In Matthew 24 we find Jesus and His disciples departing from the Temple in Jerusalem.  His disciples drew His attention to the beauty and workmanship of the structure.  According to historical accounts, the Lord’s House was a magnificent sight to behold.  The time of their Temple visitation was just prior to Christ’s death and departure.  Knowing that He had only a short time remaining, Jesus picked that moment to prepare His followers for the future which would not be so pleasant.

He said to them: “Do you see all these things?  I tell you the truth, there will not be left here one stone sitting upon another.”  This prophesied destruction would take place in 70 A.D. at the hands of the Roman Empire.  However, there would be yet another destruction that would take place upon Christ’s Second Advent.  His Words had to have stunned the disciples for we find nothing else said about the matter until they reached the Mount of Olives located approximately a mile from the Temple.  As Jesus sat upon the mount His disciples were gathered together some distance from Him discussing what He had told them.  Troubled by His Words, they came to Him and asked two questions: when would the destruction of the Temple take place? and what would be THE SIGN of His Second Advent and the end of the world as mankind has known it?

Throughout the Holy Bible Jesus (the Word–Jn.1:1-4,14) had spoken through His prophets  about world conditions that would exist at just prior to His return.  He gave us a number of signs that would mark the approach to the time of the end.  Those signs would take place in chronological order which would indicate to those who understood them that the time for Him to put an end to man’s folly was drawing nearer.  Read The Signs of the End of the Age.  Key word–signs.  The disciples were undoubtedly familiar with those signs.  However, they sensed that Jesus had more to say about the issue.  They believed that there would be ONE SIGN in particular that would mark the beginning of the end of the age.  According to what Jesus declared in verses four and five, they were right.

We are all familiar with the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” about which so much has been written and so many sermons have been preached.  Jesus would return following His death and ascension to speak to the Apostle John about those horsemen.  His Words and the vision that accompanied them are recorded in Revelation 6 which correspond to what He had earlier told the disciples in Matthew 24.

Though what He told them in Matthew 24 and later showed John in Revelation 6 was of utmost importance, what He said first holds the key to understanding what would happen in the last days.  In Matthew 24:4,5 Jesus gave His disciples then and now THE SIGN that would affect every person who would ever live on planet earth from that time forward.  In Revelation 6 THE SIGN concerned a rider on a white horse.  In Matthew 24 He identified the rider as FALSE RELIGION who would go forward, “conquering and to (continue to) conquer.”  In reference to the rider He warned them and us to: “Beware of men who will try to deceive you.  For MANY (false prophets) will come in My name and will profess that I (JESUS) am the Christ, and will deceive MANY people.”

Note that Christ’s Words concerned the time of His return and the end of the world’s social, political, financial, etc. systems.  Note also that Satan would use men to deceive the masses of salvation seekers.  The word “you” meant not only the 12 disciples, but all those who would follow their teachings until the time of His return, including those of us living in these final days of the final era.

Before we delve into the ministry of the white horse rider, let us briefly study the final sign that the world must see before Christ returns.  This sign is written about in Luke 21:20,28.  There will come a time when armies (plural) will surround Jerusalem.  Jesus said: “Then know that the desolation (of Jerusalem) is close at hand.”  He then tells His true saints to “… look up, for your redemption is near.”  Keep your eyes on Jerusalem.

“THE SIGN” of Christ’s return began as soon as the New Testament Church came into being on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.  Catholicism was founded in 33 A.D.  This marked the beginning of Satan’s attack on God’s church.  Within 50 years the true church had been reduced to a tiny few true believers.  A huge mega-church system was now calling itself “the church.”  That church would slaughter over 50 million people because they would not bow to her rule.  Most of those people were true saints of God.

By the time the Apostle Paul came along “ministers of righteousness” sent by the “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:13-15) had already infiltrated the church and were pulling people away from the true God, just as Jesus had warned in Matthew 24.  Paul warned church people about those deceivers in his letter to the Galatians (1:6-9) where he calls out the congregation for believing those who were presenting a “perverted” version of the true gospel.  The Galatian churches were not alone in their apostasy.  Paul also chastised the church at Corinth for listening to Satan’s false prophets, telling them that if “another Jesus” was presented to them they would embrace him (2 Cor. 11:4).  As history proves, Paul was right.  Note that Christ’s messages to the churches as recorded in Revelation 2,3 did not include those two.  We are not told why.  We know that they did not represent eras of the Church of God throughout history as did the seven churches Jesus addressed in John’s letters.

The Apostle Peter tells us that the “last days” of this world system began on the day the New Testament Church was founded, noting that “This (which took place in the upper room) is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel, ‘In the last days ….'” (Acts 2:16).  In Matthew 24 Jesus was warning the disciples and those who would follow their teachings that THE SIGN that they were living in the last days was FALSE RELIGION.  That false religion would raise its ugly head shortly after Pentecost 31 A.D.  From that time forward God’s chosen ministers would have to repeatedly warn salvation seekers about Satan’s false religion.  False religion is any religion that does not command belief of and obedience to the Holy Bible.  Today one segment of those who have embraced Satan’s religion are called “the church”–the two-headed, multi-bodied religious body that has become the offspring of the rider on the white horse Jesus warned about in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6.  That rider, we know, was, and still is, Satan.  L.J.