And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Many deceptive religious teachers will appear and lead large numbers astray as part of the early troubles leading up to the end, alongside false messiahs, wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, persecution and a cooling of love. This was first met when Jerusalem fell through pretenders to miraculous power drawing crowds into desert and mountain retreats, and it meets again in the last days as a sign of the second coming through Satan-inspired movements, false messiahs and false prophets with signs and wonders, including claims that Christ is in the desert or in secret rooms and communion with the dead. The danger reaches disciples to the very end through pleasing persuasive errors taught as an angel of light, misusing Scripture and precious truth to hide error, weakening confidence, dividing believers and seeking to seduce even the faithful elect. Every claim must be proved by harmony with the law and testimony of Scripture and with the teaching of Christ crucified, risen and ascended, for those who set aside God's law while claiming to belong to Christ have no light in them. Therefore believers must take heed not to be misled but stay watchful and alert, know the truth and the reasons for faith for themselves from the Word, and faithfully warn the world while enduring to the end unto salvation.
Setting and Scope
Christ's words belong to a prophecy that embraces both the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming at the end of the world, given for the disciples who heard it and for those who would be living at the close of earth's history. They are part of the extended description in Matthew 24 and 25 of the second coming with power and great glory to gather the elect from the four winds. That description is joined to the warning that no one knows the day or hour, to the declaration that it will be as in the days of Noah, and to the charge that believers must watch and be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour they think not.
The great prophecy briefly covers the whole Christian dispensation from Christ's departure until His return. It gives the history of the present dispensation through the church's warfare and sufferings to promised redemption. It carries that history forward to the final triumph of God's people, the destruction of Satan and his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints.
It was spoken from the Mount of Olives, looking down the stream of time to the last days. From that place Christ saw the actions of saints and sinners and shed tears over them. That outlook belongs to a setting in which God's warnings are rejected and scorn is directed toward His servants.
The verse stands among the beginning of sorrows and the events preceding the coming and the end. With it are false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in different places. With it also are affliction and killing and hatred by all nations, many being offended and betraying and hating one another, persecution, hatred, betrayal, abounding iniquity, and the love of many waxing cold. Endurance to the end unto salvation is joined to these warnings, and the gospel of the kingdom is to be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations before the end comes, coming as a thief in the night exactly as warned.
Fulfillment Then and Now
The verse was first fulfilled at the fall of Jerusalem, when false prophets rose and deceived the people, with false Christs, magicians and sorcerers claiming miraculous power drawing great numbers away into desert and mountain solitudes. That first fulfillment was also declared to be a sign of the second advent, so the same prophecy applies to the last days.
In the last days companies inspired by Satan will arise to deceive the people, and satanic agencies will be prepared to deceive and delude as a sign of the second advent. False christs and false prophets will show signs and wonders to seduce disciples, heard in the cry that Christ is in the desert with thousands going forth to find Him. The same deception is heard in thousands of gatherings professing communion with departed spirits crying that He is in the secret chambers, which is the claim of Spiritualism.
The verse pictures conditions existing in the church, not merely the world, and is now being fulfilled among God's people. Because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold, and in the churches today the love of many is waxing cold while many who are deceived are being worked by satanic agencies. The church that takes heed to these signs will not be among those that have left their first love. Ministers and physicians who are not worked by the Holy Spirit yet seek to act as leaders and gain the confidence of the people take part in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
The signs foretold in Matthew 24:3-14, including this verse, are fast fulfilling and rapidly being fulfilled in the very last days. They are being fulfilled amid the perils of the time and the increasing pressure of the powers of darkness, with wars, conflict among nations, and Satan's powerful work of deception. Their fulfillment shows that the present is the last days, that the end of all things is at hand, and that Christ's coming is near, giving one of the signs of His second coming. Stormy times lie ahead, calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement.
The rise of deceiving false prophets together with the other signs marks the last conflict of earth's history and the time just previous to the coming of the Lord. These signs specified for the time just before His coming have become so common they are scarcely considered as to their outcome. Yet they call for God's people to be aroused to a vivid sense of the times and the outcome. The predictions of Matthew 24 are being fulfilled today as unmistakable fulfillment showing that Christ's coming is at hand. Therefore the chapter must be studied again and again and brought to the attention of all, with ministers and teachers presenting it to those they instruct while leaving matters of lesser consequence, because its truths decide the eternal destiny of souls and call the church to arouse.
