Many Shall Come in my Name
The realisation that Jesus truly is the Son of God as opposed to being the second person of the Trinity as claimed by the majority of Christians forcibly presents to us the workings of a great deception. The words of Paul ring true with painful accuracy:
2Th 2:10,11 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
The love of the truth of course is the one who is truth
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If we receive not Christ as the Son of the Father as He claimed several times, we will be sent a strong delusion.
When the disciples asked Jesus about the end of the world the first thing He told them was:
Matt 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
In the next verse, we read something that is common to most of us, but until recently I had only read it one way.
Matt 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
If you read the NIV it states it the way I had usually understood it
Matt 24:5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many.
The quote marks around the statement 'I am the Messiah' give the impression that Jesus is indicating that people will come claiming that they themselves are the Christ. Yet when you remove the added punctuation it is easy to see that Jesus was saying that many would come in His name claiming that He was indeed the Christ and yet they will deceive many. One of our members at Maranatha Media emailed me directly on this subject after I had mentioned the possibility of this in my recent sermon My Beloved – The Midnight Cry. I am thankful for the confirmation as I believe it is important.
This understanding makes more sense when we look at the statement “many shall come in my name” if they themselves where claiming to be the Christ, they would be coming in their own name not the name of the real Christ.
Therefore Jesus warned that at the end of time, many would come claiming to represent Christ and tell others that they believe in the historical account of Jesus and yet they will deceive many. Why? Because they deny the truth that Jesus is actually the Son of God through their worship of the Trinity that denies the distinction of Father and Son in the classical Trinity or simply deny the Sonship of Jesus directly as in the prominant Adventist Tri-theist view.
For those who have found the truth of the Son of God, we can see that the words of Christ have been fulfilled exactly. There are very few people who actually claim to be the Christ but there are “many” who claim to represent Him and yet are deceiving many.
Let us gather up the words of Christ and study them carefully lest we overlook warnings that will confirm us in the truth of the Son of God.
