"For false Christs and false prophets will appear and they will provide great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect (God’s chosen ones). Listen carefully, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Look! He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out there, or, ‘Look! He is in the inner rooms [of a house],’ do not believe it. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming [in glory] of the Son of Man [everyone will see Him clearly]." Matthew 24:24-27 amp
In our "dangerous times" now, let's be growing, spiritual-minded instead of apathetic, and more cautious instead of non-discerning.
"There will be terrible times in the last days.." niv
"..very difficult times." nlt
"..in the last days perilous times will come:" nkjv
Not trying to scare anyone, but the times of perplexity are these days we be in, Sport.
"But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times of great stress and trouble will come difficult days that will be hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self narcissistic, self-focused, lovers of money impelled by greed, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, and they will be unloving devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral, brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of sensual pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of outward godliness (religion), although they have denied its power for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith. Avoid such people and keep far away from them." 2 Timothy 3:1-5 amp
Our city here for a long time now, has needed to hire over a thousand police officers, but who in their right mind wants to put themselves into harm's way to protect people only to be hated for that?
You know full well. These are AK gunshots in the city night times. Yes, with lots of cities and towns like that ..often heard. These are big hugs and Federal funding the lawbreakers pour across the borders kind of times, where US and other felons are early released onto your streets. Right now. Somebody sound the alarm bells and pray. The prisons lock up peaceful Conservatives protestors, but their evil constituents are freed to live around you.
We are living during the days when men and women are being deceived right and left, and often by those in government hired and paid to protect you.. with the lying media helping all the way. Don't be duped with the masses that already have been.
In fact one of the greatest threats to the Church of Jesus Christ during these days of heightened interest in the future and tech.. is deception.
If this danger were not so very real and prevalent, then why would the New testament Epistles warn God's people about the possibility of being deceived no fewer than 11 times. See Romans chapter 16:18, 1 Corinthians 3:18, 6:9, 2 Corinthians 11:3 Galatians 6:7, Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 2:4, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, James 1:16-22, 1 John 1:8.
The history of deception in the family of God, beginning with the first deception at that tree in the Garden of Eden is kind of embarrassing. How have we been taken?
Many people are deceived in college (their parents have unwittingly paid for them to be), and many have been outside.. into thinking that doing these popular crimes like border-jumpin' (which has been casually strolling on in with impunity), the rioting, the looting (if say every court case doesn't come out the way the liberal media wants it to), the open and outright racism, or the intense hatred and attacking of our police officers ..will somehow help them or meet their needs (as they run off with Nikes or TVs from a wrecked store).
I was just listening to a recent report of the National Center for Victims of Crime, to these following statistics and they provided me a picture of what's been happening...
In 1997 there was a violent crime every 19 seconds and the number of child victims increased by 118%. In 1996 there were 307,000 attempted or completed rapes in the USA, and sexual assaults. There were 100,134,000 attempted or completed robberies, 700,683,000 attempted or completed assaults and 27.3 million property crimes.
Fraud causes devastation here too with an estimated monetary loss of 40 billion dollars annually for victims of personal fraud commonly involving deception.
Fraud is an abuse of trust for personal financial gain. Domestic violence kills 58,000 people every 5 years -- the same number of those lost in the Vietnam war.
Now add to those Grimm statistics the cruel and murderous way in which we deal with unborn infants and you can readily see that our country has profound problems and deep stress fractures running through the very foundation blocks of our culture.
As we contemplate these current situations we might be tempted to lean toward fatalism. We might throw our hands up in the air and say "What's the use, Mildred? In the Fastlane we're headed for Hades in a handbasket, we're now just like Sodom and Gomorrah on the way into that fire that is never quenched or dooced. Man, let's just move off to some hidden caves in the Ozarks and wait for the end, for Armageddon (which will happen) and Jesus' second Advent (which also soon enough will happen)!
What do you and I really need during these troubling days. Well, we sure don't need to go hideout in the caves and hills. We don't need a back door fire escape into a tunnel.. not yet at least. We don't need more entertainment to tell our senses to chill out, or divert our energies. We don't need to allow shots in the night and day to freak us out into foolish actions, or accumulated anxiety, stress, despondency, fear and dread to push us into an early heart attack, stroke, ulcers or grave.
We sure don't need any more fake news and deceptions.
What we need is perspective, godly wisdom (which you know is vastly dif from worldly wisdom) and intimacy with Jesus Christ. We need a closer walk with him as His obedient disciples--with no spiritual compromise.
We need to get and live on-fire and full of faith in God's word! We need to love and enjoy fellowship with Him and His people everyday, and boldly help others to as well.
And while that commodity of boldness may be in short supply in our uptight world of mocking and persecution, it is what's called for. Biblical worship and sharing our faith in Christ by our life, attitude, deeds and words -- that's the very heartbeat of God's Message to believers. So get alone and pray for the power to witness. Read the red along with some other Bible books--yes, through all 66 books. Today get in God's love letter to you, believer.
God and His Bible are true -- He is for you!
