2. If the tribulation be applied to the Jews, or to any other class of unbelieving men, it cannot be harmonized with Dan. 12:1, which speaks of the time of trouble such as never was, when Michael shall stand up. Certainly there cannot be two times of trouble at different periods, greater than ever was or ever would be. Therefore the “tribulation” spoken of in Matt. 24:21, 29, applies not to the Jews, but to the church of Christ, extending through the 1260 years of papal persecution; and the “trouble” mentioned in Dan. 12:1, to the unbelieving world, to be experienced by them in the future. [Illustration] St. Bartholomew Massacre. 3. The period of tribulation was shortened for the elect’s sake. This cannot refer to the Jews, for their house had been pronounced desolate. They were left of God in their hardness of heart and blindness of mind. Says Paul, “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” The elect were the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. And where were they when tribulation was upon the Jews?—They had fled to the mountains. It is absurd, then, to say that the days of tribulation of the Jews in the city of Jerusalem, were shortened for the sake of the elect, who had fled from the place of tribulation. Moreover the tribulation that came upon Jerusalem was not restrained or modified, but continued until the city was destroyed and its people were given to the sword and to captivity. 4. The connection between verses 20 and 21 shows that the tribulation was to commence with those Christians who were to flee out of the city. “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath‐day; for then shall be great tribulation.” Our Lord here speaks of the tribulation which his people would suffer from the time of their flight onward. We follow them in their flight to the mountains, and then pass along down through the noted persecutions of the church of God under pagan Rome, and we see, indeed, _tribulation_. And when we come to the period of papal persecutions, we see them suffering the most cruel tortures, and dying the most dreadful deaths that wicked men and demons could inflict. This last period is especially noted in prophecy. The prophet Daniel saw the papacy, its blasphemy, its ignorance, its work of death on the saints, and its duration as a persecuting power, under the symbol of the little horn. [Illustration] Taking the Pope Prisoner. 1798. “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25.