False Christs and Prophets

The video link is at the bottom of the page.

1. Introduction

The popular teaching is that False Christs and False Prophets today indicate that we live in the Last Days.
Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy taught us that everything that happened in Matthew 24:4-34 would happen in one generation. It also taught us that we do not live in the last days because the last days were when the apostles lived. That is why the apostles said they were living in the last days, not because they were somehow ignorant. (If so, we cannot trust the word of God). Instead, we live at the end of the age.

So the question is, if Jesus said that false Christs and false prophets would arise within one generation, is there historical proof of this? If there is, then Jesus’ prophecy has been fulfilled. It means that any false Christs or false prophets here today do not indicate that we live in the last days as they finished in 70 CE, precisely forty years as Jesus prophesied.

And if all these things happened as Jesus predicted, and we do not live in the last days, then we can trust the word of God and do not need to look for an Antichrist or a Great Tribulation.

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Matthew 24:21

The current craze is a misunderstanding between the last days (30 CE -70 CE) and the end of the age (sometime in the future).

2. False Christs and Prophets

A. Jesus Prophesied the Coming of False Prophets and False Christs:

For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

Matthew 24:5

And again:

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.
For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.
“Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.

Matthew 24:23-26

B. One Generation

Jesus placed the timing of these false Christs and prophets between the two references to one generation:

Firstly in Matthew 23:

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 23:36

Then repeated in Matthew 24:

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

Matthew 24:34

In other words, Jesus is prophesying clearly that this time of false prophets and Christs will peak during the generation that He is talking about. The Bible is not saying that false prophets and false Christs will not appear throughout all time. However, the Bible does teach us that we cannot go looking for false prophets and false Christs, or the antichrist, and say that, therefore, Jesus is coming soon. Jesus told us the last days are different from the end of the age.

We find the answer if we look at the epistles written in that generation.

3. Epistles Confirm False Christs and Prophets Within One Generation

We have ascertained that Jesus referred to prophets and Christ’s appearing within one generation. If Jesus were correct in His prophecy, then we would expect to see this confirmed in the writings of that generation. Looking at two apostles working with the Jewish believers, John and Peter, we find this indeed happened:

A. Apostle John.

The Apostle John wrote this in his first epistle:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 4:1

B. Apostle Peter.

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

2 Peter 2:1

4. Were False Christs and Prophets Successful?

Now that we have found that the apostles’ writings confirm that Jesus’ prophecy was correct, we need to see if the false Christs and prophets were successful because Jesus prophesied they would be:

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:24

A. Gnosticism.

Gnosticism teaches that the spiritual Jesus came upon the natural Jesus at His baptism and left at His death.

Awakening Impact Ministries’ Statement of Faith categorically refutes Gnosticism, believing that Jesus came in the flesh as the Son of Man.

B. John’s Teaching Against Gnosticism.

The Apostle John is considered the most important source of teaching against Gnosticism. Eusebius said of John that, on entering a bathhouse, he saw one of the leaders of the gnostics, Cerinthus, and turned around and walked straight out.

We see John’s refuting of Gnosticism at the start of his gospel, clearly stating Jesus came in the flesh:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-2,14

C. Gnosticism is the Spirit of Anti-Christ

John links the spirit of the antichrist to Gnosticism in his first epistle:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

1 John 4:1-3

So Jesus’ prophecy concerning a great apostasy was indeed fulfilled in that first generation.

The Bible teaches that during the Great Tribulation of 34 CE to 70 CE, indeed, false prophets arose and deceived many.

Next, we need to ask the question: Are there non-biblical writings that confirm Jesus’s prophecy regarding false Christs and prophets?

5. Historic Writings Confirming False Christs and False Prophets

Here is a sample (but not all) of the false Christs and prophets of the forty years between Jesus’ prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

And so we find that the prophecy of Jesus concerning false prophets and christs is accurate. He said it would all happen within one generation, and it did:

“Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.

Matthew 24:26

6. Summary: Speculation About The Times We Live In

• Jesus’ prophecy was that false prophets and christs would rise in the generation following His death and resurrection.
  
• The apostles wrote in the epistles that false prophets and Christs came in the generation following Jesus’ prophecy.
  
• Gnosticism was referred to as the spirit of antichrist by John. Sadly, 1/3 of the church was deceived by Gnosticism.
  
• In particular, John taught against Gnosticism.
  
• Non-biblical historical writings confirm that false christs and prophets did exactly as Jesus prophesied would happen.

• There is no reason to quote Matthew 24:4-34 as a means to fulfil some rhetoric about false christs and prophets today.
  
• Now, of course, there will be false Christs and false prophets, but that does not signify the end of the world.

• In Wars and Rumours of Wars, we find that Jesus’ prophecy of wars and rumours of wars was completely fulfilled in one generation from Christ and that wars have actually been decreasing over time, not increasing as some would try to make us believe.

© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries / Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten D.Miss. 2024