For our new readers, a brief review may be in order. We are building a model to help us better understand biblical prophecy. We began in the Olivet discourse for reasons listed here.
Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, prompting his disciples to ask for a sign of the end of the (Mosaic) age and of his parousia (or kingdom presence; Matthew 24:1–3). The Start Reading Here post shows our progress to this point in tracing the signs he provided.
In this post, we will consider Jesus’ next sign—miracle-working false prophets:
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. (Matthew 24:23–26)
Before we begin, let us recognize that false prophets plague the people of God in every age. (At the risk of theological imprecision, we will lump “false prophets and false Christs” together and refer to them as “false prophets.”) They did so at the beginning of the Mosaic age Deuteronomy 13:1–5). They will do so throughout the Messianic (kingdom) age, too. Jesus informed us of this in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). He warned us to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). The image above reminds us of Jesus’ warning and the dangerous subtlety of false prophets.
Miracle-working False Christs
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus mentioned two groups of false prophets that would appear before the Temple fell. He associated the first group with (what we have called) other preliminary signs. We noticed here that these signs did not signal the end of the (Mosaic) age (Matthew 24:4-5; 6b). We referred to these as non-signs in relation to the destruction of the Temple.
The Lord also described a second class of deceivers in the Olivet Discourse. This unique group of false prophets would serve as signs of the end of the age marked by the Temple’s destruction (Matthew 24:23–26). We can call these true-sign false prophets.
What characteristics would distinguish these two groups of false prophets?
Time Distinctions
First, they would differ regarding the time of their appearance. The non-sign false prophets would operate throughout the apostolic generation. Their presence would not differentiate this period from any other.
The true-sign false prophets, however, would not appear until the end of that generation. They would manifest themselves during the “great tribulation” just before the Temple’s fall (Matthew 24:21–24).
We can trace the activities of false prophets in the New Testament itself. The sacred writers describe the non–sign false prophets at some length. They also provide glimpses of the true-sign false prophets that appeared at the end of the Mosaic age.
False Prophets Before “The End” of the Age
Luke provides evidence of the non-sign false prophets early in his Acts of the Apostles. The success God granted the apostles’ preaching alarmed the Jewish leaders. As they discussed how to respond, Gamaliel described two such false prophets: Theudas and Judas (Acts 5:34–37).
A short while later, Luke shows how false prophets confronted the apostles face-to-face. When Philip preached the gospel at Samaria, Simon opposed him. This deceiver had convinced the people he was “the great power of God” (Acts 8:4–13). At Paphos, “a certain sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus” withstood Paul (Acts 13:5–12).
False prophets like these could appear at any point in history.
False Prophets Nearer “The End” of the Age
Toward the end of the apostolic generation, the apostle John described a numerical increase in false prophets (including “false Christs”). He said, “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18, NKJV; emphasis added).
John A. T. Robinson suggests a possible date range of AD 60-65 as the time during which John wrote this epistle.1 If he is correct, John’s teaching about the “antichrist(s)” provides an interesting commentary on Jesus’ list of signs in the Olivet Discourse. It shows how the Olivet Discourse provided a warning for the disciples. John or those to whom he ministered were not surprised by the multiplication of these false prophets.
John’s statement also supports Jesus’ placement of the true-sign false prophets at the end of the Mosaic age. He located the increase of false prophets in “the last hour.” “The end” of the age of which Jesus spoke would soon arrive (Matthew 24:6, 13–14).
False Prophets At “The End” of the Age
Jesus said the true-sign false prophets (Mathew 24:21) would appear during the “great tribulation,” just before the Temple’s demise. They would attempt to deceive the elect even while armies surrounded Jerusalem. This would be the time for Jesus’ followers to ignore the false prophets and flee to the mountains (Matthew 24:16; Luke 21:21). These false prophets would serve as true signs of the destruction of the Temple.
Sign Distinctions
Second, the two appearances of false prophets would differ in the supernatural signs they performed.
