Remember when Theudas appeared? He said that he was an important man. About 400 men joined him. But he was killed. And all who followed him were scattered and ran away. They were able to do nothing.
False Christs and false prophets {\cf2\super [372]} will come and do great things and miracles. {\cf2\super [373]} They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will do these things to try to fool his people, if that is possible.
“Some person might tell you, ‘The Christ {\cf2\super [374]} is there in the desert!’ But don’t go into the desert to look for the Christ. Another person might say, ‘There is the Christ in that room!’ But don’t believe that.
Then you are not the man I thought you were? I thought you were the Egyptian man who started some trouble against the government not long ago. That Egyptian man led 4,000 killers out to the desert.”
But there was a man named Simon in that city. Before Philip came there, Simon used his power to do magic and he amazed all the people of Samaria. Simon boasted and called himself a great man.
Those men who seemed to be important did not change the Good News {\cf2\super [12]} message I tell people. (It doesn’t matter to me if they were “important” or not. To God all men are the same.)
Those false teachers boast with words that mean nothing. They lead people into the trap \{of sin\}. They lead away people who are just beginning to come away from other people who live wrong. Those false teachers do this by using the evil things people want to do in their sinful selves.
Then the angel carried me away by the Spirit {\cf2\super [126]} to the desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a red animal. The animal was covered with bad names written on him. The animal had seven heads and ten horns.