Matthew 24:5

Matthew 24:5. Come in my name, as the Messiah. The Messianic hopes of the Jews were at fever heat, as the destruction of their holy city drew near; many enthusiasts appeared as seducers of the people, and awakened false expectations. It is not known that they claimed the authority of the Christian Messiah. The prophecy goes beyond this, and intimates that Christians would be in danger of supposing some other person to be the Lord Himself. In later times fanaticism among Christians has taken this direction, e. g., the Anabaptists in the sixteenth century.

Deceive many. An overweening desire to understand this prophecy in its final application, combined with too material conceptions of the Second Advent, fosters such deception.