False Messiahs
March 31, 2025
Last night I watched, for the second time, a documentary about the devastating Joplin tornado of 2011 — narrated by High School students who had just graduated that very day.
One fact that I am using is that Joplin was described as the “belt buckle” of the Bible Belt with “a church on every corner.” Apparently, the recent recurring theme from the pulpits was about the Last Days and the Rapture of Believers. There was even a specified day it would occur.
That forcassed day came and went. So, it would appear obvious to me that the preachers had no idea what they were talking about.
As the film continued, the graduates were still believing that the huge tornado was God’s method of Rapture, taking them to Heaven.
People were definitely being taken up into the air by the powerful uplift of the tornado suction, ripping them out of car windows and other sheltering places, However, it was deadly — hardly to be considered as raising them to eternal life in Paradise…
Whoever they were who were teaching this nonsense, they were definitely false prophets.
In Matthew 24, Jesus is recorded as describing the many indicators of His Second Coming, i.e., the Last Day. — Matthew 24:24 — “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.” — Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
Then, I remembered all the false messiahs of a few decades ago like in the Jonestown suicide/murders led by “Rev.” Jim Jones.
A fact I came across recently has relevance to this essay. I apparently missed when it had just happened: “In late 1969, the Manson Family committed the Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders” at the behest of Charles Manson who had led a group of young people into believing that he was the Messiah who required blind obedience.
Hindsight, he was obviously another false messiah.
Please let me emphasize that blind obedience is not a good thing. It is not a virtue.
There seemed to be no shortage of the false in those decades and continuing to today — many pretending to be Christian Churches.
One more blast from the past, “Led by Marshall Applewhite, the Heaven’s Gate cult believed that a flying saucer was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet” which would transport them, taking them to Paradise… Of course, it turned out to be another room full of dead young people — another suicide cult promising “rapture.”
The list goes on.
There are the true witnesses of Jesus’ disciples, but there are also many false witnesses. I think everyone should read the Bible for themselves, keeping mindful of everything in the context of the whole and the cultural foundations in which the events occurred, and remembering that there is safety in a multitude of counselors (choose carefully!).
First, let me emphasize that all of Matthew 24 records Jesus’ warnings and descriptions of the events preceding His Appearance in His return as King (not as the sacrificial Lamb of God).
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.” — Matthew 24:36–39, BSB.
Don’t be oblivious.
Everybody ought to realize by now that not everyone is your friend. Not everyone knows what they are talking about. Not everyone is telling you the truth. Not everyone has a clue about God. Jesus, or the Bible. Worst of all, there are actually people who purposefully lie to get you to join them in their recklessness and ungodly behaviors — maybe to get your money, or to have so many statistical followers that they qualify to become “Influencers,” maybe?
Read the Bible while seeking the presence of Jesus in your life.
Actually, if you reach out to God and ask, He will help you to understand everything — a step at a time. mind you — and I suggest everyone start with what Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John remembering as John said:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own — is the Word of life. And this is the life that was revealed; we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write these things so that {your and our} joy may be complete. — 1 John 1:1–4, BSB.
