"See That No One Leads You Astray"
Anyone studying the Last Days has this warning to contend with. We are told in advance that all kinds of deceptive teachings and beliefs are going to gain wide circulation. In fact, some of the worst deceptions were already in place before we were born. How can you recognize the truth when so many voices are clamoring for your attention? We need two things: a desire to let the plain meaning of scripture be the main thing we listen to and a willingness to set aside our personal hope, fears and desires in order to hear what scripture is actually saying.
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Matthew 24:3-8
All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
A Sleeping Bride?
Has this warning come to late? Or, are we already deceived? If we are deceived, how would we know? A pastor once compared deception to being in a deep, dreamless sleep. You don’t even know you’re asleep until someone tries to wake you up. As likely as not, you won’t thank them for spoiling your slumber! And isn’t it true that sometimes the sleep is so deep that either the person has to shout at us or shake us to wake us? The “birth pangs” are like that.[1] The Lord prophesied through the writer of Hebrews that “yet once more I will shake all things.[2] The shaking is to awaken His slumbering Bride. Is she sleeping the sleep of sin, or of deception?
On a personal note, I was deceived before I began. When I came to faith at age 33 in 1982, I was “birthed” into a faith community that believed the pre-Tribulation Rapture theory hook, line and sinker. I absorbed that teaching along with all the others I received. Why not? They loved the Lord and God used them for my salvation. They were right about Jesus. I assumed they were right about all things. Then, a visiting pastor came through our fellowship, had us pull out our Bibles, and for two days walked us through all of the relevant scriptures. Something like scales fell from my eyes and I could see clearly what the scriptures were clearly saying: Jesus comes “after the tribulation of those days.”[3] The enemy thoroughly deceived me while I was an unbeliever; now he was at it again. And do you know what? He’s good at it!
Stop for the Caution Light
Naturally enough, the disciples wanted to get a heads up on the Last Days. However, when they asked Jesus, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" what He said should make us all pause. The very first thing that He wanted them (and us) to know is this: “See that no one leads you astray.” There it is. Evidently, the time leading up to His Return will be very conducive to deception. Don’t be deceived. Specifically, don’t let anyone “lead you astray.” Being led astray implies that there is a marked path we are meant to follow, but we might be tempted to depart from it.[4] The truth is that we have a path. We have a timeline. Jesus Himself gave it to us in this same passage from Matthew. Nothing could be clearer—unless some deception leads us to stray from it. (See “The Great Tribulation” for the timeline.)
Just such a deceptive teaching came along in the 1830s. For over all previous centuries the Church believed that she would go through the Tribulation and Jesus would come at the end of it to rescue her. Then, a Jesuit priest invented the theory of a pre-tribulation rapture in order to confuse the Protestants, get them arguing among themselves and take the heat off the Catholic Church as the major negative focus of their End Times teachings. This nefarious (devious) teaching was unwittingly promoted by certain individuals within the Plymouth Brethren, including John Nelson Darby among others. Through Darby, C. I. Scofield was influenced. Scofield influenced D. L. Moody. From there the doctrine spread like influenza throughout the Body of Christ. There’s much more to the story—please get the download, History of the Rapture .
What Can Settle the Issue?
This theory and its history certainly have tell-tale signs of being a deception introduced into an otherwise healthy Body of Christ. How can we know for sure? Let the scriptures speak for themselves! Roughly twenty New Testament passages have been gathered together and explored on this site. Set theory aside and go through them one by one, asking the Lord honestly to show you what the plain meaning of these passages could be. He loves us. He holds nothing against us. He wants His truth to set us free. And it will if we are willing to let it.
If you will let me, however, I will warn you, that if you go to the Lord or the scriptures with an agenda, or let’s say, with an emotional pre-disposition, you are already setting yourself up for deception. For instance, it’s ok to have some fear about going through the Tribulation, but it’s not ok to let that fear influence your understanding of the scriptures. With Jesus you have to want what He wants you to want, in order to get a clear word. This is called abandonment to Him. It’s also called detachment from the world. We detach from any desires of our own and we attach only to Him. Jesus says that if you want to know His will in order to do it, He will reveal Himself to you.[5] If often takes a lot of prayer before we can hear from the Lord, because so much self must be taken out of the way.
Another Test to Apply
Another way we can test the pre-trib and mid-trib theories for deception is by the context Jesus describes. Immediately after warning the disciples against being deceived, Jesus says, “For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray.” We usually take this to mean a false Messiah is claiming to be Jesus. It can also mean that even people who say of Jesus that He is “the Christ” will also spread deception. Let’s face it, only one teaching is true: either Jesus is coming before, after, or during the Tribulation. The other two, though they are promoted by genuine believers, are deceptions. And there is one more clue.
After describing some of the birth pangs (wars and rumors of wars), Jesus says this: “See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” By alarmed, Jesus indicates that there is no need to go to full alert (alarm) expecting Him to suddenly appear. Other things must happen first. Then, He outlines for us what that sequence of events will be. Don’t be deceived by any of the birth pangs. You’re way out of synch with His schedule if that happens. Yet, this is rampant today.
Every fresh catastrophe or strange “sign” sends people to the web with wild predictions of the Rapture about to happen. Surely, Jesus is coming for His Bride! Why think like that? Jesus said to resist that sort of foolishness. Of course, if you believe in the pre-trib theory, then you have absolutely no timeline for Jesus’ Return. This way of thinking provokes exactly the kind of “alarm” which Jesus warns us to avoid. This theory renders its adherents unable to read any of the signs correctly.
Never Alarmed
There is one group of Last Days believers who are never “alarmed” by any of the events taking place on the earth at present. They know that there is no need to suppose that Jesus is about to appear—the Tribulation and the rule of the antichrist haven’t happened yet. So, they seek a better, more balanced understanding of present events, one that fits them into the timeline Jesus gave, not as something that might bring on the Rapture. The truth sets us free from being alarmed.
Next Rapture Study
He Who Endures to the End (Matthew 24:8-14) This one stern statement of Jesus should end the debate about the timing of the Rapture. Listen to it in context of the teaching of Jesus on the Great Tribulation. A pre-Tribulation escape from danger and death is nothing anyone would have to “endure.” Yet, Jesus warns us that we had better be prepared to hunker down and endure to the end—not to the beginning, or some supposed mid-point—but to the very end of the times He describes in order to be saved.
Free Downloads
When Is the Rapture? (62-page eBook)
Signs of the Second Coming (36-page eBook)
Signs of Christ's Return (2-page Handout)
Endnotes
[1] All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Matthew 24:8
[2] At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Hebrews 12:26-27
[3] "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29-30
[4] The word “astray” translated here is planao in the Greek. According to Strong’s Concordance it means “to (properly cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): - go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way.”
[5] 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John 14:21