Matthew 24 SERIES: vs. 23-27

"Matthew 24:23-27 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth; behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

This is a very important and much-abused part of this great prophecy. Its connection and obvious intention are generally quite disregarded; when it is used, it mostly so applied as to teach the opposite of the idea presented by the Savior. Because of the importance of its testimony on the question under consideration, we feel warranted in noticing it at some length.

---They who deny our position, and contend for a figurative or

spiritual coming of the Son of man, are the very ones against whom the warning is spoken. 

Some say the Lord came in 70 AD, at the overthrow of Jerusalem. Then in that day they could in truth say, Matthew 24 23 Lo, here is Christ... But our Savior said,  ...believe it not.

And some say His coming is at the death of a saint,—that the coming of Christ to each one is at his death. Even learned ministers say so. If that be so, His coming is not a public event, but is literally “in the secret chambers.” To this also the Savior says,  ...believe it not.

They who take the Scriptures literally, who believe the coming of Christ:
• Is a literal, personal, visible coming; 

• Is yet future; 

• Will be with wondrous power and glory, such as to strike His enemies with awful dread; And that at His coming: 

• “All kindreds of the earth will wail because of Him,” when “every eye shall see Him;”

• The graves will be opened and the dead will be raised; 

• The living saints will be changed to immortality, and all be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 

They, we say, who believe these things cannot be deceived by false christs and by counterfeit comings, because they cannot counterfeit these events, while they who spiritualize His coming, or make it mean anything whatever but a person visibly coming, are open to the deceptions against which the Savior warns us." 

A.T. Jones