My first visit to Jerusalem was for a 2022 archaeological dig near where the temple of God once stood. I was manning our dry sifting station one day when an area supervisor walked my way. “This is the money stuff,” he said as he handed over buckets of black ash from a subterranean water shaft. “This is from a.d. 70.” That was the year the Roman Empire destroyed Jerusalem, burning the temple and the city and killing countless numbers of Jews in what historian Josephus summarized as exceeding “all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world.”

This cargo was too precious to sift through quickly or haphazardly. Letting the ash, smooth as Caribbean sand, run through my fingers, I could almost hear the screams of those terrified people; I could almost feel the flames enveloping those poor souls and sending the Celestial City into oblivion.

a.d. 70 marked a horrific turning point for the Jews. Oct. 7, 2023, was another turning point. It was the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It forced Israel into war with Hamas, other Iranian proxies and Iran itself, and it unleashed a certain ferocious reaction worldwide—not of sympathy and support for those who had been terrorized, raped, tortured, butchered and killed, but rather of hatred for those people.

Israel is still in mourning. Many, many hostages have yet to return home, if they are yet alive.

Why did God let this happen?

Let’s look to Jerusalem’s own history for answers. The Romans destroyed the city and the temple in a.d. 70 after the people had received warnings where their wickedness would lead.

When the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 585 b.c., it was only after prophets of God warned the people that this would happen. At that time, they were steeped in Sabbath-breaking, idolatry and even child sacrifice (Jeremiah 17:27; 19:3-5). People in that sex-crazed society “assembled themselves by troops” in brothels and “every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife” (Jeremiah 5:7-8). Many were still religious, but their religion was false. False prophets assured them that God was still blessing and protecting the nation (Jeremiah 14:13-16).

In a.d. 70, Josephus—not a prophet but rather a defeated Jewish general—could recognize the root cause of the suffering. “You fight not only against the Romans,” he said, “but against God Himself. You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usually done in secret,” he said. “I mean thefts and treacherous plots against men and adulteries …. These unrepented sins—more so than even the armies themselves—are what brought suffering and destruction upon the city and the nation!”

Profound insight. These sins, unrepented of—more than the armies themselves—are what brought suffering and destruction upon the city and the nation!

When faced with such appalling, satanic evil as the Jews have experienced, most recently on Oct. 7, 2023, we must let this jolt us into facing not only the physical horrific reality but also the reality of moral and spiritual depravity.

Israel calls Tel Aviv, where an estimated 1 in 4 residents is homosexual, the “gay capital of the Middle East.” Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces have displayed symbols of sexual perversion even as they fight in Gaza. Abortion, a modern version of child sacrifice, is common: One out of every approximately 600 Israelis is murdered in the womb. People who defy God’s loving, beneficial laws (e.g. Leviticus 18:22; Exodus 21:22-23) suffer for it.

The Nova Music Festival, where Hamas murdered and abducted so many on October 7 was a psychedelic trance event celebrating drug use and fornication. And as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry emphasized, it took place on a day that was not only the weekly Sabbath but an annual holy day.

God will protect us—if we believe Him and obey Him. If we reject Him, we open the door to satanic influence and demonic brutality.

Why is Israel facing the same problems over and over, getting worse and worse? Because the Israelis, like the Americans, the British and other modern nations that trace their history back to the ancient Israelites and to God are doing the same things, committing the same sins over and over, getting worse and worse. Society in Israel, Britain and America is not much different from the one that became a.d. 70 ash.

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Isaiah lived in this same city that would later be destroyed because of sin in 585 b.c., in a.d. 70, and at other times, including in our lifetimes. But in Isaiah’s lifetime, it was different. Huge numbers of Assyrian killers were about to come pouring into the city—but God slew 185,000 of them in one night. This is what happens when people respond to the warning of a true prophet with belief and repentance!

Oct. 7, 2023, was a horrific tragedy. But the solution is not more weapons, more money or a reset of the Palestinian peace process. The solution—as Jeremiah, Isaiah and many biblical prophets proclaimed—is repentance toward God.

Request a free copy of Gerald Flurry’s booklet Repentance Toward God.