We are often warned in the New Covenant text that false teachers would arise that would deny the faith and even deny the Lord who bought us through his sacrifice on the cross. Peter claimed they would be among the disciples of Christ (2Peter 2:1). In other words, the false teachers would be teaching Christians! Believers wouldn’t have to go to their places of worship to be deceived, they would come to Christian places of worship, and they would find the teachings of evil men would be accepted. Jude declared it was already happening! Certain men had secretly crept into the Church, and believers were at that time forced to contend for the faith once delivered to them (Jude 1:3). James warned its wisdom was evil spirited (James 3:8, 13-18). John calls the evil spirited teaching antichrist (1John 2:18-19), and claimed the teaching denied both Jesus and the Father—i.e. it was anti Christ or against Christ.
How is this done? If Jesus is our Savior, the antichrists accounted themselves as saviors. Believers **must** believe / trust them in order to be saved. Paul, of course, also warned of folks coming into the Church to spy out our freedom in Christ and bring believers into bondage to themselves (Galatians 2:4). It all has to do with money and power. Does Christ have power / authority over the believer or do men? Men assume that power for themselves and are, thus, anti Christ. In the Gospel of John Jesus offered believer a challenge. What was the challenge? Surprisingly, it has nothing to do not with believing Jesus’ words, as men would have believers to understand. Men say you **must** believe, and, of course, they mean for folks to believe their words. Christ, on the other hand, says:
…I said, I am the Son of God? If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I am doing them, even though ye do not believe me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the him (John 10:36-38; emphasis mine).
This is the challenge of Christ: don’t believe me for my words sake, believe me for my works sake! This is a powerful declaration! Did you know that many folks who reject Christ (viz. Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics etc.) reject him because they believe he is a false prophet. They claim: “after all, he did say he would return in the first century AD, but he failed to do so. Therefore, he is a false prophet.” In other words, Jesus’ claimed he would return in the power and glory of the Father, with his mighty angels and reward men for the good or the evil they had done, and he would do all this in the lifetime of some who heard him speak (Matthew 16:27-28). And, we all know that didn’t happen. Right?
Well, that’s what the futurists tell us, and this is something they have in common with the antichrists. None of them believe the words of Christ, because they don’t believe he made good on his promise to come in the lifetime of the generation to whom he preached (Matthew 23:29-36; 24:34).
Either Jesus knew what he was talking about or he didn’t. Either he told the truth or he lied. How do we know? We shall know him by his works (John 10:36-38). According to Jesus, he would return to the very generation that rejected him and crucified him (Matthew 24:34) and he would gather the elect, both living and dead brought back to life, (Matthew 24:31), which is a covenantal gathering (2Thessalonians 2:1; Hebrews 10:25; cp. Matthew 23:37), whereby, the New Covenant would be established, as the Old Covenant was ended in the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-38).
Believe Jesus for his works’ sake (the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD), or believe the futurists for their words sake—which words? You know the ‘blood-moons’ the prophecies that Jesus would return by certain dates. There are hundreds of these failed predictions, but you can find at least fifty HERE. The challenge of Christ is to put up or shut up, if you can’t do the works, don’t make the claim. Who do you believe?
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