Remember when the disciples were trying to muse on what Christ had said. They wanted the Roman soldiers thrown out of the area, and thought Christ's comments were about the end times.
“As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation, (Mark 13:14–23; Luke 21:20–24) as described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house. And let no one in the field return for his cloak. How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath. For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.” Matthew 24:1-24
It’s no time now for sinners and saints (saved forgiven sinners) to be deceived. We have some more time perhaps. We can worship and witness while we can right. Sure and God has called us to witness to the nations -- to those of every nation. (Mark 13:9–13; Luke 21:10–19)
Today people all over are nervous about the deceptions and the birth pains of the last days.
So much push for Socialism and Communism now. So many doomsday cults and cult leaders are rising up. So many globalists, so many heated disputes among nations, even of more wars with all these rumors of wars.
Among nations conflicts will escalate as the world winds down towards judgment.
Christ clearly warned us that there'd be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places. We cannot turn on the television today without seeing somebody trying to raise money to feed the hungry displaced by war and weather-issues.
Millions across our Land and world will go to bed hungry tonight and as we draw closer to the Rapture and Second Coming, Jesus declared that these tragic conditions will continuously escalate.
Floods, tornados, wild fires, tsunamis and yes, earthquakes too -- they be often on the minds of the populous now.
In the 10th century there were 32 earthquakes, in the 15th century 147, in the 17th century there were 378, but in the 19th century there were 2,119 earthquakes. Hello!
There has been just as dramatic an increase with the intensity as there has been with the frequency. Did you know that 10 of the 13 most devastating earthquakes in history have occurred in the 20th century. It's true.
Did you know that of the 68 major earthquakes in history, 46 have occurred in our century.
And when Jesus spoke of devastations on earth, he had more than merely earthquakes in mind. Plagues like AIDS, Covid-19 the Delta and other variants, and soon newer deadly viruses too.
Not to be offensive, but why have so many of these come out of China? Go check them all out.
All of these are signs that the time of Christ's return grows nearer and nearer, but what does our Lord Jesus say about all this?
Do you wonder what his commentary on today's worrisome headlines would be?
"See to it that no one deceives you.." Matt. 24:4
"..see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come." v. 6
"See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass.."
All these are the beginning of the birthing so to speak with it's pains.
Are you kidding me, what do you mean Lord? How can we keep from being alarmed or troubled with all these terrors and devastations visiting our planet?
Jesus was telling his disciples that these rumblings and shakings signal the beginning of the end, but the end is not yet but it's indeed within sight and getting closer. Not gunna set a date or time, but we can basically see it headed our way from here where we are.
Remember believer, you were not appointed into wrath. Yes, those in Christ who belong to God will never see these devastations and sorrows in their ultimate form.
Great future events cast long shadows in our direction though. These cataclysmic occurrences won't happen in just one day, a gradual buildup to these terminal episodes unfolds over months and years. Birth pangs go on for a bit.
I believe we're in the midst of that build up phase right now.
Jesus told a parable to help his disciples understand this process
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.“ Matthew 24:32-35
Many want more details of Christ's return to earth.
Learn from the fig tree when it's branches become tender and it puts forth its leaves, then we know that summer is on the way.
If the Lord had chosen to live in another part of the world he might have said when you see those little crocus flowers pushing their blossoms up through the snow, you know that spring is just around the corner.
His word picture parables serve as windows enabling us to gaze through to the truth and they help us to understand that when certain signs emerge on the scene of history right in front of our eyes, we can nod our heads and say, Yep that's just as the Lord said it would be near the time of his coming.
Do ya see all the yellow warning flags. Do you see the signs he is telling us the road will change up ahead and there is no reason to freak out, or be taken by surprise.
It's simply time to wake up and understand that things are not going to continue as they always have.
It's harvest time now, because the big Harvest before we all give an account before the Judge is one day closer than ever before.
Using an illustration regarding Christ's next coming, the Apostle Paul employed an even more graphic picture and one that may have special significance to many women readers. The insightful Apostle used the illustration with a group of believers in Thessalonica
When they say peace.. safety.. then suddenly destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.
Labor pains at first aren't so intense at all I've heard. I'm told those initial stirrings are really more uncomfortable than painful. A woman may feel one such pain and then not feel another for 20 minutes or more, but as their birth approaches (as some of you might readily attest to) the pain gets a little more intense and the pains get closer together and when you reach a certain stage where the pain is very intense and those pains are gripping you with regular frequency you know you better get to the hospital a.s.a.p. or you'll be giving birth in the backseat of a cab or somewhere else not so nice.
As we look at the signs of the second coming as we see the manifestations grow sharper and sharper, and more incessant.
Guess what, we should understand that our redemption is drawing nigh.
"Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first" 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
Let's decide now and never be shaken, pray and never be troubled, never fall away from Jesus.
Just keep it all in perspective prayerfully. Many are deceived and they fall away, but let that not be us.
Let's be ready to give an answer for this living hope we enjoy. Be ready and help others to get ready. Those of this world system have troubles that work against them, but we believers have trials that work for us as we turn to and focus on Christ while in them and even after they pass. See Romans 8:28.
