I, the LORD, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their dreams.

Jesus answered, "Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you.

Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, 'I am the Messiah!' and they will fool many people.

Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people.

"Then, if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or 'There he is!'---do not believe it.

Listen! I have told you this ahead of time.

Jesus said to them, "Watch out, and don't let anyone fool you.

Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, 'I am he!' and they will fool many people.

"Then, if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Look, there he is!'---do not believe it.

Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.

Those men are not true apostles---they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ.

So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve.

Do not let anyone deceive you with foolish words; it is because of these very things that God's anger will come upon those who do not obey him.

Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell.

The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

and evil persons and impostors will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.

Many deceivers have gone out over the world, people who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and the Enemy of Christ.

The huge dragon was thrown out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.

I have come with my Father's authority, but you have not received me; when, however, someone comes with his own authority, you will receive him.

You remember that Theudas appeared some time ago, claiming to be somebody great, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed, all his followers were scattered, and his movement died out.

After that, Judas the Galilean appeared during the time of the census; he drew a crowd after him, but he also was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

A man named Simon lived there, who for some time had astounded the Samaritans with his magic. He claimed that he was someone great,

and everyone in the city, from all classes of society, paid close attention to him. "He is that power of God known as 'The Great Power,' " they said.

"Turn away from your sins," he said, "because the Kingdom of heaven is near!"

From that time Jesus began to preach his message: "Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!"

Happy is the one who reads this book, and happy are those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book! For the time is near when all these things will happen.