Page 119 - Satan in the Sanctuary

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was in reality a retributive act of God, and he discovered
a remarkable fact that is borne out under modern investi-
gation: The first and second Temples were destroyed on
the same day of the year.
He reasons:
It was fate that decreed it [the destruction] so to be,
which is inevitable, both as to living creatures and as to
works and places also. However, one cannot but wonder
at the accuracy of this period thereto relating; for the
same month and day were observed, . . . wherein the
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holy house was burnt formerly by the Babylonians.
I suppose that had the Romans made any longer delay
in coming against these villains the city would either have
been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or
been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such
thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had
brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical
than were those that suffered such punishments; for by
their madness it was that all the people came to be de-
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stroyed.
The date of the destruction of both Temples, 656 years
apart, was the ninth day of Av, in the Jewish calendar,
corresponding to mid-August. The devout Jews continue
to recognize this date of sorrow.
Should we watch for the Tribulation Temple to fall on
that same date in some future year?
Josephus saw himself as some kind of latter-day Jere-
miah, having warned the Jews to capitulate earlier in
order to save the Temple. He had, in fact, gone to John,
(according to his own report) the rebel commander, and
had given him a practical example from the Bible—Jeco-
niah's surrender to the Babylonians:

But still, John, it is never dishonorable to repent, and