Jesus was predicting gentiles will rule

JESUS WAS PREDICTING GENTILES WILL RULE
Luke 21:24 24They will fall by the sword and will be
taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalemwill be
trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled.
BIBLEHUB COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(24) And they shall fall by the edge of the sword.—There is nothing in the
parallel prophecies of the other two Gospels that answers to this special
description, and it is possible, as suggestedabove, that St. Luke’s report here
has somewhatofthe characterof a free paraphrase, such as was natural in an
oral communication of what was variously remembered.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.—The thought expressedin this
clause, that the punishment of Israel, and the desolationof Jerusalemwere to
have a limit, that there was one day to be a restorationof both, is noticeable as
agreeing with the whole line of St. Paul’s thoughts in Romans 9-11, and being
in all probability the germ of which those thoughts are the development. In
Romans 11:25, “till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” we have a distinct
echo of the words, “until the times (better, the seasons)ofthe Gentiles be
fulfilled.”

BensonCommentary
Luke 21:24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations — The fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, we have
Bell., Luke 7:16, where Josephus describes the sacking ofthe city. “And now,
rushing into every lane, they slew whomsoeverthey found without distinction,
and burned the houses, and all the people who had fled into them. And when
they entered for the sake ofplunder, they found whole families of dead
persons, and houses full of carcassesdestroyedby famine; then they came out
with their hands empty. And though they thus pitied the dead, they did not
feel the same emotion for the living, but killed all they met, whereby they
filled the lanes with dead bodies. The whole city ran with blood, insomuch that
many things which were burning were extinguished by the blood.” Thus were
the inhabitants of Jerusalemslainwith the sword: thus was she laid even with
the ground, and her children with her. Ibid. — “The soldiers being now
weariedwith killing the Jews, andyet a greatnumber remaining alive, Cesar
commanded that only the armed and they who resistedshould be slain. But
the soldiers killed also the old and infirm; and taking the young and strong
prisoners, carried them into the women’s court in the temple. Cesarappointed
one Fronto, his freedman and friend, to guard them, and to determine the fate
of each. All the robbers and seditious he slew, one of them betraying another.
But picking out such youths as were remarkable for stature and beauty, he
reservedthem for the triumph. All the rest that were above seventeenyears
old he sent bound into Egypt, to be employed in labour there. Titus also sent
many of them into the provinces, to be slain in the theatres by beasts and the
sword. And those who were under seventeenyears ofage were slain. And
during the time Fronto judged them, one thousand died of hunger.” Chap. 17.
— “Now the number of the captives that were takenduring the time of the
war, was ninety-seven thousand; and of all that died and were slain during the
siege, was one million one hundred thousand, the most of them Jews by
nation, though not inhabitants of the place; for being assembledtogetherfrom
all parts to the feastof unleavened bread, of a sudden they were environed
with war.” Thus were the Jews led awaycaptive into all nations. However, the
falling by the edge of the sword, mentioned in the prophecy, is not to be
confined to what happened at the siege. It comprehends all the slaughters that

were made of the Jews in the different battles, and sieges,and massacres,both
in their own land and out of it, during the whole course of the war. Such as at
Alexandria, where fifty thousand perished; at Cesarea, tenthousand; at
Scythopolis, thirteen thousand; at Damascus, tenthousand; at Ascalon, ten
thousand; at Apheck, fifteen thousand; upon Gerizim, eleven thousand; and
at Jotapa, thirty thousand. And thus was verified what our Lord told his
disciples, the first time he uttered his prophecy concerning the destructionof
Jerusalem, that whereverthe carcasswas, there the eagles shouldbe gathered
together, Luke 17:37. See notes on Deuteronomy 28:62;Matthew 24:15-21;
and Mark 13:14.
Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles — The accomplishment of
this part of the prophecy is wonderful. For, after the Jews were utterly
destroyedby death and captivity, Vespasiancommanded the whole land of
Judea to be sold. Bell., Luke 7:26. — “At that time Cesarwrote to Bassus, and
to Liberius Maximus, the procurator, to sellthe whole land of the Jews;for he
did not build any city there, but appropriated their country to himself, leaving
there only eight hundred soldiers, and giving them a place to dwell in, called
Emmaus, thirty stadia from Jerusalem;and he imposed a tribute upon all the
Jews, wheresoeverthey lived, commanding every one of them to bring two
drachms into the capitol, according as in former times they were wont to pay
unto the temple of Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jews at that time.”
Thus was Jerusalemin particular, with its territory, possessedby the Gentiles,
becoming Vespasian’s property, who sold it to such Gentiles as chose to settle
there. That Jerusalemcontinued in this desolate state we learn from Dio: for
he tells us, that the Emperor Adrian rebuilt it, sent a colonythither to inhabit
it, and calledit Ælia. But he alteredits situation, leaving out Zion and
Bezetha, and enlarging it so as to comprehend Calvary, where our Lord was
crucified. Moreover, Eusebius informs us, that Adrian made a law, that no
Jew should come into the regionaround Jerusalem. Hist., Luke 21:6. So that
the Jews being banished, such a number of aliens came into Jerusalem, that it
became a city and colony of the Romans, Hist., Luke 4:6. In later times, when
Julian apostatizedto heathenism, being sensible that the evident
accomplishmentof our Lord’s prophecy concerning the Jewishnation made a

strong impressionupon the Gentiles, and was a principal means of their
conversion, he resolvedto deprive Christianity of this support, by bringing the
Jews to occupy their own land, and by allowing them the exercise oftheir
religion, and a form of civil government. For this purpose he resolvedto
rebuild Jerusalem, and to rear up the temple upon its ancient foundations,
because there only he knew they would offer prayers and sacrifices. In the
prosecutionof this design he wrote a letter to the community of the Jews,
which is still extant among his other works, inviting them to return to their
native country; for their encouragement, he says to them, among other things,
“The holy city, Jerusalem, which of many years ye have desired to see
inhabited, I will rebuild by mine own labour, and will inhabit it,” epist. 25.
And now the emperor, having made greatpreparations, began the execution
of his scheme with rebuilding the temple; but his workmenwere soonobliged
to desist, by an immediate and evident interposition of God. “He resolved,”
says Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 23., “to build, at an immense expense, a
certain lofty temple at Jerusalem;and gave it in charge to Alypius of Antioch,
to hasten the work. But when Alypius, with greatearnestness, appliedhimself
to the executionof it, and the governor of the province assistedhim in it,
terrible balls of fire bursting forth near the foundation, with frequent
explosions, and divers times burning the workmen, rendered the place
inaccessible. Thus the fire continually driving them away, the work ceased.”
This fact is attested, likewise,by Zemuth David, a Jew, who honestly confesses
that Julian was hindered by God in this attempt. It is attested, likewise, by
Nazianzen and Chrysostom among the Greeks, by Ambrose and Ruffin
among the Latins, who lived at the time when the thing happened; by
Theodoretand Sozomon, of the orthodox persuasion;by Philistorgius, an
Arian, in the extracts of his history made by Photius; (lib. 7. cap. 9;) and by
Socrates, a favourer of the Novatians, who wrote his history within the space
of fifty years after these things happened, and while the eye-witnessesthereof
were yet alive. Thus, while Jews and heathen, under the direction of a Roman
emperor, united their whole force to baffle our Lord’s prediction, they did but
still the more conspicuouslyaccomplishit. See notes on Deuteronomy 28:64-
68. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled — The time determined in the
counselof God for the conversionof the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul has given
us a clearexplication of this passage, Romans 11:25. This part of the prophecy

answers to Daniel 9:27 : He shall make it (Jerusalem)desolate, evenuntil the
consummation, namely, of wrath upon this people, and that determined be
poured upon the desolate. The meaning of both passagesis, that after the
destruction here foretold, Jerusalemshall continue desolate, until God has
poured upon it the whole wrath he has determined; and this wrath will not be
finished until the Gentiles are converted.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
21:5-28 With much curiosity those about Christ ask as to the time when the
greatdesolationshould be. He answers with clearnessand fulness, as far as
was necessaryto teach them their duty; for all knowledge is desirable as far as
it is in order to practice. Though spiritual judgements are the most common
in gospeltimes, yet God makes use of temporal judgments also. Christ tells
them what hard things they should suffer for his name's sake, and encourages
them to bear up under their trials, and to go on in their work,
notwithstanding the opposition they would meet with. God will stand by you,
and own you, and assistyou. This was remarkably fulfilled after the pouring
out of the Spirit, by whom Christ gave his disciples wisdom and utterance.
Though we may be losers forChrist, we shall not, we cannotbe losers by him,
in the end. It is our duty and interest at all times, especiallyin perilous, trying
times, to secure the safetyof our own souls. It is by Christian patience we keep
possessionofour ownsouls, and keepout all those impressions which would
put us out of temper. We may view the prophecy before us much as those Old
Testamentprophecies, which, togetherwith their greatobject, embrace, or
glance at some nearerobject of importance to the church. Having given an
idea of the times for about thirty-eight years next to come, Christ shows what
all those things would end in, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
utter dispersion of the Jewishnation; which would be a type and figure of
Christ's secondcoming. The scatteredJewsaround us preach the truth of
Christianity; and prove, that though heavenand earth shall pass away, the
words of Jesus shallnot pass away. Theyalso remind us to pray for those
times when neither the real, nor the spiritual Jerusalem, shallany longerbe
trodden down by the Gentiles, and when both Jews and Gentiles shall be
turned to the Lord. When Christ came to destroythe Jews, he came to redeem
the Christians that were persecutedand oppressedby them; and then had the

churches rest. When he comes to judge the world, he will redeem all that are
his from their troubles. So fully did the Divine judgements come upon the
Jews, that their city is set as an example before us, to show that sins will not
pass unpunished; and that the terrors of the Lord, and his threatenings
againstimpenitent sinners, will all come to pass, even as his word was true,
and his wrath greatupon Jerusalem.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Shall fall ... - No less than one million one hundred thousand perished in the
siege ofJerusalem.
Shall be led awaycaptive - More than 90,000were led into captivity. See the
notes at Matthew 24.
Shall be trodden down by the Gentiles - Shall be in possessionofthe Gentiles,
or be subjectto them. The expressionalso implies that it would be an
"oppressive" subjection, as whena captive in war is trodden down under the
feet of the conqueror. Anciently conquerors "trod on" the necks ofthose who
were subdued by them, Joshua 10:24; 2 Samuel22:41; Ezekiel21:29. The
bondage of Jerusalemhas been long and very oppressive. It was for a long
time under the dominion of the Romans, then of the Saracens, andis now of
the Turks, and is aptly representedby a captive stretchedon the ground
whose neck is "trodden" by the foot of the conqueror.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled - This passagehas beenunderstood
very differently by different expositors. Some refer it to the time which the
Romans who conquered it had dominion over it, as signifying that "they"
should keeppossessionof it until a part of the pagans should be converged,
when it should be rebuilt. Thus it was rebuilt by the Emperor Adrian. Others
suppose that it refers to the end of the world, when all the Gentiles shall be
converted, and they shall "cease"to be Gentiles by becoming Christians,
meaning that it should "always"be desolate. Others, that Christ meant to say
that in the times of the millennium, when the gospelshould spread

universally, he would reign personally on the earth, and that the "Jews"
would return and rebuild Jerusalemand the temple. This is the opinion of the
Jews and of many Christians. The meaning of the passage clearly is,
1. That Jerusalemwould be completely destroyed.
2. That this would be done by Gentiles - that is, by the Roman armies.
3. That this desolationwould continue as long as God should judge it proper
in a fit manner to express his abhorrence of the crimes of the nation - that is,
until the times allotted to "them" by God for this desolationshould be
accomplished, without specifying how long that would be, or what would
occurto the city after that.
It "may" be rebuilt, and inhabited by converted Jews. Sucha thing is
"possible," andthe Jews naturally seek that as their home; but whether this
be so or not, the time when the "Gentiles," as such, shall have dominion over
the city is limited. Like all other cities on the earth, it will yet be brought
under the influence of the gospel, and will be inhabited by the true friends of
God. Pagan, infidel, anti-Christian dominion shall cease there, and it will be
againa place where God will be worshipped in sincerity - a place "even then"
of specialinterest from the recollectionofthe events which have occurred
there. "How long" it is to be before this occurs is known only to Him "who
hath put the times and seasonsin his own power," Acts 1:7.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
24. Jerusalem… trodden down … until, &c.—Implying (1) that one day
Jerusalemshall ceaseto be "trodden down by the Gentiles" (Re 11:2), as then
by pagan so now by Mohammedan unbelievers; (2) that this shall be at the

"completion" of "the times of the Gentiles," whichfrom Ro 11:25 (taken from
this) we conclude to mean till the Gentiles have had their full time of that
place in the Church which the Jews in their time had before them—after
which, the Jews being again"graftedinto their own olive tree," one Church of
Jew and Gentile togethershall fill the earth (Ro 11:1-36). What a vista this
opens up!
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Luke 21:23"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,.... Or"mouth of the sword", an
Hebraism; see the Septuagint in Judges 1:8. The number of those that
perished by the famine and sword, were elevenhundred thousand (f):
and shall be led awaycaptive unto all nations; when the city was taken, the
most beautiful of the young men were kept for the triumph; and those that
were above seventeenyears of age, were sentbound into Egypt, to labour in
the mines; many were distributed through the provinces, to be destroyedin
the theatres, by the sword or beasts;and those that were under seventeen
years of age, were led captive to be sold; and the number of these only, were
ninety-seven thousand (g):
and Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of the Gentiles;the Romans, who
ploughed up the city and temple, and laid them level with the ground; and
which spot has been ever since inhabited by such as were not Jews, as Turks
and Papists:and so it will be,
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; that is, till the fulness of the
Gentiles is brought in; until the Gospelis preachedall over the world, and all
God's electare gatheredin out of all nations; and then the Jews will be
converted, and return to their own land, and rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem;
but till that time, it will be as it has been, and still is possessedby Gentiles.

The word "Gentiles", is left out in one of Beza's exemplars, and so it is
likewise in the Persic version.
(f) Joseph. de Belio Jud. l. 7. c. 49. & Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 7. (g) Ib.
Geneva Study Bible
And they shall fall by the {f} edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive
into all nations: and Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
(f) Literally, mouth, for the Hebrews callthe edge of a sword the mouth
because the edge of the sword bites.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
24. fall by the edge of the sword] Literally, “mouth of the sword.” Genesis
34:26. 1,100,000 Jews are saidto have perished in the war and siege. “Itseems
as though the whole race had appointed a rendezvous for extermination.”
Renan.
led awaycaptive into all nations] Josephus speaksof97,000Jev]s sentto
various provinces and to the Egyptian mines. B. J. vi. 9.
shall be trodden dawn of the Gentiles] So that the very thing happened which
the Maccabees hadtried to avert by their fortifications (1Ma 4:60). All sorts
of Gentiles—Romans,Saracens,Persians, Franks,Norsemen, Turks—have
‘trodden down’ Jerusalemsince then. The estaipatounmene of the original

implies a more permanent result than the simple future. Comp. Revelation
11:2.
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled] By the times — ‘seasons’or
‘opportunities’ of the Gentiles—is meantthe period allottedfor their full
evangelisation. Romans 11:25, “Blindness inpart is happened to Israel, until
the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 21:24. Ἔσται πατουμένη)This conveys the idea of something more than
πατηθήσεται, shallbe trodden down; it shall be (and continue) in a trodden
down state, as also in a desecratedstate:comp. note on 1 Timothy 1:9. The
Derivation and sense ofthe old name of the city, Jebus, is in consonancewith
this.[227]So in Revelation11:2, et seqq., “They shall tread under foot the holy
city forty and two months;” although there the angelis speaking ofa certain
one time of its being trodden under foot, and that a very remarkable one;
whereas in Luke the Lord is speaking of all the times of its being so trodden.
In fact, in whateverway you explain the “forty and two months,” Jerusalem
has been already, for a longerperiod than that, trodden down by the Romans,
the Persians, the Saracens, the Franks, the Turks; and it shall continue
hereafterto be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Moreover“the times of the Gentiles” are the times appointed to the Gentiles
wherein they are to be permitted to tread down the city: and these times shall
be terminated upon the conversionof the Gentiles being most fully
consummated: Romans 11:25 [“Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until
the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israelshall be saved”];
Revelation15:4 [“All nations shall come and worship before Thee”];for
certainly the Gentiles, whilst treading down Jerusalem, are themselves
meanwhile unbelievers. The expression, “the times of the Gentiles,” is used as
“the time of figs,” and “the time of the dead:” Mark 11:13; Revelation11:18.
It is not to be inferred from this that the temple and its worship of shadowy
types is going to be restored;but yet there will be many at that time there, as
indeed even at the present time there are some to be found, who are

worshippers bearing the Christian name, and there shall be many too of these
belonging to the people of Israel: and it is in the same lasttime that God and
Magog shallmake this assault:Revelation20:9. Ἄχρι, until, forms a tacit
limitation in the verses. From this verse to Luke 21:27, are summarily
comprehended all the times which are about to follow the destruction of the
city down to the termination of all things.—καιροὶ ἐθνῶν) the times of the
Gentiles, i.e. which are peculiarly their own. Αὐτῶν is not the expressionused,
but the term ἘΘΝῶΝ, of the Gentiles, is repeated, in order to show the
correspondence ofthe event with the prediction. The article is not added. The
times of Israel, which would have continued uninterruptedly, if Israelhad
been obedient, Psalm81:13-16, are interrupted by times of Gentiles. These
latter times had their own intervals of suspension, as in the Fourth and
Twelfth centuries. The plural, καιροί, is therefore used. A certain time of the
Gentiles was fulfilled when Constantine was emperor; and then the treading
down of Jerusalemabated; but not lastingly. The times during which the
Christians held Jerusalemwere brief intervals, if you compare them with the
times in which the [unconverted] Gentiles held the city.
[227]Jdg 19:10, Jebus = one who treads under foot.—E. and T.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 24. - And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations. It is computed that 1,100,000 Jews perishedin the
terrible war when Jerusalemfell (A.D. 70). Renan writes of this awful
slaughter, "that it would seemas though the whole (Jewish)race had
determined upon a rendezvous for extermination." Jerusalemshall be
trodden down of the Gentiles. After incredible slaughter and woes, Titus, the
Emperor Vespasian's son, who commanded the Roman armies, ordered the
city (of Jerusalem)to be razed so completely as to look like a spot which had
never been inhabited (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' v. 10. § 5). The storied city has
been rebuilt on the old site - but without the temple - and since that fatal day,
more than eighteencenturies ago, no Jew save on bare sufferance has dwelt in
the old loved and sacredspot. In turn, Roman and Saracen, Norsemanand

Turk, have trodden Jerusalemdown. Literally, indeed, have the sad words of
Jesus beenfulfilled. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. These few
words carry on the prophecy past our owntime (how far past?) - carry it on
close to the days of the end. "The times of the Gentiles" signify the whole
period or epochwhich must elapse between the destruction of Jerusalemand
the temple, and the beginning of the times of the end when the Lord will
return. In other words, these "times of the Gentiles" denote the period during
which they - the Gentiles - hold the Church of God in place of the Jews,
deposalfrom that position of favor and honor. These words separate the
prophecy of Jesus whichbelongs solelyto the ruin of the cry and temple from
the eschatologicalportion of the same prophecy. Hitherto the Lord's words
referred solelyto the fall of Jerusalemand the ruin of the Jewishrace. Now
begins a short prophetic description of the end and of the coming of the Sonof
man in glory.
Vincent's Word Studies
Edge (στόματι)
Lit., the mouth. So Wyc. Either in the sense ofthe foremostpart, or picturing
the swordas a devouring monster. In Hebrews 11:33, Hebrews 11:34, the
word is used in both senses:"the mouths of lions;" "the edge of the sword."
Led awaycaptive
See on captives, Luke 4:18.
Trodden down
Denoting the oppressionand contempt which shall follow conquest.

STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
They shall fall by the edge of the sword - Those who perished in the siege are
reckonedto be not less than eleven hundred thousand. See Matthew 24:22.
And shall be led awaycaptive - To the number of ninety-seven thousand. See
Josephus, War, b. vi. c. ix. s. 2, 3, and on Matthew 24:31; (note).
Trodden down of the Gentiles - Judea was so completelysubjugated that the
very land itself was sold by Vespasian;the Gentiles possessing it, while the
Jews were eithernearly all killed or led away into captivity.
Of the Gentiles be fulfilled - Till the different nations of the earth, to whom
God shall have given the dominion over this land, have accomplishedallthat
which the Lord hath appointed them to do; and till the time of their
conversionto God take place. But when shall this be? We know not. The
nations are still treading down Jerusalem, and the end is known only to the
Lord. See the note on Matthew 24:31.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography

Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/luke-
21.html. 1832.
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Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all
nations: and Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Fall by the edge of the sword... Josephus gives the names of the tribes and
villages with the numbers put to death, arriving at the fantastic total of
1,100,000;and as Josephus was a Jewishhistorian, his recordmust be
receivedas the most reliable that has reachedus concerning this disaster.
Led captive into all nations ... Titus alone deported some 97,000atone time;
and the scattering of Israel, as often promised by Jesus, was mostthoroughly
accomplished.
Trodden down of the Gentiles ... means occupied by the Gentiles. Theydid not
tread down the city during the siege, noras they devastatedit, but as they
occupiedit for more than nineteen centuries.
The times of the Gentiles ... is here named as the period of time during which
the Holy City would be subject to Gentile domination, and it is far easierfor
Christians now to know what this meant than it was for the apostles who first
heard it. The historicalrecord of that period is spreadupon the chronicles of
nearly two millennia.

The proper understanding of "the times of the Gentiles" must take into
accountthe following:
(1) The fact that nineteen hundred years were clearly a part of the period
indicated, that much time having already elapsed.
(2) The fact that these words "are to be understood as the antithesis of the
seasonofJerusalem" (Luke 19:44).[24]The Times of the Gentiles will be
comparable to the times during which Jerusalemheld the favored position.
(3) The fact that the apostle Paul used a very similar term, "the fullness of the
Gentiles," and prophesied that Jewishhardening would continue until that
period was concluded(see Romans 11:25, and also comments in my
Commentary on Romans, en loco).
In the light of the above considerations, the true meaning of "the times of the
Gentiles" would appear to be as expressedby various writers thus:
The interval betweenthe fall of Jerusalemand the End of the Age is called
"the times of the Gentiles," during which the gospelis announced to the
Gentiles and the vineyard is given to others than the Jews (Luke 20:16;
13:29,30).[25]
To the Jews Godgranted a time of privilege and gracious opportunity. Near
the close ofthat time the Son of man wept over Jerusalem, saying, "If thou
hadst known ... in this thy day." In like manner, the Gentile nations are now
having their times, which in due course are to be fulfilled, as was the case with
Jerusalem.[26]SIZE>

The times of the Gentiles may mean the Gentiles'"Dayof grace," thatis, the
church age.[27]
"The times of the Gentiles" signify the whole period or epochwhich must
elapse betweenthe destruction of Jerusalemand the temple, and the
beginning of the times of the end when the Lord will return ... In other words,
these denote the period during which they, the Gentiles, hold the Church of
God in place of the Jews, deposedfrom that position of favor and honor.[28]
There is not much disagreementamong commentators that the "times of the
Gentiles" represents a very long period of time; but there are many radically
divergent views on when those times will be terminated. For example:
Dummelow thought they would close "whenIsraelis converted."[29]Barnes
mentioned some who believe they will end "in the millenium"[30] or "when
all the Gentiles are converted."[31]Wesleysaidthese times shall terminate
"in the full conversionof the Gentiles."[32]Harrisonsupposedthey would
close "withIsrael's future restorationto favor,"[33]etc. All such
interpretations of this passageare rejectedhere.
As Geldenhuys said:
Christ nowhere implies that the "times of the Gentiles" will be followedby
Jewishdominion over the nations. The kingdom of this world is to give place
to "the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Revelation9:15).[34]
Furthermore, the times of the Jews did not mean their "full conversion," and
neither will the times of the Gentiles be their "full conversion," but just the
opposite. The times of the Gentiles means the period when Gentiles are being
saved; and there is a powerful inference in this text that, just as Israel finally
rebelled completely againstthe Lord, so will the Gentiles, bringing on the time
of the End.

A VERY STARTLING FACT
Today, after over nineteen centuries of Gentile dominion over Jerusalem,
during which the Romans, the Saracens, the Franks, the Mamelukes, the
Turks, and the British have, in turn, held authority over Jerusalem, (the city
is today controlled by secularIsrael.)If the interpretations which we have
advocatedabove, the same interpretations that have been in vogue among
Christian commentators for centuries - if those interpretations are true, then
there is a powerful indication in the current status of Jerusalemthat suggests
the awesome possibility, if not the certainty, that "the times of the Gentiles"
have about expired. The current status of true faith in Christ in our troubled
world is weak and precarious. Multiplied billions of the Gentile nations have
either not heard the gospelat all, or have totally repudiated Christianity, as
has Russia. The truth that men cannotforesee the future, and the fact of
uncertainty in all such interpretations as those undertaken here, preclude any
dogmatism; but the six-day war that lifted the Gentile yoke from Jerusalemin
1967 is in some manner related to this prophecy. The practicalapplications of
his words which Jesus at once propounded should now concernpeople more
than ever, lest"that day" come upon them unawares.
[24] George R. Bliss, op. cit., p. 304.
[25] Donald G. Miller, op. cit., p. 148.
[26] J. S. Lamar, The New TestamentCommentary, Vol. II (Cincinnati, Ohio:
Chase and Hall, 1877), p. 251.

[27] Charles L. Childers, BeaconBible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri:
BeaconHill Press, 1964), p. 591.
[28] H. D. M. Spence, op. cit., p. 185.
[29] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 766.
[30] Albert Barnes, Notes onthe New Testament(Grand Rapids, Michigan:
BakerBook House, 1954), p. 143.
[31] Ibid.
[32] John Wesley, op. cit., p. 283.
[33] Everett F. Harrison, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago:Moody Press,
1971), p. 262.
[34] NorvalGeldenhuys, op. cit., p. 536.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.

Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/luke-21.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
perished by the famine and sword, were elevenhundred thousandF6:
ninety-seven thousandF7:

Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "The New JohnGill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/luke-
21.html. 1999.
Geneva Study Bible
And they shall fall by the f edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive
(f) Literally, "mouth", for the Hebrews call the edge of a swordthe mouth
because the edge of the sword bites.
Copyright Statement
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.

Bibliography
Beza, Theodore. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24". "The 1599 Geneva Study
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/gsb/luke-21.html.
1599-1645.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
trodden down … until, etc. — Implying (1) that one day Jerusalemshallcease
to be “trodden down by the Gentiles” (Revelation11:2), as then by paganso
now by Mohammedan unbelievers; (2) that this shall be at the “completion”
of “the times of the Gentiles,” which from Romans 11:25 (takenfrom this) we
conclude to mean till the Gentiles have had their full time of that place in the
Church which the Jews in their time had before them - after which, the Jews
being again “graftedinto their own olive tree,” one Church of Jew and
Gentile togethershall fill the earth (Romans 11:1-36). What a vista this opens
up!
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition prepared from text
scannedby Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-BrownCommentary is in the
public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Luke 21:24". "CommentaryCritical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/luke-21.html. 1871-8.

John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels
24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
[Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.] "Jerusalemshallbe trodden down
of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled": and what then? in
what sense is this word until to be understood? Let every one have his
conjecture, and let me be allowedmine. I am well assuredour Saviour is
discoursing about the fall and overthrow of Jerusalem;but I doubt, whether
he touches upon the restorationof it: nor can I see any greatreasonto affirm,
that the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled before the end of the world itself.
But as to this controversy, I shall not at present meddle with it. And yet, in the
mean time, I cannotbut wonder that the disciples, having so plainly heard
these things from the mouth of their master, what concernedthe destruction
both of the place and nation, should be so quickly asking, "Lord, wilt thou at
this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Nordo I less wonder to find the
learned Beza expounding the very following verse after this manner: "Then
shall there be the signs in the sun, &c.; that is, after those times are fulfilled,
which were allotted for the salvation of the Gentiles, and vengeance upon the
Jews, concerning which St. Paul discourses copiously."Romans 11:25, &c:
when, indeed, nothing could be said clearerfor the confutation of that
exposition, than that of verse 32; "Verily, I say unto you, This generationshall
not pass awaytill all be fulfilled." It is strange this should be no more
observed, as it ought to have been, by himself and divers others, when, in
truth, these very words are as a gnomon to the whole chapter. All the other
passagesofthe chapter fall in with Matthew 24 and Mark 13, where we have
placed those notes that were proper; and shall repeat nothing here. Which
method I have takenin severalplaces in this evangelist, where he relates
passagesthat have been related before, and which I have had occasionto
handle as I met with them.

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Lightfoot, John. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "JohnLightfoot
Commentary on the Gospels".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jlc/luke-21.html. 1675.
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Edge of the sword(στοματι μαχαιρης — stomati machairēs). Instrumental
case ofστοματι — stomatiwhich means “mouth” literally (Genesis 34:26).
This verse like the close of Luke 21:22 is only in Luke. Josephus (War, VI. 9.3)
states that 1, 100, 000 Jewsperishedin the destruction of Jerusalemand 97,
000 were takencaptive. Surely this is an exaggerationand yet the number
must have been large.
Shall be led captive (αιχμαλωτιστησονται — aichmalōtisthēsontai). Future
passive of αιχμαλωτιζω— aichmalōtizō from αιχμη — aichmē spearand
αλωτος — halōtos (αλισκομαι — haliskomai). Here alone in the literal sense in
the N.T.
Shall be trodden under foot (εσται πατουμενη — estaipatoumenē). Future
passive periphrastic of πατεω — pateō to tread, old verb.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (αχρι ου πληρωτωσιν καιροι ετνων
— achri hou plērōthōsin kairoi ethnōn). First aorist passive subjunctive with

αχρι ου — achri hou like εως ου — heōs hou What this means is not clear
exceptthat Paul in Romans 11:25 shows that the punishment of the Jews has a
limit. The same idiom appears there also with αχρι ου — achri hou and the
aoristsubjunctive.
Copyright Statement
The Robertson's WordPictures of the New Testament. Copyright �
Broadman Press 1932,33,Renewal1960. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Broadman Press (Southern BaptistSunday SchoolBoard)
Bibliography
Robertson, A.T. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Robertson's WordPictures
of the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/luke-21.html. Broadman
Press 1932,33. Renewal1960.
Vincent's Word Studies
Edge ( στόματι )
Lit., the mouth. So Wyc. Either in the sense ofthe foremostpart, or picturing
the swordas a devouring monster. In Hebrews 11:33, Hebrews 11:34, the
word is used in both senses:“the mouths of lions;” “the edge of the sword.”
Led awaycaptive
See on captives, Luke 4:18.

Trodden down
Denoting the oppressionand contempt which shall follow conquest.
Copyright Statement
The text of this work is public domain.
Bibliography
Vincent, Marvin R. DD. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24". "Vincent's Word
Studies in the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/vnt/luke-21.html. Charles
Schribner's Sons. New York, USA. 1887.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive into
all nations: and Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive —
Eleven hundred thousand perished in the siege ofJerusalem, and above ninety
thousand were sold for slaves. So terribly was this prophecy fulfilled! And
Jerusalemshall be trodden by the Gentiles - That is, inhabited. So it was
indeed. The land was sold, and no Jew suffered even to come within sight of
Jerusalem. The very foundations of the city were ploughed up, and a heathen
temple built where the temple of God had stood.

