False Christs and Prophets

The video link is at the bottom of the page.

1. Introduction

The prevailing teaching is that today’s false christs and false prophets signify that we are in the Last Days. 
Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy teaches us that everything in Matthew 24:4-34 would occur within one generation. It also shows us that we are not living in the last days, because the last days were during the time of the apostles. That is why the apostles said they lived in the Last Days, not because they were unaware. (If that were the case, we couldn’t trust God’s word.) Instead, we are living at the end of the age.

So, if Jesus stated that false Christs and false prophets would emerge within one generation, is there historical evidence to support this? If such evidence exists, then Jesus’ prophecy has been fulfilled. This suggests that any false Christs or prophets present today do not signify that we are at the end of the Gentile age, not in the last days, as these events concluded in 70 CE, exactly forty years after Jesus predicted.

If all these events occurred as Jesus predicted, and we are not 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 stems from confusion 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 clearly prophesying that the peak of false prophets and christs will occur during the generation He refers to. The Bible does not state that false prophets and false Christs will never appear at any time. However, it does teach us that we should not be actively searching for false prophets, false christs, or the antichrist and then claim that Jesus is imminent. Jesus told us that 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 christs appearing within one generation. If Jesus were correct in His prophecy, then we would expect to see confirmation of it in the writings of that generation. Looking at two apostles working with the Jewish believers, John and Peter, we find that 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

John is primarily addressing the people at the time of writing, between 61 and 64 CE.

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 established that the apostles’ writings confirm that Jesus’ prophecy was accurate, we need to determine if the false christs and prophets were successful because Jesus predicted 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.

By 150 CE, one-third of the church had been influenced by the false teachings of Gnosticism. Gnosticism claims that Jesus never incarnated in the flesh. It asserts that Joseph and Mary had sex and that Jesus was born naturally. Gnosticism holds that the earthly world is corrupt; furthermore, sex within marriage is considered evil. 

Gnosticism teaches that the spiritual Jesus emerged from the natural Jesus at His baptism and departed at His death.

Even Augustine was misled by this teaching. Although he never taught that sex within marriage was a sin, he believed that sex was solely for procreation. He argued that the lust linked to original sin was the way sin was transmitted from parent to child. We discuss this in more detail in the lesson “Sin Entered the World”.

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 regarded as the most important source of teachings against Gnosticism. Eusebius noted that when he entered a bathhouse, he saw one of the Gnostic leaders, Cerinthus, and immediately turned around and walked out, refusing to share the same room as him.

We see John’s refutation of Gnosticism at the start of his gospel, clearly stating that 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 associates the spirit of the antichrist with 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 fulfilled in that first generation.

The Bible teaches that false prophets appeared and deceived many during the forty-year period from 30 CE to 70 CE.

Next, we should ask: 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.

So, we see that Jesus’ prophecy about false prophets and christs is true. He said it would all occur 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 after His death and resurrection.
  
• The apostles wrote in the epistles that false prophets and Christs appeared in the generation after Jesus’ prophecy.
  
• John described Gnosticism as the spirit of antichrist, and it deceived one-third of the church.
  
• John, in particular, taught against Gnosticism.
  
• Non-Biblical historical writings confirm that false christs and prophets did exactly as Jesus prophesied they would.

• There is no reason to quote Matthew 24:4-34 as a means to support some rhetoric about false christs and prophets today.
  
• Of course, there will be false Christs and false prophets today, but that doesn’t mean the end of the world.

In Wars and Rumours of Wars, we see that Jesus’ prophecy of wars and rumours of wars was completely fulfilled within one generation after Christ, and that wars have been decreasing over time, not increasing as some try to make us believe.

© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries / Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten D.Miss. 2025