Jesus Christ and False Christs – an Introduction

The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well had an inherent prophetic insight shared by millions – “I know Messiah is coming, who is called Christ” (John 4:25). Her curiosity and open heart led her to the living Christ, who spoke to her while resting at the well. This Christ-awareness, or we may use a simpler term, spirituality, is vital in preparing the heart to receive divine truth. Humanity yearns a Christ-figure. How can we know an unknowable God unless someone with inside knowledge should reveal Him? How can we hear from God without a spokesperson, a Go-Between, a Christ? Inspired Scripture, historical evidence and Christian faith and doctrine reveal that God has indeed spoken and manifested Himself in human flesh, in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Christ confessed by the woman at the well. He fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophecies in His life and death and confirmed His Messiahship by leaving an empty tomb and showing Himself alive by many infallible proofs before ascending to the right hand of God as Administrator of the New Covenant. 

For those who will receive it, Jesus is the Christ who was and is to come. But He warned the Last Days believers of deception and counterfeits – “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4,5). Matthew chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse, is a chronological outline of eschatological or Last Days events. Deception is mentioned three times in verses 5, 11 and 24, for deception is Satan’s native atmosphere. He is the father of lies.

Our Lord warned that counterfeits would “come in my name”. Using Jesus’ name is the shiny lure used to attract the gullible. Just because something is tagged with the name Jesus, it is not necessarily trustworthy. Not all that glitters is gold. The counterfeiters declare “I am Christ” (Greek – christos), meaning to be anointed or the Anointed One. They claim a special charisma or anointing as God’s unique messenger. Some claim to be channels of gods and divinities. Notice the false Christs always counterfeit Jesus, never any other. The intent of the deception is always to usurp the name of Christ to draw disciples away from Christ – “Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3). 

There are at least four commonalities of all false Christs. They have…

1. False authority

False Christs can be easily spotted because they offer a new or altered bible. Beware the new and improved. If it’s new, it’s not true, and if it’s true, it’s not new.

Or if they don’t promote their own “holy book”, they will at least claim special, esoteric or personal revelation from the Bible or from beyond the Bible, in contradiction to Peter’s statement that “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). The devil has been caught quoting scripture (Luke 4:10,11), but he always perverts its clear meaning. False teachers and pseudo-Christs take scripture out of context to forward their own teachings, or else the Bible is quoted as being only one of many coequal “inspired writings”. Most of their purported revelation is extra-biblical, going beyond “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  

A false bible births false doctrine which matures into false disciples.

Much of the false teaching of our day purports an evolution in man’s understanding of God, just as they claim there is an evolution in the physical world. Many teach we are now entering a new age, the Age of Aquarius, the third wave of human thought, the normal evolutionary process of the divinity of man, and thus all outdated thinking processes and adherence to traditional religious institutions must be cast aside, the main target, of course, being the Christian faith. A new messiah-figure that speaks for God (as God) will sum up the good in all religions and lead modern-man to peace, enlightenment and Godhood. It is the same lure and lie employed by the snake in the Garden of Eden, “your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).

2. False anointing

Paul spoke of “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6) and “another spirit” (2 Corinthians 11:4). The false Christs are certainly anointed, but anointed by what or by whom? God is a Spirit but there are many other “spirits” in the cosmos. John urges, “Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God…” (1 John 4:1) 

Watch whether the spiritual figure’s charisma overshadows his character. Dig deep enough and you will likely find a very dubious past.

Magnetic personality, masterly oration or even the performance of miracles do not indicate either a right heart or correct teaching.Pharaoh’s court magicians were masters at tricks and turned their staffs into serpents just as did Aaron at the command of Moses, but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. The question is not whether someone is anointed, but what does their anointing accomplish? Does it lead men toward Jesus Christ or away from God?

3. False apostles

A false Christ is of no value to the kingdom of darkness without a following – “also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). The counterfeit Christs instruct then send propagandists in their own image. The devil has a church, Mystery Babylon. He has seminars and healing services, using self-help con-artists, psychic channels and eastern mystic gurus to spread his error. He is a book peddler. Library shelves are lined with volumes of fiction, fraud and lies – “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 12:13,14).

4. False atonement

They introduce a radically different way of salvation. By atonement we mean the expiation of sin by the substitutionary death of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The false Christs normally see no need for atonement for they deny the existence of sin. If there is a recognition of sin, the definition is blurred, sin is seen as failure to see the divinity of self. The human fall in the Garden is denied. The death of Jesus on the cross is seen as a failure. That man has “come short of the glory of God”, as stated in the Book of Romans, means menhave not reached cosmic consciousness or spiritual enlightenment, or lack divine self-esteem. They denounce evil, but it is a twisted concept of evil, calling good evil and evil good. We can expect the coming False Messiah to embrace all gender specifications, epitomize the good in all religions and seek to unify all ethnicities with a common salvation based on tolerance, lifestyle acceptance and rejection of antiquated religious rules, all of which “turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).

Most damnable, the false teacher and false Christ must delegitimize, if not anathematize, the blood of Jesus Christ.Denying Christ’s work on the cross the new salvation is built on the goodness of man, slavish works of charity, globalistic erasure of nation states, planetary oneness (eco-worship of Mother Earth) and blanket acceptance of personal lifestyle choices. In a nutshell, the false Christs preach the heresy of, “I’m okay, you’re okay”. What must be asked, however, is God okay with it?

False Christs must be discerned, discredited and decried, or as Paul said – “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Accursed! A very strong word, but strong because countless souls are at stake.