Scripture clearly inform us many Christians will be offended at end time as below;
Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”
But why this kind of offense occurs at the end time? We hope to consider this matter.
Related verses of the above part are below;
“Matthew 24: 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 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.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
We hope to see these verses each by each;
“5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”
From the word of Lord, we understand the end time will be the time of
Tribulation and deception and trouble. And many deceivers shall come into the church and permitted to deceive many. But why? Why did the Lord permit the enemy
and deceiver to come into the God-loved church and permit them to deceive many Christians? Why?
We may know the reason from the below scripture;
“Lamentation4: 12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,”
Because of the sin of prophets and the iniquities of the priests, entering of the adversary and the enemy to the gates of God’s Jerusalem are permitted.
Formerly, God protects the gates of Jerusalem, and therefore, every enemy and adversary is stopped in front of the gates. People within Jerusalem have enjoyed peace and freedom. However, at this time, the story changed, and God’s wrath arises, and therefore, entering of the adversary, and the enemy is permitted.
And the same story will happen at the falling away church of the end time. God permits the enemy and the adversary to enter the gates of the church and permit them to
deceive the Christians freely. Why? The reason is the same. Because of the sin of prophets and the iniquities of the priests. Who are the prophet and the priest in this day? They are the people who do service and ministry in the present church.
They commit hidden sin. We hear many scandals and gossips of these clergymen these days. They do iniquities and preach distorted doctrines like the pre-trib fable.
They may not acknowledge these are false doctrines or iniquities, but
God considers so!! Therefore His wrath is rising against the present church.
Why so many troubles and enemies and disasters come over to the church and Christians in end times? We do not know the answer against this most basic question. The reason is simple. God permits it. God permits these troubles to come into the church because of the present church’s sin and iniquities.
“6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
It is there written about “wars and rumors of wars.” What are these “wars and rumors of wars”?
Some people say it is about World War III etc. For me, I do not think so.
When we consider “wars and rumors of wars,” we should pay attention to
the Biblical meaning of war. When we see the Old Testament, we can see many wars.
Israel fight against Edom or Amon. Who is Edom? Edom is a descendant of Israel’s brother Esau. Amon is the descendant of Lot. They are kinsmen of Israel. So, when the Bible talks about the war, it is basically the war done between
Brothers and kinsman. If we see the parable meaning of this war in this present time, it is about the struggle between Christian divisions and groups.
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7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
The Parable meaning of “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:” is One Christian division rise against other Christian division.
“there shall be famines,”
The parable meaning of famine is a shortage of bread. Bread is the parable of God’s word and its preaching and hearing the words. See below scripture:
“Amos 8: 11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:”
As sin and iniquities prevail in falling away church, no healthy bread or doctrine
remains in them; therefore, they experience the famine, shortage of hearing good preaching, bread.
“pestilences”
Pestilences is a parable. We can see many pestilences in books of Gospel.
Blind men, deaf men, leprous men, and palsy men come to Jesus and
they are all healed by Him. These pestilences are a parable of spiritual pestilences.
Blind man represents the spiritual blind man who can not see spiritual truth. Deaf man represents spiritual deaf who can not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Leprosy represents sin which spread and influence and defiles other men. If we once have pestilences, Jesus can heal us. However, if we do not follow his word and not do it, instead, follow sin, then can pestilences never be healed. Instead, it will increase
in falling away church, and many pestilences will prevail.
“earthquakes”
There is parable meaning on word earthquake. Concerning
Earthquake, the book of Hebrew writes as below;
“Hebrew 13: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. “
In this scripture, the writer talks about the purpose of an earthquake.
Earthquake shakes the houses. As a consequence, one house to be removed or fallen because of shake. However, other houses remain in spite of the shake.
House means the house of God, the church.
The purpose of the earthquake is to test and divide the houses. One church
to be removed from its position by the earthquake. The other church remain
s its position in spite of the shake. The same earthquake do the test and division of
churches. The parable meaning of the earthquake is persecution or tribulation.
The tribulation will be used like an earthquake, and it tests each house of God.
“9 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.”
Who is “you” in this scripture? We must remember this talk of Matthew chapter 24
Is told between Jesus and his disciples as below:
“Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?”
So, when Jesus talks like “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.”, He talks to only his disciples and not to every Christian people.
We must know the most basic knowledge of the bible: That is to say: the distinction between disciple and people. They are different. We can see the difference of them, especially on the scripture about the time of Lord’s cross:
Disciple: They basically follow Jesus till the end of his days.
People: They gathered to Jesus when they are sick and supplying of bread.
However, they betrayed Jesus and denied and requested Him to be crucified by Pilate.
His disciples experienced affliction and are in danger to be killed,
but people never experience this affliction nor persecution.
So, we must know when Jesus warns us, “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.”
It is about the believers who walk as Lord’s disciple in this day and not for all Christians.
Instead, there is a possibility those who walk as falling away Christian may not experience any affliction nor danger of killing nor to be hated of all nations for Lord’s name’s sake.
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10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”
Because of the sin and iniquities of falling away church, God permits a hard time upon the church. Every attack like from LGBT, will come upon her. Their faith to be shaken. During this hard time,” then shall many be offended.”
The time of Jesus’ crucifixion will repeat again.
At the time of the crucifixion, people betray Jesus and hate Him and make Him be crucified. This will be repeated again.
Like Jesus’ time, at the end time, falling away people will betray His disciples and faithful Christians and hate them. The hidden mind or real status of Christians will be revealed.
“ 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
It is permitted by God “many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
God permits falling away church to be shaken by false prophets and many unfaithful Christians to be deceived.
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12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
Iniquity means to distort the truth. So, it is about distorted doctrines and teachings. Within the falling away church, many iniquity fables and itchy ear stories sprang up like pre-trib fable. People welcome these itchy ear stories.
And the love of truth or love to the true word shall wax cold.
“13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
The end time is the time of falling away and the time of the iniquity story.
It is similar to the time of Jesus Christ first coming. He introduced the Godly truth
among the people of iniquity. Pharisees and priests and scribes enjoyed their iniquity doctrines and stories. Therefore, Jesus and disciples had a hard time because of their truth.
The same story will be repeated at the end time. During the time of falling away church, he who has truth and “shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
So, we must know, end time is the time when many Christians will be offended.
It is really like the time of Jesus Christ first coming.
At the first of his ministry, great crowd people gathered to Jesus. But, at the end of his ministry, many are offended in Him and betrayed Him and hope to crucify Him. Only a few disciples remained with Him. The same story will be repeated again at the end time. Many will be offended, and only a few disciples will remain with Him. We have to prepare for this time.
