A Warning

A warning
"Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.  
“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  
For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  
All these are the beginning of birth pains. 
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,  
 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,  
but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—  
then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  
Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house.  
Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.  
How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!  
Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.  
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.  
If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  
At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.  
See, I have told you ahead of time. 
“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  
For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  
Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 
“Immediately after the distress of those days “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.  
And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  
Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.  
I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.  
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 
Matthew 24:1-35
There is a lot in the above section of scripture but it can be boiled down to this.
Basically it tells us that there will be many who come in the name of Christ who are not. There will be wars and rumours of wars. Many false prophets will arise and the world in general will dislike Christians. All of which is happening to a degree now.
The vast majority of this scripture portion however is take up with telling us to live upright and honest lives. To take courage in the adversity that will arise.
For me I am very cautious when some preacher or evangelist starts saying such and such prophesies are being fulfilled.
Here in North America it seems to be the wild west when it comes to ministers and evangelist especially of a charismatic or Pentecostal bent. There is no real oversight on these people they make wild claims that don’t come about.
I remember one gentleman that started sprouting from his soap box that there was going to be calamity when the year 2000 came about. The computers were going to go wild.
He and many like him had Christians believing the world was going to slip into some kind of turmoil.
Some people at the church I was attending at the time asked me in all honesty if I was stocking up on water and food. For when the computers caused the electrical system to fail.
I smiled and said I had a two bottles of water in my fridge and intended to cook my turkey as normal in my electric oven.
I was right there was no massive break down. Sadly however the church never came out and held the false prophets to account for their errors. These false prophets never gave the money back they made from the books they sold.
Had they been in Old Testament times they’d have been stoned. We let them off without even a word to more than likely prophesy falsely again.
Even as I write this there is some garbage being spouted about the “Blood Moons” don’t be fooled folks. Blood moons have happened before on Jewish festivals and important holidays. It’s bound to happen. The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar year so blood moons have happened before.
And for the record they have never during a major event. They occurred after the Spanish inquisition. The never occurred during the most monumental event in Jewish history the holocaust of world war two.
That being said I think as I see it, it’s a waste of time and money trying to predict when Christ will return. It’s a kin to reading tea leaves.
Instead of sending money to some evangelist who thinks he is predicting the return of Christ or some major event, instead of buying books on prophesy sent the money to a missionary who is reaching out to the lost. Give it to your home church for missions. It will do far more good.
After all Jesus said,
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 
                                                                       Matthew 28:18-20.
The most noble thing a Christian can do in their life is introduce someone to their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Not attempt to see the future.
Think about it.