Deceivers and Their Methods
The deception centers on false prophets and false claims about Christ that may be accompanied by great signs and wonders, yet any claim that Christ has appeared in a particular place is not to be believed, because His coming will be visible across the world. The warning exposes mistaken views of the second advent taught by ministers, such as an invisible coming, a secret removal of the saints, and a later return to Jerusalem. Understanding prophecy as a connected chain fulfilled in the rise and fall of kingdoms and in the signs of the times makes faith definite.
The deception is a serious danger to disciples, greater than persecution and continuing through the latter days. It promotes pleasing and persuasive errors that weaken spiritual perception, weaken confidence in God's truth, shake new believers, and make truth hard to distinguish from error. In the very last state of earth's history Satan works through false prophets in an underhanded manner as an angel of light, drawing away disciples with specious doctrinal errors and fallacious theories adorned as pleasing fables. He leads them to misapply many scriptures and to appropriate precious truth as a robe of righteousness to establish error, removing the old landmarks so it appears the Lord contradicts Himself. His work through them spoils faith, discourages, and divides God's people with dissension and contention, seeking to deceive if possible even the elect faithful to the truth specified in Revelation. Even some formerly honored will depart to advocate misleading theories on many phases of truth including the sanctuary question, who will have to be met.
The verse is fulfilled when people with superficial faith and experience turn from the waymarks marking their prophetic position and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and a spurious holiness. This includes those who had light and go out from believers, in a time of severe trial when some depart from the faith. In time of peril and persecution a Pharisaical spirit comes among God's favored people and Satan works on the unconsecrated mind so many do not accept light in God's appointed way. Many claiming to believe truth but not comprehending present truth because they have not dug it out for themselves change opinions to escape persecution and take the side of transgressors of God's law.
As the great day of the Lord comes, known by reading the signs in the light of prophecy, false witnesses rise to oppose the message of mercy and warning that would awaken the world from death. They confront God's ambassadors with opposition and invent lies, applied to efforts by lawmaking powers to exalt Sunday. The verse is illustrated by promoters of false messages about the third angel who claimed divine inspiration and visions and used religious writings to make their claims seem true, whose failed predictions exposed the deception. Dissension and deception from outside will surely come as declared, with the enemy kindling false fires of light to lead God's people astray if they follow them.
Testing Truth and Enduring
Even professions of great faith and holiness must be brought to the test of agreement with the law and the testimony of Scripture, and whatever contradicts that standard shows no light. Loyalty to Jehovah's law is what distinguishes God's true servants from false prophets, so those who claim to belong to Christ while making His law void are false teachers who fail that test. A self-made standard in place of that test leads people to mistake self-righteousness for perfection.
Teachings must also be tested by Christ, with whatever conflicts with His teaching to be rejected. The saving truth to be learned and taught in the face of such deception is Christ crucified for sin, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven. This danger from error that weakens spiritual perception and shakes the confidence of new believers is greater to the church than persecution by its enemies.
Safety calls for watchfulness and discernment toward messages claiming to come from heaven, with firm reliance on Scripture rather than human claims, for the Word of God is the sure standard for distinguishing truth from error. It requires intelligent personal knowledge of what is truth and the reasons of faith, with each person understanding the doctrines for themselves instead of depending on sermons. That means searching Daniel and Revelation and the Word of God text by text for the strong evidences that sustain the fundamental doctrines standing on the platform of eternal truth, because everything that can be shaken will be shaken. The warning applies when people with superficial faith and superficial experience, including those who had light and go out from among believers, turn from the waymarks the Lord established to mark their prophetic position and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and a spurious holiness.
God's commandment-keeping people must therefore be sharp, discerning, spiritually sharp-minded people, and worldly policy must never in any sense become their policy or principle. They must not divorce the interests of those who believe sacred truths to confederate with men of the world or with men of the church whom the world has converted to worldly methods and plans, and they must never trust those who are not obedient to His commandments. Safety is in looking to God alone and deriving strength and power from Him alone, living in perfect harmony with His will expressed in the Ten Commandments through thorough conversion by divine grace unto spiritual life and power. Like John preparing the way of the Lord they are to be set apart to minister in sacred service and preach the Word, binding up in covenant relation with God instead of binding up in confederacies with men. They must press together in humility and the Spirit of Jesus, walk in the light of heaven and not in sparks of fire of their own kindling or sparks kindled by the enemy to lead them astray, and stand on the highest standard of truth and righteousness, equity and judgment in order to have God's endorsement and blessing, for those who have the light of truth and walk not in it but follow sparks of their own kindling shall lie down in sorrow.
