Let’s go now to the passage in Matthew 24:4-11, and take a close look at verse 4. Although this verse expresses our Lord's concern for the Jews, elsewhere in the Scriptures we see the same concern expressed for the Church and for all of mankind. "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Mt. 24:4).

WHO IS THE REAL DECEIVER?

In anticipation of the year two thousand (2,000), it is not uncommon to hear talk about the apocalypse and the "end time beast."  Hawkers are appearing on television and writing books warning us about the "beast" and the "mark of the beast"— declaring that to buy food to eat, we will one day have to take the mark of the beast.  Yet, they say that if we do take the mark of the beast we will doom our souls to hell.  In addition, despite the Scriptures, many of these alarmist are attempting to identify this fascinating, foreboding beast of revelations; and no one of renown is free of their "beastly line up."  In the past few decades, the beast line up has included such celebrities as Gorbachev, Kruschev, Sadam, and even Pres. Clinton.  (It's a wonder that Godzilla and King Kong are not in the beastly line up, and given time, they probably will be.)  All of this is in spite of the fact that Paul told the Thessalonians that the beast will not be revealed until after the Rapture of the Church (see booklet 4, chapter 13 of the Clock of the Ages).  The Scriptures do seem to say that those left after the Rapture of the Church will have to contend with the end-time beast, and for them to take the mark of the beast will be eternally fatal, but this word is not for the Church.  The word from God for the end-time generation of the Church is: repent, turn from your sin, and seek My face, and then will I hear from heaven, forgive your sins, and heal your lands.

So, in spite of all the hullabaloo about the end-time beast,  in this passage, Jesus is not warning us about the man called the beast of revelations but about mankind in general. However, as we consider His warning, we need to remember that in the spiritual realm, men either serve as gates for the fruits of light and righteousness or as gates for the works of darkness.  So, in effect, Jesus is really alerting us here to the works of His archenemy Satan, who is identified as the power source for the end-time beast as well as the ungodly of the end-time.  In addition, because the majority of men and women at the end time will have chosen to reject God’s Son and His gift of life, we need to be aware that Satan will seem to be omnipresent on the earth in the last days. I say all of this because if it turns out that we are the end-time generation of the church, we don't want our attention taken off of the real enemies of our souls; i.e., the fallen nature within each of us, stirred up daily by the atmosphere of Sodom all around us, and the fallen nature of others who oppose our Lord and Savior.   [For more about the beast including the beast and the abomination of desolation, the beast and Daniel's little horn, and the two beasts of Revelation, go to booklets 4 and 5 and appendix A of the Clock of the Ages.])

SATAN'S PURPOSES AND DEVICES

Also, Church, it will help us to understand our Lord's warning, "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Mt. 24:4), if we understand Satan's methods and devices as well as his purposes. At the top of Satan's goals is keeping the lost lost; and to manage this he knows he must somehow blind the lost to the glorious light of the Gospel. He also wants to keep the Church floundering in its call; and to do so, he knows he must keep it from realizing the awesome power and responsibility given to it by the Word and in the Word. Consequently, because there has never been a shortage of ungodly men at the devil's beck and call, there has never been a shortage of men ready to challenge the authenticity and the authority of the Word, or to manipulate its teachings for their own purposes.  And again let me emphasize that the "beast-mania" in our midst is but one such manipulation; and one of the purposes for all of the beast-scare tactics is that of taking the believers mind off of his call and his responsibility to his Savior and to the lost.