The non-sign false prophets—those Luke documented in Acts—performed certain signs. Simon “used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria” (Acts 8:9). Bar-Jesus practiced sorcery (i.e., magic) to perpetrate his deceptions (Acts 13:8). These were common practices as we shall see below.
Jesus elevated the signs performed by the true-sign false prophets of the “great tribulation” to a different level. He said, “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24; emphasis added). Jesus considered the deception of the elect, in this case, an impossibility, but these signs would do so if anything could achieve that result.
The apostles, following Jesus,’ also recognized the distinction between elect and non-elect Jews. Paul, writing to the Romans around AD 57, explained why some Jews believed the gospel while others did not. While doing so, he said, “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5; emphasis added). Paul’s “present time” was the period between the Olivet Discourse and the fall of the Temple.
The deliverance of the Jewish remnant from temporal disaster at the end of the Mosaic age serves as an example of God’s preservation of his elect through all their trials in all ages. Paul said God predestinated the elect “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). He then established a general truth when he asked,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35–39)
The false prophets’ incredible signs did not fool God’s chosen people in Jerusalem during the “great tribulation.” They failed to do so because in the Olivet Discourse Jesus had instructed his disciples to flee to the mountains when they saw these things happen. When the time came, the elect obeyed Jesus and escaped disaster.2
False prophets can never deceive the elect so as to rob them of their inheritance. They cannot overcome the preserving grace of God regardless of how impressive their signs might be.
Confirmation
The Scriptures do not provide an account of the fulfillment of Jesus’ true-sign false prophets. Secular historians, however, assure us this sign occurred. John Lightfoot provides evidence3 from the Talmud.4 He shows how the Jewish rabbis routinely practiced sorcery and magical arts during this period. Some could perform impressive acts of deception, including bringing rain when they fasted and prayed.
After providing several examples of rabbinical magic, Lightfoot describes what happened just before the Temple fell:
False Christs broke out, and appeared in public with their witchcrafts, so much the frequenter and more impudent, as the city and people drew nearer to its ruin; because the people believed the Messias should be manifested before the destruction of the city; and each of them pretended to be the Messias by these signs. From the words of Isaiah, “Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child,” the doctors concluded, “that the Messias should be manifested before the destruction of the city”. . . . Mark that also; “The Son of David will not come, till the wicked empire [of the Romans] shall have spread itself over all the worlds nine months; as it is said, ‘Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth.’”5
Josephus, a non–Christian Jew who witnessed the lead up to the destruction of the Temple, shows how these false prophets deceived the non-elect Jews.
Nor did any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet was the occasion of these people’s destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that very day, that God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now, there was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God: and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. Now, a man that is in adversity does easily comply with such promises; for when a such a seducer makes him believe that he shall be delivered from those miseries which oppress him, then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such deliverance. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers.6
Jesus’ false-prophet sign of the near approach of the destruction of the Temple occurred just as he had predicted.
Conclusion
Our prophetic model will reflect the fulfillment of this false-prophets sign before the fall of the Temple in AD 70. It will show how this fulfillment contributed to the transition from the Mosaic age to the Messianic age.
May our God continue to defeat the work of false prophets and advance his new creation (Galatians 6:15). May we join forces with him in this battle and seek to see false prophets converted to faith in Christ (2 Corinthians 10:1–6). And, may we look forward to the bodily resurrection—the majestic defeat of death as the final enemy of Christ and his church (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). Amen.
Footnotes
- John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2000), 307.
- See Whiston’s note in Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974), 2:19:6.
- John Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament From the Talmud and Hebraica (Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 2:315-18.
- “The word Talmud or Thalmud, means to teach. And the Talmud contains the substance of the Jews’ doctrine and traditions in religion and morality.” Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures (London: Ebenezer Palmer, 1828), 878.
- Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament, 2:318. Emphasis his.
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974), 6:5:2-3.
