6000 men, women and children lose their lives

Josephus’ “Jewish War”

The Jewish historian Josephus reported in his account “The Jewish War” in the very last days of Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70 that 6000 men, women, and children had listened to a false prophet sent by the Jewish leadership in the city of Jerusalem to go up to the temple where they would be safe.  They had already endured five months of famine, war, torture, and hardship after being besieged and surrounded by the Roman Army with no hope of escape.  This was their last hope and it was at the very end of the war.  The temple of God had almost been completely destroyed and there were only days to go before the final capitulation of the whole city.  Thousands of people had already lost their lives due to murder, starvation, and crucifixion by the Romans of those who had tried to escape the encircled walls.  Josephus even records one account where a mother, Mary, the daughter of Eleazar had murdered her young son whom she was still breastfeeding and ate him, such was the burning hunger of its citizens at this time.  The 6000 people who died were trapped on the temple mount.  Many were burnt alive while others jumped off the high platform.  Not one of them escaped alive all due to the fact that they had listened to and put their trust in a false prophet.  Many other false prophets days before had begun telling the people to wait for a sign from God.  What they didn’t know was that these prophets were hirelings put up by the party chiefs to reduce the number of deserters and to buoy up the hope of the people.  

The destruction of Jerusalem

The destruction of Jerusalem is going to happen again at the Battle of Armageddon in the not too distant future and there are going to be more false prophets trying to assuage the worries of the people.  What is the warning for us?  Obviously, don’t listen to false prophets.  One of the ways you can tell a false prophet is that they will often try to give you good news and tell you not to worry.  They will tell you to relax–everything is going to be fine–you just need to trust the Lord–He won’t allow you to be persecuted or you won’t be killed.

Many people were saved in this final destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 but some 1.1 million didn’t survive.  Titus’ arch, pictured above when I was in Rome in 2014, is one of the most important pieces of archaeology in the world that proves biblical history.  It is a tribute to General Titus who won the war against the Jews in AD 70.  It depicts in sculpture form how the Jews were defeated.  You can see on the relief the walls of the city and how the soldiers are attacking it.  On another relief on another side, you see the golden menorah (candlestick) being carried away.  Much plunder was taken.    

Historical precedence of escape to Jordan

Many Christians who had heeded a prophetic possibly angelic warning escaped beforehand.  The fourth century church historian, Eusebius, cites the tradition of how many Christians escaped to Pella beyond the Jordan River upon seeing Jerusalem surrounded just like the Luke 21:20 prophecy warns.  They knew that it was time to escape and as a result, many lives were saved.  The problem was that when Titus attacked Jerusalem it was Passover AD 70 and hundreds of thousands of visitors had flocked to Jerusalem for the spring feast.  The population of Jerusalem was greatly swollen and now they were trapped.  The trick to escaping trouble in my opinion is to act early before it’s too late.  Once the trap is set it is generally too late.

False prophets

This was not the first time that the Jews had been given a false sense of security by false prophets.  In Jeremiah’s day, the weeping prophet Jeremiah continually warned Judah that the destruction of Jerusalem was coming from the north.¹  He was referring to the Babylonian kingdom and how it would come and destroy Jerusalem.  Jeremiah said that there was a chance that they could be saved if they only returned to God.²  What do you think the response was?  There were false prophets telling the people that there would not be sword, suffering, or famine but only a lasting peace.³  But God tells Jeremiah that they were prophesying lies.⁴  And to be sure that is the way of Satan and it will be no different again when the final destruction of Jerusalem is imminent.  But one thing we do know is that the Messiah Jesus will come at the final moment of the Day of Atonement in the 7th year of the tribulation and he will save His people.  One-third of the Jews will be saved and they will finally see Jesus as the promised Messiah.  But there is a promise for us Christians that we can escape early, some 1290 days beforehand into the wilderness which is the point of this website.

In the meantime, don’t listen to false prophets.  The final tyrant and false prophet will make all sorts of false promises of peace and safety.⁵  He will be saying, “stay put” when really we need to escape.  We need to see the warning signs.  Just like for the 1st-century people trapped in the city of Jerusalem in AD 70 and how it couldn’t save them from the Romans, we won’t be saved by our own inaction either.  The war drums are beating and Satan is gathering his forces ready for the final battle of our time.  Read the Penguin classic, “The Fall of Jerusalem,” by Josephus to get the full story of just how terrible it was and the besieging of Rome by Titus and his army.