In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 24, as Jesus and His disciples are leaving the temple in Jerusalem, they call His attention to the splendor of the temple buildings: (see endnote below)
"Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.
after which He replies in verse 2,
And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
Naturally, the disciples were astounded by this prediction and later, while He is sitting on the Mount of Olives, they came to Him privately asking in verse 3,
As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
This is the most direct, concise and clear question in all of the New Testament about the destruction of the temple, the second coming of Christ and the end of the age.
Therefore, it is imperative to properly interpret what Jesus is saying in St. Matthew Chapter 24 and to then harmonize our study of Revelation with the interpretation of this critical prophecy of
Christ.
The Disciples are asking Jesus 3 separate, but related questions:
1. When will this happen? (i.e. When will the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem be destroyed.)
2. What will be the sign of your coming? (i.e. Jesus’ physical return to earth.)
3. What will be the sign of the end of the age? (i.e.The end of the world as we know it.)
BeforeJesus answers these 3 questions directly, He issues a warning and an encouragement:
And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
You might remember the commercial, “When E.F. Hutton speaks, everyone listens”. When Jesus Christ speaks, everyone should listen carefully to what He has to say. In essence, the first 4 verses of His answer are what we might call our instructions for Phase 1 of the end times in which He issues a warning and an encouragement to believers.
The warning is to “see to it that no one misleads you.” Don’t be fooled,
The encouragement is to “see that you are not frightened”. Don’t be afraid
Why is it important for believers to take measures to not be fooled? Jesus is very clear about the rationale for vigilance in this matter. In Phase 1, “many will come in My name saying ‘I am the Christ and will mislead many”. The word translated “mislead” comes from the Greek verb transliterated, “planao” which means to lead astray or deceive. Jesus characterizes this deception as audacious, widespread and effective. One of the main characteristics of a false messiah is that they will boldly proclaim that they are the savior who will rescue their mass target audience from their maladies.
Although he never overtly claimed to be the returning Messiah of the Scriptures, in 1924, Adolf Hitler, while incarcerated in a German prison for treason, wrote His outline for conquering Germany and the world in a book he called "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle). In that book, which sold millions of copies, he overtly claimed that he felt God’s call to “save” the Germany people from the injustices imposed on them by the Jews and catapult them into the world domination which God had determined for the Aryan race. He explained his plan to use propaganda, powerful speeches, state-controlled media and state-run education to transform the masses into maniacally devoted followers who would follow him into victory. He promised a 1-thousand-year reign of the new Germania which in fact only lasted 12 horrific years. If the world had taken his deceptive claims and plans seriously in 1924, there would have most likely not been a World War II that claimed millions of lives and almost brought Europe to its knees. Don’t be fooled.
How can you tell the difference between a real 100-dollar bill and a counterfeit one? The best way is to be intimately acquainted with what a real 100-dollar bill looks like. Similarly, the best way to identify a false messiah is to become intimately acquainted with the true Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth as described in the Holy Scriptures. God declared the fatal results of spiritual ignorance, when He said of Israel through the Old Testament prophet Hosea "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge".(Hosea 4:6).
Not to pass judgement or blame on any one, but there has never been a time in history where Christians have had as much access to as many Biblical resources as we do today yet our collective knowledge and understanding of the teachings of Christ is on the wane. According to pollster George Barna,
“Over the past 20 years we have seen the nation’s theological views slowly become less aligned with the Bible. Americans still revere the Bible and like to think of themselves as Bible-believing people, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Christians have increasingly been adopting spiritual views that come from Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, the eastern religions and other sources”.
According to another study by LifeWay Research, nine out of ten American homes have at least one Bible. The average American—Christian or not—owns at least three Bibles yet the study found that only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month and almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible. Ironically, technology has put Bibles at our fingertips wherever we are—you can download the Bible for free on your smartphone. Because we don't read God's Word, it follows that we don't know it or understand it. Even when we read it, many times we don’t understand it. According to the study, overall, we Americans seem to like the Bible but don’t have much urgency about reading it.
At the same time, through modern media, we are inundated with a plethora of new ideas, promises of health, wealth, and security for a small monthly subscription. Just think about how quickly our world recently changed in 2 months because of a run away virus called COVID 19. On the one hand, it is great to get helpful information in a timely and accessible manner, but, on the other hand, it is not hard to imagine how quickly and effectively a false messiah would be able to capture the attention and minds of the world. More than ever, it is imperative that we obtain the means to not be fooled. As the old cliché states, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” That is why His words recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew are important to read and understand as we study the Book of Revelation. Don't Be Fooled!
Coming next… “Don’t Be Afraid”
NOTE: For the purposes of this study our resource material is the 1881 Westcott-Hort New Testament in Koine Greek (WHNU) as well as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) translation of 1963 because it is considered one of the more literal translations of the original text.
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