The Falling Away - Part 1
II Thessalonians 2:1-6 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
We live in the time of the increase in lawlessness and the great "falling away." The falling away is a mostly misunderstood topic. It is a topic that is offensive to the church. No one wants to believe that THEY could fall away. If you think you could not fall away, you are actually a prime candidate TO fall away...for real. Only pride would cause someone to think a warning Jesus gave his disciples did not apply to them, too!
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Falling away means to "quit being a Christian in a time of tribulation." This is a clear doctrine of Jesus and the disciples. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught directly on the nature of falling away:
Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Falling away is permanent:
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
The falling away in the last days will result from believers who have no root in the Sermon on the Mount deciding to take the mark of the beast and betray other Christians to save their own skin. The truth of who the antichrist is, and his opposition to Jesus, when spoken of by those loyal to Jesus, is going to result in Christians being hated "in every nation." It will be illegal to be a Christian in every nation, just as it is in many nations already. When the fullness of this time comes...I believe in years, not decades...governments of the earth will begin aligning with the politically correct elements of Jesus' body. They will say "fundamental Christians are traitors and subvertors, either you are with the good things the government is trying to do, or you are with them. If you are with the fundamentalists, you will be punished like them." Those who don't fall in line with the government will be persecuted. This dynamic will create an atmosphere of betrayal within the Church.
False teachers know what to teach to keep people listening. In order to give comfort to those compromisers, they will encourage watering down the truth in the name of "unity." Both loyal followers of Jesus, and false teachers, are talking about unity in this hour. Utter confusion is the result. Not all unity is Jesus-based. True God-pleasing unity is based on unwavering loyalty to truth, the other bases unity on man-based logic. Only truth will "endure."
When warning His disciples about the "last days" leading to His return, Jesus warned His disciples PRIVATELY about the exact conditions that would produce the falling away Paul warned of in the 2 Thessalonians passage I quoted at the beginning:
Matthew 24:9-14 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John all warned of the danger of falling away due to tribulation, offense, and false teachers in the last days. In our day very few want to talk about tribulation, almost no one talks anymore about being offended with Jesus' intense end time plans, and false teachers roam about mostly unchecked in Jesus' body at this moment. These are the EXACT conditions the gospels and the epistles warn of. A perfect storm will emerge, according to Jesus in Matthew 7. You need a solid foundation to endure.
Right now, there are MANY false teachers and prophets in the mainstream body of Christ. They are increasing in number. They don't set out to be false teachers...they become false teachers because they let the fear of the opinions of other people drive them more than God. They believe the world's economy is more real than God's invisible economy. They might teach about self-denial in shallow ways, but they don’t deny themselves houses, cars, influence, or opportunity. They are easy to spot once you get the Biblical paradigm...but many are VERY popular teachers. There is an element of power and anointing in their ministry.
Jesus warned that it is the fruit of a teacher's life and teaching that we use to judge a teacher...not the power in their ministry or the sound of their words. Those that are loyal to Jesus must say things that are offensive to darkness, and EVERYONE has some measure of darkness they need to deal with. A true teacher doesn't say things to avoid disturbing the dark places...in loyalty to the Light of Mankind, they shine light to illuminate the dark places. Light offends darkness. For this reason, we cannot judge teachers by how good they leave us feeling, but rather we judge by how much they encourage us to love Jesus at cost! Obedience at cost is the bond of true unity in Jesus’ end-time Bride.
According to Jesus, it is what the message produces that matters. The two fruits that must be produced by messages that agree with God are these: 1. A wholehearted zeal to love God. 2. A love for God that overflows into genuine love for others.
Jesus warned that many would teach and do seemingly great things in Jesus' name, but they would be driven by motivations other than loyalty to Jesus and his true message that offends darkness. They value life now more than the vision of life in Jesus’ presence on earth. They, and those that follow them, will be shut out in the time of Jesus' appearing:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
"Lawlessness" means operating outside of obedience to Jesus. Obeying Jesus often offends people. False teachers get their standing from people rather than Jesus, reaching to those ”leaders” greater than themselves with hope of being elevated, and eating up those lower than themselves, feeding on the loyalty and the resources of those they consider "the people." In the Bible there are not two classes of Christians. There is the 1 Corinthians 12 “body.” A true teacher encourages EVERYONE to lead in their area of authority, paying more honor to those who seem less honorable.
The world trades power for loyalty. God values humility. The true great teachers serve people...not just teaching, but doing the things they tell others they should do! If you want to be great, you must teach AND do:
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
True followers of Jesus must be discerning. You must judge the fruit of those you receive from. What does their teaching produce in their life? What does it produce in your heart. I don’t want Bible verses that encourage me to be comfortable where I am. I want to hear teaching that drives me to love Jesus and others more. Loving people is telling them the truth.
