Much confusion in Christianity has been the result of botched Bible translations. The verse below is not the least of them.

Luke 21:8 "And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them."

It is clear from reading the whole chapter that the men He was speaking to were His faithful followers. In this verse Jesus Himself was speaking. He told His people, "Take heed that ye be not deceived." The question is, how were they going to be deceived? Popular Bible scholars say that these are going to be deceived by "false Christs," men who pretend to be Christ.
That is not true. Modern Bibles have modified the verse to make it seem that way, but they overlook the obviously poor logic of their teaching. Jesus said, "Many shall come in MY name," which means that they come in the name of Jesus. But then they supposedly say, "I am Christ," as though claiming to be Christ themselves. This is what some of the modified verses say. But to any thinking person that is an absurdity. How can a sane person come in the name of Jesus, then claim to be Christ himself. If he claimed to be both Jesus and Christ, that would make more sense, but the Bible simply says that many shall come in the name of Jesus. These deceivers are not claiming to be Christ themselves. They are in fact, acknowledging that Jesus is Christ. So, where's the deception? They are not false Christs, they are false teachers; they propagate false doctrine.

Jesus also cautioned His disciples: "and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them." Now, "them" is more than one, so if these were false Christs, the verse would be saying that Jesus' disciples were going to go chasing after every Tom, Dick, and Harry who comes along in the name of Jesus, claiming to be Christ. That would be an indication that His disciples were morons. I truly believe that the Lord Jesus Christ would not choose such idiots to be His followers. After they had seen Him, walked with Him, and been taught by Him, I don't think they would have trouble recognizing a false Christ when they saw one. No one would need to remind them not to go after them.

But in the case of false teachers, that is a whole different story. Jesus said that there would be many such, and history surely bears this out. Since the time Jesus warned His people, there have been virtually millions of false teachers, and many millions who have gone after them. A good case in point: the false Bible scholars who perverted this verse to decieve multitudes into believing that it speaks of false Christs instead of false teachers. These same "Bible experts" pass up few opportunities to villify the Bible which translates the verse correctly.

cpmac
www.tribulationhoax.com

[Brother Tim]

I must disagree with your interpretation, cpmac.

If the verse read, "...for many shall come in my name, saying that I am Christ;" then you would be correct.

Because the KJB does not use quotation marks, one must look at the other punctuation to understand when a quotation is being made. In this case, the comma after the word "saying" indicates that the next phrase is the quotation. Therefore, the false one will say, "I am Christ."

[Brother Tim]

A number of persons have come on the scene claiming to be Christ after the fashion of Jesus (in His name). I believe it was Moon who said, "Jesus was the Christ of his day and I am the Christ today."

Brother Tim:

I must disagree with your interpretation, cpmac.

If the verse read, "...for many shall come in my name, saying that I am Christ;" then you would be correct.

Because the KJB does not use quotation marks, one must look at the other punctuation to understand when a quotation is being made. In this case, the comma after the word "saying" indicates that the next phrase is the quotation. Therefore, the false one will say, "I am Christ."

Good point, Brother Tim. However, your interpretation relies entirely on the existance of a comma. But with, or without the comma, the logic does not fit. If I read you correctly, this false Christ will say, "I am Christ." In this verse, Jesus was speaking, and He said, "Many shall come in my name..." Whose name is that? It is the name of Jesus. So this false Christ comes in the name of Jesus, yet absurdly, he states that he, not Jesus, is the Christ! I'm afraid that doesn't wash. As I have indicated, there may be a few morons to try that ploy, and maybe just as many idiots who may fall for it, but not many. And Jesus said there would be many. There haven't been many false Christs, relatively speaking, but there have been myriads of false teachers.

A number of persons have come on the scene claiming to be Christ after the fashion of Jesus (in His name). I believe it was Moon who said, "Jesus was the Christ of his day and I am the Christ today."

Not bad, Brother Tim, but "after the fashion of Jesus" is not coming in His name. And from what you say, Moon didn't come in the name of Jesus, He seems to have come in his own name, claiming to be Christ.

cpmac
www.tribulationhoax.com

[Brother Tim]

No, actually if you read what Moon says, he claims that Jesus came to him and told him to finish the job that Jesus had started. This is in essence "coming in [His] name."

