On Guard

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

ON GUARD

Mark 13:14-23

14 "When you see 'the abomination that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now — and never to be equaled again. 20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect — if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

NIV

It certainly appears Jesus is talking about the time that the anti-Christ will stand in the temple claiming his reign over mankind. We cannot be certain his disciples understood this to be about their lifetime, or that they would have thought the words of Jesus were about some distant future, that even in our lives is yet to come. We do know from history that Jerusalem was invaded and the pagan symbol of Rome, an idolatrous thing did in fact occupy a place it did not belong. Jesus might well have been talking about the Roman desolation of Jerusalem. Many believers always see this as the future event of time of the Anti-Christ. But once again the main theme in what Jesus was telling them was to be on our guard against anything that would appear to be righteous and holy and that would represent itself as being Christ-like. Yes, they have been and are and will most like be people who we could call false Christ’s and false prophets. They have existed in history and will continue to attempt to deceive people into following after them, giving credence to their so-called pseudo-religious beliefs, in fact the Greek word for both these words Jesus used for them starts with pseudo. We need to know they are out there and some are doing signs and wonders so that it might be possible to deceive the elect, which is us. But we will not be deceived by those claiming to be so perfect, so Christ-like, so prophetic in what that say, claiming to have all the truth, the real truth, the only truth. We will not be deceived into following after them like mindless drones paying them homage and supporting their lavish lifestyles. If we allow ourselves to be deceived by all these little pretenders, how much more we would fall prey to the true Anti-Christ when he is revealed, as he will come as an angel of light, a great truth telling, a powerful silver-tongued, smooth talking good looking evangelist, telling just enough truth mixed in with all his lies, and he will indeed have power to do what we think are miracles. We must stay the course, stay true to the word of God, to the words of Jesus. We must not be swayed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by every teacher, or preacher who has his opinion of what the scripture truly means, the hidden meanings that us little mindless people cannot see or comprehend, so we need them to tell us what to believe. We must stay the cause; listen to the Holy Spirit who is the only one who can lead us into all the truth. As an expect fencer dressed in all their defensive garb takes their stand with the blade in hand and says, “On Guard”, we must cloth ourselves with the armor of God , stand out stand and be “On Guard”.