Resurrection Life of Jesus Church

FALSE CHRISTS AND PROPHETS
The name “Christ” is the Greek word for “Messiah” in Hebrew. It means “the Anointed One.”

Jesus stated many would claim to be the messiah in the future. There would be many false prophets as well. Matthew 24:23-24

Here are some of the most well-known false messiahs and false prophets:

1. Muhammad (570-632 A.D.) claimed that Jesus failed in His mission and God had called him to finish the work. He is the founder of Islam. There are 1.9 billion Muslims today.

2. Sabbatai Sevi (1626-1676) claimed to the Messiah in 1666. He operated within the Ottoman Empire and started his following in Jerusalem. He declared Nathan of Gaza (1643-1680) was his prophet. Sevi and Nathan were both Kabbalists. According to different Jewish sources, a large number of Jews living during this time believed that Sevi was the Messiah. There are still Sabbateans today awaiting his resurrection.

3. Jacob Frank (1726-1791) claimed to be the reincarnation of Sabbatai Sevi. He too was a Kabbalist and amassed thousands of followers during his lifetime.

4. William Miller (1782-1849) was a former Baptist who formed what became known as the “Millerite Movement” for predicting the second coming of Jesus to take place in on October 22, 1844. The movement fell apart afterwards.

5. Joseph Smith (1830-1844) created Mormonism in 1830. His god was a man from the planet Kolob who joined a Mormon church, married in the temple, and upon his death, he was elevated to godhood and given our planet to rule. The earth is populated by this god procreating with all his wives. Men who join the Mormon church, marry in the temple, pay tithes, and keep all rules and regulations, will also become gods and given planets to rule after death. Smith taught that Jesus and Satan are brothers. Although Smith believed there was no hell, death led to one of three outcomes:

a. Become a god.
b. Mormons with a good record can become rulers under a god.
c. Bad Mormons and all others will become workers on the different planets ruled by gods.

6. Ellen G. White (1827-1915) started as a follower of William Miller. She had a number of visions and explained Miller’s apparent false prophecy as being true, it’s just that Jesus was busy cleaning the sanctuary in heaven. Thousands of Millerites flocked to her. White prophesied that Jesus would return in June of 1845. When that failed to materialize, she pushed it back to September. After this second failure, she stopped setting dates for the return of Jesus.

Together with her husband James S. White and Joseph Bates, they started the Seventh Day Adventist church in 1863. Salvation according to White involved being baptized in their church, making Saturday the Sabbath, and becoming a vegetarian. As of 2023, there are 97,811 SDA churches with a membership of some 22 million.

7. Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1878. Russell taught that Jesus returned as an invisible spirit in 1874. The souls of men are not immortal and there is no life after death. The concepts of hell, predestination, Jesus returning in the flesh, and the trinity (godhead) do not exist.

The doctrine of the JWs has changed over time. Joseph F. Rutherford taught in 1932 that only 144,000 members would be resurrected from the dead to live in heaven and rule with Christ. The rest of the JWs would be allowed to live in the millennium kingdom and then they would simply cease to exist. There are some 8.6 million members of this cult.

8. Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) founded the Worldwide Church of God. He taught that in order to be saved, a person had to follow the Mosaic Law, hold to Saturday as the Sabbath, and follow certain dietary prohibitions. Armstrong taught there is no trinity (godhead), Anglo-Saxon people are descendants of the ten northern tribes, and tithing is mandatory. Members were to abstain from Christmas and Easter, not to celebrate birthdays, vote in political elections, and serve in the military. If a member was divorced, he could not remarry.

9. Harold Camping (1921-2013) was an American radio broadcaster who co- founded Family Radio in 1958. He earned a B.S. degree in civil engineering, and during World War II, worked as an engineer for a government contractor. Then started his own construction company in Oakland, California.

Camping became president of the radio corporation and over time acted like he owned the network of stations all over the United States. He set a number of dates for the second coming of Christ. Camping published a book in 1992 titled 1994 in which he predicted the second return of Jesus on September 6, 1994.

He was quiet until 2010 when he began to teach the church age had come to an end. Camping urged all his listeners to get out of local churches. He set the rapture for May 21, 2011 and emphatically stated God was no longer using churches.

Camping predicted October 21, 2011 would be the end of the world. He taught there was no hell and an unsaved person faces annihilation at death. People must leave the apostate churches and listen to Family Radio.

In October of 2018, the president of Family Radio announced they would no longer use any of Camping’s material and he is no longer mentioned. The network embraces all evangelical churches. People who come to the Family
Radio network after 2018 have no idea that it was once run by the false prophet named Harold Camping.

DON’T BELIEVE RUMORS
There will be false messiah rumors about him coming and being in different locations.  Matthew 24:25-26

Jesus said that when He returns to the earth, there won’t be any need to advertise it. The whole earth will witness the Son of God’s second return. verse 27

Jesus did not explain at this time what He meant by eagles will come looking for dead bodies. But He explained it to the apostle John some 60 years later. verse 28; Revelation 19:17-18; 21

SUMMARY
The Old and New Testaments were written as a continuous story, but it was not until A.D. 1205 that Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters and verses. It is obvious that the teaching of Jesus on the temple ground featured so many subjects that Langton simply lumped together in a single chapter. In this sermon, I have covered verses 23 through 28.