Every single mark in the Scriptures is important. Every jot and tittle counts.
Try this:

Die, not live!

Die not, live!

Different? Obviously!

Yes, the comma is important in that and every verse. Here it makes the difference in the true interpretation and a mistaken interpretation.

The context of Matthew 24 is dealing with events WITHIN the tribulation period. Yes, some of the events also occur to a lesser extent through this age, and increase the closer we get to the Lord's return (referring to the wars, earthquakes, famines, etc.) - but the context is referring to the seven year tribulation - not now.

Brother Tim:

No, actually if you read what Moon says, he claims that Jesus came to him and told him to finish the job that Jesus had started. This is in essence "coming in [His] name."
Every single mark in the Scriptures is important. Every jot and tittle counts.
Try this:
Die, not live!
Die not, live!
Different? Obviously!
Yes, the comma is important in that and every verse. Here it makes the difference in the true interpretation and a mistaken interpretation.

"And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for MANY SHALL COME IN MY NAME, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: GO YE NOT THEREFORE AFTER THEM."

You have to admit, Moon was a greater nitwit than the average, run-of-the-mill impersonator of Christ, of which the world has seen relatively few. But the facts of the verse are that Jesus said, "MANY shall come in my name..." Although "many" is not a precise number, I suspect that "many" is more than the few false Christ's we have heard of in our time. On the other hand, there has been no shortage of false teachers. "Many" would surely apply to them.

We know, from context verses, that Jesus was speaking to His disciples and followers. If we can believe that they knew Him by sight, then we cannot believe that He would have to remind them not to go after these decievers.

And, above all, the fact remains that the deceivers come in the name of Jesus. The Bible does not say that they come in the "essence" of His name. And, since they come in the name of Jesus,
they obviously expect their victims to know something about Jesus, in which case it would be pure folly to claim to be Christ.

Can I explain the presence of the comma, and the absence of "that?" No I can't. Neither do I understand anything at all of the Greek language, or the fine points of the early English. But while modern scholarly minds allow jots and tittles to dictate their interpretations, and ignore the main components of a passage (words), I believe that in most cases I can recognize nonsense when I see it.

The clear words of the passage reveal that these decievers are false teachers. They come in the name of Jesus, even confessing that He is the Christ, yet they deceive. The article of their deception is false doctrine. There have been many, many such deceivers, just as Jesus said there would be.

cpmac
www.tribulationhoax.com

Jerry:

The context of Matthew 24 is dealing with events WITHIN the tribulation period. Yes, some of the events also occur to a lesser extent through this age, and increase the closer we get to the Lord's return (referring to the wars, earthquakes, famines, etc.) - but the context is referring to the seven year tribulation - not now.

I assume that you mean the future seven year Great Tribulation. Can you give me the Scriptures that unmistakably point Matthew 24 to that future event?

cpmac
www.tribulationhoax.com

[Brother Tim]

CPMAC:
The difference in correct interpretation and error can be as small as a comma. This has nothing to do with Greek or early English. We have what we need in the Book that God has given us, the King James Bible.

A good example of how the NKJV is wrong can be seen in the misunderstanding of the commas in the following verse, Exodus 12:40 (underlining mine):

New King James Version (NKJV)
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

King James Bible (KJB)
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

The rules for English grammar, including Biblical English, identify a clause that is set apart by commas as being a further description of the previous thought. In this case, "who dwelt in Egypt" only adds information about the "children of Israel" which in turn is the object of the preposition "of". The clause is not describing the "sojourning" which is the subject. The sojourning was 430 years, but not all of it in Egypt. By leaving out the commas, the NKJV causes the 430 years to be understood to be the time that Israel was in Egypt.


As far as "many" false Christs:
How many have we had in just our lifetime? Jim Jones, David Koresh, Sun Myung Moon, an eastern Guru-head of "Divine Light" (forgot name) just to name a few that I can think of at the moment. Multiply that by the number of generations past. I would speculate that it would approach "many".

Brother Tim:

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be more conscious of punctuation marks from here on.
But here's a question for you:

"...and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them."

If the time was drawing near 2000 years ago, do you think any of that was primarily meant for our time?

By the way, ditto on the KJV.

cpmac
www.tribulationhoax.com