SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/3/2023 7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Deception By False Christs”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:4-5
Message of the verses: “4 And Jesus
answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 5 “For
many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”
This will be the first birth pain to signal Christ’s
return, which is widespread deception by a great deal of false Christs. Now remember we are talking about the
Tribulation period, which is the last seven years of history as we know it, the
last week of Daniel’s prophecy of 490 years, which the first 483 years ended
when our Lord was turned down by His Jewish people and then crucified Him. Shortly after that the church age began as
seen in the 2nd chapter of Acts, and that will end at the Rapture of
the Church, followed shortly by the Tribulation. What Jesus is actually answering to His
disciples in Matthew 24:3-25:46 will all happen during the Tribulation period,
and that is very important for us to remember.
Another
thing to remember as we study these two chapters is that the birth pains that
Jesus is talking about have happened even before the time of Christ, but when
one thinks of birth pains in connection with the birth of a child they don’t
come until right before the child is born, so that is another reason to show
that these birth pains that Jesus is talking about here don’t happen until the
Tribulation period as they will happen during this seven year period.
MacArthur
writes “Jesus is warning those who will be living during the end times, which
will not include believers of the church age (who will either have died or been
raptured before the Tribulation). The
deception of those days will be intensified and escalated as never before, as
the Holy Spirit withdraws His restraining power and lets all hell break
loose. The evils, deceptions, sorrows,
tragedies, conflicts, and animosities of those days will exceed all others the
world has even known.”
The
reason Jesus talks about this birth pain is because deception will be at its
apex. Jesus warns "See to it that
no one misleads you. MacArthur adds Blepo (see to it) literally means dimply
“to see,” but was often used, as here, in the sense of ‘keep your eyes open,’
or ‘beware.’ In his parallel account
Luke reports Jesus as saying, ‘Se to it that you be not misled; for many will
come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and The time is at hand’; do not go after
them’ (21:8). Later in the discourse
Jesus repeats the warning: ‘Then if anyone says to you; Behold her is the
Christ,’ or There He is,’ do not believe him.
For false Christs and false prophets, will arise and will show great signs
and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect’ (Matt.
24:23-24). Empowered by demons the end-time
false Christ will manifest supernatural powers that previous ones have not
possessed.”
12/3/2023 8:15 AM
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