SATAN'S ATTACK ON THE WORD OF GOD

Let's take a moment and consider Satan's attack on the Word; for it has not only proven to be his most effective means of deceiving man, but it was the method he used on his first successful deception. We're not told if Satan tried other temptations on Adam and Eve prior to that fatal deception in the garden; but we do know that when he presented the Words of God with his own manipulative slant, that he achieved his purpose. Read the account in Genesis. "Hath God said?" began the devil with his translation, which quickly became his own interpretation! Brethren, this should serve to alert us for since the age of the printing press, Satan has not only used the spoken word to attack and try to corrupt God's Word, but he has used the printed word as well. In fact, his fingerprints can be seen in some of the modern translations of the Bible, which are not translations at all, but interpretations. True, many of the newer versions of the Bible are excellent (every library should at least have a copy of the Amplified version and The Living Bible alongside the King James), but we need to understand that many of the newer versions are less than kosher and are hardly conducive to faith. And let's face it, the accuracy of even the respected versions must reflect the understanding of their interpreters who are human and prone to error. We don't have to go far into some of the newer translations before we find the Scriptures compromised. For example, the Genesis accounts of creation in some of the modern versions do not have the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters, but a wind. However, it's not a wind that moves upon a soul when it is born again, but the Spirit of God; and this is equally true regarding the birth of the earth. There are many such examples, but that is not our point here. Our point is, before we can have a clear understanding of the Word of God, we must read an unbiased, unaltered version; and this especially holds true when we are dealing with prophecy. In the English language the King James Version is unparalleled in the preservation of the Canon (the inspired, inerrant Scriptures), and its accuracy of its translation has been verified by the witness of the Spirit and the test of time. This is understandable when we consider that the reason for its formation was not theological but political. True, the king assembled the sharpest scholars and theologians of his day and ordered them to faithfully translate the oldest manuscripts of the Scriptures into English. But this was a sovereign move of God in that the king had to do so to stop the church squabbles that threatened to disrupt his kingdom—King James was not trying to assert some personal theological bias!

SATAN WANTS TO DISARM THE CHURCH

"Sanctify them through thy truth:" Jesus prayed to the Father, "thy word is truth" (John 17:17). It is important to Jesus that His Church have utter confidence in the Bible, for therein lies the confidence of our salvation, the armor for our warfare, the well-being of our souls, and the authority of the prophetic Word. On the other hand, Satan can't work his deceptions unless he can plant doubts about the Scriptures to fester in the hearts of man. As we've said, planting doubts about God’s Word is nothing new for our adversary. This has been his strategy down through the centuries, and it's been very successful so why should he try something new?

In the past, America has always been proud to be known as the nation that was built on the Word of God; and because in the past there have been times when it has been a great exporter of the Gospel of Christ, it's understandable that the world has thought of it as a Christian nation. For this reason, it has been a primary target for the devil. And if we'll just give it some thought, we'll realize that the only real success he has enjoyed against our "one nation under God" has come about because of his unrelenting attacks on our confidence in the Sacred Scriptures. His attacks were subtle at first—innuendoes, doubts, negative stereotypes, etc.; but after the seeds of unbelief took root, he became bolder—not only questioning the Bible's veracity, but also challenging its right to have a position at all in our "Christian" nation!

All we need to do is look around us and we'll see that Satan's campaign against the Word has been taken to all critical areas of our society. In the media, for example, his attack has been at least two-fold. In the wake of the fall of certain mega-media ministries, unbelieving reporters have misused their profession to leave the impression with their listeners that all evangelistic ministries that dare to come outside the walls of the church with the Gospel are somehow decadent and dishonest. (This has made it difficult for the bona fide media ministries that reverence the Word with their teaching and their conduct to continue, and it is truly a matter of prayer for the Church!) In addition, the news media never misses an opportunity to "blow up" the bizarre activities of obviously deranged people that Satan has placed in religious settings. Furthermore, Hollywood, our entertainment capital, seems hell bent on discrediting the Word and its ministries by portraying preachers as perverts, psychos, or con men doing their thing in the name of the Lord.

