I saw Jesus the other day at my local store. He told me some amazing things, and asked for my help with something very important.

(Please forgive me if WordPress has put gaps or an ugly ad in my blog).

If you think I’m speaking of the Jesus who lived as a man two thousand years ago in ancient Israel and is now in heaven, you’re wrong. This Jesus, a realtor, is a thirty-two year old hispanic man I once worked with for several years, who now lives in Montana. He’s known as Jesus (pronounced “haysoos”), but he isn’t the same Jesus who healed the sick and who died on a cross and rose from the dead. He’s another Jesus.

ONE NAME, DIFFERENT PEOPLE

Have you ever searched for someone you know on Facebook or elsewhere online, and found that there are literallly hundreds of people around the world with the same name as your friend? They have the same name, but only one of them, or none of them is actually your friend.

If you told me you know my hispanic friend named Jesus and described him, saying he has blonde hair and blue eyes, that he originates from Sweden and is a sixteen-year-old student living in California, I would say “You obviously don’t know my friend Jesus-you’re speaking of someone else”. And no matter how much you protest that the man you describe is called Jesus, I would say that you may well be describing someone called Jesus, but he isn’t the Jesus I know: he’s another Jesus. The two are not the same person: they cannot be.

There are many Jesus Christs in our time, but only one of them is the real and Biblical one. How do I know that my acquintance who is called Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible? I can surmise it by his character, his abilities, his words, his actions, his nature and so on. In the same way, we can discern whether someone claiming to be speaking for Jesus Christ really is speaking for Jesus Christ by carefully examining what he or she says, does and is. The character and nature of the real Jesus Christ is clearly displayed in our Biblical Scriptures. That’s one big reason why we should study our BIbles: we can learn to know the true from the false:

 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:27-28).

The Jesus we speak of as being in heaven once warned that many would come in his name-even saying “I am the Christ” and that they would be successful in deceiving large numbers of people (Matthew 24:4). That warning is fulfilled in our time, and it’s important for each one of us to heed it before deception affects us also. By “in my name” Jesus Christ meant not only that some would claim to be him, but that people would claim to be representing him. Notice that though they claim to be him, they are not him: they are someone altogether different.

 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time (Matthew 24: 23-25).

Just as everyone who is called Jesus is not Jesus Christ, so not everyone claiming to represent Jesus Christ is actually in truth representing Jesus Christ. They might think they are, but are mistaken and so are mis-representing him. Or they may know full well that they are not in truth representing him at all: they’re intending to alter our perception of Jesus and to lead us astray.

 “…many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Matthew 25:11).

WHEN IT’S RIGHT TO JUDGE

Am I judging these people? That’s the charge of many who think we should just accept what we hear without question. I certainly am making a judgment, but it’s the right kind of judgment. If someone you don’t know walks into your house, sits in front of your television, eats your food and attempts to make love to your partner or daughter, you will likely react with some passion and vigor, and get that man or woman out of your house. You are making a judgment-the right kind of judgment for which your God will not bring you to account. Jesus didn’t tell us to watch out for fakes while expecting us to accept fakes: he would be contradicting himself, and would be inconsistant and so untrustworthy.

We are to make those judgments, and Biblical Scripture is full of admonitions and warnings for us to be on our guard against fakes. It’s not just a case of differentiating between Jesus Christ and a stone idol vernerated by some remote tribe in New Guinea. Our criteria for making a right judgment is far more subtle and detailed -and closer to home-than that. The worst kind of deception is that which is closest to the real thing, but which actually misleads.

For example, the pseudo-Christian church started off by a certain self-appointed prophet a couple of hundred years ago, now claiming to be the true church while the others have it all wrong. I’m not saying that everyone in the church in question is lost, I’m saying that they’ve been led into the church of a false Jesus. This Jesus has blonde hair, is the brother of Satan, didn’t always exist, and didn’t die for all of your sin. He is not co-equal with the Father. You may not ever see him if you don’t live just the right way in relation to the church in question and do all the works expected of you. But Jesus said “Whoever believes and lives in me will never die”. There is no command to attend any particular organizatiion, but only to folllow Him. The church I am speaking of has attempted to abduct or hyjack the bride of Christ.

