Matthew 24:12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.I came across this article in yahoo, "In God we trust, maybe, but not each other." It describes how Americans have lost their trust in fellow Americans for the past 20 years. In 1972 most Americans said 46% of people can be trusted, it went down to 32% in 2012. The Olivet Discourse immediately jumped to mind, specially the phrase "the love of many will grow cold."
Am not sure if the love indicated in Matthew 24:12 includes trust but the common notion of love does include trusting the one we love. Based on the result of that research, love is indeed growing cold.
Reasons for the decline in trust include less personal interaction, economic inequality, decline in moral values, and greed. All of these issues are covered in the Olivet Discourse. The article stated that being in front of the monitor or TV most times isn't helping.
When interpreting NT prophecy you have to pay close attention to the context in order to understand the timing. Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse in response to the disciples question of when the stones of Herod's temple would be cast down and scattered as Jesus predicted (Lk 21: 6,7). The disciples asked HIm "when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?"
ReplyDeleteWe know from history that the stones of Herod's temple were cast down in 70 a.d. when the Roman soldiers were searching for gold in the walls. So the events of the Olivet Discourse had to occur before that time. All of the "birth pang" events are recorded in the Book of Acts as happening before 70 a.d.: the earthquakes, false teachers, wars & rumors of wars, famines, and "love growing cold" occurred in that period between Jesus death & asscension around 30 a.d. and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d.
Therefore, it cannot refer to events happening today. A good book on this is: Last Days Madness.