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I was inspired to transcribe part of Dr. Chuck Baldwin’s message on the destruction of Jerusalem from a YouTube posted by Liberty Fellowship. I was not asked by Liberty Fellowship to do this. I am receiving no remuneration from them.

I think this message is extremely important for all Christians to know. It contains information that I certainly didn’t know. And I think having a message in text format makes it more accessible to all. It sure helps me absorb the message deeper in my heart when I can read it. I hope you appreciate it and share this article with your friends.

The Destruction Of Jerusalem – by Dr. Chuck Baldwin

Open your Bibles please to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. I am preaching a message today that most of you have never heard a message of this nature preached in your life. You might be a senior citizen well up in years. I would venture to say you’ve never heard a message like I’m going to bring today, not because this message is not important, it is critically important, but the problem is there has been a great falling away among the Church over the last hundred years, and many of these great truths of the Word of God are not being taught any longer. This is one of those.

I’m speaking today on the destruction of Jerusalem. Matthew chapter 23 in verses 37 and 38, hear what Jesus said:

Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

God introduced His covenant with Moses with mighty signs and miracles as we have already discussed. Again and again, again and again, the children of Israel, in spite of those miracles, rejected God, His Word, and His messengers. God sent them warning, after warning, after warning, prophet after prophet, miracle after miracle, oppressor after oppressor, and still Israel remained stiff-necked, hard-hearted and obstinate.

Moses in Exodus 32:9 said, “I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people.”

In Exodus 33:5: “For the Lord said to Moses say unto the children of Israel ye are a stiff-necked people.”

In Deuteronomy 9:6 “Understand therefore that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land – the promised land – to possess it for thy righteousness.” He’s not giving you this land because you have been righteous. “For thou art a stiff-necked people.”

Deuteronomy 9:13: “Furthermore the Lord said unto me saying I have seen this person and behold it is a stiff necked people.”

2nd Chronicles chapter 30 and verse 8: “King Hezekiah said now be he not stiff necked as your fathers were.”

In Acts chapter 7 verse 51 Stephen said: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye.”

Jesus said to Jerusalem, “Thou that stonest the prophets, killest them that are sent unto thee.” Jesus meant that.

Samuel was stormed against by the people, threatened, rejected, and mauled over by public opinion, Isaiah murdered with a wooden saw by King Manasseh, Joel, Uzziah, the son of King Amaziah, clubbed him to death. Amos, the son of a priest, drove a nail through his Temple. Micah was murdered by Joram, the son of Ahab. Habakkuk, stoned to death by Jews in Jerusalem. Ezekiel murdered by the chief of the Jews in Chaldea. Zachariah, King Joash murdered this prophet between the steps and the altar of the Temple, and then sprinkled his blood on the horns of the altar. Jeremiah, imprisoned, tortured, starved, and stoned to death by the Jews.

Look at Jeremiah chapter 19, take your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 19, hear the prophecy of Jeremiah relative to the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah chapter 19. I’m going to be giving you a lot of material today, and I know it may be hard to remember everything that I’m going to say that’s why I hope that you’ll get the video afterward, but I hope you’ll watch intently at this prophecy of Jeremiah as it is applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, because every single thing that Jeremiah said in this chapter came to pass, and we will see it in this message.

Jeremiah 19:1 ¶Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place (Jerusalem) shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city desolate,

What did Jesus say? “Jerusalem, your house is left unto you desolate.”

Jeremiah 19:8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10 ¶Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

That was Jeremiah’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Every word came to pass as we will see in a minute.

