“And many false prophets will be raised up (future passive) and they will deceive many” (Matthew 24:11).
“And because lawlessness is increased (aorist passive), the love of many will be extinguished (future passive)” (Matthew 24:12).
“There shall be raised up (future passive) false Christs and false prophets and they will give great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).
Jesus is prophesying here of things that are going to occur; they are not possibilities but certainties and they are evidently part of God’s plan for His people. False prophets and false Christs will be raised up. They don’t raise themselves up, they are raised up. An example of how this happens is given in the book of Kings. God wanted someone to deceive Ahab so that he would fall in battle, and He said to the assembled host “Who will entice him?”
“And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will deceive him. And the Lord said to him, ‘in what way’? And he said, ‘I will go forth, and will be a false spirit in the mouth of all his prophets’. And He said, ‘You shall deceive him, indeed, and you will be empowered: go forth, and do so’” (1 Kings 22:21-22).
In the last phrase “Go forth and do so” the verbs are both in the imperative, meaning that this is a command. So this deception was part of God’s plan and purpose.
In the same way, the false prophets and teachers of these last days are raised up as part of God’s plan to separate the sheep from the goats.
“……there will be false teachers among you who, under false pretenses, will bring in destructive heresies……. and many will copy the shamefulness of them through whom the way of the truth will be slandered, and in greed they will make merchandise of you with artificial words” (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Religious fashions come and go and Christianity is riddled with fashionable doctrines which change frequently; Peter tells us that these changing religious fashions are brought in by false teachers, those self anointed hirelings who teach that which they have heard from other men. Their words are artificial, or fabricated, Peter says; the Greek word used here by Peter is plastois from which the English word “plastic” is derived and is used to convey the sense of words easily shaped as desired.
The outcome is that the way of truth will be maligned and misrepresented by these false teachers and those who follow them. This is clearly happening throughout the world today. What motivates these false teachers is money; they trade in Christians whom they are deceiving just as Paul wrote to Timothy; “But evil men and charlatans will grow more evil, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
There is no suggestion that these false teachers are not Christians or that they don’t love God or that they consciously engage in their evil work; on the contrary, they themselves are deceived and deceiving others. Their problem is that they deceive themselves into thinking that you can serve both God and Mammon, and their idolatry – for money, status, power or whatever – leads them into deception. In this condition, they have no hesitation in using the word of God deceitfully, to which Paul referred (2 Corinthians 4:2).
It is these of whom Jesus was speaking when He said;
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. (Matthew 7:22-23).
These passages tell us much about false teachers, but what about God’s people; how do they fall for these false teachings? The scriptures tell us about this too, as for example in 2 Timothy 4:3; “For the (prophetic) season will come when they will not hold with healthy teaching but, their ears being itchy, they will collect to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires”.
Paul is saying here that the people will be wanting something different and less rigorous, more fanciful and flighty, than the undiluted word of God; this explains why the religious superstars all have their moment of glory as they blaze through the religious constellation like comets, gathering adherents in their wake. It also explains why the religious fashions change all the time, a change being as good as a holiday.
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).
The verb “watch” is in the imperative! We are all called to be watchmen!
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