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.
Behold, I have told you beforehand.
The Lord has just warned about false christs and false prophets who work great signs. He closes that warning by pointing to Himself: He has said it all in advance.
Commentators tie this line to the Lord's habit of arming His people ahead of time. One writer sets this beside another warning He gave His disciples, and draws out what follows.
The Lord Himself sought to fortify His disciples in the same way. He said to them, "They will put you out of the synagogues… But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you." (John 16:2–4.) In tender concern, then, for our weakness, the Lord, through His servants, has forewarned us of what we have to expect among His professing people. And two important things follow. First, only in the light of the Scriptures can we read the state of professing Christianity rightly. Second, if we do not know the teaching of the Word of God, we are open to disappointments and deceptions of every kind.
Edward Dennett describes what such warnings do for people living through the trouble.
The Lord never leaves His people unwarned about the dangers and enemies they will have to meet. (See Matt. 24; John 15:16; 1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3; Rev. 2:3; etc.) And if they store up His warnings in their minds, they are neither surprised nor discouraged when there are fears within as well as fightings without. They are ready for conflict with every form of Satan's hostility… How necessary it is, then, for the believer to know these warnings of coming dangers!
Leslie Grant explains why the elect are never carried away, and why anyone who is deceived has no excuse.
The words "if it were possible" imply that they would be deceived without the protection of God's grace and power. For God has decreed that the elect will not be carried away, despite their being so close to it. At this time the chief of all false christs, the Antichrist, will entice great numbers "with all power and false signs and wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9). Believers, however, have no excuse for accepting such deception. The Lord has forewarned them of how subtle it is, and their protection is in His Word.
Who would a rumour that Christ is here or there fool? Darby answers by looking at what the hearers expect.
Here there will be false christs on the earth, and people will say, "He is here in the wilderness," "He is there in the secret chambers." But the saints who will be caught up and return with the Lord have nothing at all to do with false christs on earth. They will go up to heaven to be with Him there before He returns to the earth. The Jews are expecting deliverance on earth, so it is easy to understand that they would be open to such temptations. They would be deceived by them unless God Himself kept them.
William Kelly turns the same distinction into a personal safeguard. What a believer expects decides what can tempt him.
A Christian is unlikely to be deceived by such rumours for an instant… He knows that he is to be with the Lord in the heavens. For this he will be taken up out of this world into the air to meet the Lord on high. So the deceits in question are addressed only to those who expect to meet the Lord on the earth.
Commentators differ on how tightly to draw that line. J. G. Bellett does not limit the danger to an earthly people.
I do not say that such words about them would necessarily settle that they are an earthly people. No. I believe, from Rev. 13, that there will be many heavenly men exposed to deceits in that day, and preserved in the same way from being deceived.
Leslie Grant points to what has already happened since the warning was given.
History has proven how much this warning was needed. Prophetic deceptions today are almost countless, and they have multiplied above all since the 1800s. Many have already come claiming to be Christ. Some of them do not use that title, yet they exalt themselves into the place that belongs only to the Lord Jesus. Many have been deceived by them.
- Told. The Lord's defence against deception is advance notice. He warns because He cares about our weakness.
- Kept. "If it were possible" implies the elect would fall on their own. God's grace and power hold them.
- Steadied. Warnings stored in the mind keep believers from surprise and discouragement. Trouble finds them ready.
- Discerned. A rumour of a Christ on earth tempts those who look for Him on earth. Commentators differ on whether others can be caught too.
- Watchful. Deceivers are already at work. Scripture is the shelter, and no one who knows it has an excuse.
If therefore they say to you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; behold, [he is] in the inner chambers, do not believe [it].
The word "so" ties this verse to the warning just before it about false christs and false prophets. Commentators read it as an instruction to one group of people at one hour, and they ask two questions: who must stay put, and why is the rumour so easy to answer?
The people the Lord speaks to here expect the Messiah to arrive on earth. That hope is what makes the rumour dangerous to them. Kelly ties the danger to who they are:
It is clear that the elect here are Jewish. Such rumours would hardly deceive a Christian for an instant. But the Lord Jesus supposes considerable danger for such disciples as are here. In fact, being Jewish and not Christian, they could fall for the cry that the Messiah was here on earth. They were looking for the Lord's coming to the earth. They knew that in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. So these deceits might take them in.
The wilderness and the inner rooms are opposites — one wide open, one hidden — and the verse rejects both. Older translations call them "the desert" and "the secret chambers," the wording the writers below use. Leslie Grant explains what each report claims, and names a group that has already used the second:
Some would report that Christ was in the desert, as though another John the Baptist had appeared. 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 that did not happen, they invented the contemptible lie that He had come invisibly. Other such foolish claims will yet be made.
Both reports share one assumption. They put the Christ somewhere on earth to be found, instead of coming from heaven. Frederick Grant traces where that assumption ends:
So the antichristian snare, in the form it takes, shows the same thing. People look for Christ in the desert, or in the secret chambers, as though He would appear not from heaven but among the people. And the false Christ, when he comes, sits with divine honours in the temple of God.
