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re: “But I hear what you’re saying.”

F15Eagle,

I commend you on being cautious about accepting everything people say in regard to visions and “messages” or “hearing God’s voice”, but I agree with fr_freak here that the passages you quoted may not apply in this case.

The context of Jesus’s warning was that there will be people claiming to be the Christ or Messiah after He is gone (into Heaven) - as opposed to the real Jesus, who is the real crucified, buried, and resurrected Son of God - Who, when He does return there will be no doubt as to His identity.

There have been people, following Christ’s ascension into Heaven, who claimed to be Christ - such as Sun Myung Moon (the Moonies). In fact here is pretty comprehensive list I found on Wikepedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus

Also, in those passages you listed, Jesus is implying that these false christs will teach doctrinal beliefs that will be contrary to His teachings and to sound Biblical doctrine.

You are right to always test the claims of people who say they received a message from God with the teachings of the Bible.

However, in the cases mentioned in the posted article, it doesn’t seem to be a particular person or individual claiming to be Jesus, just that they were told to expect someone coming to tell them about Him. In the cases listed, it appears that the “someone” turned out to be Christian missionaries who simply told the person the Gospel and they in turn received Jesus as their Savior.

From the information given, the Gospel presentation appears to be in line with the New Testament teachings about Jesus, so at this point, I don’t see any red flags of concern.

However, like I said, I commend you and being cautious and wanting to check things out with the Scriptures. So many people rush ahead and do not do that and get themselves into real spiritual trouble.