"For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." - Matthew 24:5.
I believe the common argument here is individuals rising up and claiming that they themselves are Christ. An example would be Charles Manson who directly claimed he was Christ (note that there aren't that many individuals that directly claimed they were Christ, as a lot of so-called Christ claimants of religious cults didn't actually claim they were Christ, though they were dubbed that way by the mainstream media).
I contend that this is not the case and not how it should be translated. I believe Jesus was actually referring to the fake Christians of Matthew 7:21-23.
I have a few reasons to support this, but the main reason is that the passage doesn't make sense as false Christ claimants. How can they come in the name of Christ at the same time declaring that they themselves are Christ? In order to get the meaning of a person claiming to be Christ themselves, you'd have to assume the phrase "in my name" should really mean something like "in my disposition," which doesn't seem to support the words used.
I think it should instead be translated "For many shall come in my name, professing I am Christ; and shall deceive many." He was referring to false Christians (faith healers, prosperity teachers, outright Christian scam artists... typically the ones that get the most national attention), and he was referring to the generation of the 21st century where the word "many" has the most meaning, because of, once again, our communication technology.
As an aside, can preterists demonstrate there was even one individual (let alone "many") who claimed to be Christ prior to 70 AD and fooled many?
I believe the common argument here is individuals rising up and claiming that they themselves are Christ. An example would be Charles Manson who directly claimed he was Christ (note that there aren't that many individuals that directly claimed they were Christ, as a lot of so-called Christ claimants of religious cults didn't actually claim they were Christ, though they were dubbed that way by the mainstream media).
I contend that this is not the case and not how it should be translated. I believe Jesus was actually referring to the fake Christians of Matthew 7:21-23.
I have a few reasons to support this, but the main reason is that the passage doesn't make sense as false Christ claimants. How can they come in the name of Christ at the same time declaring that they themselves are Christ? In order to get the meaning of a person claiming to be Christ themselves, you'd have to assume the phrase "in my name" should really mean something like "in my disposition," which doesn't seem to support the words used.
I think it should instead be translated "For many shall come in my name, professing I am Christ; and shall deceive many." He was referring to false Christians (faith healers, prosperity teachers, outright Christian scam artists... typically the ones that get the most national attention), and he was referring to the generation of the 21st century where the word "many" has the most meaning, because of, once again, our communication technology.
As an aside, can preterists demonstrate there was even one individual (let alone "many") who claimed to be Christ prior to 70 AD and fooled many?
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