| When asked about the signs of His coming and the end of the age, the first thing Jesus told Peter, Andrew, James, and John was to “take heed”. That phrase means “to see and discern”. In other words, Jesus told the pair of fisherman brothers that in the last days people should pay attention to what they see happening. Jesus then adds, “That no one deceive you.” In other words, don’t let what you see fool you. Obviously, though the direct recipients of these words were men who are long dead, the message was for those who would actually need to take heed that no one deceive them when the time of His coming is near. That’s us.
In the same message to the same group, Jesus mentioned a generation that will not pass away. As that generation, Jesus warned us that the last age of the church will be riddled with deception and delusion which we will be able to watch and see, yet not be fooled by.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The relationship between deception and delusion during the last days is clear in these verses. Lying wonders, meaning phony miracles, and strong delusion sent from God will cause all who did not receive the love of the truth to believe the lie of the Antichrist and worship him during the tribulation.
Are we at the door of such an age? Think about it, people who believe (and who demand others do so, too) that gender is fluid and a choice want to tell us how to manage our health. People who believe that a vast cloud of dust and gas exploded billions of years ago (without an explanation for where the gas and dust came from) which created all that we see today through a gradual series of evolutionary steps are largely in control of our educational systems. Even in the church we see deception and delusion with a focus on signs and wonders that look nothing like they did in the Bible and yet are claimed to be the manifested power of God.
These are the very types of things Jesus was warning would happen when the time of His coming for His church and the dead in Christ would be near. Things that are untrue would be accepted as facts.
Since we have the mind of Christ, however, we who are seeing these things need not be deceived by them. Governments and nations are imploding, and world powers are uniting around globalism. Much of the church has defected from truth and its mission of preaching the gospel and have become social justice warriors who seek to equalize the quality of life on earth rather than changing the eternal destiny of earth’s inhabitants.
Isaiah 3:4
“I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.”
Look around at our world and you will see that an uneducated teenage girl has become the voice of climate change, roaming bands of young, lawless thugs have taken over huge portions of major cities, indoctrinated university students have all but silenced any conservative voices, and Marxism and Socialism are the heroes of the day in their minds.
The context of the statement in Isaiah is in relation to the last days, the time when the Lord shakes the earth and people will hide in rocks and caves from Him. (Isaiah 2:19-21). Children and babes, meaning the the unqualified and incompetent, will be ruling in the last days and this too is happening all around us.
What we need to consider in all this is that we are running out of boxes to check of things that will happen or begin to happen before the tribulation begins – an event that is immediately preceded by the rapture of the church. In other words, we are running out of time to tell others about Jesus. We’re running out of time to stand for the truth. We’re running out of time to warn that judgment is coming.
The age of deception and delusion is here, it’s all around us. Always keep in mind that this was the first thing Jesus mentioned about what to look for as a sign of His coming.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus |
