Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 are parallel passages that describe what is called the tribulation. All these passages are begun by the question of when these things shall be. Jesus answers this question very clearly, This generation shall not pass away until all these things come to pass. And when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that its destruction has come.Luke 21:20 Jerusalem was surrounded with armies. Suddenly without warning, Cestius and his armies withdrew from the temple area. The Jews pursued the retreating army and the Christians fled the city. After they escaped, Titus captured the city. The Jews who remained were slaughtered. Some estimate that over a million Jews were killed.

Within a generation of this prophecy, Jerusalem fell!! The temple was utterly destroyed!!!

If a future generation is what he meant then Jesus would have used a different adjective. He would have said that generation not this generation which is a different Greek word. Also through out Matthew 24 he refers to you when speaking of what to look for. If he was speaking of people in the future he would have used they and them not you. It has been told to us that Matt 24 couldn't refer to the destruction of Jerusalem because the sun has not darkened and the moon has not not given her light and the stars have not fallen from heaven. Matt 24:29 Yet in Dwight Pentecost's Book, Things to Come (which is a Dispensationalist book on end times) on page 362 He states that Sun, moon and stars represent government powers in Rev. 8:12-13. If the sun, moon and stars can refer to government powers in Rev. as they also do in the Old Testament, they can also refer to the same in Matt 24 and Luke 21. Thus the actual sun and moon do not have to be literally darkened, nor do the stars have to be literally falling from the sky. If they are referring to a change of powers, then that occurred in 70 A.D.

Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.Daniel 9:24

Note that 70 weeks are decreed to the people and to the city of Jerusalem. Then the next parts explain what will happen along the way. The only way to get a gap in here is to add it. The destruction of Jerusalem was determined in the 70 th week because of the Jewish rejection of the Messiah and it was sure to fall even though the actual fall did not occur immediately. But the city did fall in 70 A.D. just as Jesus predicted. Just as Adam was told that He would die on the day he ate the forbidden fruit, he did not literally drop dead. That day he died spiritually, and his physical death followed as a certain result.

Eusebius (A.D. 260-340) details the woes that befell Jerusalem in AD 70 mostly by reference to Josephus. Josephus being a historian(A.D. 37-101) was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem. He writes that it is fitting to add these accounts [i.e. Josephus's] the true prediction of our Savior in which he foretold these very events. "He then cites Matt 24:19-21 as his lead in reference and later refers to Luke 21:20,23,24! He even states: "If any one compares the words of our Savior with the other accounts of the historian Josephus concerning the whole war, how can one fail to wonder and to admit that the foreknowledge and the prophecy of our savior were truly divine and marvelously strange." Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 3:7:1-2, 3:7:7

Clementine Homilies 3:15 see Ante-Nicene fathers vol 3;pg 241 "Prophesying concerning the temple, He said:'See ye these buildings? Verily I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another which shall not be taken away[Matt 24:3] and this generation shall not pass until the destruction begin [Matt. 24:34]... and in like manner He spoke in plain words the things that were straightway to happen, which we can now, see with our eyes, in order that the accomplishment might be among those to whom the word was spoken"

Cyprian (AD 200-258) we have clear reference to Matt. 24 as referring to Jerusalem's AD 70 fall In the entirety of treatise 12 he is dealing with testimonies against the Jews, including Christ's prophecies. Cyprian Treatises 12:1:6,15 See especially Roberts and Donaldson Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 5, pp. 507-511.

Clement of Alexandria [AD 150-215} discusses the 70th week of Daniel 9 as a past event; "The half of the week Nero held sway and in the holy city Jerusalem place the abomination and in the half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba and Vitellius. and Vespasian rose to the supreme power and destroyed Jerusalem and desolated the Holy Place."

Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies l:2

Some others equating Matt. 24 and Daniel 9 to 70 AD:

Athanasius Incarnation 40:1
Julius Africanus, Chronography (relevant portions preserved in Eusebius Preparation for the Gospel 10:10 and Demonstrations of the Gospel 8
Eusebius, Demonstrations 8
Tertullian, Against the Jews 8

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