The Bible predicts that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be preceded by the "falling away" of Christians according to 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3. Many people have struggled to understand what this really means. I have heard certain people even claiming that this falling away can be understood to mean the "rapture of the church". Yet others claim that the falling away refers to a mass apostasy. Which is which? In this article, we shall endevour to shed some light on this subject and hopefully bring some fresh perspectives on this often neglected subject.
We tend to talk about the end times as if it were marked by one event only: the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is actually not so. The end times is characterized by a lot of events, most of which must happen before the appearing of our Lord in the clouds; the great tribulation, apostasy, the appearing of the man of sin.. The signs that the return of our Lord is near are an everyday phenomenon. We watch the news today, and we see the signs that were long prophesied as a harbinger of Christ's return, from the natural disasters, famines and droughts to spiritual, moral and cultural wickedness.. The signs that we are living in Earth's final days are right under our noses, and non so profound as the great apostasy or the falling away of the church (Mathew 24:10, 2 Thessalonians 2:3).
The Bible warns us in 1st Timothy 4:1 "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (K.J.V)". We also read in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come the falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." So, what exactly is the falling away from the faith? The best way to understand apostasy is to understand the root word from which it is derived. The English word apostasy is derived from the Latin word apostasia which means defection. According to the Oxford Dictionary, apostasy is "the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle." In other words, apostasy refers to the act of those who had professed to be Christians abandoning their faith all together.
Apostasy refers to the act of those who had hitherto professed to be Christians abandoning their faith all together.
Do we see this happening in the world today? Yes, and in large numbers. Church attendance in many so-called "Christian countries" is falling rapidly. According to some reports, beautifully built christian cathedrals in many European cities are slowly turning into concert halls and, in some instances, mosques. Young people find churches boring or out of touch with reality. Atheism, spiritualism and eastern mystic religions are on the rise and more and more people especially in the west are drawn away from Christianity. A culture war is in the offing, with the rise of 'wokeness', the LGBTQ movement and liberalism threatening to strike Christianity and conservatism with a death knell from which it shall not rise.
Even more tellingly, the proliferation of false doctrines in churches, the spread of the word-of-faith movement, pretended signs and miracles and unbiblical practices in many christian congregations characterise the falling away more succinctly than anything else we've witnessed before. False teachers have arisen - as the Bible long predicted they would - and are leading many astray. In Kenya, for example a famous self-proclaimed prophet led his followers to mass suicide by starvation. More than three hundred people lost their lives. Another Kenyan man rose to prominence claiming to be Jesus. Prosperity gospel with it's undertones of covetousness, greed and pride is celebrated in many congregations today. Sale of supposed holy water, oil, handkerchiefs and other artifacts which are supposedly imbued with power to heal and cause prosperity is on the rise. In many "modern" churches worship sessions are no different from secular music festivals, complete with celebrity artistes, dim blue lighting (sometimes disco lights), hype-men, so-called worship-leaders and vigorous dance moves percolated with screams, ululations and chants, reminiscent of how the golden statue made by King Nebuchadnezzar was worshiped (Daniel 3:1-25). Christians of today are far removed from it's nascent years with a focus on purity, humility, quietness and a life of godliness. The world has influenced the church any more than the church can hope to influence it. Many of the most popular pastors, self-styled apostles and prophets openly practice non-christ-like living, mixing with the world and openly denying Christ.
But the worst is still to come. The Bible predicts a time when the true followers of Christ will be hated by all the whole world for His name's sake (Mathew 10: 22-24). Here the Bible foretells of a time when the whole world will be united under the leadership of the Antichrist to persecute Christians. The Bible goes ahead and says "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death" (Mark 13:12, KJV). Faced with persecution, excommunication and without the ability to buy or sell, many professed Christians will betray one another and those who faith was only superficial will fall away (leave the faith, 1 Timothy 4:1). In Mathew the Bible likens this 'falling away' to 'the love of many growing cold' (Mathew 24:12). The Bible gives us hope saying that those who endure to the end shall be saved. It should be your hope and prayer to endure to the end. Jesus promises us that not an hair of our heads shall fall down (Luke 21:18), so we shouldn't be afraid.
But how could this be? How can Christians be hated by the whole world? The fact that Christians will be hated by the whole world shouldn't be surprising at all given that in the end times there shall be two distinct groups of people: those who worship the beast and get his mark and those who worship the living God and keep His commandments Revelation 13:8 The Bible says: "Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast— all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain" (Berean Study Bible). The current wave of polarization and shake up is but a precursor to the final spiritual upheaval into which the world will be thrown. There will be no middle ground, everyone is going to be in one camp or the other. This shake up (or trial) will eventually drive those whose faith were only supperficial away from the Church and will wake up some who are in the world to respond to the grace of God and join ranks with the believers of God who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. We will eventually be able to tell apart those who worship God from those who don't (Malachi 3:18).
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