Lawlessness will abound, and the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:12

When I left off our study in Matthew 24, we were looking at verse 11. The context goes like this: the disciples asked when will these things – the destruction of the temple and His return as the warring Messiah. Jesus began to answer, but the first thing out of His mouth was that they do not allow themselves to be deceived. He then went on to tell them briefly what was coming.

• “For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.”

  Christ is indicative of the Messiah but also the anointed one. This word anointed opens the door to self-appointment.

• “...you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

  Why would this be important in a world where conflict is always going on?

  The statement lends itself to something much larger than local skirmishes.

• For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

  Do names like Ukraine and the Soviet Union sound familiar? How about Israel and Hamas?

• And there will be famines,

  All of which are man-made.

• pestilences,

  This is the Greek word pharmakeia, from which we Americans get our word pharmacy. But it also applies to the neighbor that manufactures meth in his garage and the big businesses pushing their vaccines.

• And earthquakes in various places.

  In case you haven't noticed, earthquakes are popping off all over the globe and are frequently associated with volcanic activity. Read Matthew 24:5-7 NKJV.

“All these are (merely) the beginning of sorrows.”

Verse eleven tells us that during this time, “...many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.”

“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” Matthew 24:11 NKJV

Rise up? The Greek word egeirō comes from the idea of collecting one's faculties: to waken; to rouse - literally from sleep, and in the extreme, to rouse from death. Now it is getting really dark - To raise again.

Imagine that while driving your car, your mind decides to go to some vivid, white sand beach where you had a great vacation. Suddenly you panic, collect your faculties, and realize that you cannot remember the last quarter mile of driving. It might also apply to the boxer who momentarily gets knocked out while fighting and gets awakened from a blow to the head.

Deceive many?

My thoughts lean toward a mass hypnosis, but that seems too much like something from a comic book, and yet, since October 7th, there is evidence of a mass deception. If you paid attention to the crowds wrapped up in this mass hysteria, most are younger, and I doubt they were ever disciplined for misconduct and, therefore, think that there are no rules. The college campuses where much of this riotous activity is birthed actively feed deception to the young and easily manipulated students through their professors, who arouse pitiful behavior in their students.

With all this in mind, comprehending a mass deception is not so difficult. However, the deception that Jesus speaks of has everything to do with a context; that context leans toward the Orthodox Jewish leadership in Israel.

• First, give this some thought, if you can deceive the leadership, then you should be able to easily deceive the blind followers.

  How is that possible?

Because, by their domineering tactics, they inform the followers what they can read or not read. For the most part, the Jews do not read the Torah for themselves but rely solely on the Rabbis reading it to them. The congregants are NOT, for example, permitted to read the prophet Daniel or Isaiah 53. It sounds like most of the people you sit beside are in Christian churches.

• Secondly: The third temple, which is, at this point, not been built, has a chosen high priest, Rabbi Baruch Kahane. If the priesthood thinks this man is just a fine, young man, with outstanding qualifications, then there is nothing to take note of or to be alarmed.

  Maybe this will help you understand.
  I sat down at the after-service taco fest to eat lunch with a couple from that church that I only knew by face and began one of my random conversations. I did this because I am prone to be an introvert and I need to fight that, and my calling in life is to be a teacher of God's Word.
  I said to the man, did you know that the scripture says nothing about Jesus's occupation except two verses. We assume that He was a carpenter, as His earthly father (a good man, by the way) is understood to have been a carpenter, and it is expected in this ancient culture that a young son would follow in the trade of His father.

  The passages that reflect this are:

  "When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  55  Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?"
  Matthew 13:54-55 NKJV 

  The other passage is:

  “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" So they were offended at Him.”
  Mark 6:3 NKJV

  Since Mark's gospel makes no mention of Joseph, the husband of Mary, we can only assume that he has been dead for quite some time.

  In either case, the Greek word translated as carpenter is tekton. This word means a skilled craftsman or artisan) and can include a producer of fabrics, wood articles, and a carpenter. It means to produce, bear, bring forth, and could have included a person who lathed stone pots or wrote poetry.

