Pearl & Prodigal

Episode 12 — This Generation

Oct 14, 2023— 32 Minutes

There is war in the Middle East, and that usually means people will be making predictions concerning the return of Christ. But consider carefully that the verses of Matthew 24 are given a limited and specific timeframe by Jesus which excludes them from application to the horrors of our own time. Verse 34 is key: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34 NAS95)

Verse References

• Matthew 24:1-34
• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3
• 2 Peter 3:10

Ernest Renan (an author who did not believe in Jesus as the Son of God), wrote this about the seige:

“From that moment hunger, rage, despair, and madness inhabited Jerusalem. It was a cage of wild madness, a city of shrieks, of cannibals, a hell. Titus, on his side, was cruel; five hundred unfortunates per day were crucified with odious refinements in sight of the city. There was not sufficient wood to make crosses, and there was no room to place them.”

The people in the city believed, because there were so-called prophets in the city telling them so, that Jerusalem and the Temple were indestructible and that God would show His power against the Roman invaders. On this point, Renan wrote:

“The confidence on this point was such that many who could have escaped, remained to see this miracle of Jehovah.”

In the end, Renan writes:

“From the month of September, 70, to the year 122, when Hadrian rebuilt it under the name of Ælia Capitolina, Jerusalem was nothing but a field of rubbish.”