Those who endure to the end will be saved and stand before the Son of man when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached to all nations. That endurance means taking heed not to be deceived amid persecution, betrayal, abounding iniquity and love waxing cold, faithfully doing individual duty, giving Christ's warnings to others, and watching and praying always. It means remaining faithful and true with greatly humbled heart before God rather than changing opinions to escape persecution and taking the side of transgressors of God's law. Persecution in which teachers of truth flee to other places and continue preaching wherever they can find a hearing does not stop the work but spreads the truth, while fanaticism makes clearer the difference between Satan's work and God's work.
Watchfulness and Mission
The warning that many false prophets will rise and deceive many is part of Christ's solemn warning to the disciples before the end, standing with false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution, hatred, betrayal, abounding iniquity, and love waxing cold as the beginning of sorrows. It means God's people must take heed not to be deceived, must not seek the secret time of Christ's coming, but must faithfully do individual duty, give Christ's warnings to others, watch and pray always, and endure to the end to be saved and to stand before the Son of man when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached to all nations. Believers must not ignore these warnings but remain watchful.
Faithful watchmen pay attention and watch for Christ's return, and they will recognize events taking place in the world and will not be surprised or unready. The deception is a serious danger to disciples, greater than persecution and continuing through the latter days, promoting pleasing persuasive errors that weaken confidence in God's truth and make truth hard to distinguish from error, so believers must remain alert. Watchfulness and discernment are required toward messages claiming to come from heaven, with firm reliance on Scripture as the sure standard for distinguishing truth from error rather than human claims.
The description in Matthew 24 and 25 of the second coming with power and great glory to gather the elect from the four winds warns that no one knows the day or hour, that the coming will be as in the days of Noah before the flood, and that believers must watch and be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour they think not. These words portray the condition of the church at Christ's coming and should arouse earnest zeal in the heart of the true believer. The signs foretold in Matthew 24:3-14 are fast fulfilling, showing the present is the last days and the end of all things is at hand, with stormy times ahead calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement. The fulfillment of those signs should awaken people from spiritual lethargy and rouse them to take up responsibility to work for God.
The outline in Matthew 24 of what is to come upon the world places the rising of many false prophets to deceive many among the perils of the last days now present, when those perishing in sin must be warned, light must shine forth from every Christian to those in darkness, and means entrusted by the Lord must be invested to advance the last message of mercy and sustain gospel work. The same outline includes the dangers of the last days and calls for those perishing in sin to be warned. The signs the Savior foretold to the disciples give instruction to later believers to help them prepare for the great conflict. Because the signs associated with Christ's coming are fast fulfilling and His coming is near, workers are urgently called to carry the final warning to people who have not yet heard the truth. The foretold signs call people to take the nearness of the end seriously and prepare to meet the Lord.
The prophecy clearly points out the signs of the second coming and calls God's householders to prepare the way for His advent by helping in every possible way those for whom He gave His life. That work is to urgently carry the final warning and the light of present truth to all parts of the world in many languages through books such as Daniel and Revelation, The Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, and The Desire of Ages, through humble colporteur-evangelists and medical missionary work and prayer, through householders helping those for whom Christ gave His life, while those long in the truth awake, are sanctified, proclaim the third angel's message loudly without letting minor matters eclipse the light, take the nearness of the end seriously, and prepare to meet the Lord as instructed for the great conflict. The time of severe trial for the church, when some depart from the faith and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, does not come unexpectedly, for Christ's warning assures His people that the Lord understands their experience and will not leave them to the enemy.
Amid last-day delusions in which false prophets arise and deceive many, sacred eternal truth will be made plain. As the great day of the Lord comes right upon us, known by reading the signs of the times in the light of prophecy, false witnesses rise to oppose the message of mercy and warning that would awaken the world from its sleep of death, confronting God's ambassadors with opposition and inventing all manner of lies. Those lies cannot harm those who work with strengthened faith, watch with unceasing vigilance for souls, open the Word distinctly, bring minds to decision, and weep between the porch and the altar for God to spare His people, because Jesus is by their side having overcome the world. Yet many are deceived, even some who once rejoiced in the truth making shipwreck of faith and reduced to a blank and cheerless spiritual condition without God and without hope, like the inhabitants of the old world.