SATAN HAS BIG GUNS ON AMERICA'S YOUTH

In addition, Satan has been busy at all levels of our educational system. At most of our seminaries, those aspiring to fill the pulpits of our land are being taught that the Bible is filled with myths and permeated with errors because of its age. At our public institutes of higher learning, young men and women are being taught in an anti-Christ/anti-Bible atmosphere that is dominated by humanism. In our secondary and elementary schools, children are being denied the fourth and most important of the four "R's", religion. (In the past, children who were raised in the confusion and disorder found in homes that had no fear of God or respect for His principles could often find stability in an educational atmosphere where God was reverenced and his Son honored. But not so today for the educational atmosphere is so spiritually charged that Christian teachers and administrators stand in fear of losing their jobs if they even mention the name of their Savior.) Sadly, in this new atmosphere, discipline, and not education, has, of necessity, become the top priority for most schools.

WHO HAS BEEN THE CULPRITS IN AMERICA?

But in all fairness it should be said that the institutions just mentioned are not the problems of our society but only the symptoms. For you see, people, not institutions, are called of God to share His love and promote His Gospel. In fact, it was when it became expected of our institutions that they should be the champions of the Word of God that our nation became a "Christian nation" and not a nation of Christians. It was at this point that we became just another nation with another religious culture. For you see, God dwells in a society for its good only when He lives and rules in the hearts and lives of its citizens. (May God forbid that we become like the religious nation of Israel who had only a form of godliness and who were unable to recognize the Son of God, but had Him crucified instead.)

Not only must Christ rule in the hearts of individuals if we are to have a godly society, but the same applies to the church as well. Unfortunately, too much of the credit for the depreciation of the Word of God in the minds of men and women must go to the local church bodies. The local church fights have become so common placed that they've become boring and trite—not even worthy of being the butt of a good joke. The fruit of too many congregations speaks loudly, but loudly against the Gospel they are commissioned to carry to the world. The church may prattle its praise on Sunday, but the world sees no difference between their everyday lives and the lives that they live. After all, they both watch the same HBO, have the same dog-eat-dog attitude, speak the same language, and share the same hardness of heart. In addition, in the children of the church members, the real fruit for inspection, the world sees the same long-haired rebellion, effeminacy, abuse of drugs, and fornication that it sees in its own children. In this they see no reason to get excited about the Gospel of Christ, and this is the way it will stay unless the individual believers go for themselves to the Word of God. Our Lord has ordained two methods to clean up and adorn the Bride of Christ; i.e., the washing of the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26), applied as the believers study the Scriptures daily, and fire! For this reason, Satan is doing all within his power to keep the Church from the Word. Pray, therefore, that the saints will have the wisdom to choose the Word for that way is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, and full of mercy and good fruit (James 3:17-18).

HOW DOES ALL OF THIS EFFECT OUR STUDY OF PROPHECY?

But how does this onslaught against the Word affect our study of prophecy? Well, it can in at least three ways.

(1) It can affect our study of prophecy because prophecy is an integral part of the Bible and any doubts hurled at the Bible are aimed at its prophetic portions as well. We can see the importance of this when we remember that if we ask anything of God, the understanding of prophecy included, we must ask in faith, doubting nothing.

(2) It can affect our study of prophecy because of the mysterious form of the prophetic Word and because of its understanding being "time released." For these reasons, it's imperative that the prophetic portions of the Bible be left unaltered. After all, what we don't know, we can't understand.

And (3) it can affect our study of prophecy because things added to the Word can be misleading. For example, down through the centuries the church has duly noted the speculations of men of renown—as it should have—but the speculations of men should never be placed on the level of God's Word. After all, our speculations are simply a part of the learning process; some speculations we validate, some we discard, and of some we are never quite sure. However, in the newer, "simplified, clarified" editions, some of these speculations of the renown have inadvertently found their way into the Bible.

A CASE IN POINT

A case-in-point can be found right here in Matthew 24. Well-meaning men, having fallen into the shortsightedness that is common to human nature, have decided that the next peak of prophecy, being the one closest to us, must be the most important. Therefore, they've speculated that the seventieth week spoken of by Daniel, given to finish up the whole matter, must naturally be consummated at the end of our age. This speculation has worked its way into the three-fold question that the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 24:3 so that some newer versions of the Bible have them asking: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age?"—rather than, "...and of the end of the world." They disregard the older translations and the subsequent answers to the three-fold question found in the remainder of the discourse. Instead, they prefer a wording that includes a modern, incomplete understanding. Church, we need to take care!

