Luke 18:8
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily,.... As he did in a few years after the death of Christ, when God's elect among the Jews were singled out, and gathered in from them, and were delivered from their persecutors, and saved from temporal ruin and destruction, whilst the Roman army made sad havoc of their enemies; and so will he do in the end of the world.
Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh; either to destroy Jerusalem, or to judge the world:
shall he find faith on the earth? either in the land of Judea, the believers being removed from thence, and scattered among the Gentiles, and not a man, at least in Jerusalem, that had any faith in Jesus, as the Messiah; or in the world at the last day: there will then be little of the doctrine of faith, and less of the grace of faith, and still less of the exercise of faith, particularly in prayer, and especially about the coming of Christ; it will be little thought of, and expected, or faith little exercised about it. With this agree some expressions in the Jewish writings {s}:
"Says R. Jose, the holy, blessed God, will not be revealed to Israel, but in the time, atwnmyhm xktva ald, "that faith is not found among them."''
And elsewhere {t}, speaking of the times of the Messiah, and of a star that shall then appear, it is said
"when that star shall be seen in the world at that time mighty wars shall be stirred up in the world, on all the four sides, xktvy al atwnmyhmw, "and faith will not be found" among them.''
They seem to regard the first coming of the Messiah: and which was true with respect to the majority of their nation; and the same holds good with regard to his second coming; in the apocrypha it says:
"Nevertheless as coming the tokens, behold, the days shall come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be taken in a great number, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith.'' (2 Esdras 5:1)
{s} Zohar in Gen. fol. 118. 1.
{t} Ib. in Num. fol. 86. 1.