From the crest of Olivet Christ looked down the stream of time to these last days, saw the actions of saints and sinners and shed tears for them, especially for those who whisper fanaticism and enthusiasm against the earnest and strong uplifted voice of God's people. God bids His servants not to be afraid but to say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
Many deceptive religious teachers will appear and lead large numbers astray as part of the early troubles leading up to the end, alongside false messiahs, wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, persecution and a cooling of love. This was first met when Jerusalem fell through pretenders to miraculous power drawing crowds into desert and mountain retreats, and it meets again in the last days as a sign of the second coming through Satan-inspired movements, false messiahs and false prophets with signs and wonders, including claims that Christ is in the desert or in secret rooms and communion with the dead. The danger reaches disciples to the very end through pleasing persuasive errors taught as an angel of light, misusing Scripture and precious truth to hide error, weakening confidence, dividing believers and seeking to seduce even the faithful elect. Every claim must be proved by harmony with the law and testimony of Scripture and with the teaching of Christ crucified, risen and ascended, for those who set aside God's law while claiming to belong to Christ have no light in them. Therefore believers must take heed not to be misled but stay watchful and alert, know the truth and the reasons for faith for themselves from the Word, and faithfully warn the world while enduring to the end unto salvation.
Setting and Scope
Christ's words belong to a prophecy that embraces both the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming at the end of the world, given for the disciples who heard it and for those who would be living at the close of earth's history. They are part of the extended description in Matthew 24 and 25 of the second coming with power and great glory to gather the elect from the four winds. That description is joined to the warning that no one knows the day or hour, to the declaration that it will be as in the days of Noah, and to the charge that believers must watch and be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour they think not.
The great prophecy briefly covers the whole Christian dispensation from Christ's departure until His return. It gives the history of the present dispensation through the church's warfare and sufferings to promised redemption. It carries that history forward to the final triumph of God's people, the destruction of Satan and his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints.
It was spoken from the Mount of Olives, looking down the stream of time to the last days. From that place Christ saw the actions of saints and sinners and shed tears over them. That outlook belongs to a setting in which God's warnings are rejected and scorn is directed toward His servants.
The verse stands among the beginning of sorrows and the events preceding the coming and the end. With it are false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in different places. With it also are affliction and killing and hatred by all nations, many being offended and betraying and hating one another, persecution, hatred, betrayal, abounding iniquity, and the love of many waxing cold. Endurance to the end unto salvation is joined to these warnings, and the gospel of the kingdom is to be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations before the end comes, coming as a thief in the night exactly as warned.
Fulfillment Then and Now
The verse was first fulfilled at the fall of Jerusalem, when false prophets rose and deceived the people, with false Christs, magicians and sorcerers claiming miraculous power drawing great numbers away into desert and mountain solitudes. That first fulfillment was also declared to be a sign of the second advent, so the same prophecy applies to the last days.
In the last days companies inspired by Satan will arise to deceive the people, and satanic agencies will be prepared to deceive and delude as a sign of the second advent. False christs and false prophets will show signs and wonders to seduce disciples, heard in the cry that Christ is in the desert with thousands going forth to find Him. The same deception is heard in thousands of gatherings professing communion with departed spirits crying that He is in the secret chambers, which is the claim of Spiritualism.
The verse pictures conditions existing in the church, not merely the world, and is now being fulfilled among God's people. Because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold, and in the churches today the love of many is waxing cold while many who are deceived are being worked by satanic agencies. The church that takes heed to these signs will not be among those that have left their first love. Ministers and physicians who are not worked by the Holy Spirit yet seek to act as leaders and gain the confidence of the people take part in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
The signs foretold in Matthew 24:3-14, including this verse, are fast fulfilling and rapidly being fulfilled in the very last days. They are being fulfilled amid the perils of the time and the increasing pressure of the powers of darkness, with wars, conflict among nations, and Satan's powerful work of deception. Their fulfillment shows that the present is the last days, that the end of all things is at hand, and that Christ's coming is near, giving one of the signs of His second coming. Stormy times lie ahead, calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement.
The rise of deceiving false prophets together with the other signs marks the last conflict of earth's history and the time just previous to the coming of the Lord. These signs specified for the time just before His coming have become so common they are scarcely considered as to their outcome. Yet they call for God's people to be aroused to a vivid sense of the times and the outcome. The predictions of Matthew 24 are being fulfilled today as unmistakable fulfillment showing that Christ's coming is at hand. Therefore the chapter must be studied again and again and brought to the attention of all, with ministers and teachers presenting it to those they instruct while leaving matters of lesser consequence, because its truths decide the eternal destiny of souls and call the church to arouse.
