Section 2 of Preface: The Fulfillment of the
Prophecy of Daniel and World Events Near the Time of
the Writing of The Revelation:
Under the Roman empire, Christians suffered
immeasurable persecution at the hand of the emperor
Nero in the
A.D. 60's.
As Jesus had predicted in Matthew 24 (referring
to Daniel's Old Testament prophecy), the destruction
and abomination are about to unfold:
The Roman Siege of Jerusalem:
After Nero's rule of thirteen years, Galba and
Otho occupied a year and a half, and then Vespasian,
who had distinguished himself in the campaigns
against the Jews, was proclaimed emperor while still
in Judea. He immediately set out for Rome,
entrusting to his son Titus the war against the
Jews.
The
violent insurrection:
The rebuilding and beautification of the temple
in Jerusalem, begun by Herod the Great in 20
B.C.,
was finally completed in
A.D. 64 -- 60 years after
Herod's death. A mere two years later, the Zealots,
a fanatical Jewish sect, instigated a violent
insurrection against Rome. In
A.D. 70 the revolt was
crushed, and Jerusalem and the temple were
destroyed.(1)
The
church in Jerusalem (Christians) ordered to leave:
Before the war began, members of the Jerusalem
church were ordered by a revelation to leave
Jerusalem and settle in a city of Perea called
Pella. Here they migrated from Jerusalem...(2)
(Note: The Christians who remembered Jesus'
instructions to leave Jerusalem --Matthew 24:1-3,
15-21-- were spared from the destruction).
Sword, famine and other forms of death:
Those who wish may trace precisely from Josephus'
history the disasters that overwhelmed the entire
nation, especially how the residents of Judea were
driven to the limits of suffering; how many
thousands of men, women and children died by the
sword, famine, and countless other forms of death;
how many famous Jewish cities endured horrors under
siege, and in particular the terrors of those who
fled for refuge to Jerusalem as an "impregnable
fortress." (2)
Utterly destroyed by fire:
They can study (from Josephus' history) all the
details of the entire war and how in the end the
abomination of desolation, declared by the prophets,
was set up in the very temple of God, celebrated of
old, when it was utterly destroyed by fire. (2)
Deep silence and a lethal darkness:
Those who stayed in Jerusalem were now unable to
leave the city. The Jews lost all hope of survival,
and the famine became even worse, devouring house
after house, family after family. The homes were
filled with women and children thus destroyed, the
alleys with corpses of old men. Young men, swelling
with hunger, haunted the marketplace like ghosts and
fell dead in their tracks. The sick could not bury
their relatives, while those still fit evaded the
task due to the numbers of the dead and their own
uncertain fate, for many fell dead while burying
others, and many set out for their own graves while
they were still able. There was not weeping or
wailing as hunger conquered emotion, and those who
were dying looked with dry eyes on those already
dead. Deep silence and a lethal darkness shrouded
the city.(2)
The fate of millions:
In
estimating the total number of lives lost, the
historian (Josephus) says that 1.1 million died by
famine and the sword, that the partisans and
terrorists informed against each other after the
city's capture (by Rome) and were executed, and that
the tallest and the handsomest of the youths were
saved for the triumphal parade. Of the rest, those
over seventeen years of age were sent as prisoners
to hard labor in Egypt, and even more were divided
among the provinces to be killed in the theaters by
sword or wild beasts. Those under seventeen were
sold into slavery and the number of these alone was
ninety thousand.(2)
Those that fled to Masada:
The
last fortress of the revolutionaries (about 1000
men, women and children) was Masada, a massive,
flat-topped rock near the Dead Sea. Herod had built
palaces on Masada, choosing the location in large
part because it was easy to defend, with steep
slopes on all sides.(1)
The siege of Masada:
The Roman army laid siege to Masada in
A.D. 70.
They built a camp, the remains of which are still
visible, and spent several frustrating years
attacking the mountain with catapults and other war
machines. Finally the Romans decided on the only
strategy left: they constructed a massive earthen
ramp up the side of the mountain until they were
able to walk to the top.(1)
When the Romans finally broke through, only two
women and five children were still alive, the rest
having committed suicide rather than surrender.(1)
(1) Source: Halley's Bible Handbook
(2) Source: Eusebius - The Church
History (Eusebius of Caesarea -
A.D. 260-339- was the
first to undertake the task of tracing the rise of
Christianity during its crucial first three
centuries from Christ to Constantine.)
Question:
According to the above historical accounts, the
Roman siege against the Christians and Jews in
Jerusalem and other areas ended in
A.D. 70 with the
destruction of Jerusalem and what structure within
Jerusalem? |