I'm not even partial~Jesus' words have reference to the camp of saints, not a bunch of rebels who hated and desipes the Son of God. Whatever happen when Jerusalem was destroyed is not recorded in the scriptures, for it served no prophecy of any importance.
Jerusalem's actual destruction that would make its buildings "level with the ground" as Christ predicted in Luke 19:34 was NOT recorded in scripture because
it hadn't happened yet in real time before all the first drafts of scripture were written, prior to AD 70's destruction of Jerusalem. Why would you expect that AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem to be recorded if the NT authors were writing before that year had come?
The Jewish apostles never spent time warning of any upcoming judgment upon the Jewish nation, if so, where?
This is utterly false. Hebrews 6:4-8 gave a sober warning to those wishing to depart from the faith and return to Judaism, since that system was "rejected" and was
"near unto cursing; whose end is to be burned".
Paul also warned about the hostile Jews who were then persecuting the saints and were "contrary to all men. Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for
the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost." (1 Thess. 2:14-16). These Jews who were persecuting the saints were soon going to receive a recompense of tribulation themselves. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 Paul consoled the Thessalonian saints who were then suffering for the faith and undergoing persecutions and tribulations, telling them to "rest with us" because the Lord would come from heaven with His angels, "
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ". This would have been no comfort at all to the persecuted Thessalonians if Paul had been speaking of the Lord avenging them some 2,000 years plus down the road .
John the Baptist urged repentance for those of
his own nation of Israel, because "...
EVEN NOW the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Matt. 3:10). John additionally warned about Christ's purging of His own people's nation, "Whose fan
is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt. 3:12).
That winnowing fan process in Israel was ready to begin at that point, which would separate the wheat from the chaff from among the Israelites. That "floor" which John was speaking about was the Jerusalem temple site, which was originally built upon the site of Ornan the Jebusite's threshing floor which King David paid for. God was going to purge that site by fire in AD 70, getting rid of the "chaff" and the "weak and beggarly elements" which became dead and obsolete with Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Christ had expressed a wish that this fire was already kindled in Luke 12:49. "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"
Christ told the weeping women on the way to the cross that they should "weep not for me, but
for yourselves, and for your children". It was those Israelite women themselves and their own children who were going to experience those predicted disasters
in their own lifetime.
James wrote a warning to "
the twelve tribes of Israel" that were scattered abroad, telling them that "the coming of the Lord has drawn near" and "
the judge standeth before the door" (James 1:1 and 5:8-9). The rich men were told to "weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you". James said these rich men had heaped together treasure in those last days, but this would not help them withstand the disasters that were soon coming to overtake them.
God was 100% finished with dealing with the Jews as a nation where folks went to worship at the resurrection as of Jesus Christ, when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
That's not quite the right date. God switched the evangelistic emphasis over to the Gentile nations
at the close of Daniel's 70th week in AD 37. This was the time when God commissioned the Apostle Paul in the Jerusalem temple vision to "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). That final 7 years of the 70-week prophecy, (which lasted from AD 30-37) was composed of Christ "confirming the covenant with many" of Daniel's people (Dan. 9:27).
The temple veil tearing was a sign that Christ's flesh had been torn as a sacrifice for the children of God (the symbolism of the verse you brought up in Hebrews 10:20 - "...a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through
the veil, that is to say,
his flesh...").
God has changed his residence! and he never is going to change back~Amen. He now dwells in the hearts of his people through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. We can visit him any time without the intervention of an earthly priest~we all are on equal grounds through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sins have been totally, forever forgiven never to be mention to us again, never~by the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Absolutely true. And to make it evident to one and all that He was never going back to that physical temple again after Christ had established the New Covenant in His blood in AD 33, God saw to it that
Jerusalem's temple was physically destroyed down to the last stone in AD 70.
This was very similar to King Hezekiah breaking the brass serpent to pieces in 2 Kings 18:4, because the Israelites had been burning incense to it.
It was necessary to physically destroy that "piece of brass" which King Hezekiah called "Nehushtan" because its original purpose had been fulfilled long before then. The Israelites were making an idol of that brass serpent, which had never been God's intent, anymore than God desired for the physical Jerusalem temple itself to be idolized. Just like the brass serpent,
the physical temple of Israel with its obsolete system that the Israelites were idolizing
needed to be physically broken to pieces, which God did accomplish in AD 70, as Christ had promised would happen.
Luke 21:20“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”
You are incorrect to assume that this verse speaks of God's church being surrounded and overcome by spiritual enemies. This verse predicts a
NEAR "DESOLATION" for Jerusalem. This was
the physical city of Jerusalem being surrounded by literal,
military armies prior to its physical desolation by "the end of the war". Daniel had predicted that the city of Jerusalem and its sanctuary would be made desolate "with the abominable armies" (Dan. 9:26-27).
The church of God NEVER becomes "desolate", as Christ once described for the physical city and temple of Jerusalem. Christ said that not even the gates of Hell would prevail against His kingdom in this world. The leaven of the kingdom of heaven continues to grow, as does the mustard seed and the "stone" kingdom of Christ, which shall never pass away. You are projecting your own gloomy outlook onto the progress of the Holy Spirit's work in this world. Scripture presents no such pessimistic attitude to the progress of the gospel in this world up to the final judgment in our future.
Take heart, Red. God can reserve to Himself "7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal" in every generation - even the most perverse. There are revivals presently taking place in this world that do not necessarily hit the newsfeed or the internet. The "wind" of the Holy Spirit does not wait for a reporter to document that it is blowing where it wants to go.