The times of the Gentiles — That is, the times limited for their treading the
city; which shall terminate in the full conversionof the Gentiles.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Bibliography
Wesley, John. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "JohnWesley's Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/luke-21.html. 1765.
The Fourfold Gospel
the nations: and Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled2.
the nations: and Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles. According
to Josephus, 1,100,000perishedduring the siege, and97,000 were taken
captive. Of these latter, many were tortured and slain, being crucified, as he
tell us, till "room was wantedfor the crosses, and crosseswantedfor the
bodies".
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. By comparing this passagewith
Romans 11:1-36, we find that the times of the Gentiles signify that period
wherein the church is made up of Gentiles to the almost exclusionof the Jews.
The same chapter shows that this period is to be followedby one wherein the

Jew and the Gentile unite togetherin proclaiming the gospel. This prophecy,
therefore, declares that until this union of the Jew and the Gentile takes place,
the city of Jerusalemshall not only be controlled by the Gentiles, but shall be
trodden under foot--that is, opposed--by them. The history of Jerusalem, to
this day, is a striking fulfillment of this prophecy.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.
Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/luke-21.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
Scofield's ReferenceNotes
trodden down of the Gentiles
The "times of the Gentiles" beganwith the captivity of Judah under
Nebuchadnezzar2 Chronicles 36:1-21, since whichtime Jerusalemhas been
under Gentile overlordship.
Copyright Statement

These files are consideredpublic domain and are a derivative of an electronic
edition that is available in the Online Bible Software Library.
Bibliography
Scofield, C. I. "ScofieldReferenceNoteson Luke 21:24". "ScofieldReference
Notes (1917 Edition)".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/srn/luke-21.html. 1917.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
Ver. 24. Until the times of the Gentiles]The Gentiles then shall not always
tread down Jerusalem. Those kings of the East, the Jews, may, likely, have
their way prepared to it, through Euphrates, Revelation16:12, and Jerusalem
be again inhabited by them, even in Jerusalem, Zechariah12:6. But this will
be not long before the last day, Luke 21:25.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Trapp, John. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/luke-
21.html. 1865-1868.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Luke 21:24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, &c.— There are
three particulars denounced in this verse, and all of them were remarkably
fulfilled. I. That they should fall by the edge of the sword; and the number of
those who so fell was indeed very great. Of those who perished during the
whole siege, there were 1,100,000;many were likewise slainat other times,
and in other places, of every age, sex, and condition, the number of whom,
according to Josephus, amounts to 1,357,666;which would appearalmost
incredible, if their own historian had not so particularly enumerated them.
See on Matthew 24:28; Matthew 2. That they should be led awaycaptive into
all nations. Now considering the number of the slain, the number of the
captives was very great;generallyestimated, in the whole war, at 97,000.The
tallestand handsomestyoung men Titus reservedfor his triumph: of the rest,
those above seventeenyears ofage were partly sent to the works in Egypt; but
most of them were distributed through the Roman provinces, to be destroyed
in their theatres by the sword, or by wild beasts. Those under seventeenwere
sold for slaves:of these captives, many underwent a hard fate; eleven
thousand of them perished for want. Titus exhibited all sorts of shows and
spectaclesatCaesarea;and many of the captives were there destroyed, some
being exposedto the wild beasts, and others compelled to fight in troops
againstone another. At Caesareatoo, in honour of his brother's birth-day,
2500 Jewswere slain;and a greatnumber likewise atBerytus, in honour of
his father's; the like was done in other cities of Syria. Those whom he reserved
for his triumph were Simon and John, the generals ofthe captives, and seven
hundred others of remarkable stature and beauty. Thus were the captive Jews
miserably tormented, and distributed over the Roman provinces;and are they
not still distressed, and in generaldespisedoverthe face of the whole earth?—

III. Our Lord foretels that Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of the Gentiles,
&c. And the accomplishmentof this part of the prophesy, as indeed of every
article of it, is wonderful: for, after the Jews were almostutterly destroyed by
death and captivity, Vespasiancommanded the whole land of Judea to be
sold. "At that time," says Josephus, (Bell. lib. 7: ch. 26.)"Caesarwrote to
Bassus, andto Liberius Maximus the procurator, to sell the whole land of the
Jews;for he did not build any city there, but appropriated their country to
himself, leaving there only eight hundred soldiers, and giving them a place to
dwell in called Emmaus; thirty stadia from Jerusalem:and he imposed a
tribute upon all the Jews whereverthey lived, commanding every one of them
to bring two drachms into the capitol, according as in former times they were
wont to pay unto the temple of Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jews
at this time." Thus was Jerusalemin particular, with its territory, possessed
by the Gentiles, becoming Vespasian's property, who sold it to such Gentiles
as chose to settle there. That Jerusalemcontinued in this desolate state we
learn from Dio; for he tells us, that the emperor Adrian rebuilt it, sent a
colony there to inhabit it, and called it AElia; but he altered its situation,
leaving out Zion and Bezetha, and enlarging it so, as to comprehend Calvary,
where our Lord was crucified. Moreover, Eusebius informs us, that Adrian
made a law, that no Jews shouldcome into the region round Jerusalem, (Hist.
Luke 21:6.) So that the Jews being banished, such a number of aliens came
into Jerusalem, that it became a city and colony of the Romans. In later times,
when Julian apostatizedto heathenism, being sensible that the evident
accomplishmentof our Lord's prophesies concerning the Jewishnation made
a strong impressionupon the Gentiles, and was a principal means of their
religion and a form of civil government. Forthis purpose, he resolvedto
rebuild Jerusalem, to people it with Jews, andto rearup the temple on its
ancient foundations, because there only he knew they would offer prayers and
sacrifices.In the prosecutionof this design, he wrote to the community of the
Jews a letter, which is still extant among his other works, inviting them to
return to their native country; and for their encouragement, he says to them,
among other things, "The holy city Jerusalem, whichfor many years ye have
desired to see inhabited, I will rebuild by my own labour, and will inhabit it."

to desist by an immediate and evident interposition of God. Take anaccount
of this matter in the words of Ammianus Marcellinus, a heathen historian,
and therefore an author of unsuspected credit, who says, (lib. 23.) "He
resolvedto build, at an immense expence, a certainlofty temple at Jerusalem;
and gave it in charge to Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly governed
inBritain, to hasten the work. When therefore Alypius, with great earnestness,
applied himself to the execution of this business, and the governorof the
provinceaffirmed him init,terribleballsoffire,burstingforthnear the
foundations, with frequent explosions, and divers times burning the workmen,
rendered the place inaccessible;and thus the fire continually driving them
away, the work ceased."This fact is attestedlikewise by Zemuth David, a Jew,
who honestly confesses thatJulian was hindered by God in this attempt. It is
also attestedby Nazianzen and Chrysostome among the Greeks;by Ambrose
and Ruffin among the Latins, who lived at the very time when the thing
happened; by Theodoretand Sozomenof the orthodox persuasion;by
Philostorgius, an Arian, in the extracts of his history made by Photicis, lib. 7:
Numbers 9 and by Socrates, a favourerof the Novatians, who wrote his
history within the space offifty years after the thing happened, and while the
eye-witnessesthereofwere yet alive. I shall only relate the testimonies of
Sozomenand Chrysostome. The former, in his EcclesiasticalHistory, lib. 5.
100:22 says, "This wonder is believed, and freely spoken of by all; nor is it
denied by any: or if it should seemincredible to any, let them believe those
who have heard it from the mouths of the eye-witnesses, who are yet alive: let
them likewise believe the Jews and the Gentiles, who have left the work
unfinished; or, to speak more properly, who have not been able to begin it."
Chrysostome, advers. Judaeos,speaking ofthe same subject, says, "And now,
if you go to Jerusalem, you will see the foundations lying stillbare; and if you
inquire the cause of this, [namely, in Jerusalem, the scene ofthe miracle] you
will hear no other than that which I have mentioned; and of this all we
Christians are witnesses, the thing being done not long since, and in our own
time." Orat. 2. Thus while Jews and heathens, under the direction of a Roman
emperor, united their whole force to baffle our Lord's prediction, they did but
still more conspicuouslyaccomplishhis saying, that Jerusalemshould be

trodden of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. How
exactly this passage ofthe prophesy has been fulfilled, we learn also from
Benjamin of Tudela, a celebratedSpanish Jew of the twelfth century, who
travelled into all parts to visit those of his ownnation, and to learn an exact
state of their affairs. In his Itinerary he tells us, that in Jerusalemhe found
only two hundred Jews. Sandys says, that the Holy Land "is for the most part
inhabited now by Moors and Arabians, those possessing the vallies, and these
the mountains. Turks there be few; but many Greeks,with other Christians,
of all sects andnations, such as impute to the place an adherent holiness. Here
be also some Jews;yet inherit they no part of the land; but in their own
country do live as aliens." Travels, b. 3: p. 114. 7th edit. The divinity of our
Lord's prediction still more clearly appears, if to the above we add the fact
known throughout all Europe and Asia at this day; namely, that the Jews are
still exiles from their own country, and have continued to be so ever since
Titus dispersed them. In former times, the Jews, afterbeing led away captive,
were re-established:why then should this captivity have lasted now so long?
Why should the effects of Titus's fury be indelible? God decreedthat it should
be so. "Jerusalemis to be trodden of the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled;" and no power in the universe can frustrate his decree.
For this reasonlikewise, thoughthe Jews are at present, and have been
through the whole period of their dispersion, vastly more numerous than they
ever were in the most happy times of their commonwealth, none of the cities
which they have made to recovertheir own country, have proved successful.
Moreover, while every dispersedpeople mentioned in history has been
swallowedup of the nations among whom they were dispersed, without
leaving the smallesttrace of their ever having existed, the Jews continue, after
so many ages,a distinct people, in their dispersion. The universal contempt
into which they are fallen, one should think, ought to have made them conceal
whateverserved to distinguish them, and have prompted them to mix with the
rest of mankind: but in fact it has not done so. The Jews, in all countries, by
openly separating from the nations who rule them, subject themselves to
hatred and derision; nay, in severalplaces, they have exposedthemselves to
death, by bearing about with them the outward marks of
theirdescent.Bythisunexampledconstancyhave preserved themselves
everywhere a distinct people. But of this constancy, canany better accountbe

given than that it is the means by which God verifies the prediction of his
Son? He has declared, that when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, the
Jews shallbe converted; and, therefore, through the whole course of their
dispersion, they continue a distinct people. If the hand of Providence be not
visible in these things, I cannot tell where it is to be found. See Newtonon the
Prophesies*.
* The readerwill, I am sure, excuse my entering so largely and repeatedlyinto
this subject, when he considers that it affords us one of the most striking
external evidences of the truth of Christianity.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Coke, Thomas. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24". Thomas Coke Commentary
on the Holy Bible. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tcc/luke-
21.html. 1801-1803.
Greek TestamentCriticalExegeticalCommentary
24.]A most important addition, serving to fix the meaning of the other two
Evangelists,—seenotes there,—andcarrying on the prophetic
announcements, past our own times, even close to the days of the end.
πεσοῦνται … αἰχμ., viz. this people.

ἔσται πατ.]See Revelation11:2. The present state of Jerusalem. Meyer
maintains that the whole of this was to be consummatedin the lifetime of the
hearers, on accountof the ἀνακύψατε,&c. Luke 21:28. What views of the
discourses ofour Lord must such an expositor have!
πληρ. καιροὶ ἐθν.] Who could suppose that καιροὶ ἐθνῶν should have been
interpreted (by Meyer)the appointed time until the Gentiles shall have
finished this judgment of wrath—to be ended by the παρουσία, within the
lifetime of the hearers?
The καιρ. ἐθν. (see reff.) are the end of the Gentile dispensation,—justas the
καιρός of Jerusalemwas the end, fulfilment, of the Jewishdispensation:—the
greatrejectionof the Lord by the Gentile world,—answering to its type, His
rejectionby the Jews,—beingfinished, the καιρός shall come, of which the
destruction of Jerusalemwas a type. καιροί = καιρός:no essentialdifference is
to be insistedon. It is plural, because the ἔθνη are plural: eachGentile people
having in turn its καιρός.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Alford, Henry. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". Greek TestamentCritical
ExegeticalCommentary.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hac/luke-21.html. 1863-1878.

Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
Luke 21:24. ἔσται πατουμένη)This conveys the idea of something more than
πατηθήσεται, shallbe trodden down; it shall be (and continue) in a trodden
down state, as also in a desecratedstate:comp. note on 1 Timothy 1:9. The
Derivation and sense ofthe old name of the city, Jebus, is in consonancewith
this.(227)So in Revelation11:2, et seqq., “They shall tread under foot the holy
city forty and two months;” although there the angelis speaking ofa certain
one time of its being trodden under foot, and that a very remarkable one;
whereas in Luke the Lord is speaking of all the times of its being so trodden.
In fact, in whateverway you explain the “forty and two months,” Jerusalem
has been already, for a longerperiod than that, trodden down by the Romans,
the Persians, the Saracens, the Franks, the Turks; and it shall continue
hereafterto be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Moreover“the times of the Gentiles” are the times appointed to the Gentiles
wherein they are to be permitted to tread down the city: and these times shall
be terminated upon the conversionof the Gentiles being most fully
consummated: Romans 11:25 [“Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until
the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israelshall be saved”];
Revelation15:4 [“All nations shall come and worship before Thee”];for
certainly the Gentiles, whilst treading down Jerusalem, are themselves
meanwhile unbelievers. The expression, “the times of the Gentiles,” is used as
“the time of figs,” and “the time of the dead:” Mark 11:13; Revelation11:18.
It is not to be inferred from this that the temple and its worship of shadowy
types is going to be restored;but yet there will be many at that time there, as
indeed even at the present time there are some to be found, who are
worshippers bearing the Christian name, and there shall be many too of these
belonging to the people of Israel: and it is in the same lasttime that God and
Magog shallmake this assault:Revelation20:9. ἄχρι, until, forms a tacit
limitation in the verses. From this verse to Luke 21:27, are summarily
comprehended all the times which are about to follow the destruction of the
city down to the termination of all things.— καιροὶ ἐθνῶν) the times of the
Gentiles, i.e. which are peculiarly their own. αὐτῶν is not the expressionused,
but the term ἐθνῶν, of the Gentiles, is repeated, in order to show the

correspondence ofthe event with the prediction. The article is not added. The
times of Israel, which would have continued uninterruptedly, if Israelhad
been obedient, Psalms 81:13-16, are interrupted by times of Gentiles. These
latter times had their own intervals of suspension, as in the Fourth and
Twelfth centuries. The plural, καιροί, is therefore used. A certain time of the
Gentiles was fulfilled when Constantine was emperor; and then the treading
down of Jerusalemabated; but not lastingly. The times during which the
Christians held Jerusalemwere brief intervals, if you compare them with the
times in which the [unconverted] Gentiles held the city.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bengel, JohannAlbrecht. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". Johann Albrecht
Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jab/luke-21.html. 1897.
Ironside's Notes onSelectedBooks
Part II
The Evidence That The Times Of The Gentiles Have NearlyRun Their
Course

The prophetic Scriptures are as a light shining in a dark place. So
marvelously has God therein depicted the characteristicsofthe age in which
we live, and the conditions that would prevail as its end drew near, that no
reverent reader of the Bible need be left in the dark as to the place now
reachedin the history of the Gentile powers. Recentstartling events are so
fully in accordwith what Spirit-taught servants of Christ have long seen
foretold in Holy Writ as to be overwhelmingly convincing that “all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God.” He alone sees the end from the beginning and
speaks ofthe things that are not as though they were. It is this feature of
foretelling the future that differentiates the Bible from every other book.
Human writers guess and theorize. God has by inspiration communicated
facts which are attestedby eachpassing year.
In this last respect, the book of Daniel stands preeminent. The 2nd and 3rd
chapters give an outline of the times of the Gentiles from Nebuchadnezzar’s
day to the setting up of Messiah’s kingdom. The four empires of Babylon,
Medo-Persia,Greece, andRome, as depicted in its earlier form, have risen
and passedawayas foretold. But a later form of the last empire is predicted to
arise in the time of the end, immediately before the secondcoming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Son of Man, as the Stone falling from heaven.
Now the laststate of the fourth empire is to be brought about as a result of an
effort to combine the iron of imperialism with the miry clay (or, more
correctly, brittle pottery) of democracy. This union-which can never be unity-
of royal authority and socialisticprinciples characterizesthe feet of the image
even before the formation of the ten toes. This latter condition does not come
in so long as the Church is still upon earth. It is subsequent to the rapture of
the saints of the presentdispensation. But the iron and clay are already in
evidence, and statesmenare making desperate efforts to combine the two,
after having learned, to their chagrin, in the lasthundred or more years, that
the “voice ofthe people,” if not “the voice of God,” is yet something to be
reckonedwith-is to be acknowledgedand appeasedif possible. With our

Bibles open to the 2d chapter of Daniel, and the records of the present day
before us, we do not hesitate to say that we are now in the iron and clay
period, and at any moment the Lord’s assembling-shoutmay summon all that
are Christ’s to the skies, afterwhich the re-formation of the Roman empire in
its last Satan-controlledcondition will be a matter of but a very brief time, for
“a short work will the Lord make in the earth.”
When, in past years, teachers ofthe Word of God have positively declared
that the Scriptures foretold a new socialistic-empire formed of ten great
kingdoms, on the ground of the Roman empire of old, many found it hard to
take such predictions seriously. But the events of recentyears, particularly
since 1914, have wrought a wondrous change in the minds of men as to this. It
is not only that the enlightened Bible believer declares suchmust be, but the
secularpress has takenup the matter, and it is being pointed out that the
formation of a United States of Europe is absolutely necessaryto safeguard
the interests of all nations and to preserve the peace ofthe world. This in itself
is a remarkable sign of the times, and shows how rapidly the end is
approaching.
The world-wardemonstrated the need of some strong centralizedgovernment
that could bring order out of the chaotic conditions which even the League of
Nations seems unable to control. This League is in itself a step-and a long step-
toward that very union of nations predicted by both Danieland John in the
Revelation. And the sudden rise to powerof Mussolini is a startling evidence
of how rapidly the kingdom of the Beastmay be developed after the Church is
gone. Already we hear of the revival of the Roman Empire, and this modern
“man of destiny” declares thatRome shall soonbe restoredto its ancient
splendors and will emulate the Empire of the Caesarsin worldly power and
glory.

We need, however, to be on our guard againsthastily-arrived at and ill-
consideredconclusions. Ihave seenin print, and heard it affirmed by many,
that II Duce, Premier Mussoliniof Italy, the greatFascistleader, is the
predicted Antichrist, the Man of Sin, who should arise at the end of this age.
This is quite unwarranted for a number of reasons. Mussoliniis a civil leader,
not the head of a religious system. Thus far his efforts to bring about a
rapprochement with the papacyhave been thwarted by the Pope himself.
That some kind of a coup may be accomplishedin the near future is not only
possible but, in my judgment, probable. If so, it may result in the fulfilment of
the seventeenthof Revelation, placing the mystic woman in the saddle, where
for a brief time she will againdominate the Roman earth. But the Antichrist is
the lamb-like Beastdepictedin the last part of the thirteenth chapter. He is
the imitation Lamb of God who is to be energizedby Satanic power. This one
will utterly deny the Father and the Son. “This,” says St. John, “is the
deceiverand the antichrist.” He will be acceptedby apostate Christendom
and apostate Judaismas the promised Messiah. His seatwill be in Palestine;
while, in the West, in the revived Roman Empire of the last days, there will be
a greatcivil leader, a Napoleonic “Manof Destiny,” who will for a brief time
attempt to exercise autocratic swayoverthe civilized world. Both this leader,
calledemphatically, “the Beast,” andthe Antichrist are to act togetheras the
enemies of God and His truth. But they are distinct personalities.
Mussolini, once a socialistofthe reddest type, now the advocate ofautocratic
power, has already declaredit is his intention to restore the ancient glory of
the RomanEmpire. Once an infidel, he has become a Catholic, and is eager
that there be a concordatestablishedbetweenthe Empire and the Vatican.
The FascistCreed, as it is called, is said to be the foundation of the instruction
of the youth of Italy. It begins with, “I believe in Rome Eternal, the Mother of
my Fatherland,” and it ends with, “I believe in the genius of Mussolini; in our
holy father Fascism, and in the communion of its martyrs; in the conversion
of the Italians, and the resurrectionof the Empire. Amen.” Mussolinimay be
the forerunner of the Beast;he might even be that sinister figure himself, but
it is better not to play the role of the prophet, but simply to be a humble
student of the prophetic Word.

That we are on the eve of greatworld-changes both statesmenand religious
leaders are agreed. The nature of those changes affords endless cause for
speculation. Forthe devout Christian the next stupendous event that shines
through the darkness is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering togetherunto Him. We do not wait for the Antichrist. We look for
the Lord from heaven. We are only interested in the signs of the times as they
harmonize with the warnings given whereby we may know that the end of the
age is approaching.
In the last chapterof the book of Danielthere are three statements made
which also have a bearing on the times in which our lot is cast. The angel says
to the prophet: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and sealthe book,
even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shallbe
increased” (ver. 4). Observe that three things are mentioned here, which if
any one of them came to pass without the other two, would be of no realvalue
in determining the question that is before us. But if all come to pass at the
same time we must be convincedthat God has spoken, and has pointed out
unerringly three signs that the end-times are almost upon us. Note the three
predictions: 1st, The end-times will be characterizedby prophetic
enlightenment, marvelously unsealing the book of Daniel, and the visions
therein recordedunderstood by spiritual men. 2nd, There will be a period of
world-wide restlessness:men will run to and fro as never before, owing
doubtless to new and convenient methods of locomotionand insatiable desire
for travel and adventure. 3rd, There will be a wide diffusion of knowledge-
bringing educationaladvantages to the door of the poorestif there be but an
ambition to learn and acquire. Now what are the facts? The last century has
been more and more characterizedby the very things mentioned. It is not that
these things are occasionallyfulfilled, but that they are everywhere apparent
in the civilized parts of the world. Here then is a three-fold cord that cannot
be quickly broken. Insignificant as any one of these facts might seemif it stood
alone, the combination of the three at one and the same time is the startling
fact. Man’s day is nearly at an end. The day of the Lord comes on apace!

Now link on to this evidence a New Testamentprophecy that clearly applies to
the same times. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3. “Foryourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so comethas a thief in the night. For when
they shall say, Peace andsafety; then sudden destructioncometh upon them,
as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”Here is a
strikingly convincing statement, if receivedin literality as it is written. The
day of the Lord is going to break upon the world at some specialtime,
foreknownby God, when men will be talking loudly of Peace andSafety!
These are the very themes talked of on every hand for the lastdecade, and,
despite the fearful Europeantragedy, are heard more loudly to-day than ever.
Men of affairs are loudly proclaiming a coming era of universal peace to be
brought in by arbitration, treaties, and the evolutionary forces of society,
while the day of the Lord steals on them unawares in overflowing judgments
to cut off the ungodly from the earth, at the very time that universal peace
and safetybecome the sloganofa world devoted to destruction. All man’s
efforts to make this world a happy and peacefulscene, while still rejecting the
Lord Jesus Christ, are futile and vain. “There is no peace, saithmy God, to
the wicked.”
It is not to those who wait for the return of His Sonfrom heaven that the day
of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, but to those who ig- nore His Word
and despise His grace. “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief…therefore let us not sleepas do others; but let us
watchand be sober.”
And if we would watchintelligently it is necessarythat we be able, through
familiarity with the Word of God, to discernaright the signs of the times. In
three short verses our Lord Himself has given us a marvelous epitome of the
conditions that would prevail immediately before the greattribulation. Weigh
carefully Matthew 24:5-7, and ask yourself if anything could more aptly
describe the days in which we live. “Formany shall come in My name, saying,

I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of
wars;see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but
the end is not yet. For nation shall rise againstnation, and kingdom against
kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, andearthquakes, in
divers places.” With this, couple the equally pertinent words of Luke 21:25,
26: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars;and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves
roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
The context makes it clearthat these are the outward evidences of the near
approachof the end-times. They do not definitely fix the time when the Lord
must come. They simply show that the days of vengeance are coming on
apace. And one might fearlesslychallenge anyone to give us a better
description of our own days than we have in these verses, taking brevity into
consideration.
Note the leading features of the two passages:
First: Many Antichrists. It might be said that there has never been a time
since the very days of the apostles that this sign has not been manifested; and
this I readily admit. But in a certain sense the whole Christian dispensationis
marked by all those things predicted by our Lord, for ever since apostolic
days men have lived in what John calls “the last hour.” The greaterpart of
earth’s time or course has been run; only the lasthour remains ere the
kingdom be ushered in. But while this is so, we gatherthat the characteristic
features of the age will be accentuatedat the close. And so it is at the present
solemn moment. We hear of antichrists on every hand, and those who are
deceivedthereby may well be calledlegion! In all lands these false Christs are
found. In America we have witnessedthe “powers and signs and lying
wonders” connectedwith the systemmiscalledChristian Science, which

veneratedits woman-founder as the secondcoming of Christ, and holds its
false philosophy to be the promised Comforter, thus blaspheming againstthe
Holy Ghost. Lesserlights have flickeredand flamed up, then died down,
leaving hosts of disappointed dupes, like Dowie, the pseudo-prophet of
Chicago;Sanford, the Elijah of New England; Dr. Teed, the Koresh; and
others too numerous to mention; and as they pass away, other deceivers take
their places, for men would rather believe any lie than God’s truth.
When the Persianantichrist, Abbas Effendi, or Abdul Bahai, toured America
and Europe, he was welcomedas the forerunner of universal peace and
accordedthe liberty of proclaiming his propaganda from “Christian” pulpits.
And though, like other pretenders before him, he has passedaway, his
followers still abound in a land of Bibles, and hope by the dissemination of his
principles to bring in a millennial condition while refusing the cross!
Some years ago Mrs. Annie Besant, the agedTheosophicalleader, formedthe
Order of the Star of the East, a Theosophicaloff-shoot, to wait for a great
religious leader-a new incarnation of the Spirit of the Christ. The mountain
has labored and brought forth-Krishnamurti! Yet vastnumbers of otherwise
intelligent people acceptthe drivellings of this colorlessyouth as the very
utterances of inspiration!
Other “coming ones,” too numerous to mention, engagethe thoughts of men.
But it is for Antichrist, not the Christ of God, they wait. The Lord of glory,
when He comes again, descends fromheaven. The false prophet comes from
the earth-born in a natural way.
Second:Scripture predicts a period of terrible unrest and internecine warfare
as an evidence that the world is entering “the beginning of sorrows.” A few
years ago men were flattering themselves that the world would never again be

desolatedby greatwars and wholesale slaughter. Itwas confidently believed
that the socialconsciousness ofthe laboring class would make it impossible to
hurl greatarmies againsteachother. Peace propaganda hadso educatedthe
people of all civilized nations that war would soonbe outlawed. In the very
month that the great1914-1918Europeanconflictbroke out, the organ of the
Peace Societypublished in Toronto, contained an ably-written article
declaring that war was now an impossibility, and a greatworld-conflict could
never occur again!Clergymen, oblivious of prophetic truth as revealedin
Scripture, and carried awayby the loose, liberaltheologicalsystems ofthe
day, were loudly voicing the same empty boastup to the very day that the
devastating carnage began.
And now that comparative peace has succeededto bloody warfare the same
unbelieving views are being taught from many pulpits. Yet ever since the
signing of the treaty of Versailles the nations have been feverishly preparing
for “the next greatwar”-building navies, enlisting soldiers, storing
ammunition-all for what? Universal peace?Nay, but for the wars and rumors
of wars of the closing days of this age, and for the greatArmageddon conflict
yet to be fought out in the land of Palestine, whenall nations shall be drawn
into the fray. While every Christian should be grateful to God for the
comparative peace now enjoyed, it needs to be remembered it is but a
temporary truce, for there can be no lasting peace while Christ is rejected-nor
until all Gentile dominions are destroyed and He shall come whose right it is
to reign.
In the third and fourth places we read of famines and pestilences, the very
natural outcome of war, which have reaped fearful harvests since the great
world-war, though the science andskill of the world are endeavoring to
successfullycope with them. Many high-spirited and noble-minded physicians
and nurses laid down their lives in the overpowering conflict in trying to
hinder the on-rushing pestilence, while the charity of the world was strained
in its efforts to check the ravages offamine-and what may it not yet be in the

near future? The black and pale horses of famine and pestilence always follow
the red horse of battle.
In Luke’s accountwe get the fifth sign that the end is drawing near, calamities
such as the world has never previously known. Were the dreams of evolution
true, we should long since have passedearth’s formative period, but events of
recentyears show us that this very globe is going through greatand
momentous changes, preparatoryto the conditions prophesied of for
millennial times. Surely never have there been so many terrible disasters on
land and sea as since the midnight cry summoned the virgin band to trim
their lamps. Earthquakes, tidal waves and kindred phenomena have occurred
with amazing frequency. Is it any wonder that we see the sixth signon every
hand?-“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth.” Confidence is shaken. Nations are bewildered
and perplexed. Pledges evenof nations are violated, and promises broken.
Individuals are in fear and dismay where a cheeryspirit of optimism
prevailed but a short time ago. Yet, amidst it all, the Christian need not be in
perplexity or doubt. The Word of God has forewarnedof all this. Minutely it
has foretold existing conditions, and the fulfilment of its solemn prophecies
should only strengthenthe faith of the believer as he turns from all men’s
empty vaporing to the unerring and inerrant Word of God.
This spirit of unrest to which we have referred, is particularly manifested in
the strained relations betweencapitaland labor. Despite the evident desire of
many modern captains of industry to better the conditions of their employees,
and to practise what a recentwriter has called“the goldenrule in business,”
capital and labor still maintain a distinctly hostile attitude the one to the
other; and the economic questions involved seemno nearer a peacefuland
satisfactorysolutionthan in the days when the apostle James wrote his
intensely practicalepistle.

