MATTHEW 24:1-14
“But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in
their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony
against them and the Gentiles” (Mt.10:17-18).
“All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me” (Ps.119:86).
“For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath
made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead” (Ps.143:3).
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(24:10) Apostasy: The fifth sign is terrible apostasy—betrayal and division. Christ says three things about the apostasy.
1. “Many shall be offended (fall away).” Persecution shall cause droves to turn from professing Christ. They do
not know Him: not really, not personally, not inwardly. They have only professed Him with their lips. They have neither
trusted Him with their hearts nor denied self, nor lived sacrificially, nor given, nor served to meet the needs of a needy and
dying world. They know only the comfort and benefits that rub off from being in the church and associating with genuine be-
lievers. They know nothing about the call of God to share in the sufferings of Christ (Ph.1:29; 2 Cor.4:11).
Consequently, when the fiery trial comes, they have no idea what denying self and dying daily for Christ is all about.
They have no inward desire or strength, actually no real reason, to stand firm. They are offended; therefore, they fall away
(cp. Mt.13:21).
Note something. Every generation has some apostasy. Some who have professed Christ do turn away (2 Tim.4:10;
1 Jn.2:18-19). What Christ is saying is that apostasy is to increase, be intensified in the end time. Many will be offended by
the persecution to come, and they will fall away.
2. “(Many) shall betray one another.” Again, informing on others, betraying them is to intensify in the end time.
Neighbor will turn against neighbor, friend against friend, family against family.
A reading of The war of the Jews by Josephus graphically pictures just how inhuman man can become when his survival
is threatened. And, of course, the Gospels show rather graphically how greed and power and selfishness can cause men to
mistreat, abuse, threaten, plot and kill others.
Both survival and selfishness are seen in the last days of Jerusalem when Titus besieged the city: the wealthy saw to their
needs and neglected the poor, and the powerful took what they wanted. As the siege wore on, famine and pestilence struck.
The strong took from the weak and the weak informed on his neighbor’s hidden supplies, no matter how little, in order to re-
ceive a morsel from the strong. Within the city walls, betrayal and murder ran rampant in order to survive. Others just out-
rightly betrayed their nation and went over to the side of the Romans in order to save their lives.
“The people, they had a great inclination to desert to the Romans...the main reasons why they were so
ready to desert were these: that now they should be freed from those miseries which they had endured in
that city...the robbers came running into, and searched men’s private houses; and if they found none
[food], they tormented them worse, because they supposed they had more carefully concealed it. The indi-
cation they made use of whether they had any or not, was taken from the bodies of these miserable
wretches; which, if they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all of food; but if they
were wasted away, they walked off without searching any further...children pulled the very morsels that
their fathers were eating, out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers
do as to their infants: and when those that were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not
ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives...the seditious everywhere
came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when
they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whe-
reupon they broke upon the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were eating, almost up out of
their very throats and this by force; the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women
hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration
shown either to the aged or to infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the
morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor; but still were they more barbarously cruel
to those that had prevented their coming in, and had actually swallowed down what they were going to se-
ize upon, as if they had been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also invented terrible methods of tor-
ment to discover where any food was” (Josephus, Wars. 5. 10:1).
Tacitus, the great Roman historian, summarizes the betrayal of some in the early church.
“First those were seized who confessed that they were Christians; and then on their information a vast
multitude was convicted” (Tacitus, Annuals. 15:44).
Christ had already warned His followers of terrible persecution and even betrayal by one’s own family. The difference in
what He is saying now is His stress upon the end time. The persecution and betrayal will increase and intensify in the end time.
“This now also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves...traitors” (1 Tim.3:1-43).
Several things cause a person to betray others. All will evidently be involved in the end time, as they were in the last days
of Jerusalem.
g159 to escape persecution g159 to get back at someone (vengeance)
g159 to save life g159 to escape embarrassment
g159 to secure some favor g159 to escape fear
g159 to get what one wants g159 to preserve selfish honor
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