FALSE PROPHETS
."Take care that you are not misled. For many will come claiming my name and saying, "I am he" ("The Christ"), and "The Day is upon us. Do not follow them." (Luke 21:8 NEB. Matt 24:5 NWT).
"The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man, but you will not see it. They will say to you, "Look! There!" and "Look! Here!" Do not go running off in pursuit." (Luke 17:22,23 NEB).
"Imposters will come claiming to be messiahs or prophets (false Christs and false prophets NWT), and they will produce great signs and wonders(1) to mislead even God's chosen, if such a thing were possible." (Matt 24:25 NEB).
"There will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves." "They will gain many adherents to their dissolute practices, through whom the true way will be bought into disrepute. In their greed for money they will trade on your credulity(2) with sheer fabrications." (From 2 Peter 2:1-3 NWT & NEB).
"My children, this is the last hour! You were told that Antichrist was to come, and now many antichrists have appeared; which proves to us that this is indeed the last hour. They went out from our company, but never really belonged to us; if they had, they would have stayed with us." (From 1 John 2:18,19 NEB).
"So when you see "the abomination of desolation" (disgusting thing that causes desolation.(3) NWT), of which the prophet Daniel spoke, standing in the holy place(4) (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judaea must take to the hills." (Matt 24:15,16 NEB. Dan 12:11 NWT).
"And now brothers, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gathering of us to himself…do not suddenly lose your heads whether at some oracular utterance, or pronouncement, or some letter….alleging that the Day of the Lord is already here. That day cannot come before the final rebellion against God, when wickedness will be revealed in human form(3), the man doomed to perdition…He…takes his seat in the temple of God claiming to be a god himself." "He shall be revealed only at the proper time...whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, and annihilate by the radiance of his coming. But the coming of that wicked man is the work of satan. It will be attended by all the powerful signs* and miracles of the lie, and all the deception that sinfulness can impose on those doomed to destruction. Destroyed they shall be, because they did not open their minds to love of the truth, so as to find salvation. Therefore God puts them under a delusion, which works upon them to believe the lie, so that they may all be brought to judgement, all who do not believe the truth but make sinfulness their deliberate choice." (From 2 Thess 2:1-12 NEB).
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(1) See 2 Thess 2:9 NEB* above.(2) Credulity: Readiness to believe on insufficient grounds. (3) The "man of lawlessness". (2 Thess 2:3 NWT). See the "Little Scroll" pages: (849), (851), (4/7/90), (8/6/95). (4) "Usurping a place not his". (Mark 13:14 NEB). |