Description of Jerusalem

First, let’s talk about the city of Jerusalem itself. It was built on two major mountains, and five lesser mountains. Three massive walls surrounded the city on every side except one side which was inaccessible. One wall was erected on a hanging rock and fortified by sixty towers. The middle wall had fourteen towers. The third wall had nearly 90 towers. In clear weather, one could see the Mediterranean Sea, Arabia, and the entire nation of Israel, from one vantage point. The towers were built of white marble. The tower stood between 90 and 135 feet high. Again, they all stood on the top of great hills and mountains. Nearby on the north side was the royal palace with its porticoes, galleries, apartments, groves, gardens, walks, fountains, aqueducts, all made from the costliest and most elegant materials. The Temple and the fort of Antonia were on the east side directly opposite the Mount of Olives. Inside the fort was the castle of Antonia, seventy five feet high, each side faced with marble. The towers of the fort were elegant and massive beyond description. The foundations of the lower Temple were four hundred and fifty feet deep, and the stones of which they were composed were more than 60 feet long and seven feet high, made of the whitest marble. The circuit of the whole building was four furlongs. Its height 100 cubits, 160 pillars each 27 feet high, ornamented and sustained the immense and ponderous edifice. In the front, spacious and lofty galleries wainscoted with cedar were supported by columns of white marble in uniform rows. In short, says Josephus, nothing could surpass even the exterior of this Temple for its elegant and curious workmanship. It was adorned with solid plates of gold that rivaled the beauty of the rising sun, and were scarcely less dazzling to the eye than the beams of that luminary. Of those parts of the building which were not guilt when viewed from a distance, some, says he, appeared like pillars of snow, and some like mountains of white marble. The splendor of the interior parts of the Temple corresponded with the external magnificence. It was decorated and enriched by everything that was costly, elegant, and superb.

In the lower Temple was placed the sacred curiosities; the seven-branched candlestick of pure gold, the table for the show-bread, and the altar of incense, the two latter of which were covered over with plates of the same metal, gold. In the sanctuary were several doors 55 cubits high, 16 in breadth which were all likewise of gold. Before these doors hung a veil of the most beautiful Babylonian tapestry composed of scarlet blue and purple, exquisitely interwoven, and wrought up to the highest degree of art. From the top of the ceiling depended branches and leaves of vines and large clusters of grapes hanging down five or six feet all of gold, and of most admirable workmanship. In addition to these proofs of the splendor and riches of the Temple may be noticed its eastern gate of pure Corinthian brass, more esteemed even than the precious metals. The golden folding doors of the chambers, the beautiful carved work, gilding and painting of the galleries, golden vessels of the sanctuary, the vestments of scarlet, violet and purple, the vast wealth of the treasury, abundance of precious stones and immense quantities of all kinds of costly spices and perfumes, in short, the most valuable and sumptuous of whatever nature or art or opulence could supply was enclosed within the consecrated walls of this magnificent and venerable edifice.

On Palm Sunday Jesus entered into that city, Jerusalem. The people laid palm leaves in His path and shouted, Hosanna! Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. But listen to what Jesus said, Luke 19:41 through 44.

Luke 19:41 ¶And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall lay thee even – even – with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

On Wednesday of that week, Jesus rebuked and confounded the scribes and the Pharisees, and warned the disciples of the barbarous treatment that they would receive very soon at the hands of the Jews. He then said those words that we began this address with.

Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate:

The Olivet Discourse

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 24 beginning in verse 1.

Matthew 24:1 ¶And Jesus went out, and departed from the Temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the Temple.

Not sure this was all of the disciples. It could have been Peter, James, John and Andrew, but they came out to Jesus and engaged in a private conversation with Him, and Jesus foretold the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

Verse 2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?

Remember this discourse took place on the Mount of Olives which commanded a full view of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus and the disciples are looking at the city. They’re looking at the Temple when Jesus said, “See ye not all these things?” Jerusalem, the Temple, the walls, the towers, the beauty, the grandeur, the riches. “Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Jesus here predicts the city and the Temple’s complete demolition.

Verse three: And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? – the destruction of Jerusalem – and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Or the end of the age. meaning the end of the Jewish age, the end of the Jewish world, not talking about the end of the world as almost everyone interprets this verse to mean. Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of an age, the end of the Jewish system, the end of their city, the end of their Temple, the end of their worship. When shall these things be?

Verse 4 ¶And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Within a year after Christ’s death and resurrection, many false Christs appeared. Dasu Theas the Samaritan, Simon Magus a second Samaritan false Christ, a false Christ named Tudas under the government of Felix, a host of false Christs appeared claiming to perform great signs and miracles. An Egyptian false Christ collected 30 thousand followers. In the time of Festus, another false Christ appeared, and this is just a sample of the hundreds and hundreds of false Christs that came into Judea and Jerusalem shortly after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as He had predicted.

