Those who have insight will shine like the glow of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever- Daniel 12:3 NASB 

We live in weird, scary and truly unprecedented times. 

Seriously. 

Believers and even some unbelievers are stupefied at the rate culture is changing and the direction the world appears to be headed in. Governments are becoming more authoritarian. The robots are taking over. People are more calloused and attitudes and behaviors that were once thought to be totally out of bounds are not only accepted, but defended and even celebrated with wild abandon.  

Sigh.

Some believe all this craziness this means are living in what the Bible calls “the end” (Daniel 8:17-18, Daniel 12:9, Daniel 12:13, Matthew 24:3, 1st Peter 4:7). 

I don’t know if we are or we aren’t. 

Seriously. I don’t. 

No one does. It will be tough to tell for absolute certain if we’re living in the end times until Jesus shows up or doesn’t (Matthew 25:31, Matthew 24:36-42). 

That being said.

 In Matthew twenty-four Jesus gives two commands or rules for those living in the end times. Both are excellent advice for anyone living in weird, scary and or unprecedented times. This is because the temptations will be the same whether one is living in the end times or in just really weird times. These “rules” precede everything else Jesus says about what will happen just prior to His return. This means if we don’t take these two rules seriously at all times we will be done for when the really crazy-town stuff starts to go down (Matthew 24:4-27, Daniel 12, Revelation 13-18)

Jesus’ two rules for surviving scary times are:

See to it that no one deceives you- Matthew 24:4 NASB

See to it that you are not afraid- Matthew 24:6 NASB

That’s it. 

But it tells me Jesus totally has the inside scoop as to what our go-to’s are as human beings. God knows we need routine reminders not to turn our brains off and let fear run the show.  There are at least three different ways people can be deceived about Jesus and at least one really good reason to not give into fear (Isaiah 41:10, Romans 8:15).   

It’s critical we remember anyone can be deceived about Jesus’ true identity (2nd Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6). There are all sorts of folks who have a relationship with a really nice, really cool Jesus who is ultimately nothing more than a figment of their imagination. All humans tend to create gods in their own image, it’s kind of our thing (Romans 1:18-23). The closer we get to the end the more prone people will be to proclaim and worship a Jesus who bears no actual resemblance to the Jesus of the Bible. The real Jesus is offensive to those who don’t want to submit themselves and their desires to God, so instead, they construct a new (and in their minds) improved Jesus who is totally affirming of all sorts of attitudes and behaviors the Bible calls evil. It is incumbent on anyone who calls themselves a Christian to make sure the Jesus they worship looks and acts like the Jesus found in the gospels. The real Jesus would never be okay with or bless anything the Bible calls sinful (Galatians 5:19-21, 1st Corinthians 6:9-11, Colossians 3:5-11). 

People can also become deceived about what Jesus is all about, meaning there will be those who claim Jesus’ main purpose in coming will be political in nature. Some will actually claim they are the savior of the world. They will get people to follow them rather than God.  Others will circumvent religion altogether and attempt to construct secular governments (kingdoms) they promise will create a heaven here on earth. In exchange for access to these kingdoms, people will be forced to swear their allegiance to the leaders of these governments. Christians are told to pray for earthly leaders and to obey any laws that do not contradict God’s commands but Christians are never to worship or swear absolute allegiance to a human leader (1st Timothy 2:1-3, Matthew 22:21. 

 Another common deception revolves around the coming of Jesus, or the lack thereof. The Bible makes it clear that even some of His followers will claim Jesus’ return is a myth or a fairy tale that will never happen. Others will say they are really Jesus and should be worshiped. Still others will say the return of Jesus has already taken place and therefore its nothing to worry about (Matthew 24:4-5, 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3, 2nd Peter 3:1-10).  The problem with denying the second coming is that it causes us to become like the servants Jesus warns about at the end of Matthew twenty-four. Writing off the return of Jesus as a myth causes us to doubt God altogether and become focused on money, pleasures and self. This inevitably leads to sin and the exploitation of others (Matthew 24:42-51).  

Yikes. 

The biggest issue with fear is it turns off the logic center of our brains. When we embrace fear, we forfeit our ability to think clearly. This causes us to doubt everything we know about God and the Bible. When we are afraid and walking in doubt rather than faith, we will do anything to make the fear go away (Hebrews 11:6). Anything includes sin, worshiping humans and swearing our allegiance to people and ideas that are in direct contradiction to everything the Bible calls good and life-giving. 

No wonder Jesus was so opposed to fear.