"Do not go out" calls for no checking at all. It rests on how the real coming will look:
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 as sudden as a flash of lightning, and as clear to everyone as that flash is.
Another writer links the open manner of that coming to what it brings with it:
He would come openly, not secretly. The need would be such as to call not for secret help but open intervention. His coming would be like lightning lighting up the whole sky. It would announce swift and unsparing judgment.
Mackintosh puts the same test the other way round. A hope set on meeting the Lord in the air gives this rumour nothing to grip:
What possible use could such words have for people who are told to wait for God's Son from heaven? They know that before He returns to this earth they will have met Him in the clouds and returned with Him to the Father's house. Would any Christian who knows his proper hope believe people saying that Christ is here or there, in the desert or in the secret chambers? Impossible. Such a person is watching for the Bridegroom to come from heaven. He knows one thing for certain: Christ cannot appear on this earth without bringing all His people with Him.
- Two addresses, one lie. The desert says come and look; the inner rooms say He is already here unseen. Both put Christ somewhere on earth to be found.
- One shape. Every version of the trap offers a Christ who appears among the people, not from heaven. It ends with a false Christ taking divine honours in the temple.
- One answer. Nobody has to travel or investigate. His coming is like lightning: open, sudden, and seen by everyone at once.
- One risk. The warning is for people expecting the Messiah's feet on the earth. Their hope is real, and a rumour can use it.
- One safeguard. "He is here" cannot shake a hope fixed on meeting the Lord in the air. Christ does not appear on this earth without bringing His people with Him.
For as the lightning goes forth from the east and shines to the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.
Just before this verse, people are saying the Christ is here or there — out in the wilderness, or hidden in an inner room. Here the Lord gives the reason to refuse every such report. His coming carries its own proof, like a flash that crosses the whole sky.
Lightning is not a private event. Nobody has to be told where to look.
The coming of the true Christ of God will be marked by the greatest possible publicity, like the lightning. No one will need to travel to a remote desert or a secret chamber to see Him.
More claims of a secret, unseen arrival are still to come.
Others would claim that He was "in the inner rooms," that is, that He had come in secret, unseen... Other such foolish claims will yet be made. But the Lord is emphatic: the coming of the Son of Man in power and glory will be like the lightning shining from east to west — sudden, bright, and evident to all the world. He does not speak here of His earlier coming for His saints, but that will be just as evident to all who share its great blessing.
Many tie this verse to the Roman armies that destroyed Jerusalem under Titus. One detail rules that out: the direction.
This is not the Roman conquest. The army of Titus did not come out of the east, as the lightning does here, and it did not shine to the west. If the Romans had been meant, the very reverse would be a more fitting figure. So clearly has the Lord Jesus guarded against the misinterpretations of men! The Son of Man's coming will be quite different and will take everyone by surprise, like the lightning. There will be no question of going here or there to seek Him.
The false Christs of the previous verses are lights of a sort, lit to lead people off the path.
They were not to follow any of those false lights that Satan lit to deceive souls. The Lord, the Son of Man, would come as lightning — suddenly, and with a brightness that would leave no doubt about His person when He appeared in this way.
Why must this coming be open rather than quiet? The state of things by then decides it.
He would come openly, not secretly. The need would be so great that it would call for open intervention, not secret help. His coming would be like the lightning lighting up the whole sky — the announcement of swift and unsparing judgment... Long-suffering patience held out no more hope. Judgment itself was now the only mercy.
The Greek word behind "coming" here is parousia. On its own it means someone who was away is now here. It does not say whether that arrival is seen. The context has to settle that.
Its precise use in the Epistles is to set forth the actual presence (and so by implication the coming, if previously absent) of a person or thing. It may or may not be a manifested presence; the context, or the nature of the case, must decide it. So the parousia of Christ as Son of Man is clearly so open that all the tribes of the earth mourn as they see Him.
The same writer makes the figure itself a test. What sort of arrival does lightning picture?
When the Son of Man comes in bodily presence, this is no doubt the fitting comparison. The appearing of the Lord Jesus from heaven will be sudden and bright, like the lightning. Is that our hope? Does Scripture ever present our Lord as the lightning coming to receive the Church? Is that how a bridegroom comes for his bride? On the other hand, if He comes then and in this way to judge... I can understand that the shining of the lightning would be a most fitting figure for such a coming and such dealings. It does not fit the indescribable peace and heavenly joy of the meeting between the Bridegroom and the Bride. It fits exactly His presence in judgment.
- Rumour — No "He is here" report can stand. A coming seen from one horizon to the other needs no messenger.
- Direction — East to west breaks the tie to the Roman armies. Their advance ran the opposite way.
- Brightness — Satan's false lights lead people astray. The lightning leaves no doubt whose person the world is seeing.
- Openness — By then the need calls for open intervention, not secret help. Judgment is the only mercy left.
- Fitness — The figure sorts the two hopes. Lightning suits a coming in judgment, not a bridegroom coming for his bride.