In that letter there is a passagewhich, while it unquestionably applied directly
to conditions then existing, was so worded by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
as to graphicallydepict industrial conditions at the end of the age. This is not
so manifest on the page of the Authorized Version as in the Kevision, or any
critical translation. An evidently mistakenrendering of one preposition is
responsible for this in the King James Version. This preposition, correctly
rendered in later versions, throws a flood of light on the whole passage.It is
the word rendered “for” in the earlier translationand “in” in the later ones,
occurring in the last sentence ofJames 5:3. Readthe passagein its entirety:
“Come now, ye rich, weepand howl for your miseries that shall come upon
you. Your wealthhas become corruption, and your garments moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are rusted; and their rust shall be a witness againstyou,
and shall eatyour flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure togetherin the last
days.” Note the correctedpreposition, and observe where in the course of
time, it locates the complete fulfilment of that concerning which the Holy
Spirit speaks so solemnly. The passagecontinues:“Behold, the wagesofthe
laborers who have reaped your fields which is of you kept back unjustly,
crieth; and the cries of those that have reaped have entered into the ears of the
Lord of hosts. Ye have lived in luxury upon the earth, and have been wanton;
ye have pampered your hearts [as] in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned,
ye have killed the righteous; he doth not resistyou. Be patient therefore,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for
the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until it receive the
early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establishyour hearts, for the coming
of the Lord draweth nigh” (chap. 5:1-8, 1911 Version).
As by a masterhand, the apostle with a few bold strokes, pictures the times in
which we live. On the one hand, haughty wealth; on the other, grinding
poverty; on the one hand, scornful indifference; on the other, angry
dissatisfaction. Onthe one hand, wanton waste;on the other, bitter need.
Such contrasts have ever been common in this world’s sad history, but never

were they so accentuatedas at the present time when the rich are growing
richer and the poor are growing poorer, and the greatgulf betweenthe two
classesis steadily widening. Ours has been called, and not without reason, the
millionaire age. If our grandfathers were worth a few thousands, they were
counted well-to-do. Now men hold securities mounting into the millions, while
even a billion of money may be heapedtogetherby one man. Statistics show
that the great bulk of the world’s wealth is held subject to the order of a little
coterie of arrogantplutocrats, who conniving togethercancontrol the
resources ofthe nations, and make or prevent financial panics at their will. It
is a condition of affairs never before known, and tells us with absolute
certainty that we are in the last days.
Nor should I be misunderstood in writing as I have done. It is no sin to be
rich, nor is a man necessarilya malefactorbecause he possesses the ability to
amass greatwealth. But wealthis a stewardship, and “it is required in
stewards that a man be found faithful.” He to whom riches are entrusted is
accountable to God for the use to which he puts them. Their selfish
conservationHe will judge unsparingly. James arraigns the rich for their
greedand self-indulgence. They had forgottenthe word, “He that loveth silver
shall not be satisfiedwith silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase:
this is also vanity” (Ecclesiastes5:10). They were living as though accountable
to no higher power, and were eagerlyseeking to gratify every lust. Their
hoarded treasure, corrupting, moth-eaten, and rusting, witnessedto their
sordid selfishness.And this mass of wealthwould soonhave been largely
dissipated had they but dealt in fairness with the laborers on the fruits of
whose toil they were fattening. Those thus down-trodden have often felt as
though God had forgotten, and in their despair have often denied His very
existence. But “whenHe maketh inquisition for blood He forgettethnot the
cry of the humble.” He has been a silent but not unfeeling spectatorof the
injustice, the heartlessness, andthe haughty arrogance ofthe godless rich. He
has noted every tear, heededevery sigh, heard every cry of oppressionfrom
the anguishedhearts of the downtrodden whose rights have been ruthlessly
disregardedby those who should have been to them the instruments of
Providence for their protection and blessing. The same spirit that has thus ill-

used the poor and needy is the spirit that condemned and slew the Righteous
One. It comes to its full fruition in the last days. It will be judged unsparingly
when the Lord arises to plead the cause of the afflicted.
But what is to be the Christian’s attitude in such conditions as are here
described? Is he to link himself with labor unions and industrial as- sociations
of various kinds, generallycomposedof Christless men guilty of violence and
even murder, in order to curb the greedand check the tyranny of soulless
corporations and capitalists preying on the laboring classes?Is he to oppose
force to tyranny, the boycottto oppression, and the strike to employers’
arrogance?Byno means. His path is indicated clearly and unequivocally in
verses 7 to 12. “The coming of the Lord draw-eth nigh.” Till then the believer
is exhorted to patience and to trust in the living God. He is not to be carried
awayby the spirit of the age. Complaints, grudges, harsh invectives, are not to
come from him who sides with a rejectedChrist and waits for His return from
heaven. Of old, the prophets had to learn this lessonofpatience, suffering for
righteousness’sake, committing their cause to the Lord; ever proving His
faithfulness in spite of all man’s unfaithfulness. And they who so endured we
count happy, even as was Jobthe servant of the Lord whose patience has
become proverbial, and in whose later history we see “the end of the Lord”
and are assuredthat He is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
Till He comes the Christian canwell afford to stand aside from the restless,
surging movements of the day; and, committing his cause to the Lord with
quietness of heart, he is to let the potsherds of the earth strive with the
potsherds of the earth, knowing that God has said, “I will overturn, overturn,
OVERTURN it, until HE shall come, whose right it is to reign.” That that glad
day has now drawn very near the conditions we have been considering would
be sufficient to clearlyprove.

But there is another line of evidence, having to do particularly with the
nations of Israel, at which we must now look, and with which the next chapter
will occupyus.
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
By the edge of the sword;eleven hundred thousand were slain.
Led awaycaptive; ninety-seven thousand were carriedinto captivity.
Trodden down; desolated, oppressed. This has been done successivelyby the
Romans, Saracens, Mamulukes, Franks, and by the Turks who continue to
exercise dominion over and oppress it.
The times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; the times during which God has
determined that the Gentiles shall tread down Jerusalem.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Edwards, Justin. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Family Bible New
Testament". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/fam/luke-
21.html. American TractSociety. 1851.

Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
24. στόματι μαχαίρης.A Hebraism, though στόμα in the sense of‘edge’is also
classical(comp. δίστομος). 1,100,000 Jewsare saidto have perished in the
war. “It seems as though the whole race had appointed a rendezvous for
extermination” Renan. (See on Luke 22:49.)
αἰχμαλωτισθήσονται. This is one of the group of words used only by St Luke
and St Paul. Josephus speaksof97,000Jewssentto various provinces and to
the Egyptian mines. B. J. VI. 9.
ἔσται πατουμένη ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν. So that the very thing happened which the
Maccabeeshad tried to avert by their fortifications (1 Maccabees4:60). All
sorts of Gentiles—Romans,Saracens,Persians, Franks,Norsemen, Turks—
have ‘trodden down’ Jerusalemsince then. The analytic future implies a
permanent result.
ἄχρι οὗ πληρωθῶσιν. Attic Greek would require ἄχρι ἄν, but the ἂν is
constantly omitted in the N.T. with these particles of time. See Luke 12:50,
Luke 13:8, &c.;Mark 14:32.
καιροὶ ἐθνῶν. By the times—’seasons’or ‘opportunities’ of the Gentiles—is
meant the period allottedfor their full evangelisation. Romans 11:25. This
limit of time was fulfilled at Christ’s Parousia in the destruction of Jerusalem.
The καιροὶ merely means the one καιρὸς regardedin its severalelements.
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
"Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools
and Colleges".https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cgt/luke-
21.html. 1896.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
24. They shall fall by the edge of the sword—This mostimportant verse is
furnished by Luke alone. It forms the bridge by which the prophecy travels
over the chasm of ages and brings us down to the termination of the rejection
of Israel. At the same time it is a wonderful prophecy, whose fulfilment has
been going on from the time of its first writing to the present era. When a
distinguished generaltold Bishop Newtonthat the prophecies of Scripture
were written after the event, the bishop brought him to sober thought by
telling him that there are prophecies of Scripture which are being fulfilled at
the presentday. How wonderfully are the Jews fulfilling the prophecies of the
Jesus they rejected, proving by their very rejectionthe truth of his mission!
Led awaycaptive into all nations—The sufferings of the Jews are those briefly
describedby Watsonin his TheologicalDictionary:
The Romans, under Vespasian, invaded the country, and took the cities of
Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, etc., where Christ had been
especiallyrejected, and murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem
the scene was mostwretchedof all. At the passover, whenthere might have
been two or three millions of people in the city, the Romans surrounded it
with troops, trenches, and walls, that none might escape.The three different

factions within murdered one another. Titus did all in his power to persuade
them to an advantageous surrender, but they scornedevery proposal. The
multitudes of unburied carcassescorruptedthe air, and produced a
pestilence. The people fed on one another; and even ladies, it is said, boiled
their suckling infants, and ate them. After a siege ofsix months, the city was
taken. The Romans murdered almost every Jew they met. Titus was bent to
save the temple, but could not; six thousand Jews who had takenshelter in it
were all burned or murdered. The whole city, except three towers, and a small
part of the wall, was razed to the ground, and the foundations of the temple
and other places were ploughed up.
Soonafter the forts of Herodian and Machaeronwere taken, the garrisonof
Massada murdered themselves rather than surrender. At Jerusalemalone, it
is said, one million one hundred thousand perished by sword, famine, and
pestilence. In other places we hearof two hundred and fifty thousand that
were cut off, besides vastnumbers that were sent into Egypt, to labour as
slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews murdered about five hundred
thousand of the Roman subjects, for which they were severelypunished by
Trajan. About A.D. 130 one Barcocabapretended that he was the Messiah,
and raiseda Jewisharmy of two hundred thousand, who murdered all the
heathens and Christians that came in their way; but he was defeatedby
Adrian’s forces. In this war, it is said, about six hundred thousand Jews were
slain, or perished by famine and pestilence. Adrian built a city on Mount
Calvary, and erecteda marble statue of a swine over the gate that led to
Bethlehem. No Jew was allowedto enter the city, or to look to it at a distance,
under pain of death.” Truly the Jew has been led a captive among all nations.
And Jerusalemshall be trodden down—Notmerely trodden, but trodden
down; subjugated and debased.

Of the Gentiles—Jerusalemhas repeatedly changedpossessors, but has never
been possessedby the Jews since the Romans destroyed it.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled—The time of the exclusive Gentile
dispensationand churchdom. The times of the Gentiles will have been fulfilled
when Israel is gatheredinto the Christian Church; “and so all Israelshall be
saved.” Romans 11:26. So in the same chapterPaul tells us that “blindness in
part hath happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
We have here a striking resemblance betweenthe language of Luke and Paul,
confirming the opinion that Paul was Luke’s instructing apostle. By “the
fulness of the Gentiles” is to be understoodthe full measure of Gentile
conversionforeseenby God as to be, before the return of the Jews. That
return of the Jews to God will be, as Paul says, as life from the dead. The
restorationof the Jews shallredound to the happiness of the Gentiles. “Forif
the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them be the
riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?” Then shall there be one
Shepherd and one fold, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Trodden down… until—The language until implies that when the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled Jerusalemwill ceaseto be trodden down, and recover
her ancientglory. And it cannot but seemprobable to every reflecting mind
that the Jewishrace is preserved for some greatand providential reason.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Whedon, Daniel. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Whedon's Commentary on
the Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/whe/luke-21.html.
1874-1909.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
“And they will fall by the edge (literally ‘mouth’) of the sword, and will be led
captive into all the nations, and Jerusalemwill be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
And the result of the investment of Jerusalemwill be many slain by the edge
of the sword(compare Jeremiah21:7; Hebrews 11:34), and many led captive
among the nations (Deuteronomy 28:64). It will be like 587 BC all overagain.
And then Jerusalemwill be left desertedand trodden down by the Gentiles,
and it will not rise againto its former glory for it will be trodden down by the
Gentiles until their time comes to its fulfilment. Note that there is no promise
that Jerusalemwill then rise again. The Jerusalemthat the prophets spoke of
as having a glorious future is seenin the New Testamentto be the heavenly
Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalemis finally dispensed with, from a spiritual
point of view, in Acts. What happens to it is therefore of no more consequence
from God’s viewpoint (it is only man who has fixations on holy places).
As a result of God’s judgments Jewishcontrolover the Temple will cease, the
godly among the nations will ceaseto look to Jerusalem, and all the Jewish
hopes of world rulership will have collapsed. Jewishhopes will have been
crushed. Their Temple will have been defiled, and then destroyed. Their
Messianic expectations willhave been thrust into a distant and empty future,
for the simple reasonthat they did not receive Him when He came (‘He came
to His own inheritance and His own people did not receive Him’ - John 1:11).
It is the sign that Godhas replacedthem with a new Israel, the Israelof God,

to which belong all who are His (John 15:1-6; Galatians 3:29;Galatians 6:16;
Romans 11:17-29;Ephesians 2:11-22;James 1:1; 1 Peter1:1; 1 Peter2:5; 1
Peter2:9). So they are given the warning that unless they are willing to accept
in Jesus their true Messiah, they will have to recognise andsettle for the
period of Gentile domination stretching forward into God’s immeasurable but
perfect time, the ‘thousand years’ of Revelation20. Forthis will be the time of
Gentile rule and of spiritual activity by the true MessiahWho will gather
togetherHis people through the proclamationof the GoodNews and make
them one in Him, both Jew and Gentile. This will be accompaniedby the
literal domination of the world by the iron boot of earthly rulers, many of
whom would crush the Jews, andothers of whom would uphold them (and
sadly some of them will do it in the name of Christ, although not in
accordancewith His teachings). The Jews willhave been replaced in the
purposes of Godexcept in so far as they seek Him. Fortheir future can now
only be found in Christ.
For the warning of the treading down of the sanctuary and of Jerusalem
compare Isaiah 63:18;Daniel 8:10; Daniel8:13; Zechariah 12:3; Psalms 79:1-
2; Revelation11:2. This gradual transition from Jerusalemto the Gentile
world is made clearin Acts. The first part of Acts is all concerning Jerusalem.
It is the centre from which the word goes out (Isaiah 2:2-4). It is the hub of
Apostolic activity. But from chapter13 onwards this is all transferred to
elsewhere.Peterhas gone to ‘another place’ (Acts 12:17). Paul works from
Syrian Antioch (13 onwards), and when given the choice the Temple finally
and definitely closes its doors againsthim (Luke 21:30). Jerusalemhas
forfeited its significance, being replaced by the Jerusalemwhich is in Heaven
(Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22). For it is the idea that lies behind Jerusalem
that God guarantees, notthe physical city itself.
So the question, “Teacher, whentherefore will these things (the destruction of
the Temple) be? and what shall be the sign when these things are about to
occur?” is answered. Looking atit from Jesus’point of view on earth, it will

occursome time in the future, and the signwill be the gathering of armies
againstJerusalem. There are no goodgrounds, apart from speculation, for
applying these ideas to any other than what happened in 70 AD. Indeed if we
considerthe question that both Mark and Luke emphasise (Luke 21:7; Mark
13:4), both make clearthat it specificallyrefers to that time, that is, to the
time of the destruction of the Temple which at that moment of time was being
observedby Jesus.
‘The Times of the Gentiles.’This is the time when the Gentiles come into their
own in the purposes of God, when the Servantwill be a light to the Gentiles
(Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah49:6), and when God will not oppose Gentile domination.
Various nuances have been seenin the phrase. It has been referred to:
1). The times when the Gentiles will be exercising God’s judgments on Israel.
2). The times leading up to when the Gentiles themselves will be judged.
3). Their times of opportunity for turning to God. Compare Romans 11:25
where the fullness of the Gentiles will come in.
4). Their times for enjoying the privileges that the Jews have forfeited.
5). Their fixed times for lording it over Jerusalem.
In one way or another all these are involved. It is the period following the
rejectionof the old Israel, and its replacementby the new, when God’s
purposes in and for the Gentiles will be fulfilled, as Acts will reveal.

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Pett, Peter. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "PeterPett's Commentaryon the
Bible ". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pet/luke-21.html.
2013.
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Luke 21:24. They shall fall, etc. Peculiarto Luke. The reference is, of course,
to ‘this people.’ ‘According to Josephus, the number of the slain amounted to
1,100,000;97,000were carriedawayas slaves, mostlyto Egypt and the
provinces.’
And Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, or ‘nations.’ Here the
discourse begins to have a wider reference than the destruction of Jerusalem.
Jerusalemis personified, and representedas desecrated, and kept in
contemptuous bondage and desolation. This is its present condition. We,
therefore, understand ‘Gentiles,’as meaning not only Romans, but
Mohammedans, and even Crusaders.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. EachGentile nation, like the Jews,
has its ‘time’ (opportunity). When this dispensationof the Gentiles ends,
Jerusalemwill be no longer trodden down. Opinions differ, however, as to

whether this dispensationof the Gentiles implies their conversionto Christ or
their rejectionof Him. All analogypoints to the former, and the subsequent
prophecies confirm this view. Among all nations converts will be made, but
the terrible events which will precede the end of the world indicate plainly a
greatrejection.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Schaff, Philip. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "Schaff's Popular
Commentary on the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/scn/luke-21.html. 1879-90.
The Expositor's Greek Testament
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Nicol, W. Robertson, M.A., L.L.D. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". The
Expositor's Greek Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/egt/luke-21.html. 1897-1910.

JosephBenson's Commentaryof the Old and New Testaments
Luke 21:24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations — The fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, we have
Bell., Luke 7:16, where Josephus describes the sacking ofthe city. “And now,
rushing into every lane, they slew whomsoeverthey found without distinction,
and burned the houses, and all the people who had fled into them. And when
they entered for the sake ofplunder, they found whole families of dead
persons, and houses full of carcassesdestroyedby famine; then they came out
with their hands empty. And though they thus pitied the dead, they did not
feel the same emotion for the living, but killed all they met, whereby they
filled the lanes with dead bodies. The whole city ran with blood, insomuch that
many things which were burning were extinguished by the blood.” Thus were
the inhabitants of Jerusalemslainwith the sword: thus was she laid even with
the ground, and her children with her. Ibid. — “The soldiers being now
weariedwith killing the Jews, andyet a greatnumber remaining alive, Cesar
commanded that only the armed and they who resistedshould be slain. But
the soldiers killed also the old and infirm; and taking the young and strong
prisoners, carried them into the women’s court in the temple. Cesarappointed
one Fronto, his freedman and friend, to guard them, and to determine the fate
of each. All the robbers and seditious he slew, one of them betraying another.
But picking out such youths as were remarkable for stature and beauty, he
reservedthem for the triumph. All the rest that were above seventeenyears
old he sent bound into Egypt, to be employed in labour there. Titus also sent
many of them into the provinces, to be slain in the theatres by beasts and the
sword. And those who were under seventeenyears ofage were slain. And
during the time Fronto judged them, one thousand died of hunger.” Chap. 17.
— “Now the number of the captives that were takenduring the time of the
war, was ninety-seven thousand; and of all that died and were slain during the
siege, was one million one hundred thousand, the most of them Jews by
nation, though not inhabitants of the place; for being assembledtogetherfrom
all parts to the feastof unleavened bread, of a sudden they were environed

with war.” Thus were the Jews led awaycaptive into all nations. However, the
falling by the edge of the sword, mentioned in the prophecy, is not to be
confined to what happened at the siege. It comprehends all the slaughters that
were made of the Jews in the different battles, and sieges,and massacres,both
in their own land and out of it, during the whole course of the war. Such as at
Alexandria, where fifty thousand perished; at Cesarea, tenthousand; at
Scythopolis, thirteen thousand; at Damascus, tenthousand; at Ascalon, ten
thousand; at Apheck, fifteen thousand; upon Gerizim, eleven thousand; and
at Jotapa, thirty thousand. And thus was verified what our Lord told his
disciples, the first time he uttered his prophecy concerning the destructionof
Jerusalem, that whereverthe carcasswas, there the eagles shouldbe gathered
together, Luke 17:37. See notes on Deuteronomy 28:62;Matthew 24:15-21;
and Mark 13:14.
Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles — The accomplishment of
this part of the prophecy is wonderful. For, after the Jews were utterly
destroyedby death and captivity, Vespasiancommanded the whole land of
Judea to be sold. Bell., Luke 7:26. — “At that time Cesarwrote to Bassus, and
to Liberius Maximus, the procurator, to sellthe whole land of the Jews;for he
did not build any city there, but appropriated their country to himself, leaving
there only eight hundred soldiers, and giving them a place to dwell in, called
Emmaus, thirty stadia from Jerusalem;and he imposed a tribute upon all the
Jews, wheresoeverthey lived, commanding every one of them to bring two
drachms into the capitol, according as in former times they were wont to pay
unto the temple of Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jews at that time.”
Thus was Jerusalemin particular, with its territory, possessedby the Gentiles,
becoming Vespasian’s property, who sold it to such Gentiles as chose to settle
there. That Jerusalemcontinued in this desolate state we learn from Dio: for
he tells us, that the Emperor Adrian rebuilt it, sent a colonythither to inhabit
it, and calledit Ælia. But he alteredits situation, leaving out Zion and
Bezetha, and enlarging it so as to comprehend Calvary, where our Lord was
crucified. Moreover, Eusebius informs us, that Adrian made a law, that no
Jew should come into the regionaround Jerusalem. Hist., Luke 21:6. So that
the Jews being banished, such a number of aliens came into Jerusalem, that it

became a city and colony of the Romans, Hist., Luke 4:6. In later times, when
Julian apostatizedto heathenism, being sensible that the evident
accomplishmentof our Lord’s prophecy concerning the Jewishnation made a
strong impressionupon the Gentiles, and was a principal means of their
religion, and a form of civil government. For this purpose he resolvedto
rebuild Jerusalem, and to rear up the temple upon its ancient foundations,
because there only he knew they would offer prayers and sacrifices. In the
prosecutionof this design he wrote a letter to the community of the Jews,
which is still extant among his other works, inviting them to return to their
native country; for their encouragement, he says to them, among other things,
“The holy city, Jerusalem, which of many years ye have desired to see
inhabited, I will rebuild by mine own labour, and will inhabit it,” epist. 25.
to desist, by an immediate and evident interposition of God. “He resolved,”
says Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 23., “to build, at an immense expense, a
certain lofty temple at Jerusalem;and gave it in charge to Alypius of Antioch,
to hasten the work. But when Alypius, with greatearnestness, appliedhimself
to the executionof it, and the governor of the province assistedhim in it,
terrible balls of fire bursting forth near the foundation, with frequent
explosions, and divers times burning the workmen, rendered the place
inaccessible. Thus the fire continually driving them away, the work ceased.”
This fact is attested, likewise,by Zemuth David, a Jew, who honestly confesses
that Julian was hindered by God in this attempt. It is attested, likewise, by
Nazianzen and Chrysostom among the Greeks, by Ambrose and Ruffin
among the Latins, who lived at the time when the thing happened; by
Theodoretand Sozomon, of the orthodox persuasion;by Philistorgius, an
Arian, in the extracts of his history made by Photius; (lib. 7. cap. 9;) and by
Socrates, a favourer of the Novatians, who wrote his history within the space
of fifty years after these things happened, and while the eye-witnessesthereof
were yet alive. Thus, while Jews and heathen, under the direction of a Roman
emperor, united their whole force to baffle our Lord’s prediction, they did but
still the more conspicuouslyaccomplishit. See notes on Deuteronomy 28:64-

68. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled — The time determined in the
counselof God for the conversionof the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul has given
us a clearexplication of this passage, Romans 11:25. This part of the prophecy
answers to Daniel 9:27 : He shall make it (Jerusalem)desolate, evenuntil the
consummation, namely, of wrath upon this people, and that determined be
poured upon the desolate. The meaning of both passagesis, that after the
destruction here foretold, Jerusalemshall continue desolate, until God has
poured upon it the whole wrath he has determined; and this wrath will not be
finished until the Gentiles are converted.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Benson, Joseph. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24". JosephBenson's
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rbc/luke-
21.html. 1857.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
reads Josephus's history of the calamities whichbefall Jerusalembefore its
destruction, will find none of these terrible menaces unfulfilled. Seventy
thousand were carried awaycaptives in this war. After the soldiers were
wearyof killing, Titus ordered the finest of the young men to be kept to adorn
his triumph. The number of captive Jews was so greatin Rome, as to make
the heathen poet, Rutilius Numantianus, who lived about the year 410,
complain of it as a greatburden to the empire. Atque utinam nunquam Judea
subacta fuisset

Pompeii bellis, imperioque Titi;
Latius excisæ pestis contagia serpunt
Victoresque suos natio victa premit.
--- Trodden down, &c. After Jerusalemhad been taken and destroyed by the
Romans, another city was built from its ruins, called Ælia, after the name of
the emperor Ælius Adrian. This was inhabited by pagans and some Christians
for the Jews were forbidden even to come near it, for more than two or three
centuries. Tertullian informs us, that they even bought, at a greatprice,
permission to see it at a distance, and drop a tear over the ashes oftheir
ancient and ill-fated country. Thus was Jerusalemtrodden under foot, till the
time of the nations was accomplished;that is, till Christianity, in every nation,
had triumphed overthe persecutionof paganism. (Calmet) --- Till the times of
the nations be fulfilled. According to the common expositionof this, and some
other places, the Jews from the time of the destruction of their temple and
city, under Titus Vespasian;and especiallyfrom their utter destruction under
the emperor Adrian, in punishment of their obstinate blindness, shall remain
dispersedthrough the world under miseries and oppressions, till the gospel
hath been preachedto all nations; then, not long before the end of the world,
the Jews shallbe converted, and acknowledge Jesus to be their true Messias.
See Romans xi. 25. (Witham)
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Haydock, George Leo. "Commentaryon Luke 21:24". "GeorgeHaydock's
Catholic Bible Commentary".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hcc/luke-21.html. 1859.
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
And. Note the Figure of speechPolysyndeton(App-6), for emphasis.
edge = mouth (Genesis 34:26 m.)
led awaycaptive. Josephus speaksof1,100,000slainand 97,000 takenawayto
Egyptian mines and elsewhere (Bell. lad. vi. 9).
trodden down. Not the future tense of the verb (pateo), but the future of the
verb "to be", with the Pass. Part, of pateo = shall be and remain trodden
down, in a way that it had never been before. The reference is to the
Mohammedan possessionsince A.D. 636 in successionto the "fourth" or
Roman possession. See note on Daniel 2:40.
Gentiles = nations, as in preceding clause.
until, &c. So that a day is coming when the nations will cease to tread it down,
and it will be possessedby its rightful owner-Israel.

the times : i.e. the times of the Gentile possessionofJerusalem.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bullinger, Ethelbert William. "Commentary on Luke 21:24". "E.W.
Bullinger's Companion bible Notes".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bul/luke-21.html. 1909-1922.
clause, that the punishment of Israel, and the desolation of Jerusalemwere to

fulfilled.”
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Luke 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive
into all the nations; and Jerusalemwill be trampled under foot by the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled: kai pesountai(3PFMI)stomati
machaires kaiaichmalotisthesontai(3PFPI)eis ta ethne panta kai Ierousalem
estai(3PSFMI)patoumene (PPPFSN)hupo ethnon achri ou plerothosin
(3PAPS)kairoi ethnon.
led: Dt 28:64-68
Jerusalem:Isa 5:5 63:18 La 1:15 Rev11:2
until: Isa 66:12,19 Da 9:27, 12:7 Mal 1:11 Ro 11:25
Luke 21 Resources- Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 21:5-24 Staying Sane When the Whole World Goes Crazy - Steven Cole
Luke 21:20-24 The Terrors of the GreatTribulation, Part 1 - John
MacArthur
Luke 21:20-24 The Terrors of the GreatTribulation, Part 2 - John
MacArthur

JerusalemDestroyed70 AD
Click to enlarge
They - The Jews
Will fall by the edge of the sword - While it may be an exaggeration, Josephus
reports that over 1 million Jews were killed when the Romans sacked
Jerusalemand burned the Temple in 70AD.
Will be led captive into all the nations - Josephus reports that 97,000prisoners
were takenand carried off everywhere. This is one aspectofthis prophecy
which would be difficult to see being fulfilled in the last 7 years of the
Tribulation, for as noted above Satandoes not desire to capture but to kill the
Jews (cfRev 12:12-15-note). Thosehow believe Lk 21:20-24 will be fulfilled in
the future have a difficult time explaining this cleardescription of the fate of
the Jews.
Moses hadprophesied this fate would befall Israel if they disobeyedJehovah
writing
"Moreover, the LORD will scatteryou among all peoples, from one end of the
earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood
and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 "And among those
nations you shall find no rest, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of
your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes,
and despair of soul. 66 "So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you
shall be in dread night and day, and shall have no assuranceofyour life. 67
"In the morning you shall say, 'Would that it were evening!' And at evening
you shall say, 'Would that it were morning!' because of the dread of your

heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see."(Dt
28:64-67)
Will be led captive (163)(aichmalotizo from aichme = a spear+ halotos = to be
takenor conquered) was a military term which mean to take captive as a
prisoner or be led awaycaptive.
Bob Deffinbaugh adds that "The Roman historian Tacitus states (Historiae, v,
13, 4) that the normal population of Jerusalemwas 600,000 before A.D. 70.
And if we bear in mind that before the investment of the city the Jews poured
into Jerusalemin tens of thousands for the Passoverandcould not again
return to their homes and thus remained in the city throughout the five
months' siege, it may be understood that hundreds of thousands would perish
in the over-populated city." (Jerusalemin the Last Days Luke 21:5-38)
Jerusalemwill be trampled under foot by the Gentiles - The Gentile Romans
trampled Jerusalemin 70AD and the city will continue to be tread under foot
by Gentiles until the end times for John writes that the Gentiles will "tread
under foot the holy city for 42 months." It is notable that 42 months correlates
perfectly with the last3.5 years that is knownas the GreatTribulation. (See
Time Phrases - 3.5 years, "Time, times, half a time", 42 mo, 1260 days)
Eric Cline gives us a sense ofthe Gentiles trampling on Jerusalemwriting...
There have been at least118 separate conflicts in and for Jerusalemduring
the pastfour millennia—conflicts that rangedfrom localreligious struggles to
strategic military campaigns and that embraced everything in between.
Jerusalemhas been destroyed completely at leasttwice, besiegedtwenty-three
times, attackedanadditional fifty-two times, and captured and recaptured

forty-four times. It has been the scene oftwenty revolts and innumerable
riots, has had at leastfive separate periods of violent terrorist attacks during
the pastcentury, and has only changedhands completely peacefullytwice in
the pastfour thousand years. (JerusalemBesieged)
Comment: Only twice has the Temple in Jerusalembeen destroyed, in 586 BC
by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and 70 AD by GeneralTitus of Rome.
Warren Wiersbe explains that "This was not the first time Jerusalemwould
be "trodden down of the Gentiles," forthe Babylonians had destroyedthe city
in 586 B.C. when "the times of the Gentiles" began. This significant period in
God's plan will end when Jesus Christ returns to the earth, destroys all
Gentile power, and sets up His own righteous kingdom (Da 2:34-36-note, Da
2:44-45-note;Rev. 19:11-21-note)."
RelatedDiscussion-
What are the times of the Gentiles?
The Times of the Gentiles and "Fullness ofthe Gentiles" - John Walvoord
Trampled (3961)(pateo)means to tread on or stepon. Transitively pateo
means to setfoot on, to tread, or to trample something (Rev 14.20). Pateoin a
hostile sense means to tread down or trample under footand figuratively to
subdue by force, plunder, treat contemptuously (Lk 21.24,Rev11:2).
Intransitively pateo means to walk or step on something (Lk 10.19)
Pateo - 5x in NT - NAS Usage:trampled under(1), tread(1), tread under
foot(1), treads(1), trodden(1).

