[MHGinTN]

Um, could be that many followers left because He knew who was not heart and soul into the Mission. They were expecting a King to overthrow Roman rule. He gave them hard words, words that needed a background understanding of the Bible of their day, the Septuagint. They had some knowledge, head knowledge, but He knew who had only head knowledge and who had the Words of Eternal Life. So He let the head knowledge go their way believing whatever they wanted to believe that was separating them from The Word of Eternal Life.

Most of those walked away mumbling were probably slaughtered by the Romans, when Titus entered Jerusalem in 70AD and killed a million Jews there. Christians, those who took the Word of Life at His Word fled from Jerusalem while the Roman legions diddled outside the city for nine months while Vespasian returned to ROME to settle the Emperor question.

Jesus had warned them during the Olivet Discourse (Mark 13 and Matthew 24) and the earlier that day discourse in the Temple (see it in Luke 21) that when they saw the armies encamped about Jerusalem to flee the city. He went on to warn later generation to expect a much more horrible fate for mankind. But He gave Christians a hint that they were not appointed to God's Wrath and that they would be removed prior to the hour of 'testing', so they would not face the actual testing.

God has not appointed His family to suffer His wrath upon the sin-drenched earth. But He is only going to snatch away HJis family before pouring out His wrath.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“...He gave Christians a hint that they were not appointed to God’s Wrath and that they would be removed prior to the hour of ‘testing’...”

Interesting point...this should settle the pre-trib rapture thing too. In this case the Christians were warned to remove themselves from the City (Jerusalem) when they saw the Roman army encamped outside the city. ‘Christians, those who took the Word of Life at His Word fled from Jerusalem while the Roman legions diddled’.