Signs of the Times (26)

 

In the last forum article, I talked about the sign of false prophets as Jesus describes them in Matthew 24:24-28. I think I will quote it again so that you have it in your minds: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; inasmuch 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. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”

The Lord makes a distinction in this text between false prophets and false Christs. I talked about these false prophets in the last article when I wrote about the terrible theory of evolutionism, which denies the coming of Christ. False prophets spread their false doctrine everywhere: in homes, in books, in schools, and even, sad to say, in churches that claim to be Reformed and Presbyterian.

But included in these false prophets are all those ministers in the churches, televangelists and teachers who spread false religion. They too are false prophets, for a prophet is supposed to speak the Word of God; and there are so many that do not do this. When Antichrist finally comes and everyone will have to make that final and decisive choice between Christ and Antichrist, these false prophets will go with Antichrist.

But our Lord speaks also of false Christs; that is, men who claim to be Christ himself. From very early times the church has always had to contend with men like this. Here and there, throughout history, have appeared men who claim to be the Messiah. In our more modern day, these who literally claim to be the Messiah or Christ are cult leaders. And these men claim not only to be Christ, but to have received special revelations from God.

All these false Christs will reach their climax in Antichrist himself. Antichrist is called Anti Christ because the word “anti” means “in the place of” as well as “against.” Antichrist not only is against Christ, but he takes the place of Christ. He is against Christ because he claims to be the true Christ Who is in heaven.

            Paul makes this clear in II Thessalonians 2:1-4: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, not by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”

            The final, great, false Christ comes in the person of Antichrist. He will literally claim that he is Christ, and that therefore, he is God. We could stop a minute to notice this. Antichrist will not deny that Christ is the Son of God, the most basic truth of the Christian faith. But he will claim that he is Christ, and therefore, God.

            He will say, “Christ has promised to come again. I am Christ and have now come.” He will say, “Christ performed miracles. I too perform miracles.” (II Thess. 2:9, Rev. 13:13, Matt. 24:24). He will say, “Christ came to establish a kingdom of peace and prosperity. I too establish such a world-wide kingdom of peace and prosperity” – for, under his rule, there will be indeed world-wide peace and world-wide prosperity.

            And so he will claim to be God and demand that all men worship him and take the mark of the beast. Those who refuse will be killed.

            Jesus warns strongly against being deceived by these false Christs. He puts an exclamation mark behind His warning by saying that, if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. That is frightening! It means that the deception will be so great that we also will be sorely tempted to believe Antichrist. We will think about it, consider seriously his words, almost be persuaded that what he says is true, and come within a hair’s breadth of joining him by taking the mark of the beast.

            Don’t forget: God’s people will be sorely persecuted. One by one they will be killed as traitors and apostates. They will be shown how attractive the kingdom of Antichrist really is: no more war, no more low wages, miracles of healing and scientific and medical wonders everywhere; pleasure as much as one wants, no more watching your children and babies die a slow death by starvation, no more running into the mountains, no more inability to find work or purchase groceries, no more trying to run a successful business and enjoying the fruits of one’s hard work -- and Christ himself does not come! In Matthew 25, in the parable of the virgins, the bridegroom does not come when everyone thought he would come. He seems to delay his coming, until it appears as if he is not coming at all, but that Antichrist is right when he claims to be the Christ, for Christ does not come when expected. He comes as a thief in the night.

            And, in additional to all this, so many choose to go with Antichrist. Our parents or one of them, our children or most of them, our closest friends, our fellow members in the church, our brothers and sisters in our families and in our congregation – they are all persuaded that we are fools to expect another coming of Christ than the one who has already come.

            That is why, among the signs of the coming of Christ, is also the sign of the great apostasy, what Paul calls in II Thessalonians 2, a great falling away. When the world’s billions and the church’s thousands all go after this one man and believe him, and you stand almost alone, if not alone, then you are going to ask yourself the question: “Is the whole world wrong, and I am the only one who is right?”

            The only, absolutely only, reason why God’s people are not deceived is that they are elect. If any part of the decisions were left up to them, they would follow the Antichrist. But they are elect. They cannot be deceived. God holds on to them tightly by His almighty grace and power. It is, as it were, that we are straining on a tight leash to run after the world’s and church’s throngs; but God holds us back and prevents us from destroying ourselves.

            And He holds us back by giving us grace to suffer for Christ’s sake, to rejoice and be very glad that we are not deceived, and to continue to look towards heaven, from whence our Lord will come.

