The Great Controversy
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 1: The Destruction of Jerusalem
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Looking down to the last generation, Jesus saw the world involved in
a deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem.
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Review and Herald Publ. Assoc. |
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"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. 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, and shall
lay thee 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." Luke 19:42-44. {GC 17.1}
From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair
and peaceful was the scene spread out before Him. It was the season of the
Passover, and from all lands the children of Jacob had gathered there to
celebrate the great national festival. In the midst of gardens and vineyards,
and green slopes studded with pilgrims' tents, rose the terraced hills, the
stately palaces, and massive bulwarks of Israel's capital. The daughter of Zion
seemed in her pride to say, I sit a queen and shall see no sorrow; as lovely
then, and deeming herself as secure in Heaven's favor, as when, ages before,
the royal minstrel sang: "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, is Mount Zion, . . . the city of the great King." Psalm
48:2. In full view were the magnificent buildings of the temple. The rays of
the setting sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls and gleamed
from golden gate and tower and pinnacle. "The perfection of [18]
beauty" it stood, the pride of the Jewish nation. What child of Israel
could gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far other
thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus. "When He was come near, He beheld the
city, and wept over it." Luke 19:41. Amid the universal rejoicing of the
triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the
echoes of the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him king, the world's
Redeemer was overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of
God, the Promised One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called its
captives from the grave, was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of intense,
irrepressible agony. {GC
17.2}
His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither
His feet were tending. Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching
agony. The sheepgate also was in sight, through which for centuries the victims
for sacrifice had been led, and which was to open for Him when He should be
"brought as a lamb to the slaughter." Isaiah 53:7. Not far distant
was Calvary, the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to
tread must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an
offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that cast
the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His own
superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the doomed
thousands of Jerusalem—because of the blindness and impenitence of
those whom He came to bless and to save. {GC 18.1}
The history of more than a thousand years of God's special
favor and guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye
of Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting
victim, had been bound to the altar—emblem of the offering of the Son
of God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise, had
been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis 22:9, 16-18. There the
flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing floor of Ornan
had turned [19] aside the sword of the destroying
angel (1 Chronicles 21)—fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and
mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God above all the
earth. The Lord had "chosen Zion," He had "desired it for His
habitation." Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered
their messages of warning. There priests had waved their censers, and the cloud
of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended before God. There
daily the blood of slain lambs had been offered, pointing forward to the Lamb
of God. There Jehovah had revealed His presence in the cloud of glory above the
mercy seat. There rested the base of that mystic ladder connecting earth with
heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51)—that ladder upon which angels of
God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the
holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven,
Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But
the history of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion.
They had resisted Heaven's grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their
opportunities. {GC 18.2}
Although Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, and
despised His words, and misused His prophets" (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had
still manifested Himself to them, as "the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6);
notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy had continued its pleadings.
With more than a father's pitying love for the son of his care, God had
"sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because
He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place." 2 Chronicles
36:15. When remonstrance, entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the
best gift of heaven; nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift. {GC 19.1}
The Son of God Himself was sent to plead with the impenitent
city. It was Christ that had brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt.
Psalm 80:8. His own hand had cast [20] out the heathen before it. He had
planted it "in a very fruitful hill." His guardian care had hedged it
about. His servants had been sent to nurture it. "What could have been
done more to My vineyard," He exclaims, "that I have not done in
it?" Isaiah 5:1-4. Though when He looked that it should bring forth
grapes, it brought forth wild grapes, yet with a still yearning hope of
fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard, if haply it might be saved from
destruction. He digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished it. He was
unwearied in His efforts to save this vine of His own planting. {GC 19.2}
For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and
out among His people. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil," binding up the brokenhearted, setting at liberty
them that were bound, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk
and the deaf to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and preaching the
gospel to the poor. Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. To all classes alike
was addressed the gracious call: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. {GC 20.1}
Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love
(Psalm 109:5), He had steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were
those repelled that sought His grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury
His daily lot, He lived to minister to the needs and lighten the woes of men,
to plead with them to accept the gift of life. The waves of mercy, beaten back
by those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of pitying, inexpressible
love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper. The pleadings
of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings ridiculed. {GC 20.2}
The hour of hope and pardon was fast passing; the cup of
God's long-deferred wrath was almost full. The cloud that had been gathering
through ages of apostasy and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to burst
upon a guilty people; [21] and He who alone could save them
from their impending fate had been slighted, abused, rejected, and was soon to
be crucified. When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel's day
as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended. The loss of even one
soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains and treasures of a world;
but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation,
was before Him—that city, that nation, which had once been the chosen
of God, His peculiar treasure. {GC 20.3}
Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the
terrible desolations by which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his
eyes were a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain
of the daughter of his people, for the Lord's flock that was carried away captive.
Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the grief of Him whose prophetic glance
took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword
uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah's dwelling place. From
the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and his army, He
looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and porticoes, and with
tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the walls surrounded by alien
hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling for war. He heard the voice of
mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city. He saw her holy and
beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames, and where once
they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins. {GC 21.1}
Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered
in every land, "like wrecks on a desert shore." In the temporal
retribution about to fall upon her children, He saw but the first draft from
that cup of wrath which at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs.
Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words: "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I [22] have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not!" O that thou, a nation favored above every other,
hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that belong unto thy
peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee to repentance,
but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast
refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art
destroyed, thou alone art responsible. "Ye will not come to Me, that ye
might have life." Matthew 23:37; John 5:40. {GC 21.2}
Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in
unbelief and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of
God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips
that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery,
tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted and
suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His hand
might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only Source of
help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within
their reach; but few would come to Him that they might have life. {GC 22.1}
The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God
troubled in spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with
wonder. That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how
hard a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty from the
consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking down to the last
generation, saw the world involved in a deception similar to that which caused
the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of
Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the
law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts
of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions in bondage to sin,
slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would [23] refuse
to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness!
strange infatuation! {GC
22.2}
Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last
time departed from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish
rulers, He again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives and seated
Himself with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the city. Once more He
gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once more He beheld the
temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning the sacred mount. {GC 23.1}
A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God's
favor to Israel in making her holy house His dwelling place: "In Salem
also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion." He "chose
the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary
like high palaces." Psalm 76:2; 78:68, 69. The first temple had been
erected during the most prosperous period of Israel's history. Vast stores of
treasure for this purpose had been collected by King David, and the plans for
its construction were made by divine inspiration. 1 Chronicles 28:12, 19.
Solomon, the wisest of Israel's monarchs, had completed the work. This temple
was the most magnificent building which the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had
declared by the prophet Haggai, concerning the second temple: "The glory
of this latter house shall be greater than of the former." "I will
shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill
this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:9, 7. {GC 23.2}
After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar it was
rebuilt about five hundred years before the birth of Christ by a people who
from a lifelong captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted country.
There were then among them aged men who had seen the glory of Solomon's temple,
and who wept at the foundation of the new building, that it must be so inferior
to the former. The feeling that prevailed is forcibly described by the prophet:
"Who is [24] left among you that saw this
house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in
comparison of it as nothing?" Haggai 2:3; Ezra 3:12. Then was given the
promise that the glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the
former. {GC 23.3}
But the second temple had not equaled the first in
magnificence; nor was it hallowed by those visible tokens of the divine
presence which pertained to the first temple. There was no manifestation of
supernatural power to mark its dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill
the newly erected sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the
sacrifice upon its altar. The Shekinah no longer abode between the cherubim in
the most holy place; the ark, the mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony
were not to be found therein. No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the
inquiring priest the will of Jehovah. {GC 24.1}
For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein
the promise of God given by Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief
blinded their minds to the true meaning of the prophet's words. The second
temple was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but with the living
presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily—who
was God Himself manifest in the flesh. The "Desire of all nations"
had indeed come to His temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the
sacred courts. In the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second
temple exceed the first in glory. But Israel had put from her the proffered
Gift of heaven. With the humble Teacher who had that day passed out from its
golden gate, the glory had forever departed from the temple. Already were the
Saviour's words fulfilled: "Your house is left unto you desolate."
