Well, let's look at it. 4-28, birth pangs...happening all throughout this time period. Do we see:
Do we have false prophets and Messiah's? Check, and they had them in the Disciples day.
Do we have wars and rumors of wars? Yep, back then too.
Famines, earthquakes? Yep and yep.
Tribulation and hardship and persecution. Did they have it then? Well, considering all but John was martyred, I'd say yes. And we certainly see it now.
Christians are plenty hated. Then and now.
Your problem is you claim within their lifetime. So now is irrelevant.
The world would've been torn apart if everything you claimed happened in less than 10 years. That but there isn't even a mention in history to support you.
We know that in the book of Revelation, thanks to the letters, that the problem of people losing their love of Christ is not something that only happens today. People seem to go "all in", but in the end, they're only the seed on the path, or the rocky soil. Same problems today as there was then.
Lawlessness...increasingly? Sure. That is something that has always been and will alwys be. It will get worse towards the end, but it's certainly something that was seen in the Disciples time.
Again, you limit if it to less than 10 years.
The "sharp birth pang"...(Vv 15-21), the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, is so precise, many believe that Jesus could not have given this description, and that the Disciples made up what Jesus said after the fact. We know better. But when we read first hand accounts of the event from Josephus, it becomes clear that Jesus is predicting this event. Does it discount the possibility that this event is also foreshadowing another, bigger, similar end times event? No! It could totally mean that, absolutely! But he's definitely predicting the 70AD destruction here as well, or even, initially.
Some was dual then and now. Most could not have happened then.
Again your own time limit denies your claims.
Then we have the specific, outrageous, unmistakeable signs that are linked directly with Christ's return. These aren't the sort of things that will trail up to it in the months ahead, these things happen moments beforehand, or at the same time. The sun and moon darkened, stars falling and heavens shaken, Jesus appearing and everyone being 'gathered'.
Revelations says they will happen over 3.5 years.
It is certainly not stretching things to say that everything except these things was seen by the Disciples in their day.
The bible and history says you are stretching things.
No they didn't see the events and signs signalling Christ's final return. Only those alive at that final moment will. But all those other signs? The Disciples saw them, our Great Grandparents saw them, and we see them.
No we do not. This seas turning red, killing all the fish, all ships destroyed on the oceans, all the islands disappearing, 2/3 of mankind killed, Satan ensuring the AOD statue of the AC and bringing it to life, that the two witnesses, the AC invasion of Israel and more. We have seen none of this.
In the bible Israel is called the fig tree. Sure didn't happen back then. Did in 1948.
They didn't see this back then.
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that ite]">[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Which generation? The generation that sees all of this is completed.
That is today and and the very near future.
I repeat, it was impossible for them to see this back then.
Where does Matt 24 say that Israel must be restored?
Really? Have you read the OT? The Ancient World was doing wars and threatening was ALL the time!!
Read Corinthians, or Revelation.
How could it happen? It DID happen. It happened then! The abomination happened in multiple ways, depending on how you looked at it. When Daniel spoke of an abomination, he spoke of something defiling God's temple, right? In many ways, we can argue that the Jews themselves, continuing sacrifices after Christ's once for all sacrifice, was the true abomination, and the destruction of the Temple was God's way of putting an end to that.
But we can also say that this Abomination was the Roman armies surrounding the Holy City.
Luke 21:21-22 says: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written."
Correspondingly Matthew 24:15–16 says: “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."
They're talking of the same event. The event that destroyed the City and the Temple was considered, by Jesus, as The Abomination that causes Desolation. Utter destruction and dispersal for the Jewish people.
So while I don't discount the possibility of foreshadowing, there is no way you can discount that this part of the Discourse is about 70AD.
No...as I said, that will happen when Jesus returns. Everything BUT that has been seen. We will not see the "big ticket" things until he does, in fact, come in the clouds. That would then take away from all the verses that speak about us not knowing the time, don't you think? If he said "you will not know", but then went on to say "but you'll see stars falling in the week beforehand" that's sort of a bit contradictory.
