“(4) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. (5) For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (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. (27) For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” -Matthew 24:4,5, 23-27.
Jesus gives us some very important information here that concerns our safety in the last days and our preparedness for His coming! He does not want us to be deceived and He warns us that the devil is out to do a lot of that, especially in the last days just before Jesus returns. In fact, these are the very days in which we are living now! When you look at all the prophecies of the Bible and the conditions of the world which Jesus has said would exist just before His coming, you have to come to the conclusion that we are now living in that time!
Several points of great importance come to us from the text above. (1) The devil is out to deceive God’s people and he will work hard with great deceptions. We must be very discerning by God’s word. We cannot take everything by claim or by face value. Do not be simple, but wise by His word. (2) There will be many deceptions. (3) False Christs and False Prophets will come (4) They will use great swelling words to stir up and move the masses. Powerful miracles will accompany these false messages which will be so believable that potentially even some of the faithful “very elect” could be deceived if not properly on their guard. Therefore we cannot trust miracles or feelings, but must discern by God’s word whether this is right or wrong. (5) If anyone says that Christ has come already and is here on this earth in some place teaching and doing miracles then we should immediately write that off as a lie or deception and not believe it or even entertain the possibility for a second longer. You know that Christ’s appearance will flash across the sky as lightening and “every eye” will see His coming in the clouds of Heaven (See Rev. 1:7). The Bible here points out that we clearly need to understand the manner of Christ’s true coming so that we are not deceived.
If we are going to be prepared to stand faithful for God in the last days then we must know our Bibles thoroughly well for ourselves, and not just take another’s word for it, lest we be deceived by the devil’s “many” (v.5,24) false Christs and false messengers. To stand faithful we need to consider well all of the words which Jesus spoke above (from Matthew 5) and the points we can deduce from them.
One final point to consider from this is that just as much as we have to write off the false we also have to be careful to NOT write off the true messengers of God in the last days! Satan would love to get people either way – by believing the lie or by shunning the truth! Both will ruin us just the same! Notice that Jesus said if someone claims or is suggested to be a Christ (even with showing miracles and all) then we should reject that notion immediately. We do not need to entertain that idea any more. But with the prophets he does not say to so abruptly write them off, but He says to be careful for the false ones. Test, then reject the bad. In either case of prophets or Christ we cannot reject the true.
There is only one true Christ and we know His coming, but the prophets could be many. We have to take a little more time to discern that. Remember, Satan could send no counterfeits if there were to be no true. There have always been the false and the true since early days and it will remain so until Christ’s coming. Often in history the false were much greater in number than the true, and the masses of people (majority) usually loved their messages while the true were less appreciated but dead on right in their messages for God.
Paul, by inspiration, says in the New Testament, “Do not quench the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Test all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). According to the Bible we are not to attempt to limit or to quench God’s Holy Spirit in the last days. We should not despise or hate the idea of God sending us a messenger or message, but we are to be discerning. We are to listen, but with a discerning ear and mind which tests and evaluates by the Scriptures! John says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God: for many false prophets are gone out into the world. ” (1 John 4:1).
What are some simple tests? (1) If their message doesn’t agree with the Bible or its laws and teachings, then don’t accept this person’s message or status as a messenger (See Isaiah 8:20). Listen carefully to see that it is according to the Bible (and not merely our opinions of the Bible either, which are not always right) (2) If their message leads you away from Christ to themselves or other things then do not listen anymore. False messengers point to the wrong persons or things rather than to Christ. A true messenger will uplift Jesus Christ as the only way (See 1 John 4:2,3). (3) Is their message powerful to produce biblical faith in Christ Jesus and growth in holiness – does the message have good fruit production to it? (4) Is the life of the prophet or messenger in harmony with the Bible and the teachings of Christ Jesus? Do they live a life of holiness according to God’s word? “By their fruits you shall know them” -Jesus (See Matthew 7:15-20).
Once again, (1) True to Bible and its Laws (2) True to Jesus Christ as supreme (3) Message fruitful to God’s glory (4) Their life is fruitful to God’s glory. Those are the points we must keep in mind. Remember also that Satan appears to be an angel of light and he has a pretended holiness “outwardly” appearing to come in sheep’s clothing, but “inwardly” a ravening wolf. So we must go by 1 and 2 even if 3 and 4 have an appearance to our eye as being okay. ALL the testing points must hold true if this is God’s messenger. Well, let’s keep these things in mind and be ready to discern the true from the false, and especially ready for the true and real coming of Christ which is not too far off from us today!
