The Three Great Deceptions of Church History

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The text below was transcribed from a video of a talk Dr. Chuck Baldwin gave to Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell Montana on May 19, 2019. The reason I took the time to transcribe the text is to inspire you to want to listen to the entire talk!

The three great deceptions Pastor Chuck talks about are:

Judaism in the Church. The Apostle Paul in his epistles and the Book of Hebrews deals with it extensively but it sadly continues to this very day in the Hebrew Roots movement.
Romanism: The false church of Rome and the rise of the true antichrists, the office of the papacy, the Popes of Rome.
Christian Zionism: The false doctrine that Christian support of the modern State of Israel is needed to bring about the return of Christ.

In this talk Pastor Chuck quotes from Adam Clarke, (1762 – 1832) a British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar. He along with Matthew Henry and John Gill are Bible commentators whose works are not tainted with false doctrines of dispensationalism.

Dr. Chuck Baldwin’s Message

Dr. Chuck Baldwin

Open your Bibles please with me to the book of Matthew chapter 24. I’m going to ask for the attention of you folks here at Liberty Fellowship and you folks that are watching online because the message that I’m bringing today is the the first message of many others to follow, but it’s the first message that will give you I trust a foundation for many of the things which are to follow. This message I’m preaching today is very important.

Virtually every preacher, every TV evangelist, every radio preacher you will hear will tell you that Matthew chapter 24 is speaking of the second coming of Jesus Christ. And they will interpret all of the verses in this chapter as having to do with the second coming of Jesus Christ. That is a totally false interpretation of this chapter. This chapter is not talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Only in the sense that toward the end of the chapter he relates the events of chapter 24 as a precursor of Christ’s coming. That’s the only way that this chapter deals with the second coming of Christ. It is not dealing with the second coming of Christ whatsoever.

The misinterpretation of Matthew chapter 24 by these modern Christian Zionists is a major error upon which much of the Christian Zionist doctrine is built. The proper understanding of Matthew chapter 24 is the beginning of learning the truth about all of this Zionist prophecy that we hear so much about and that we ourselves believed for so long.

Let me give you the introduction of Matthew 24 by Adam Clarke. You know I love to quote these old Bible scholars who wrote in the 17th 18th and 19th centuries. If you read just about any commentator of the 20th century, in the 21st century, you are reading error and misinterpretation of Scripture. I don’t waste my time with 20th century and 21st century commentators. I read the guys that wrote before Israel became a state in 1948 and therefore they were not blinded by that event.

Here is the introduction from Adam Clarke to Matthew 24. Listen carefully.

This chapter contains a prediction of the utter destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the subversion of the whole political constitution of the Jews; and is one of the most valuable portions of the new covenant Scriptures, with respect to the evidence which it furnishes of the truth of Christianity.

Not a word about the return of Christ. This chapter contains a prediction of the utter destruction of the city and the Temple of Jerusalem and a subversion of the whole political Constitution of the Jews and is one of the most valuable portions of the New Covenant scriptures with respect to the evidence which furnishes the truth of Christianity.

This chapter Adam Clarke is saying is critical to understanding the New Covenant! Meaning the misinterpretation of Matthew 24 and related Scripture means a person doesn’t truly understand the New Covenant that God gave us through Christ! All these people that are laboring under this Christian Zionist philosophy of biblical prophetic eschatology are missing a very important truth relative to the New Covenant. That’s what Adam Clarke is saying.

Everything which our Lord foretold should come on the temple the city and the people of the Jews, has been fulfilled!

Has been fulfilled! Has been fulfilled! Past tense!

… in the most correct and astonishing manner; and witnessed by a writer who was present during the whole, who was himself a Jew, and is acknowledged to be an historian of indisputable veracity in all those transactions which concern the destruction of Jerusalem. Without having designed it, he has written a commentary on our Lord’s words, and shown how every tittle was punctually fulfilled, though he knew nothing of the Scripture which contained this remarkable prophecy. His account will be frequently referred to in the course of these notes.

