SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/4/2023 9:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “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.”
It is my desire to finish up this rather short
section from these first two verses that begins the Lord Jesus Christ answering
the questions that were asked to Him from His disciples. I want to mention that usually on Sunday
mornings that my Spiritual Diaries are shorter because of leaving to go to
Sunday school, as I have been teaching our class for a while now and although
it is my desire to write a Spiritual Diary each day, they are usually shorter
on Sundays and that can make them shorter on Mondays also, which is the case
for today.
I
have to admit that I personally have not run into false Christs, but as
mentioned in earlier SD’s this section of Matthew 24-25 takes place in the
Tribulation period. I am not saying that
there have not been false Messiah’s throughout history, but during this time of
the Tribulation there looks like that there will be many.
MacArthur
writes “As the number of deceivers grows, so will the number of vulnerable
people who desperately look for answers to the overwhelming calamities that
torment them (see 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:13).
The world will begin to disintegrate, suffering will become unbearable,
and sin will reach its maximum potential.
The moral and spiritual influence of the church will be gone, and even
more significantly, the restraining power of the Holy Spirit will be removed
(see 2 Thess. 2:7). The world’s systems
and institutions will start to self-destruct from unbridled wickedness.”
I
remember reading something that Warren Wiersbe wrote when talking about how
much of a factor does the Holy Spirit have in the life of the church at this
time. I believe that the Holy Spirit’s
influence does have something to do with the spirituality of the church, and as
I have written in earlier Spiritual Diaries when looking at the seven churches that
are found in Revelation chapters 2-3 that it seems to me that they are in
prophetic order, which would make us in the time of the Laodicean church age as
the dominant type of church in our world today.
They are all around, but during the church age there are different
churches which are dominant throughout church history. Let me quote from Revelation 3: 14-22 "To the angel
of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the
Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot;
I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither
hot nor cold, I will spit (vomit) you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you
say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,"
and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that
the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your
eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline;
therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine
with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down
with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His
throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.’"
As I look around at churches today it is not hard to
see that many of them are like this one that Christ described in these verses
from Revelation chapter three 14-22.
I
can hardly imagine the awfulness of what is going to transpire during this
worst time to be alive on planet earth which is the Tribulation period. Jesus begins talking about this by stating
there will be false Christs, and as I think about what will happen shortly
after the rapture of the church there will be many people looking for answers
and so they will be vulnerable and these false Messiahs will have a field day.
The
“greatest” of these false Christs will of course be the Antichrist who will
come on the scene shortly after the rapture of the church. Revelation chapter six describes the
following about how he does this “1 Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the
seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a
voice of thunder, "Come." 2 I
looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him,
and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Notice that the Antichrist who is
described here is on a white horse, and in Revelation 19 Jesus is riding a
white horse when He returns to planet earth.
Notice also that he has a bow, but has no arrows, and so his conquering
will be by talking to the world and telling them that he will take care of all
the problems that will be there during this difficult time, and many will fall
prey to him.
MacArthur
concludes this section by writing about Antichrist. “The epitome of that false group will be the
Antichrist the ultimate false messiah and deceiver. As Jesus Christ was righteousness incarnate,
the Antichrist will be evil incarnate.
In the book of Daniel he is called an insolent king, skilled in intrigue
(8:23), a self-willed tyrant who magnifies himself above every god and speaks
monstrous evil against God of gods (11:36).
Paul calls him the man of lawlessness and the son of destruction (2
Thess. 2:3), and in the book of Revelation he is called the beast (11:7;
13:1-10). He will lead the world to
peace with other deceivers—a false, temporary peace (cf. 1 Thes. 5:3).”
12/4/2023 10:06 AM
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