“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.

Tags: Christ, deception, Faith, false prophets, God, lawlessness, love

At the end of a very long life, a much-beloved man was carried back and forth to his friends when they got together.  He was rather feeble in body, but his heart was ever-strong.  He loved these young people who combined friends, family and faith-group.  He loved them extraordinarily.

So, when it was time for him to speak to them, he didn’t go on and on and on about erudite topics. Instead, knowing that his own time was drawing to a close, he kept his remarks short. Simple.  To the point.

I can see him in my mind’s eye.  An old man, possibly missing some of his teeth.  Palsied movements.  Age spots on his skin.  Carried on a stretcher.  Gnarled joints, sagging jowls, maybe.  Sparse hair, whiter than snow on his head.  Maybe even a little sad looking.

Until one saw his eyes and the love and concern that burned brightly in them.  He knew that the younger people with him would have many trials and temptations set before them and, unlike him, they did not have the memory of a certain extraordinary example to follow.  They had only reports of this example.  Letters.

Only this last living man, John, had walked with Jesus of Nazareth personally, in these meetings.  Had seen him. Talked with him.  Laughed with him.  Been asked to pray with him.  And now, John, too, would be taken away.  He dearly wished to go, I’m sure.

But to these young people who gathered around him, out of respect and courtesy if not avid thirst for learning, there was no such vibrant reminder such as John had had.  So John kept his messages in these waning months and years simple.

Little children, love one another, he said often.  Over and again.  Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Then, perhaps, with a voice weak from nearly a century of use, perhaps, he would stop, cough a little, and lay  heavily back on the stretcher upon which he had been carried.

Love one another, he said.  Do not follow false promises.

Guard yourselves from thinking that anything or anyone is more powerful than the Lord God Almighty.  Hold nothing more dear than you hold HIM.  Do not be deceived. Do not stray.

Did he know how far the people would fall?  Or was John granted a gift of extraordinary hope?

Love one another.  Little children, dear one, my beloved children, guard yourselves from false promises.  Worship the Lord God only.

When one nears the end of life, the truth is actually quite simple.  Theology is complex, but at the end, there are only the basics.  I think it’s kind of sad that we have tossed up so much to get in the way of them.

Tags: God, hope, love, theology