Josh1Eight

"For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. See, I have warned you about this ahead of time."(Matthew 24:24, 25 NLT) This is the second time in the same chapter Jesus has warned His followers about the very real danger that will stem from those giving false representations of true faith during the last days. One such warning ought to concern us; two warnings ought to alarm us. Before the end comes, believers will face the threat of false prophets and false messiahs. At first glance it's easy to dismiss these verses as if they only apply to "those people". You know, those poor misguided victims of cults who are hopelessly deluded by an obviously devious leader with a criminal record. But if there was no real danger, Jesus wouldn't have warned us repeatedly to keep our guard up. But I don't think Jesus had only "those people" in mind. Remembe...

Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you...And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other...But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:4, 10, 13 NLT) In one of His most perplexing and final teachings, Jesus makes a few astounding predictions about the end of the world. But the very first thing He does is give a warning for those who claim to follow Him to be cautious. But seriously, I mean how dangerous can following Jesus really be? Apparently, if we're not careful, it can be quite deadly and hazardous to our own faith and to the faith of others. How so? No one truly follows Christ in complete isolation from His living, human Body. Therefore, there is always real danger in following Christ due to the fact Christianity is inherently a community-driven movement. Consequently, following Jesus requires following others and being led by other fallen human beings, who have the same capacity for failure as we do. The very fact that there a...