And by the way, the speculation just discussed has fostered a new term in the theology of the church that only serves to negate understanding and confuse the church as it approaches prophecy. The term is the "seven years of tribulation." It is not found in the Bible, except in footnotes, and it is a product of the mixture of two Biblical periods: the period of end-time tribulation and Daniel's seventieth week. In actuality, the unspecified time of tribulation on the earth comes before Daniel's seventieth week begins and the two events are divided by a very special happening: the rapture of the Church. Furthermore, the seven years of Daniel's seventieth week is actually divided into two periods of three and one-half years each, which will be separated by the Kingdom Age. The last three and one-half years will bring an end to the transgression, an end to sins, and the completion of the work of love God had planned for His earth (see illustration below).

"Take heed that no man deceive you" (Mt. 24:4). This is a concerned word of warning from our Lord for all of mankind. Moreover, the greatest deception possible must be that one having to do with the Word of God, for it holds forth the only hope for humanity—presenting God's plan of salvation (the only plan He will honor) and the way of victory for the Church. And as we'll see when we get on into this book, the particulars for this hope that God offers man is found in the prophetic portions of His Word. This is a caring Word from our Lord; and we can sum up by saying, "A WORD to the wise is sufficient because the wise will check the WORD to see if it be so." But those who are not given to studying the Word are susceptible to lying spirits concerning the Word, concerning vain dates set for our Lord's return, and concerning most any other line the devil wants to hand out.

(Mt. 24:4-5)
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, Saying I am Christ, and shall deceive many.

(Mt. 24: 9-11)
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

Down through the time of Israel's dispersion or night, as it is also called, comes the warning: beware of false prophets! Because of her blinded state, the spiritual destitution and confusion prophesied for her has been her lot since the cross. Throughout their dispersion (which runs concurrently with the Gentiles' Age of Grace), history has often recorded for us a stoic people who have doggedly refused to seek of their God the reason for His long, loud silence through the years. What history has not recorded, though, is the day-to-day existence of a scattered, disorganized people at the mercy of those around them, a people in desperate need of a word from God. Here in our text Jesus leaves us some insight into their dilemma. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Mt. 24:12). In olden times, each time Israel would grow cold towards God, Satan was always more than obliging to send a counterfeit word into her midst. So, given Satan's mind set and foreknowing Israel's state during the dispersion, it would seem that Jesus had to call little on His foreknowledge when He prophesied of her, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many" (Mt. 24:11).

Also, during this time of Israel's dispersion, as prophesied, the Church has been the primary target of Satan's fiery darts; for she is the one now entrusted with the Word of God. And although the Church should not be susceptible to false Christs, the resurrected Christ being the Head of it, still, there are some warnings in the New Testament for the Body of Christ. It should beware of false prophets, of false teachers and teachings, of wolves in sheep's clothing, of seducing spirits, and of those who preach that gain is godliness while they make merchandise of the believers (I Tim. 6:3-5; II Tim. 4:3; II Pet. 2:1-3).

If we'd examine all the warnings for the New Testament Church concerning false leaders in the Body, we could pretty well lump them into three categories:

(1) The Antichrist, the easiest of all to recognize for they deny the virgin birth and divinity of Christ so that their Christ is no longer the Son of God but simply a son of God;

(2) The false teachers who present the real Christ of the Bible; and

(3) Those people who misrepresent the Christ of the Bible.

THE FALSE TEACHERS

This second category of false teachers includes those who present the real Christ of Scripture, but for the wrong reasons. Some of them preach for filthy lucre; and some of them preach for recognition. But, whatever their motivation, they are like a pharmaceutical delivery boy who works in a town that's been hit by the plague—all day long he delivers a medicine that is healing those who receive it, but he doesn't take the medicine for himself and perishes. There's nothing wrong with his medicine, nothing wrong with his delivery; but his only profit from the cure he delivers is the money he makes which perishes with him.

