In Matthew 24 we find Jesus and His disciples sitting on the Mount of Olives where the disciples are asking Him when the end of the world arrive and what would be the SIGN that the world would soon be coming to an end? (vs 3). He answered by giving them a list of signs that would lead up to His return and the end of the age. Bear in mind that once a sign came to fruition it would continue until the return of Jesus to the earth. God’s curses for sin would accumulate as each sign appeared and remained until the end of the world.

Christ’s FIRST SIGN laid the groundwork for the following signs. If mankind, including His followers, did not heed the first sign, the other signs would follow. He said: “Take heed that NO MAN DECEIVE YOU. For MANY will come in My name, confessing that I (Jesus) am the Christ, and will DECEIVE MANY” (vss 4,5). He was warning that many ministers would rise up, claiming to be preaching in His name (authority), proclaiming that HE is the Christ–and would deceive many. In my estimation, 99% of professing Christendom is living in a state of religious deception at this time. This ministry was designed by God to tell them this Truth. Needless to say, it is not well received.

How is this degree of deception possible? How could so many salvation seekers be deceived for so long? The Apostle Jude tells us. He warns in verses three and four that we must contend for THE faith that was originally delivered by Jesus because Satan’s false prophets were already preaching lasciviousness by which they had TURNED THE GRACE OF GOD INTO A LICENSE TO SIN (to break His Law) and thereby to deny God’s Lordship (dominion–absolute rulership) over those in the church. The writings of the apostles reveal that this attack on the church began immediately following her creation on the day of Pentecost 31 A.D. not long after the Mount Olive conversation. Through deception Satan would conquer the vast majority of parishioners for himself and would do so IN THE NAME OF JESUS. He would accomplish this incredible feat by giving man what man wants. Jesus made this clear in his conversation with Satan as recorded in Matthew 16:23 where He told him that he (Satan) was interested only in “the things of man.” His incredibly successful trick was to gain man’s allegiance by giving him what he wanted most–self-direction. This is how the counterfeit church has drawn in billions of people over the past 2000 years.

Beginning in the Garden of Eden, man has always wanted to be in control of his own life–to determine for himself what is right and wrong. He has accomplished this by convincing religious man that God’s grace gave him (man) the power to make his own rules of engagement. In that only God can determine good and evil, man has made himself his own god, thereby breaking the first commandment in the Law. Not only that, he can do this and still inherit eternal life (Gen. 3:1-5). Churchman continues to embrace the devil’s religious garbage being spread through his false prophets. One man, following extensive research, declared that he had found 843 church denominations. God says there is only one true church. Jesus was certainly right in Matthew 24:5.

Approximately 100 years after His conversation with His disciples on the Mount of Olives we find the risen Christ addressing the same subject as recorded in the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation. Through John He would characterized and address the church as it would evolve through the coming centuries, ending with the church of our day–the Laodicean Era church (3:14-22) which has been in existence since the 1980’s and will end with the Lord’s return at the removal of the seventh seal.

From this point on we will alternate between Matthew twenty-four and Revelation six. We will take note of Christ’s Words of warning as recorded in Matthew, then relate them with His explanation of what He said in Revelation. The subject will be the removal of the first four seals of Daniel’s writings, often referred to as “the four horsemen of the apocalypse.” Daniel had received both visions and words from the Lord many generations earlier in which He informed the prophet as to what would take place globally from that time until the final days of the world.

Daniel was instructed to record what the Lord had revealed to him on a scroll. Then he was to seal the scroll so that no one could know what information it contained until the time came to remove the seals. This was to take place shortly before the end of this world. At a determined time the Almighty would enable His true prophets to understand its contents and to share its message with His saints who would be living in that final age. We are now living in that (Laodicean) age. Henceforth we will alternate between Matthew twenty-four and Revelation six. The Book of Revelation describes what Daniel had recorded and sealed.

Mat. 24:4,5–We have examined the statement of Jesus concerning false prophets who would lead many salvation seekers astray. This was what was revealed with the removal of the first seal.

Rev. 6:1,2–“… and the Lamb opened one of (the first) seal … and I saw a WHITE HORSE, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer.” White symbolizes righteousness and purity. Recall that Jesus had warned FIRST OF ALL to beware of false prophets whom Satan would use to deceive MANY. These ministers would pretend to be working in God’s service and would deceive the masses of salvation seekers in the name of Jesus Christ. Jude explained how that happened. Jesus identified the rider on the white horse as one who would conquer mankind through false religion, including the Institutional Church which I call the Catholic/Protestant Religious System.

Mat. 24:6,7a–“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Do not be troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.”

Rev. 6:3,4–“… He opened the second seal … and there went out another HORSE THAT WAS RED and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that men sould kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword” (military arsenal).

Mat. 24:7b–“… and there shall be famines …”

Rev. 6:5–“He opened the third seal and I beheld … a BLACK HORSE, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his right hand … A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and see that you do not harm the oil or the wine.” This signifies famine, just as Jesus said would come next. I recently saw a report that, in this world today a child starves to death every TEN SECONDS.

Mat. 24:7c–“… and pestilences” (disease epidemics). Jesus then made a proclamation that we must not overlook in verse eight. “All these are the BEGINNING OF SORROWS.” In other words, there is much more and much worse to come. Recently two cases of LEPROSY were detected in the United States.

Rev. 6:7,8-“And when he had opened the fourth seal … I saw a PALE HORSE… and the name of him that sat on him was Death, and Hell (the grave) followed after him. And power was given unto them (the horsemen) over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword (war) and with hunger (famine) and with death (pestilence).

Rev. 6:9-11–Remember Jesus’ statement about the beginning of sorrows. That statement is explained in this passage. “And when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the alter the souls of those that had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held. They (those previously martyred for the Word of God) should rest yet for a short season until their brethren should be killed as they were.”

The fifth seal reveals that there was yet to come a mass martyrdom of God’s saints who would choose death rather than to bow to the forces of Satan. During the Catholic Inquisition an estimated 50,000,000 people were killed because they would not embrace Catholic beliefs. Many, if not most of those people were Christians. L.J.