Verse 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

This is not talking about the end of the world, this is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. There were wars and commotions occurring so frequently between Jesus death and the destruction of Jerusalem that the whole interval could be regarded as the fulfillment of this prophecy. War between Herod and Aretas king of Arabia Petraea, the wars of Caligula, the wars against the Jews by the Greeks and Syrians in the city of Seleucia with a huge slaughter, the wars between the Jews and the Philadelphians at Perea, the battle between the Jews and Kuminus resulting in the deaths of 10,000 Jews, war between the Jews and the Samaritans, war between the Jews and the Syrians in Ceceria resulting in the deaths of 20,000 Jews, war in Damascus, Tyre, Ascalon, Gadara, and Scythopolis. In the first three cities I just mentioned 10,000 Jews were killed in one hour. The siege of Chapada killed 40,000 Jews. In Alexandria the Romans killed 50,000 Jews. You shall have wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation. It was all fulfilled just as Jesus said between the time of Christ’s death and the destruction of Jerusalem.

And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, Jesus said. Within that same period of time of this prophecy, this was literally fulfilled. In the reign of Claudius there was an great earthquake in Rome. There was an earthquake in Apamea, another earthquake in Syria, another one in Crete, there were earthquakes in Smyrna, Meletis Caius and Samos, another in Laodicea as well as Hierapolis and Colossi, and a dreadful earthquake occurred in Jerusalem a short time before the Roman siege against Jerusalem began. It all took place just as Jesus said. Jesus said, famines, great famines at the time extended through Greece and Italy but were felt most severely in Judea and especially in Jerusalem. Helena, Queen of Abiabeena, sent large supplies of grain to Jerusalem to help the starving in the city. The Gentile Christian Churches at the urging of the Apostle Paul sent much relief to the city of Jerusalem because of the starvation and famine in the city just as Jesus predicted.

Jesus said pestilences would occur. The first occurred in Babylon about 40 AD. The second occurred in Rome in 65 AD. Tens of thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands perished by the disease accumulating due to starvation and sickness. Dead corpses rotting on the streets, infected rats and insects, just as Jesus said, disease permeated the region for many years in between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem. In Luke chapter 21 and verse 11 Jesus said:

Great Signs from Heaven

Luke 21:11 …and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

The following extraordinary signs occurred just as Jesus said:

A meteor resembling a sword hung over Jerusalem during one entire year. This could not be a comet for it was stationary and was visible for twelve successive months. A sword too, a fit emblem of destruction.

“On the eighth of the month, (before the feast of unleavened bread) at the ninth hour of the night, there shone round about the altar, and the adjacent buildings of the Temple, a light equal to the brightness of the day, which continued for the space of half an hour.” This could not be the effect of lightning, nor of a vivid aurora, for it was confined to a particular spot and the light shone unintermittently thirty minutes, as the High Priest were leading a heifer to the altar to be sacrificed, and brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the Temple.

Such is the strange account given by the historian. Some may regard it as a “Grecian fable,” while others may think that they discern in this prodigy a miraculous rebuke of Jewish infidelity and impiety, for rejecting the ANTITYPICAL Lamb, who had offered Himself as an atonement, “once for all,” and who, by thus completely fulfilling their design, had virtually abrogated the Levitical sacrifices. However this may be, the circumstances of the prodigy are remarkable. It did not occur in an obscure part of the city, but in the Temple, not at an ordinary time, but at the Passover, the season of our LORD’S crucifixion, in the presence, not of the vulgar merely, but of the High Priests and of their attendants, and when they were leading the sacrifice to the altar.

About the sixth hour of the night, the eastern gate of the Temple was seen to open without human assistance. When the guards informed the curator of this event, he sent men to assist them in shutting it, who with great difficulty succeeded. This gate, as hath been observed already, was of solid brass, and required twenty men to close it every evening. It could not have been opened by a “strange gust of wind,” or a “slight earthquake;” for Josephus says, it was secured by “iron bolts and bars, which were let down into a large threshold; consisting of one entire stone.”

Soon after the feast of the Passover, in various parts of the country, before the setting of the sun, chariots and armed men were seen in the air, passing round about Jerusalem. Neither could this portentous spectacle be occasioned by the aurora, for it occurred before the setting of the sun, or merely the fancy of a few villagers, gazing at the heavens, for it was seen in various parts of the country.

Beyond that, at the subsequent feast of Pentecost, while the priests were going by night, into the inner Temple to perform their customary ministrations, they first felt, as they said, a shaking, accompanied by an indistinct murmuring, and afterwards voices as of a multitude, saying, in a distinct and earnest manner, “LET US DEPART HENCE.” This gradation will remind the reader of that awful transaction, which the feast of Pentecost was principally instituted to commemorate. First, a shaking was heard, this would naturally induce the priests to listen: an unintelligible murmuring succeeds; this would more powerfully arrest their attention, and while it was thus awakened arid fixed, they heard, says Josephus, the voices of a multitude, distinctly pronouncing the words “LET US DEPART HENCE.” And accordingly, before this period for celebrating this feast returned, the Jewish war had commenced, and in the space of three years afterwards, Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman army, the Temple converted into a citadel, and its sacred courts streaming with the blood of human victims.

