CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XIV.

THE JERUSALEM TRIBULATION NOT THE

GREAT ONE.

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” —Matt. 24: 21.

IN this chapter, we have in mind to give a brief story of the Jerusalem Tribulation, and then point out the fact that said tribulation can not be The Great Tribulation. There are those who hold that the above text refers to the Jerusalem Tribulation, and that on this account we are not to expect The Great Tribulation to come at some future time. A brief study of the Jerusalem Tribulation, and a comparison of the facts with the prophecies of The Great Tribulation will show that the former falls far short of the latter. In giving account of the Jerusalem Tribulation, I can hope only to mention merely a few thoughts in connection with it.

There was a man whose name was John, who was a very treacherous fellow. In the Jewish wars he plotted against Josephus, Governor of Galilee. He had a great and wonderful desire for wealth and honor, and wanted to take the command of the war from Josephus, and make himself leader of the Jews against the Romans. He persuaded Josephus to intrust him with the repairing of the walls of Gischala, his native city. John soon succeeded in getting a few hundred men as a following. When the Roman army came against Gischala, it was taken, and John fled to Jerusalem. When he entered that city thousands gathered about him to enquire how the war was getting on abroad. He pretended that he had not fled from the Romans because he was afraid of them, but that he had just come to Jerusalem in order to fight them from a stronger

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS.

fortified city. He soon persuaded thousands of the young Jews to join with him against the Romans. The older Jews saw the matter differently from the younger ones, and tried to persuade the latter not to join in with John, but to no avail. Thus divisions were brought about among the Jews in Jerusalem. Josephus regards this as the real beginning of the downfall of that city. Thus before Titus ever came against the city, there were great slaughters among the Jews occasioned by their own hand.

Then came Titus and beseiged the city, and thereupon the calamities and troubles in the city were increased. The Jews contrived snares against the Romans, and for such things the Romans punished the Jews. Josephus pleaded earnestly with the people to get them to do right. He told them that these distresses had come upon them on account of their sins. He told them that the only hope of their safety was in the laying down of their arms and the repenting of their sins. He told them that they were acting very foolishly, and were bringing death and destruction upon their own homes and city. Still, the rebellious Jews would pay not attention.

Meanwhile, affairs in the city were growing worse and worse. The people who were not in the rebellion began to desert to the Romans, and Titus let many of them go away into the country, and thus they escaped. John, and one Simon also, who was leader of one of the factions in the city, forbade others deserting to the Romans, and began to watch them going out more closely than they did the enemy; and if anyone afforded the least suspicion of deserting, his throat was cut immediately.

The famine in the city now became alarming. Those men who had joined the sedition committed fearful and disastrous robbery. They rushed into the homes of the wealthier class, and laid their hands upon whatever food they could find. If they found food in a house they would torment the inmates because they had denied that they had any; and if they failed

THE JERUSALEM TRIBULATION NOT THE GREAT ONE.

to find food therein, they would torment them the more because they claimed that the inmates had it, but that they kept it hid from them. Many of the people sold all the property they had for a small amount of grain; and then shut themselves in the innermost rooms of their houses, and ate their bread. The miserable sights that followed would justly bring tears to any one’s eyes. Often children would pull the very bread out of their fathers’ mouths; and what is more pitiful, the mothers would take the bread out of the mouths of their children; and often when those who were near and dear to them were perishing under their own hands, they were not ashamed to take the bread from them that they might sustain their own lives. Then under these circumstances, the robbers would often come upon them and take the food away from both parents and children, even almost out of their very throats. If they saw a house closed, they took it as a sign that there was food within, and so they would break into the house and shake the food even out of the children’s mouths. If those within resisted, they would treat them the more cruelly. Now others began to desert to the Romans, so that the Romans caught every day five hundred Jews. These Jews they nailed to crosses. The number became so multiplied that there was not enough room for the crosses, and there were not enough crosses for the bodies. The famine within the city became so fierce that it consumed the people of whole houses and families together. Afterwards the Romans turned to the slaughter of the people. Jews were slaughtered by the thousands. Blood ran the streets in streams. The temple was destroyed, the city set on fire, and there was a great conflagration.

