...Your assumption on Hassell is all hypothesis,...
Not.
More from Hassell (I agree with most of this):
http://salmun.cwahi.net/histry/rel/chrch/sect/hcog/hcog.htm#08
Excerpts from Hassells' Church History (by Elders C.B. & son Sylvester); Chapter 8; The Destruction of Jerusalem-The Book of Revelation
“The
Roman Empire, previously
under Divine restraint (2 Thess. 2:6, 7), protected Christianity; but "openly assumed the character of Anti-christ with fire and sword (Rev. 13-18) in the tenth year of Nero's reign, A.D. 64......”
“..."There is scarcely another period in history so full of vice, corruption and disaster as the six years between the Neronian persecution and the destruction of Jerusalem.
The prophetic description in the last days by our Lord began to be fulfilled before the generation to which He spoke had passed away, and the day of judgment seemed to be near at hand. So the Christians believed, and had good reason to believe. Even to earnest heathen minds (such as those of Seneca and Tacitus) that period looked as dark as midnight, according to their own descriptions.
The most unfortunate country in that period was Palestine, where an ancient and venerable nation brought upon itself unspeakable suffering and destruction.
The tragedy of Jerusalem prefigures in miniature the final judgment, and in this light it is represented in the eschatological discourses of Christ, who foresaw the end from the beginning." - P. Schaff....”
“.....The Jews crucified the Lord of life and glory, and persecuted His followers in the most cruel manner until
their nationality was put an end to - a period of about 40 years from the Savior's death. The Jews asked that His blood should be on them and on their children (Matthew 27:25), and their imprecation was answered. He had already foretold of their overthrow and the certainty that God's vengeance would fall on them. Said He, "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon
this generation.....(Matthew 23:36-38).....(Matthew 24:1, 2)....(Luke 19:43, 44)....As the accomplishment of these predictions ended in the utter abolition of the Jewish church and state, a constitution which was originally founded in Divine appointment, and had existed during a period of fifteen hundred years; and as
it was unquestionably the most awful revolution in all the religious dispensations of God, and which, moreover, in various ways, contributed greatly to the success of the gospel....”
“....The country swarmed with banditti;
Jerusalem became the prey of false prophets and pretended workers of miracles, who were continually inciting discontent and sedition; and numbers of
assassins, under the name of Sicarii, abounded in all the cities and towns of the country, committing the most horrible murders under the pretext of religious and patriotic zeal. These Sicarii could be hired by any one to assassinate an enemy or any person who seemed to stand in the way of another. The
Jewish priests, and even the pontiffs, made no hesitation in hiring these assassins to rid them of all such persons as were obnoxious to them...the very priesthood engaged in war with each other...parties were formed, and, each party hiring a squad of the Sicarii to accompany them dreadful encounters often occurred, wherein many were murdered, both in Jerusalem and other towns; and even the very temple itself was defiled with the blood of these victims.....”
“...the Romans might easily have made themselves masters of the city of Jerusalem: and it was to the universal surprise that Cestius called off his troops. Though the war continued, Jerusalem was not besieged again till April, A.D. 70. During this interval of about two years and a half
the Christians in Jerusalem, remembering Christ's words of warning (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; Luke 21:21), fled beyond the Jordan to Pella, in the north of Perea, in the mountains of Gilead, some sixty miles northeast of Jerusalem, where king Herod Agrippa II. opened to them a safe asylum; and thus they escaped the horrors of the final siege of Jerusalem.”
( see:
http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=63301 )
“While Vespasian was resting his army in winter quarters at Caesarea,
the Jews were exhausting themselves in Jerusalem by their factions, and warring against each other.
They were at that time, no doubt, the worst population on the face of the globe, and eventually suffered more than any other....
Josephus says they acted more like infernal beings than men. [SEE MT 12:45].....
John of Gischala, who fled from that place to Jerusalem to escape the clutches of Vespasian, had placed himself at the head of the dominant party, and
practiced the most unheard-of cruelties upon the innocent and inoffensive. At one time he and his party put to death twelve thousand persons of noble extraction, and in the flower of their age, butchering them in the most horrible manner. In short,
the whole nation trembled at the mention of the names of these men, and did not dare to be seen or heard to weep for the murder of their nearest relatives nor even to give them burial.....”
(see:
http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?p=1671933#post1671933
http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?p=1700895#post1700895 )
“
The temple was burned on the tenth of August, the same day of the year it was said that the first temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus states that the hill on which the temple stood was seething hot, and seemed enveloped to its base in one sheet of flame; that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and all the ground was covered with corpses.
The Romans planted their eagles or standards on the temple ruins, offered their sacrifices to them, and proclaimed Titus Imperator with the greatest declamations of joy.
Thus was fulfilled Christ's prophecy concerning the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.”
“....In almost every chapter we find Josephus also ascribing these dreadful calamities, and the final ruin of his nation, city and temple, to an overruling power; to the offended Deity; to the sins of the people; but nowhere more pathetically than in that chapter in which he sums up a number of dreadful warnings, sent beforehand, not so much to reduce them to obedience as to make them discern
the Almighty hand that was ever pouring out the awful vials of His wrath upon them (Josephus' Wars, b.6, ch.5, and b.5, ch.13).”
