All very fine, but the end has not come, nor has the gospel been preached to the ends of the earth. Nor has Christ come like the lightening from the east to west in all His glory and all the nations mourn. Nor the sun darkened or moon not give it’s light (nice and sunny here today and a full moon was out the other night). I haven’t heard any trumpets blowing, nor seen His elect gathered up. I’d say you are a few groceries short of a full bag.
Was it CS Lewis that compared our physical bodies to a waterfall? The actual physical components are constantly changing, but the shape remains. Perhaps our new bodies will be made from entirely new material.
Sonia
I don’t recall Josephus reporting those either. 
Whereas, I do recall Josephus giving some details which don’t quite match up with Jesus’ predictions about the siege and destruction. (As an apologist for many years, I’ve occasionally had to answer concerning the discrepancies.)
SLJ,
YES!! 
And on the topic of the general bodily resurrection, too. (I use that metaphor, though not in regard to the general res, as a poignant poetic description by a character twice in CoJ. I’ll probably have her use it again at least once before she dies.)
Not me, Christ. So He was wrong, you’re right and John the apostle is still wandering the earth. And God is as angry as ever because He IS counting men’s sins against them. Another Gospel.
Luther was right - the bible is a plaything.
Supposing that everything predicted before the Temple’s destruction, you still haven’t accounted for everything. I’d like to believe you, but we are all still here. The end hasn’t come. If you are going to debate, why don’t you explain how everything has occurred rather than dissing me that I’m presenting another gospel?
Still scratching my head about the whole John thing.
Believe Christ and pray for understanding. Assume that Christ was correct and Glenn Beck is wrong. Try it for a few days. Years ago, I did that very thing but with Hal Lindsey. Stay with that assumption and don’t doubt it - just for a few days…and study. Put yourself as a Jew on Mt. Olivet listening to Him in 33ad…then jump to 69ad and flee with the rest of the gathered up Jerusalem church. Yes, that’s documented. Don’t believe me - believe Him.
And come on - you can find the John thing yourself.
The thing I see as more than one ‘coming’ is in the manner in which Christ returns. I Thess 4, the saints meet him in the air. And it sorta follows the scheme in Matt 24:30. On the other hand, the scriptures also speak of Christ touching down on the Mount of Olives, creating an earthquake as in Zech. 14:14. This kinda follows what the two beings told the disciples would happen at Christ’s ascension in Acts 1. The angels tell the disciples that Christ will come in like manner as He arose. So will Christ meet us in the air or on the ground? (Where’s Paul Revere when you need him?)
I tend to believe that He will change our current bodies into glorious bodies. Though in the Rapture, it has been theorize that that could produce some traumatic results in the case of unregenerate organ recepients. (Sorry, Charlie, but Bill needs his heart back for the resurrection. Oops, Casey is suddenly blind again cause her cornea implants have disappeared). Not to mention how those who were cremated will come together now that their ashes have been scattered into space.
We have Jesus as the example. He was raised in the same body, evidenced by the scars on His hands and feet, yet able to do things unconventional with it, like appear and disappear, eat fish and honey, but not be recognized. I suspect some quantum thing going on, but I’m not well enough versed in physics to make a sound judgment. But I believe it will be scientifically explanable.
In case anyone is wondering what Gospel texts we’re talking about, and the various predictions thereof (not counting other things like RevJohn, though most Christians count RevJohn, too–and other cataclysmic prophecies, mostly from the OT, about events preceding the coming Day of the Lord):
In GosMatt chapter 23, Jesus has just finished His ultimate denunciation of the religious authorities who were hypocritically opposing Him (most of verses 1-37). He storms out (vv 38,39) promising that they shall not see Him again until they say (in the day of the Lord to come), “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!”–and that their house is thus being left to them. (Some manuscripts add “desolated”.)
As Jesus comes out from the temple, His disciples (maybe trying to cheer Him up) come up to Him to point out all the fine temple buildings. He answers predicting that “not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (24:2)
When the disciples come to Him privately later (v.3), as He is sitting on the Mount of Olives (probably in the Gethsemene olive grove, watching the city), they ask Him when “these things” shall happen–by narrative context, it seems pretty clear we’re supposed to understand those things just mentioned (including the destruction of the Temple). They also want to know what will be the sign of His coming, and of the end (or consummation) of the age. GosMatt presents the rest of chapter 24, plus 25, as Jesus’ answer to them.
