Last Updated on December 19, 2025 5:26 AM by herald
Laodicean Connection
In one of his longest prophetic discourses while on earth, Jesus made a prediction about the behaviour of people in the end times which should receive more than passing attention. Here it is:
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Matt 24:12 NIV
The New King James Version (NKJ) puts it this way: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold”. In contrast, the New Living Translation (NLT) translates this verse as” “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold”.
Clearly the NLT version is slightly “off” here because it is not explicitly indicating the cause-and-effect relationship between two variables, that is, the pervasiveness of lawlessness (sin) and the waning of love for God, by linking them with the word “because” as the first two translations do explicitly.
Incidentally, please note that in his Matthew 24:12 statement, Jesus did not say, “grow lukewarm”; he said, “grow cold”. “Cold” is a very different “temperature reading” from the one taken of the Laodicean church described in Revelation. The Laodiceans were “neither hot not cold” so in theory they had some wiggle room according to Jesus:
(15b) I wish you were either one or the other! (16) So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15b -16
A Matter of Roots
Setting aside the translation issue for now, let us ask a logical question: Why or how will the lawlessness in the end times world “cause” many to shed their commitment to Christ? What unspoken issue is Jesus’ prophetic statement alluding to? What intervening variable has Jesus left unstated in that specific passage?
To identify that variable, we examine two other passages. The first is another statement made by Jesus on another occasion.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 6:33 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
Now skip over to the book of Hebrews again where we find this warning:
Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Hebrews 12:15
Our position is that the “root of bitterness” is the missing link in Jesus’ prediction. In the rest of this prophetic briefing, we are going to show how it causes his prediction to make perfect sense.
Page 3: Cause and Effect
