I know Gary. You, Elin and apparently Watcher all believe this. I understand your reasons and I respect them. I have to respectfully disagree with you guys for several reasons.
But there are problems with your reasons,
both in the facts of the text, and in your interpretation of prophecy.
1) Jesus gives us a period called the "Beginning of Sorrows."
A good place for us to begin. . .problem #1.
The word "sorrows" in the Greek is
odin, which means labor pain, birth pain,
and which corresponds with
1Th 5:2-3:
"for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly,
as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."
So in Mt 24:8, Jesus is talking about the beginning of labor pains that will bring the day of the Lord
at the end of time.
Then in Mat 24:14 He makes clear that the Gospel has to be preached into all the nations before the end comes and before
He introduces the Abomination of Desolation.
In Mt 24:14, Jesus is referring to the
day of the Lord at the end
of the
NT church (
ekklesia--Mt 16:18) age, the
end of time.
In v. 15-22, he transitions to the end of the
OT church (
ekklesia--Ac 7:38) age,
the
destruction of Jerusalem,
and then returns again to the end of the
NT church age in vv. 23-33
.
It is intertwined multi-level prophecy, as we see in much of OT prophecy.
The Gospel was just starting out back then. It
had NOT been preached to the world before the AD 70 Abomination.
You are confounding two prophecies.
The AD 70 Abomination in
vv. 15-22 is the prophecy regarding the end of the
OT church age
at the destruction of Jerusalem, it is
not prophecy of the end of the
NT church age
at the end of time. That prophecy is in vv.
4-14,
23-33.
2) The remnant of AD 70 fled to Masada. They were all killed there in AD 73.
None survived. The Days were not shortened for them.
Nothing tells us they were the ELECT.
Problem #2. . .
And nothing tells us that some of the believers were not caught in Jerusalem--the pregnant women, the nursing mothers, the elderly, etc.--because they could not flee.
3) There was no great deception during AD 70. Nobody was buying into the idea that Titus was their Messiah. Nobody was trying to get the Jews to "Go out and see the Christ."
Problem #3. . .confounding two prophecies again.
This
assumes your interpretation of the prophetic riddle of Mt 24 is correct,
that Jesus is prophesying
only the end of the
NT church (
ekklesia--Mt 16:18) age,
and that vv. 15-22 do
not refer to the end of the
OT church (
ekklesia--Ac 7:38) age,
in the
destruction of Jerusalem. But Jesus states that
the
present generation will see these things, and
Josephus, the Jewish historian
who was there, describes the destruction of Jerusalem in the terms of vv. 15-22.
4) The fleeing of AD 70 occurred on August 4, AD 70. That day was a Sabbath but
it was not in Winter.
Problem #4. . .
Jesus did not say it would occur in winter.
5) Armageddon was introduced in verse 28 which ties with Rev 19. While there was a slaughter and likely scavengers, the death toll from the initial Roman slaughter was only 3,600.
Yes, after transitioning in vv. 15-22 to the end of the
OT church age, the end of Jerusalem,
Jesus then transitions
back in vv. 23-33 to the end of the
NT church age at the end of time.
6) You had Cestilus Callus who sent 20,000 Roman troops down from Syria and the Jews slaughtered 6,000 of these solders causing Callus to retreat. Then Nero sent Vespasian to squash the rebellion. He succeeded in Galilee, the Jordan River Valley area and Idumea then encircled Jerusalem. At that time Nero died and a power struggle within Rome ensued. This is when Vespasian appointed his son, Titus, to take over. Over an extended period the
Romans eventually battered down the temple walls and killed or captured the remaining defenders.
While it can be effectively argued that Daniel 11 may have been fulfilled by Ptolemy I and Seleucus of Egypt who came after the Romans,
nothing in Daniel 12 appears to have been fulfilled.
Yes, all private interpretation of prophetic
riddles is
uncertain.
7) We have not seen the appearance of the Man of Sin or the Falling Away as discussed by Paul. So either you tie the Man of Sin to Titus or you don't. I don't.
I recognize many similarities of AD 70 to what Christ discussed. But I also consider the strong possibility of a dual fulfillment. Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. Isaiah 17:1 calls for the complete desolation of Damascus which has not happened. In fact most of the Chapters in the teens of Isaiah I believe are future.
So you are saying the rapture at the end of time with the final judgment (2Th 1:7-10, 2:1, 8)
has not yet come. . .agreed.
As for the church age lasting 2,000+ years YES we agree. But
to say it is the Greatest Tribulation ever, I disagree.
Good, because in vv. 15-22, Jesus is referring to the destruction of
Jerusalem,
the end of the
OT church (
ekklesia--Ac 7:38) age, when he makes that statement in v. 21,
he is
not referring to the remaining
NT church age.
I think the worst is yet to come and that we are still in the Beginnings of Sorrows.
So we are in the labor pains that mark the beginning of the end (1Th 5:2-3).