“Spiritual Deception at the End of the Age: What Jesus Warns Us About”
Bible Study Guide (Olivet Discourse – End Times Series)
We learned in the previous Bible study guide that Jesus began His Olivet Discourse with an urgent warning about spiritual deception. Although, deception in general will become more rampant closer to the Tribulation, it was spiritual deception that Christ was most concerned with.
Spiritual Deception turns your attention away from Christ and toward the things of this world. Often, people are led to believe that they’re on the right path in a relationship with Christ, but are deceptively being misled. This is rampant in the religions of the world today.
This is Satan’s most powerful weapon. He has no desire in scaring you into following him. There’s no need to. He has religion to do the work for him.
Good news is many people are realizing this fact. Many are running from their religions. Unfortunately, there is so much deception in the churches around the world, many folks don’t know where to go. Finding a church that teaches the full and authoritative counsel of God is becoming increasingly more difficult.
Let’s take a closer and more specific look at the spiritual deception Jesus warns us about next.
Who Are the False Messiahs Jesus Warns Us About?
(Verse 5) Jesus here gets more specific about His spiritual deception warning.
“For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” (Matthew 24:5)
False messiah claims are nothing new. In fact, Josephus the historian wrote of several people that made claims of being the Messiah in the first century after Jesus’ death.
Many people of that time, including Paul the apostle believed that Christ would return in their life time. Unfortunately, these people of the first century didn’t have the teachings of Christ written in the New Testament to study. Especially not the teachings of the book of Revelation.
As far back as there’s been a longing for the Second Coming of Christ, there have been deceivers posing as false messiahs. Take a look at the list at the end of this Bible study. You’ll notice that there’s no shortage of Modern day false messiahs casting their spiritual deception on unsuspecting believers.
This is not a complete list. It includes both those who were serious about their false messiah claims and have a following to pedal their false gospel to. It also includes those who are a few French fries short of a Happy Meal.
Watch Out For Spiritual Deception and Itching Ears
Paul, the apostle knew there would come a time when people would fall away from the true biblical Christian faith. They’ll seek a less serious faith. Something in the way of Christian Light. Less demanding and more in tune with the world.
Christ warned about this often in John’s gospel. Here’s Paul teaching his young apprentice, Timothy.
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3)
Jesus called this a lukewarm faith in His letter to the church of Laodicea in the final warnings to the seven churches of Revelation.
Satan is as cunning today as he was in the Garden of Eden. His false messiahs craftily speak the words of an easy religion. One that people like to hear. They’ll turn towards it not realizing their walking away from Christ.
How Can We Protect Ourselves From Spiritual Deception?
This is a great and important question. Just as the Bible guides us with all the answers needed to live in this world, it also teaches us how to protect ourselves from this world.
John, the favored apostle of Christ gives us the best answer to how we can protect ourselves from false messiahs dishing out their spiritual deception. We find it in the first of his three letters.
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
In other words, whatever you hear out in the world, test it against scripture. If it’s biblically sound it’ll align fully with the teachings of the Bible. If it doesn’t, steer clear. Find another church. It matters what church you attend.
There’s an old quote that been attributed to many different people. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” In today’s world where evil is now called good and good is called evil, the truth can barely even find its pants.
The Road to the Second Coming of Christ
The road map to the end of this age is paved with Jesus’ warnings from his Olivet Discourse. While there have been false messiahs around since the first century, there are many more in the world today.
We can’t make a determination as to how close we are to last days of this age before the Tribulation by looking at one single warning. It takes a convergence of prophetic teachings to indicate the closeness of the last hour. Let’s keep exploring Christ’ warnings of the end times to see how close we are to the end of this age.
Modern False Messiah Claims
| NAME | TIMEFRAME | LOCATION | CLAIM |
| Ahn Sahng-hong | 1918–1985 | South Korea | Founder of the World Mission Society Church of God; considered God the Father by followers. |
| Sun Myung Moon | 1920-2012 | South Korea | Claimed to be the new Messiah; founded the Unification Church. |
| Jim Jones | 1931-1978 | USA (Jonestown) | Claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, etc.; led 900+ followers to mass suicide. |
| Wayne Bent (Michael Travesser) | 1941-present | USA | Claimed to be the Messiah; convicted on child sexual misconduct charges. |
| José Luis de Jesús Miranda | 1946-2013 | Puerto Rico USA | Claimed to be Jesus and later the Antichrist; founded “Growing in Grace” movement. |
| Inri Cristo | 1948-present | Brazil | Dresses like Jesus and claims to be the second coming. |
| David Koresh (Vernon Howell) | 1959-1983 | USA (Waco, TX) | Claimed to be the Lamb of God from Revelation. |
| Sergey Torop (Vissarion) | 1961-present | Russia | Claims to be the returned Jesus; leads a large sect in Siberia. |
| Alan John Miller | 1962-present | Australia | Claims to be Jesus reincarnated; leads Divine Truth movement. |
| Jesus Matayoshi | 1997-2018 | Japan | Claimed to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He had a following that believed in his mission to bring about the End of Days. |
| Moses Hlongwane | Active 2000’s-present | South Africa | Claims to be Jesus Christ; has followers who worship him. |
| Ortega-Hernandez | 2011-present | USA | Attempted attack, professing to be Jesus Christ. |
| Bupete Chibwe Chishimba (Jesus of Kitwe) | 2013 | Zambia | A taxi driver in Zambia who claims to be Jesus Christ. |
| Todd Kincannon | 2018 | USA | Called himself Second Coming of Jesus, after killing a dog. |
| Gabbie Hanna | 2022 | USA | Claimed to be the Second Coming on TikTok. |
| Ezra Miller | 2022 | USA | Him and his partner referred to themselves as Jesus / Messiah. |
| Justin Mohn | 2024 | USA | Declared himself “the messiah” in a YouTube rant. |
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