Time Of The Nations

 "'When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that the time has come when it will be reduced to a wasteland.  If you are in Judea, flee to the mountains!  If you are in Jerusalem, leave!  If you are outside the city, don't enter it!

For these will be the days of its punishment, and all that was announced in the Scriptures will be fulfilled.  How hard will it be for pregnant women, and for mothers with babies at the breast!  For a great calamity will come upon the land, and wrath upon this people.  They will be put to death by the sword or taken as slaves to other nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled upon by the pagans, until the time of the pagans is fulfilled.

Then there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations, perplexed when they hear the roaring of the sea and its waves.  People will faint with fear at the mere thought of what is to come upon the world, for the forces of the universe will be shaken.  Then, at that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

So, when you see things begin to happen, stand erect and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is drawing near.'" - Luke 21:20-28 

(For a great calamity will come upon the land.  Luke foretells the destruction of the Jewish nation more clearly than Matthew and Mark do.

Until the time of the pagans is fulfilled.  Luke divides history into two ages.  One corresponds to the Old Testament: that was the time when Sacred History was almost the same as the history of Israel.  Then, after JESUS, came the time of the nations.  The destruction of the Jewish nation and the dispersal of its people inaugurated a new era, which would be mostly the history of the evangelization and education of the nations by the Church.  We could call that period the times of the New Testament, which will end with the great crisis concluding human history.)

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