Luke 21:5-38.
We have begun a study of this portion from Luke chapter 21.
We have already noted that the passage is a parallel to that of Matthew 24. The introductions to both passages indicate that.
“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down,” Matthew 24:1-2.
“And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down,” Luke 21:5-6.
However, there is very important difference in the two portions of Holy Scripture. Luke’s account of the Saviour’s words gives details of the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army and the dispersion of the Jewish people which followed, whereas, Matthew’s account does not refer to that event.
Many have taken the two accounts as being exactly parallel, and thereby error has arisen. This error utterly distorts the prophecy of the Saviour and robs the people of God of the information Christ would have His people understand, regarding the closing days of this age, just prior to His return in power and great glory.
Future Antichrist Rejected
I emphasised the reason some wish to parallel Luke and Matthew’s account of the Saviour’s prophecy in part 1 of our study. It is not necessary for me to repeat what I wrote then. Suffice for me to say that the ‘Antichrist’, who has yet to arise, is a MAN and not a series of popes!
“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six,” Revelation 13:18
It seems some believe that the words “it is the number of a man” can be ignored and the prophecy applied to a whole series of men!
Surely the Lord says what He means and means what He says!
Again, we read: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5.
Take Heed
We have noted in our first study the warning in verse 8: “Take heed that ye be not deceived.”
The devil is a liar from the beginning. He is the author of deception. His agents scatter and disperse the seeds of deceit everywhere and all the time. He was busy in the days of the apostles as the New Testament epistles clearly testify.
BUT he is increasingly active in these last days, openly denying the return of Christ as an approaching event.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” 2 Peter 3:3-4.
Such assertions are found chiefly within the ranks of professing Christians! It is for this reason that I have felt a desire to set forth some comments on the Saviour’s words in Luke 21.
Consider further what is said in verse 8.
“And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.”
This not just a reference to ‘deceivers’ but also to ‘USURPERS’!
There will be a proliferation of deluded fools who think themselves to be “Christ” and announcing “the time draweth near”, that is, that glorious time when, “The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.
These deceivers would recruit followers to embrace their most foolish lie!
Don’t be “deceived” says the Saviour, into “going after them”!
I. WE ARE TO EXPECT THE RISE OF USURPERS CLAIMING TO BE CHRIST AND ENLISTING DUPES TO FOLLOW THEM.
You would think that such a ‘fraud’ is so grotesque that none would fall for it! However, mankind is exceedingly gullible.
Scammed
Every day we read of those who part with thousands of pounds, handing over large sums to strangers they have never met face to face and who are in communication with them by the telephone or the internet!
The approach employed by these ’scammers’ is so crafty and cunning that the police, banks and businesses have to constantly issue warnings of the latest tactics employed by these criminals!
Patron Saint
The devil is ‘the patron saint of scammers’! What he has been engaged in is the greatest scam of all. It is not money he is after, though he will part the gullible from that as well, but it is their souls he would rob sinners of!
He does this by having them believe a lie and follow it to eternal damnation.
In the world of religion there is but a very small number who are following the true Christ, the Christ of the Bible.
All other ‘religions’ are of the devil’s invention!
II. THE TIME BETWEEN CHRIST’S ASCENSION AND HIS RETURN IN GLORY WILL BE A TIME OF DISPUTES AND DISTRESS.
“But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” verses 9-10.
Men have talked of peace since the fall of Adam for the emergence of sin has brought with it greed, jealousy and rage — the very ingredients of confrontation and war!
Where there is war, there is a desire for peace by those suffering from its ravages! Time and time again, man has drawn up ‘peace treaties’, local, national and universal!
They have never worked!
League of Nations
With great pomp, arrogance and self-deception, ‘The League of Nations’ and then ‘The United Nations’, have with pretentiousness proclaimed ‘PEACE’! But the echoes of the proclamation have hardly faded before conflict has broken out somewhere on the planet!
On every continent with the exception of Australia, there has not been a decade since World War II in which men were not engaged in conflict, resulting in tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed!
Common
The ‘hearing’ of war is common and the likelihood of more terrible wars is ever before us. Russia versus Ukraine, China versus Taiwan, America versus Venezuela and innumerable conflicts and disputes within the continent of Africa, which many are oblivious to!
The Bible gives us a most telling illustration of the continuing, ceaseless upheavals amongst men.
