“Jesus answered: “Watch out 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. Such 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.” Matthew 24:4-8

The church has been in deep slumber for most of the time. The paltry condition of the church and this earth will soon be changed; there will be upheavals and great changes that will make this old creation into a new one. Like the transformation of an ugly caterpillar into a butterfly, the world will shake and throw away its old casing and transform itself into a beautiful butterfly that flies in the midair. As we have been discussing in the last chapter, the upheavals of this world will accompany the coming of the Lord. However, these upheavals will continue to increase in intensity, scale and magnitude until it will be a total chaos.

Like in the beginning when the world was formless and void and in total chaos, then the Spirit of God will begin moving again in the midst of this chaos to bring forth the new creation. This by no means tell that God has not been moving when there was no chaos, but in the midst of this deep darkness, the Lord will come in glory to His Church and the whole world will see it. They will come and ask about the light and glory that we have, they will ask the believers to come and speak to them concerning Christ our Lord because they will recognize the glory of God upon us.

But before this happens, there will be great darkness sweeping the earth, there will be revolutions, unrests, wars, famines and earthquakes. What are we to do then? Do we remain passive watchers? No but in the midst of all these troubles, wherever Christians are found, they will be there to be witnesses for the Lord, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and His peace and righteousness. There will be no cowardice among Christians because they have eternal life already.

While in the temple mount, Jesus begins discussing with his disciples the signs of his coming in which He warns of great deception, wars and terrible disasters. This statement is again repeated by Paul, saying, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days” (II Timothy 3:1). And when people will be crying for peace and safety, sudden destruction will come upon them and they will not escape. Then he consoles the believers saying, “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night” (I Thessalonians 5:4-7).

Deception in the closet

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. Matthew 24:4-5

Deception means trickery, fraud, lie, cheat, cunning, deceit, chicanery which today characterizes the mass media that professes to speak the truth but really tries to control the minds and hearts of the people through isolated events or imbalanced views and unrestrained showing. Anything outside the truth is deception. On the personal level, we see that people today are much given towards personal growth and success. They strive to be wise men and women. They run to attend every seminar in town, they want teachers who can tickle their ears but hate to hear the cross. Their motto is no need for the cross because we can buy our way to life; we can work out our own salvation.

The pursuit of happiness and success by itself is not evil, but when it becomes our idol, when it transgresses the commandments of God, when it begins to hinder our relationship with Him, then this becomes evil. Living in deception essentially speaks of the condition that we are in today. There are many Christians who confess that they know Jesus Christ but mislead many through their fraud-filled lives. They could trade Christ easily for a bottle of alcohol or any amusement that they pursue and still come on Sunday to wear their holy suits. On Monday morning they are back to work and back to their old lives.

These are like pigs who go back to wallow in the mire of their sins, slaves of lies. They unknowingly deny and betray their Master by choosing worldly pursuits instead of reading His Word or following His voice. On the great Judgment Day these will be the ones who will suffer loss, they will hear the words, “depart from Me for I do not know you.” Then they will reason out, Lord did we not donate 1 million dollars to this charity? Did we not give our tithes faithfully? Did we not go to the church every Sunday and kiss the hands of our pastor, our priest? Lord did we not perform signs and wonders in your name? But because these men and women have been ruled by their self-will and conceit instead of Jesus Christ our Lord, they have been deceived.

It is unthinkable indeed to think the atrocities that were committed by many people claiming to be Christians and yet would persecute the Jews, kill their fellowmen or start a tribal war. These indeed know the Christ but not the Lord. There is a great gulf between knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior and simply knowing His name as the Christ. Even Muslims know that Jesus is the anointed One but do not call Him Lord, or even Jews and Buddhists think He was a great Teacher but not Lord. Certainly, this brings a great deception to many people who until today pursue a Sunday style Christianity instead of the pursuit of Jesus Christ our Lord. I could not think why men who know Him as the greatest Teacher and the Lord of the Universe, won’t even commit to read their Bible daily? There is indeed a great divide between knowing Him as the Christ and as the Lord over all our affairs.

False prophets and messiahs

The Lord also declared that there will be false prophets who will appear and will deceive many people through signs and wonders, even those who are elect (mature) (Matthew 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22). These people of the lie basically suppose that they are being used by God because they have power. They think their power comes from Him. Some of them even think that they know everything about the end of times so that they can precisely predict the second coming of Christ. But clearly the Scripture warns us to stay away from these frauds and cheats. These worms come to confuse people and use counterfeit signs and wonders to gain adherents to their faiths. In fact some time ago in Cavite and in Mt. Banahaw as well as farther south in Surigao, a cult arose that deceived people into believing that their bodies are impervious to rifles’ bullets.  These cults make elaborate rituals, chants as well as processions and other concoctions, devoid of the very life of Christ. They lack the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus Christ.

The end result of these deceptions is bondage of the will and slavery to lies. Because of their claims of special knowledge, they try to get others sidetracked and recruit weak willed men and women to their group.  In fact, it’s important to know that Jesus Christ is the only real Messiah and that He will soon come again but of the hour and the day, no one knows but the Father. The best preparation is to live in the truth, love the truth enough to seek it daily. Without this love for truth, we will easily fall to deception.

Whenever people try to use the name of Jesus to sway others into their agenda, beware of such tares. They may cover their evil deeds by proclaiming to heal the sick, construct houses for the poor and even send relief to the afflicted but their hearts are not right with God. They are using His name to collect donations and money for personal gain as did Judas. Therefore it is important to be careful to which group and organizations we associate ourselves. We must know them that they stick to integrity, honesty and truth without which we are also putting our money on sacks with holes.

Wars and rumors of wars

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” Matthew 24:6

Do not be alarmed is the key phrase here. We must consider that the Lord said this after exhorting us not to be deceived; war is surely the most terrible judgment that one can be caught in. It is hard not to think that it is the end of the world when we are hemmed between two opposing forces which is possibly the reason why the Lord exhorted us not to be alarmed or fearful. As believers who have been faithfully seeking the Kingdom of God, even if there are continual fights that mark our age, our role is not to be passive onlookers but to be peacemakers. War is a judgment as we see so many times in the Scriptures.

They emanate from the conflicts within man’s heart that arise from bitter envy, selfish ambition and the denial of truth in us. The fruit of this is disorder and every evil practice as James wrote, “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:14-16). Though there will be sensitive political situations, unrests, civil wars and disorders that ravage the world, the Lord is saying that we should not worry. Strifes and worries of this life will sap our strength and cloud our judgment so that we can easily become confused. But how much more this condition intensifies when there is war? Every chaos and disorder could be expected from war and this terrible judgment could cloud our thinking so that instead of being the light that we have been called, we will hide and not take action.

Regardless of what is happening, if our lives have been built on the kingdom that cannot be shaken, we will not be shaken by what goes on in the world. Our very purpose these days is to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom. We should never fear even if the anti-christ reveals himself, “His armed forces (anti-christ) will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him”(Daniel 11:31-32).

So even though there will be “wars and rumors of wars” we must never be afraid because once fear sets in, there will be a paralysis of analysis. We can miss the greatest opportunity of our lives simply by being cowards. In order not to be counted as coward, we must gird ourselves for action; preparation removes 90% of fear just coming out because of lack of confidence. When war breaks out, those who have not prepared themselves mentally and emotionally what to do, where to go, and whom to report are usually the first casualties of battles. Christians should rid themselves of fear of death because they are already assured of eternal life, and should always be the most courageous in the face of danger. Thus, the life of the believer should not be controlled by these events and situations but trusts in the one who controls them alone.  God is in control. He regulates everything in this world, in fact, He hangs the world to nothing except by the power of His Word. Outside our planet, there is no rebellion, and in the ocean of this great universe, darkness only dwells on earth and the light of the firmament above continues to shine its light upon us. God comforts us with His Word.

Though there are much bloodshed and violence that rips the world today, all of these will come to pass. Jesus promise of peace to us is complete so that our hearts will be anchored and stayed on Him alone, the Rock that cannot be shaken. A key Scripture to remember is in Christ, we have great peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). We may have great troubles brewing all over the world but His peace overcomes the world, Jesus says to us, “do not be troubled, take heart I have overcome the world, so you will. Do not speculate about the end of the world but keep your heart clean with all diligence and focused on above.”