And the last and most fearful omen, Josephus relates that one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a rustic of the lower class, during the Feast of Tabernacles, suddenly exclaimed in the Temple, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple — a voice against bridegrooms and brides — a voice against the whole people!” These words he incessantly proclaimed aloud both day and night, through all the streets of Jerusalem, for seven years and five months together, commencing in A.D. 62, when the city was in a state of peace, and overflowing with prosperity, and terminating amidst the horrors of the siege. This disturber, having excited the attention of the magistracy, was brought before Albinus the Roman governor, who commanded that he should be scourged. But the severest stripes drew from him neither tears nor supplications. As he never thanked those who relieved, so neither did he complain of the injustice of those who struck him. And no other answer could the governor obtain to his interrogatories, but his usual denunciation of “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” which he still continued to proclaim through the city, but especially during the festivals, when his manner became more earnest, and the tone of his voice louder. At length, on the commencement of the siege, he ascended the walls, and, in a more powerful voice than ever, exclaimed, “Woe, woe to this city, this Temple, and this people!” And then, with a presentment of his own death, added,” Woe, woe to myself.” He had scarcely uttered these words when a stone from one of the Roman engines killed him on the spot. The great signs just as Jesus predicted.

Matthew chapter 24 verse 8 Jesus continues saying all these are the beginning of sorrows.

Luke 21 verse 12 Jesus said that before all these things they shall lay hands on you – the disciples – and persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. In the verse 16 of that chapter, and ye shall be betrayed both parents and brethren and kinsfolks and friends, and some of you they shall cause to be put to death. As we know John the Baptist had already been beheaded, Peter and John were in prison, Stephen was stoned to death, James was beheaded, Paul was beheaded, eventually all of the disciples except John were violently martyred, just as Jesus said.

Verse 14 in Matthew 24: And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached into all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. He’s not talking about the end of the world, he’s talking about the end of the Jewish world, the end of the Jewish age, the Gospel shall be preached to all the world, then shall the end come. The persecution of the Jews against the early Church forced the apostles and disciples to flee the city of Jerusalem. The book of Acts records the preaching of the Gospel into all the world, Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossi, Thessalonica, Pontius, Cappadocia, Bethinia.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 23 listen to what the Apostle Paul said.

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached – which was preached — to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister. Just as Jesus said, the Gospel would be preached to everyone in the world, everyone under heaven. So here Paul proclaims the fulfillment of Jesus prophecy which was preached to every creature under heaven!

All of this, all of this was Jesus prophecy of things preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. Everything we have discussed to this moment happened prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. They were the precursors of that which was to come.

The wars referred to earlier escalated between the Jews in Jerusalem and Rome until it reached a boiling point. Nero appointed Vespasian to prosecute the war against the Jews in Jerusalem. Assisted by his son Titus, they marched an army of 60,000 men against Jerusalem in 67 AD. As the Roman army marched through Judea towards Jerusalem, it spared no one, woman or child. The siege and surrounding Judea went on for 15 months. Vespasian leveled the cities of Galilee and the chief towns of Judea killing at least a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The terrors and calamities in the coastal city of Joppa were especially dreadful. Thousands of Jews took to ships to escape Vespasian’s fury, but a great tempest of wind pushed the ships back to land, and hundreds of vessels were dashed against the rocks. Many Jews killed themselves to escape being tortured by the Roman army. Over four thousand dead bodies were strewed along the coasts, and thousands more were killed inland. Thus was fulfilled Jesus prophecy Luke 21:25 and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.

