All one need do is recognize what timeline Jesus was giving His Olivet discourse SIGNS for, in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. A bit of knowledge about the 70 A.D. destruction of the temple by the general Titus of the Roman army also helps.
Those SIGNS He gave are for the 'end' of this world, as they parallel the events of the Seals of Revelation 6. And the SEALS are about events for the very end just prior to Christ's future return. So really, figuring this out should be easy, for those who keep His Word that is.
The SIGN of not one stone atop another is actually a DUEL TIMELINE PROPHECY. That's why Christ's disciples right after that sign they then asked Him in Matthew 24:3 when those things would be, and what would be the SIGN of His future coming. Then Jesus continued with the SIGNS of the end leading up to His future return.
1. The Matthew 24:15 verse is Jesus quoting from Daniel 11:31 about the placing of the "abomination that maketh desolate", meaning an IDOL abomination placed at the temple in Jerusalem.
2. In 70 A.D. Jerusalem, the Roman general Titus by his army took Jerusalem and destroyed the 2nd temple and the city. This partially fulfilled the not one stone atop another prophecy for the Temple Mount complex of buildings. However, not ALL... the stones were destroyed there, as the Western Wall of the old temple complex still is standing today at the Temple Mount; the Jews pray at it and call it the Wailing Wall. Also, the stones of Islam's Dome of the Rock structure stands on today's Temple Mount.
3. The Romans in 70 A.D. never placed the "abomination of desolation" IDOL at that temple, because per the Jewish historian Josephus, the temple caught fire from inside, and burned down before the Romans could get possession of it. Thus the Matthew 24:15 sign was NOT fulfilled in 70 A.D.
4. The Matthew 24:15 event of the "abomination of desolation", is about the placing of an IDOL at the Jew's stone temple in Jerusalem. That is where that "holy place" Jesus mentions is located. It is the event that kicks off the time of the future "great tribulation," as Jesus linked that directly to it.
5. Because Jesus linked the future time of "great tribulation" with SEEING that "abomination of desolation" in the Jew's stone temple in Jerusalem, at the "holy place", that automatically means there MUST be another stone temple built by the Jews in Jerusalem for the end.
The Temple Mount In Jerusalem Is One Of The Most Sacred Places On Earth, And One Of The Most Contested.
cbn.com