Immortality or Resurrection (Updated) by William West (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

coming is shown by it being
between the false Christs and the dead carcass of Jerusalem.
"For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled"
[Luke 21:22]. Jeremiah ends his prophecy made in Gehenna [valley of Topheth] outside
of Jerusalem with, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am about to
bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it
because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words'" [Jeremiah 19:15].
FIRST CENTURY OR TODAY?
(a) "Let him that is on the housetop not go down." Most first century houses in
Jerusalem had flat roofs, and a person could travel through the city from one housetop to
the next. Today there are almost none with flat roofs and what few there may be would
not be useful as a roadway to the gate of the city.
(b) Not on the Sabbath. The gates would be closed, and no one would be able to leave
the city. Today there are no gates. The Law forbids going more than a Sabbath day
journey, which is less than a mile, and others Jews might have stopped them for breaking
the Law.
(c) Not in the winter. Travel would be hard then but not today with today's ways of
travel.
(d) "For the days shall come upon you when your enemies shall cast up a bank about
you, and compass you round, and keep you on in on every side" [Luke 19:43-44]. Then
the common way that was used by the Romans to take a walled city was to build an
embankment next to the wall for the army to walk up to the top of the wall. Today's
cities, not even Jerusalem, do not have walls as they would be useless with modern
planes and explosives.
(f) "And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but
for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." After Jerusalem was completely
destroyed, the cities of Israel that had not been destroyed before Jerusalem was also
destroyed. If the Roman army had kept going, the fateful Jews beyond the mountains
where Christians had fled to would have also been destroyed. This would make no sense
when it is applied to the second coming of Christ as it is by many Millennialists.
Luke 21:24 "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into
all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled." In A. D. 70 all the Jews that were in Israel that was not killed were
led captive into all the nations. The siege of Jerusalem was at the time of the Passover
when millions were within the walls of the city. IF THIS WERE SPEAKING OF THE
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MILLENNIUM WHO IS GOING TO FALL BY THE SWORD AND LED CAPTIVE
AT THE COMING OF CHRIST?
"Of the Jews destroyed during the siege, Josephus reckons not less than ONE MILLION AND
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND, to which must be added, above TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTYSEVEN
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.
"The destruction of Jerusalem was more terrible than anything that the world has ever
witnessed, either before or since. Even Titus seemed to see in his cruel work the hand of an
avenging God." C.H. Spurgeon, Commentary on Matthew, Page 412.
"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.
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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]. Millennialists say, "Not so Christ,
the great tribulation in the Millennium will be much greater then the tribulation at the
destruction of Jerusalem and Israel.
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
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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