He’s talking about of course the most famous of all Jewish historians, Josephus. What he’s saying is, Josephus who was a eyewitness recorded accurately everything that Jesus had predicted in this passage concerning Jerusalem and the Temple and the people of the Jews.

Matthew chapter 24, and we’ll pull out three verses because they’re dealing with the subject at hand.

Matthew 24 verse 4: And Jesus answered and said unto them take heed that no man deceive you.

Verse 11: Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

He’s talking about the interim 35 years or so between the death and resurrection of Christ and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. During that 35 year period, maybe one or two years off either direction, many came pretending to be Christ. Many came predicting that they were the Messiah and trying to draw Jewish disciples after them. Jesus was predicting this would happen after His death and His resurrection that many would come and say they were the Messiah. He’s telling his disciples do not believe them, do not follow them, they are false prophets coming in my Name. Do not let them deceive you.

Verse 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch…

And I want you to know, I want you to mark this last portion of Scripture, and I want this to sink you into your heart.

…that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

If it were possible, they, these false messiahs coming to the city of Jerusalem between Christ’s resurrection and the destruction of the city saying, “I’m Christ, follow me”, and if it were possible, they will deceive the very elect. They will be that convincing. But it says if it were possible. Jesus intimates that it’s not possible for the elect to be deceived by these false Christs.

Just real brief summary: When the destruction of Israel was about to begin, and it was a two-year process where first the Roman army surrounded the city of Jerusalem and cut it off from the world, dried up its water supply, its food supply etc., two years of that before they actually invaded the city. When all of this first began, God sent messengers, Oracles they’re called in the Scripture, to the city of Jerusalem proclaiming to the elect Jews, those who had trusted Christ as their Savior, the elect Jews of Jerusalem as Gentiles who trust Christ as their Savior are the elect Gentiles. These Oracles told them of the impending doom coming at the hands of the Roman army and told them to flee the city to get out and head to the mountains.

This is all a matter of church history. The elect Jews of Jerusalem those who had trusted Christ as Messiah and Savior, listened to the warning of the Oracles, and they fled the city before the siege against Jerusalem took place. The Jews who were not the elect, who had not received Christ as Messiah and Lord, ignored the warnings of the Oracles, and they stayed in the city, and they were slaughtered. God spared the elect by not allowing them to succumb to the deception of the false Christs, and by giving them the discernment of spirit to follow the true Oracles of God to safety and to salvation. Please try to remember that story as we proceed.

Let me give you just a few other scriptures of the New Testament that deal with this matter of deception.

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

That’s interesting isn’t it? Because not only are they deceiving other people, they themselves are also deceived.

(End of transcript)

Please listen to the entire message!

Adam Clarke’s commentary on Matthew 24:29

Matthew 24:29 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:

Commentators generally understand this, and what follows, of the end of the world and Christ’s coming to judgment: but the word immediately shows that our Lord is not speaking of any distant event, but of something immediately consequent on calamities already predicted: and that must be the destruction of Jerusalem. “The Jewish heaven shall perish, and the sun and moon of its glory and happiness shall be darkened – brought to nothing. The sun is the religion of the Church; the moon is the government of the state; and the stars are the judges and doctors of both. Compare Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7, Ezekiel 32:8, etc.” Lightfoot.

In the prophetic language, great commotions upon earth are often represented under the notion of commotions and changes in the heavens: –

The fall of Babylon is represented by the stars and constellations of heaven withdrawing their light, and the sun and moon being darkened. See Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 13:10.

The destruction of Egypt, by the heaven being covered, the sun enveloped with a cloud, and the moon withholding her light. Ezekiel 32:7, Ezekiel 32:8.

The destruction of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes is represented by casting down some of the host of heaven, and the stars to the ground. See Daniel 8:10.

And this very destruction of Jerusalem is represented by the Prophet Joel, Joel 2:30, Joel 2:31, by showing wonders in heaven and in earth – darkening the sun, and turning the moon into blood. This general mode of describing these judgments leaves no room to doubt the propriety of its application in the present case.

The falling of stars, i.e. those meteors which are called falling stars by the common people, was deemed an omen of evil times.