In Matthew 24:10, Jesus warned of a time when many will “be entrapped” and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.” In that same verse, Jesus said the entrapment would follow what he called the Beginning of Sorrows.
Virtually all Bible translations of Matthew 24:10 say that many will be offended, stumble, or fall away, but a literal reading of the verse indicates that many will be ensnared [see Matthew 24:10 in the Online Greek Interlinear Bible].[i]
The word ensnared means “trapped.” Ensnared and trapped are not synonymous with stumbling, falling away, or being offended.
Two questions arise: Where will people be caught, and why?
Jesus [and others] warned of a time when people will be trapped on planet Earth. He also said this entrapment can be avoided and that escape before the Beginning of Sorrows (beginning of the birth pangs[ii]) is possible.
In Matthew 24:9, Jesus said after the birth pangs begin, everyone on earth will be ensnared, and a national betrayal of Israel will soon follow. He said the treasonous act will be followed by mass individual treacheries.
Jesus was speaking to his Jewish followers when he said this. First, he said “you” will be sold out, meaning the Jewish people as a nation would be given up. This was not a reference to the sacking of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.[iii] What Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:9 is a still-future political/national betrayal. According to the prophet Daniel, it will be done from high within the Israeli government (Daniel 11:30-33).
The betrayal is revealed in Daniel 11:30, where details of the Man of Sin are intermingled with a description of Antiochus. This is a common occurrence in scripture, e.g., Isaiah 14:9-17, where descriptions of Lucifer and the Man of Sin are amalgamated into a prophecy about the King of Babylon.
“It is the glory of ELOHIYM to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter…”
In Matthew 24:10, Jesus said this national treachery will lead to a colossal number of personal disloyalties between individuals. The masses stuck on planet Earth will begin betraying one another on a scale never seen before. Spouses, children, parents, friends, neighbors—no one can be trusted. No one will be safe.
More than once, Jesus warned that after the birth pangs begin, something terrifying enough to cause mass betrayal will happen (Matthew 24:8-9, Luke 21:25-36).
This writer believes the terror will be caused by the beginning of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, also known as the Great Tribulation, and people will be trapped on Earth because they failed to heed Jesus’ warning in Luke 21:25-36, where he said, “And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, the hearts of many failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” In the same discourse, Jesus warned his followers that, “as a snare,” all these things would come unawares upon all that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
He didn’t stop there. He also warned everyone to watch and pray that they would be accounted worthy to escape all those things and to stand before him at the judgment. He clearly said no one needs to be trapped here after the birth pangs begin.
The messenger in Revelation 3:10 said there would be those who would be kept from the terrors coming on the earth. The prophet Joel spoke of a time of such horror that he warned people to be very afraid of that time. Joel’s warning was in direct opposition to all the rest of scripture that tells God’s people to “Fear not.” Joel’s warning dovetails perfectly with Jesus’ admonition for people to pray that they be accounted worthy to escape entrapment on planet Earth during that time.
Escape? How?
What will precipitate this time of terror, the time of the birth pangs Jesus spoke of? What will make it possible to escape being stuck on planet Earth during this time of unprecedented fear and destruction? [iv]
This writer believes it to be the events described in the Bible, known as the resurrection and the rapture (harpazo in the Greek).[v]
The Apostle Paul describes both in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18: “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice [of the] archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, the living, who remain together with them, shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus always with the Lord we shall be. So, encourage one another with these words.”
[i] www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm
[ii] www.hhbc.substack.com/p/the-beginning-of-sorrows
[iii] www.hhbc.substack.com/p/matthew-249-is-not-about-titus-in
[iv] www.jocelynandersen.blogspot.com/p/how-can-i-be-saved.html
[v] www.jocelynandersen.blogspot.com/2022/12/matthew-251-13-midnight-cry-evidence-of.html
