Matthew 24:21-25

Matthew 24:21-25
What do you think about when you read, “Then there will be a great tribulation…?” Most in the denominational world believe this has reference to a tribulation yet to come. Teachers of premilliennialism have theorized that Jesus will return and “rapture” the righteous off the earth prior to a seven-year tribulation period on the unbelievers. This particular text is used as part of the proof along with texts in Revelation. However, as we have seen, this “tribulation” refers to the fall of Jerusalem and the other fortified cities of Judea in 70 A.D. The context simply does not allow the premillennial position.
The tribulation on the Jews was indeed the greatest the world has seen. Kenneth Chumbley, in his commentary, “The Gospel of Matthew,” quotes D. A. Carson as saying, “There have been greater number of deaths – six million in the Nazi death camps, mostly Jews, and an estimated twenty million under Stalin – but never so high a percentage of a great city’s population so thoroughly and painfully exterminated and enslaved as during the Fall of Jerusalem.”
In a seven-month period, approximately 1.1 million Jews were killed in Jerusalem alone. This does not include the hundreds of thousands more who died at the fall of the other fortified cities in Judea. Around 100,000 Jews were taken as slaves and sold to other nations. Jews who tried to escape the city were crucified to the point that wood was wanting for the bodies. When the Romans realized that some tried to escape by swallowing their valuables, they were ripped open on the spot to gather the spoil from their stomachs. Starvation became so severe in the city that women boiled and ate their own babies.
Fortunately, for the sake of the elect, the Lord shortened those days. If left up to the Roman armies unabated, all Jews within Palestine may have been exterminated. But to spare Christians, who would have fled the cities but later caught in the extermination, God shortened those days.
During the time of the Roman siege, people would become desperate. Reports of the Messiah having returned were commonplace. Jesus warns that these reports are not true and that there would be many false christs and false prophets that would arise during this time to lead away even Christians. These would seem to perform great signs and wonders, but the Lord was warning them ahead of time that these people were deceivers.
Berry Kercheville