So, per GosMatt chps 24 and 25 (not counting other places in this or other Gospels yet), here are the signs; along with how clearly they were fulfilled by the fall of the Temple (and the rest of Jerusalem):
Many false Messiahs must come first, claiming to be the Christ, misleading many (24:5-6). Josephus and other contemporary reports don’t indicate that many false Messiahs claiming to be Christ showed up between this time and the fall of Jerusalem (which was instigated by the Zealot party, but not by false messiahs per se. Contrast to the events leading up to the Bar Kochba revolt much later, in the 2nd century.) Josephus isn’t very fond of talking about false messiahs per se in the first place, though; so he may have glossed over that. It certainly isn’t impossible that it happened.
Wars and rumors of wars must come first, but these are not yet the end, and the impression is that these are normal things not to get worked up about as being special indicators. Still, it won’t come in a time of relative peace. (v.6, 7a) The Roman internal and external fighting was fiercer than usual before the fall of Jerusalem.
Famines and earthquakes in various (unnamed) places. (v.7) Unsure about those being attested to as leading into that time, though famines would make some sense due to political unrest in the Empire (due to squabbling over the throne of Nero.)
But all those things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (v.8) So quite a ways to go after them, maybe, before the destruction of the Temple and the Day of the Lord to come.
Christians (including the apostles, by context) will be delivered into tribulation and slain. (v.9) Peter, at least (who is definitely there in this scene in another Gospel), was an apostle slain by the Empire, before the Jewish War.
Christians will be hated by all nations on account of Jesus’ name. (v.9b) Might be considered very hyperbolically fulfilled before the Jewish War, perhaps; but actually, aside from Nero trying to blame Christians for the Roman fire (which actually back-fired in a way by eliciting pity for them from the people), Christians were getting along pretty well with the Empire before the Jewish War. Josephus hardly presents them as being hated by all the nations! (What little he has to say about them is moderately negative at worst.) Jews were agitating for various reasons (including in Rome, over someone named Chrestus, per the historian Suetonius), but as a general rule the protections offered by the state to Jews, protected the Christians as well–until after the Jewish War.
Many will stumble, and hate each other, and betray each other. (v.10) If this refers to Christians (contextually from v.9), it doesn’t seem to have been a big thing leading into the Jewish War. But it might refer to local (Imperial) populations generally, in which case yep there was quite a bit of that leading directly to the Jewish War.
Many false prophets will come, misleading many. (v.11) This could pretty easily refer to the Zealots and their religious supporters.
Because lawlessness is increased, the love of many will grow cold. (v.12) That could pretty easily refer to the Zealots and their rebellion, too. (Though also to the general uprisings among the Romans at that time. That power vacuum and squabbling was a big reason why the Zealots believed the time had come to rebel, seize the Temple, oust the Sanhedrin, and declare war on Rome. For which they expected the Messiah to arise to save them.)
v.13 isn’t a sign per se, so skipping that.
The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations in the inhabited lands for a witness–then the end shall come. (v.14) The phrase, at that time, typically referred to official territories of the Roman Empire. St. Paul later thinks it has been preached to all the inhabited lands; though he may be just indulging in some rhetorical rejoicing. (It isn’t likely that he has a map sitting around with reports from apostles everywhere saying, yep this territory, etc.) Taken in whatever sense Paul was willing to state it in, we can consider this to have happened before the Jewish War.
The ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION spoken of through the prophet Daniel must be standing in the holy place. (v.15) This is in reference at least to Dan 11:31 (and surrounding contexts), and 12:11, if not also to 9:27 (though given the language there and what is happening it seems highly probable to be referring to the same person somehow). To be blunt, this didn’t happen, even after the Romans (sometime after 70) rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city and set up a pagan temple on the ruins of the Jewish Temple.
When those who are in the provence of Judea see (or anyway hear about) this, it’s time to flee and very rapidly so. (vv 15-20) Since most (or all) of the Abomination of Desolation prophecies from Daniel have yet to be fulfilled, this hasn’t even had a chance to happen yet.
Pursuant to Christ’s caution later that even He doesn’t know the precise timing of when these things will happen, He warns them to pray that this escape won’t have to take place in the winter or on a Sabbath. (v.20) Not a sign per se, just a qualification.
The reason He hopes people will be able to freely flee at that time, though, is because after the Abom is set up in the holy place of the Temple, “there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning (or disruption) of the world until now, nor ever shall”. (v.21) To say the least, that didn’t happen either. It was certainly bad for the people caught in the path of the Roman armies, but there were worse things that had arguably happened to people before and afterward.