Luke 10:19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the powerof the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
Luke 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive
into all the nations; and Jerusalemwill be trampled under foot by the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Revelation11:2-note "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do
not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under
foot the holy city for forty-two months.
Revelation14:20-note And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and
blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses'bridles, for a distance of
two hundred miles.
Comment: We see a similar passagein Joel3:13 "Put in the sickle, for the
harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for
their wickednessis great."
Revelation19:15-note From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it
He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and
He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
Pateo - 17v in the Septuagint -
Deut 11:24; Jdg 9:27; Neh 13:15; Job22:15; 28:8; Isa 1:12; 16:10;25:10; 26:6;
32:20;42:5, 16; Jer48:33; Lam 1:15; Joel3:13; Amos 2:7; Zech 10:5;

Deuteronomy 11:24 "Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread
shall be yours; your border shall be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and
from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the westernsea.
Judges 9:27 And they went out into the field and gatheredthe grapes of their
vineyards and trod them, and held a festival; and they went into the house of
their god, and ate and drank and cursedAbimelech.
Nehemiah 13:15 In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine
presses onthe sabbath, and bringing in sacksofgrain and loading them on
donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and they brought
them into Jerusalemon the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day
they sold food.
Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled - This phrase is mentioned only by
Luke. Given the fact that Luke is speaking in the context of the destruction of
Jerusalemin 70AD, some expositors feelthat this date marks the beginning of
the times of the Gentiles. Notice howeverthat Luke actually does not state
when these times begin but only predicts when they will terminate. So this
naturally begs the question "When did these times begin?" The majority of
conservative writers feel that Jerusalem's defeatby Babylon (Gentiles) in
586BC marks the inception and that over the succeeding centuries Jerusalem
has never been totally free of Gentile domination to some degree.
Until - This word is an expressionof time and means something will continue
to happen up to a point and then it will not happen. In the present context
(and keepin mind the following analysis is based on a literal interpretation of
Scripture, not someone's systematictheology!), Luke says something found in
no other place in Scripture, that the city of Jerusalemwill be trampled under

foot UNTIL. So there is a day when the Gentiles will not tread on the city of
Jerusalem. Luke says that the time allotted to the Gentiles to tread on
Jerusalemis finite and will come to an end one day. One might ask if the Six-
Day War of 1967 in which the Jews regainedcontrolof Jerusalem(See "The
Old City") brought an end to Gentile domination of the city and so that year
marked the end of the "times of the Gentiles?" While one might suppose that
is the case from a superficialreading of the text, one must ask if Israeltoday
(2016)controls ALL of the city? In factthe truth is that they do not control
the MOST IMPORTANTpiece ofland in the entire city and for that matter,
in the entire world! What is that property? Of course it is the Temple Mount
area, the site of the former JewishTemples and the present site of the Muslim
Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam This
small but supremely strategic swathofreal estate is under Muslim control,
and so it is tread under the feet of the Gentiles so to speak.
The apostle John writes of a future day that they are to "leave out the court
which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the
nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months."
(Revelation11:2-note; compare also Zech 12:2-3 which speaks ofthe last
days) And so Jerusalemwill be tread underfoot even to the end of this age, the
Gentile domination (to one degree or another) coming to an end only after the
42 months which corresponds to Jesus'descriptionof the coming "Great
Tribulation," a tribulation which He will cut short by His glorious appearing
(And praise God, He cuts it short! = Mt 24:22). At that time Christ the Rock
will crush ALL Gentile powers, evenas prophesied in the Stone's striking of
Nebuchadnezzar's statute in Daniel2 (Da 2:34-35-note, Da 2:43-45-note). The
Righteous One will then set up His Kingdom with Jerusalemas His capital
and the newly rebuilt Temple (Ezek 40:1-Ezek 48:35-See JehovahShammah-
The Lord is There) the site of His glorious throne. In that day the times of the
Gentiles will be fulfilled! Hallelujah!

The times of the Gentiles be fulfilled - From the preceding discussionit is
clearthat the "times of the Gentiles" will indeed be fulfilled at the end of this
age at the SecondComing of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Times (opportunities) (2540)(kairos)means a point of time or period of time,
time, period, frequently with the implication of being especiallyfit for
something and without emphasis on precise chronology. It means a moment
or period as especiallyappropriate the right, proper, favorable time (at the
right time). A season. Apoint of time. A moment. An opportunity. Something
that lasts for a seasonand so is transient, temporary or enduring only for a
specific period of time. In short, the Gentile's treading of Jerusalemwill last
only for a "season," a seasonwe are currently in and have been in since the
Gentile powerof Babylon first destroyed the holy city in 586BC.
R C Sproul makes a rather strange statement - "Luke's reference to "the
times of the Gentiles" lends credence to the idea that Scripture distinguishes
betweena Jewishepochand a Gentile epoch. This in turn supports the idea
that "the end of the age" may refer to the end of the Jewishage."(The Last
Days According to Jesus)
Comment: I think the apostles might vehemently disagree with Sproul for in
their final question to Jesus before His ascensionLuke records "And so when
they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time
You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6-note) Notice that Jesus
did not correctthem saying "No, you are mistaken because the Jewishage has
ended" (Acts 1:7) but gave them their "immediate assignment" to take the
Gospelto the world (Acts 1:8)! The groundless speculationby R C Sproul is
absolutely, unequivocally incorrect!To the contrary, the end of the age will
mark the beginning of the Messianic age!Hallelujah! Amen!

William MacDonaldhas an interesting note - Downthrough the centuries
from the time of the Savior's words, Jerusalemhas been largelycontrolled by
Gentile powers. EmperorJulian the Apostate (a.d. 331-363)soughtto
discredit Christianity by disproving this prophecy of the Lord. He therefore
encouragedthe Jews to rebuild the temple. They went to the work eagerly,
even using silver shovels in their extravagance, andcarrying the dirt in purple
veils. But while they were working, they were interrupted by an earthquake
and by balls of fire coming from the ground. They had to abandon the
project.[EdwardGibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, II:95-
101](Believer's Bible Commentary)
Dr Walvoord's article
The Times of the Gentiles and "Fullness ofthe Gentiles"
ALBERT BARNES
Luke 21:24
Shall fall … - No less than one million one hundred thousand perished in the
siege ofJerusalem.
Shall be led awaycaptive - More than 90,000were led into captivity. See the
notes at Joshua 10:24; 2 Samuel22:41; Ezekiel21:29. The bondage of
Jerusalemhas been long and very oppressive. It was for a long time under the
dominion of the Romans, then of the Saracens, andis now of the Turks, and is
aptly representedby a captive stretched on the ground whose neck is
“trodden” by the footof the conqueror.

Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled - This passagehas beenunderstood
very differently by different expositors. Some refer it to the time which the
Romans who conquered it had dominion over it, as signifying that “they”
should keeppossessionof it until a part of the pagans should be converged,
when it should be rebuilt. Thus it was rebuilt by the Emperor Adrian. Others
suppose that it refers to the end of the world, when all the Gentiles shall be
converted, and they shall “cease”to be Gentiles by becoming Christians,
meaning that it should “always”be desolate. Others, that Christ meant to say
that in the times of the millennium, when the gospelshould spread
universally, he would reign personally on the earth, and that the “Jews”
would return and rebuild Jerusalemand the temple. This is the opinion of the
Jews and of many Christians. The meaning of the passage clearlyis,
1.ThatJerusalemwould be completely destroyed.
2.Thatthis would be done by Gentiles - that is, by the Romanarmies.
3.Thatthis desolationwould continue as long as God should judge it proper in
a fit manner to express his abhorrence of the crimes of the nation - that is,
until the times allotted to “them” by God for this desolationshould be
accomplished, without specifying how long that would be, or what would
occurto the city after that.
It “may” be rebuilt, and inhabited by convertedJews. Sucha thing is
“possible,” andthe Jews naturally seek that as their home; but whether this
be so or not, the time when the “Gentiles,” as such, shall have dominion over
the city is limited. Like all other cities on the earth, it will yet be brought
under the influence of the gospel, and will be inhabited by the true friends of
God. Pagan, infidel, anti-Christian dominion shall cease there, and it will be

againa place where God will be worshipped in sincerity - a place “even then”
of specialinterest from the recollectionofthe events which have occurred
there. “How long” it is to be before this occurs is known only to Him “who
hath put the times and seasonsin his own power,” Acts 1:7.
BRIAN BELL
MIDDLE OF TRIBULATION! (20-24)
2.24.This coulddescribe both the destruction in ad 70, & in the middle of the
Trib.
2.24.1.Before was the prophecy/warning & now the destructionitself.
4
2.25.(24)The times of the Gentiles – This is only a phrase but it covers a long
period.
2.25.1.This beganwith the captivity of Jerusalemby the Babylonians in 586
B.C.,
& it will end when Jesus Christ returns to earth & delivers the city
(Zech.13,14).
2.26.Let’s seehow Jesus’prophesy is doing thus far:
2.27.Romanrule continued until 324ad.
2.28.TheByzantine Empire controlledJerusalemuntil 614.
2.29.ThePersians governedbriefly until 629.
2.30.In638 Muslim Arabs conqueredthe Holy City. (The Ummayads, ruling
from

Damascus, built the Dome of the Rock mosque on what was believedto be the
site of the JewishTemple, completing it in 691)
2.31.TheAbbasid Arabs took over in 750;their capitalwas Baghdad.
2.32.TheEgyptians imposed their rule in 878.
2.33.TheCrusaders, thinking they were acting in the name of Yeshua, came to
the Holy
Land in 1096 “to reclaim it from the infidels.” (In 1099 they not only defeated
the
Muslims but massacredall the Jews they could find. The Crusaders in turn
were
driven out in 1187 by the Kurdish Ayyubid leaderSaladin)
2.34.BattlesbetweenCrusaders andMuslim Arabs continued until 1244, with
dominion being
establishedby the Egyptian Mamluks in 1250.
2.35.Suleimanthe Great displacedthem in 1517, and his Ottoman Turks held
swayin the
Holy Land for 400 years.
2.36.Theywere defeatedby Britain’s GeneralAllenby in World War I. (The
British
Mandate given by the League of Nations lasted until 1948, when, in the wake
of
the Nazi Holocaust, the world’s consciencewas momentarily pricked enough
to
permit the State of Israelto be establishedby a just over 2/3 vote of the United
Nations GeneralAssembly)

2.37.TheU. N. plan of 1947 Jerusalemwas to have been an internationalized
city, but when
5 Arab countries attackedIsraelwithin hours of her independence she fought
back and
conquered the western, more modern part of Jerusalem. (Neverthelessthe
Old City of
Jerusalem, the portion the present verse speaks about, which includes the
Temple site, was occupiedby Jordanuntil the 6-DayWar)
2.38.OnJune 8, 1967, the Israeliarmy enteredthe Old City and convergedon
the
Western/Wailing Wall, liberating Yerushalayim at last.
2.39.Thenthe gov of Israelgranted management of the Temple site to a
Muslim Council.
2.39.1.Todaythe Muslim Council still controls the Temple Mount.
JIM BOMKAMP
VS 21:24 - “24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led
captive into all the nations; and Jerusalemwill be trampled under footby the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” - Jesus tells His disciples
that the people in Jerusalemand Judea will be takencaptive and then that
Jerusalemwill be trodden under foot by the Gentiles until the time of the
Gentiles is fulfilled

10.1. This verse definitely refers to the 70 AD destruction of
Jerusalemthat causedthe Jews to be taken captive into ‘all the nations.’
10.2. Josephus wrote that in the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalemby
the Romans that 1.1 million Jews were killed by starvation or the sword.
Another 97,000were made captives and ended up as slaves in Egypt or were
takento the Roman provinces where they were used in the amphitheatres to
fight to the death againstwild beasts as the crowds cheered.
10.3. Jesus mentions ‘the time of the Gentiles’here and that the city
of Jerusalemwould be ‘trodden under foot by the Gentiles until the times of
the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ The ‘times of the Gentiles’really began in 586 BC
when Judea was takencaptive to Babylon although some people would say
that it beganwhen Jerusalemwas destroyedin 70 AD. Jesus’SecondAdvent
will end ‘the time of the Gentiles.’
10.4. Jerusalemis a city that for 2,500+ years has beentrodden under
foot by Gentiles. In our next study we will discuss more about Jerusalemand
why it has been centerstage in the world’s attention since Israelbecame a
nation againin 1948.

10.5. Jerusalemwill once again be surrounded by armies and be the
setting for the vengeance ofGod, this time before the SecondComing of
Christ. When Jesus returns though it will be to deal with all of the nations
that are gathered togetheragainstJerusalemand to rescue His people.
Zechariah wrote about this period of time in Zech. 12:1-3, “1 The burden of
the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches
out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man
within him, 2 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalema cup that causes
reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is againstJerusalem, it
will also be againstJudah. 3 “It will come about in that day that I will make
Jerusalema heavy stone for all the peoples;all who lift it will be severely
injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gatheredagainstit.”
Zechariah 12-14 clearlyrevealthe events of the SecondAdvent, and in
chapter 14 Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives (right next to Jerusalem)and
it is split in two.
GENE BROOKS
Luke 21:24 – Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled: Many believe that
the final part of this message has beenfulfilled in our own day. “They will fall
by the sword” (cf. Jer. 21:7) was initially fulfilled in the rebellion of A.D. 66-
70 when over1 million Jews perished, and it has been repeatedad nauseam
throughout history, often by so-calledChristians. The next phrase, “and will
be taken as prisoners to all the nations” could stand as a history of the Jewish
Diaspora.[2]

i. APPLICATION:Flee Jerusalemwhen the nations surround her (Luke
21:20-24). This advice applied both to the Jews then living and to those who
will live in the city at history’s end.
j. That brings us to the last phrase, “until the times of the Gentiles are
fulfilled”: Psalm 79:1 says, “O God, the nations have invaded your
inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have reduced Jerusalem
to rubble. Isaiah 63:18 saying “our adversaries have trampled down your
sanctuary,” and Daniel 9:26 says “After sixty-two sevens Messiahwill be cut
off, with nothing left to him, and the people of a prince yet to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary” (cf. Dan. 2:44; 7:27). GeneralTitus as a
result of his military operations in Jerusalemwould become Roman emperor
after his father Vespasian.
k. The Gentile trampling of Jerusalembeganafter A.D. 70, when all Jews
were expelled from the city in A.D. 135 and it was renamed Aelia Capitolina.
Jews still lived in the Holy Land as they did from the time of Joshua’s
conquest, but they were not allowedin Jerusalem. The Romans controlled the
city until A.D. 324, then the Byzantines until A.D. 614, the Persians until A.D.
629, then in A.D. 638, the Muslim Arabs took controland completed the Dome
of the Rock in A.D. 691 and controlledit until A.D. 750, then the Abbasid
Arabs of Baghdaduntil A.D. 878, then the Egyptians until 1099 when the
Crusaders conqueredJerusalemand massacredall the Jews they could find.
The Kurds under Saladin drove out the Crusaders in 1187, but they fought on
until 1244 whenin 1250 the Egyptian Mamluks establishedcontrol. They held
swayuntil the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Greattook over in 1517
and held the Land until defeatedby Britain’s GeneralAllenby in World War
I. The League of Nations’ British Mandate lasted until 1948 whenin the wake
of the Nazi Holocaust, over2/3 of the United Nations voted to establishthe
State of Israel. The UN had planned Jerusalemto be an internationalized city,
but when five Arab countries attackedIsraelwithin hours of her
independence and conquered westernJerusalem. In the Six Day War, Israel
recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, the portion about which verse 24
speaks, onJune 8, 1967. Manysay Jesus’prophecy was fulfilled, and 1,897
years of Gentile rule came to an end. In 1980, IsraelproclaimedJerusalema

united city under Israelisovereignty. Still others say that until the Muslims no
longercontrol the Temple Mount, the prophecy remains unfulfilled.
ADAM CLARKE
Verse 24
They shall fall by the edge of the sword - Those who perished in the siege are
reckonedto be not less than eleven hundred thousand. See Matthew 24:22.
And shall be led awaycaptive - To the number of ninety-seven thousand. See
Josephus, War, b. vi. c. ix. s. 2, 3, and on Matthew 24:31; (note).
Trodden down of the Gentiles - Judea was so completelysubjugated that the
very land itself was sold by Vespasian;the Gentiles possessing it, while the
Jews were eithernearly all killed or led away into captivity.
Of the Gentiles be fulfilled - Till the different nations of the earth, to whom
God shall have given the dominion over this land, have accomplishedallthat
which the Lord hath appointed them to do; and till the time of their
conversionto God take place. But when shall this be? We know not. The
nations are still treading down Jerusalem, and the end is known only to the
Lord. See the note on Matthew 24:31.

THOMAS CONSTABLE
Verse 23-24
The distress of pregnant women and nursing mothers then represents the
trouble that all people in and around Jerusalemwould face. God"s wrath and
the wrath of Israel"s enemy would also be great. Some of the Jews would die
in battle, and others would become captives and have to leave Palestine.
Gentiles would dominate Jerusalemitself. This would lastuntil the end of "the
times of the Gentiles." This is a phrase that describes the period during which
Gentiles rather than Jews wouldcontrol the fate of Jerusalem( Daniel2;
Daniel 7). It beganwhen Nebuchadnezzar destroyedJerusalemin586 B.C.
and will continue until Jesus Christreturns at the SecondComing (cf. Daniel
2:34-35;Daniel 2:45; Romans 11:25). Throughout this entire long period of
history, including the present, Gentiles have controlledthe fate of Jerusalem.
[Note:See J. Dwight Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, p399;
John F. Walvoord, "The Times of the Gentiles," Bibliotheca Sacra125:497
(January-March1968):3-9.]Luke"s reference to the times of the Gentiles is
consistentwith his interest in Gentiles.
Again careful comparisonwith the similar passagesin Matthew and Mark
reveals that they were recording Jesus" predictionof the attack on Jerusalem
just before His return (cf. Zechariah 14:1-2). Luke recordedHis prediction of
Jerusalem"s destructionthat happened in A.D70.
Acts 3:19 records Peter"s invitation to the Jews to repent and to return to a
proper relationship to God with the result that "times of refreshing" might
come from the Lord"s presence. This is probably a reference to the
inauguration of the messianic kingdom (cf. Zechariah 12:10-14). If the Jewish
nation as a whole had believed in Jesus then, how could Jesus" predictions
about the destruction of Jerusalemhave takenplace? Probably the Romans
would have invaded Jerusalemsoonerthan they did, the Rapture would have
happened ( John 14:1-3), the seven-yearTribulation would have followed, and

Jesus would have returned to set up His kingdom. All of this could have
happened within about10 years from the time Peterextended his invitation.
ISRAEL IN THE CONSUMMATION OF HISTORY
Dr. W. A. Criswell
Luke 21:24
6-11-67 8:15 a.m.
On the radio you are sharing the services ofthe First Baptist Church in
Dallas. This is the pastor bringing the morning message, notas it is
announced and printed here in the program. The title of the messageis Israel
in the Consummation of History, and it is a sermonout of God’s Book
delivered because ofthe striking and awe-inspiring events that have occurred
these last few days and are continuing in Palestine and in the Middle East. In
the twenty-first chapterof the Book of Luke, verse 24, "And Jerusalemshall
be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled"
[Luke 21:24].

We are living in one of the most critical and significantof all of the ages in
human history. We are approaching some kind of a denouement. Godis
moving. God is taking a hand in human events. "Jerusalemshall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" [Luke 21:24].
In May 1948, a part of Jerusalemwas takenawayfrom the Gentiles and was
possessedby Israel. As I stand here this moment, all of Jerusalemlies in the
hands of Israel. Whether it will become an international city governedby all
the peoples of the world or whether it will remain in the hands of Israelis yet
to be decided. But "Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" [Luke 21:24]. If it remains in the hands of
Israel, we have come, according to God’s Word, to the end of an age.
In preaching through the Revelation, there was so much of this denouement in
history that was increasinglyapparent to me. For example and I mean by
that, sucha thing as the Philadelphian age of the church which is the sixth age
[Revelation3:7-13] and the Laodiceanage of the church which is the seventh
and the last age [Revelation3:14-22]. In the Philadelphian Age of the church,
the open door is before God’s people. And even when I was a youth, the open
door for God’s people was throughout the earth. You could preach the gospel
in China; you could preach the gospelin Russia;you could preachthe gospel
in Czechoslovakia;in Bulgaria;in Albania anywhere in the earth there was an
open door. The Philadelphian age of the church, the church of the open door
[Revelation3:7-13].
But I have lived to see in my lifetime, these doors closedone after another.
Vast, vastsections of the earth are closedto the missionary, and they are
increasinglyclosed. Apparently, we are coming to the end of an era and the
beginning of the final denouement, consummation, outworking of the age
[Revelation3:14-22].

In that background, there are severalthings to be said about Israel, things
that God hath written in His Book, things that Godhas said through the
centuries and now through thousands of years. These things are all significant
and all important, and they lie in the hands of Almighty God.
First: God says, not one time, God says many times that the consummation of
the age will find its denouement in Palestine. The issues ofgovernment and of
the world will be settled finally and ultimately in Palestine, in those little tiny
countries; and especially, as I shall speak lateron, around the tiny state of
Israel[Zechariah 14:1-2]. Is not that an astonishing revelation from God? As
God says, the world shall move and history shall move toward a final and
ultimate dictator [Revelation13:2]. There shall be at the end time, says God,
ten greatkingdoms, and these shall give their authority and powerto a final
dictator, as the world moves toward some kind of a world government
[Revelation13:5, 7], as God says, as the world moves toward one religion, a
world religion [Revelation13:8, 14-15]. All of these things you are seeing
daily if you read a newspaper, if you read a magazine. It’s like reading God’s
Book and the fulfillment of prophecy. As God says, allhistory moves toward
a world religion.
So God also says that the issues of life, and of time, and of nation, and of
destiny are to be settledin Palestine [Revelation17:15-18]. Now, youmay
have wars in Asia, and you may have wars in Africa, and you may have
conflicts in Europe, but God says the greatand final denouement is in
Palestine [Revelation16:14-16]. And to my amazement, to my amazement
there’s no headline in the world today that even mentions our war in Asia.
We are not at war in Palestine;we are at war in Asia. But the Asian war and
Vietnam is on the secondpage, the third page, the back page, and the
headlines of the whole world and the involvement of the United States of
America is in Palestine. Godsays that! The issues and the final destiny of
time and history will be settled there, God says. Godsays it! [Zechariah 14:1-
2].

In the nineteenth chapterof the Book of the Revelationis a description, and I
must hasten, I haven’t time but to point these things out. In the nineteenth
chapter of the Revelationis the story of the battle of Armageddon. It is at the
battle of Armageddon that Jesus the Lord intervenes in human history, that
He comes with His saints [Revelation19:14]. Now, how is it? How is it that in
that tiny country and in the Middle East, all of the armies and navies and air
forces of the world are gatheredtogether? The answeris very plain, God
wrote it and revealedit in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
–
the devil –
and out of the mouth of the beast –
the final dictator –
and out of the mouth of the false prophet –
the head of world religion –
They are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that
greatday of God Almighty,

And he gatheredthem togetherinto a place calledin the Hebrew tongue,
Armageddon.
[Revelation16:13-16]
How is it that these nations are gatheredthere in Armageddon? One of those
greatpowers, the king of the east, according to the ninth chapter of the Book
of The Revelation, comes with two hundred million men [Revelation9:16].
How is it that all of these armies and nations are gatheredtogetherin
Palestine and in the Middle East? Theyare seducedand they are deceived by
the working of the powers of darkness. And it would take but a spark now to
turn to the Middle Eastall of the forces ofRussia and the communist world,
and all of the forces of the United States and the free world. This is according
to what God has revealedin His Book. Godsays the greatand ultimate
decisions ofhumanity and of time and of history will be settledin Palestine, in
the Middle East[Zechariah 14:1-2].
Second:God says the denouement of history revolves around the Jew
[Revelation6:17, 7:3-4]. There are not enough Jews in the whole world to
equal a part of the population of Texas. There are not enough Jews in the
world to equal possibly half of the population of our state. An infinitesimal
minority, according to the three billion, five hundred million populations of
this globe:yet God says that the denouement and the consummation of history
revolve around the Jew. And whereverhe is involved, there you find all
history turning. God says it.

First: God says that he will be here when the end comes;the Jew will be here.
In the greatapocalyptic discourse in Matthew 24:34 our Lord says "Verily I
say unto you, This race, this genus, this kind," translates the King James
Version generation, "Verily I say unto you, This race, the Jew, shall not pass
away, till all these things be fulfilled." All of those ancient peoples have
disappeared. You never saw a Hittite, or a Girgashite, or an Amorite, or any
of the other of those ancient peoples, but the Jew is still here, and God says
he’ll be here till the time of the end.
Second:by an unconditional covenant, an unconditional covenant, God
promised the land to the Jew. I haven’t time to follow through those
covenants Godmade with Abraham and Isaac and Jacobin the Book of
Genesis. I read from a psalm in the Book ofPsalms 105:
God hath remembered His covenantforever, the word which He commanded
to a thousand generations.
Which covenantHe made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac;
And confirmed the same unto Jacobfor a law, and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant:
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.
[Psalm 105:8-11]

Over the radio I heard an Arab representative saythat the covenant was
made to Abraham and to his seed, and that Ishmael is the seedof Abraham
also. Godnever said that. Never! God saidthe covenantto a thousand
generations and the oath that shall abide forever "have I made with
Abraham, and with Isaac, andwith Israel" [Psalm 105:9-10]. Godgave to
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and to their seedforeverthe land of Palestine. By
covenantpromise it belongs to them.
Third: first I said God said the Jew will be here until the end [Matthew
24:34]. Second, Godsays that the land belongs to them by covenantand
unconditional promise; God gave the land to the seedof Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacobforever[Psalm 105:8-11]. Third: God said that the Jew will return to
Palestine, to the PromisedLand, in unbelief [Ezekiel36:24-28].
I haven’t time but to just cite one passageoutof a multitude, one passage.
And we are living to see this Scripture fulfilled, the Jew turning to Palestine.
For almosttwo thousand years there were no Jews in Palestine, but God said
he will go back. The Jew was scatteredamong the nations of the earth. The
Jew was buried among the peoples of the globe. But God said he will go back
to Palestine. He will return, and he will return in unbelief. I cite one passage
in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, verses 24 and 25, "I will take you from
among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you
into your own land" [Ezekiel36:24]. Then, after the Jew has returned to
Palestine, afterhe has gone back home:

Then will I sprinkle cleanwaterupon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart will I give you,
Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be My
people, and I will be your God.
[Ezekiel36:25-28]
Israelis going to return to the land in unbelief, and then you are going to have
that description that I shall speak ofat the end of this message. Thenyou are
going to have that new relationship with God. We are looking with our eyes
and have been these last severalyears:the return of the Jew to Palestine
according to the Word of God.
Fourth and last in this part of the message:he will rebuild the temple and
reinstitute those Mosaic legislations andsacrifices [Ezekiel37:26-28, 44:10-
11]. I may also live to see that. But God says that the Jew will rebuild that
temple and that they will reinstitute those ancientLevitical sacrifices. Right
this minute, over Mount Moriahand the sacredholy place of the temple, there
is the Mosque of Omar, the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock. I may live to see
the time when every piece of that Mosque of Omar is thrown down and the
stones hauled awayas being paganand heathen and unclean. And on the top

of that Mount Moriah there will be erected, according to the Word of God,
the temple of the Jews.
It is in the ninth chapter of the Book ofDaniel, verse 27 that says that in the
midst of the week – this final week, this final seven years – in the midst of the
week, this final dictatorwill break his covenantwith Israel and will cause the
sacrifices andthe oblations to cease [Daniel9:27].
There is going to be built a temple by the Jews where Solomonerectedhis
temple, and the Levitical sacrificesare going to be reinstituted [Ezekiel 44:11].
That is why, when I see on television, and when I see pictures in the paper of
that old rabbi blowing the shofar, the ram’s horn, as they approach the
wailing wall – the only part of Solomon’s temple that remains – and they pray
and they praise and they weepbefore a pile of stones, to us, it is amazing!
According to God and His chosenpeople, it is a part of the ultimate and divine
plan.
Wherever in this world you see a Jew of any kind or description, there is
something in him that vibrates like the chords, like the strings in a harp when
you pluck them. There is something in him that vibrates when you speak
about Israel and Palestine and the Holy Land. Zionism is that part of
Judaism that longs for, believes, and has built a nation in Canaan;the other
part of Judaism disassociatesitselffrom Zionism, the building of an Israeli
state. But whether he a Zionist or whether he is a not a Zionist, if he is a Jew
there is something on the inside of him that vibrates when you speak of
Jerusalemand the holy land of Palestine. And I don’t think he can help it. I
think God put it in him.
When I was in Panama, I walkedinto a dry goods store where he sold piece
goods;it was run by a Jew. Previouslyto my visit in Panama, I had been in

the Holy Land, and I had seenthem turn that desertinto a garden. And as I
talkedto the Jewishproprietor of that dry goods store in Panama, I beganto
describe to him what I had seenin Israel. And as I talkedto that Jew in
Panama of the Holy Land and of Canaan, the tears fell off of his face
unashamedly – just listening as I talked, what God was doing in Palestine.
When I was last week in Miami Beach, one of the businessmen there took me
to a famous Jewishrestaurantand the proprietor – an old man, not a Zionist
– found that I was there. He came and satdown at the table and began to talk
to me, and I began to talk to him about Palestine and what Israelwas doing in
the Holy Land. You should have seenhis face! If he is a Jew, his heart, his
hand, his abilities are dedicatedtoward the building up of the state of Israel.
God says it. He shall inherit that land," God says [Psalm 105:8-11].
Third and we must hasten. Third – main outline: the first was, the
denouement of human history is there in Palestine, not in Asia, Africa, or
Europe, or America, it is there [Zechariah 14:1-2]. The secondgreatpoint I
have made: God says that the Jew is going back and that the land by covenant
belongs to him [Genesis 15:18]. Third: God says the undying and implacable
enemy of Israelis Russia. Godspeaks ofthat againand again. The great
enemy of Israelis Russia from the North. Incidentally, the enemy of Israel
may be Egypt from the South. Incidentally, the enemy of Israelmay be
Arabia from the East. God says the greatenemy of Israelis Russia. And here
again, I have but an opportunity to point out a passageand that’s all, Ezekiel
38 and 39.
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, set thy face against
Gog, the name of a greatprince, the land of Magog,the prince of Rosh, of
Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy againsthim, And say, Thus saith the Lord

God; Behold, I am againstthee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and
Tubal.
[Ezekiel38:2-3]
Who are these people? Theyare easilyidentified, for the names are not used
just here; they are used in many other places. The land of Magog is the land
all of that country north of the Black and the CaspianSea. Theyused to call
it the land of the Scythians. Now you call it the land of the SovietUnion. The
prince of Rosh, that is Russia. Meshech, thatis Moscow. Tubal, that is
Toblosk. The ancientand modern cities of Moscowand Toblosk.
Who is back of Nasserand the socialistgovernmentof Syria? Who is egging
them on to war? Who gave them arms and who now is fearfully in venom and
vituperation and invective, denouncing the United States and denouncing
Israel? Who is it doing? Russia – death, on the wrong horse! Excuse me.
Goodness! I am in a church service. Russia put over a billion dollars in
planes and tanks in the hands of Nasserwho is a puppet of Russia. And
Russia poured millions of dollars into the Sovietgovernment, the communist
socialistgovernmentof Syria. Russia stirs it up, stirs it up, stirs it up. And
Russia will continue to do that. Anytime we think we canbuild a lasting
friendship with Russia we are denying the Word, plain, of Almighty God. The
enemy, God says, of Israeland the people of the Lord is Russia. And God says
Russia will be destroyed[Ezekiel38-39]. Whata sadness. Whenyou look at
those people, they are like; they are like pigs led to the slaughter, led to the
shambles, led to the butcher shop. Ah! the tragedy of being led by men.

