“Take heed that no one deceives you.”
(Matt 24:4, NKJV)
Throughout the entire Matt 24, a chapter covering the end times, Christ places particular emphasis on the deception that will occur during thit period. Love cooling off, hearts hardening, believers leaving the Kingdom, increasing unrighteousness and lawlessness are all linked to the intense deception that will threaten end-time believers.
When his disciples ask: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt 24:3), he immediately remarks – “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many (verses 4-5).”
Deception is problematic because you are mostly not aware that you are being deceived; you are misdirected by Satan’s craftiness (2 Cor 3:11, ALT). The deceived individual sincerely believes that he is in the right place, that everything is as it should be, and that he is in complete right standing with God. And yet he is not.
What opens a person up for this kind of deception? James 1:23 (in the WNT) accurately explains it – “But prove yourselves obedient to the Message, and do not be mere hearers of it, imposing a delusion upon yourselves.” If you hear something from God but are not obedient in doing it, you are opening yourself up to possible deception. Do not expect the deception to be blatant – it leavens subtly.
Added to this we find a further wave of deception in the end times in which we live, driven by what Paul in 2 Thes 2:7 (NIV) defines in saying that “the secret power of lawlessness is already at work”. In other translations this is called a ‘mystery’, and we thus need to understand that lawlessness can never be completely kept under control, as like mercury it cannot be pinned down.
In Rev 17:5 (KJV) we find that the great whore of Babylon had a name written on her forehead – “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” The whore of Babylon opposes the Bride of Christ, and the city of Babylon (meaning: confusion – Gen 11:9) opposes the New Jerusalem. The great whore of Babylon and the tower of Babel and the subsequent building up of the city of Babylon all point to the way of thinking perpetuated by the organized religion of the church (take note: not the Body) that bombards the believer.
Our only weapon against the “mystery of lawlessness” is “the mystery of godliness” ( 1 Tim 3:16). We will soon return to this point.
- Sela: Come to an understanding of what is meant by “the mystery of godliness”.
- Read: 1 Chr 6; Jer 32; Eph 2
- Memorise: Eph 2:8
