<p>24:24&nbsp;<i>For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, which shall show great signs and wonders</i>- The Lord is virtually quoting the words of Moses in Dt. 13:1: &ldquo;When Heb.; AV &ldquo;if&rdquo; there arise among you a false prophet&hellip; and gives you a sign or wonder&rdquo;. Even if signs are given, they are not to be believed; apparent miracles are no proof that a man is of God. The Lord is here asserting Himself as the new Moses. The appearance of miraculous &ldquo;signs&rdquo; was important in Judaism in order to identify Messiah- hence they asked the Lord to produce such signs (12:38; 16:1; Jn. 2:18; 4:48; 6:30; 1 Cor. 1:22 &ldquo;the Jews require a sign&rdquo;). The Lord had refused to respond, even though He had done many miracles. He said that &ldquo;no sign&rdquo; would be given to that generation apart from that of Jonah- i.e., His resurrection. It was &ldquo;a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks after a sign&rdquo; (16:4). The disciples likewise assumed that there was to be such a &ldquo;sign&rdquo; predicting the Lord&rsquo;s coming (24:3). On one level it could be argued that the Lord&rsquo;s answer is actually a refusal to give them such a miraculous &ldquo;sign&rdquo; from Him; rather did He give them descriptions of what would happen in the world. He had said the same, in essence, to the Jews when they demanded such a miraculous &ldquo;sign&rdquo; of Him; He said they would be given no such sign, but rather they were to discern the &ldquo;signs s.w. of the times&rdquo; (16:3,4). And this effectively is how He answers the disciples when at the beginning of the Olivet prophecy they likewise ask for a &ldquo;sign&rdquo;. He responds by giving them a list of &ldquo;signs of the times&rdquo;. However, it would seem from :30 that there will in fact be the &ldquo;sign&rdquo; of Messiah visible in the sky- but only in the very last few? days before the forcible establishment of His Kingdom. This will be in opposition to the &ldquo;signs&rsquo; shown by the false prophets. More detail is given in Rev. 13:13,14; 16:14; 19:20 where we read of the beast system and false prophet doing signs by which they deceived the people in the earth / land. This is an expansion upon the Lord&rsquo;s warning against being deceived by such signs. And the same scenario is found in 2 Thess. 2:9, where we find the man of sin sitting in the latter day temple doing &ldquo;signs and lying wonders&rdquo; (same words as here in Mt. 24:24), to be destroyed in the final conflict with the real Christ.</p><p>There is ample evidence that in the lead up to the Babylonian invasion which typifies that of the last days, Jeremiah had to work amid considerable opposition from false prophets who mocked his prophecies of impending Arab victory and the need to repent; they will have their counterparts among the ranks of modern Judaism in the last days (Lam. 2:14; Jer. 20:6;&nbsp;28:1-9;&nbsp;29:24-26; Zech. 13:2-5). Perhaps it is such false prophets within Israel which our Lord spoke of in Mt. 24:24.&nbsp;But there&rsquo;s no need to speculate too much- when these things come to pass, it will be crystal clear to those aware of the prophecy that we&rsquo;ve now reached that stage. In the A.D.70 possibility of fulfilment, these people operated under the umbrella of fundamentalist Judaism, as they will in the last days.&nbsp;Their false bearing of the Lord's name (Mt. 24:5) alludes back to the pseudo-prophets of Jeremiah's time doing the same (Jer. 14:14).&nbsp;Zedekiah's trauma of being torn between wanting to accept the words of the false prophets whilst inwardly knowing the truth of Jeremiah's words, will perhaps be repeated in the leadership of latter-day Israel, to whom the Elijah ministry will teach the true word of God.&nbsp;&nbsp; The apparent mimicry of Jeremiah's style by the false prophets will perhaps be seen in the last days too.</p><p><i>So as to lead astray- if possible</i>-<i>even the elect-</i> The possibility of deception may be precluded by the fact that the elect, by reason of being the elect, will not be deceived. But there may also be the suggestion that it is impossible to deceive the elect because they are preserved from such deception. The Father and Son are willing and able to &ldquo;keep you from falling&rdquo; by sealing or preserving the faithful from such deception. The element of God&rsquo;s work over and above human freewill effort is itself indicated by the very term &ldquo;the elect&rdquo;; those chosen, by God and not of themselves.</p><p>A major theme of the prophecy is the danger of being deceived (:4,5,11). As observed under :23&nbsp;<i>Look, here is the Christ or here</i>, the need for this urgent warning requires that the claimants have far more credibility than such persons have today.</p>