Just how bad is it going to get? “And unless those days had been cut short, no flesh would have been saved!! But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days shall be cut short.” (v.22) Pretty sure even Josephus, when describing the horrors of the siege, didn’t think it was so bad that no life at all would have been saved! (Though to be fair, the siege was lifted only shortly before everyone in the city starved to death. So hyperbolically focusing on Jerusalem, that could also have been said to happen.)
(v.23) a warning not to believe those who say Here is the Christ.
Not only will false Christs and prophets arise, but they will show great attesting miracles, so as to mislead if possible even the chosen ones. (v. 24) Definitely didn’t happen.
(v.25-26) Just repeating that He has told His disciples in advance that He won’t come more-or-less secretly out in the wilderness or in the inner rooms of a house.
Rather, “just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” (v.27) Certainly hasn’t happened yet!
Was that supposed to happen in some nice (or anyway not specially tribulationistic) time? Nope: “Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles (or vultures) will gather.” (v.28) True, lots of dead bodies piled up in Jerusalem, and outside it, too, during the cleaning afterward (throwing them into the Gehenna garbage dump for burning.) But no second coming of the Son of Man.
Verses 29 and 30 emphasize, in fact, that “immediately after the tribulation of those days” there will be MORE cosmic level tribulation: sun darkens, moon stops shining, stars will fall from heaven–in Jewish religious imagery that probably means rebel angels coming to earth–and powers of heaven will shake. Not really a lot of that immediately after the Fall of Jerusalem. Or at any other time after that so far.
Incidentally (or maybe not), verse 29 is quoting standard imagery from a bunch of OT prophets about the coming Day of the Lord and how freaking scary it’s going to be for EVERYONE ON EARTH (not just in Jerusalem). Why? Isaiah 13 puts it pretty pithily (while overlapping the cosmic Day of the Lord imagery with a prophecy about the forthcoming fall of Babylon): Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel,with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. Thus (says the Lord, v.11) I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity (wiping out most of mortal man in the process, v.12). I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place, at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger. (v.13)
It gets more gruesome afterward, unfortunately. (Kids dashed to pieces, wives raped. This part seems attributed to the Medes, stirred up by God eventually against Babylon. Not something I would expect to happen in the final invasion–God goes on to punish the Medes, too, for their brutality and mercilessness. But still. GosMatt is talking in wrath-of-God terms here.)
Anyway, immediately after the earthly tribulations and the cosmic tribulations described up to this point, “then the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (v.30) And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” (v.31)
Skipping over the parable from the tender fig tree (v.32), which is presented for analogy’s sake, “even so: you, too, when you see ALL THESE THINGS, know that this is near at the doors!” (v.33)
I think if any Jewish Christians standing on the Olive Mount watching Jerusalem fall (i.e. smack in the enemy’s own base-camp!!?, instead of running the heck out of Judea), experienced all that, we would have heard about it by now. Tacitus and other historians managed to neglect ALL THESE THINGS, too, when writing the annals of Titus and Vespasian.
v.34: nor shall this generation, or race, pass away until ALL THESE THINGS take place.
v.35 emphasizes the surety of these things to come. v.36 qualifies that not even the Son knows exactly when, though.
vv.37-44 uses several images (starting with the flood of Noah) to describe how suddenly the coming of the Son of Man (previously described) will be. We should be on the alert, because we do not know the day when it will happen, but the Son of Man will come when we aren’t expecting.
This set of verses is a major reason why the pre-trib rapturists believe in a pre-trip (as well as a post-trib) rapture: obviously, it’s going to be EXCEEDINGLY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE ON THE FREAKING PLANET that the Son of Man is coming (or rather that something wildly distressing is happening), per those previous verses. But here, the coming is presented as being at a time of peace when no one is expecting anything distressing or unusual at all. The pre-tribbers (much less the tribbers at all) aren’t just selectively cherry picking verses here and there. They’re trying to get it all in.
(That being said, they also fail to account for the form of the parallel sayings about one person being taken and the other left, elsewhere than in GosMatt here. Where are they taken? the disciples ask. The answer: basically Matt 24:28. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures/eagles gather! The ‘rapture’ being foretold here might not be the wonderful thing the pre-trib rapturists are expecting! But then again, it might be a double-application ironic pun, too: the bodies go where the eagle are, can mean two things. For which both meanings, there is some scriptural sanction. Be that as it may.)