While Vespasian returned to Caesarea to plan his great and final assault against Jerusalem, he was summoned back to Rome upon the death of Nero. His son Titus was left in charge of the Roman army. Thus there was a respite of almost two years before Titus would seize the city of Jerusalem. God again gave the Jews yet another chance to repent and turn to the Lord. After all these things that have already happened, pestilences, disease, death, earthquake, wars, 150,000 killed in Judea, after all of this there was a two-year respite. The Jews could have repented. The Jews could have turned to the Lord. God gave them another opportunity after all of the opportunities God had given Israel from the time of Moses, to the time of Joshua, to the Judges, to the prophets, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again for thousands of years God gave them an opportunity to repent, an opportunity to come to the Lord, an opportunity to obey God, an opportunity to be faithful to His Word, so many opportunities they’re too numerous to count! And now on the very verge of their destruction, on the very verge of the total annihilation of their people, their way of life, their religion, their Temple, their city, God gave them another chance to repent. And they did not. Think of all the opportunities God gave the children of Israel from the time Moses delivered them from bondage all the way through the times of the prophets. The plagues, the judgments, the invasions, the captivity, the miracles, the deliverance. And then came John the Baptist and they killed him. Then came their Messiah, and they crucified Him. They’re hard to stubbornness iniquity wickedness and blasphemy only grew worse and worse.

And now on the verge of total annihilation, the rebellion of the Jews against God intensified to unspeakable proportions. Inside the city of Jerusalem a great civil war broke out between the inhabitants. These two “factions” spared no one, women or children. They killed each other by the thousands. Eighty five hundred bodies lied rotting on the streets of Jerusalem killed by fellow Jews. Twelve thousand Jewish leaders were killed including many Pharisees. Their carcasses lay in heaps along the city streets. Unrestrained lawlessness ran rampant throughout Judea. There was no law. There was rampant, rampant, unbridled violence, murder, rape, pillage, plunder, death, destruction, Jew against Jew!

It was during this background that the city inhabitants became aware that the Roman army was approaching for its final assault. Listen to Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 begin reading from verse 15:

Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, (He’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem! There shall be great tribulation!) such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Let me pause right there. There has never in the history of the world been a slaughter, been an annihilation, been a destruction, of any people, of any city, anywhere in the history of the world, that compares to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. And since that dreadful destruction, in modern history, with all of the advances in technology, and all of the warfare, the bombs, the planes, the ships, the guns, the canons, everything, World War I, World War II, think of all of the great horrors of military conflict that have taken place, to this very day there has never been an annihilation of any people, anywhere, in any war, that compares to the annihilation of the city of Jerusalem just as Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 21, read it again, for then shall be Great Tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor shall ever be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

And in Luke 21 verse 20 Luke adds this, Jesus speaking:

Luke 21:20 ¶And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed (or surrounded) with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

When you see the Roman armies surrounding this city, your doom is upon you. Previously Jerusalem had been invaded, Jerusalem had been captured, Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, but now Jerusalem will be utterly and totally annihilated.

The day on which Titus encompassed Jerusalem was the Feast of the Passover, the 37th anniversary of the day when the Jews crucified their Messiah, 37 years to the day. Unaware of the bloodshed and the mayhem that was taking place in Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Jews faithfully came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover as they did each year, but in doing so this year they ignored the warning of Jesus.

Luke 21:21b …and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. (The city of Jerusalem.)

If you’re in the country, stay there. Do not enter the city of Jerusalem. The tens of thousands, yea, hundreds of thousands of Jews did just that. Josephus, the greatest of all Jewish historians, was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem. He was in Jerusalem when the siege began. He was taken prisoner by the Roman army, and when they recognized who he was, they spared his life, and they charged him to be an eyewitness on-site reporter, and to record every detail of the events that he witnessed during the course of this siege which is exactly what he did. Josephus said there were so many Roman crosses in Jerusalem one could hardly walk through the city. Rumors among the Roman troops were that Jews had swallowed gold, and you can imagine what the Roman troops did to the Jewish bodies in an attempt to recover the swallowed gold.

After visualizing the carnage that the Jews had inflicted upon themselves, and that now his troops were inflicting, Titus was so grieved at the scene that he stopped, raised his hand toward heaven, and prayed to God that he never intended so much death and destruction as the Jews had inflicted upon themselves. But the horrors of famine intensified. People were eating their belts, their sandals, the skins of their shields, dried grass and the order (???) of oxen. Men were eating each other, and women were eating their children. Remember the words of Jeremiah? Again Jesus warned Luke 23:28 as He was carrying his Cross to Mount Calvary and the women around Him were weeping Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children!” They had no idea what He meant, but Jesus knew what was soon to come to this city.

