I continue to have a huge problem getting Christians to acknowledge the obvious, that in the Olivet Discourse Jesus focused not on the 2nd Coming as much as on the judgment to come against Israel in his own generation, and that Israel would go through a period of "great tribulation" from 70 AD, when the temple would be destroyed, to the end of the age. We call this the "Jewish Diaspora." Very few seem to be willing to acknowledge this, for the simple reason that modern prophetic circles do not favor that interpretation.
Just to answer your questions--not to settle the matters--I suggest my reasoning follows a general sense from Scriptures that we are not to prognosticate too much about the future, particularly when that may be obscuring what God is telling us to do now.
Deut 18. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Acts 1. 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority."
There is a tendency, sometimes, for people to want prophecy to be all about distant future events, so as to ignore what God is saying today.
Eze 12. 21 The word of the Lord came to me: 22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’? 23 Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.’ Say to them, ‘The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled. 24 For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations among the people of Israel. 25 But I the Lord will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious people, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign Lord .’ ”
And I think this fits well in the context of Jesus' Olivet Discourse in which some may have relegated his warning about the fall of Jerusalem to some distant, future generation, rather than something of immediate consequence, requiring immediate preparation. Jesus' Disciples were looking more to the Messianic coming at the end of the age than to the intervening judgment coming against Jerusalem and Jewish religion. They were looking for Israel's salvation even though Israel was presently ripe for judgment due to their hidden sin.
So I'm not surprised that when Jesus spoke of the fall of the temple that his Disciples immediately looked at a future outcome, as opposed to something more immediate that they had trouble grasping. Jesus clearly said all this would take place, ie the fall of the temple and its preliminary signs, in "this generation." Jesus did not ignore the question about his 2nd Coming, but he seemed to place it in the category of future expectation that provided a larger context, but not an explicit time frame.
Jesus seemed to focus the sense of his coming on a more imminent kind of divine coming in judgment in his own generation, destroying the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and producing an age-long period of judgment for the Jews until the time when Messiah would restore Israel. In the 3 synoptic Gospels, we see the same fall of the temple predicted in "this generation." And all 3 versions produce the exact same order of Jesus' address:
1) The temple will literally be destroyed.
2) Christians will be hated, Israel's religion will "grow cold," ignoring the Gospel testimony, and Jewish believers will have to endure for salvation.
3) The Jewish People will endure great tribulation, an age-long punishment.
4) The Abomination of Desolation, from Dan 9.26-27, or the desolation of the City and the Sanctuary.
5) The Jewish believers will flee to the mountains.
6) The temple will fall in "this generation."
Matt 24. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
...9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains...
21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again...
34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Mark 13. 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ...
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out....
18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
...30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Luke 21. 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”
12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.
21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.
22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled...
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
I say all this to make the point that the "abomination of desolation" mentioned in Matt 24 and Mark 13 are sandwiched between #2 and #5, between the condition of Israel and of the Jewish Church and the need for believers to flee to the mountains. And in Luke 21 Luke uses a reference to Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, in place of the "abomination of desolation," again sandwiched between #2 and #5.
This for me positively identifies the AoD with the Roman encirclement of Jerusalem in 66-70 AD. It was after 66 AD that Jewish believers fled to Pella in the mountains. And it was directly before the Romans came to encircle Jerusalem that God found unbelieving Israel to be out of compliance with their covenant with God, their religion growing cold, and their turning to persecute believers in Jesus.
Therefore, this Address is all about a prophetic judgment Jesus was proclaiming against Israel in the same vein that the Prophets before him declared an imminent judgment upon Israel for their sins, when the Babylonians were about to destroy Jerusalem.
Just to answer your questions--not to settle the matters--I suggest my reasoning follows a general sense from Scriptures that we are not to prognosticate too much about the future, particularly when that may be obscuring what God is telling us to do now.
Deut 18. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Acts 1. 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority."
There is a tendency, sometimes, for people to want prophecy to be all about distant future events, so as to ignore what God is saying today.
Eze 12. 21 The word of the Lord came to me: 22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’? 23 Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.’ Say to them, ‘The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled. 24 For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations among the people of Israel. 25 But I the Lord will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious people, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign Lord .’ ”
And I think this fits well in the context of Jesus' Olivet Discourse in which some may have relegated his warning about the fall of Jerusalem to some distant, future generation, rather than something of immediate consequence, requiring immediate preparation. Jesus' Disciples were looking more to the Messianic coming at the end of the age than to the intervening judgment coming against Jerusalem and Jewish religion. They were looking for Israel's salvation even though Israel was presently ripe for judgment due to their hidden sin.
So I'm not surprised that when Jesus spoke of the fall of the temple that his Disciples immediately looked at a future outcome, as opposed to something more immediate that they had trouble grasping. Jesus clearly said all this would take place, ie the fall of the temple and its preliminary signs, in "this generation." Jesus did not ignore the question about his 2nd Coming, but he seemed to place it in the category of future expectation that provided a larger context, but not an explicit time frame.
Jesus seemed to focus the sense of his coming on a more imminent kind of divine coming in judgment in his own generation, destroying the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and producing an age-long period of judgment for the Jews until the time when Messiah would restore Israel. In the 3 synoptic Gospels, we see the same fall of the temple predicted in "this generation." And all 3 versions produce the exact same order of Jesus' address:
1) The temple will literally be destroyed.
2) Christians will be hated, Israel's religion will "grow cold," ignoring the Gospel testimony, and Jewish believers will have to endure for salvation.
3) The Jewish People will endure great tribulation, an age-long punishment.
4) The Abomination of Desolation, from Dan 9.26-27, or the desolation of the City and the Sanctuary.
5) The Jewish believers will flee to the mountains.
6) The temple will fall in "this generation."
Matt 24. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
...9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains...
21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again...
34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Mark 13. 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ...
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out....
18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
...30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Luke 21. 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”
12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.
21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.
22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled...
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
I say all this to make the point that the "abomination of desolation" mentioned in Matt 24 and Mark 13 are sandwiched between #2 and #5, between the condition of Israel and of the Jewish Church and the need for believers to flee to the mountains. And in Luke 21 Luke uses a reference to Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, in place of the "abomination of desolation," again sandwiched between #2 and #5.
This for me positively identifies the AoD with the Roman encirclement of Jerusalem in 66-70 AD. It was after 66 AD that Jewish believers fled to Pella in the mountains. And it was directly before the Romans came to encircle Jerusalem that God found unbelieving Israel to be out of compliance with their covenant with God, their religion growing cold, and their turning to persecute believers in Jesus.
Therefore, this Address is all about a prophetic judgment Jesus was proclaiming against Israel in the same vein that the Prophets before him declared an imminent judgment upon Israel for their sins, when the Babylonians were about to destroy Jerusalem.
