“In its time, when anyone tells you, ‘Look, Messiah’s here,’ ‘Look there!’ don’t believe it: Fake Messiahs and fake prophets will rise up. They’ll present signs, marvels meant to lead God’s chosen people astray, if they can.You watch out: I forewarned you about everything.”—Jesus,
The Christians who believe the previous verses were about a coming Great Tribulation, also tend to believe these verses are about the Antichrist, which is what they call the first beast of Revelation 13.
Here, Jesus said fake Messiahs, plural, will rise up. As many people throughout history have claimed. They were frauds, just as Jesus forewarned. So we Christians can be on our guard against them, lest one of them try to give us a convincing explanation for why they are Messiah and not Jesus, or why they are some odd form of the second coming which looks nothing like the Son of Man in the clouds.
Fulfilled in the first century.
Same as the Great Tribulation, the events Jesus speaks of here, took place in the first century. There have always been fake prophets and fake Messiahs.
During the war when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, a zealot named Menachem ben Judah took a shot at becoming Messiah. He and some followers plundered Herod’s winter home, Masada, and took over the fortress overlooking the temple, Antonia. Another zealot, Eleazar, grew tired of his misbehavior and had him assassinated.
Two other first-century fake Messiahs were pointed out by one of the Pharisees during one of the apostles’ trials.
“Men of Israel, stop a minute before you do what you’re planning to these people. Years ago Thevdas rose up, saying he was somebody important. About 400 men joined him. He was decapitated, and everybody who followed him dispersed. They became nothing.
“After this, during the time of the census, Judah the Galilean arose. He led people to follow him, and he likewise was killed. Everybody who followed him were scattered.”
—Gamaliel,
Israel wasn’t unfamiliar with fake Messiahs. The Pharisees simply figured Jesus was yet another one. And there have been plenty since. Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, or Muslim fake Messiahs are found throughout history. Likewise Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, or Muslim fake prophets. Every heretic church has been founded by at least one misguided soul or outright fraud. Every cult is misled by someone who may not take the title of prophet or Messiah, but functionally acts like one.
Will there be more fake Messiahs and prophets in the future? If Jesus continues to delay, of course there will. Will there be one great big powerful fake Messiah who particularly fulfills the prophecies about the Beast? Maybe; we can debate that. But was Jesus talking about the Beast in this passage? No. He was talking about any and every fake Messiah and prophet to come, particularly those fakes who cropped up during the Great Tribulation and tried to recruit followers. Christians were forewarned: Don’t follow them. Run for the hills.
Take the warning seriously.
The debate among interpreters is usually what Jesus meant by “if they can,” or as the King James Version has it, “if it were possible.” The word were implies it’s not, which tells you which way the KJV’s translators swung. Christians would love to think we’re immune to fake teachers, fake prophets, and fake Messiahs:
They will wield supernatural power great enough to perform “signs and miracles.” Yet they will not be able to deceive God’s people. This is the force of the phrase “if that were possible.” But it is not possible; God will guard his elect.
—Walter W. Wessel,
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, at Mk 13.21-23.
But the KJV translators didn’t put words in italics to emphasize them; they put them in italics because they added them to the bible in order to make the English clearer. The original, ei dynatón/“if strong,” has no verb, and it’s the verb tense which tells us whether the “if” is certain, possible, likely, or unlikely. Without a verb, we can’t say. So we have to treat it just as we would an English “if”: “If they can.” ’Cause they can.
If they couldn’t trick us, why would Jesus bother to warn us in advance, and tell us to watch out?
After all, if you’re familiar with the End Times industry, there are tons of fake teachers and fake prophets, claiming this event or that will happen, claiming Jesus will return in all sorts of ways which have nothing to do with the scriptures. They claim he’ll return secretly, not publicly. They claim he’ll return seven years to the day after certain events take place, even though Jesus said only the Father knows when he’s returning. They claim he appears in this place or that; that you have to take a pilgrimage to a certain shrine, or you have to attend a revival at a particular church, or you have to check out some odd Jesus-shaped blotch on the side of a building, because “Jesus is there.” Whereas when Jesus actually does return (as opposed to one of his many one-time appearances), it won’t be something only the few, or the special, or only the true Christians, can see. Everyone will see.
A lot of Christians seriously believe these fraudulent End Times teachers are the only ones who will tell us what’s really going on in the bible, what’s really taking place in the world, what we really need to do in preparation for Great Tribulation, and so forth. There’s a lot of fear, worry, rumors, half-truths, and paranoid conspiracy theories about which world leader, or which media empire, or which megachurch pastor, or which website, is colluding with the devil to prepare the way for the Beast. I know far too many people who listen to such rubbish and believe every word, and as a result they fear their neighbors instead of loving them, and stockpile their provisions instead of share the gospel.
’Cause there’s more than one way to lead Christians astray: Either deceive us into following the wrong guy, or frighten us into believing the wrong guy has his tentacles everywhere.