I just wonder on what basis does prophecy get divided up like this >>> already happened, still needs to happen?
Good question, in my opinion. For many years I thought Jesus was talking about a single event or series of events, and I had no reason to think otherwise until I dug deeper into the prophecies concerning the Day of the Lord and Luke's account of the Olivet Discourse. Have you ever wondered why Luke seems to have split up the Olivet Discourse into two sections: Luke chapter 17 and Luke chapter 21? I did. I wondered why Luke separated the material recorded in chapter 17 from the material recorded in chapter 21.
I began to depart from my previous perspective after I understood the Lord's teaching as recorded in Luke 17. In my current view, the key verses in that section of Luke 17 are verses 22 and 30. (Luke 17:22, Luke 17:30) There will come a time, he said, that we would long to see the days of the Son of Man. He also said that the day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like the days of the Son of Noah. This suggests another time of danger, other than the time of danger associated with the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, when "the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out."
When we review Matthew's record of Jesus' teaching, we understand that Jerusalem will experience two major events: one that requires people to escape the city, and another that requires them to flee to the city. The first event takes place 40 years after Jesus' exaltation. And the second event will take place right before he returns.
Let's look at Joel,
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
This is not an instruction to flee there rather that there is deliverance there, there were survivors who survived the destruction in 70 AD.
Granted, but the context of Joel's first two chapters sets up the scenario. In that scenario, the land is subjected to four species of locusts, which has major religious, social, and economic effects. What is striking and very important to notice is Israel's response to this locust plague. The priests call for a holy convocation, and they call Israel to Jerusalem to pray for their nation. Eventually, God will send an army of fire that incinerates everything in its path.
The bottom line is that those who have faith in Israel, will hear the call to come to Jerusalem to pray, and their immediate act will turn out to save their lives. Those who will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Jesus tells the first century believers to flee from Jerusalem and they did but there were some who did not.
That's right.
We can know this because Peter quoted from Joel on his sermon on Pentecost which means it was directly applicable to the times that were coming soon.
Jerusalem also burned in 70 AD.
Peter quotes from the latter half of Joel, where it predicts that the Lord will pour out his spirit on all flesh. We don't know what Peter believed about the end-times timeline. Undoubtedly, he believed that the Lord would return and, perhaps, in his lifetime. The Lord was clear that he would be delayed, but I suspect that Peter didn't know that the Lord's delay would last over 2,000 years.
Peter may have thought that Joel predicted Pentecost. We can't know for sure. Peter seemed a bit uncertain when he said, "This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel." But Peter was not talking about Joel's prediction that the people would escape the army of fire that God would send on the grazing lands of Israel.
