About 40 years later, exactly as prophesied by Jesus Christ, the magnificent "Herod's Temple" was completely destroyed. It was an event long in coming, but certain to happen.

With the decline of the Greek empire (see Ancient Empires - Greece) during the first century B.C. (again, exactly as prophesied by another prophet long before - see Daniel's Statue and Prophecy), the Romans began to expand their territorial holdings (see Ancient Empires - Rome). In 63 B.C., Roman forces under Pompey, a highly successful general and son-in-law of Julius Caesar, captured Jerusalem.

In 40 B.C., the Roman senate appointed Herod, later known as Herod The Great, as the "client king" of Judea. Herod had previously served as the governor of Galilee, and was a personal friend of Mark Antony, before Antony was defeated by Octavian at Actium in 31 B.C., and then later a friend with Octavian himself. Octavian became the first Roman emperor as "Caesar Augustus" (see New Testament Roman Emperors), a man famous in Bible History for ordering the tax census that caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem (see also Bethlehem Fact File) where The Messiah was born: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." (Luke 2:1 KJV)

Herod the Great ruled Judea for the next 36 years, during which he oversaw many grand building projects, including the magnificent Temple (referred to as "Herod's Temple"), and the fortress of Masada, among others. He is most infamous to Christians for his attempt to have the infant Christ killed, and failing that, then slaughtering all of the male children, 2 years of age and under, in the Bethlehem vicinity (Matthew 2:1-28). Herod the Great died not long after, upon which Joseph brought his family back from Egypt and settled in Nazareth

Despite being under Roman occupation, the Jews, or rather the religious leadership of that time, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were given near autonomy in religious matters. After the death of Herod the Great, Judea was reduced to a Roman province under a procurator. It was under the fifth procurator, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus Christ was crucified.

In 41 A.D. Herod the Great's kingdom was temporarily re-established (for about 3 years) for his grandson Herod Agrippa I (see The Herods). It was this Herod that had James, the brother of John, executed (Acts 12:1-2). He then imprisoned Peter with the intention of killing him also (Acts 12:3-5), but God had an angel go in and get him out (Acts 12:6-10).

Like all of the rest, Herod Agrippa I had a very high opinion of himself. One day, about 44 A.D., he went so far as to, in effect, claim to be divine - a blasphemous act for which God struck him down: "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms." (Acts 12:21-23 KJV)

After the death of Herod Agrippa I, the procurators were put back in charge, however in 66 A.D. the Jews rebelled against Roman rule. In 70 A.D., after a 143 day siege which began at Passover, a Roman military force consisting of about 30,000 troops under the command of Titus battered the walls and entered the city. They destroyed everything, including Herod's Temple - exactly as spoken by Jesus Christ 40 years earlier. The population and the great number of Passover visitors who had been trapped there were brutally slaughtered, with an estimated 600,000 people killed.

The Roman army then moved over to Caesarea on the coast of The Mediterranean Sea where a great many more were killed. Over 90,000 were taken captive, including the historian Flavius Josephus who recorded the events in his Wars of The Jews.

By 70 A.D., Jerusalem and Judea were left desolate, the people killed or in captivity. All that remained was the defiant little garrison atop Masada.

Fact Finder: Did Jesus Christ say that Jerusalem would again see great troubles just before His Return?
Matthew 24:15-22,30
See also:
The Return Of Jesus Christ
The Place To Watch
Signs In The Heavens
The Abomination of Desolation
The Antichrist
The Great False Prophet
The Lawless One
The Two Witnesses

Plus much, much more on the same CD! Bible Maps Over 70 detailed full-color Bible study maps. Christian Music Enjoy the magnificent sound of over 1,900 hymns (midi computer format) Biblical Clipart Over 200 beautiful Biblical graphics (.jpg and .gif) Classic Works of Biblical History The Works of Philo, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (.txt format) Hebrew and Greek Alphabets The Hebrew alphabet of the Old Testament, and the Greek alphabet of the New Testament, with equivalent sounds in English.

How To Receive Your Daily Bible Study CD
(Please read carefully to understand how and why the CDs are available)

This ministry web site, with thousands of Bible studies (including a new study added every day, 365 days a year) is always freely available for everyone. As such, this Daily Bible Study has become a very expensive time and financial commitment for the author and the publisher. Every study, that takes you only minutes to read, takes many hours of work to write, format and technically make available and maintain on the web server. Without help, it would be impossible for this Daily Bible Study web site to continue. That is the simple reality of the situation.

We are not "selling" CDs. The CD is our humble thank you gift to the faithful who realize the importance of making Bible-based Christian teaching available to "all the world" as Christ commanded His servants to do. The map is an actual Daily Bible Study server statistics "snap shot" of visitors to Daily Bible Study at 7 am local time recently. The green bars represent the percentage of visitors to the web site (where on the planet requested pages were being sent to) at that moment in the entire time zone directly above the green bar. The graphic constantly changes through the day like a rolling wave across the world's time zones.

The Daily Bible Study Library CD is not for sale. The Daily Bible Study Library CD is produced as our thank-you gift to each person who actually makes a minimum $10 donation (in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or 5 UK Pounds, or 5 Euros) to help this ministry to survive. The $10 / 5 Pound / 5 Euro minimum is required because it is the "break-even" cost of producing, handling and mailing the CD - amounts less than $10 / 5 Pounds / 5 Euros are therefore not a donation to this ministry but actually cause an unaffordable financial loss to the author.

The Daily Bible Study CD functions with Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP. The directly-readable CD is designed to be easily and instantly portable from computer to computer. The contents are formatted to appear the same as the online Daily Bible Study web site and will automatically open by means of your computer's standard browser. Complete instructions are included with the CD.

Making a donation to Daily Bible Study is simple and easy
Donations are accepted in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or British Pounds, or Euros, payable by personal check from your local bank - the easiest and preferred method of most people. We are able to accept regular personal checks payable from any bank in the US (in US dollars), Canada (in Canadian dollars), the United Kingdom (in Pounds or Euros), Australia (in Australian dollars), New Zealand (in New Zealand dollars) or Europe (in Euros) - write the check exactly same as if it were to someone local.
Donations may also be made by means of an International postal money order (e.g. US domestic postal money orders marked "Negotiable Only In The US and Possessions" are void in Canada).

Send your donation payable to "Key-Way Publishing" (not Daily Bible Study):

Key-Way Publishing
PO Box 520
Burford, Ontario N0E1A0
Canada

Your thank you CD will be mailed in the very next day's mail after your donation arrives. The CDs are packaged in paper CD sleeves and mailed by regular First Class Mail in order to keep the minimum donation affordable for everyone.

Your CD should arrive in about 2 weeks after the day that you mailed your donation i.e. 1 week for your donation to arrive after you mailed it, then 1 week for your thank you CD to travel to you.

If you wish to receive a confirmation email that your donation has arrived and that your CD has been sent, simply indicate a contact email address with your donation. If you have any questions, write to Donor Inquiry (pathfinder@keyway2.ca) and your email will be answered immediately.

God bless you!