|
But if these are not signs of the end, why does Christ mention them? The reason becomes apparent in the closeness between Christ's warning about false prophets and His following explanation that such signs 'are the beginning of sorrows' but are not the end. Difficult times and great hardships provide a strong impetus for people to seek help and turn to God for deliverance. It is at such times that people are easy prey for self-seeking or misguided opportunists. Therefore it is during hardships that people should be especially careful to take heed that no one deceives them. (46:2) We can learn two significant points from the fact that Jesus, the true Christ, Himself appeared during such a time of severe hardship: ( 1 ) People interpreted the outward struggle with Rome as a sign of the end times when the Messiah should appear, but (2) they rejected Christ because His message did not appear to them to be the remedy for the hardships they were suffering. Later, they would be deceived by Bar Cochba. From these facts we can make the following important observation - the people were focusing their attention on outward signs and, therefore, they were looking for outward remedies. Naturally, they were deceived by those who also pointed to the outward signs and who offered outward remedies.
(46:3)
|