For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
– Matthew 24:24
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
Jesus predicted that false Christs and false prophets would deceive people in the last days. The Lord Jesus also clearly prophesied many times that He would come back. Thus, when examining the prophecies of the Lord Jesus’ return, many people give priority to being wary of false Christs and false prophets. Even some absurd people believe any message that preaches the Lord has returned is false and they spare no thought to how to welcome the Lord’s return, and how to hear the voice of God. This is a deviation in our welcoming the Lord’s return and a case of not eating for fear of choking. If we keep being passive and guarding against false Christs, how can we possibly welcome the Lord’s return? If we want to welcome the Lord’s return and avoid being deceived by false Christs, we must first know how they deceive people. In fact, the words of the Lord Jesus show us that false Christs and false prophets mainly rely on performing signs and wonders to deceive God’s chosen people. This is the primary manifestation of false Christs’ and false prophets’ deception of people. It is because false Christs and false prophets are utterly devoid of the truth. In nature and substance, they are extremely wicked evil spirits. So they have to rely on signs and wonders to deceive people. Only Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. The One who can express the truth, and show mankind the way, and give them the life is the One who is Christ. Those who are incapable of expressing the truth are surely false Christs, they’re fakes. This is the basic principle of identifying false Christs and false prophets. Just as God says, “If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, cast out demons, heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. … In the conceptions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal the sick and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus, yet this time God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method. Once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about this.”
The words of God clearly tell us that God is always new and never old, and never does the same work. This is just like when Jesus came to work: He ushered in the Age of Grace, and brought to an end the Age of Law. He did one stage of the work of redemption, and rescued mankind from sin. In order that His work would be effective, He performed some signs and wonders. In the last days, the returned Lord will come to bring to an end the Age of Grace and usher in a new age. But He will not repeat the work done by the Lord Jesus. Instead, based upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, He will carry out a stage of the work of judgment beginning from the house of God. He will express all truths for the purification and salvation of mankind to resolve the source of our sin and our satanic disposition, and to thoroughly save us from the influence of Satan, so that we will be gained by God. And the false Christs? They are all evil spirits who fake Christ. They are incapable of doing work of ushering in a new age and bringing the old age to an end. They can only imitate the Lord Jesus by performing simple signs and wonders to deceive those muddle-headed people without discernment. But they are incapable of copying what Jesus did as raising the dead and feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, or rebuking the wind and sea, which is totally beyond them. In substance, false Christs are wicked, they are evil spirits and totally devoid of the truth. And so, they have to rely on signs and wonders to deceive people. Or else they deceive and admonish people by imitating the tone of God’s words and simple words once spoken by God. This is their primary distinctive feature. If we understand this, we will not fear being deceived by false Christs. Therefore, if someone testifies that the Lord has come back and speaks words, we will actively seek and investigate the work and hear God’s voice and welcome the Lord’s return like the wise virgins.
Source: Grow in Christ - The Second Coming of Christ
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