Deceived?

  

If you don't understand this DECEPTION,
you've been "Left Behind!"

The Christian world stands in danger of being utterly deceived and is not even aware of it.  The current pictures of who the antichrist is which are present in Christendom show a very distorted and imperfect understanding of the Bible's warnings in this area.  Popular notions deriving from the likes of Hal Lindsay, Left Behind, Jack Van Impe and other books and videos would lead you to believe that the antichrist is some obviously bewitched, deranged monster who any child would recognize as satanic.  

 The Bible, on the other hand, paints a picture of an antichrist with a very Christian face.  He will bless the children, favor religion, and be sympathetic with the plight of the oppressed.  He will be a believer in one God and not a universalist.  He will claim to be an anointed Christian.

 This is the plain meaning of these verses from the synoptic gospels:

  • (Mat 24:5 KJV)  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

  • (Mark 13:6 KJV)  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

  • (Luke 21:8 KJV)  And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

When three gospels trumpet such a unified warning, you would think every believer would be informed of it in the 2000 year history of Christianity.  But instead the warning is heard no where.  Perhaps some are misreading what Jesus is saying in these verses.  When He says that these many false prophets say in His name "I am Christ," perhaps many readers think Jesus is saying that they will claim to be Jesus himself.  But that is not what Jesus is saying.  Jesus did not speak English, so He did not say "I am Christ."  He spoke Aramaic, and a better translation of what He really said would be "I am anointed."  That is what the Greek means.  

So these false prophets who Jesus is warning about are not saying, "I am Jesus."  They are saying what most Christian teachers say, "I am anointed.  I have the Holy Spirit..."

Notice that Jesus says that these false prophets, who are Christians, will deceive MANY.  This is spoken in a last days setting.  If we are in the last days, as many Christians confess, and as the signs of the times indicate, then we should now be witnessing MANY false prophets who are deceiving MANY Christians.  MANY is not just a few.  MANY would be thousands and millions.

But if you take a poll of believing, born-again Christians, and ask them to name groups of millions of Christians who are now being deceived, they would say, "Well, I don't think there are any groups of thousands or millions that are being deceived, other than Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, but they are not really Christians."

This is the most common response that you would receive.  So something is wrong.  Either Jesus made a mistake with His plain warnings recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, or the Christian world is blinded to some gargantuan deception which is everywhere currently plaguing the Christian world.

If I have to choose between Jesus having made a mistake with His warning, or current Christendom's mistake in not properly seeing the current fulfillment of His words, I am going to bet on Jesus and not on the current Christian world professing His name.

If so, then who are these millions of currently deceived Christians and who are the ones deceiving them?  I think it is fairly obvious.  Feel free to email me if it is not so obvious to you (the email address is info at bibleprophecy.net) ... or go here...