            There is one way that we will know that Antichrist is Satan’s tool and not Christ at all. But we will wait with that till next time. The reason why we will know is in verses 27-28. But in the meantime, let us obey Peter’s command in II Peter 1:10: “Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”

Prof. H. Hanko

Signs of the Times (23)

 

In our discussion of the signs of Christ’s coming as Christ describes them in Matthew 24, we are up to and have begun to discuss the sign of persecution. The text in which this sign is described in Matthew 24:21-22 reads: “For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world till this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

 

The word that is used here for the final persecution that shall come on the church is “tribulation.” The Bible uses two words to define persecution: one word means “to be chased, to be harassed, to be hunted:” -- as a wolf hunts its prey. The word Jesus uses here is a word which means, “to be squeezed into too small a place.” It brings up in our minds a picture of a room in which one finds himself, but in the room, the floor, the ceiling and the walls are slowing moving inward making one’s place small and smaller until at last the one inside is crushed when all the boundaries of the room come together.

 

The figure is powerful. Satan’s purpose is to take over God’s creation so completely so that it is his kingdom in which all men worship him. But God puts the church in the middle of that kingdom, and God commands the church to shout as loudly as it can, “Not Satan, but Christ is King; and this creation is part of Christ’s kingdom.” The church is also commanded to marry and produce other citizens of the kingdom who are charged with saying the same thing.

 

It is evident that Satan cannot tolerate the presence of that church in the world. The church is always small and one would think that it could not be so bothersome to Satan. But it is. It is a thorn in his side. It is always a fist blow in his face. It is like the king of a country like Singapore who has a group in his country that wants the premier of China to be Singapore’s king, and this group does everything it can to put Singapore under China’s rule. The government of Singapore could not tolerate that for long.

 

The whole history of the world is really a history of Satan’s attempt to make his kingdom universal. In the old dispensation, he did all he could to keep the King from being born. When the King was born, he tried to kill Him – when Herod sent soldiers to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. Finally the devil thought he had succeeded when the King hung on the cross and died. But He rose and seemingly slipped out of Satan’s claws. He went to heaven and now rules over everything. But the King has His citizens in “enemy” territory who will not keep still and who keep saying, “Christ is King!”

 

There was tribulation from the ascension of Christ on, and it still is present today. I read a while ago that 200,000 Christians are killed every year. The devil persecutes God’s people here and there, wherever he has a chance. But there is so much else he has to do to keep wicked nations and people in line and serving his purpose that he does not have time to concentrate his forces on the church. Today there is persecution in Muslim countries, in places in the Orient, in South America, and elsewhere. But much of the church has little or no persecution.

 

But when Antichrist sits on the throne, then Satan has made the whole world his kingdom and has achieved his purpose – except for that pesky church. It is not most of what calls itself “church” that bothers him, for most of the church joins with Antichrist. But there is that remnant according to the election of grace; those “stubborn” people who will not worship the image of the beast. And Satan will concentrate his full attention on them. Get them out of the world – and, “Ahhhh; it’s all mine! God is defeated and Christ is banished from His creation.” And Satan smirks.

 

And so gradually with the passing of the years, the place for the faithful people of God gets smaller and smaller as the walls and ceiling of this creation push in upon the church. The world passes laws to kill unwanted babies and to permit and encourage fornication of every sort: divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, open sexual perversion, etc. And when the church says, “These are dreadful sins against God,” the world puts them in prison for “hate crimes”.

 

I just read an article about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that ruled, by a 5-4 majority, that a large company did not have to pay medical costs to its employees who wanted to have abortions. It seemed like a victory for the people of God. But congress is preparing legislation to overthrow this decision, and people are screaming at the top of their lungs that the company who won the case in the name of freedom of religion is now destroying the freedom of religion of people who claim it is their religion to kill babies and allow men to marry men and women to marry women. We all know who will finally win.

 

And so the place of the people of God in this world gets smaller and smaller until there is no place left for them at all. That is also the meaning of the text when it says, “tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The text does not mean that the torture inflicted on the child of God will be worse than any saints have endured before – although that may be true; but the text means that finally tribulation shall be directed against the whole church everywhere in the world in one last (and nearly successful) attempt to obliterate the church completely.

 

Nor will it be difficult to tell the true people of God from the people who claim to be of God, but are not. Every man, woman and child in the whole world will be required to take the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:16). So Antichrist can easily tell who are true people of God and who are not. It will be a decisive distinction. If one takes the mark of the beast, he disowns Christ, takes the side of Satan, and joins the godless world. There will be no deception, no halting between two opinions, no secret Christians: just those with the mark and those without. Everyone with the mark will be friends of Satan; everyone without the mark will be a servant of Christ. It will be easy to tell. There will be no hypocrites.

 

We will finish our description of these verses next time.

 

Prof. Hanko.