Matthew 23:38. {GC 24.2}
The disciples had been filled with awe and wonder at
Christ's prediction of the overthrow of the temple, and they desired to
understand more fully the meaning of His words. Wealth, labor, and
architectural skill had for more than forty years been freely expended to
enhance its splendors. Herod [25] the Great had lavished upon it
both Roman wealth and Jewish treasure, and even the emperor of the world had
enriched it with his gifts. Massive blocks of white marble, of almost fabulous
size, forwarded from Rome for this purpose, formed a part of its structure; and
to these the disciples had called the attention of their Master, saying:
"See what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" Mark 13:1. {GC 24.3}
To these words, Jesus made the solemn and startling reply:
"Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon
another, that shall not be thrown down." Matthew 24:2. {GC 25.1}
With the overthrow of Jerusalem the disciples associated the
events of Christ's personal coming in temporal glory to take the throne of
universal empire, to punish the impenitent Jews, and to break from off the
nation the Roman yoke. The Lord had told them that He would come the second
time. Hence at the mention of judgments upon Jerusalem, their minds reverted to
that coming; and as they were gathered about the Saviour upon the Mount of
Olives, they asked: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the
sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Verse 3. {GC 25.2}
The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had
they at that time fully comprehend the two awful facts—the Redeemer's
sufferings and death, and the destruction of their city and temple—they
would have been overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an
outline of the prominent events to take place before the close of time. His
words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as
His people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He
uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of
Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day. {GC 25.3}
Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that
were to fall upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance
that would come upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah.
Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would come [26]
suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: "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:) then let
them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Matthew 24:15, 16; Luke
21:20, 21. When the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the
holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the
followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign should
be seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the land of
Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be
immediately obeyed. He who chanced to be upon the housetop must not go down
into his house, even to save his most valued treasures. Those who were working in
the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for the outer garment laid
aside while they should be toiling in the heat of the day. They must not
hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the general destruction. {GC 25.4}
In the reign of Herod, Jerusalem had not only been greatly
beautified, but by the erection of towers, walls, and fortresses, adding to the
natural strength of its situation, it had been rendered apparently impregnable.
He who would at this time have foretold publicly its destruction, would, like
Noah in his day, have been called a crazed alarmist. But Christ had said:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35. Because of her sins, wrath had been denounced against Jerusalem,
and her stubborn unbelief rendered her doom certain. {GC 26.1}
The Lord had declared by the prophet Micah: "Hear this,
I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel,
that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests
thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will
they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
upon us." Micah 3:9-11. [27] {GC 26.2}
These words faithfully described the corrupt and
self-righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the
precepts of God's law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated
Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they
accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come upon them in
consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless, they had
declared that His death was necessary to their safety as a nation. "If we
let Him thus alone," said the Jewish leaders, "all men will believe
on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and
nation." John 11:48. If Christ were sacrificed, they might once more
become a strong, united people. Thus they reasoned, and they concurred in the
decision of their high priest, that it would be better for one man to die than
for the whole nation to perish. {GC 27.1}
Thus the Jewish leaders had built up "Zion with blood,
and Jerusalem with iniquity." Micah 3:10. And yet, while they slew their
Saviour because He reproved their sins, such was their self-righteousness that
they regarded themselves as God's favored people and expected the Lord to
deliver them from their enemies. "Therefore," continued the prophet,
"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."
Verse 12. {GC 27.2}
For nearly forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been
pronounced by Christ Himself, the Lord delayed His judgments upon the city and
the nation. Wonderful was the long-suffering of God toward the rejectors of His
gospel and the murderers of His Son. The parable of the unfruitful tree
represented God's dealings with the Jewish nation. The command had gone forth,
"Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13:7) but divine
mercy had spared it yet a little longer. There were still many among the Jews
who were ignorant of the character and the work of Christ. And the children had
not enjoyed the opportunities or [28] received the light which their
parents had spurned. Through the preaching of the apostles and their
associates, God would cause light to shine upon them; they would be permitted
to see how prophecy had been fulfilled, not only in the birth and life of
Christ, but in His death and resurrection. The children were not condemned for
the sins of the parents; but when, with a knowledge of all the light given to
their parents, the children rejected the additional light granted to
themselves, they became partakers of the parents' sins, and filled up the
measure of their iniquity. {GC
27.3}
The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed
the Jews in their stubborn impenitence. In their hatred and cruelty toward the
disciples of Jesus they rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God withdrew His
protection from them and removed His restraining power from Satan and his
angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she had chosen.
