"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications."[C]—Id., book 6, chap. 9.
Rather, we would say, in the light of Scripture teaching, the destruction that came upon the city was but the fruit of its own way. God's guardian care had long protected the city of David. When His protection was finally thrust aside and the people put themselves in the power of the great destroyer, divine justice could no longer save the city from the judgments that were bound to fall upon persistent transgression against light.
The lesson is one of those written "for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." Jerusalem, in that generation of great light and high privilege, fell because it knew not the time of its visitation. Still Christ's sad lament bears its warning to the ears of men: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42.
Part II
Having foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and given to the believers signs by which they might find deliverance in the day of its overthrow, Christ yet more fully answered the second part of the disciples' question, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3.
THE CATACOMBS NEAR ROME
In these underground passages persecuted Christians found a hiding place, held their services, and buried their dead.
The Period of Tribulation
Quickly He passed to the events of the latter days. But first He sketched, in a few words, the tribulations through which His church was to pass during the intervening centuries. Daniel the prophet had written of this experience, foretelling the long period during which the papal power was to "wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25. Of these times, Christ said in His prophetic discourse: