While no one knows the day or the hour, Jesus someday will crack the sky and will return for His bride. The disciples were curious about the signs that would point to the end of the age. Jesus stated several signs that will usher the time of His return.
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. Matthew 24:1-5
The first sign Jesus mentioned was deception. Jesus predicted that many will claim that they are either the Christ or the followers of Christ and will deceive many people. Since Jesus’ resurrection, many cults and false religions such as Islam, Jehovah Witnesses, and Mormonism have come along that have not totally refused Christ but have taught a subset of the teachings of the Bible. These teaching have brought confusion and deception about the nature of Christ and His work of on the cross.
Furthermore, people are more interested in their own opinions than the Truth. Personal opinions have caused individuals and denominations to determine the part of the Bible they agree with or the part they like to highlight. This leads to great deception. When one looks at the landscape of the church, multitudes of denominations have emerged due to disagreement with their former denominations, and people have split and moved into different directions professing they are the ones who see everything clearly and that others are misguided.
What should we do to avoid deception?
First of all, we need to know our Bible well and avoid being derailed from faith by half truths. We need to hold fast to the whole truth to avoid being deceived. Our focus should be what Jesus taught rather than what our favorite preacher or celebrity stated.
Secondly, we need to submit our opinion to the Truth rather than submitting the Truth to our opinions. We should allow God to deal with our opinions rather than trying to modify the Word of God to fit our needs. We are not called to change the gospel rather the gospel is meant to change us!
Thirdly, when faced with a different religion or cult, we should do our own homework to find out the core beliefs of a cult or religion. I am surprised by how some Christians just believe what the practitioners of certain faiths tell them about a religion rather than doing their own research.
We can develop knowledge in many areas including sports, Hollywood, and politics, but when it comes to understanding the ideologies of some of the prevalent religions, we depend on the followers of that faith to tell us what they want to tell us. Why is this important? If we don’t know what lies people have believed, it is harder for us to speak life into the areas of false doctrine and twisted truths. In addition, some of these ideologies will impact our society through education, media, politics, and business, and if we are not alert, we will passively allow it to influence our society and the next generation.
Jesus gave His disciples more signs. I will share about them in the next devotional.
