The Way Into the Kingdom: The Danger of False Prophets

Having exhorted His hearers to enter His kingdom through the narrow gate, Jesus issued a warning about those who would seek to distract or impede them from entering there. Though many today associate false prophets with people who proclaim and promote non-Christian religions or quasi-Christian cults, the immediate context (as well as the larger biblical context of the four gospel accounts) shows that Jesus was referring to the Jewish leaders of His generation. These pious and learned individuals "shut off the kingdom of heaven from men," and they did so, not by promoting non-biblical religion, but by pressing the sons of Israel toward the wide gate of self-righteousness. The danger to those who would seek to enter Christ's kingdom comes not so much from non-Christian influences as those who come in Christ's name, all the while promoting - however subtly - a kingdom entered and defined by self-righteousness.