False prophets will come - not the End yet.?
The bible talks about the rise of false prophets BEFORE the End of the Age will come.
Mat 24:10 And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Mat 24:11 And many false prophets will rise and deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold.
Mat 24:13 But he who endures to the end, the same shall be kept safe.
In 2 Timothy 1:15, we read of Paul informing Timothy of those who had turned away from him, and deserted him.
2Ti 1:15 This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
Paul was warning Timothy, his disciple about those who had deserted him, and even naming them specifically. Paul was the 1st to take the gospel to that part of the inhabited world, but they did not continue on in the gospel but rebel against the message.
Paul said "all in Asia" had turned away from him - referring to the Roman Empire that extends into Asia specifically Asia Minor (which is the place that Paul had brought the gospel). This is a direct fulfillment of Mat 24:10.
Another group that abandoned Paul, is in 2 Tim 4:10
2Ti 4:10 For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and he has departed to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
Again in 2 Tim 3:13
2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers will go forward to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
These are those that had betrayed Paul and deceiving other believers.
In Mat 24:11, Jesus warned His disciples about the coming of false prophets.
We read about the false Christs, now we read about false prophets.
These false prophets will come as a sign that the End of the Age is coming, based on the question as asked by the disciples in v3.
Let's look at one of these false prophets that is specifically named in the bible during their time:
Act 13:4 Then these indeed sent out by the Holy Spirit went down to Seleucia. And from there they sailed to Cyprus.
Act 13:5 And when they were at Salamis, they announced the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they also had John as an assistant.
Act 13:6 And when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain conjurer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-jesus;
Act 13:7 who was with the proconsul of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man. He called for Barnabas and Saul and asked to hear the Word of God.
Act 13:8 But Elymas the conjurer (for so his name is, if translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
The false prophet, Bar-jesus intend to lead others astray.
See write up on Bar-jesus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elymas
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bar-Jesus-in-the-Bible.html
https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/bar-jesus.html
In v5, we read of John who was with them, and witnessing all these rise of false prophets.
Listen to what John wrote after that:
1Jn 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
He saw it, he heard it, he witnessed it (just as Jesus said it will happen before the End), and now he is warning the church against these false prophets, who led others astray.
Yet with the warning of Jesus, He informed them that some will be led astray, and some will have their love grow cold.
Paul list down those people who had their love growing cold in 2Tim 3:1-8. Even in the early church with the abundance of miracles and the freshness of the resurrection of Jesus, many will wax cold. He warned Timothy in v5 "do not follow after them".
These people will oppose the truth that Paul and Timothy shared to them:
2Ti 3:8 and, even as Jannes and Jambres stood against Moses, so also these do stand against the truth, men corrupted in mind, disapproved concerning the faith;
They oppose the work of Jesus as in the New Covenant, and they could be the non-believing Jews that wanted to return back to Judaism.
When the End of the Age came in AD70, during the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Roman army, historians tell us that NOT a single Christian perished in this war. They were saved because they took heed to all the fore-warnings of Jesus.
In Mat 24:13, the word "saved" or "salvation" refers to the salvation from this great destruction in AD70 (and not referring to salvation from sin or hell).
Those that survived the persecution and destruction were saved. They did not follow after the false prophets or false Christs.
Another passage in Mat 24:21-23 tells us the same warnings.
Mat 10:21 'And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and father child, and children shall rise up against parents, and shall put them to death,
Mat 10:22 and ye shall be hated by all because of my name, but he who hath endured to the end, he shall be saved.
Mat 10:23 And whenever they may persecute you in this city, flee to the other, for verily I say to you, ye may not have completed the cities of Israel till the Son of Man may come.
These are warnings leading to the End of the Age in the lifetime of the disciples when Jesus prophesied to them that they will take place.
