The Most Overlooked Sign of The Times

Posted on March 14, 2015

"Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24:42).

While many prophecy students today appear to be taking heed to the above passage to some extent, I have noticed that many of them also appear to be overlooking a very significant sign given in the same chapter: spiritual deception. In Matthew 24:24, Jesus warned that "false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect". My page titled The Signs and Wonders Movement Exposed gives just some of many examples of false prophets, including some that are deceiving Christians and professing Christians with lying signs and wonders. In my article titled The Reason For This Site, I mentioned a time during my early Christian life when I was oblivious to how rampant apostasy is, even though I did understand that there are false teachers. And I am concerned about deception because I have been deceived myself, very badly. I often find that those who are the least concerned about spiritual deception are the ones who seem to think that it's not possible for them to be deceived, but those who know they have been deceived are often the only people I see warning others about it.

While I do not believe that the elect will ultimately be deceived, I do see even some prophecy students being deceived by false prophets in our day. One problem with that is that it will cause their witness to suffer, even if they are sincere, born again believers. This is especially true of many such believers who are more diligent to defend their favorite teachers than the Bible itself, which is something I see happening rather often these days. Whether or not any teacher is right about anything, we are not called to defend teachers, but God's word. When the church becomes more concerned about teachers being misrepresented than the Bible being misrepresented, I think that is a good indication that they have more of a passion for their favorite teachers than the Bible. As the world observes this taking place in the church, It may just strengthen their postmodern view that there is no ultimate authority, but only man's opinions. Rather than lead them to God's truth, it may just strengthen their view that "you have your truth and I have mine". Honestly, I can understand why they would think that way when I see much of what is taking place in the church today, even though I do not agree with their way of thinking. Many of them just see Christians debating over which teachers have the best opinions rather than pointing people to God's word.

I believe that many of the false prophets and false teachers are one of the reasons that hostility towards Christianity has been increasing. In fact, the following passage points out that they are the reason the way of truth would be blasphemed: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber" (2 Peter 2:1-3).

I can't help but wonder how many people really take thoughtful notice of the part of that passage that says that it is "many" who will follow their destructive ways. When I see even prophecy students being lead astray by popular teachers (seemingly thinking that their popularity somehow makes them more trustworthy), it just doesn't seem like they really believe that it is the majority of the church that is being lead astray, as the Bible clearly indicates. I have to admit that there have been times when I have not been thoughtful enough about this myself, and I just don't want anyone to be lead into promoting things that they will later regret, as I have done in the past. But it is not possible to know the truth (thereby avoiding spiritual deception) unless we are abiding in God's word: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). That is were I am trying to point people here, as always.

I am not going to say that any teacher is wrong just because they are popular, but I am alarmed when a prophecy student seems to think that a teachers popularity is an indication that they are right. Didn't Jesus Himself say, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26)? While I don't believe that someone is a false teacher just because of the fact that they are popular, I am just trying to point out that popularity is overrated. And I just think that is something that even many prophecy students need to consider more carefully. Once again, you can visit my page titled The Signs And Wonders Movement Exposed for info about just some of the false prophets in our day. But there are more of them than the ones that I have info about on that page, so I may add more links to the page later.



Scoffers Will Come, by Roger Oakland (You Tube Video)

Deception’s Great and Final Harvest, by C.H. Fisher

How to Know if You Are Being Spiritually Abused or Deceived—A Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire, by Chris Lawson

Signs of The Times (Playlist on You Tube)

Do You Have a Love For The Truth?

WHAT IS SALVATION?

BACK TO MY HOME PAGE