10. What did Jesus state concerning the “many” and the “few,” and what is the meaning of the Greek word translated “destruction”?

¹⁰ In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction [Greek, apoleia], and many are the ones going in through it;

(Matthew 7:13, 14) Greek lexicons define apoleia as meaning “annihilation,” “eternal destruction” (Arndt & Gingrich) or “definitive destruction, not merely in the sense of the extinction of physical existence.” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) There is, therefore, no Biblical foundation for sentimentally believing that people living today, who face the greatest “tribulation” since the world began, have any other choice but “life” or “destruction.”​—Matthew 24:21, 22.