“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,” Isaiah 57:20-21.
Prince of Peace
So it will remain until the ‘Prince of Peace’, even the Lord Jesus, comes to govern His creation. As John the apostles tells us: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God,” Revelation 19:11-15. By war, “The LORD (Who) is a man of war,” (Exodus 15:3) shall end war!
III. THE PHYSICAL CREATION WILL ALSO SHOW EVIDENCES OF STRESS AND UPHEAVAL.
“And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven,” verse 11.
Paul tells us that, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,” Romans 8:22. This groaning and travailing in pain are as birth pangs! The curse which fell upon Eve as a result of sin — “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” (Genesis 3:16,) — is akin to the curse which fell upon the earth. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” Genesis 3:17.
As childbirth has ever been a time of suffering and pain, so the physical earth has likewise groaned beneath the curse of God. ‘Earthquakes’ are but the groanings of an earth under judgment!
The references to “great signs shall there be from heaven”, is I believe, an indication of what will be witnessed as the created universe nears the dissolution of the final remnants of the order God instituted at the beginning.
Matthew records these words from the same address by Christ: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” Matthew 24:29-30.
I think the opening words of verse 12: “But before all these’, indicate that these signs are future.
Consequences
The consequences of man’s sin have turned ‘paradise’ into a place riven and blighted by the curse of God! The earth was plagued by “thorns also and thistles,” but spiritual, emotional, mental and physical “thorns and thistles” abound throughout humanity.
Our sickness and aches and pains all originated with sin. Thus, as a result of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, heaven will be a place where, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away,” Revelation 21:4.
Only God can grant such blessings. Man can but manufacture phoney peace and limited ‘cures’ with many unfortunate ‘side effects’!
Until that day dawns for the righteous, we will face that which Christ refers to in verses 9-11. “The end is not by and by (immediately or straightway)”.
IV. FROM IMMEDIATELY AFTER CHRIST’S ASCENSION UNTIL HIS RETURN, HIS PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED AT THE HANDS OF AN ANTAGONISTIC AND HOSTILE WORLD!
“But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake,” verse 12.
Before the breaking forth of environmental and communal strife in an ever increasing fashion, there will be the persecuting of God’s people.
That was evident from the first generation of Christians, which was in turn, but the continuation of the torment and torture the worshippers of the true God, Jehovah, have always been called upon to endure. Abel, the son of Adam, was the first martyr, and that at the hands of his brother!
There have been many mass slaughters of God’s redeemed: some at the hands of mobs and others at the state-instituted persecutions like those of the Roman Caesars, the Spanish and French authorities and modern-day Islamic regimes.
That persecution will continue and increase, especially in the days of Antichrist and within his dominion. That is foretold clearly in the prophecies.
“And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. . . And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time,” Daniel 7:21, 25.
“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Revelation 13:6-8.
Neglecting the study of prophecy has produced the present-day complacency toward the apostasy out of which the Lord called the Free Presbyterian Church back in 1951.
Were God’s people rightly aware of the ever-ripening harvest that ecumenical apostasy will bring upon the nations, there would be less casual mingling by Free Presbyterians with those within the ranks of Ecumenism who are in rebellion against the Lord.
Name of Jesus
The persecutions arise because of the Christian’s links with the name of the Lord.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified,” 1 Peter 4:12-14.
Surely we see in this the workings of the devil’s hatred.
How can the name of the dearest Friend that sinful man ever had be so hated?
There is no name so sweet on earth,
No name so sweet in heaven,
The name before his wondrous birth
To Christ the Saviour given.
We love to sing of Christ our King,
And hail him blessed Jesus;
For there’s no word ear ever heard
So dear, so sweet as ‘Jesus.’
Thus said John: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” 1 John 4:9-10.
In truth, as Christ was treated some 2000 years ago, even so will the world, especially that portion under Antichrist’s future direct rule, progress in its evil hostility toward the redeemed of God.
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,” Matthew 24:15-22.
We must take these words of Christ most seriously and be aware of the devil-like cruelty that will develop more and more amongst the ungodly.
I would that every Free Presbyterian was aware of the latent hostility that resides amidst the camp of ecumenical apostasy.
Were that so, the lines of demarcation, drawn up by the Lord, would not be breached so readily as is evident today.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
26th December 2025
To be continued.