24:1,2
We now come to the Olivet discourse. Similar accounts can be found in Mark 13 and Luke 21. It all starts after Jesus departed from the temple and the disciples came to show Him the buildings of the temple. Most Jews lived outside of Jerusalem, so seeing the temple itself would be quite an occasion for them. There were a small minority of Jews who held the temple and its leadership in disdain, believing that God would send a new temple. Given the things that Jesus had been saying and doing it is understandable if some thought His views were similar. However, most Jews held the temple in great honour and believed it was invincible. There was a similar view at the time of Jeremiah and the Babylonian conquest. Clearly, they had not learnt anything from that time. Righteousness was God’s prime concern, and He was quite prepared to destroy the temple. And Jesus tells them that the temple would be destroyed, as happened in AD 66-70. The events if AD 66-70 are very important in understanding this chapter, and Revelation. However, I do not go along with the preterist line of seeing a complete fulfillment in the events of AD 66-70. AD 66-70 makes sense of a lot of it, but not all of it, and to say that it does is simply nuts. Moreover, a common pattern with prophecy is that there is a partial fulfilment in immediate events, but the prophecy points forward to a much greater fulfilment, Isaiah perhaps being the prime example of this.
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