Finally, the Romans breached the inner wall, I am trying to make this as expeditious as I can leaving out so many details of this. Your imagination can take you to the scene and you can only imagine the horror that was taking place as I tell you about this. The Romans breached the inner wall and gained possession of the great Tower of Antonio in advance toward the Temple. Titus had determined in planning the siege to not, I repeat, to not destroy the Temple. He wanted to preserve it as a trophy of Rome. Titus would not have his way. As his soldiers began burning the Temple, Titus personally rode to the scene and commanded his men to spare the Temple. But so violent was the battle between the Romans and the Jews that they either did not see their commander, or if they did, they ignored him. Jews were rushing from every quarter to save the Temple. There is no language to describe the scene of fire and smoke and blood and death that ensued as the Jews fought desperately to save the Temple of God! And the Romans, obsessed with their destruction, it was something so unimaginable, it’s impossible to describe.

The old and the young, the feeble and the fit, the priests and the commoners, the Pharisees and the scribes, mothers and fathers, parents and children, brothers and sisters, the ground could not be seen! The ground could not be seen for dead bodies. Men were not walking on the earth, they were walking on the bodies of the dead. In some parts of the city, blood was up to the horse’s bridle.

Before the final demolition, however, Titus took a survey of the city and its fortifications. And while contemplating their impregnable strength, could not help ascribing a success to the peculiar interposition of Almighty God. He said, “Had not God himself aided our operations, and driven the Jews from their fortresses, it would have been absolutely impossible to have taken them. For what could men and the force of engines have done against such towers as these.” – The Roman general Titus.

After this he commanded that the city should be raised – leveled — to the foundations. Of the Jews destroyed during the siege, Josephus records not less than 1,100,000, to which must be added above two hundred and thirty seven thousand who perished in other places, and innumerable multitudes who were swept away by famine and pestilence of which no calculation could be made. The actual number of Jews killed in the siege of Jerusalem was somewhere within a million at the least, and maybe two million dead.

In executing the command of Titus relative to the demolition of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers not only threw down the buildings, but even dug up their foundations. You remember? Four hundred fifty feet deep! They dug up the foundations, and so completely leveled the whole circuit of the city that a stranger would scarcely have known that the city had ever been inhabited by human beings. Thus was the great city which only five months before had been crowded with nearly 2 million people, who glorified in its impregnable strength, entirely depopulated and level to the ground. And thus also was our Lord’s prediction that her enemies shall, “lay her even with the ground,” fully accomplished. This fact is confirmed by Eusebius who asserts that he himself saw the city lying in ruins.

Thus was literally fulfilled the prophecy of Micah in Micah 3:12

Micah 3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

So significant was the destruction of Jerusalem, that it is the subject of a very large portion of prophecies in both the old and new testaments. Pause, sadly the vast majority of pastors either ignore these prophecies or they misapply them, and take away their meaning completely applying it to something that wasn’t true! And so most people don’t even realize how many scores and scores of verses in both the Old and New Testaments prophesy the destruction of Jerusalem! In other words, God placed the destruction of Jerusalem as a monumental sign and lesson, not to Israel, but to the Church.

First this caveat: Titus was the most unlikely man throughout the Roman armies to become a scourge to Jerusalem. He was eminently distinguished for his great tenderness and humanity, which he displayed in a variety of instances during the siege. He repeatedly made specific overtures to the Jews, and deeply lamented the infatuation that rejected them. In short he did everything which a military commander could do to spare them and to preserve their city and Temple, but without effect. Thus was the will of God accomplished by human agency, although contrary to the wish of Titus, and his predicted interposition to punish his rebellious and apostate people in this way rendered more conspicuously evident. In other words, by using Titus to be the one through whom the destruction of Jerusalem would come, in itself, was a miracle, a sign for the Church, forever, that everything about the destruction of Israel was divine in origin. It was the fulfillment of prophecy, the judgment of God forever upon Israel, Jerusalem, their Temple, and their religion.

Think of it: Not a single Christian perished in the siege of Jerusalem. Think of it, Jerusalem is where the Church began. Remember the day of Pentecost 3,000 were saved baptized and added to the Church in one day, in Jerusalem. The Church grew by leaps and bounds! But not one single Christian died in the siege of Jerusalem. They were dispersed in persecution, and those that weren’t heeded the Oracles of God pertaining to the destruction of Jerusalem, and left before the siege began.

When Jesus said, “This generation shall not pass before all these things were fulfilled,” it came to pass just as He said. A generation is 40 years in biblical terminology. Within 40 years time everything that Jesus had predicted had come to pass. That generation of people did not pass. They saw, experienced, lived and died in that fulfilled prophecy.

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For copyright reasons I deleted the last part of the text. Please see the YouTube to hear the rest of Pastor Baldwin’s message.