers in Israel immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem and all the cities of Israel. All was darkness for Israel. "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn" (see Matthew 10:23 where the coming of Christ is in judgment on Israel). In the next parable, Christ is "nigh, even at the doors" and "this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." Though not literally, Christ did come in judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem. If this were at the judgment when all will be raised from the dead for judgment by Christ, I find it difficult to see how any could think that He will not give forth His light at the Judgment, and what then are the stars that shall fall from Heaven? If verses 30 and 31 were speaking of the second coming, they would be out of place for the second coming was not "immediately after the tribulation of those days" (verse 29) and not in the "generation that shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished" (verse 34). Many teach that the things in Matthew 24 are events that are happening today, but if so, there would some very old people be living today.
The "great tribulation" of Matthew 24:21 is now past history, not something still to come. "But IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THESE DAY the sun shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" [Matthew 24:29]. Jesus used the same symbolic language to describe the fall of Israel that Isaiah used to describe the fall of Babylon [Ezekiel 32:7-9] and is commonly used in the Old Testament. "For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light" [Isaiah 13:10]. Luke added, "And upon the earth distress of nations" [Luke 21:21]. The sun being darkened was immediately after the tribulation Christ was speaking of, which was in A. D. 70, not a tribulation yet to come after the second coming of Christ. MOST MILLENNIALISTS MOVE THE SUN BEING DARKEN FROM “IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION” AND MAKE IT BEING DARKEN BE THE TRIBULATION, not something that comes “after the tribulation.”
• Darken “immediately after the tribulation.”
• Not darken during the tribulation as Premillennialists teach.
1. The same figurative language of the sun, moon and stars being darken or falling from heaven is also used of the fall of Judea [a national judgment] in Jeremiah 4:1-28.
2. Of the fall of Israel [Amos 8:6-9; 8:18-20].
3. Of the fall of Israel [Zephaniah 1:14-18].
4. Of the fall of the Nations [Joel 3:15-16; 2:31].
5. Of the fall of Egypt [Ezekiel 30:3-4; 32:7-8; Isaiah 19:1].
6. Of the fall of Babylon [Isaiah 13:10-20].
7. Of the fall of Edom [Isaiah 34:4-6].
8. Of the city of Arier in Israel [Isaiah 29:5-6].
9. Of the fall of "My people" [Isaiah 51:5-6].
10. Also see Joel 2:1-31; 30:31; Haggai 2:6-7; Amos 8:9; Jeremiah 15:9 46:7; 49:23-24; Isaiah 17:12-13; 19:1; 47:20; 64:3; Daniel 7:2-17; Exodus 19:16; 13:21-22; 14:19-31; Psalm 18:13; 104:3; Ezekiel 34:4; Nahum 1:3. THIS WAS FAMILIAR LANGUAGE TO THOSE JESUS WAS SPEAKING TO AND THEY WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD HIM TO BE SPEAKING OF THE FALL OF A NATION, NOT OF THE END OF THE WORLD. It is similar to that in Deuteronomy 23:22-28 and both are a judgment on Israel.
11. Compare Matthew 24:29-30 to the fall of Egypt. "And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you and will set darkness on your land, declares the Lord God. I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations" [Ezekiel 32:7-9]. As far as these nations were concerned the lights went out.
Matthew 24:30: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven." "In Heaven" is where the Son of Man is, not where the sign would appear. What did appear was the destruction of Israel. The sign proves that the man Israel rejected is the Lord and is the ruler over all nations, and He has the power to destroy the nations that reject Him.
In speaking of God's coming in judgment on Egypt Isaiah says, "The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud, and is about to come to Egypt" [Isaiah 19:1; also Jeremiah 4:13; Ezekiel 30:3-4]. This is not God literally riding a cloud into Egypt, but is figurative language of His coming in judgment on Egypt. When they saw Jerusalem destroyed, they were seeing Jesus coming in judgment on that city. Jesus told the high priest, "YOU SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER,