Did Yeshua really warn us three times about false christs in Matthew 24 or did he warn us about three seperate issues? When we look at matthew 24 we see the following vs.s ... (5) For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (11) And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And... (23) Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. When we look at just what Yeshua is saying here we can then get a clearer answer to this question. . Yeshua says, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. What does this mean? Are they claiming to be Christ? Not at this point. The many he speaks of are those who come IN HIS NAME. Now… what does it mean to come in his name? Let’s look at Matthew 7: 21-23 for an example. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied IN THY NAME? and IN THY NAME have cast out devils? and IN THY NAME done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (it is interesting that right in Matthew 24:12 he says “ And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (This helps us get a greater understanding of just why there is such a great falling away in the last days doesn’t it?) In any of these instances Christ mentions does anyone claim to actually BE Christ? No. They are just doing these things IN HIS NAME. In fact he tells of how people will say to him, “did I not say and do this and that IN YOUR NAME?” If they were claiming to actually BE him the scenario Christ depicts here would be far different. So what is Christ referring to when he says, “for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Who in the last days (since verse 5 is surrounded on this topic) would be coming in his name? The answer is simple. Christ is speaking of ministers, preachers, and teachers of his words. Church leaders.” How silly would it sound for someone to say, “I come in the name of Jesus Christ to tell you that I am Jesus Christ??” Makes no sense does it? A prophet, by definition is one who for-tells the word or will of God speaking in the name of God. A false Christ is someone who falsely claims to in fact BE Christ. And since there is only 1 Christ then guys like Australian Alan John Miller, Miami-based José Luis de Jesús Miranda, Brazilian-born Inri Cristo, Russias Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop and Wayne Bent, who is currently imprisoned in New Mexico are great examples of such. These are men from different parts of the world all claiming, like dozens long gone before them, to be Jesus Christ, Gods Messiah and even in one case, both Christ and the end-times figure, the Antichrist. Do any of them sound like prophets to you? Yeshua goes on in verse 11 where he says, “ And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” Is he talking about false christ’s here? Remember what a prophet is? What does Scripture say about false prophets? Deuteronomy 18:22 “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Prophets “predict” things based on information given to them directly from God. Does this have any connection to being a false christ? No, but it does connect to coming IN his name. So why does Christ make the distinction? Does he make a distinction between the two or is he just repeating himself? If we look further on in Matthew we can find the answer. In Matthew 24:24 “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Clearly he is not repeating himself in the earlier mentioned verses. Here we have Christ telling us “false christs AND false prophets. Mentioning BOTH in the same sentences clearly tells us he is not referring to false prophets AS false christs. So we see that in verse 5 he is NOT talking about “false christs” He is also not talking about prophets because although prophets come in the name of the Lord he is not mentioning them in this verse. Just a statement of “many” coming in his name. Thus verse 5 is a reference to a consolidation of preachers teachers and pastors referred to as “many”. These are the ones you will typically hear coming in the name of the Lord proclaiming Christ to be who he says he is. We can come to this conclusion because prophets, as we learned earlier, come in the name of the Lord with predictions based on Gods giving them direct information. They do not simply proclaim that Yeshua is truly Christ. Also because prophets are specifically mentioned in verse 11. We then see a distinct difference in false prophets and false christs in that Christ makes this distinction between the two in matthew 24:24. Now in verse 23. “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.” WHY does Yeshua say this? In verses 21-26 Yeshua says, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened. 23 THEN if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. When the tribulation period begins many are going to be desperately looking for Yeshua. Especially those who believe in a pre trib rapture. It will be easy to deceive people into believing Yeshua is here or there in such desperate times. Those who do not understand scripture or who THOUGHT they understood it based on the teaching of false doctrine will be easily duped. Yeshua is telling us that during this time we must be careful NOT to believe anyone who says he is here or there or anyone that claims to be Christ. The only thing he repeats is his warning not to BELIEVE the false christs. Verse 25 tells us “behold I have told you before”. What did he tell us before? He tells us AGAIN in verse 26. WHEN did he tell us before?? In verse 23 and verse 26 is repeating the warning of 23. Thus… he told us before. He goes right into telling us then HOW we will truly now his coming. And then he tells us WHEN he will come. So you see… Christ did not warn us 3 times about false christs. He warned us about false teachers, preachers, pastors. (the many coming in his name professing he is Christ). He warned us about false prophets that would arise and about false christs. While there have been false christs for a very long time, there will be no time where there will be such desperation and such a wide spread risk of the multitudes believing a false christ to be christ then the time of tribulation.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:24:11 +0000
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