One day, "while (Jesus) was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: "Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?" (Mt. 24:3)
Many who are familiar with this account know that Jesus didn't simply give them a date as to when the conclusion of the system of things would be. That is because at that time, "concerning that day and hour nobody (knew), neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mt. 24:36)
But in the following scriptures, Jesus did give signs that would show the time period of "the sign of (his) presence and of the conclusion of the system of things." Many of these signs we are all aware of: "earthquakes"
However, one of the signs that Jesus foretold then, I have not noticed in a significant measure and yet it was one sign that not only did Jesus mention first of all, but twice:
4 "And in answer Jesus said to them: "Look out that nobody misleads YOU; 5 for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, `I am the Christ,' and will mislead many."
And:
23"Then if anyone says to YOU, `Look! Here is the Christ,' or, `There!' do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones.
I realize that there have been false prophets and false Christs in recent memory. But they have only been small-time crack-pots who have in sporadic incidents, misled only a relatively few people. Yet, Jesus foretold "many" being mislead, giving "great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones".
Am I merely placing more importance to this sign that is necessary, or is this a sign that we will see more prominently in the future?
To wich I reply:
Mr. Moon says he is the returned Christ, and he has a lot of followers all over the world. Followers are commonly referred to as the Moonies (after the cult's founder and leader, Sun Myung Moon). Some followers object to the name, claiming it is meant as an insult. However, the name was coined and used by members of the Unification Church itself.Currently the Unification Church goes by the name "Association of Families for Unification and World Peace," or "Family Federation for World Peace and Unification." However, the Unification Church operates under numerous names and business fronts.
I agree all other strange people who said they were the Lord, had just local followers, though some of them got also up to 2500 followers or more.
Paul Leonard writes:
The word "Christ" is the same as "anointed". You could say that many will claim to be anointed or the FDS. Basically all churches say they are "anointed/born again" and used by God. However this could be specific to the evil slave or apostate anointed as well.