Signs of the Times (9)

In our considering the subject of the signs of Christ’s coming as our Lord enumerated them in Matthew 24, we come to the sign mentioned in verses 11-13: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”

 

This is the second time the Lord has mentioned false prophets as a sign of His coming. The first time was in verses 4 and 5, and was the first sign Jesus mentioned. Nor is He finished warning of false prophets, for He mentions them again in verses 23–28.  The presence therefore of false prophets in the church is an extremely important sign.

 

In the verses I consider in this article the Lord talks about the effects of the work of these false prophets. The result is a terrible apostasy in the church; and this sign has sometimes been called, the sign of the great apostasy.

 

There is an implied warning here. We are very much inclined not to take false doctrine seriously. If false doctrine arises in our own church or denomination, we believe that the condemnation of those who teach false doctrine requires censure and expulsion from the church if they do not repent; and censure is such a painful thing and even results in the loss of other members who sympathize with the false teacher. And among those who leave the church are good friends and family members.

 

Or, if such false teachers appear, they have a very crafty way of explaining their wrong teachings. They say something like this: “We are only developing our beliefs more fully.” “We are only suggesting new ideas. We only want to be tolerated while discussing and thinking about new ideas.” “We want to open discussions in our churches concerning these things that we propose.”

 

If you think these things never happen, let me tell you of something like this that recently happened. In the Banner, which is the official magazine of the Christian Reformed Church (our mother church), two articles recently appeared several weeks apart. The first one was written by a retired CRC minister who was arguing that, because the churches had now accepted evolutionism as a correct theory of the origin of the creation, and because this doctrine of evolutionism has an effect upon other doctrines of the church, it was time for the church to re-examine such doctrines as the historicity of Adam and Eve (Were they real people?), the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ, the doctrine of the atonement of Christ on the cross, the doctrine of Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead, etc. These doctrines cannot be maintained if evolutionism is correct.

 

A few weeks later another article appeared in The Banner in which a minister argued that since we live in a modern era we ought to allow our young people to engage in pre-marital sex.

 

These articles raised a small uproar in the church and many wrote asking for the editor of The Banner to be sacked. The Board responsible for The Banner called the editor to appear before them. He argued in defense of his decision to publish these articles by saying that the authors were only suggesting new ideas for open discussion in the churches. The Board decided that the editor could continue as editor, but that the placing of these articles was not a wise thing to do at this time. The Board did not want to sack the editor because the subscription list rose during his time as editor.

 

And so false doctrine is now let loose in the church under the guise of suggesting new ideas as subjects for discussion.

 

False prophets are everywhere today. Mega-churches gather huge throngs because the leader is charismatic, glib in speech, with a sparkling personality and a friendly smile. Prosperity preachers tell people that if only they accept Jesus into their lives, they will have sure prosperity and life will be a bouquet of roses. They do this even though Jesus says just the opposite: “If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” And yet millions flock to such preachers and the internet has many websites promoting their evil doctrines.

 

But there are more subtle false prophets. Some who claim to be Reformed teach that our justification is based on faith and works; that man has a free will and can choose for or reject God; that God is helpless to save though He earnestly desires the salvation of all men; that Christ died for every man in the world and the only reason all are not saved is that man resists God’s pleadings; that God is a God of love and that therefore God is not sovereign when typhoons destroy hundreds and even thousands; that God has no control over terrorists who hijack passenger planes and fly them into the World Trade buildings; that the devil does these things, and the devil is a power whom not even God can control.

 

And so we could go on. These are all false prophets who teach these things because a true prophet speaks the word of God; and all these “prophets” speak man’s word. They speak what man likes to hear and not what God says. But even though people like to hear the flattering words of those who speak falsely, their presence in this world is a sign of the coming of our Lord!

 

Let us remember that these false prophets are under the sovereign control of God. Man has sinned against God. God punishes sin. He often punishes sin with more sin and permits man to go his own sinful way so that he may become ripe for judgment and so that God may be justified when he punishes them in hell.

 

So the calling that comes to us is “Be sober and watch unto prayer” (I Peter 4:7).  And watching unto prayer means that we try the spirits to see whether they be of God (I John 1:1-4).

 

Cordially in the Lord,

Prof. H. Hanko