---
title: Luke 21:20
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-21-20/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-21-20.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 21:20
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 21:20

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near.

## JW Usage

JWs recognise Luke 21:20 as a parallel to Matthew 24:15 but read both as having dual fulfilments — a first-century application and a greater modern application tied to the 1914 framework. The "armies surrounding Jerusalem" are taken as a type foreshadowing end-time events. The passage is used to reinforce the Watchtower's claim that only their organisation correctly interprets prophetic timelines.

## Protestant Usage

Luke 21:20 is Jesus' own interpretive key for the "abomination of desolation" in Matthew 24:15. The text identifies its own referent: "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near." No dual fulfilment is needed because the text is self-interpreting — armies surrounding Jerusalem in AD 66-70 is the plain meaning. The early Christians recognised this and fled to Pella when Rome's legions briefly withdrew under Cestius Gallus in AD 66, exactly as Jesus instructed (Eusebius, Church History 3.5.3). The Watchtower's substitution of the League of Nations or the United Nations for Rome's armies is contradicted by Jesus' own words. If "this generation" (Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32) means Jesus' contemporaries — as it does in every other occurrence in the Gospels — then the entire eschatological discourse was fulfilled in the first century, and the 1914 framework has no scriptural anchor.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ["This Generation" — Matthew 24:34](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/this-generation.md) — Jesus meant the generation standing in front of Him [Eschatology]
- [The Abomination of Desolation — Luke 21:20](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/abomination-desolation.md) — Jesus explained His own prophecy [Eschatology]
- [The Great Tribulation Was AD 70 — Not a Future Attack on JWs](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/great-tribulation-matt24.md) — Matthew 24:15-22 / Luke 21:20-24 / Matthew 24:34 [Eschatology]