" The believers saw
these things fulfilled in that generation before Jerusalem fell; but as
we read the prophecy, we see the wider application and yet larger
fulfilment through the course of history since that day, these
calamities increasing in the earth as the end draws near. Before the end
of the Jewish state, the believers carried the gospel to all the known
world of their day. (See Col. 1:23.) In these latter days we are seeing
the yet wider proclamation of the gospel, as foretold in the fourteenth
verse, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
The Last Days of Jerusalem
We may note briefly some of the events of Jerusalem's last days. Christ
had forewarned the believers:
"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name,
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
Having rejected the true Christ, the nation was open to deception by the
false. We catch just a glimpse of the fulfilment in the book of Acts; in
secular history the full story is told. Ridpath says:
"Never was a people so turbulent, so excited with expectation
of a deliverer who should restore the ancient kingdom, so fired
with bigotry and fanaticism, as were the wretched Jews of this
period.
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