To those who think that the tribulation attending the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was not the worst calamity history will ever see, the following point needs to be understood.
Forget about the starvation, the numbers who died, the factions within, mothers eating their own children, etc. if you want. And compare those things recorded by Josephus to the tribulation experienced during the Flood, the World Wars, the Holocaust or abortion if this makes you feel justified in stating that Jesus could not possibly have been thinking of Jerusalem when He said; Mat 24:21KJV
But the greatest "tribulation" was not physical; it was spiritual. Never before or since has God, because of their continued wickedness, abandoned His chosen people to be systematically annihilated by an army chosen for that purpose. To have God tabernacle with you, to have the Shekhinah Glory, the temple of the true God of heaven and earth, and then, because of your wickedness in rejecting the Son, have it all taken away...
The oppression, despair, and anguish of that one fact raises the bar to a level of the absolute greatest tribulation that could ever befall a people and the most notable event in history.
I think I agree with Clefty here:
Matthew 24:21-22 KJV
(21) For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall 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 another passage that seems to speak in a similar sense:
Genesis 6:13 KJV
(13) And God said unto Noah,
The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
What Jesus describes doesn't seem to be confined to the destruction of one local city any more than God would have told Noah to build a huge boat for a local pond swelling.
Matthew 24:30 KJV
(30)
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and 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.
There's no indication that the whole world say the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and if so how did all the tribes of the earth mourn? Did China mourn? What about Egypt? Did the Roman Empire see the sign of Jesus in the sky and mourn in 70 A.D.? Why would Jesus say this if it didn't apply?
And if you are tempted to think that Noah's flood might be too great compared to Christ's return,
Matthew 24:37-39 KJV
(37)
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
(38) For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
(39) And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Perhaps that is referring to the suddenness of which it will occur, and the lack of other warning, but can you say there was a lack of other warning for Jerusalem in 70 A.D.? Couldn't someone with a little bit of political sense see what would happen if you provoked the Roman Empire?
It is difficult to see how the destruction of one city can compare as "greater tribulation" than the destruction of the entire world. God saved eight souls through Noah, but Jesus said with this tribulation
no flesh should be saved alive.
I think it's safe to say that this is yet to come. God may not destroy all flesh with a flood again, but we now have weapons of our own devising that
literally have the ability to destroy all flesh. I mean
literally literally, not
figuratively literally.