And these present men who rule Russia are men who surrounded Stalin, and
they butchered and destroyed their own people by the millions and the
millions. And they would have no qualm of conscience atall to destroy the
millions and millions of the populations and nations of this present world.
Anytime they think they have a superior advantage, that moment, the lastwar
has begun. The only reasonRussia does not attack is, she is afraid. And every
time you confront Russia, she will back down, whether in the crisis in Cuba or
whether in this present crisis in the Arab-Israeli war in the Middle East. For
you see, Russia hadpromised Nasser, and Russia had promised Syria, and
Russia had promised the Arab world. And when Israel cut the Arab world
and armies to pieces in four days, did Russia go to their rescue? No. She is
afraid. To have an ally in Russia is like leaning on a broken reed. But if she
ever thinks that she has superior surprise in attack or achievementin arms on
battlefields, that minute, a Russia – Russia will begin this lastand final war.
God says she shall be destroyed[Ezekiel38-39].
Last, fourth: there will be no peace to the Jew. There will be no peace to
Israel, there will be no settlementin the Middle East;there will be war and
desolations to the end, according the ninth chapter of the Book ofDaniel
[Daniel 9:26]. You are not going to be able to contrive a peace in the Middle
East, and a peace in Israel, and a peace forthe Jew. He is involved in
desolationand in judgment until he accepts the Prince of Peace[Matthew
23:39]. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," the closing verses ofthe greatword of the
Lord in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killestthe prophets, and stonestthem
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gatheredthy children
together, even as a hen gatherethher brood under her wings, and ye would
not!

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed
is He our Messiah, blessedis He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
[Matthew 23:37-39]
"Your house is left unto you desolate" [Matthew 23:8], the Jew will find no
rest for the sole of his foot. He will find no peace for his house, his home, and
his children until he finds it in the Prince Messiah. Will he ever do that? Yes.
And we may be living to that final denouement and the consummationof
history. Yes. Someday, at the end time he will accept, the whole Jewish
world, the Prince of Peace. "Iwill pour upon the house of David," Zechariah
12 and 13:
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
The Spirit of grace and supplication: and they shall look upon Me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn as one mourneth for his only son.
[Zechariah 12:10]

And one shall sayunto Him, this Prince of Peace, whatare these wounds in
Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those withwhich I was wounded in the
house of My friends.
[Zechariah 13:6]
And in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalemfor sin and for uncleanness.
[Zechariah 13:1]
And His feetshall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, before
Jerusalemon the east.
[Zechariah 14:4]
And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
[Zechariah 14:9]

God is bringing togetherthese final events in world history. It concerns the
Jew, Israel, the Holy Land. It concerns Russia andthe United States. We
shall be a friend to Israel; Godshall destroyRussia [Ezekiel38-39]. Godshall
bless these who look up in faith and in acceptanceto the Son of God [Hebrews
11:6].
I preacheda sermon here – and with this sentence I will stop – I preacheda
sermon here one time. "And His name shall be calledWonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace"[Isaiah9:6].
And the sermon was What an Amazing Arrangement of Words. The great
climactic description, not "the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God," but the
climax is, His name shall be calledWonderful, how blessed. His name shall be
calledCounselor, how precious. His name shall be called the Mighty God.
Amen. His name shall be calledthe Everlasting Father, hallelujah. And the
consummation and climax of it all, and His name shall be calledthe Prince of
Peace;and we shall find restin God.
Now we must sing our song, and while we sing it, somebodyyou, give himself
to Jesus;a family you, coming into the fellowshipof the church. As the Holy
Spirit of Godshall press the appeal to your heart, make it now, make it this
morning. On the first note of that first stanza, come. "Preacher, here I am. I
give you my hand. I give my heart to the Lord." Or, "Here I stand coming
into fellowshipwith this wonderful church." As Godshall saythe word and
lead in the way, make it now. Make it this morning, while we stand and while
we sing.

ISRAEL IN THE CONSUMMATION OF HISTORY
Dr. W. A. Criswell
Luke 21:24
6-11-67 8:15 a.m.
On the radio you are sharing the services ofthe First Baptist Church in
Dallas. This is the pastor bringing the morning message, notas it is
announced and printed here in the program. The title of the messageis Israel
in the Consummation of History, and it is a sermonout of God’s Book
delivered because ofthe striking and awe-inspiring events that have occurred
these last few days and are continuing in Palestine and in the Middle East. In
the twenty-first chapterof the Book of Luke, verse 24, "And Jerusalemshall
be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled"
[Luke 21:24].
We are living in one of the most critical and significantof all of the ages in
human history. We are approaching some kind of a denouement. Godis
moving. God is taking a hand in human events. "Jerusalemshall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" [Luke 21:24].

In May 1948, a part of Jerusalemwas takenawayfrom the Gentiles and was
possessedby Israel. As I stand here this moment, all of Jerusalemlies in the
hands of Israel. Whether it will become an international city governedby all
the peoples of the world or whether it will remain in the hands of Israelis yet
to be decided. But "Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" [Luke 21:24]. If it remains in the hands of
Israel, we have come, according to God’s Word, to the end of an age.
In preaching through the Revelation, there was so much of this denouement in
history that was increasinglyapparent to me. For example and I mean by
that, sucha thing as the Philadelphian age of the church which is the sixth age
[Revelation3:7-13] and the Laodiceanage of the church which is the seventh
and the last age [Revelation3:14-22]. In the Philadelphian Age of the church,
the open door is before God’s people. And even when I was a youth, the open
door for God’s people was throughout the earth. You could preach the gospel
in China; you could preach the gospelin Russia;you could preachthe gospel
in Czechoslovakia;in Bulgaria;in Albania anywhere in the earth there was an
open door. The Philadelphian age of the church, the church of the open door
[Revelation3:7-13].
But I have lived to see in my lifetime, these doors closedone after another.
Vast, vastsections of the earth are closedto the missionary, and they are
increasinglyclosed. Apparently, we are coming to the end of an era and the
beginning of the final denouement, consummation, outworking of the age
[Revelation3:14-22].
In that background, there are severalthings to be said about Israel, things
that God hath written in His Book, things that Godhas said through the
centuries and now through thousands of years. These things are all significant
and all important, and they lie in the hands of Almighty God.

First: God says, not one time, God says many times that the consummation of
the age will find its denouement in Palestine. The issues ofgovernment and of
the world will be settled finally and ultimately in Palestine, in those little tiny
countries; and especially, as I shall speak lateron, around the tiny state of
Israel[Zechariah 14:1-2]. Is not that an astonishing revelation from God? As
God says, the world shall move and history shall move toward a final and
ultimate dictator [Revelation13:2]. There shall be at the end time, says God,
ten greatkingdoms, and these shall give their authority and powerto a final
dictator, as the world moves toward some kind of a world government
[Revelation13:5, 7], as God says, as the world moves toward one religion, a
world religion [Revelation13:8, 14-15]. All of these things you are seeing
daily if you read a newspaper, if you read a magazine. It’s like reading God’s
Book and the fulfillment of prophecy. As God says, allhistory moves toward
a world religion.
So God also says that the issues of life, and of time, and of nation, and of
destiny are to be settledin Palestine [Revelation17:15-18]. Now, youmay
have wars in Asia, and you may have wars in Africa, and you may have
conflicts in Europe, but God says the greatand final denouement is in
Palestine [Revelation16:14-16]. And to my amazement, to my amazement
there’s no headline in the world today that even mentions our war in Asia.
We are not at war in Palestine;we are at war in Asia. But the Asian war and
Vietnam is on the secondpage, the third page, the back page, and the
headlines of the whole world and the involvement of the United States of
America is in Palestine. Godsays that! The issues and the final destiny of
time and history will be settled there, God says. Godsays it! [Zechariah 14:1-
2].
In the nineteenth chapterof the Book of the Revelationis a description, and I
must hasten, I haven’t time but to point these things out. In the nineteenth
chapter of the Revelationis the story of the battle of Armageddon. It is at the
battle of Armageddon that Jesus the Lord intervenes in human history, that

He comes with His saints [Revelation19:14]. Now, how is it? How is it that in
that tiny country and in the Middle East, all of the armies and navies and air
forces of the world are gatheredtogether? The answeris very plain, God
wrote it and revealedit in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
–
the devil –
and out of the mouth of the beast –
the final dictator –
and out of the mouth of the false prophet –
the head of world religion –
They are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that
greatday of God Almighty,
And he gatheredthem togetherinto a place calledin the Hebrew tongue,
Armageddon.

[Revelation16:13-16]
How is it that these nations are gatheredthere in Armageddon? One of those
greatpowers, the king of the east, according to the ninth chapter of the Book
of The Revelation, comes with two hundred million men [Revelation9:16].
How is it that all of these armies and nations are gatheredtogetherin
Palestine and in the Middle East? Theyare seducedand they are deceived by
the working of the powers of darkness. And it would take but a spark now to
turn to the Middle Eastall of the forces ofRussia and the communist world,
and all of the forces of the United States and the free world. This is according
to what God has revealedin His Book. Godsays the greatand ultimate
decisions ofhumanity and of time and of history will be settledin Palestine, in
the Middle East[Zechariah 14:1-2].
Second:God says the denouement of history revolves around the Jew
[Revelation6:17, 7:3-4]. There are not enough Jews in the whole world to
equal a part of the population of Texas. There are not enough Jews in the
world to equal possibly half of the population of our state. An infinitesimal
minority, according to the three billion, five hundred million populations of
this globe:yet God says that the denouement and the consummation of history
revolve around the Jew. And whereverhe is involved, there you find all
history turning. God says it.
First: God says that he will be here when the end comes;the Jew will be here.
In the greatapocalyptic discourse in Matthew 24:34 our Lord says "Verily I
say unto you, This race, this genus, this kind," translates the King James
Version generation, "Verily I say unto you, This race, the Jew, shall not pass
away, till all these things be fulfilled." All of those ancient peoples have

disappeared. You never saw a Hittite, or a Girgashite, or an Amorite, or any
of the other of those ancient peoples, but the Jew is still here, and God says
he’ll be here till the time of the end.
Second:by an unconditional covenant, an unconditional covenant, God
promised the land to the Jew. I haven’t time to follow through those
covenants Godmade with Abraham and Isaac and Jacobin the Book of
Genesis. I read from a psalm in the Book ofPsalms 105:
God hath remembered His covenantforever, the word which He commanded
to a thousand generations.
Which covenantHe made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac;
And confirmed the same unto Jacobfor a law, and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant:
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.
[Psalm 105:8-11]

Over the radio I heard an Arab representative saythat the covenant was
made to Abraham and to his seed, and that Ishmael is the seedof Abraham
also. Godnever said that. Never! God saidthe covenantto a thousand
generations and the oath that shall abide forever "have I made with
Abraham, and with Isaac, andwith Israel" [Psalm 105:9-10]. Godgave to
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and to their seedforeverthe land of Palestine. By
covenantpromise it belongs to them.
Third: first I said God said the Jew will be here until the end [Matthew
24:34]. Second, Godsays that the land belongs to them by covenantand
unconditional promise; God gave the land to the seedof Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacobforever[Psalm 105:8-11]. Third: God said that the Jew will return to
Palestine, to the PromisedLand, in unbelief [Ezekiel36:24-28].
I haven’t time but to just cite one passageoutof a multitude, one passage.
And we are living to see this Scripture fulfilled, the Jew turning to Palestine.
For almosttwo thousand years there were no Jews in Palestine, but God said
he will go back. The Jew was scatteredamong the nations of the earth. The
Jew was buried among the peoples of the globe. But God said he will go back
to Palestine. He will return, and he will return in unbelief. I cite one passage
in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, verses 24 and 25, "I will take you from
among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you
into your own land" [Ezekiel36:24]. Then, after the Jew has returned to
Palestine, afterhe has gone back home:
Then will I sprinkle cleanwaterupon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart will I give you,
Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be My
people, and I will be your God.
[Ezekiel36:25-28]
Israelis going to return to the land in unbelief, and then you are going to have
that description that I shall speak ofat the end of this message. Thenyou are
going to have that new relationship with God. We are looking with our eyes
and have been these last severalyears:the return of the Jew to Palestine
Fourth and last in this part of the message:he will rebuild the temple and
reinstitute those Mosaic legislations andsacrifices [Ezekiel37:26-28, 44:10-
11]. I may also live to see that. But God says that the Jew will rebuild that
temple and that they will reinstitute those ancientLevitical sacrifices. Right
this minute, over Mount Moriahand the sacredholy place of the temple, there
is the Mosque of Omar, the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock. I may live to see
the time when every piece of that Mosque of Omar is thrown down and the
stones hauled awayas being paganand heathen and unclean. And on the top
of that Mount Moriah there will be erected, according to the Word of God,
the temple of the Jews.
It is in the ninth chapter of the Book ofDaniel, verse 27 that says that in the
midst of the week – this final week, this final seven years – in the midst of the

week, this final dictatorwill break his covenantwith Israel and will cause the
sacrifices andthe oblations to cease [Daniel9:27].
There is going to be built a temple by the Jews where Solomonerectedhis
temple, and the Levitical sacrificesare going to be reinstituted [Ezekiel 44:11].
That is why, when I see on television, and when I see pictures in the paper of
that old rabbi blowing the shofar, the ram’s horn, as they approach the
wailing wall – the only part of Solomon’s temple that remains – and they pray
and they praise and they weepbefore a pile of stones, to us, it is amazing!
According to God and His chosenpeople, it is a part of the ultimate and divine
plan.
Wherever in this world you see a Jew of any kind or description, there is
something in him that vibrates like the chords, like the strings in a harp when
you pluck them. There is something in him that vibrates when you speak
about Israel and Palestine and the Holy Land. Zionism is that part of
Judaism that longs for, believes, and has built a nation in Canaan;the other
part of Judaism disassociatesitselffrom Zionism, the building of an Israeli
state. But whether he a Zionist or whether he is a not a Zionist, if he is a Jew
there is something on the inside of him that vibrates when you speak of
Jerusalemand the holy land of Palestine. And I don’t think he can help it. I
think God put it in him.
When I was in Panama, I walkedinto a dry goods store where he sold piece
goods;it was run by a Jew. Previouslyto my visit in Panama, I had been in
the Holy Land, and I had seenthem turn that desertinto a garden. And as I
talkedto the Jewishproprietor of that dry goods store in Panama, I beganto
describe to him what I had seenin Israel. And as I talkedto that Jew in
Panama of the Holy Land and of Canaan, the tears fell off of his face
unashamedly – just listening as I talked, what God was doing in Palestine.
When I was last week in Miami Beach, one of the businessmen there took me

to a famous Jewishrestaurantand the proprietor – an old man, not a Zionist
– found that I was there. He came and satdown at the table and began to talk
to me, and I began to talk to him about Palestine and what Israelwas doing in
the Holy Land. You should have seenhis face! If he is a Jew, his heart, his
hand, his abilities are dedicatedtoward the building up of the state of Israel.
God says it. He shall inherit that land," God says [Psalm 105:8-11].
Third and we must hasten. Third – main outline: the first was, the
denouement of human history is there in Palestine, not in Asia, Africa, or
Europe, or America, it is there [Zechariah 14:1-2]. The secondgreatpoint I
have made: God says that the Jew is going back and that the land by covenant
belongs to him [Genesis 15:18]. Third: God says the undying and implacable
enemy of Israelis Russia. Godspeaks ofthat againand again. The great
enemy of Israelis Russia from the North. Incidentally, the enemy of Israel
may be Egypt from the South. Incidentally, the enemy of Israelmay be
Arabia from the East. God says the greatenemy of Israelis Russia. And here
again, I have but an opportunity to point out a passageand that’s all, Ezekiel
38 and 39.
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, set thy face against
Gog, the name of a greatprince, the land of Magog,the prince of Rosh, of
Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy againsthim, And say, Thus saith the Lord
God; Behold, I am againstthee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and
Tubal.
[Ezekiel38:2-3]

Who are these people? Theyare easilyidentified, for the names are not used
just here; they are used in many other places. The land of Magog is the land
all of that country north of the Black and the CaspianSea. Theyused to call
it the land of the Scythians. Now you call it the land of the SovietUnion. The
prince of Rosh, that is Russia. Meshech, thatis Moscow. Tubal, that is
Toblosk. The ancientand modern cities of Moscowand Toblosk.
Who is back of Nasserand the socialistgovernmentof Syria? Who is egging
them on to war? Who gave them arms and who now is fearfully in venom and
vituperation and invective, denouncing the United States and denouncing
Israel? Who is it doing? Russia – death, on the wrong horse! Excuse me.
Goodness! I am in a church service. Russia put over a billion dollars in
planes and tanks in the hands of Nasserwho is a puppet of Russia. And
Russia poured millions of dollars into the Sovietgovernment, the communist
socialistgovernmentof Syria. Russia stirs it up, stirs it up, stirs it up. And
Russia will continue to do that. Anytime we think we canbuild a lasting
friendship with Russia we are denying the Word, plain, of Almighty God. The
enemy, God says, of Israeland the people of the Lord is Russia. And God says
Russia will be destroyed[Ezekiel38-39]. Whata sadness. Whenyou look at
those people, they are like; they are like pigs led to the slaughter, led to the
shambles, led to the butcher shop. Ah! the tragedy of being led by men.
And these present men who rule Russia are men who surrounded Stalin, and
they butchered and destroyed their own people by the millions and the
millions. And they would have no qualm of conscience atall to destroy the
millions and millions of the populations and nations of this present world.
Anytime they think they have a superior advantage, that moment, the lastwar
has begun. The only reasonRussia does not attack is, she is afraid. And every
time you confront Russia, she will back down, whether in the crisis in Cuba or

whether in this present crisis in the Arab-Israeli war in the Middle East. For
you see, Russia hadpromised Nasser, and Russia had promised Syria, and
Russia had promised the Arab world. And when Israel cut the Arab world
and armies to pieces in four days, did Russia go to their rescue? No. She is
afraid. To have an ally in Russia is like leaning on a broken reed. But if she
ever thinks that she has superior surprise in attack or achievementin arms on
battlefields, that minute, a Russia – Russia will begin this lastand final war.
God says she shall be destroyed[Ezekiel38-39].
Last, fourth: there will be no peace to the Jew. There will be no peace to
Israel, there will be no settlementin the Middle East;there will be war and
desolations to the end, according the ninth chapter of the Book ofDaniel
[Daniel 9:26]. You are not going to be able to contrive a peace in the Middle
East, and a peace in Israel, and a peace forthe Jew. He is involved in
desolationand in judgment until he accepts the Prince of Peace[Matthew
23:39]. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," the closing verses ofthe greatword of the
Lord in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew:
not!
Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed
is He our Messiah, blessedis He that cometh in the name of the Lord.

[Matthew 23:37-39]
"Your house is left unto you desolate" [Matthew 23:8], the Jew will find no
rest for the sole of his foot. He will find no peace for his house, his home, and
his children until he finds it in the Prince Messiah. Will he ever do that? Yes.
And we may be living to that final denouement and the consummationof
history. Yes. Someday, at the end time he will accept, the whole Jewish
world, the Prince of Peace. "Iwill pour upon the house of David," Zechariah
12 and 13:
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
The Spirit of grace and supplication: and they shall look upon Me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn as one mourneth for his only son.
[Zechariah 12:10]
And one shall sayunto Him, this Prince of Peace, whatare these wounds in
Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those withwhich I was wounded in the
house of My friends.
[Zechariah 13:6]

And in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalemfor sin and for uncleanness.
[Zechariah 13:1]
And His feetshall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, before
Jerusalemon the east.
[Zechariah 14:4]
And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
[Zechariah 14:9]
God is bringing togetherthese final events in world history. It concerns the
Jew, Israel, the Holy Land. It concerns Russia andthe United States. We
shall be a friend to Israel; Godshall destroyRussia [Ezekiel38-39]. Godshall

bless these who look up in faith and in acceptanceto the Son of God [Hebrews
11:6].
I preacheda sermon here – and with this sentence I will stop – I preacheda
sermon here one time. "And His name shall be calledWonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace"[Isaiah9:6].
And the sermon was What an Amazing Arrangement of Words. The great
climactic description, not "the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God," but the
climax is, His name shall be calledWonderful, how blessed. His name shall be
calledCounselor, how precious. His name shall be called the Mighty God.
Amen. His name shall be calledthe Everlasting Father, hallelujah. And the
consummation and climax of it all, and His name shall be calledthe Prince of
Peace;and we shall find restin God.
Now we must sing our song, and while we sing it, somebodyyou, give himself
to Jesus;a family you, coming into the fellowshipof the church. As the Holy
Spirit of Godshall press the appeal to your heart, make it now, make it this
morning. On the first note of that first stanza, come. "Preacher, here I am. I
give you my hand. I give my heart to the Lord." Or, "Here I stand coming
into fellowshipwith this wonderful church." As Godshall saythe word and
lead in the way, make it now. Make it this morning, while we stand and while
we sing.
THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES

Dr. W. A. Criswell
Luke 21:24
4-29-56 8:15 a.m.
This morning, we are to speak of The Times of the Gentiles. LastSunday
morning, we spoke of The Jews – the chosenfamily and people of God. This
morning, it is the Gentiles.
In Luke 21:24, the Lord Jesus says:"And Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." There is a very
definite period, a chronologicalera, a time in the mind of God that God refers
to as "the times of the Gentiles." That is in Luke 21:24: "And Jerusalemshall
be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
Now, in the passage thatwe read together, in the eleventh chapter of the Book
of Romans and the twenty-fifth verse:

Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be
come in.
And so all Israelshall be saved: as it is written, "There shallcome out of Sion
the Deliverer, and shall turn awayungodliness from Jacob:
For this is My covenantwith them; I have promised it," saith the Lord.
Concerning the gospel, they’re enemies for your sakes: but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[Romans 11:25-29]
He doesn’t change. That’s where we left off last Sunday morning.
I do not know of a more startling – – it’s almost awesome – – development in
all history, from the time of creationuntil now, than this thing that is
developing before our very eyes today. If you have ever lookedat a map of
Palestine oftoday, of this minute, you will find that that division between
Israeland Jordan, betweenthe Hebrew and the Arab, you’ll find it start up
there at the Sea of Galilee, then come way over to the westand drop down to
the south, then go way back againto the eastand encompass the very hill of

Mount Zion, then drop way back to the westagain, and so go on down to the
Arabah to the Negev.
Isn’t that a strange thing? For what Israelhad in their hearts in this recent
war in Palestine was to win Jerusalem. Theymay have everything else in the
country, but if they don’t have the city of God, Zion – they don’t have the
greatcapital – it is as nothing. The heart and the vision and the dream of the
Jew is that he might have Jerusalem. And there they are, the line comes down
this way, then goes clearto Jerusalem, then drops back againand goes on
down.
And when you go to that country and listen to those people, you will hear the
weirdestthings. For example, on the Israeli side, they will saythings like this.
They will say, "In this lastand recentwar, there was a young group of Israel,
just almostteenagers,"they say, "and with greatboldness, they won the entire
city of Jerusalem;but for some strange and uncanny reason, they were never
supported in those outposts, so they had to withdraw."
Then when you go on the other side and talk to the Arabs, you’ll find again
some of the strangestand most uncanny things. They will saythings like this:
"Overhere on our side, in this last and recent war, we had the Jewisharmies
in exhaustion. They were running out of ammunition. They had no recourse;
they were absolutely" – – and I verified this – – "they were running out of
water. They had no waterat all." And you can’t live and fight without water.
And just at that time, when it lookedas though the Arab legions were
prepared to push the Israeli armies into the sea, forsome unknown reason,
the King of Jordan suddenly decided that he wanted an armistice. He wanted
to make peace. And that stopped the war right at the time when Israelwas
almost exhaustedand defeated.

Well, why is it that the Israelites were not able to overwhelm the city of
Jerusalemright there at the gates, right there at the wall? The new kingdom
of Israeli goes right up to the wall. You can stand there on new Mount Zion,
and the wall is right there. There are a lot of places there where you can
stand and look over into the city of Jerusalem. Why is that? Well, it is
In Luke 21:24, Jesus saidthat Jerusalemshall be trodden down of the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That city is not going to be
given to Israel, and the Hebrews are not going to possess it, until this
chronologicalperiodof time that is known to the mind of God and to which
we’re going to speak this morning, until that time is run out – until God says,
"This is the end." So this morning, we’re going to talk about the Gentiles and
the times of the Gentiles.
There are three classesofpeople in the Bible that the Bible deals with as a
group. One is the Jew;another is the Gentile; and the third is the church
which is made up of both Jew and Gentile.
The Hebrew beganin the call of Abraham. He was the first Hebrew. In
Genesis 14, he is called, "Abraham the Hebrew" [Genesis 14:13].
Many people talk about, many scholars probe into, where that word comes
from. Many of them are of the persuasionthat it comes from the Hebrew
avar which means "to cross over." Anyway, he is called "the Hebrew."
And this Hebrew Abraham, the first one, he had a boy named Isaac [Genesis
17:19, 21:3]. And Isaac had a son named Jacob[Genesis25:21-26]. And
Jacob’s sonwas named Israel. And Jacob’s name was changedto Israel

[Genesis 32:28]. And Israelhad twelve sons [Genesis 35:22-26]. And eachone
of those twelve sons became the head of a tribe, and they are known as the
twelve tribes of Israel[Genesis :1-28]. They were togetheruntil the time of
Solomon.
And in the days of King Solomon, the kingdom was divided [1 Kings 11:29-
39]; and ten of those tribes of the north became knownas Israel, and the two
tribes in the south, Benjamin and Judah, became known as Judah [1 Kings
12:12-24]. And when the Israelites, the northern ten tribes, were taken
captive in 722 by Sargonto Nineveh and to Assyria [2 Kings 17:1-8], they
were largely lostto history.
So the people who lived thereafter knew the Jewishpeople by the name of
Judah – "Judahs, Jews." That’s where the word "Jews"comesfrom. It come
from "Judah, Judahs" – "he is a Judah; he is a Jew."
Now the southern kingdom of Judah abode until 606 BC and then 598, then
587, when Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, came and carried them away[2
Kings 25:8-11].
Now the times of the Gentiles begins with Jeremiah, the prophet of God, when
he said that the Lord God had given the land of Palestine into the hand of the
king of Babylonia according to Jeremiah27;and I read:
And Jeremiahsaid, "Thus saith the Lord,

‘Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzarthe king of
Babylon, my servant; and the beasts ofthe field have I given also to serve him.
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very
time of his land come:and then many nations and greatkings shall serve
themselves of him.’"
[Jeremiah 27:1-2, 6-7]
He’ll be overcome and his kingdom be divided up.
‘"And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not
serve the same Nebuchadnezzarthe king of Babylon, and that will not put
their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish,’
saith the Lord, ‘with the sword, with the famine, with the pestilence, till I have
consumed them by [his] hand.’"
[Jeremiah 27:8]

Then Jeremiah says:
And I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words,
saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve
him and his people.
"Therefore hearkennot unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you,
saying, ‘Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon’: for they prophesy a lie unto
you.
‘"ForI have not sent them,’ saith the Lord, ‘yet they prophesy a lie in My
name.’"
[Jeremiah 27:12-15]
And for that, they took Jeremiahand put him in a miry pit [Jeremiah 38:6].
He was not patriotic. There they were fighting a waragainstthe king of
Babylon trying to preserve their independence and freedom, and Jeremiah
said, "If you fight againstthe king of Babylon, you’re going to die by the
famine, by the pestilence, and by the sword, because the Lord God has said, ‘I
have given this land to the king of Babylon.’"

And the Lord God runs this world. Howeverwe may think the Senate runs it,
or the U.N. [United Nations]runs it, or the NATO [North Atlantic Treaty
Organization] runs it, or SEATO [SoutheastAsia Treaty Organization] runs
it, or Russia runs it, or the United States runs it, the Lord God runs this
world. It’s in His hands. And the Lord God said, "I have given this land to
Babylonia; I have given it to Nebuchadnezzar" [Jeremiah 27:6-7]. The reason
for it, of course, was the violent iniquities and gross blasphemies ofthe people
of the Lord [Jeremiah26:1-9].
Now, Daniel, the prophet, describes the whole course of this "times of the
Gentiles" when the Lord took the land awayfrom Israeland gave it to
Nebuchadnezzar, and he describes the whole course ofthat time. In the
secondchapter– – is it secondor third? Isn’t it the secondchapter? In the
secondchapterof the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzardreamed a dream, and
he forgot what it was. And the enchanters couldn’t tell him, the sorcerers
couldn’t tell him, and all the necromancers andall of the sages, theycouldn’t
tell him [Daniel 2:1-13], but Daniel could for these things are all known to
God [Daniel 2:14-30].
And in the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had – and Daniel told him what the
dream was and the interpretation thereof, and then Daniel gave the entire
course of the times of the Gentiles [Daniel 2:31-45]. There’s a head – the great
colossus, the great image, there’s the head made out of gold [Daniel2:32].
There are the breastand arms made out of silver, and there are the belly and
thighs made out of brass. There are the two legs made out of iron [Daniel
2:33]. There are the feet and the toes made out of iron and of clay.
And Danielsaid, "Thatfirst kingdom up there, the head of [gold], is your
kingdom, O, Nebuchadnezzar!" [Daniel 2:37-38] That’s the Babylonian
kingdom. That’s the one into whose hands God gave the land because of the

trespass of the people. Then that next kingdom, the one out of silver – the
breastand the arms – that’s the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians
[Daniel 2:39]. Thenthat next kingdom, the belly and thighs of brass, that’s
the kingdom of the Greeks. Thenthat next kingdom, the kingdom made out
of iron, strong as iron – divided into two parts – that’s the kingdom of the
Romans [Daniel 2:40-41].
And then the feet and the toes made out of iron and of clay, that’s the divided
world that we see today: some of it strong, some of it weak, some ofit like
iron, some of it like clay [Daniel2:42-43]– a greatstrong nation like the
United States, like Russia, a weak little nation like Uruguay, or Nicaragua, or
Afghanistan. And that’s the way that this world is going to be until, until –
and Danielsaw a greatstone cut out of the mountains without hands, and it
smote that image on the feet;it smote him on the toes [Daniel2:34-35]. It’s
the prophecy of God, so said Daniel[Daniel 2:45].
He said: "That’s the kingdom of heaventhat’ll be setup and that’ll never be
destroyed, and it came and it smote that image down there on its toes, on its
feet. When the course of this time runs out, the times of the Gentiles, there is
coming out of glory the greatDeliverer, and He’s going to smite these Gentile
nations and judge them and setup in this earth a kingdom of God that shall
never be destroyed" [from Daniel2:34, 44-45]. That’s whatDaniel said. He
said those exactwords. That’s the course of the times of the Gentiles.
Now, the end of that time is also revealedto Daniel. In the ninth chapter of
the Book ofDaniel is one of the most beautiful and one of the most interesting
of all of the chapters in the Bible. It starts off like this:

In the first year of Darius the Mede . . .
In the first year of his reign I Daniel, understood by books the number of the
years, whereofthe word of the Lord came to Jeremiahthe prophet, that He
would accomplishseventy years in the desolations ofJerusalem.
And I setmy face unto the Lord God, to pray, to supplicate with fasting and
sackclothand ashes:
And I prayed, saying . . .
[Daniel 9:1-4]
Now, let me tell you what that is. When you read that, oh, you just read it.
This is what that is: "In the first year of Darius the Mede" – that was the
year that Babylonia fell; that was the year that the Persians came and
overwhelmed that greatand ancient city. So that year is 538 BC.
In 538 BC, in the first year of the fall of Babylon – the first year of Darius the
Mede who was an underling of Cyrus who conquered the whole empire – "In
that year," Danielsays, "I was reading the prophet Jeremiah" [Daniel 9:1-2].
And this was where he was reading. In the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of
Jeremiah, this is what Daniel was reading. The eighth, the ninth, and the
tenth verses, I read:

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, "Becauseye have not heard My words,
Behold, I will send and take . . . Nebuchadnezzarthe king of Babylon, My
servant, and will bring him againstthis land, and againstthe inhabitants
thereof . . .
[Jeremiah 25:8-9]
Now the eleventh verse: "And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an
astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years" – seventyyears [Jeremiah25:11]. Jeremiahprophesies that the king of
Babylon is coming againstPalestine, thatthe king of Babylon will overwhelm
the country, and that the country will be desolate seventyyears. But after
seventy years, the people will have opportunity to go back home againand to
re-inhabit Jerusalemin their native land.
So now look at this. In the first year of Darius the Mede, in that year, Daniel
understood by reading Jeremiah that God would accomplishseventyyears in
the desolations ofJerusalem. So Danielwas takencaptive in 606 BC, and
when he figured it out, sixty-eight years had passed. So there was just two
years remaining according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. There were just two
years remaining. Between538 BC when Danielis reading this and 606 BC
when Daniel was takencaptive, sixty-eight years have passedand there’s just
two years remaining.

