<p>24:12&nbsp;<i>And because iniquity shall be multiplied</i>- The LXX of Dan. 12:10 &quot;The wicked shall do wickedly&quot;. This is last days language, describing the situation just before Daniel is resurrected. It cannot therefore have had any major fulfilment in the period before AD70. Thus &quot;Because iniquity shall abound (within the ecclesia?), the love of many (&quot;the many&quot;, R.V.- the majority) shall wax cold&quot; (Mt.24:12). Bad spiritual standards will spread like cancer in the last days. Thus the ecclesial leaders of the last days must beware of the temptation to be over harsh on the faithful remnant, whilst eating and drinking with &quot;the drunken&quot;, i.e. those elements in the ecclesia who will be unprepared for the Lord's coming. 2 Thess. 2:7,8 use the same word to describe how the &ldquo;mystery the Greek is a distinctly religious word of&nbsp;<i>iniquity</i>&rdquo; was already gathering momentum in the first century, leading to &ldquo;the wicked one&rdquo;, the one of iniquity / lawlessness s.w. being revealed; again, we sense the possibility of a first century fulfilment which never came to its ultimate term. &ldquo;Multiplied&rdquo; translates&nbsp;<i>plethuno</i>, the noun of which is&nbsp;<i>plethos</i>, frequently translated &ldquo;multitude&rdquo;. The idea is that because of the masses being without law, iniquitous, the love of the majority&nbsp;<i>amongst the believers</i>&nbsp;will become cold. They will be influenced by the lawlessness of the majority around them; the church will become as the world. And there is no lack of evidence that this is already happening.</p><p><i>The love-&nbsp;</i>The love-&nbsp;<i>agape</i>&nbsp;&ndash; of the majority will be lost in the latter day community of believers, whilst peoples from all nations hear and accept the Gospel. Could this mean that the established groups of believers lose their&nbsp;<i>agape&nbsp;</i>whilst the real fire of the Truth spreads to the new converts made during the great tribulation, as spoken of in Rev. 7? The parables of Mt. 25 seem to refer specifically to the state of the latter day believers, and they speak of a beating of the fellow-servants.</p><p><i>Of the majority</i>- The presence of the article, &lsquo;<i>the</i>&nbsp;many&rsquo;, means that this refers to &lsquo;the majority&rsquo;.</p><p><i>Shall grow cold</i>- A related word is used in Rev. 3:15,16 in speaking of how the love of the early believers had decreased from hot to lukewarm, although not completely cold. Again we get the sense that this part of the Olivet prophecy was on its way to fulfilment- but had not come to full term.</p>