Verses 45-51, finishing out chapter 24, and all of chapter 25, are dedicated to parables warning against lazy and uncharitable behaviors by Christians, who will be punished (in some pretty hellish terms) when the Lord comes suddenly in judgment. The word ‘wrath’ might not be specifically used in each case, but it’s hard to avoid that implication (especially given the earlier application of imagery drawn from COSMIC WRATH OF JESUS CHRIST IT’S GOD AAAAHHHHH!!! portions of the OT. 
)
So: just counting the Matthean apocalypse, then, and not really anything else (like for example the Markan version) yet… which ones of ALL THESE THINGS do tribulationists just kinda neglect to admit happened at the fall of Jerusalem, Ran? Because, as I said before, all the ones I know admit quite readily that some of these thing were partially fulfilled at that time. True, they don’t admit that Jesus Christ returned in the midst of cosmic catastrophes (in wrath, by the way), to judge the living and the dead, while all the tribes of the earth mourned as they saw Him coming. But apparently you think this happened? Was that before or after Vespasian left Titus (I think he was the one who left; but I get them mixed up sometimes) to finish up the assault on Jerusalem and go claim the Roman Imperial title? Can you be more specific?
(I’m going to take a wild guess that you think it happened afterward; but man, Josephus and other historians were being pretty sloppy, not to say every single person who ever wrote anything ever afterward until now including all Christians.)
Thanks for the thorough post, Jason. So much grist for the mill. I love you, man. I mean that.
To my mind, it’s dangerous to say things ‘definitely didn’t happen’ when
- You weren’t there and …
- You’re contradicting Christ by speculation.
But, first off, I believe Christ in Matthew 24:34 - that’s a done deal. I don’t want to play the eschatology game anymore with people who don’t believe Him - because no amount of evidence will make them believe His statement. They will tweak it until He is made to look like a fool and a false prophet. He’s my Lord and He does not error. His words don’t pass away for other generations to tweak. And isn’t that the argument at hand - the tweaking? Are you a tweaker?
For example:
Here’s the verse surrounded:
“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
You’re not going to get this unless you’ve seen a dessert storm approach - especially, from a high vantage point like Jerusalem. It takes quite awhile to reach you (so far away and the sun is shining!) - but you know it’s coming and you can flee - the exact message He gave believers on Mt. Olivet. The Jerusalem church was gathered up and moved north to Pella as the storm approached. He’s talking about warning signs for THAT generation here - ignore those signs (three and a half years of them) and you’ll be a torn apart dead carcass. The vultures are coming…
So you’re expecting to see lightening? Sheesh. If He came at this moment, you’d be dead, transformed and resurrected in an instant and wondering where your dispensational ‘tribulation’ went. You might burn for that. I’m being positive here…I’ll pray for you, buddy.
You really need to read Josephus again - he mentions the whole list of ‘ALL THOSE THINGS’. Including the sign of Christ in in the sky…to the effect of ‘You’re not going to believe this, but…’
Can you beat me here without making Christ a fool, exuberant, or 20th century fundamentalist? Tweak away!
I know eschatology is a fun past-time, but…Clarity comes with belief.
The first (Merry Christmas!), and the second, when His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives and he is ready to reign from Jerusalem. I think of the Rapture not as a coming, but as a gathering.
On a side note, Dondi, thanks for putting up with me as I learn the lingo here… my very patient husband is coaching me along as I try to figure out this discussion board thing. This is all very new to me!
So much great discussion going on in this thread. I need to study a bit and compose my thoughts… hope to have some more input in a day or two.
Need to recant one of my previous observations however:
Should have read more carefully before tossing that in there. Revelation chapter 22 discusses realities following the new heaven and new earth described in the previous chapter. So assuming John is writing in chronological order, the “river of life” is a post-millenial thing, and I was mistaken. Do you notice though, that here in 22:2, there is provision for the “healing of the nations”? Even when there is “no longer any curse” (22:3)? Is this a subtle glimpse of the universalist hope for the eventual reconciliation of all? I’d like to think so…
RanRan, could you share more on this? Would love to learn more…
Looking forward to participating further in this discussion! Thanks all.
Dear, it only counts if you make the effort. Google. Seek. God has made it so easy…
Meanwhile, the master tweakolater has yet to reply.
The “dear” part is not necessary.
And yes, thanks, I think I will google that.