So Daniel, reading that prophecy in the Bible, Daniel came to understand that
the day when the people would be at liberty to go back home againand to
build Jerusalemagainand to build the temple again, that that day was almost
at hand [Daniel 9:2]. So Danielset his face to the Lord to seek by prayer and
supplication with fasting and sackclothand ashes, andhe prayed [Daniel 9:3-
4]. And my dear brethren, this is one of the most beautiful of all of the
prayers in the Bible – Daniel’s prayer, reading the prophecy of Jeremiah and
knowing that the time was at hand when the people could go back to
Jerusalem. Look atit for just a moment:
O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, IbeseechThee, letThine anger
and Thy fury be turned awayfrom Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain . .
.
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his
supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is
desolate, forthe Lord’s sake.
O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our
desolations, andthe city which is calledby Thy name: for we do not present
our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great
mercies.
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearkenand do; defer not, for Thine
own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are calledby Thy name.

[Daniel 9:16-19]
Did you ever hear a man pray like that? That’s Daniel’s prayer when he read
in the prophet Jeremiahthat after seventy years they could go back home and
sixty-eight years had alreadypassed. I tell you, when you’re working with
God, when you’re working with the Book, the Lord sees that future just like
we can see the past. And the Lord writes it out, reveals it, puts it in His Book,
and you cansee it.
Now, a remarkable thing happened, a remarkable thing. While he was
speaking in prayer, Gabriel came – the angel Gabriel[Daniel 9:21]. And
Gabriel said to Daniel, now the twenty-fourth verse:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to
finish the transgression, to make an end of sins . . . to bring in everlasting
righteousness, andto set up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the
most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalemuntil Messiahthe Prince
shall be seven weeks, andthreescore and two weeks:then it will be built . . .
After threescore and two weeks Messiahwillbe cut off . . .

[Daniel 9:24-26]
Twenty-seven:"And he shall confirm the covenantwith many for one week:
and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease .
. . " [Daniel9:27].
Now I have just a moment. That’s one of the profoundest prophecies in all
God’s Word.
Gabriel says to Daniel: "There are seventy weeks determinedupon thy
people" [Daniel 9:24]. The Hebrew is "seventysevens," andalmost all of your
translators will translate that "seventyweeksofyears" – eachday a year; one
week, sevenyears – "seventysevens."
"There are seventy weeks ofyears that are determined upon thy people, until
this greatfinal kingdom of everlasting righteousness, the kingdom of heaven is
come in" [Daniel 9:24]. God says it’s seventy sevens upon the Jewishpeople
until that final kingdom comes in. That is an exactchronologicaltime that
God sets.
Now He does something strange in it, and we’ll see whatthat is. He divides
that into a week – into sevensevens, a week ofseven, sevenweeks and
threescore andtwo weeks,sixty-two weeks, whichmakes sixty-nine [Daniel
9:25]. And then he sets one week off by itself: the seventiethweek is down
here by itself [Daniel 9:27]. He tells Danielthat after sixty-nine weeks,

Messiahis going to come and be cut off [Daniel 9:26]. Well, when you figure
that out, that’s either 483 years, 365 days to the year, or 475 years if, like the
Bible takes, 360 days to a year. And when you figure it out, that’s the exact
time that the Lord Jesus came and when He was cut off.
Now, there remains one other week, this seventieth week [Daniel9:27]. Well
what is this strange thing? All right, this is it. This is it. In the third chapter
of the Book ofEphesians, Paulsays – now listen to the great prophecy and
Word of the Lord: "Forwhich cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christfor
you Gentiles, if you’ve heard of the grace of God given to me: How that by
revelation He made known unto me the mystery . . . " [Ephesians 3:1-3].
Now the word "mystery" in the Bible is not an enigma. It’s not something
you can’t – not a riddle. A mystery is something that was hidden in days past.
The prophets didn’t know it. Nobody knew it in days past. God hid it and
revealedit to us today. That’s what he means by a mystery: "How that by
revelation He made known unto me the mystery . . . Which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men" – the prophets never saw it. The
prophets never heard of it – "as it is now revealedunto His holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the
same body, and partakers ofHis promise in Christ by the gospel" [Ephesians
3:3, 5-6]. The mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God: that the Gentiles were to be made fellow heirs in the greatKingdom of
the Lord God of heaven.
So what happened is this. There was no prophet. There was no seer. There
was never any revelationmade in days past of this greatchurch age, this day
of grace, this period of the Holy Spirit. It was a mystery, says the apostle
Paul, and it was not made known unto the sons of men, but it is just now
revealedto the holy apostles and prophets that the Gentiles should be made a
part of His everlasting kingdom [Ephesians 3:3, 5-6]. And the mystery which

from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, this whole preaching of
this age – the course of this age – they never saw. Theynever – it was never
revealedto them. It was a mystery hid in the heart and the mind of God.
So when you turn back here to this prophecy in the ninth chapter of the Book
of Daniel, there is betweenthat sixty-nine weeks whenMessiahcame and was
cut off and that final seventiethweek, there is this greatperiod. We don’t
know how long it is. It’s called "the times of the Gentiles." It’s called"until
the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" [Luke 21:24].
There is a period of time betweenthe time when Messiahwas cutoff – when
Jesus died, when Israelrejectedtheir rightful King – and the time of that final
week whenGod brings to pass all of those things written in the Revelation.
There is this indetermined period of time in which we now live and in which
we now preach the gospeland in which we have the opportunity to bring all
the Gentiles of the world into the greatKingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now how long is that kingdom? I mean, how long is this era? We do not
know. But it will end when the lastone that God has electedto be saved, when
the lastone comes in. When the body of Christ is made up, when the last one
to be savedis saved, when the body of Christ is complete, then that end time
comes: the church is calledup to God, the resurrection, the changing of our
bodies, the transfiguration of all of God’s children.
That’s why – that’s what was meant in the first chapter of the Book of Acts
when the disciples came to the Lord Jesus and said: "When they were come
together, they askedofHim, saying, ‘Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore
againthe kingdom to Israel?’" [Acts 1:6] And the Lord said, "It is not for
you to know the times or the seasons, whichthe Father hath put in His own
power" [Acts 1:7].

When is it that this thing is given back to Israel? When is it that the
seventieth week is fulfilled? When is this greatand final consummation of the
work of the Lord, the seventy weeks thatare determined upon the people of
God?
It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons whenGod will start dealing
with Israelagain. God’s clock is stoppedfor Israel. God’s clock is running
now for us, for the whole world, for all of the Gentiles and all of the peoples of
all the nations of creation.
When that time ends, when the body’s complete, then God shall deal again
with Israel. If you remember last Sunday, they’ll be going back to Palestine.
They’ll be going back in unbelief. They’ll be going back unconverted [Ezekiel
22:17-22, 36:24-28]. In that [seventieth] week, in the middle of it, whole lot of
things God tells us about how Israelis going to be saved. Oh, these things,
these things in the hands and in the purposes of the Lord God!
Now we sing a stanza of a hymn, and while we sing one stanza of a hymn,
somebody you, somebody you give his heart to the Lord, put his life in the
fellowship of the church. While we sing the song, into the aisle, down here to
the pastor:"Pastor, here I come, and here I am." On the first note of that
first stanza, "My heart is set. I have decided in my soul," giving your life in
trust to Christ or coming into the fellowship of the church, while we sing this
stanza, you come.
JESUS, JEW, AND JERUSALEM

Dr. W.A. Criswell
Matthew 23:37-39
2-2-75 8:15 a.m.
This is the First BaptistChurch in Dallas, and we welcome you on radio to
share with us this holy service. As the announcement was made, we are
beginning our annual conference onprophecy, and the subject of the pastor’s
messagetodayis Jesus, Jew and Jerusalem. Justas a backgroundtext, not to
be expounded as such, but as a backgroundagainstwhich the address is
prepared, I read from the concluding verses of the twenty-third chapter of
Matthew:
not!

For I sayunto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessedis
He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
[Matthew 23:37-39]
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem”;this is the name of the most famous city in the
world, and it is locatedon the most famous site in the world. Even in the first
century of the RomanEmpire, Pliny said that the most famous city of the
Orient was Jerusalem. Itis the city of the greatKing David. It is the city of
the mighty prophets such as Isaiah. It is the city of the holy sanctuary, the
temple of Solomon. It is the city of the Savior;there so much of His ministry
was bestowedin blessing upon the people. There He was crucified [Matthew
27:32-50]. There was He buried [Matthew 27:57-61]. There was He raised
from among the dead [Matthew 28:5-7], and from there did He ascendinto
heaven [Acts 1:9-10].
It is the city of the quickening and endowment of the church: it is the city of
Pentecost[Acts 2:1-42]and of the upper room [Acts 1:12-26];it is the city of
the greatfirst councilof the churches of our Lord in the fifteenth chapter of
the Book ofActs [Acts 15:1-29]. And it is the city where Paul came to bring
his messageofrelief and encouragementto the saints [Romans 15:26], and
from which city he was arrestedand, as a man condemned before the law,
appealedto Caesar[Acts 25:10-12]and was taken to the eternal city of Rome
[Acts 27-28].
The name and locationof Jerusalemare ever interesting. The first reference
to it in secularhistory is the Telel-Amarna tablets; Amarna, the name of one
of the ancient capitals of Egypt. And in those cuneiform tablets, about three
hundred fifty in number, some of them are from a city in Canaancalled
Yerushalim, the city of Salem, the city of peace. The governorof the city is

making appealto the Pharaohs for help because he is being overrun by the
people roundabout.
The first reference we have in the Holy Scriptures to the city is about five
hundred or six hundred years before that. In the days of Abraham, the
ancient patriarch in the city of Salem, the city of peace, there made obeisance
before the priest, and that is the first time the word priest is used in the Bible
[Genesis 14:18]. Abraham made obeisancebefore the priest of the MostHigh
God named Melchizedek [Genesis14:20]. Before the nation of Israelwas
founded, for Israel is the name of Jacob, and this is Abraham— before the
name of Israel came to be known as a nation of God, and almosta thousand
years before David won the site [1 Chronicles 11:4-9], was there a witness to
the true God in Salem, the city of peace, Jerusalem[Genesis 14:18-20].
The locationof the city is interesting. It is thirty-three miles eastof the
Mediterranean, fourteen miles westof the DeadSea, nineteenmiles north of
Hebron, thirty miles south of Samaria, on a high ridge two thousand five
hundred fifty feet above the sea. You never come to Jerusalemfrom afar.
Whateverdirection, in whateverdirection you approachit, it suddenly bursts
upon your vision. “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord
is round about them that love Him” [Psalm 125:2].
Oh, “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” is Jerusalem[Psalm
48:2]. It has always been a city of walls, and these walls are perforated by
famous gates. Downhere on the southeast, the Dung Gate; beyond, the
Fountain Gate; beyond on the eastside, the Golden Gate which now is closed.
Beyond still on the east, the Gate of Stephen’s, St. Stephen’s, out of which he
is supposed to have been draggedto martyrdom [Acts 7:58-60]. Turning the
corner, now on the north wall, the Gate of Herod; in the center, the famous
Damascus Gate;up to the end toward the north, the New Gate. Thenturning

on the westernside, perforated by one gate, the Jaffa Gate, out of which the
people pour down the road to TelAviv and to the Mediterranean.
The history of the city is like a history of the Lord and of the human race. It
is called, in the days of Abraham and in the twenty-secondchapter of Genesis,
Mt. Moriah. And to that mount, the third day’s journey from Hebron, did
Abraham bring his son Isaac that he might offer him unto God [Genesis 22:1-
12]; a type and a picture of the posterity and seedof Abraham offeredunto
God. The first time we know it by the name of Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
Yerushalim, the city of peace, Jerusalem, is in Joshua when the Jebusites
possessit and the children of Israel were not able to take it from them [Joshua
15:63].
Then as the days pass, David is crownedking of Israel [1 Chronicles 10:14,
11:3], and Joab, the nephew of David, is promised the captainship of the host
of the people of Godif he is able to win it. And Joabtakes by a ruse the city of
the Jebusites calledJerusalem, andthere does David make his capital[1
Chronicles 11:6].
As the days pass, because ofa great sin againstGod [2 Samuel 24:1-10], there
is a judgment upon the land, and David sees the angel of visitation and wrath
standing with sword drawn above Jerusalem[2 Samuel 24:16-17;1
Chronicles 21:16]. Coming before God in entreaty, in confession, he pleads
for the sparing of the people, and God says to David, “Go to the threshing
floor of Araunah, and there build an altar” and offer sacrifice, expiation,
propitiation in behalf of the people [2 Samuel 24:18-21]. And on that Mt.
Moriah, the top of which Araunah possessedas a threshing floor, there did
David, buying it, offer sacrifice unto God, that the wrath of the Lord against
sin might be appeased[2 Samuel 24:22-25].

And on that famous place, Mt. Moriah, where Abraham offered up Isaac
[Genesis 22:1-12], where David built an altar in expiation of sin [2 Samuel
24:22-25], there did Solomonbuild his beautiful temple [2 Chronicles 3:1].
After the death of Solomon, in the next three hundred years, the city was
pillaged eight different times. Finally, in the days of Jeremiah preaching in
the city, calling the king and the nation to repentance, they scoffedatthe voice
of the word of the Lord [Jeremiah38:1-6].
And Nebuchadnezzarcame in 605 BC [Daniel 1:1-6] and carried awayDaniel
and some of the choicestseedof the royal family. Jeremiah the prophet lifted
up his voice and cried, “Repent. Getright with God” [Jeremiah 3:12-14].
And the people mockedat the voice of the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar came
back in 598 BC [2 Kings 24:10-16]and took awayEzekieland many of the
flowerof the priesthood and of the royal family [Ezekiel1:1-2].
Jeremiahlifted up his voice and cried, “Repent. Getright with God”
[Jeremiah 3:12-14]. And the people mocked. Theyeven took the prophet of
the Lord and put him in a miry pit to die of exhaustionand exposure
[Jeremiah 38:6]. And Nebuchadnezzarcame in 587 BC [Jeremiah 52:4-30;2
Kings 25:1-21]and he didn’t need to return anymore. The city was destroyed,
the walls were brokendown, and the temple laid in utter and devastating ruin.
After seventy years of Babylonian captivity, in 536 under the mandate of
Cyrus the Persian, who had overwhelmed the Babylonian kingdom, there
returned Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest with about forty-two
thousand straggling pilgrims who returned to rebuild the temple of God [Ezra
1:1-2:64]. Then about sixty years later Nehemiah, the prime minister of the
PersianEmpire, and Ezra the scribe, the priest, returned and brought to the
struggling pilgrims a greatspirit of revival and hope, looking up to God
[Nehemiah 8:4-9]. And under the prophets of Haggaiand Zechariah, they

completed the rebuilding of the temple [Ezra 5:1-2], and the house of worship
rose to be the glory of the flowerof the faith of the people of the Lord.
Then as the years passed, in the interbiblical period, Alexander the Great,
marching over the whole civilized world, came up to destroy Jerusalem. But
God in a vision spoke to the high priest, Jedaiah, and in a dream God in the
years past had spokento Alexander the Great. And in keeping with the vision
of the Lord, the high priest Jedaiah, dressedin all of his beautiful robes—the
miter, the ephod, the bells and pomegranates, the high priestly breastplate
with the twelve stones—andfollowedby the priests dressedin white, they
opened the gates of the city and marched out to meet Alexander.
The greatconqueror was overwhelmedby the spirit and the reverence, the
deference, the holiness of these men of God. And going up with them to the
temple of the Lord, he worshipedthere in the name of Jehovah, and said to
the high priest, that in a dream years before he had seenjust such a priest,
just such a procession, just such a temple, and in the name of God he bowed
down and worshiped, thus sparing the city the edge of the sword.
After the death of Alexander in 320 BC, the kingdom of the north, the
Seleucids, the kingdom of the south, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids in Syria, the
Ptolemies in Egypt used it as a football, warring betweenthem. And finally
the Seleucids prevailed, and in 169 BC one of them named Antiochus
Epiphanes, tried to force the people to worship god calledJupiter, and he
renamed the temple in the name of Jupiter.
There was a priest at Modein named Mattathias who had severalsons, one
named Judas, calledthe Hammer, Judas Maccabeus. And warring against
the Syrian king, on the twenty-fifth day of December, they won their liberty.
In desecrating the temple, Antiochus had offereda pig, a swine on the holy

altar and took its juice and spread it all over the temple to defile it. The first
thing that Maccabeans did was to reconsecrateand cleanse their holy house of
worship, on the twenty-fifth day of what we would callDecember;celebrated
by our Jewishpeople and friends and compatriots and worshipers of the true
God, celebratedas the FeastofLights, the Feastof Dedication[John 10:22],
what they call Hanukkah.
Then in the warring, differing groups of the Maccabees, in 64 BC, Pompey the
Roman emperor seizedthe city and made it a part of the Roman Empire.
And in 40 BC, the Idumean Herod, calledsometimes Herod the Great, became
king, vassalking of the kingdom and of Jerusalemunder the appointment of
the RomanCaesars.
Then in 4 BC in a little town nearby, just about four or five miles away, the
Savior of the world was born [Matthew 1:20-2:1]. Into Jerusalemdid the
parents take Him to present Him before God in the holy temple [Luke 2:41-
49].
In the ministry of our Lord, four times does the Lord speak of Jerusalem, and
all four times it is with infinite sadness. The Lord said, “It is not possible that
a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem” [Luke 13:33]. And He turned His
face steadfastlyto go to Jerusalem to die [Luke 9:51]. The secondtime the
Lord mentions it is in the pitiful event that I read as a backgroundtext. “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem. . . Behold, thy house is left unto thee desolate”
[Matthew 23:37-38]. The third time the Lord mentions it is when coming to
the brow of Olivet and looking down on the city, He bursts into tears. He
weeps, saying, “If only thou hadst known the day of thy peace! but it is hid
from thine eyes” [Luke 19:41-42].

And the last time the Lord mentions it is in the great apocalyptic discourse.
“Jerusalemshallbe trodden down by the Gentiles, until the days of the
Gentiles be fulfilled” [Luke 21:24]. The prophecy was made that the city
would be destroyed, and in 70 AD Vespasiancame with his Roman legions to
quell a rebellion. Calledback to be crownedas the Caesarofthe Roman
Empire, he left the subjugation of the state, the rebellious state, to his son
Titus; who, bringing his legions againstthe Holy City, destroyed it utterly,
took the people into captivity, and made the population a slave state scattered
in the Diaspora overthe empire.
The Jew was forbidden even to approach the holy site after the Romans
renamed JerusalemCapitolina. But after the conversionof Constantine,
Helena, the mother of Constantine, a British girl that Constantius, the general
of the Roman army, had met in Britain—Helena was a devout Christian, and
under Constantine and under the aegis of Helena it was made a Christian city.
And Christians by the thousands made pilgrimages there every year and by
the scoresofthousands inhabited the city.
But in 637 Omar, the Mohammedan Muslim caliph, conquered the city,
putting it to the edge of the sword. And for the first time the Dome of the
Rock, a Muslim shrine, was built on Mt. Moriah, Araunah’s flat threshing
floor [2 Samuel 24:22-25], the site of the holy temple of God [2 Chronicles
3:1]. For the Muslim had to persuade himself somehow that Mohammed had
something to do with Jerusalem. He was never there, not in his life, but they
invented the fiction that Mohammed was miraculously carried to Jerusalem
and from that place he was takenup into heaven on a white steed. So they
made of it, fictitiously, a shrine of the Islamic religion.
As the days passed, the Crusaders came in 1100 AD, and for a hundred years
won back the holy sepulcher of our Lord and the Holy City to the Christian
faith. But a hundred years later, in about 1200, Saladin, the Arab, one of the

most able and courageous generalsin history, overwhelmed the Crusaders
and made it an Arab city, a Muslim city.
In about 1500 the Ottoman Turks won it and ruled over it, making it a part of
the Ottoman Empire until 1917, whenGeneralAllenby of the Allied forces,
having overwhelmedthe Ottomans, the Turks, enteredinto the holy gates,
and there opened the city for all of the pilgrims who thus would choose to
worship God in that holy place.
Then as the days went by, the British mandate, after GeneralAllenby, became
increasinglydifficult, and in May 1948 the British gave up the mandate of
Palestine. Warimmediately broke out, and the state of Israel, for the first
time in almost two thousand years, the state of Israel was proclaimeda viable
people and recognizedby sixty-five nations of the earth, including the United
States of America.
Then, of course, the conflict that has raged; that war of June in 1967, Iwas
there right after that war. On the top of the hotel of Mt. Olivet, eating lunch
with the minister of tourism and with their most gifted guide, Aaron Braun,
the minister of tourism; IsraelSolkovitz, their finest guide; and Aaron Braun
said, “ “Myfather and my grandfather used to tell me about going up to the
WesternWall, the Wailing Wall, and there touching the stones ofSolomon.
But it never was possible for me because we were forbidden from that part of
the city. And I thought it would never be my privilege and my part to stand in
that holy place and to touch those sacredstones.”
Then, he said, the war broke out, and within a week, within a week the two of
them, Aaron Braun and IsraelSolkovitz, arm in arm, walkeddown to the
WesternWall and stoodthere in the most holy place known to our Jewish
people and touched the walls of the temple.

The story, Yom Kippur and its conflict, brings us to this present moment of
Jerusalemin prophecy. What shall it be in the years that are yet to unfold
before us? Jerusalemhas ever been a subject of the prophecy of God. For
example, in the twelfth chapter of the Book ofDeuteronomy, six times in that
one chapter does the Lord say there shall be a place Godwill choose in the
future to put His name there, for sacrificesto be offered in His name there,
and for the people to be gatheredin prayer there [Deuteronomy 12:5-27].
And that place prophesied in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy, that half
dozen times, came to be known to us as Yerushalim, Jerusalem, the city of
peace [1 Kings 9:3].
When it was shut up by Sennacherib, the bitter Assyrian, having conquered
all of the land, the prophet Isaiah was sentto Hezekiahthe king, who was on
his face before God pleading for God’s intervention in the deliverance of the
city [Isaiah37:14-20]. Isaiahwas sentby the Lord God to Hezekiah, saying,
“Sennacheribshall in no wise take it or enter it.” And that night an angelof
the Lord passedoverthe hosts of the Assyrians, and the next morning he
counted one hundred eighty-five thousand dead corpses [Isaiah37:21-36].
It was the prophecy that the city would be destroyedby Nebuchadnezzar
[Ezekiel9:1-11]. It was the prophecy that it would be desecratedby
Antiochus Epiphanes [Daniel 11:31]. It was the prophecy that it would be
destroyedby the Roman legions in 70 AD [Matthew 24:1-2]. And it was the
prophecy of Zechariah, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
unto all the people, and in that day will I make Jerusalema burdensome stone
for all people” [Zechariah 12:2-3]. And this is the day in which we live.
What do you do with Jerusalem? It is the heart of contention, and the United
Nations and the nations of the earth offer their solutions. Shall it be made an
international city? Shall it be returned to the Arabs? Shall we stand by the

people of God, the Jewishpeople, and let it be their capital as it was made by
David the greatking? [1 Chronicles 11:6]. Jerusalemis a burdensome stone
for all people. This is the prophecy of God, “a cup of trembling in the hands
of the nations” [Zechariah 12:2]. What shall come in the future as God
portrays it before us?
It will be in Jerusalemthat the nations of the earth find their focalpoint in
final confrontation. You cannotescape the headlines of the Middle East.
“But I don’t believe in prophecy, and I don’t believe in God, and I don’t
believe in the Holy Scriptures.” Justread the newspapers;Godsays that,
there, will come the consummation of the age and the denouement of all
civilization; God says, there, and howeverwe may try to rivet our attention on
Peking, or Moscow, orWashington, or London, or Paris, Godsays, “there!”
And the attention of the world, and the wealthof the world, and the
confrontation of the world is increasinglygathering there, even as Godsaid.
And in that place, Megiddo, Armageddon here [Revelation16:16], and
Bozrah, from which God comes with His garments stained in blood [Isaiah
63:1], a thousand six hundred furlongs with the blood up to the bridles of the
horses [Revelation14:20], in the heart of it is the holy city of Jerusalem. And
in the midst of that greatconflict when the nations of the world are gathered
in the Middle East, there does God make intervention, and Christ comes in
the nineteenth chapter of the Book ofthe Revelation[Revelation19:11-16].
“And His feet shall stand in that glorious, consummating day upon the Mount
of Olives, which is before Jerusalemon the east” [Zechariah14:4]. And the
city, by the prophecy of the Lord, will be cleansed[Isaiah4:4-6]. All
unrighteousness and all uncleanness willbe takenout of it [Revelation21:27].
“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion” [Psalm
48:2]. And there the greatKing will build His throne, and thither shall the
nations of the earth come, there to be instructed in the way of the Lord, and
there to be blessedby the hands of our coming King [Revelation21:24-26].

This is the millennial prophecies of the Holy Scriptures when Messiah, Christ
the Lord, shall come and bring peace to the world [Micah 4:3-4]: “His name
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace.” [Isaiah9:6]
“Prayfor the peace of Jerusalem:they shall prosper that love thee” [Psalm
122:6]. There is no peace outside of the Prince, no hope outside of God, no
future apart from His keeping hands.
And now the consummation and end of the age:there shall be a rebellion
when Satan is loosedout of the abyss in which he is chained for a thousand
years [Revelation20:7-10]. And in that awesome rebellion, there is the final
cleansing of the whole heavens and the whole earth [Revelation20:11-21:2].
And in that cleansing by fire [2 Peter3:10-13], that rejuvenation by fire, when
all that is ugly and blasphemous, all that is wrong and hurtful, when it is
takenawayand God recreates the heavens and the earth, there shall come out
of heaven, down from heaven, the beautiful and holy city of God, where our
people are gathering, when God’s redeemed, one by one, are translated to
heaven [Revelation21:1-7].
And when the final one is translated and the last martyr has laid down his
life, and the lastsaint of Godhas died, and all of God’s children are in that
beautiful city, it shall come down from God out of heaven to this earth, our
final and eternalhome, and that city is calledthe New Jerusalem[Revelation
21:2]. Godis our helper, and our strength, our shield, and our refuge, our
Savior, our coming and eternal King. And His throne and His palace will be
in Jerusalem[Revelation21:9-11, 22-27, Revelation22:1-3].
Our time is far spent. In this moment we stand to sing our hymn of appeal,
and while our people pray and wait, if the Spirit of God has spokento you,
does God saya word to you? If He does, would you answerwith your life?
“Here am I, pastor. The Spirit has knockedat the door of my heart, and I’m
coming. This is my life, it is God’s. These are my children, my wife, our

home; we belong to the Lord, a people of the Lord. I’m accepting Him as my
Savior [Romans 10:9-10], and here I am. I want to be baptized. Here I
come.” Or, “I want to join the communion and fellowshipof the saints, and
here I am.” In this moment when we stand to sing the appeal, on the first note
of that first stanza, come. If in the lastrow on the topmost balcony, there is
time and to spare, come. Come, while we stand and while we sing.
JOHN MACARTHUR
The Terrors of the Great Tribulation, Part1
Sermons Luke 21:20–24 42-260 Nov18, 2007
A + A - RESET
Let’s open our Bibles to Luke chapter 21, we are confrontedwith words from
the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ which open up a huge subject in regardto the
future prophecy concerning end time.
Now wheneveryou talk about the prophecies concerning the end time, you’re
talking about a vast, vasttheme. There are Old Testamentbooks that sweep
us into the end times, written by the prophets of old. There are New
Testamentmessagesgivenby our Lord that look to the end times. There are
writings by the writer of the epistles in the New Testamentthat look to the end
of the age. And then there is the massive book of Revelationwhich gives a
series ofvisions that John the Apostle received while in exile on the island of
Patmos that have to do with the end of human history.
All of that simply to say, in a generalsense, the end of human history has
already been written. There are no surprises to God and there are no
surprises to those who understand what God has revealed. God has given us
in His Word an understanding of the end if we take the Scripture at face

value. And, in fact, in Luke 21 the Lord Jesus Himself is giving a message,a
sermon to His disciples on the future. And it comes at a most ironic moment.
Preciselyduring the week when He will be crucified, which is just a few hours
away, it is on the Wednesdayof that PassionWeek andHe will die on Friday,
it is on the Wednesdaywhen the people of Israeland the leaders of Israel have
finally determined that He is in fact not the Messiah, whenthey have
determined that He is not from God, He is certainly not God, you can say it is
at the very high point of their rejectionof Jesus Christthat He walks out of
the temple with His disciples following, sits down on the Mount of Olives and
tells them the future. What an irony that is. When the populous and the
leaders have determined that He is not God, He then immediately does what
only God can do, describes the future. In fact, He describes the future in a
sweeping fashionthrough all of remaining history to the final culmination
which will be His own return in SecondComing glory, which becomes the
pinnacle of this message. His Secondcoming spokenof in verse 27 of Luke 21.
Here is that irony, that the one they have determined does not represent God
is not God, does not know God, is in fact satanic, is the one who can not only
tell the future but the one who having createdthe world and sustaining the
world will be the very one to write its history and bring it to its
consummation. And what our Lord says about the future is horrendous.
According to the Lord Jesus, the future for this world and its inhabitants is
very, very tragic. It is much worse than any environmentalist imagines. It is
much worse than any scientistcould everimagine in any scheme that he could
concoctonthe basis of selectinformation. It is far worse than any educator
could imagine, any politician could imagine, or any religious leadercould
imagine. We are not headed toward some humanly engineeredutopia. We are
not on the wayto an age of peace and tranquility. It’s hard living in this world
today and it’s getting harder, and it will continue until it becomes so hard that
it will be worse than it’s ever been. All history has been a battle againstthe
effects of sin, and the effects of the curse on humanity and on creationbrought
by God because ofsin. Jesus said, “I’m going to die, I’m going to rise again,
I’m going to pay the penalty for sin and then I’m going awayand while I’m
gone, things will getworse.” He says in verse 8 in this message,“Seeto it that

you be not misled. Many will come in My name saying, ‘I am He and the time
is at hand.’ Do not go after them.”
The first thing we talk about is Jesus says in the period betweenHis first and
secondcoming, the period in which we now live. There will be dominating
deception...deception. A false Christianity that will outstrip the real
Christianity. There will be more false Christians than true ones. There will be
more false representatives ofJesus Christ than true representatives ofJesus
Christ and they will accumulate and escalate until finally the lastform of
Christian apostasytakes shape in the time to come called the Tribulation. And
we lookedat that. In the time of the Tribulation yet to come, right before
Jesus returns, there will be a flurry of false Messiahs and false prophets
plying their deceptionacross the globe. So this is an age characterizedby
increasing, escalating religious deception. This is true, we all know it, we all
see it.
Secondly, our Lord said disasteris to be expected, verse 9, “You’ll hear of
wars and disturbances.” He defines them further in verses 10 and 11, “The
wars and disturbances involve nations rising againstnation, kingdom against
kingdom, globalwar and conflict will characterize this time.” There will also
be natural disasters, greatearthquakes,various plagues, famines, terrors
which would encompass everything that we talkedabout such as fire storms
and tsunamis and tidal waves and any other volcanic eruption, etc., etc., not
included in earthquakes, famines and plagues. And there will be greatsigns
from heaven, hurricanes and tornados, etc., etc., etc. And the world will be
characterizedthen by religious deceptionand by natural disaster. And we
have seenthat, it is true, it is the way it is in the world. And as the earth winds
down, as the secondlaw of thermodynamics, the law of entropy that all things
are breaking down, comes to its fulfillment, things disintegrate and this world
becomes more susceptible to these kinds of disasters and tragedies.
Thirdly, He says, the distress of persecutionwill come. “Before allthese
things, they will lay their hands on you, you who profess to follow Me. They
will persecute you, delivering you to synagoguesand prisons.” That was the
Jewishpersecution. “Bringing you before kings and governors.” That’s the
Gentile persecution. “All for My namesake. It will leadto an opportunity for

your testimony, so make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend
yourselves for I will give you an utterance and wisdom which none of your
opponents will be able to resistor refute, but you will be delivered up by
parents and brothers and relatives and friends and they will put some of you
to death and you will be hated by all on accountof My name.” And I told you
some have counted as many as 70 million professing Christians having been
martyred since Jesus said these words until now.
This period of time betweenthe two comings of Christ, characterizedby
religious deception, by natural catastrophe and disaster, and by persecutionof
the people of God. These are the realities of history. They are facts of history.
Jesus saidthis was how it would be and this is exactly how it would be and
how it is. And, of course, you remember the disciples expectedthe Messiahto
come and setup the Kingdom. This is very opposite of what they expected.
They had no idea of two comings with an interval in between. Jesus hadto
show them that, tell them that and then actually go back to heavenin His
ascensionand we wait for Him to return. But this is life in our world until He
comes. And it’s not getting better, it is getting worse.
And as I pointed out to you when we went through those verses and we’ve
already gone through verses 8 through 19, the worstform of religious
deceptioncomes in the lastseven years and the last three and a half in
particular, before Christ returns to set up His Kingdom and to judge, the
worstnatural catastrophes happenin that same period of time yet in the
future and the worstform of persecutionas well. So these things at their
maximum level will occur in the time known as the Time of Tribulation. In
fact, that is precisely what our Lord said in this same message.Remember
now, the words that Luke records are not all that Jesus saidon this occasion
on the Mount of Olives when He spoke of His return and the time in between.
Mark 13 records His words and so does Matthew 24. And in Matthew 24 we
are reminded that there will be a time that is worse than any time in the
history of the world. There has never been a time like the time of Tribulation
that is to come in the past, and there never will be a time like it in the future.
It is the worstof all times.

Verse 21, Matthew 24, “There will be a Great Tribulation such as has not
occurredsince the beginning of the world till now, nor ever shall.” And in that
time, all of these things, deception, disasterand persecution, reachtheir
pinnacle.
Now our Lord also says that when they begin, they are the beginning of birth
pains. Matthew 24:8, the beginning of birth pains. Birth pains is a good
illustration to talk about this progressionbecauseeverybody understands
birth pains. There’s an event coming, the birth of a child. It’s an event that
occurs in a moment in time. Prior to that event there are escalating,increasing
pains. It’s a perfectillustration. What Jesus is saying that when He goes, these
things will begin to happen. These are the very early, almost false birth pains.
As you get nearerto the birth of Christ, the birth pains will be real, they will
grow more intense and more intense and more intense at the very end.
For example, when you look at the time of the Tribulation in the book of
Revelation, it is laid out under seven seals. There’s a scrollthat is rolled and
then sealed, and rolled and then sealed, and rolled and then sealed. So it’s
sealedseventimes. That’s the waythey sealeda will. It’s the Title Deed to the
earth, Christ is going to take the Title Deed to the earth, unroll it, take back
the earth from the usurper, Satan. Every time He breaks a seal, another
judgment is released. So youhave the seven-sealjudgments.
When He opens the seventh sealwhich is the last at the end of the period of
sevenyears, out of that seventh sealcomes seventrumpet blasts. Those are
more rapid fire. They all occur at the time of the seventh sealwhich is right at
the end. So you have seventrumpet judgments that come right at the end. Out
of the seventh trumpet comes sevenbowls that are poured out in judgment
and they are even more rapid fire than the trumpets. So you have that same
birth pain intensity escalating in the imagery of sevenseals overa period of
sevenyears, seventrumpets over a period of seven months, and sevenbowls
over a period of days and hours. And then at the end of the bowl judgments,
all judgments are finished, Christ comes, judges the ungodly, and sets up His
earthly Kingdom. The birth pains then give us the idea you have escalating
intensity until the very end when the pains become fierce, leading up to the
very event itself.

These final pains that I just mentioned are described in the book of
Revelation. You see in Revelationplagues, things that Jesus talkedabout,
famines, earthquakes, wars, false Messiahs,false prophets, deadly persecution
of believers. You see all of that in the book of Revelationat an intensity and a
level that the world has never ever experiencedor will experience.
And when you begin to see those, Jesus saidin Matthew 24:33, when you
begin to see them at that level, at that intensity, when you see these things,
know...Matthew24:33...thatHe is near...thatHe is near. We haven’t begun to
see those yet. We know what those will look like because they’re laid out in
detail in the book of Revelation. In Matthew 24:21 Jesus said, “There will be a
greatTribulation.” There is Tribulation now, in this world you shall have
tribulation, John 16:33, but there is coming a Great Tribulation, that
describes that last sevenyears and most particularly the lastthree and a half
of the lastseven. Wickedness willthen be at an all-time high and it will be
expressedopenly and without restraint. The Holy Spirit who restrains evil in
the world will stepaside and let evil run rampant. Satanwill be given the
privilege of releasing demons who are bound in hell so that they cannotescape
but they will be releasedto run rampant over the world in one lastsatanic
dash againstGod and Christ. At the same time that you have sin running
amok, and demons running free, you have God’s wrath systematically
releasedwith deadly force on the entire world and God’s wrath even using
sinners and demons for His ownpurposes.
At the same time you have the gospelbeing preachedto the ends of the earth
by 144 thousand converted Jews, 12 thousandout of eachtribe, Revelation
says, by two witnesseswho literally die in view of the whole world and rise
from the dead and preach the gospelfrom Jerusalem. They’ll be seen, no
doubt, by satellite television all over the world. Then you have an angelflying
in heaven preaching the gospelin the sky so that all the world will be able to
hear. So it will be the worstof times and yet there is a sense in which it will be
the bestof times because that preaching of the gospelby the witnesses, the two
witnesses,the 144 thousand and by all the people who are savedfrom every
tongue and tribe and nation will cause a greatrevival and multitudes will be
convertedto Christ during that time.

And so, in that time of GreatTribulation, there will come an escalationof
judgment that will make it clearthat you are at the end. That is why in the
parallel passagein Matthew 24, in the parallel passagein Mark 13, both Mark
and Matthew inject into the words of Jesus a little sentence, “Letthe reader
understand...let the reader understand. Some people think that prophetic
literature is written to make things incomprehensible. That prophetic
literature is designed to create mystery and confusion. Not at all. Let the
reader understand. You read what this says and you look at what is
happening. I can read about what Jesus said about wars, nations and
kingdoms going againsteachother through human history, false forms of
Christianity, false Messiahs, false prophets. I read about the persecutionof
believers and I say, “I understand. I see it. That’s history. That’s reality.
That’s the way it is.”
And in the future when these things reachthe most intense level of their
agonies, their birth pains, all you have to do is read the Scripture and you will
know exactly what’s going on. Those words are injected by the writer because
the writer of Matthew and the writer of Mark understands that people in the
future will be reading this. It doesn’t saylet the hearer understand. That’s not
something Jesus saidto His disciples at the time, but it’s something that the
Spirit-inspired author says to the future generations who are looking at
history and wondering what’s going on. And He says, “Letthe reader
understand.” You’ll see this unfold before your very eyes.
At that time Matthew 24 says, “Whenthese judgments are released, when
iniquity runs rampant, when believers are persecuted...”And by the way,
when a revival is going on acrossthe world, people are being saved, Israelwill
be saved at that time, there will be a great revival in the city of Jerusalem,
Revelation11, there will be 144 thousand Jews converted, identified in
Revelation7 and 14. Multitudes from the whole world are identified in
Revelation5. Satan will rebel againstthat and bring about the greatest
persecutionin history. That persecutionwill cause some people to defect.
There will be professing false believers in that period who will defect under
the heatof persecution. Others who will defectunder the influence of
lawlessness. Matthew 24, Jesussaid, “Becauseoflawlessnessoriniquity, the

love of many will grow cold.” In other words, they won’t want to abandon
their sin.
So there will be false believers even at that time who will defect. But the true
believers will endure, as we remember from lasttime, verse 19, “By your
endurance you will gain your lives.”
Now how will the readers of the future know when this comes? How will they
know that Jesus is coming soon? What sign? That’s what startedall of this,
remember that? Back in verse 7, what is the sign when the end is coming?
What is the sign of Your coming, as Matthew puts it ? What is the sign of the
end of the age? Whatis the sign, what should we look for to know that it’s
going to happen?
Of course, they thought it would happen then, soon. We’re two thousand
years later, it hasn’t happened. Christ hasn’t establishedHis Kingdom. What
is there to look for? For that generationwho is alive at the very end, what
should they look for? What signs? How do you know when you’re getting to
the end?
Well just imagine that you’re living in the future describedin the book of
Revelation, describedby Daniel, described by our Lord here. You’re living in
the future. Natural disasters are at a fever pitch, far beyond anything
humanity has ever experienced. Persecutionofthe people of God is at its
maximum level. Believers are begin slaughtered. There is persecutionthe likes
of which the world has never seen.
At the same time, there is false religion abounding under the leadershipof the
Antichrist. It’s a very hard word. It’s a world more difficult to live in than any
point in human history. And those true believers are going to be like the
martyrs under the altar saying, “How long, O Lord, how long? How long is
this going to go on because this is way more stress than we can handle? How
can we possibly know when the end is going to come?” If you think it’s
important now, hey...how important will it be then? I’m having a hard time
convincing people that it’s important now because they’re so comfortable. It’s
hard to get a people stirred up about the return of Jesus Christ because
they’re not living in terror.

In that day when the world is living in a condition of terror, how are they
going to know that the end is near? The answerto that comes in verses 20 to
24, and that’s our text. “When you see Jerusalemsurrounded by armies, then
recognize that her desolationis at hand.” That’s the key. When you see
Jerusalemsurrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolationis at
hand.
You say, “Wait, wait, wait. When you see Jerusalemsurrounded by armies?
That’s a very familiar sight.” That has been a familiar sight for a very, very
long time. Certainly 40 years after Jesus said this in 70 A.D., Jerusalem was
surrounded by the Roman army who laid siege to the city of Jerusalemwhich
finally fell in 70 A.D. And when the city of Jerusalemfell in 70 A. D., people
did flee into the mountains, thousands of them fled into the mountains, many
more traveled as refugees to various parts of the world. They were horrible
days. Titus Vespasian, sonof the emperor of Vespasiancame, attackedthe
city and killed people until Josephus says he had no more people to kill and no
more people to plunder. And then Caesarsent orders to demolish the whole
city, flatten it, demolish and flatten the temple and just leave a portion of the
wall, the city wall, and some towers as a testimony to the power of Rome so
that the people would know that it was once sucha formidable place
evidenced by the greatness ofthe walland the towers which was left. And this
would be a testimony to Rome’s greatpower. But apart from leaving that,
Josephus says there was not enough left of the city to make those that came
after believe that it had ever been in inhabited place.
Is that what our Lord was talking about? Was He talking about 70 A.D. here?
I don’t think so. Keep reading. Verse 21, “Then let those who are in Judea flee
to the mountains,” that happened then. “Letthose who are in the midst of the
city depart,” that happened. “Let those who are in the country not enter the
city,” and they didn’t. Then verse 22, “Because these are the days of
vengeance in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”
Wait a minute here. That language does not lend itself to a 70 A.D.
interpretation. These are not the days of vengeance.These are not the events
which cause things which have been written to all be fulfilled. The days of
vengeance, justtake that phrase, that is an Old Testamentexpressionused to

describe the coming time of Tribulation. It is an Old Testamentexpressionto
speak of divine vengeance from God in the end time, the time of Jacob’s
trouble. You read about the days of vengeance in Isaiah 34, 35, 61, 63. Daniel
12:1 speaks of the days of vengeance, Hosea 9, Micah5, Zechariah 12,
Zechariah 14. You’re talking here about the final end, when God’s final
vengeance falls on the ungodly and on human history. The days of vengeance
when all things which are written become fulfilled...that’s a sweeping
statement....sweeping statement. Whenall things which are written become
fulfilled. This is far more than what happened in 70 A.D.
What are we talking about here? What event are we talking about here? Well
some might suggestthe Middle Ages. Some would come along and say, “Well,
the Jews were under siege during the Middle Ages, the first of the Crusades,
1095, the first of the Crusades they came, sackedJerusalemand from then to
the 1500'scontrolover the city of Jerusalemchangedmany, many times, until
finally Sullamon(??)the magnificent, the greatOttomon’s sultan in the early
1500's conqueredJerusalem. And if you were to go there today, the walls that
you see today, the stone walls, the battlements encircling the old city of
Jerusalembelong to the sixteenth century time of Sullamon(??) a visible
reminder that Israelhas been surrounded by armies through its history. Right
there is almost 500 years of it. But you couldn’t call any of those events during
that period of time during the Middle Ages the days of divine vengeance and
the fulfillment of everything that has been written.
Oh, even today someone might say, “Jerusalemis surrounded by armies.” Not
that they are againstthe edges ofthe city wall, but there are armies in
constantreadiness for war surrounding Israelall the time. Ever since they
came back in 1948, declaredthemselves a state, it was immediately after that
that a war of independence left the city of Jerusalemdivided. Jordan
controlling the old city, including the temple mount most of the historic sights,
and that only lastedfor about 20 years till 1967, youremember the Six Days
War. The Six Days War in Israel forces capturedthe old city, reunified all of
Jerusalem. The city came under Jewishcontrol for the first time in centuries.
However, more than 30, 40 years later now, Jerusalemis still surrounded by
enemies. They are at the heart of an IsraeliPalestinianconflict. Arab leaders

worldwide insisting that that land and that city belongs to them and that they
have from God, Allah, a mandate to exterminate the Jews. Jerusalemhas been
surrounded by armies. It is surrounded by armies in a figurative sense right
now. Its political position, as you know, in the Middle Eastis so volatile that at
any moment in time, Israelcould be attackedby any of these massive enemies
that surround it.
Is that what this is talking about? Are we talking about now? Is this it? Are
we there? Are we seeing the fulfillment of this prophecy and Jerusalemis
surrounded by all these Arab nations who are armed to the teeth and gaining
greaterweaponryincluding nuclearweapons to come againstthem? Is that it?
No, no, that’s not it. You say, “Wellwhat is he talking about?” We have to go
to Matthew to answerthe question. Turn to Matthew 24. Matthew records
that our Lord said something even more specific...ourLord said something
even more specific. He said, “Whenyou see Jerusalemsurrounded by armies,
that’s the sign. That’s the signthat the greatpart of the Tribulation is to
begin. That’s the sign that the worsts is coming and it’s the darkestdarkness
before the dawn. And here he takes it a step further. Verse 15, Matthew 24,
“When you see the abomination of desolationwhich was spokenof through
Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place,” and here’s where that phrase
is, “letthe reader understand.” “Thenthose who are in Judea flee to the
mountains,” and He goes through the same series ofwarnings to getout of the
place. “If you’re on the housetop, don’t even go down inside to get your
belongings. If you’re in a field, don’t go back to getyour coat. And woe to
those who are pregnant, those who nurse babies, even as we saw recordedin
Luke, pray that your flight might not be in winter or on a Sabbath. There will
be a Great Tribulation.”
What launches the GreatTribulation at the midpoint of the seven years, the
GreatTribulation is the last half and Daniel points this out even by
numbering the days in chapter 12, as the book of Revelationnumbers the
days. What triggers the last half, the worsthalf, just prior to Christ’s return,
what launches that GreatTribulation is when the armies surround Jerusalem
and there is the committing of what Danielcalls the abomination of
desolation...the abominationof desolation. Jesus is very specific. Jesus then

relates Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolationto the end time.
When you see the abomination of desolation, you know that’s the time. That’s
the end time. Right after that, verse 29, comes the Tribulation, its final form.
The sun is darkened. The moon doesn’t give its light. The stars fall. Then the
sign of the Sonof Man appears in the sky. This is all eschatological. This is all
in the lastdays.
So our Lord is talking about a period in the end of history, when the armies
encamp around Jerusalem. And they encamp around Jerusalemwith the
purpose of desolation. That’s simply a word that means to ruin, to destroy.
They camp around Jerusalemwith a view of coming in and creating
desolation. What specific desolation? The abominationof desolation, says
Matthew. So he fills out our Lord’s words, just exactly what is an
abomination? It is a blasphemy...it is a blasphemy. That’s the meaning of the
word. There is committed at this time a blasphemy.
In fact, an abomination to God is any act of idolatry, anything that
blasphemes His name, His honor, His worship, His glory, His place. Certainly
spiritual uncleanness is a blasphemy and an abomination. Certainly
immorality of any kind, unrighteousness is an abomination. But in particular,
idolatry is an abomination.
So we have here then, in the end time the prophecy of nations surrounding
Jerusalemand inside Jerusalemthere is committed an abomination of
desolationwhich is spokenof by Daniel. Let’s go to Daniel 9:27 and see what
it is. And here’s our greatchallenge. I can’t possibly take you through all of
this on this occasion. I suggestto you if you have further interest, get some of
the material on Daniel. Readthe sections in the Study Bible, getthe CD on
Daniel 9:27 and you will geta greaterinsight into the abomination of
desolation. Or study the material from Matthew 24:15 where the abomination
of desolationis referred to. I have messageson that as wellas the Matthew
commentary with an extensive sectionon that.
There’s also a chapter in the book, The SecondComing, which deals with this
as well. But look at 9:27 in Daniel. “And he will make a firm covenant,”
talking about the Antichrist. In the end time, there will come the final

Antichrist, the final false Messiah, the final false prophet and he will make a
covenant, firm covenant, with the many for one week. Whatdoes that mean?
He makes a covenantor a pactwith Israel. He becomes the protectorof Israel.
Amazing.
They are still in unbelief when the Tribulation begins. The church has been
Raptured. Now the Tribulation begins. Israelis still in unbelief. The
Antichrist comes along. He offers himself as the protector of Israelbecause
Israelis sitting in a still very, very hostile world. So the Antichrist comes
along, offers himself as the protectorof Israel. They make a covenantwith
him for a week, in the middle of the week. It’s a week ofyears, by the way, as
70 weeks ofDaniel means 70 periods of seven years. And this...the detail of
this is very important in prophecy. The first 69 years were completedwhen
Jesus was crucified. There’s one week left to go, the seventiethweek in the
future. During that week there is a covenantmade with the Jews and
Antichrist, he becomes their protector. However, in the middle of the week, he
puts a stop to sacrifice in grain offering.
What that means is the temple will be rebuilt of some form. They will be
offering sacrifices again. Judaismwill be restoredto some place in that time.
The Antichrist will offer himself as the protectorof Israel. He’s not labeled
the Antichrist, he’s a man of peace, a leader, a greatworld leader of peace.
They’re very possibly out of the Roman Catholic system. He comes in, sets up
some kind of pact with them, becomes their protector. However, in the middle
of the week puts a stop to their offerings, their sacrifices,and creates whatis
calledthe abomination which makes desolate. This is what our Lord is
referring to. In the middle of the last sevenyears of human history before the
Lord’s return, the Antichrist is violated in the middle by something the
Antichrist does to create an abomination...anabomination that produces
destruction and desolation. This is the abomination of desolation.
What is it? Ah, the New Testamentmakes it clearwhat it is. The New
Testamenttells us that the Antichrist in the middle of the week will go into the
holy place in the temple and set up an idol of himself and demand that the
entire world worship him. That is an abomination to God...anabomination to

God. Scripture talks about this very specifically, and I’ll refer to that in a
moment.
But, there’s another component. And I’m going to try to hurry and give this
to you. We’re looking eschatologicallyatthe future, at the end time, the
Antichrist makes a pact, breaks it in the middle, breaks it by setting up an idol
of himself in the middle of the Holy Place in Jerusalem, trying to create a
world religion, cause the whole world to worship Him. Obviously this is Satan
worship at its pinnacle in its final form. All the nations of the world are
encamped around. Jerusalemis the focalpoint of everything and this idol is
setup in the Holy Place.
Is there anything like that in human history? Is there anything that you could
look that would be a preview of that kind of behavior?
Yes there is. In the same prophecy of Daniel, in Danielchapter 11, you’ll have
to study it on your own, throughout chapter 11 you have the history of a
particular ruler, a ruler that has been well-knownto students of history and
Scripture as Antiochus. Antiochus...one of the major Seleucidkings. That is,
he came from Syria. The powerful kings in Daniel 11 are the King of the
South, the Ptolemies from Egypt, and the king of the north, the Seleucids from
Syria that bordered Syria.
In Daniel chapter 11 the Seleucidking is calleda vile personto whom they will
not give the honor of royalty but he shall come in peaceablyand seize the
kingdom by intrigue. This is referring to Antiochus IV who was a Seleucid.
Now you need to know just a little bit about this particular guy and I can’t
take you into a whole lot of detail. He came in the third century. Daniel
prophesied in the sixth century, he says there’s going to be a king and he gives
all kinds of details about him and he comes three centuries later. He offers
himself as the protectorof Israel. He’s from Syria in the north, he will protect
Israelfrom the south. He will protect Israelfrom the Egyptians, the Ptolemies
in Egypt. That’s going to be his commitment. He pretends to be the defender
of Jerusalem. So he goes to war, this is what Danielsaid he would do and
history said that’s exactly what he did. Daniel said he would go to war against
Egypt. He would then plunder Egypt, take all the spoils of Egypt and buy

influence in Israel. That’s why in Daniel 11:24, says he shall enter peaceably,
even into the richest places of the province, he shall do what his fathers have
not done, or his forefathers, disperse among them plunder, spoils and riches,
devise his plans againstthe strongholds but only for a time. So what he comes
to do is bribe them, buys his way in as the protector of Israelby giving them
some of the plunder he stole when he conqueredEgypt.
He goes back, he is to go back and make a final devastationof Egypt. That
was Antiochus’ plan. In the year 168, history says he was going to Egypt to
make a final plunder of Egypt. He had already defeatedEgypt. He had
already made his alliance with Israel. It came to pass three centuries after
Daniel saidit would, exactlyas he said it would. On his way to Egypt he
receives orders from Rome via Cypress because the Roman fleet was stationed
at Cypress. That’s very important. The Roman fleet is anchored at Cypress.
The word comes to him, Caesarsays, “Donot make war againstthe Ptolemies,
do not make war againstEgypt.” He is humiliated. He is angry. He is
infuriated. So he withdraws from Egypt and he heads back to Syria. He is so
mad that he decides to vent his rage. He’s so made he needs to kill somebody,
so in passing he decides to kill the Jews. As he goes north, he stops at
Jerusalem. This is what Daniel said, Daniel11:30, “Ships from Cypress shall
come againsthim, therefore he shall be angry, return in rage from the holy
covenantand do damage.”
The word came from Cypress to him by ship not to go to Egypt, but to go
back to Syria. And Daniel knew that three centuries before it happened
because Godrevealedit to him. He stops and he’s going to sack Jerusalem. He
waits until the Sabbath when he knows the people will be most vulnerable,
orders an army of 250 thousand soldiers to slaughterthe Jews. Now
remember, he’s been their protector and their benefactor. He met with very
little resistance.
He then took control, setJewishapostates,defectorsfrom Judaism, enemies of
Israel’s covenantwith Jehovah, he set them in all the positions of power in the
city. Daniel said he would do that, Daniel 11:30, “He shall return and show
regard for those who forsake the holy covenant.” Danielsaid he would put
apostates in places ofpower...he did. He was trying to setup a thoroughly new

religion of paganism, he demanded no more sacrificesto be made to God. He
demanded that all sacrifices be made to idols. The Sabbath was to be
profaned. All laws of Judaism, both biblical and traditional, were to be
eliminated. He wanted one people, one religion just like Danielsaid he would.
And he was to be the object of everyone’s worship. He calledhimself
Epiphanes the Great One. The people calledhim Epimanes the mad man. And
at that time when he took powerthere, this is what he did. It says in the
history of the Maccabees,the fifteenth day of the month Kislev, a hundred
and forty and fifth yearhe setup the abomination of desolationon the altar.
You know what he did? We know. History says. He went into the Holy Place
where the Jewishaltar of sacrifice was, where Godwas being worshipedand
he put an image of Zeus on top of the altar where offerings were made to
Jehovah. And he did exactlythat. He abominated the Holy Place and that
brought desolation. Daniel11:31 says, “There he committed the abomination
of desolation.”
So you have a wonderful picture in Daniel. You have an illustration of
someone in the third century, or actually 168, you have an illustration of this
individual just two centuries before the Lord who abominates the Holy Place
and is a picture of the future abomination of desolationat the end time. It is
Daniel 11, by the way, that refers to Antiochus, but the other abomination of
desolationin 927 can’t refer to Antiochus because it refers to the very end of
all history in the final sevenyears before the Lord establishes His Kingdom.
There’s a further reference to it in Daniel chapter 12 as wellwhich is looking
at the end time abomination of desolation.
So in a pattern that is pretty frequent in prophetic literature, you have a
future prophecy illustrated in a near prophecy. Antiochus becomes an
illustration of what the final Antichrist will do. And so we know Daniel 9:27 is
referring to the future, go back to Luke 21, because that’s what Jesus refers it
to. Jesus is interpreting Daniel and when our Lord says, as He does in
Matthew 24, “This is that which was written by Danielthe prophet concerning
the abomination of desolation,” we know it’s connectedto the time of His
return. It’s connectedin Luke 21 to when you see Jerusalemsurrounded by
armies, then recognize that the desolationis at hand. It’s that same desolation.

So the Lord sees this as an eschatologicalevent. Yes, Jerusalemhas been
surrounded by armies throughout its history. There have even been a couple
of times through history when the temple has been desecrated, ofcourse, and
abominated, the place where God is supposedto be worshiped there. There is
that most notable time laid out in Daniel 11 and fulfilled in history by
Antiochus where a kind of abomination of desolationhappened and he did
things that were absolutely atrocious. The story of what he did, beyond what I
told you, is that he slaughtereda pig on the altar and stuffed pork down the
mouths of the priests as a way to desecratethe place and desecrate them as
well. And so the picture of what he did is only a preview of what that final
Antichrist will do. And if you ask just exactlywhat will the final Antichrist
do? Revelation13 says, here’s his abomination, “In his vision was granted
powerto give breath to the image of the beast.” He sets up his image in the
temple in the Holy Place, his idol. There was powergiven to him that the
image of the beastshould both speak and cause as many as would not worship
the image of the beastto be killed, Revelation13:15. So he doesn’t setup an
altar of Zeus, he sets up an idol of himself. Paul describes it in 2 Thessalonians
2:3 and 4 with these words. The Apostle Paul says this, “The sonof sin when
he’s revealed...that’s the Antichrist...the sonof perdition, who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is calledGod or that is worshiped so that he sits
as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” That’s the final
abomination. That’s what Antiochus did in a preview of the final
abomination.
So, let the reader understand. When you see in human history a world leader
at the end of the age who makes a pact of protection with Israelto protect
them and in the middle of that period of protection while judgments are
beginning to move that are unlike anything in the history of the world, and
you see the armies of the world surrounding Jerusalemto put an end to Israel
and you see this Antichrist going into the Holy Place, putting up an idol of
himself to establishone world religion, calling the whole world to worship
him, you know that the coming of Christ is near...is near. He will turn against
Israelwhom he has feign to protect. He will callthe armies of the world to
come and they will amass in Israel from the city of Jerusalemclearnorth to
the plain of Megiddo, all these forces setagainstGod and againstIsrael, and

he will then desecrate the Holy Place and this will trigger the return and the
judgment of Christ who will destroy all the armies of the world, all the
ungodly and unrighteous and establishHis Kingdom.
Now back to our text of Luke 21 quickly. When this happens, these are the
days of vengeance whenall things written are to be fulfilled. “Woe to those
who are with child and those who nurse labor in those days.” Why does He
want everybody to run? Why does He want them to flee? Well in the sense it’s
metaphoric, getout, the disasteris going to be so horrible, you don’t want to
experience the horror of what’s going to happen in that place when Antichrist
ascends onthat and starts the massacrethat’s going to be going on there.
But there’s another element to it and it is this, that this is the end of
evangelism. Forthose who are believers He doesn’tsay, “Endure persecution,
endure suffering, take it, don’t worry if you’re arrested, don’t worry if you’re
incarcerated, don’t worry if you’re martyred. It will fall out to be a testimony
to the goodnessofthe gospeland you’ll make a goodconfession.” There’s no
more evangelism, it’s over. It is done. Just leave. Godwants to protect and
will protectcertain of His people in order to enter in to the Millennial earthly
Kingdom. Time to get out. It’s going to be more difficult for pregnant women
and women who have nursing babies. Obviously they can’t move as fast,
they’re encumbered.
There will be great distress upon the earth and wrath to this people. It will be
the wrath of Satan but it will be executing the wrath of God. They will fall by
the edge of the sword, there will be a massacreledcaptive into all the nations.
This happens at the midpoint for the final three and a half years. The people
who aren’t slaughteredare going to be sent all over the world, as we also read
in Matthew 24. Jerusalemwill be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles. Only
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
What are the times of the Gentiles? It’s a period of time from 586 B.C. when
Israelfirst went into captivity, until the end of the Tribulation when Christ
comes to establishHis Kingdom. Through this whole time they have been, to
one degree or another, under the attack, the oppression, the influence of
Gentiles. But the times of the Gentiles will end. It didn’t end in 70 A.D., so this

can’t refer to that. It didn’t end in 160's, so this can’t refer to that. The end of
the times of the Gentiles is concurrent with the day’s vengeance ofGod, when
all things will be finally fulfilled. This is the future of the world.
The Old Testamentunderstoodthis. The Old Testamentprophets said it. Let
me close with this. Zechariah 12, “The burden of the Word of the Lord
concerning Israel. Thus, declares the Lord, He stretches outthe heavens, lays
the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within Him. Behold,
I’m going to make Jerusalema cup that causesreeling to all the peoples
around and when the siege is againstJerusalem, it will also be againstJudah.”
As I said, all the way through that land. “It will come about in that day that I
will make Jerusalema heavy stone for all the peoples, allwho lift it will be
severelyinjured and all the nations of the earth will be gathered againstit. In
that day, declares the Lord, I will strike.” That’s not talking about anything
that happened in 70 A.D. The Lord didn’t strike in 70 A.D. That’s not
happening either in the time of Antiochus. This siege of Jerusalemis the very
one our Lord is referring to, same one Zechariahspoke of.
Zechariah 14, he talks of it again. “I will gather all the nations against
Jerusalemto battle. The city will be captured, the houses plundered, the
women ravished,” that’s why you want to run. “Half of the city exiled, the rest
will not be cut off from the city. The Lord will go forth and fight againstthose
nations as He fights in a day of battle.”
That greatconflict at the end is where the Lord comes downand brings the
final victory. That didn’t happen 70 A.D., didn’t happen in Antiochus’ day. It
will happen in that day. So when you look at the history of the world and you
understand what Jesus is saying, He laid it all out. Laid out just exactly how it
would go, that it would escalate, thatit would getworse, that it would have its
final form in the horrors of the time of Tribulation describedin the book of
Revelation. The trigger event to let people know that the end is near is the
armies of the world gathering againstJerusalemafter a feignedprotector has
been sort of acceptedas the one to defend them and keepthem safe. He turns
on them, he goes in, desecratesthe temple, sets up an idol of himself, wants the
whole world to worship him, have one world religion when obviously they
won’t respond to that, both Jews who have been converted to Christ and who

have not, at that particular point he turns on them a massacre begins, a
massacre takesplace followedby another massacre by the returning Christ.
But that’s the subjectfor next time.
Father, this is so weighty and so amazing that You have given us all this truth
and barely contain it like drinking from a fire hose to take it all in. And
there’s so much more to be said throughout the writings of Danielin great,
greatcareful detail. And also, throughout the writings of the New Testament
in the words of our Lord and in the words of John who receivedvisions of the
end. Lord, help us to understand that You’ve given this to us that we might be
warned, that we might understand the way the world is going, that we might
be safe from these horrors because our lives are hidden with Christ in God. I
pray, Lord, that even today You will draw to Yourself sinners who will be
caught in the disasters if they tarry until that hour, if that’s in our lifetime, we
can’t imagine the horrors of how many will perish under the deception and
the delusion of Satanand under divine and demonic judgments. Lord, rescue
souls today by having them put their trust in Christ and be safe from all these
things. We know Your church will be raptured even before anything begins,
anything begins. And yes, Lord, we understand that even the worst of times
will also be a time when You will begin againto gather a people to Yourself to
live foreverin heavenand praise and glorify You. We thank You, Lord, that
You are a God who redeems through all the eras of history. We pray for Your
own glory that You would redeem sinners even today in the name of Christ.
Amen.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE?
‘And when ye shall see Jerusalemcompassedwith armies, then know that the
desolationthereofis nigh. 21. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not

them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 22. Forthese be the days of
vengeance, thatall things which are written may he fulfilled. 23. But woe unto
them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there
shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 24. And they
shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive into all
nations; and Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 25. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the
moon, and in the stars;and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;
the sea and the waves roaring; 26. Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for
looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of
heaven shall be shaken. 27. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in
a cloud, with powerand greatglory. 28. And when these things begin to come
to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;for your redemption draweth
nigh. 29. And He spake to them a parable; Behold the fig-tree, and all the
trees;30. When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your ownselves that
summer is now nigh at hand. 31. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come
to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32. Verily I sayunto
you, This generationshall not pass awaytill all be fulfilled. 33. Heavenand
earth shall pass away; but My words shall not pass away. 34. And take heed to
yourselves, lestat any time your hearts be overchargedwith surfeiting, and
drunkenness, and cares ofthis life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
35. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole
earth. 36. Watchye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape allthese things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the Sonof Man.’—LUKE xxi. 20-36.
This discourse of our Lord’s is in answerto the disciples’double question as
to the time of the overthrow of the Temple and the premonitory signs of its
approach. The former is answeredwith the indefiniteness which characterises
prophetic chronology; the latter is plainly answeredin verse 20.
The whole passagedivides itself in four well-markedsections.

