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False Anointed Ones at the End Time: Difference between revisions
False Anointed Ones at the End Time (view source)
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Jesus is not speaking of his ultimate return. He is referring to the time between his resurrection and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. | Jesus is not speaking of his ultimate return. He is referring to the time between his resurrection and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. | ||
==Does "False Christs" mean "False Anointed One"?== | |||
We need to look closely at William Branham's interpretation: | |||
:''I want you to notice here in Matthew 24, Jesus used the term of “Christs,” C-h-r-i-s-t-s, “Christs.” Not Christ, but “Christs,” plural, not singular. “Christs.” '''Therefore, the word Christ means “the anointed One.”''' And then if it’s “anointed,” there will be not only one, but many anointed, “the anointed ones.” See? | |||
:''Otherwise, if He wanted to break it down so we would more or less understand it better, He would say, “In the last days there shall rise false, anointed ones.” Now, that seems almost impossible, see, the terms of “anointed.” But notice the very next words, “and false prophets,” p-r-o-p-h-e-t-s, plural. | |||
:''Now, '''anointed one, is, “one with a message.”''' And the only way the message can be brought out is by one that’s anointed, and that would be a prophet, anointed, '''“there shall rise false, anointed teachers.”''' A prophet teaches what his message is. Anointed teachers, but '''anointed people with false teaching.''' Anointed ones, “Christs,” plural; “prophets,” plural. And if there is such a thing as a—a Christ, singular, then these would have to be “anointed ones,” that their prophecy of what they were teaching would be the difference, because they are anointed ones, anointed.<ref>William Branham, 65-0725M - The Anointed Ones At The End Time, para. 23-25</ref> | |||
William Branham takes the Greek word ψευδόχριστος which means “false messiah” and twists its meaning to "false anointed teacher." But that is not what the text says. Jesus could have said "false anointed teacher" but he didn't. The Greek word "χριστός" or "Christ" is repeatedly translated in the Septuagint version (the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Jesus and the New Testament writers quoted from) as "Messiah". This is evident from the following passages: | |||
:''The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found '''the Messiah” (that is, the Christ)'''.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 1:41. | |||
:''The woman said, “I know that '''Messiah” (called Christ''') “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” <ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 4:25.</ref> | |||
A much better translation than "false anointed teachers" is "false Messiahs" | |||
False messiahs made regular appearances in Israel. The book of Acts lists a number of them. Gamaliel mentions “Theudas” who claimed “to be somebody” (Acts 5:36). He describes another false messiah, Judas of Galilee, who “rose up in the days of the census, and drew away some people after him” (5:37). Simon is probably the best known: “Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, ‘This man is what is called the Great Power of God. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts’ ” (Acts 8:9–11). | |||
Secular historians record these and other examples of false messiahs and prophets who rose up soon after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. “Jerome quotes Simon Magus as saying, ‘I am the Word of God, I am the Comforter, I am Almighty, I am all there is of God.’ ...And Irenaeus tells us how Simon claimed to be the Son of God and the creator of angels.” Eusebius records the words of one Justin and his description of Simon in a communique to Antonine in one of the earliest defenses of Christianity: | |||
:''And after the ascension of our Lord into heaven, certain men were suborned by demons as their agents, who said they were gods. These were not only suffered [permitted] to pass without persecution, but were even deemed worthy of honours by you. Simon, a certain Samaritan of the village called Githon, was one of the number, who, in the reign of Claudius Caesar, performed many magic rites by the operation of demons, was considered a god, in your imperial city of Rome, and was honoured by you with a statue as a god, in the river Tiber—(on an island)—between the two bridges, having the superscription in Latin, Simoni Deo Sancto, which is, To Simon the Holy God; and nearly all the Samaritans, a few also of other nations, worship him, confessing him as the Supreme God. | |||
Josephus tells of “a certain impostor named Theudas [who] persuaded a great number to follow him to the river Jordan which he claimed would divide for their passage.” Cuspius Fadus, procurator of Judea, “sent a troop of horse[s] against them, who falling unexpectedly upon them, killed many, and made many prisoners; and having taken Theudas himself alive, they cut off his head, and brought it to Jerusalem.”28 Dositheus, a Samaritan, “pretended that he was the lawgiver prophesied of by Moses.” There were so many of these impostors preying on the gullibility of the people that under the procuratorship of Felix, “many of them were apprehended and killed every day. They seduced great numbers of the people still expecting the Messiah; and well therefore might our Saviour caution his disciples against them.” | |||
While Matt 24:24 relates to events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, this does not mean that false messsiahs no longer appear on the scene. Their appearance in our day, however, has nothing to do with the fulfillment of the events outlined in the Olivet Discourse.<ref>Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church, Fourth revised edition (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1999), 73–74.</ref> | |||
==Will Jannes and Jambres return?== | ==Will Jannes and Jambres return?== | ||