[codeword]

If you toss The Messiah's words into the trash in these verses then you have trashed the whole Bible.

Sorry, but I don't see how Jesus' prophecies in these passages conflict at all with the view I have suggested. I just interpret him as prophesying the collapse of the Roman Empire--a prediction which came true.

[mercy]

I think it takes a lot of 'faith' to believe that the Messiah was only talking about the fall of the Roman Empire especially given that He knew that much greater empires were to come ... empires that would see the harvest of souls exponentially increased over anything known or even dreamed of in the times of the Apostles. Then looking at The Revelation, written by John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved ... one must suspect that The Christ would not use the term 'the' end when a much greater ending was later described.