Before
Christ returns, the world will face a deadly, seductive spiritual
counterfeit: the False Christ. This servant of the devil will not come
as an atheist or as an enemy of Christ; he is a particular man who will
claim to be Christ (and God). The False Christ will
work evil miracles, and will demand worship. Most of mankind will
follow him, to spiritual doom. Unless his reign were cut short (which,
by the mercy of God, it will be), none - even God's elect - could
survive.
Here
is the scriptural proof that there will be a False Christ before Jesus
returns: (1)
1.
The
prophet Daniel warned against the ultimate sacrilege in the Temple, the
"abomination of desolation." Jesus referred to this same prophecy in
his own teaching about the end of the age.
Daniel
9:27: And
he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the
half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fall: and there shall be in the temple the
abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue
even to the consummation, and to the end.
Daniel
11:31-32: And
arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of
strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation. And such as deal wickedly
against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that
know their God shall prevail and succeed.
Daniel
12:9-13: And
he said: "Go, Daniel, because the words are shut up, and sealed until
the appointed time. Many shall be chosen, and made white, and shall be
tried as fire: and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the
wicked shall understand, but the learned shall understand. And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall
be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up,
there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days, Blessed is he
that waiteth and cometh unto a thousand three hundred thirty-five days.
But go thou thy ways until the time appointed: and thou shalt rest, and
stand in thy lot unto the end of the days."
2.
During
Christ's ministry, the religious authorities persecuted Him for healing
an invalid on the Sabbath. Jesus rebuked them, saying that they would
reject Him, and receive an imposter who would come in his own name:
John
5:42-43:
"But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in
the name of my Father, and you receive me
not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive."
3.
Several
days before the Passion, Jesus taught the disciples about the coming
fall of Jerusalem and its Temple (which occurred a generation later, in
70 AD) and about the events leading to the end of the age.
Jesus
said that there would be many false Christs and false prophets:
Matthew
24:4-5: And
Jesus answering, said to them: "Take heed that no man seduce you: For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ: and
they will seduce many."
Matthew
24:11:
"And many false prophets shall rise, and
shall seduce many."
Parallel
passages:
Mark
13:5-6: And
Jesus answering, began to say to them, "Take heed lest any man deceive
you. For many shall come in my name, saying,
I am he; and they shall deceive many."
Luke
21:7-8: And
they asked him, saying: "Master, when shall these things be? and what
shall be the sign when they shall begin to come to pass?" Who said:
"Take heed you be not seduced; for many will
come in my name, saying, I am he; and the time is at hand: go ye
not therefore after them."
The
false prophets and pseudo-Christs would work deceptive miracles, and
would send out false evangelists:
Matthew
24:22-26:
"And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved:
but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. Then if
any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe
him. For there shall arise false Christs and
false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to
deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to
you, beforehand. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in
the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not."
Parallel
passages:
Mark
13: 20-23:
"And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved:
but for the sake of the elect which he hath chosen, he hath shortened
the days. And then if any man shall say to
you, Lo, here is Christ; lo, he is here: do not believe. For there will
rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall shew signs and
wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. Take
you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things."
Previously,
as Jesus and the disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus had
said:
Luke
17: 22-23:
"And he said to his disciples: The days will come, when you shall desire to see one day of the Son of man;
and you shall not see it. And they will say to you: See here, and see
there. Go ye not after, nor follow them."
Jesus
then warned of a coming "abomination of desolation," the ultimate
desecration of the Holy Place. This warning referred in part to the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Rome in 70 AD, and in part
to the final desecration of the Church at the end of the age:
Matthew
24:15-16:
"When therefore you shall see the
abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.
Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains."
Parallel
passage:
Mark
13:14: "And when you shall see the
abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not: he that
readeth let him understand: then let them that are in Judea, flee unto
the mountains."
4.
In
his second letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul gave the clearest
warning about the deeds of the False Christ, the Man of Sin
–
and
prophesied his doom at the hands of Christ.
2
Thessalonians 2:3-11: Let
no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt
first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition, Who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God,
or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in
the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.
Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these
things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in
his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who
now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the
Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming, him,
Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and
signs, and lying wonders, And in all seduction of iniquity to
them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the
operation of error, to believe lying: That all may be judged who have
not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity.
5.
Satan
and his servants - including the
False Christ and his followers
- will
present themselves as righteous. They are wolves in sheep's clothing,
as Jesus and as St. Paul warned:
Matthew
7:15: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you
in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
2
Corinthians 11: 13-15: "For such false apostles are deceitful
workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no
wonder: for Satan himself transformeth himself
into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers
be transformed as the ministers of justice, whose end shall be
according to their works."
(1) Source documents: The M+G+R Foundation:
The verses listed here are
quoted from the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible, available on
line at http://www.drbo.org/index.htm.