"Group think" is leading many astray. The Bible warns of this over and over...when people take the easy route of falling in with all the other people, rather than do the hard work of thinking for themselves, the whole group goes down together. Psalm 14 deals directly with this aspect of the end times:
Psalms 14:3-6 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge.
In this Psalm, David is talking about the collective group of people who listen to each other, rather than to the unpopular messages of warning from God. God is preparing the earth for judgment, and “the group” is saying God is doing something entirely different. But hiding from the truth doesn’t change the truth. The result is always the same: fear grows in the group as the harsh light of truth grows brighter. The "poor" one who stands for truth is often an outsider.
The Psalmist says "no one listens to the little guy everyone is shunning, but don't you know He couldn't stand if God weren't standing with Him?!" The little guy would cave to peer pressure if it weren't for God. The group that worries what others think stands in the light of each other...but the lone voice of warning stands with God.
Take heed, Church...the Psalm warns the group that "great fear" is coming when the truth of judgment dawns brighter...and the intensity of truth is increasing in this very hour! There are numerous warnings in the Bible about prophets who promise peace when trouble is coming. There is not one warning in the Bible about prophets who warn of trouble when peace is coming!
There is a testing of the heart everyone who walks in fidelity with Jesus must endure to see what the internal motivation is. David spoke of this often, and so did Jesus. Mankind judges by outward appearance, but God tests the heart. People tend to think that if a person is popular, he or she is correct. This is exactly opposite of the way the kingdom works! Jesus, the greatest preacher of the gospel ever, only had 12 guys with him by the time he was done delivering the full gospel!
John 6:56-68 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
The true message of Jesus is OFFENSIVE to the fallen heart of man. The gospel message manifesting as the government of the earth...the light coming into the darkness in the last years...is EVEN MORE OFFENSIVE. Jesus warned His disciples about this very reality...that the offense of His message and the reaction it would produce would only get worse, not better, in the last days:
Luke 23:28-31 But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
Jesus said this while he was hanging on a cross for demonstrating the true nature of love! He told His disciples to expect the exact same treatment He received:
John 15:18-23 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.
In order to endure this time of truth emerging in darkness, we need to be ready to stand, even when everyone we know is telling us to back down. This starts small and grows. Jesus promised it would start with churches and then go up the food chain, into governmental authorities. The ones who haul you before "synagogues" because they worry about how your message makes the church look are the same ones who will turn loyal fundamental Christians over to authorities when their livelihood is threatened by the government. Everyone must stand for truth now or later. Now is the time to train your heart to stand. If you wait, it only gets more dangerous for everyone as those who fear men continue to betray the true messages of warning. Anyone who stands for truth will be made ready to stand more...anyone who falls in the small beginnings of tribulation will fall away when the pressure increases. Now is the time to find out what Jesus is doing in this hour and get ready to endure!
Mark 13:8-13 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
We live in the time of the increase in lawlessness and the great "falling away." The falling away is a mostly misunderstood topic. It is a topic that is offensive to the church. No one wants to believe that THEY could fall away. If you think you could not fall away, you are actually a prime candidate TO fall away...for real. Only pride would cause someone to think a warning Jesus gave his disciples did not apply to them, too!
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Falling away means to "quit being a Christian in a time of tribulation." This is a clear doctrine of Jesus and the disciples. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught directly on the nature of falling away:
Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Falling away is permanent:
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
The falling away in the last days will result from believers who have no root in the Sermon on the Mount deciding to take the mark of the beast and betray other Christians to save their own skin. The truth of who the antichrist is, and his opposition to Jesus, when spoken of by those loyal to Jesus, is going to result in Christians being hated "in every nation." It will be illegal to be a Christian in every nation, just as it is in many nations already. When the fullness of this time comes...I believe in years, not decades...governments of the earth will begin aligning with the politically correct elements of Jesus' body. They will say "fundamental Christians are traitors and subvertors, either you are with the good things the government is trying to do, or you are with them. If you are with the fundamentalists, you will be punished like them." Those who don't fall in line with the government will be persecuted. This dynamic will create an atmosphere of betrayal within the Church.
False teachers know what to teach to keep people listening. In order to give comfort to those compromisers, they will encourage watering down the truth in the name of "unity." Both loyal followers of Jesus, and false teachers, are talking about unity in this hour. Utter confusion is the result. Not all unity is Jesus-based. True God-pleasing unity is based on unwavering loyalty to truth, the other bases unity on man-based logic. Only truth will "endure."
When warning His disciples about the "last days" leading to His return, Jesus warned His disciples PRIVATELY about the exact conditions that would produce the falling away Paul warned of in the 2 Thessalonians passage I quoted at the beginning:
Matthew 24:9-14 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John all warned of the danger of falling away due to tribulation, offense, and false teachers in the last days. In our day very few want to talk about tribulation, almost no one talks anymore about being offended with Jesus' intense end time plans, and false teachers roam about mostly unchecked in Jesus' body at this moment. These are the EXACT conditions the gospels and the epistles warn of. A perfect storm will emerge, according to Jesus in Matthew 7. You need a solid foundation to endure.