I. There is the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem(vs. 20-24). The ‘sign’ of her
‘desolation’was to be the advance of the enemy to her walls. Armies had been
many times encamped round her, and many times been scattered;but this
siege was to end in capture, and no angelof the Lord would stalk by night
through the sleeping host, to stiffen sleepinto death, nor would any valour of
the besiegedavail. Their cause was to be hopeless from the first. Flight was
enjoined. Usually the inhabitants of the open country took refuge in the
fortified capital when invasion harrowedtheir fields; but this time, for ‘them
that are in the country’ to ‘enter therein’ was to throw awaytheir last chance
of safety. The Christians obeyed, and fled, as we all know, across Jordanto
Pella. The restdespisedJesus’warning—if they knew it,—and perished.
Mark the reasonfor the exhortation not to resist, but to flee: These are days
of vengeance, thatall things which are written may be fulfilled.’ That is to say,
the besiegersare sentby God to execute His righteous and long-ago-
pronounced judgments. Therefore it is vain to struggle againstthem. Behind
the Romanarmy is the God of Israel. To dash againsttheir cohorts is to throw
one’s self on the thick bosses ofthe Almighty’s buckler, and none who dare do
that can ‘prosper.’ Submission to His retributive hand is the only way to
escape being crushed by it. Chastisementacceptedis salutary, but kicking
againstit drives the goaddeeperinto the rebellious limb.
So great is the agony to be, that what should be a joy, the birth of children,
will be a woe, and the sweetduties of motherhood a curse, while the childless
will be happier than the fugitives burdened with helpless infancy. We should
note, too, that the ‘distress’which comes upon the land is presented in darker
colours, and traced to its origin, in (God’s)‘wrath’ dealt out ‘unto this people.’
Happier they who ‘fall by the edge of the sword’ than they who are led
‘captive into all the nations.’

A gleam of hope shoots through the stormy prospect, for the treading down of
Jerusalemby the Gentiles has a term set to it. It is to continue ‘till the times of
the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ That expressionis important, for it clearlyimplies
that these ‘times’ are of considerable duration, and it thus places a period of
undefined extent betweenthe fall of Jerusalemand the subsequent prophecy.
The word used for ‘times’ generallycarries with it the notion of opportunity,
and here seems to indicate that the break-up of the Jewishnationalexistence
would usher in a period in which the ‘Gentiles’would have the kingdom of
God offered to them. The history of the world since the city fell is the best
comment on this saying.
II. Since the ‘times of the Gentiles’are thus of indefinite duration, they make
a broad line of demarcation betweenwhat precedes and what follows them.
Clearly the prophecy in verses 25-27 is separatedin time from the fall of
Jerusalem, and it is no objectionto that view that the separationis not more
emphatically pointed out by our Lord. These verses distinctly refer to His last
coming to judgment. Verse 27 is too grand and too distinctly castin the mould
of the other predictions of that coming to be interpreted of His ideal coming in
the judgments on the city.
The ‘signs in sun and moon and stars’may refer in accordance witha familiar
symbolism, to the overthrow of royalties and dominions; the sea roaring may,
in like manner, symbolise agitations among the people;but the ‘cloud’ and the
‘power and great glory’ with which the Son of man comes, canmean nothing
else than what they mean in other prophetic passages;namely, His visible
appearance, investedwith the shekinah light, and wielding divine authority
before the gaze of a world.
The city’s fall, then, was the initial stage ofa process, the duration of which is
undefined here, but implied to be considerable, and of which the closing stage

is the personalcoming of Jesus. The same conclusionis supported by verse 28,
which treats that fall as the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy.
III. That verse forms a transition to the sectioncontaining the illustrative
parable and the reiteration of the assurance thatChrist’s words would
certainly be fulfilled. The disciples might naturally quake at the prospect, and
wonder how they could face the reality. Jesus gives them strong words of
cheer, which apply to all dreaded contingencies and to all socialconvulsions.
What is a messengerofdestruction to Christless men and institutions is a
harbinger of full ‘redemption’ to His servants. Earthquakes but open their
prison doors and loose their bands, they should not shake their hearts.
Historically the fall of Jerusalemwas a powerful factorin the deliverance of
the Church from Jewishswaddling-bands which hampered its growing limbs.
For all Christians the destruction of what canperish brings fuller vision and
possessionofwhat cannot be shaken. To Christ’s friends, all things work for
good. So the parable which at first sight seems strangelyincongruous becomes
blessedlysignificant and fitting. The gladsome blossoming ofthe trees, the
herald of the glories of summer, is a strange emblem of such a tragedy, and
summer itself is a still strangerone of that solemnlast judgment. But the
might of humble trust in Him who comes to judge makes His coming summer-
like in the light and warmth with which it floods the soul, and the rich fruitage
which it produces there.
Observe, too, that the parable confirms the idea of a process having stages, for
the lessonofthe blossoming fig-tree is not that summer has come, but that it is
nigh.
The solemnassurance in verse 32, made more weighty by the ‘Verily I say,’
seems at first sight to bring the final judgment within the lifetime of the

generationof the hearers. But it is noteworthy that the expression‘till all
things are fulfilled’ is almost verbally identical with that in verse 22, which
refers only to the destruction of Jerusalem, and is therefore most naturally
interpreted as having the same restrictedapplication here. The difference
betweenthe two phrases is significant, since in the former the certainty of
fulfilment is deduced from the fact of ‘the things’ being written—that is, they
must be accomplishedbecause they have been foretold in Scripture,—whereas
in the latter Christ rests the certainty of fulfilment on His own word. That
majestic assurance in verse 33 comes well from His lips, and makes claim that
His word shall outlastthe whole present material order, and be fulfilled in
every detail. Think of a mere man saying that!
IV. Exhortations corresponding to the predictions follow. Christ’s revelation
of the future was neither meant to gratify idle curiosity nor to supply a
timetable in advance, but to minister encouragementand to lead to
watchfulness. Whether‘that day’ (ver. 34)is understood of the fall of
Jerusalemor of the final coming of the Lord, it will come ‘as a snare’ upon
men who are absorbed with the earth which they inhabit. They will be
captured by it, as a coveyof birds in a field busily picking up grain, are netted
by one sudden fling of the fowler’s net. A wary eye would have savedthem.
The exhortation is as applicable to us, for, whatever are our views about
unfulfilled prophecy, death comes to us all at a time which we know not, as the
Book ofEcclesiastes,using the same figure, says;‘Man knoweth not his time .
. . as the birds that are caught in the snare.’ Hearts must be kept above the
grossersatisfactionsofsense and the less gross caresoflife, being neither
stupefied with gorging earth’s good, nor preoccupiedwith its gnawing
anxieties, both of which are destructive of the clearrealisationof the certain
future. We are to preserve an attitude of wakefulness andof expectancy, and,
as the sure way to it, and to clearing our hearts of perishable delights and
shortsighted, self-consuming cares, we are to keepthem in a continual posture
of supplication. If our study of unfulfilled prophecy does that for us, it will

have done what Jesus means it to do; if it does not it matters little what
theories about its chronologywe may adopt.
The two stageswhichwe have tried to point out in this passageare clearly
marked at the close, where escaping ‘all these things that shall come to pass’
and standing ‘before the Son of man’ are distinguished. True, both stages
were to be included in the experience of Christ’s hearers, but they are none
the less separate stages.
Luke’s versionof this great discourse gives less prominence to the final
coming than does Matthew’s, and does not blend the two stages so
inextricably together;but it gives no hint of the duration of the ‘times of the
Gentiles,’and might well leave the impressionthat these were brief. Now in
this close setting togetherof a nearerand a much more remote future, with
little prominence given to the interval between, our Lord is but bringing His
prophecy into line with the constant manner of the older prophets. They and
He paint the future in perspective, and the distance, seenbehind the
foreground, seems nearerthan it really is. The spectatordoes not know how
many weary miles have to be traversed before the distant blue hills are to be
reached, nor what deep gorges lie between.
Such bringing togetherof events far apart in time of fulfilment rests in part
on the fact that there have been many ‘days of the Lord,’ many ‘comings of
Christ,’ eachof which is a result on a small scale ofthe same retributive
actionof the Judge of all, as shall be manifestedon the largestscale in the last
and greatestdayof the Lord. Therefore the true use of all these predictions is
that which Christ enforces here;namely, that they should lead us to prayerful
watchfulness and to living above earth, its goods and cares.

RICH CATHERS
:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive
the edge – stoma – the mouth, as part of the body: of man, of animals, of fish,
etc.;the edge of a sword
sword– machaira – a large knife, used for killing animals and cutting up
flesh; a small sword, as distinguished from a large sword
shall be led awaycaptive – aichmalotizo (“spear” + “captive”) – to lead away
captive; metaph. to capture ones mind, captivate; literally to be led awayat
the point of a spear.
More than one million Jews were killedby the army of Titus, and the
remaining Jews were dispersedamong the Gentile nations.
nations – ethnos – a multitude (whether of men or of beasts)associatedor
living together; a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus; a
tribe, nation, people group; in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the
true God, pagans, Gentiles
trodden down – pateo – to tread; to trample, crush with the feet; to advance
by setting foot upon, tread upon: to encounter successfullythe greatestperils
from the machinations and persecutions with which Satanwould fain thwart
the preaching of the gospel;to tread under foot, trample on, i.e. to treat with
insult and contempt: to desecrate the holy city by devastationand outrage
the Gentiles – ethnos – a multitude (whether of men or of beasts)associatedor
living together; a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus; a
tribe, nation, people group; in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the
true God, pagans, Gentiles

be fulfilled – pleroo – to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full; to render
full, i.e. to complete;to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full
measure, fill to the brim; to carry into effect, bring to realisation, realise;of
sayings, promises, prophecies, to bring to pass, ratify, accomplish;to fulfil, i.e.
to cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be,
and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfillment
the times – kairos – due measure;a measure of time, a larger or smaller
portion of time, hence:; a fixed and definite time, the time when things are
brought to crisis, the decisive epochwaitedfor; opportune or seasonable time;
the right time
Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalemwhich would usher in a
period knownas the “times of the Gentiles”. Yet these “Times of the
Gentiles” will be what ushers in His SecondComing.
This is a key element in prophecy – the “times of the Gentiles”.
I believe this is talking about God’s timeclock with the nation of Israel.
Daniel describes a period of time in God’s economythat we refer to as the
“Seventyweeks”ofDaniel. It is a period of seventy times sevenyears (490).
(Dan 9:24-27 KJV) Seventy weeksare determined upon thy people and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to
make reconciliationfor iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to sealup the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
This is a specialtime on God’s calendar meant for the Jewishpeople, “thy
people”.
{25} Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalemunto the Messiahthe Prince
shall be seven weeks, andthreescore and two weeks:the streetshall be built
again, and the wall, even in troublous times. {26} And after threescore and
two weeksshallMessiahbe cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroythe city and the sanctuary; and the end

thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the wardesolations are
determined.
If you keeptrack of the “sevens”, 69 ofthem are finished when the Messiahis
“cut off”. I believe that this is when Godstopped His timeclock for Israel, and
the “times of the Gentiles” began.
It is not until the “times of the Gentiles” is finished, that God will once again
start His timeclock and finish the “seventyweeks”.
Paul talkedabout the “fulness” of the Gentiles:
(Rom 11:25-26 KJV) ForI would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;that blindness in
part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. {26}
And so all Israelshall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion
the Deliverer, and shall turn awayungodliness from Jacob:
When God’s timeclock restarts, the last sevenyear period knownas the
Tribulation will begin:
{27} And he shall confirm the covenantwith many for one week:and in the
midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,and for
the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, evenuntil the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
This is talking about the antichrist forming a treaty with Israel, the temple
being rebuilt, and the antichrist causing the sacrificesto stop and declaring
himself to be God. This is when Jesus saidthat the Jews were to head for the
hills.
Has this occurred?
In 1967 the Jews took Jerusalemfrom the Gentiles again. But the city
remained divided. Some have suggestedthat the “Times of the Gentiles” is
over. Could be.

It was only recently that Israelexpelled Arafat from his eastJerusalemoffice.
Yet the Muslims still control the Temple Mount.
I wonder if perhaps the Temple Mount needs to be in Jewishhands. Could it
be that with the current tensionin Israel, we’re seeing the events that will
bring this about?
JOHN GILL
Verse 24
perished by the famine and sword, were elevenhundred thousandF6:
ninety-seven thousandF7:

PETER PETT
Verse 24
“And they will fall by the edge (literally ‘mouth’) of the sword, and will be led
captive into all the nations, and Jerusalemwill be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
And the result of the investment of Jerusalemwill be many slain by the edge
of the sword(compare Jeremiah21:7; Hebrews 11:34), and many led captive
among the nations (Deuteronomy 28:64). It will be like 587 BC all overagain.
And then Jerusalemwill be left desertedand trodden down by the Gentiles,
and it will not rise againto its former glory for it will be trodden down by the
Gentiles until their time comes to its fulfilment. Note that there is no promise
that Jerusalemwill then rise again. The Jerusalemthat the prophets spoke of
as having a glorious future is seen in the New Testamentto be the heavenly
Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalemis finally dispensed with, from a spiritual
point of view, in Acts. What happens to it is therefore of no more consequence
from God’s viewpoint (it is only man who has fixations on holy places).

As a result of God’s judgments Jewishcontrolover the Temple will cease, the
godly among the nations will ceaseto look to Jerusalem, and all the Jewish
hopes of world rulership will have collapsed. Jewishhopes will have been
crushed. Their Temple will have been defiled, and then destroyed. Their
Messianic expectations willhave been thrust into a distant and empty future,
for the simple reasonthat they did not receive Him when He came (‘He came
to His own inheritance and His own people did not receive Him’ - John 1:11).
It is the sign that Godhas replacedthem with a new Israel, the Israelof God,
to which belong all who are His (John 15:1-6; Galatians 3:29;Galatians 6:16;
Romans 11:17-29;Ephesians 2:11-22;James 1:1; 1 Peter1:1; 1 Peter 2:5; 1
Peter2:9). So they are given the warning that unless they are willing to accept
in Jesus their true Messiah, they will have to recognise andsettle for the
period of Gentile domination stretching forward into God’s immeasurable but
perfect time, the ‘thousand years’ of Revelation20. Forthis will be the time of
Gentile rule and of spiritual activity by the true MessiahWho will gather
togetherHis people through the proclamationof the GoodNews and make
them one in Him, both Jew and Gentile. This will be accompaniedby the
literal domination of the world by the iron boot of earthly rulers, many of
whom would crush the Jews, andothers of whom would uphold them (and
sadly some of them will do it in the name of Christ, although not in
accordancewith His teachings). The Jews willhave been replaced in the
purposes of Godexcept in so far as they seek Him. Fortheir future can now
only be found in Christ.
For the warning of the treading down of the sanctuary and of Jerusalem
compare Isaiah 63:18;Daniel 8:10; Daniel8:13; Zechariah 12:3; Psalms 79:1-
2; Revelation11:2. This gradual transition from Jerusalemto the Gentile
world is made clearin Acts. The first part of Acts is all concerning Jerusalem.
It is the centre from which the word goes out (Isaiah 2:2-4). It is the hub of
Apostolic activity. But from chapter13 onwards this is all transferred to
elsewhere.Peterhas gone to ‘another place’ (Acts 12:17). Paul works from
Syrian Antioch (13 onwards), and when given the choice the Temple finally
and definitely closes its doors againsthim (Luke 21:30). Jerusalemhas
forfeited its significance, being replaced by the Jerusalemwhich is in Heaven

(Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22). For it is the idea that lies behind Jerusalem
that God guarantees, notthe physical city itself.
So the question, “Teacher, whentherefore will these things (the destruction of
the Temple) be? and what shall be the sign when these things are about to
occur?” is answered. Looking atit from Jesus’point of view on earth, it will
occursome time in the future, and the signwill be the gathering of armies
againstJerusalem. There are no goodgrounds, apart from speculation, for
applying these ideas to any other than what happened in 70 AD. Indeed if we
considerthe question that both Mark and Luke emphasise (Luke 21:7; Mark
13:4), both make clearthat it specificallyrefers to that time, that is, to the
time of the destruction of the Temple which at that moment of time was being
observedby Jesus.
‘The Times of the Gentiles.’This is the time when the Gentiles come into their
own in the purposes of God, when the Servantwill be a light to the Gentiles
(Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah49:6), and when God will not oppose Gentile domination.
Various nuances have been seenin the phrase. It has been referred to:
1). The times when the Gentiles will be exercising God’s judgments on Israel.
2). The times leading up to when the Gentiles themselves will be judged.
3). Their times of opportunity for turning to God. Compare Romans 11:25
where the fullness of the Gentiles will come in.
4). Their times for enjoying the privileges that the Jews have forfeited.

5). Their fixed times for lording it over Jerusalem.
In one way or another all these are involved. It is the period following the
rejectionof the old Israel, and its replacementby the new, when God’s
purposes in and for the Gentiles will be fulfilled, as Acts will reveal.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures
Luke 21:24. And they shall fall.—A more particular setting forth of the fate of
the Jews, whichthe result confirmed most terrifically. According to Josephus,
the number of the slain amounted to1,100,000;97,000were draggedas
prisoners mostly to Egypt and the provinces. Comp. Deuteronomy 28:64.—
Ἔσται πατουμένη, Jerusalemshallbe a city trodden down by the heathen; not
alone an intimation of her desecrationby a heathen garrison (De Wette), but a
designationof all the scornful outrages to which the capitalshould be given
over. Comp. Lamentations 4. Nor is there any more reasonhere by the
entirely generalmention of έ̓θνη to understand the Romans exclusively. On
the other hand, we may here find the announcement of the interval of
centuries in which the most different nations, in almost uninterrupted
succession, have trodden down Jerusalem:— Titus, Hadrian, Chosroes, the
Mussulmen, the Crusaders, and the later dominion of Islam,—aninterval that
yet endures, and whose end shall be appointed only when the times of the
Gentiles shall be fulfilled.
The times of the Gentiles, καιροὶ ἐθνῶν.—Notthe times of the calling of the
Gentiles (Stier), by which an entirely foreign thought would be interpolated;
but the times which are predestined to the Gentiles for the fulfilment of these
Divine judgments. That by καιροί a long interval is intimated (Dorner),
appears, it is true, not from this plural in itself, but from the whole
connection, according to which these καιροί shallendure even to the final

term, and (comp. Matthew 24:29)shall finally be cut short by the last actof
the drama of the history of the world. Remarkable is this expressionin the
first place, because anevident intimation lies hidden therein, that, after the
fall of Jerusalem, there is yet a period of indefinite duration to be awaited;
and secondly, because a thought of the restorationof Jerusalemgleams
through, which is elsewhere expressedevenmore plainly.
Verse 24
clause, that the punishment of Israel, and the desolationof Jerusalemwere to
fulfilled.”
RON RITCHIE

Now let's move from the question, what is the sign of the end of the age, to the
question, when will these things
be, or more specifically...
What is the sign of the destruction of the temple?
"Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are
in the midst of the city depart, and let
not those who are in the country enter the city; because these are days of
vengeance, in order that all things which
are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are with child and to those who
nurse babes in those days; for there
will be greatdistress upon the land, and wrath to this people, and they will fall
by the edge of the sword, and will
be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalemwill be trampled under foot
by the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:21-24)
In verse 20, we saw the impending destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus spoketo his
disciples as the rejectedPrince of
Peace andprophesied the destructionof Jerusalemin 70 A.D. by the Romans,
foreshadowing the final destruction
of the city at the end of the greattribulation. (See Daniel 11.)In the siege in 70
A.D. some 1,100,000 men,
women, and children died of starvation or by the sword of Rome. Some 97,000
others were taken into slavery.
All this happened because whenthe Jews heard that the Roman army was
coming to bring judgment on their
rebellion, they came into the city from the hills and villages of Judea, hoping
that the city walls would save them

from destruction. But the followers ofJesus who heededhis warning were
able to flee the city in time to save their
lives. Now in verses 21-24,as our Lord lookedbeyond 70 A.D. to the final
destruction of the city, he warned his
followers in the distant future that the final period of tribulation would be the
worstthat the world had ever
experiencedat the hand of godless man. Those will be days of war and
bloodshed according to Daniel 11 when
the king of the south (Egypt) attacks the King of the North (Syria) with Israel
in the middle. The King of the north
then counter attacks anddefeats the Egyptians as well as the countries of
North Africa. While he is in Africa he
hears a rumor from the north that his supply line is being cut by a greater
army from the East. He rushes home
and meets them on the battle field of Armageddon in the land of Israel. It is
during this horrible seasonofthe last
three and a half years of the greattribulation that our Lord gave the future
Christians, Jews, and Gentiles alike who
had come to faith in Jesus as their Messiahby the preaching of the 144,000
Jewishevangelists,the warning "Let
those who are in Judea flee to the mountains... because these are the
vengeance, in order that all things which are
written may be fulfilled... and Jerusalemwill be trampled under foot by the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles
be fulfilled." Those days will be so difficult that the Lord said, "And unless
those days had been cut short no life
would have been saved; for the sake ofthe electthose days shall be cut short."
No life will be spared including

those of the million of Jews and Gentiles who acceptJesus as their Messiahin
the tribulation, unless God steps in
and arrests the fullest expressionof all hell from breaking loose. ButHe will
stop the Antichrist in his tracks. And
the Lord promised in Luke 21:24 that "the time of the Gentiles" which began
with the overthrow of Jerusalemby
the powerful Gentile nation Babylon in 586 B.C., will finally be fulfilled, and
Jerusalemwill never againbe
overthrown or ruled by the Gentile nations.
J. C. RYLE
The Destructionof Jerusalem, Luke 21:20-24
And when you shall see Jerusalemcompassedwith armies, then know that the
desolationthereofis near. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not
them that are in the countries enter thereunto. For these be the days of
vengeance, thatall things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto
them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there
shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led awaycaptive into all nations:
and Jerusalemshallbe trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.
The subject of the verses before us, is the capturing of the city of Jerusalemby
the Romans. It was fit and right that this greatevent, which wound up the Old

Testamentdispensation — should be especiallydescribedby our Lord's
mouth. It was fitting that the last days of that holy city, which had been the
seatof God's presence for so many centuries — should receive a specialnotice
in the greatestprophecywhich was everdelivered to the Church.
We should mark in this passage — our Lord Jesus Christ's perfectknowledge.
He gives us a fearful picture of the miseries which were coming on Jerusalem.
Forty years before the armies of Titus encompassedthe city — the dreadful
circumstances whichwould attend the siege are minutely described. The
distress of weak and helpless women — the slaughterof myriads of Jews —
the final scattering ofIsrael in captivity among all nations — the treading
down of the holy city by the Gentiles — are things which our Lord narrates
with as much particularity as if He saw them with His own eyes!
Foreknowledgelike this is a specialattribute of God. Of ourselves we "know
not what a day may bring forth." (Proverbs 27:1.) To saywhat will happen to
any city or kingdom in forty years from the present time — is far beyond the
powerof man. The words in Isaiahare very solemn, "I am God — and there
is no other. I am God — "and there is none like Me. I make knownthe end
from the beginning, from ancient times — what is still to come. My purpose
will stand, and I will do all that I please."(Isaiah46:9, 10.)
He who could speak with authority of things to come, as our Lord did in this
place — must have been true God as well as true man.
The Christian should continually keepthis perfectknowledge ofChrist in
mind. Pastthings, present things, and things to come — are all nakedand
open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do! The recollectionof the sins
of youth, may well make us humble. The sense ofpresent weakness,may make
us anxious. The fear of trials yet to come, may make our hearts faint. But it is

a strong consolationto think that Christ knows all. For past, present, and
future things — we may safelytrust Him. Nothing canever happen to us —
that Christ has not knownlong ago.
We should mark, secondly, in this passage — our Lord's words about flight in
time of danger. He says respecting the days preceding the siege ofJerusalem,
"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."
The lessonof these words is very instructive. They teachus plainly that there
is nothing cowardlyor unworthy of a Christian in endeavoring to escapefrom
danger. There is nothing unfitting our Christian profession, in a diligent use
of means in order to secure our safety. To meet death patiently and
courageously, if it comes on us in the path of God's providence — is a duty
incumbent on every believer. But to court death and suffering, and rush
needlesslyinto danger — is the part of the fanatic and enthusiast, not of the
wise disciple of Christ. It is those who use all means which God has placed
within their reach, who may confidently expect God's protection. There is a
wide difference betweenpresumption and genuine faith.
We should mark, thirdly, in this passage — our Lord's words about
vengeance. He says, with reference to the siege of Jerusalem, "Theseare the
days of vengeance (punishment), that all things which are written may be
fulfilled."
There is something particularly solemn in this expression. It shows us that the
sins of the Jewishnation had been long noted down in the book of God's
remembrance. The Jews by their unbelief and impenitence, had been
treasuring up wrath againstthemselves for many hundred years. The angerof
God, like a pent-up river — had been silently accumulating for ages. The

fearful tribulation which attended the siege ofJerusalem, would only be the
outburst of a thunderstorm which had been gradually gathering since the
days of the kings!It would only be the fall of a swordwhich had been long
hanging over Israel's head!
The lessonofthe expressionis one which we shall do well to lay to heart. We
must never allow ourselves to suppose that the conductof wickedmen or
nations is not observedby God. All is seen — and all is known! A reckoning
day will certainly arrive at last. It is a mighty truth of Scripture, that "God
requires that which is past!" (Ecclesiastes3:15.)In the days of Abraham, "the
iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full" — and four hundred years passed
awaybefore they were punished. Yet punishment came at last, when Joshua
and the twelve tribes of Israel took possessionof Canaan. God's "sentence
againstan evil work" is not always executedspeedily — but it does not follow
that it will not be executedat all. The wickedmay flourish for many years
"like a greenbay-tree" — but his latter end will be that his sin will surely find
him out.
We should mark, lastly, in this passage — our Lord's words about the times of
the Gentiles. We read that He said, "Jerusalemshall be trodden down by the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled."
A fixed period is here foretold, during which Jerusalemwas to be given over
into the hands of Gentile rulers, and the Jews were to have no dominion over
their ancient city. A fixed period is likewise foretoldwhich was to be the time
of the Gentiles'visitation — the time during which they were to enjoy
privileges, and occupy a position something like that of Israelin ancientdays.
Both periods are one day to end. Jerusalemis to be once more restoredto its
ancient inhabitants. The Gentiles, because oftheir hardness and unbelief —

are to be stripped of their privileges and endure the just judgments of God.
But the times of the Gentiles are not yet run out. We ourselves are living
within them at the present day.
The subject before us is a very affecting one, and ought to raise within us
greatsearchings ofheart. While the nations of Europe are absorbed in
political conflicts and worldly business — the sands in their hour-glass are
ebbing away. While governments are disputing about secularthings — their
days are numbered in the sight of God. Yet in a few years, and "the times of
the Gentiles will be fulfilled." Their day of visitation will be past and gone.
Their misused privileges will be takenaway. The judgments of God shall fall
on them. They shall be castaside as vessels in which God has no pleasure.
Their dominion shall crumble away, and their vaunted institutions shall fall to
pieces. The Jews shallbe restored. The Lord Jesus shallcome again in power
and greatglory. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our
God and of His Christ, and the "times of the Gentiles" shall come to an end!
Happy is he who knows these things, and lives a life of faith in the Son of God!
He is the man, and he alone — who is ready for the greatthings coming on the
earth, and the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom to which he
belongs, is the only kingdom which shall never be destroyed. The King whom
he serves — is the only King whose dominion shall never be taken away.
(Daniel 2:44; 7:14.)

Jesus was predicting gentiles will rule

Jesus was predicting gentiles will rule

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