  An interesting thing happened about a quarter mile outside of Nazareth several years ago. A family owned a plot of land and wished to install a gas station. Well, you don't make a move without the Israeli Antiquities department getting involved, and they discovered an artisan's shop where they had been producing granite articles, such as large stone pots, by lathe. The intriguing thing is that Jesus seemed to know that the home where this wedding in Cana was taking place had such pots. History records that an entrepreneurial Jew realized that granite was not mentioned in the list of things that could be polluted, making that article unusable; therefore, it must always be ceremonially clean. The fact that the craftsman's shop was so close to Jesus's home may imply that He, too, worked there as a craftsman.

  I pointed out how absurd the man's assertion that we should only pay attention to scriptural references, and yet he was wholly given over to Jesus being a carpenter when nothing in scripture upholds his assertion. Now, picture a nation where the majority lives their lives this way.

  So, a piece of information you won't find in the Bible is the Islamic prophetic belief that our false prophet will descend Aaron and will function as the high priest in the new temple. They are also wholeheartedly given to the idea that this false prophet will give himself over to Islam, follow the Mahdi (a man who may well be the antichrist), and that our false prophet will be the enforcer of Sharia law on a global scale. This man, the false prophet, will be the Islamic version of Jesus.

  Just something to think about.

How would you perceive this phrase “rise up” if it applied to one being "wakened" from the dead?

That only happens when God speaks a word over the dead. (Read John 5:21 NAS95. If you must have two witnesses, then look at Deuteronomy 32:39 NAS95)

But didn't the witch of Endor call Samuel up from the dead? (Read 1 Samuel 28)

That is the show that she intended to put on for King Saul, but she screamed because Samuel arose, and he was not too happy about it. That day, Saul was stripped of his kingdom at Samuel's word.

What if this "rising up again" has more to do with something comparable to those fallen angels chained up in the Euphrates? Read Revelation 9:13-15)

Dear Lord, NO, as 1/3 of the earth will die because of their release!

I hope you can begin to understand that this has nothing to do with God's voice. The mere fact that many will be misled is a major part of the puzzle.

Now we look at verse twelve, where it says, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”

“All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:8-12 NKJV

Although the hatred for Israel and the Jews has been ongoing since Abraham, this malicious and deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the hatred of Israel and the Jews has been dominating the internet and the news on a daily basis.

Do you want examples of lawlessness?

How about organized mobs that overtake high-end stores and clean them out. What about Antifa, BLM, or the effects of pro-Hamas “parades” or the takeovers of our highways on our “democratic” society? That and more are a part of this lawlessness.

“And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity,” Matthew 24:12 AMPC+

If it is not merely mass hypnosis, then it is like-minded, uneducated people who, with a minimal amount of motivation, are willing to kill some older Jewish man because he verbally withstood your cries to not punish Hamas and its pathetic followers. Here is one of the many headlines about the incident.

AP News – Man involved in confrontation with Jewish protester who died called 911 and cooperated with police

https://apnews.com › article › jewish-man-died-israel...

Nov 8, 2023 — California authorities are seeking help as they investigate the death of a 69-year-old Jewish man after a confrontation at a pro-Palestinian …

The Guardian reported,

“Posts circulated on social media included video of Kessler injured and lying on a sidewalk as people tend to him. The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles reported that Kessler was struck in the head with a megaphone by a pro-Palestinian protester before he fell, which the sheriff’s office has not yet confirmed. An autopsy found Kessler died from a blunt force head injury and that his injuries were consistent with a fall, Dr Christopher Young, the Ventura county medical examiner, said at a news conference on Tuesday. He also had “non-lethal” injuries to the face, Young said. The manner of death was homicide, Young said, but that does not reflect whether a crime occurred.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/07/california-police-man-death-protests-israel-palestine

Matthew 24 was directed at the Jewish people who were following Him. So, when He is talking about a great body, who is He talking about?

The nation of Israel and the Jews.

Could He be talking about the church?

It seems easy to say yes, especially when a quick look around indicates that much of the church has grown cold. But the context presses the knowledgeable to keep our focus on Israel.

So, as you look at the news coming out of Israel, do you see lawlessness and the love of many growing cold?

No doubt about it, and the lawlessness and iniquity do not necessarily have to be coming out of the Israelis. This should be obvious as you watch the reactions of the so-called Palestinians.

The environment associated with Israel removing an entire community that has a driven goal to eradicate Israel is clearly associated with Jesus's prophetic words concerning the time right before His return for His church.