“Tell everyone,” the Lord told me.  “Tell everyone what has happened.”

It’s a really big job.  I am thankful that he allows me to do it in tiny bits!

Matthew 24:11 Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. (HCSB)

What is a false prophet?  False means “deliberately meant to deceive” in the dictionary I have on my computer.  Not only is something false “incorrect” or “untrue” but it is meant to be that way.  So it isn’t about someone who made an innocent mistake.  It’s premeditated.  A prophet is, again according to my dictionary, someone who is inspired to communicate the will of God.

So a false prophet is one who, deliberately and with forethought, miscommunicates in order to deceive.  And Jesus says (for remember, it is indeed our Lord who is speaking these words) that such people will rise up and deceive many.

They will rise.  A definite future verb, here. He had spoken of such people during his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:15), and indicates they are still to come in the future of his friends, his disciples. Many prophets have come, it is true.  Many have been deceived. I do not believe all the false teachers were indicated by this phrase though. Some of them, I sincerely believe, erred but without the intention of deceiving anyone. They were honest in their mistakes.  Jesus though, warns against those who do so deliberately.

Have you been deceived by a false prophet?  Someone who claims to speak at the will of God Almighty?

Or have you been so discouraged by the present age that your love has grown cold. Your love for God. For his Word. For his people?

Now see, that is where many of us can see ourselves in this teaching of Christ.  “Lawlessness” has indeed multiplied.  And in this lawlessness, people come to the false belief that God doesn’t care about them. That is he not on his throne and all is in chaos, here on Planet Earth.

This is the GREAT deception that many false prophets proclaim.  The Deceiver, the Enemy, will fight with every weapon at his disposal and this is one of the most effective against people who already belong to God, Creator of the Universe and lover of Man.

We are surrounded, in these days, by lawlessness. By the lack of the Lord’s guidance. By the lack of rational rule. By the lack of justice to be seen on the front page of the newspapers, heard in the hallways of schools and offices. Everywhere, the thoughts of people are just evil. Selfish. Anti-God. Without love.  The real love that heals and helps.

Is it any wonder that there is a backlash against people of faith?  That more people today claim NOT to have a belief in God than at any other time?

Tell everyone, the Lord God told me. Tell everyone what has happened.

I’m telling you, now.  We are seeing these things come to pass in rapid succession.  He who has eyes, let him see. Who has ears, let him hear. And who has a heart… Let him love.

While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)

It’s all right to ask the Lord when we have outlandish questions.  It is.  Jesus did not get all mad at his friends and rebuke them.  He didn’t use sarcasm, nor did he gloss things over with allegory.  Jesus heard what his friends said and answered them.  Period.  Because it is a good thing to ask Jesus when we have questions.  It is wise to seek the Source for answers.

So, let’s ask!

Lord, what’s happening?

I look around and listen, and I am concerned.  Why concerned? Many people I know who love the Lord believe seriously, with all their hearts, that concern is not needed for Christ-followers. They believe, with all that they are, that they will be captured up to Heaven before anything terrible happens here on Earth.  They believe, more than I had expected, that they will live to bid farewell to this shackle of our planet and escape the coming trials and tribulations.  That they’ll meet the Lord in Heaven without having to face anything worse than a general economic collapse of global proportions.

Not that that isn’t bad enough, mind. But in terms of what Jesus told his friends to look for, it’s only a staging ground. Only a preparation. Not a real tribulation.

Matthew 24:4 Then Jesus replied to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. 6 You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these events are the beginning of birth pains.

There have been people all through history who have been held up to be a Deliverer.  Media pundits (not mainstream, but off-of-center) have hailed President Obama to be such, whether in sarcasm or in relief. I do not claim that Mr. Obama has held himself to be so, though.  I do not believe that he is someone to be wary of in this regard.  But, there are others, even now, who do make that claim. I am not going to name names or share links, for I do not wish to send anyone to “see” them, but they’re out there.

So far, they’re all relatively minor players.  So far.  Jesus tells his friends not to be deceived.  To heed what is truth and to recognize truth from deception.

Did you catch that?  “Watch out that no one deceives you.”

See, Jesus puts the onus on us, for our belief. It is a matter of personal responsibility, for those in the Body of Christ. We are to be able to distinguish TRUTH, relying on the example of our Lord and God to do so.

There was no, “Don’t worry. Be happy,” in Jesus’ response.  There was “there’ll be wars, but don’t be alarmed. This is to be expected.”

This probably didn’t surprise even the disciples. Nations and kingdoms would do battle.  That might have been a little more alarming, but their Lord, Jesus, says here it is a certainty and would preclude the end of the age.  Famines. Yes, they had heard of those. Earthquakes were certainly more worrisome, I’m guessing. Earthquakes, to some, are the most terrifying experience imaginable.

Now, these things have been happening.  So when we ask the Lord, “What’s happening?” he might very well point us to this passage, for he has answered, already.

Have we arrived at this time? I believe we have. I believe that we are in an era that has seen all the above happen to the point that people have disaster-fatigue.  Much as Satan desensitizes us in terms of sin in our lives and in the lives around us, people have become desensitized to the disasters of the world.  And we have forgotten what they mean.

But even more so, what concerns me are Jesus’ next words:

9 “Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another.

There are people of faith all over the world who are being persecuted. Here is one blog I know of that discusses this; there are others. But yes, Christians have been persecuted in the ebb and flow of societies and cultures for millenia.  However, Jesus goes on to say that his friends and those who will come after will be hated by all nations because of Jesus’ very NAME.

This is something I am seeing more and more often as I keep a watchful eye on public views.  That and that Christians, believers, take offense at one another’s definitions of FAITH. and they betray one another’s confidences and they HATE one another.  Hold one another in contempt.  In derision. In disgust.

This is becoming more and more prevalent among those who claim Christ as Savior and Lord. And this, my friends, is what concerns me most.

My mission is, largely, to the believers I might reach with my words.  Why? I believe it is right here in Christ’s words.  Yes, there are crises. Yes, there are wars. Yes, we have seen earthquakes and their terrible consequences…

But today, more than ever, people of faith are evidencing betrayal and hatred of one another.  This, Jesus indicates, is another sign of the end of the age.

What’s happening, Lord?  We are tearing each other up and hurting one another when we all belong to YOU.

What’s happening?

Only what he said would happen, when asked directly.  Are you ready to face what comes next?