The above description, I have gathered from the words of Josephus. Much more indeed could be said; but I have said enough to serve properly my purpose here. There are many who think that Josephus exaggerated in his statements concerning the Jerusalem Tribulation. As to that matter, I am not prepared to say. I prefer to accept what he says about it.

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS.

However, it must be certain that that tribulation was no worse than he pictures it. So accepting all that he says about it, I still purpose to show that that tribulation fell far short of what is prophesied concerning The Great Tribulation.

That the Jerusalem Tribulation was not The Great Tribulation may be gathered from the following points:

1. Jesus said that The Great Tribulation exceeds any tribulation preceding or following it. There certainly have been wars both before the Jerusalem Tribulation and following it in which greater numbers of men lost their lives than there were in that case. The army of Xerxes consisted of three to four millions and there are reasons to believe that a much greater number of them perished than did at Jerusalem. The history of the wars of the Babylonian and Persian monarchies reveals greater tribulations than were ever enacted at Jerusalem. As to the cruel manner in which the Romans treated the Jews, they did no more to them than they were accustomed to do to other nations and cities that they conquered. The Roman army can be traced through its history by the blood of its enemies. Everywhere they went they inflicted the most awful cruelties upon those who attempted to resist them. Surely the Jerusalem Tribulation did not exceed all the cruelties of all Roman wars besides.

2. As to the famines, there have been greater sufferings resulting from famines elsewhere than have ever been in Jerusalem. What shall we say to the China and India famines of modern times? As many as thirteen millions are said to have died in a single Indian famine. During the famine in India about the beginning of the twentieth century many more are said to have perished than did in Jerusalem from both war and famine.

3. The Great Tribulation is to reach from one end of the earth to the other (Jer. 25: 33), whereas the Jerusalem Tribulation touched only one city. There are now more than one and a half billion of people in the earth; and we are clearly

THE JERUSALEM TRIBULATION NOT THE GREAT ONE.

told that in the very beginning of The Great Tribulation one-fourth of the population of the earth will be killed. (Rev. 6: 8.) This will mean the perishing of near four hundred times as many as perished at Jerusalem.

4. Let us remember the days of Noah. Surely, there must have been more people living on the face of the earth in the days of Noah than were gathered in Jerusalem at the time Titus came against it. In the flood all the human family except eight persons perished. So the tribulation of Noah’s day was greater than that of Jerusalem.

5. Jesus said that The Great Tribulation would be attended with the darkening of the sun, the turning of the moon into blood, the falling of the stars, and the shaking of the powers of the heavens. Moreover, in the sixth chapter of Revelation, we read it as follows: “There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood: and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” There were no such things as these connected with the Jerusalem Tribulation.

6. It is stated that in connection with The Great Tribulation there will be a personal appearing of the Son of man, coming in the clouds with power and great glory. No such a sign was seen at Jerusalem, and hence that Tribulation could not have been The Great Tribulation.

7. In connection with The Great Tribulation the angels are to go forth and gather, the elect from the four quarters of the earth. Since this was not done at the Jerusalem Tribulation, we have every reason to suppose that The Great Tribulation is still in the future.

8. The description in the Book of Revelation of tribulation days far exceeds the description of any past tribulation. Read in the eighth chapter of Revelation of the voices, thunderings,

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS.

lightnings, earthquakes, hail and fire mingled with blood, the bitter waters killing many men, and the sun and moon and stars being so strangely affected will likely bring upon the inhabitants of the earth, affliction, fever, and all kinds of death dealing plagues. Read in the ninth chapter of this same Book of the creatures like Locusts from the bottomless pit of hell with stings in their tails with power to sting like that of a scorpion, and these turned loose upon the inhabitants of the earth with the commission to stay here and hurt men five months; and read also of the two hundred thousand horsemen, blowing smoke, fire, and brimstone from their mouths upon the people. Read further in this Book of the tyrannical reign of Antichrist, and of the plagues that are to come upon his kingdom and upon all those who worship him, even while they live on earth. Read, I would say, all the Old Testament prophets and New Testament Gospels and Epistles have to say of The Great Tribulation, and see if all these things were fulfilled in the Jerusalem Tribulation.

So while the Jerusalem Tribulation was horrible, and perhaps the greatest one that has ever come to the Jews, yet it fell far below the horrors of The Great Tribulation, and was really only typical of it