The deception of the elect.

Jesus warned his disciples of deception. He said that there would be “false prophets . . . to deceive even the elect—if that were possible” (Matt. 24:24). If this deception of the elect was not possible, why would Jesus even bring it up? He also said that insistence on a visible criterion (nature) for his end-time parousia coming was (and still is) part of this deception:

• At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it . . . 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 (Matt. 24: 23, 26).

Some of “the elect” today (the saints in the Church), as well as back then, have succumbed to this visible-criterion deception. Thus, they, too, have been falsely prophesying. How so?

First, by their paralleled misunderstanding of the invisible nature for his promised and time-restricted coming (Matt. 24:3, 30, 34; John 14:19, 22). Also, He told them that “before long the world will not see me anymore” (John 14:19, 22). How long is Jesus’ “not . . . anymore, anyway? And yet many saints today are still waiting for a physically visible, worldwide sighting of Jesus in Person, in bodily form, in the sky, in the Israeli desert, in an inner room of a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, or in some other geographic location to which they can definitely point and in like manner say, “There He is!”

Secondly, by their professing and proclaiming a half-truth faith in a world filled with competing religions and secular ideologies. The truthful half is that the promised Messiah (Jesus) came, lived, died, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven exactly as and when prophesied. The untruthful part is that Jesus has not come again to finish the work He started, as and when He said He would and as and when He was expected to by his Spirit-guided, first followers and every New Testament writer (John 16:13).

Thus, for 19 centuries and counting, the Church has been attempting to side-step and downplay this time-restricted, 1st-century “failure” and “nonoccurrence.” As a result, it has been forced to settle for a faith that has not been “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) and whose “end of all things” was not “at hand” in that same 1st-century context in which these inspired words were penned (1 Pet. 4:7 KJV).

Consequently, and since the fall of Jerusalem circa A.D.70, most of the Church has been proclaiming a half-truth faith. We must therefore ask, if this half-truth faith has been as effective as God has allowed it to be, how much more effective and God-empowered would be the proclamation and practice of a whole-truth faith–one that really “was [past tense] once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3)?

We believe it’s time for this reform to take place and for God’s people to come out of their 19-centuries-and-counting “deception of the elect.” In every generation except one, the Church has wrongly proclaimed the imminence of our Lord’s climactic coming on the clouds in age-ending judgment and consummation. No more. Perhaps we should now expand our Easter proclamation to say:

• He’s arisen! He’s arisen, indeed!
• He’s come! He’s come, indeed!
• He’s with us! He’s with us, indeed!
• He still comes! He still comes, indeed!

Sources:

1 The Perfect Ending for the World by John Noe

2 The Greater Jesus by John Noe