ERRONEOUS TEACHINGS

In the third category are those who misrepresent Christ and His Gospel. They may or may not be the Lord's; and what they teach may be their ideas or simply the retelling of someone else's ideas—but their message is not a true representation of the gospel of the Christ of the Bible.

Let's look at a story that illustrates the point.

One day, a poor, young man is walking down the road of life when he encounters another coming from the opposite direction who seems to be a helpful spirit.

Let's consider the story. Just as the stranger had said, the store was there and the goods were excellent. They were just what the young man needed, but the stranger had misrepresented the situation. The foolish, young man found himself in a strait because he had not bothered to check out the story. If he would have simply asked the storekeeper or have looked for some signs, but he did not. So the storekeeper was within his rights; indeed, as an employee, he was doing his duty to call in the law.

Sadly, this story is much too often true in the spiritual realm. Too, too many people are misrepresenting the things of God; and those who have listened, foolishly ignoring the signs and failing to check with the Bible to see if these things be so, will find themselves under the severity of the law—being denied the things they need.

In the storehouse of heaven, the Holy Spirit is the storekeeper; and He is authorized to give eternal life only to those who present the shed blood of Christ as the medium of exchange. Those who approach God without this price (or who attempt to alter this price by inserting some valuable of their own) will not only be refused, but they will have angered the storekeeper as well. Jesus is talking of such people in the 10th chapter of John when He explains that He is the door for the sheep and "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1).

And surely this same friendly stranger must have visited the church at Galatia in Paul's day, teaching that to have the presence and power of the Holy spirit in their lives, they must deserve Him or else earn His presence by some work or ritual. Busy little fellow he is; he is still in the churches today, still teaching the same way; and Paul's rebuke still has the same sting! "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, ...this only would I learn of you," he asked, "received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:1-5).

BEWARE OF THE LYING SUPERNATURAL

Let's return now to our text and look at the final warning for Israel regarding lying spirits in her midst. The warning is recorded in Matthew 24:23-27, and it has to do with the activities at the end of our age.

(Matthew 24:23-27)
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before.
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

To reiterate, the prophetic Word often finds the writer not only speaking to whom he's addressing at the time; but through them he can also be addressing others of the future in similar situations. Here we have a case in point. Because the disciples in this discourse are both Jewish and the founders of the new Church, Christ can speak prophetically through them to either Israel or the Church. In this passage He seems to be speaking to both. True, most of the word in Matthew 24 is directed to the descendants of Abraham, but this short passage can be seen as applying to the future Church as well. In fact, the statement "See that ye be not troubled..." can apply only to the blood-washed Church and not to the floundering Hebrew nation upon whom desolations are determined and to whom trouble is sure. The wars, the rumor of wars, the famines, the pestilences, and the earthquakes are the lot of a rebellious Israel; and for such an Israel, these dire predictions are just the beginning of their problems.

"All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Mt. 24:8). This is a word directed to Israel, but as the hands of the prophetic clock move us towards the consummation of the age, the Church should hear this word as well. After all, Israel has not been placed in isolation and these dire events foreseen for her will trouble the waters and muddle the puddle for all of mankind. This was not a very popular word for the generation of our Lord's day, nor is it for today's generation—bent on fun and kicks! Nevertheless, the predicted disasters of the disciples' day came to pass; and in retrospect, we can see that they were only a beginning. This is a short word but a sure word for Israel that has been verified by their harassment and their holocausts down through the centuries. Also, the predicted sorrow can be seen as an accurate assessment of the lot of all men down through the years that have tried to live their lives apart from their Maker. And it could be argued that this verse especially applies to our generation with its sleazy media, divorce dockets, police reports, criminal courts' records, psychiatric files, children of broken homes, etc. If what we're experiencing today is just a foretaste of the sorrows destined for the tribulation period and the day of God's wrath, truly the voice from heaven spoke well when it said woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of things yet to come! (Rev. 12:12).