Look at the tops of their churches, and you will see no cross. Why? because their theology-hidden from the newcomer-is that Jesus Christ did not die for all our sins. He only suffered in the garden of Gethsemane for some of our sin, by sweating drops of blood, while the rest of our sin-debt has to be atoned for by the church in question and by our own works. The truth is that when on the cross, as Jesus gave up his spirit, he said “it is finished”. This is the beauty of the Cross of Christ: it’s where Jesus paid the penalty of all our sin by his blood and by his death.

However, this church is preaching a false gospel, leading millions away from the truth and into a legalistic, prideful, worldly outlook in which you can become a God just like Jehovah if you play your cards right, and our God was once a man. This is not only nonsense, it’s a lie from the pit of hell. Don’t believe me? Compare it to what Satan told Eve in the garden:

You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).

There is and always will be only one God who created all things: there is no other (Isaiah 45:5). But these people also preach another Jesus, a different one; one who has different characteristics than those of the true and original Jesus Christ.

THE GOSPEL

What is the true gospel as preached by those closest to the real Jesus? It is that we cannot possibly satisfy a holy, perfect God by our works or those of any earthly organization, so God sent his only Son-God in flesh-who died on the cross for all of our sin and rose from the dead. We are acceptable to God only because of the sacrifice of his one and only Son. Once we accept Christ as our savior and turn from our old ways, our way of life should reflect our true faith and love for the true Jesus.

JESUS ON VIDEO

There’s a very popular video series going aroud the world which parades itself as representing Jesus Christ. What isn’t noticed by many are the mistakes, the lies, the untruths and the inconsistencies which are subtly injected into the narrative. Jesus, Biblically the creator and sustainer of all things, and the knower of all things, in this video series has to ask his disciple Matthew for advice before his sermon on the mount. Didn’t the writers read that at the age of twelve Jesus was in the temple confounding the religious readers of his day with his knowledge (Luke 1:41-48)?

And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers (verse 47).

How did a twelve year old do this? He did it because he is the eternal Son of God, not some Johnny-come-lately creation of a god.

Jesus didn’t need advice.

The Jesus of the video is different to the Jesus of the BIble. He’s unsure of himself, refuses worship from Nicodemus, and presumes to say a lot of things which have been invented by the writers. He’s another Jesus-subtly so, but nonetheless stripped of his wisdom and authority.

NEW APOSTLES, NEW PROPHETS?

Some sections of the professing Church are claiming to be speaking new words of Scripture directly from God via new apostles and prophets. If a Christian sect is claiming to be relaying messages from Jesus Christ, or from the Spirit of God, which he has in fact not said at all, these self-appointed prophets and apostles are mis-representing and mis-characterising Jesus Christ. They are false apostles and false prophets, masquerading as apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13). They are role-playing as apostles and prophets, just as you or I may have pretended to be doctors or spacemen or cowboys when we were kids. They are, to put it bluntly, lying, even if they have convinced themselves that those messages are coming from the Lord. There is no Biblical reward for presuming to speak the words of God:

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death” (Deuteromy 18:20).

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! (Ezekiel 13:3).

CONCLUSION

Dear reader, we are in a, or the, age of deception, in which Jesus Christ and his Spirit are being impersonated, mis-represented, mis-quoted, diminished and mocked. We need to look to the Scriptures to see what Jesus is really like, what he really said, what he really did and what he really will do, so that we can recognize the fakes. We also need to heed the warnings of Christ about our time, and to not go the way of those who put the words of deceitful man and docrtines of demons above the words of our Lord.

• APOLOGETICS
• FAITH
• JESUS CHRIST