Deceivers and Their Methods
The deception centers on false prophets and false claims about Christ that may be accompanied by great signs and wonders, yet any claim that Christ has appeared in a particular place is not to be believed, because His coming will be visible across the world. The warning exposes mistaken views of the second advent taught by ministers, such as an invisible coming, a secret removal of the saints, and a later return to Jerusalem. Understanding prophecy as a connected chain fulfilled in the rise and fall of kingdoms and in the signs of the times makes faith definite.
The deception is a serious danger to disciples, greater than persecution and continuing through the latter days. It promotes pleasing and persuasive errors that weaken spiritual perception, weaken confidence in God's truth, shake new believers, and make truth hard to distinguish from error. In the very last state of earth's history Satan works through false prophets in an underhanded manner as an angel of light, drawing away disciples with specious doctrinal errors and fallacious theories adorned as pleasing fables. He leads them to misapply many scriptures and to appropriate precious truth as a robe of righteousness to establish error, removing the old landmarks so it appears the Lord contradicts Himself. His work through them spoils faith, discourages, and divides God's people with dissension and contention, seeking to deceive if possible even the elect faithful to the truth specified in Revelation. Even some formerly honored will depart to advocate misleading theories on many phases of truth including the sanctuary question, who will have to be met.
The verse is fulfilled when people with superficial faith and experience turn from the waymarks marking their prophetic position and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and a spurious holiness. This includes those who had light and go out from believers, in a time of severe trial when some depart from the faith. In time of peril and persecution a Pharisaical spirit comes among God's favored people and Satan works on the unconsecrated mind so many do not accept light in God's appointed way. Many claiming to believe truth but not comprehending present truth because they have not dug it out for themselves change opinions to escape persecution and take the side of transgressors of God's law.
As the great day of the Lord comes, known by reading the signs in the light of prophecy, false witnesses rise to oppose the message of mercy and warning that would awaken the world from death. They confront God's ambassadors with opposition and invent lies, applied to efforts by lawmaking powers to exalt Sunday. The verse is illustrated by promoters of false messages about the third angel who claimed divine inspiration and visions and used religious writings to make their claims seem true, whose failed predictions exposed the deception. Dissension and deception from outside will surely come as declared, with the enemy kindling false fires of light to lead God's people astray if they follow them.
Testing Truth and Enduring
Even professions of great faith and holiness must be brought to the test of agreement with the law and the testimony of Scripture, and whatever contradicts that standard shows no light. Loyalty to Jehovah's law is what distinguishes God's true servants from false prophets, so those who claim to belong to Christ while making His law void are false teachers who fail that test. A self-made standard in place of that test leads people to mistake self-righteousness for perfection.
Teachings must also be tested by Christ, with whatever conflicts with His teaching to be rejected. The saving truth to be learned and taught in the face of such deception is Christ crucified for sin, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven. This danger from error that weakens spiritual perception and shakes the confidence of new believers is greater to the church than persecution by its enemies.
Safety calls for watchfulness and discernment toward messages claiming to come from heaven, with firm reliance on Scripture rather than human claims, for the Word of God is the sure standard for distinguishing truth from error. It requires intelligent personal knowledge of what is truth and the reasons of faith, with each person understanding the doctrines for themselves instead of depending on sermons. That means searching Daniel and Revelation and the Word of God text by text for the strong evidences that sustain the fundamental doctrines standing on the platform of eternal truth, because everything that can be shaken will be shaken. The warning applies when people with superficial faith and superficial experience, including those who had light and go out from among believers, turn from the waymarks the Lord established to mark their prophetic position and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and a spurious holiness.
God's commandment-keeping people must therefore be sharp, discerning, spiritually sharp-minded people, and worldly policy must never in any sense become their policy or principle. They must not divorce the interests of those who believe sacred truths to confederate with men of the world or with men of the church whom the world has converted to worldly methods and plans, and they must never trust those who are not obedient to His commandments. Safety is in looking to God alone and deriving strength and power from Him alone, living in perfect harmony with His will expressed in the Ten Commandments through thorough conversion by divine grace unto spiritual life and power. Like John preparing the way of the Lord they are to be set apart to minister in sacred service and preach the Word, binding up in covenant relation with God instead of binding up in confederacies with men. They must press together in humility and the Spirit of Jesus, walk in the light of heaven and not in sparks of fire of their own kindling or sparks kindled by the enemy to lead them astray, and stand on the highest standard of truth and righteousness, equity and judgment in order to have God's endorsement and blessing, for those who have the light of truth and walk not in it but follow sparks of their own kindling shall lie down in sorrow.