Hey, sorry for calling you dear, bud.
As a non-believer I think this might be the place to express my desire to see more of the following…
Appropriate as necessary.
OK -I probably goofed up again - it was a little ribbing. I really didn’t mean to sound malicious or mean. I like Jason.
A quick thought around the nature of prophecy and Matthew 24… Jesus was indeed answering two questions (verse 3), both “when will this happen” meaning the destruction of the temple and “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jason pointed this out earlier as well.
If we examine prophecy around Christ’s first coming, we see how prophecy can often be layered, with meaning for both the time at which it was spoken, as well as a future time. Take Isaiah 7:14-17 for example. This prophecy had initial fulfillment (which is quickly seen later in Isaiah 8:3-10), however as we now know had future fulfillment in the virgin birth of the Christ.
I’m not sure that this is not the case with Matthew 24, especially as Jesus is answering those two very distinct questions. Though He describes what seems to be one event, it is possible that His answer is “layered” prophetically, and that there are future implications. Not claiming to know all the answers here, but just pointing out that there is sciptural precedence for this sort of thing.
So much more to think and study about over the weekend. Dondi, you’ve given me lots to consider and I’m eager to get back to you on some of your observations around Revelation 20:4-5. Finding extended time to really dive into this stuff is a challenge for a mom of young ones, so please bear with me. Thanks again all.
Exactly! Two events are being talked about. His return in power and judgment over Jerusalem was like a viewable storm approaching - complete with His army in the sky - which Josephus (and all around him) reported seeing - with time for His church to be gathered out of Dodge. The end of the Jewish age.
But His final return is to be like a thief in the night - no signs, no place to flee because it’s over - and the resurrection has occurred in the twinkling of an eye. The new creation, His eternal physical kingdom has arrived. No more tears. The party begins and the wine starts flowing. Happy days!
Fair enough. Which is exactly why I went out of my way numerous times to allow where things could have happened even though we have no evidence for them, or where the evidence we do have seems to directly contravene it (or where what evidence we have might be read that way with even distant plausibility). It’s possible that those qualifications could be taken further perhaps, in some cases.
To recap that verse: “Truly I say to you, this generation (or race) will not pass away until all these things take place.”
You’ve been asked several times by more than one person now to clarify when and how all the things listed already took place. If you’re willing to do that in this post, great. If not–then the problem isn’t with us believing Him in that verse or not.
I think I specifically said, more than once, that the argument at hand is whether all of what He said has happened already or whether some of it is supposed to happen (and even happen again) later. Multiple fulfillments of prophecy, sometimes at different levels of literalness, are a common Biblical theme.
I’m someone who takes the textual data seriously, which is why I often go out of my way to report it with some fulness for discussion.
I’m also someone who realizes that the terms and grammar can sometimes (not always) be translated in significantly different ways; which is why I parenthetically added that {genea} can be translated as something like ‘race’ as well as ‘generation’, to give an example. (Which, as I pointed out in another thread on this topic, synchs up well with verse 22, if Jesus is trying to reassure the disciples that humanity won’t be wiped out, despite how bad things are going to get.)
Yep, and I reported all that material. Not only the middle part you quoted me as reporting. I even translated verse 28 the same way you just did (even though I later pointed out that it might be translatable another way.)
The issue here, I suppose, is “tweaking” the phrase: {ho_sper gar he_ astrape_ exerchetai apo anatolo_n kai phainetai heo_s dusmeo_n}. The translation I gave is a pretty standard one. But a little more literally:
ho_sper == a comparative introduction, much like “just as” in English
gar == an explanatory “for” connecting the idea to the previous idea. (In Greek this word is always ‘postpositive’, somewhere soon after the beginning of the sentence or clause, by the way, but not right at the beginning.)
he_ astrape_ == the lightning
exerchetai == from (or out)-is-coming
apo == from
anatolo_n == east
kai == and
phainetai == is appearing
heo_s == until (a conjunction pointing out some limit of action, usually of time, but sometimes of space)
dusmeo_n == west
The verb {erchetai} indicates spatial movement typically (though it might be applied metaphorically, too); the {ex} prefix and the subsequent prepositional phrase beginning with {apo} emphasize strongly that the lightning is moving out from somewhere and thus going somewhere. {heo_s} tends to reinforce the idea of movement from one limit (the east) to another (the west).
