Then if any one say to you, Behold, here is the Christ, or here, believe [it] not.
The warning comes at the darkest point of the Lord's talk on the Mount of Olives. He has just described a tribulation so severe that the days must be cut short. In that setting, a rumour that the Messiah has arrived in secret would be the best news His hearers could get. That is why He tells them to refuse it.
The word "Then" ties this to a fixed moment, when the trouble is at its peak. One writer traces the sequence and places these verses just before the Son of Man appears.
The shortening of these days of tribulation (verses 19-22) means this: the Great Tribulation does not begin at the start of Daniel's week, but in the middle. It lasts only three and a half years. His people are especially warned against the false Christs (23-26). Then, when evil is at its height, the Son of Man will appear like the lightning in the heaven; there will be no mistaking His appearing (27, 28).
The warning only makes sense for people still waiting for the Messiah to arrive. A believer today already knows where Christ is.
Suppose that someone should go to a Christian and say, Christ is in such and such a place. Could he be deceived in this way? Does not every believer, even the least instructed, know where Christ is, that He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven?… Now imagine that such a temptation were put to the Jews. They do not believe that their Messiah has ever come, and they are still expecting His arrival. You will see at once how wide open they are to such deception. We cannot therefore help seeing this description as applying to God's ancient people, and not to the church.
Their danger is not that they hope too little. A real hope can be pointed at the wrong person.
These disciples were the godly remnant of the nation, looking for the Messiah to bring in glory… The time had come when the true Messiah ought to appear. And He had appeared, but Israel had rejected Him, hardening themselves in the lie that our Lord could not be the promised One. But Israel had not given up the hope of the Messiah yet. This exposes them to the delusion spoken of here… At any rate, the rejection of the true Christ lays them open to the reception of a false Christ.
Every version of the rumour puts Christ somewhere you would have to be told about. The Lord answers with an arrival nobody has to announce.
There will be no need to go into the desert to seek Him, or to the secret chambers to find Him out. When He comes, "every eye will see him." The coming of the Son of Man will be sudden as a flash of lightning, and just as overwhelmingly clear to everyone.
This is not a danger in theory only. People have made this exact claim in living memory.
There would be reports that Christ was in the desert (as though another John the Baptist): they were to refuse such reports. Others would claim that He was "in the secret chambers," that is, that He had come secretly, invisibly. So-called Jehovah's Witnesses have made this wicked claim. They had prophesied that Christ would come in 1918. When this did not happen, they invented the contemptible deception that He had come invisibly.
The Lord does not ask His people to become experts at telling true from false.
They are warned now against any attempt to mislead them by drawing away disciples after a Christ who has come secretly — in the desert, or in the inner chambers. That is not how He would come. The power of evil at work would have its snares laid on the right hand and on the left; but there would be no need for any careful discrimination to discern the truth.
Commenting on the parallel passage in Mark, another writer puts their protection in a single sentence: they are to remember what He said.
The Lord warns the disciples against false hopes of deliverance. He warns them against false reports of false Christs, and against false prophets, false signs, and apparent wonders. Their safety will be in remembering the words of the Lord, "I have foretold you all things."
If this warning is not aimed at Christians, what is? The same writer names the deception that fits the Church.
The great thing that marks out the Church is the presence of the Holy Spirit. So the deceit we have to watch against is false spirits, not false Christs, though there are many antichrists. The danger of Christians is grieving the Holy Spirit — or even listening to false spirits.
- Then — the warning has a date. It belongs to the middle of Daniel's last seven years, when the trouble is at its worst and before the Son of Man appears.
- Hope — a real hope aimed at the wrong person is the deceiver's opening. Rejecting the true Christ is what makes a false one believable.
- Here — every false report hides Christ somewhere, in a desert or an inner room. The hiding is its own confession that the report is false.
- Lightning — the real coming needs no notice and no search. Every eye will see it.
- Told — safety is memory, not sharper judgment. He has told them everything beforehand, so the warning itself is the guard.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall give great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
The Lord has just described a tribulation like nothing before it. Now He names a second danger: religious imposters with real supernatural power. If miracles can be faked, what keeps anyone safe, and who are "the elect" who come so close to being swept away?
These verses point to the end of the age, not to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Luke's account of that siege leaves the whole section out.
All this is left out in Luke. Nothing of the kind happened before the siege of Jerusalem, and so it formed no part of the prophecy as Luke reports it. On the other hand, other Scriptures teach us that this is exactly the state of things before Christ appears in power and glory to set up His world-kingdom.
One writer spreads these impostors across the whole seven years, and sees their shadow already:
No doubt men claiming to be Christ will force themselves on the public through the entire seven years. Some will show great signs and wonders, as will be true of the antichrist, the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3-12). In fact, even today there are many antichrists (1 John 2:18). Even the elect must be on their guard, for the deceptions of such men are highly plausible.
The lie is tailored to the moment. When every other hope has collapsed, an offer of rescue finds an eager audience.
After that (v. 23) come the great signs. In those last times there will also be false Christs and false prophets. They will promise the deliverance that hearts will so badly need at that terrible moment, when all the false hopes of an unbelieving nation have passed away... Once again the wickedness of men and the deceits of Satan will turn souls aside. They will keep them from humbling themselves, and from seeking deliverance in the only place where it can be found.
These deceivers work real signs and wonders. That settles a question many still get wrong.
Verse 24 plainly shows that not all miraculous signs are from God. There are two kinds — the divine and the devilish. The divine kind displays the divine character in grace and power. The devilish kind may often be flashier, more startling, and more attractive to unconverted people. People today who crave the miraculous should take great care that they are not deceived.
Writers identify these elect as a believing remnant in Israel, not the church. That is why the lie tempts them at all.
But it is clear that the Lord Jesus assumes real danger for the disciples here. They were Jewish, not Christian. So the cry that He was here or there on earth might deceive them. No Christian could be in such danger, but the Jewish disciples were. They were looking for the Lord's coming to the earth. They knew that the Lord's feet would stand in that day on the Mount of Olives.
Commentators differ over whether only an earthly people faces this danger. One writer allows a wider circle:
I do not say that such words about them must prove them to be an earthly people. No. I believe, from Revelation 13, that many heavenly men will face deceits in that day, and will be kept from deception in the same way.
Everything turns on that small clause. It shows how close the danger comes — and where God draws the line.
The clause "if it were possible" implies that they would be deceived without the protection of God's grace and power. God has decreed that the elect will not be carried away, despite coming so close to it... Believers, however, have no excuse for accepting such deception. The Lord has warned them beforehand how subtle it is, and their protection is in His Word.
What keeps them safe is not sharper discernment. It is a plain fact about how Christ returns.
The true saints will know that the real Christ is not going to hide Himself in some corner. Men will not have to say, "Look, here is the Christ!" or "There He is!" He will shine out in His glory at His coming, and every eye will see Him.
- Timed — the deception belongs to the end of the age, not the fall of Jerusalem; Luke, recording that siege, omits it altogether.
- Targeted — the elect here are understood as a faithful remnant of Israel, vulnerable precisely because they rightly expect Christ to come to the earth.
- Powered — real signs and wonders back the lie, proving that miracles alone are never evidence of God; the devilish kind is often the flashier.
- Limited — "if it were possible" concedes how close the danger comes, then denies it can succeed; grace and power hold the elect.
- Answered — no secret Christ in a desert or an inner room is genuine; He will shine out publicly in glory, and every eye will see Him.