Those who endure to the end will be saved and stand before the Son of man when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached to all nations. That endurance means taking heed not to be deceived amid persecution, betrayal, abounding iniquity and love waxing cold, faithfully doing individual duty, giving Christ's warnings to others, and watching and praying always. It means remaining faithful and true with greatly humbled heart before God rather than changing opinions to escape persecution and taking the side of transgressors of God's law. Persecution in which teachers of truth flee to other places and continue preaching wherever they can find a hearing does not stop the work but spreads the truth, while fanaticism makes clearer the difference between Satan's work and God's work.
Watchfulness and Mission
The warning that many false prophets will rise and deceive many is part of Christ's solemn warning to the disciples before the end, standing with false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution, hatred, betrayal, abounding iniquity, and love waxing cold as the beginning of sorrows. It means God's people must take heed not to be deceived, must not seek the secret time of Christ's coming, but must faithfully do individual duty, give Christ's warnings to others, watch and pray always, and endure to the end to be saved and to stand before the Son of man when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached to all nations. Believers must not ignore these warnings but remain watchful.
Faithful watchmen pay attention and watch for Christ's return, and they will recognize events taking place in the world and will not be surprised or unready. The deception is a serious danger to disciples, greater than persecution and continuing through the latter days, promoting pleasing persuasive errors that weaken confidence in God's truth and make truth hard to distinguish from error, so believers must remain alert. Watchfulness and discernment are required toward messages claiming to come from heaven, with firm reliance on Scripture as the sure standard for distinguishing truth from error rather than human claims.
The description in Matthew 24 and 25 of the second coming with power and great glory to gather the elect from the four winds warns that no one knows the day or hour, that the coming will be as in the days of Noah before the flood, and that believers must watch and be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour they think not. These words portray the condition of the church at Christ's coming and should arouse earnest zeal in the heart of the true believer. The signs foretold in Matthew 24:3-14 are fast fulfilling, showing the present is the last days and the end of all things is at hand, with stormy times ahead calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement. The fulfillment of those signs should awaken people from spiritual lethargy and rouse them to take up responsibility to work for God.
The outline in Matthew 24 of what is to come upon the world places the rising of many false prophets to deceive many among the perils of the last days now present, when those perishing in sin must be warned, light must shine forth from every Christian to those in darkness, and means entrusted by the Lord must be invested to advance the last message of mercy and sustain gospel work. The same outline includes the dangers of the last days and calls for those perishing in sin to be warned. The signs the Savior foretold to the disciples give instruction to later believers to help them prepare for the great conflict. Because the signs associated with Christ's coming are fast fulfilling and His coming is near, workers are urgently called to carry the final warning to people who have not yet heard the truth. The foretold signs call people to take the nearness of the end seriously and prepare to meet the Lord.
The prophecy clearly points out the signs of the second coming and calls God's householders to prepare the way for His advent by helping in every possible way those for whom He gave His life. That work is to urgently carry the final warning and the light of present truth to all parts of the world in many languages through books such as Daniel and Revelation, The Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, and The Desire of Ages, through humble colporteur-evangelists and medical missionary work and prayer, through householders helping those for whom Christ gave His life, while those long in the truth awake, are sanctified, proclaim the third angel's message loudly without letting minor matters eclipse the light, take the nearness of the end seriously, and prepare to meet the Lord as instructed for the great conflict. The time of severe trial for the church, when some depart from the faith and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, does not come unexpectedly, for Christ's warning assures His people that the Lord understands their experience and will not leave them to the enemy.
Amid last-day delusions in which false prophets arise and deceive many, sacred eternal truth will be made plain. As the great day of the Lord comes right upon us, known by reading the signs of the times in the light of prophecy, false witnesses rise to oppose the message of mercy and warning that would awaken the world from its sleep of death, confronting God's ambassadors with opposition and inventing all manner of lies. Those lies cannot harm those who work with strengthened faith, watch with unceasing vigilance for souls, open the Word distinctly, bring minds to decision, and weep between the porch and the altar for God to spare His people, because Jesus is by their side having overcome the world. Yet many are deceived, even some who once rejoiced in the truth making shipwreck of faith and reduced to a blank and cheerless spiritual condition without God and without hope, like the inhabitants of the old world.
From the crest of Olivet Christ looked down the stream of time to these last days, saw the actions of saints and sinners and shed tears for them, especially for those who whisper fanaticism and enthusiasm against the earnest and strong uplifted voice of God's people. God bids His servants not to be afraid but to say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.