The most natural reading is that Jesus (or at least the author reporting Jesus via Greek) is about to compare lightning coming out of the west and staying in appearance until it reaches the east, to something else. To what? To the coming (or the arrival, as I usually prefer to translate it myself–just to be fair to NT Wright who makes a good point on the use of that term, especially in relation to the Son of Man’s enthronement in Daniel, which is reffed in this portion of scripture nearby as well) of the Son of Man. A coming (or arrival) for purposes of eschatological judgment on all humanity in the Day of the Lord; which by all accounts (including elsewhere nearby in this portion of scripture) is going to be very danged obvious (so to speak ) to everyone in the whole world everywhere–including to the ones who are raised from the dead in conjunction with His coming arrival. Relatedly, when this coming arrival is described in other places, it’s described as being visible in the sky to everyone everywhere.
Verse 26 (which both of us referenced) has to do (by virtue of that postpositive {gar}) with the proper interpretation and application of the bolded phrase above. Even if it’s possible (and it might be) to translate and interpret the Greek in the fashion you gave (though that would be doing some violence to the most straightforward reading of it), the question is whether it logically fits the context of the preceding verse.
So (Jesus is essentially saying, according to this theory) if anyone tells you, “There He is, out in the desert”, do not go out. Because the Son of Man is going to be visible out in the desert a long way away, just like lightning of a distant coming desert storm, so that you’ll have plenty of time to get out. And by “the Son of Man” actually I don’t mean Me this time, I mean the armies of the Roman pagans.
The last part could theoretically apply–the OT, as I gave one example of, could also depict the approach of devastating pagan armies as the coming of God in His wrath (or at least compare them). But the former part seems directly at odds with your interpretation. Shouldn’t that be "If anyone tells you, “There He is, out in the desert’, you’d better go out and see! Because, yep, that’s how I’m coming!”?
The contrast of comparisons seems rather to be something different: ‘if anyone says you’ve got to go somewhere to look and see My coming for yourself, don’t believe it. When I come, I’m going to be brightly visible across the whole sky, the way a lightning bolt shoots from the west to the east–it’s going to be blatantly obvious to everyone, everywhere. There won’t be any doubt about it. Anyone saying differently is conning you.’
So, taking the actual grammar and the contexts (local and otherwise) into account, translators do have good reasons to translate the way I put it. They aren’t just “tweaking” for their own convenience.
And yes, exegetes are entirely aware it makes for problems concerning the warnings reported earlier. But we also keep in mind that God tends to send prophecies that are partially fulfilled at first (in the near term) and then are fulfilled again in a somewhat different (but related) way later (in the long term).
That’d be fine with me! Though I’ll point out that this is one of those “all these things” that didn’t happen at the Fall of Jerusalem–if that was supposed to be the coming (or arrival) of the Son of Man. (You might recall, in the verses you quoted, that they were explicitly supposed to be about the coming/arrival of the Son of Man.)
I’m somewhat doubtful I’d burn for wanting to know where the tribulation was that’s talked about all over the Bible (including here) in such galactically harrowing terms. It’s more likely I’d burn for not doing the things the goats don’t do later in chapter 25. (Doctrinal accuracy pretty obviously isn’t the ground of judgment, and the wrath of Jesus, there. Obviously I think doctrinal accuracy is important, in some ways. But it doesn’t have that kind of importance. And I’m typically pretty good about pointing that out, when the topic comes up. Because I do think doctrinal accuracy is important in some ways. 
)
You’re certainly welcome to point out where he does. I have no objections!
Here’s a handy on-line resource for looking them up and linking to the appropriate chapters (in case you don’t have one. But I think there are others available for free on-line, too. I have no particular objections about using another one if you’d prefer.)
Not everywhere - this was the end of the Jewish age - not the world. The prophesy wasn’t against Athens or Tokyo or Tahiti or the Greeks, Japanese and Polynesians.
And, given the number of Jews killed and enslaved - the blatantly obvious was ignored by all but believers who did get out. It was a matter of interpreting the events and signs. So it’s not a matter of the signs being hidden from view or not being there.
It’s interesting that Christ uses another weather analogy to drive home the same warning:
The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
He replied, "When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. Matt 16.1-3
Here’s the quote from Josephus on seeing signs in the sky:
"Besides these [signs], a few days after that feast, on the one- and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence” (Jewish Wars, VI-V-3).
That sound, of course, was the voice of His church (and Him!) leaving.
bullartistry.com.au/pdf_lastdays/LastDaysIssues/25LastDays.pdf