Matthew 24:21

Jesus explained the reason for such hasty retreat. A tribulation much greater than any the world has ever seen or ever will see would be about to break on the Jews. This description fits the Old Testament pictures of the Great Tribulation, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation (Revelation 11:2; Revelation 13:5).

Again, the term "Tribulation" refers to the future seven-year period of distress, Daniel’s seventieth week (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:26). The term "Great Tribulation" refers to the last half or three and one-half years of that seven-year period (Matthew 24:15-22), which Jeremiah called "the time of Jacob’s trouble" (Jeremiah 30:6-7). During the first half of the Tribulation Israel will enjoy the protection of Antichrist’s covenant (Daniel 9:27), but during the second half, after Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel, she will experience unprecedented persecution (Daniel 9:27).

The description in this verse is not a fitting description of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, as bad as that was. Certainly the Nazi holocaust in which an estimated six million Jews perished and other purges in which added multitudes have died have been worse times than the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet the Great Tribulation will be the worst of all times for the Jews. The coming distress would be unprecedented in its suffering (cf. Daniel 12:1; Revelation 7:14).

"In a century that has seen two world wars, now lives under the threat of extinction by nuclear holocaust, and has had more Christian martyrs than in all the previous nineteen centuries put together, Jesus’ prediction does not seem farfetched. But the age will not run its course; it will be cut short." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," pp. 502-3.]