Her children had spurned the grace of Christ, which would have enabled them to
subdue their evil impulses, and now these became the conquerors. Satan aroused
the fiercest and most debased passions of the soul. Men did not reason; they
were beyond reason—controlled by impulse and blind rage. They became
satanic in their cruelty. In the family and in the nation, among the highest
and the lowest classes alike, there was suspicion, envy, hatred, strife,
rebellion, murder. There was no safety anywhere. Friends and kindred betrayed
one another. Parents slew their children, and children their parents. The
rulers of the people had no power to rule themselves. Uncontrolled passions
made them tyrants. The Jews had accepted false testimony to condemn the
innocent Son of God. Now false accusations made their own lives uncertain. By
their actions they had long been saying: "Cause the Holy One of Israel to
cease from before us." Isaiah 30:11. Now their desire was granted. The
fear of God no longer disturbed them. Satan [29] was at
the head of the nation, and the highest civil and religious authorities were
under his sway. {GC 28.1}
The leaders of the opposing factions at times united to
plunder and torture their wretched victims, and again they fell upon each
other's forces and slaughtered without mercy. Even the sanctity of the temple
could not restrain their horrible ferocity. The worshipers were stricken down
before the altar, and the sanctuary was polluted with the bodies of the slain.
Yet in their blind and blasphemous presumption the instigators of this hellish
work publicly declared that they had no fear that Jerusalem would be destroyed,
for it was God's own city. To establish their power more firmly, they bribed
false prophets to proclaim, even while Roman legions were besieging the temple,
that the people were to wait for deliverance from God. To the last, multitudes
held fast to the belief that the Most High would interpose for the defeat of
their adversaries. But Israel had spurned the divine protection, and now she
had no defense. Unhappy Jerusalem! rent by internal dissensions, the blood of
her children slain by one another's hands crimsoning her streets, while alien
armies beat down her fortifications and slew her men of war! {GC 29.1}
All the predictions given by Christ concerning the destruction
of Jerusalem were fulfilled to the letter. The Jews experienced the truth of
His words of warning: "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again." Matthew 7:2. {GC 29.2}
Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In
the midst of the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar.
Upon the clouds at sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for
battle. The priests ministering by night in the sanctuary were terrified by
mysterious sounds; the earth trembled, and a multitude of voices were heard
crying: "Let us depart hence." The great eastern gate, which was so
heavy that it could hardly be shut by a score of men, and which was secured by [30]
immense bars of iron fastened deep in the pavement of solid stone, opened at
midnight, without visible agency.—Milman, The History of the Jews,
book 13. {GC 29.3}
For seven years a man continued to go up and down the
streets of Jerusalem, declaring the woes that were to come upon the city. By
day and by night he chanted the wild dirge: "A voice from the east! a
voice from the west! a voice from the four winds! a voice against Jerusalem and
against the temple! a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides! a voice
against the whole people!"—Ibid. This strange being was
imprisoned and scourged, but no complaint escaped his lips. To insult and abuse
he answered only: "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" "woe, woe to the
inhabitants thereof!" His warning cry ceased not until he was slain in the
siege he had foretold. {GC
30.1}
Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem.
