As I study through the book of John and consider where we are today in our world I was reminded of a beautiful truth revealed in the Gospels… especially the Gospel of John.

We are warned by Christ Himself to be on the lookout for frauds…

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:24

In the Greek the phrase false Christs is one word, pseudochristos, it means false Christ, pretend Messiah. The word false or pretend comes from the Greek word pseudés which means false, deceitful, lying, untrue.

I saw this word and my inner 80’s girl started singing this song…

Now here is a little background on the song:

• On a 1997 episode of VH1 Storytellers, Collins said: “This is one of those examples of improvising lyrics. You know, sometimes you can use the lyric, other times you’re in big trouble, because what you write doesn’t mean anything. So I set up this drum-machine pad, and I got some chords, and I started to sing into the microphone, and this word came out, which was “sus-sussudio.” It just literally came out, at the time… that was back when I could dance, so I kind of knew I had to find something else for that word, then I went back and tried to find another word that scanned as well as “sussudio,” and I couldn’t find one, so I went back to “sussudio.” Then I thought OK, let’s give it a meaning, what is it? The lyrics are based on this schoolboy crush on this girl at school. It’s happening with my daughter now, she’s 8 years old and she loves this boy, but she won’t tell him, like in the lyrics this boy loves her but they don’t talk about it… how do they know? ‘I know she likes me, I know she likes me, doesn’t know my name, doesn’t know I exist, but I know she likes me’… So that’s what the song is about, so “sussudio” became a name for this person, and since it’s become a name for a horse. My older daughter’s got a horse called Sussudio, and I’m sure there are children all over the world with the name Sussudio, so I apologize for that.”

How do we know a fraud?

There is no meaning or depth to them. They are there in the moment making stuff up as they go because they are feeding off their current crowd in order to gain their attention. In this song Phil Collins just spits a word out. The word has no meaning, yet he was able to convince the world that this word that was simply a figment of his own imagination was a real person. He used human emotions and relative circumstance to do it.

A pseudés Christ or a pseudés prophet works in a similar way. They will feed on your human emotions and they will always either point to you or demand you point to them. They are always seeking their own glory or trying to persuade you to seek your own glory. They usually are aiding you in the creation of a god in your own image.

When we read through the Scriptures, especially through the Gospels we see the heart of the authentic Christ. We see the working of the True Godhead. What we see is that not One Person of the Holy Trinity ever seeks to glorify Themselves.

The Father points to the Son:

Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

Luke 9:35

The Son points to the Spirit:

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

John 16:7

The Spirit points to the Son:

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

John 16:13-14

The Son points to the Father:

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

John 5:19

Each person of the Godhead seeks to glorify the other. They never seek their own glory. They each point to the other and create this beautiful circle of glory…

The amazing thing about this beautiful circle of glory is that they invite us to rest within it. We sit in the midst of this glory, having entered through rent flesh of the Son. If we are truly in this circle we can’t help but give glory to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because we sit in midst of the whirlwind. We are kept safe in the eye of the hurricane of the grace of God… and as we sit there we cannot help but give glory to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because we know how truly insignificant we are in the light of Their presence and only humility and a bowed face to the ground in absolute gratitude for His great mercy remains.

A false Christ, a false prophet, will not seek to glorify the Godhead… because there is no room in which to get glory of their own. They are pseu pseu pseu pseudés.

Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.

John 8:54-55