Christ had given His disciples warning, and all who believed His words watched
for the promised sign. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with
armies," said Jesus, "then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are
in the midst of it depart out." Luke 21:20, 21. After the Romans under
Cestius had surrounded the city, they unexpectedly abandoned the siege when
everything seemed favorable for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing
of successful resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman
general withdrew his forces without the least apparent reason. But God's
merciful providence was directing events for the good of His own people. The
promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians, and now an opportunity
was offered for all who would, to obey the Saviour's warning. Events were so
overruled that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the flight of the
Christians. Upon the retreat of Cestius, the Jews, sallying from Jerusalem,
pursued after his retiring army; and while both forces were thus fully engaged,
the Christians had an opportunity to leave the city. At this time the country
also [31]
had been cleared of enemies who might have endeavored to intercept them. At the
time of the siege, the Jews were assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles, and thus the Christians throughout the land were able to make
their escape unmolested. Without delay they fled to a place of safety—the
city of Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan. {GC 30.2}
The Jewish forces, pursuing after Cestius and his army, fell
upon their rear with such fierceness as to threaten them with total
destruction. It was with great difficulty that the Romans succeeded in making
their retreat. The Jews escaped almost without loss, and with their spoils
returned in triumph to Jerusalem. Yet this apparent success brought them only
evil. It inspired them with that spirit of stubborn resistance to the Romans
which speedily brought unutterable woe upon the doomed city. {GC 31.1}
Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when
the siege was resumed by Titus. The city was invested at the time of the
Passover, when millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores
of provision, which if carefully preserved would have supplied the inhabitants
for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy and revenge of
the contending factions, and now all the horrors of starvation were
experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So fierce were the pangs
of hunger that men would gnaw the leather of their belts and sandals and the
covering of their shields. Great numbers of the people would steal out at night
to gather wild plants growing outside the city walls, though many were seized
and put to death with cruel torture, and often those who returned in safety
were robbed of what they had gleaned at so great peril. The most inhuman
tortures were inflicted by those in power, to force from the want-stricken
people the last scanty supplies which they might have concealed. And these
cruelties were not infrequently practiced by men who were themselves well fed,
and who were merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the future. [32]
{GC 31.2}
Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural
affection seemed to have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives
their husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of
their aged parents. The question of the prophet, "Can a woman forget her
sucking child?" received the answer within the walls of that doomed city:
"The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were
their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." Isaiah 49:15;
Lamentations 4:10. Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen
centuries before: "The tender and delicate woman among you, which would
not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and
tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward
her son, and toward her daughter, . . . and toward her children which
she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the
siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy
gates." Deuteronomy 28:56, 57. {GC 32.1}
The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews
and thus cause them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were
scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were
daily put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along
the Valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great
numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was
visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate:
"His blood be on us, and on our children." Matthew 27:25. {GC 32.2}
Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene,
and thus have spared Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was filled with
horror as he saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like one
entranced, he looked from the crest of Olivet upon the magnificent temple and
gave command that not one stone of it be touched. Before attempting to gain
possession of this stronghold, [33] he made an earnest appeal to the
Jewish leaders not to force him to defile the sacred place with blood. If they
would come forth and fight in any other place, no Roman should violate the
sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself, in a most eloquent appeal, entreated
them to surrender, to save themselves, their city, and their place of worship.
But his words were answered with bitter curses. Darts were hurled at him, their
last human mediator, as he stood pleading with them. The Jews had rejected the
entreaties of the Son of God, and now expostulation and entreaty only made them
more determined to resist to the last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to
save the temple; One greater than he had declared that not one stone was to be
left upon another. {GC
32.3}
The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the
detestable crimes perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and
indignation of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by
storm. He determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from
destruction. But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his
tent at night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers
without. In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening
in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house
were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and
legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were
unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers
adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered in great
numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the temple steps
like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above the sound of
battle, voices were heard shouting: "Ichabod!"—the glory is
departed. {GC 33.1}
"Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the
soldiery; he entered with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred
edifice. The splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet
penetrated to the holy place, [34] he made a last effort to save it,
and springing forth, again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the
conflagration. The centurion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience with his
staff of office; but even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious
animosity against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the
insatiable hope of plunder. The soldiers saw everything around them radiant
with gold, which shone dazzlingly in the wild light of the flames; they
supposed that incalculable treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A soldier,
unperceived, thrust a lighted torch between the hinges of the door: the whole
building was in flames in an instant. The blinding smoke and fire forced the
officers to retreat, and the noble edifice was left to its fate. {GC 33.2}
"It was an appalling spectacle to the Roman—what
was it to the Jew? The whole summit of the hill which commanded the city,
blazed like a volcano. One after another the buildings fell in, with a
tremendous crash, and were swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedar
were like sheets of flame; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of red light;
the gate towers sent up tall columns of flame and smoke. The neighboring hills
were lighted up; and dark groups of people were seen watching in horrible
anxiety the progress of the destruction: the walls and heights of the upper
city were crowded with faces, some pale with the agony of despair, others
scowling unavailing vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiery as they ran to
and fro, and the howlings of the insurgents who were perishing in the flames,
mingled with the roaring of the conflagration and the thundering sound of
falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied or brought back the
shrieks of the people on the heights; all along the walls resounded screams and
wailings; men who were expiring with famine rallied their remaining strength to
utter a cry of anguish and desolation. [35] {GC 34.1}
"The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the
spectacle from without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests,
those who fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in
indiscriminate carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers.
The legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of
extermination."—Milman, The History of the Jews, book 16.
{GC 35.1}
After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon
fell into the hands of the Romans. The leaders of the Jews forsook their
impregnable towers, and Titus found them solitary. He gazed upon them with
amazement, and declared that God had given them into his hands; for no engines,
however powerful, could have prevailed against those stupendous battlements.
Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground
upon which the holy house had stood was "plowed like a field."
Jeremiah 26:18. In the siege and the slaughter that followed, more than a
million of the people perished; the survivors were carried away as captives,
sold as slaves, dragged to Rome to grace the conqueror's triumph, thrown to
wild beasts in the amphitheaters, or scattered as homeless wanderers throughout
the earth. {GC 35.2}
The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for
themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a
nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were
but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet:
"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;" "for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity." Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented
as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that
the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of
divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be
withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his
will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the [36]
destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over
those who yield to his control. {GC 35.3}
We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and
protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents
mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and
unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering
in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men
pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not
stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against
transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap
that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised
or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is
a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently
resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power
to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and
enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning
to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the
pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to
God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the
guilty. {GC 36.1}
The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of
judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible
desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold
the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law.
Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its long
centuries of crime. The heart sickens, and the mind grows faint in
contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority of
Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the future.
The records of the past,—the long procession of tumults, [37]
conflicts, and revolutions, the "battle of the warrior . . .
with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5),—what
are these, in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit
of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check
the outburst of human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as
never before, the results of Satan's rule. {GC 36.2}
But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem's destruction,
God's people will be delivered, everyone that shall be found written among the
living. Isaiah 4:3. Christ has declared that He will come the second time to
gather His faithful ones to Himself: "Then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other." Matthew 24:30, 31. Then shall they that
obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth and be destroyed
with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Like Israel of old the
wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they
have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have become so
debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming
fire. {GC 37.1}
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Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them
in the words of Christ. As He warned His disciples of Jerusalem's destruction,
giving them a sign of the approaching ruin, that they might make their escape;
so He has warned the world of the day of final destruction and has given them
tokens of its approach, that all who will may flee from the wrath to come.
Jesus declares: "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in
the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations." Luke 21:25; Matthew
24:29; Mark 13:24-26; Revelation 6:12-17. Those who behold these harbingers of
His coming are to "know that it is near, even [38] at the
doors." Matthew 24:33. "Watch ye therefore," are His words of
admonition. Mark 13:35. They that heed the warning shall not be left in
darkness, that that day should overtake them unawares. But to them that will
not watch, "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." 1
Thessalonians 5:2-5. {GC
37.2}
The world is no more ready to credit the message for this
time than were the Jews to receive the Saviour's warning concerning Jerusalem.
Come when it may, the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly. When life
is going on in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in
business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are magnifying
the world's progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled in a false
security—then, as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded
dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly,
"and they shall not escape." Verse 3. {GC 38.1}
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"Persecution in the First Centuries"
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