Right now, there are MANY false teachers and prophets in the mainstream body of Christ. They are increasing in number. They don't set out to be false teachers...they become false teachers because they let the fear of the opinions of other people drive them more than God. They believe the world's economy is more real than God's invisible economy. They might teach about self-denial in shallow ways, but they don’t deny themselves houses, cars, influence, or opportunity. They are easy to spot once you get the Biblical paradigm...but many are VERY popular teachers. There is an element of power and anointing in their ministry.
Jesus warned that it is the fruit of a teacher's life and teaching that we use to judge a teacher...not the power in their ministry or the sound of their words. Those that are loyal to Jesus must say things that are offensive to darkness, and EVERYONE has some measure of darkness they need to deal with. A true teacher doesn't say things to avoid disturbing the dark places...in loyalty to the Light of Mankind, they shine light to illuminate the dark places. Light offends darkness. For this reason, we cannot judge teachers by how good they leave us feeling, but rather we judge by how much they encourage us to love Jesus at cost! Obedience at cost is the bond of true unity in Jesus’ end-time Bride.
According to Jesus, it is what the message produces that matters. The two fruits that must be produced by messages that agree with God are these: 1. A wholehearted zeal to love God. 2. A love for God that overflows into genuine love for others.
Jesus warned that many would teach and do seemingly great things in Jesus' name, but they would be driven by motivations other than loyalty to Jesus and his true message that offends darkness. They value life now more than the vision of life in Jesus’ presence on earth. They, and those that follow them, will be shut out in the time of Jesus' appearing:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
"Lawlessness" means operating outside of obedience to Jesus. Obeying Jesus often offends people. False teachers get their standing from people rather than Jesus, reaching to those ”leaders” greater than themselves with hope of being elevated, and eating up those lower than themselves, feeding on the loyalty and the resources of those they consider "the people." In the Bible there are not two classes of Christians. There is the 1 Corinthians 12 “body.” A true teacher encourages EVERYONE to lead in their area of authority, paying more honor to those who seem less honorable.
The world trades power for loyalty. God values humility. The true great teachers serve people...not just teaching, but doing the things they tell others they should do! If you want to be great, you must teach AND do:
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
True followers of Jesus must be discerning. You must judge the fruit of those you receive from. What does their teaching produce in their life? What does it produce in your heart. I don’t want Bible verses that encourage me to be comfortable where I am. I want to hear teaching that drives me to love Jesus and others more. Loving people is telling them the truth.
"Group think" is leading many astray. The Bible warns of this over and over...when people take the easy route of falling in with all the other people, rather than do the hard work of thinking for themselves, the whole group goes down together. Psalm 14 deals directly with this aspect of the end times:
Psalms 14:3-6 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge.
In this Psalm, David is talking about the collective group of people who listen to each other, rather than to the unpopular messages of warning from God. God is preparing the earth for judgment, and “the group” is saying God is doing something entirely different. But hiding from the truth doesn’t change the truth. The result is always the same: fear grows in the group as the harsh light of truth grows brighter. The "poor" one who stands for truth is often an outsider.
The Psalmist says "no one listens to the little guy everyone is shunning, but don't you know He couldn't stand if God weren't standing with Him?!" The little guy would cave to peer pressure if it weren't for God. The group that worries what others think stands in the light of each other...but the lone voice of warning stands with God.
Take heed, Church...the Psalm warns the group that "great fear" is coming when the truth of judgment dawns brighter...and the intensity of truth is increasing in this very hour! There are numerous warnings in the Bible about prophets who promise peace when trouble is coming. There is not one warning in the Bible about prophets who warn of trouble when peace is coming!
There is a testing of the heart everyone who walks in fidelity with Jesus must endure to see what the internal motivation is. David spoke of this often, and so did Jesus. Mankind judges by outward appearance, but God tests the heart. People tend to think that if a person is popular, he or she is correct. This is exactly opposite of the way the kingdom works! Jesus, the greatest preacher of the gospel ever, only had 12 guys with him by the time he was done delivering the full gospel!
John 6:56-68 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
The true message of Jesus is OFFENSIVE to the fallen heart of man. The gospel message manifesting as the government of the earth...the light coming into the darkness in the last years...is EVEN MORE OFFENSIVE. Jesus warned His disciples about this very reality...that the offense of His message and the reaction it would produce would only get worse, not better, in the last days:
Luke 23:28-31 But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
Jesus said this while he was hanging on a cross for demonstrating the true nature of love! He told His disciples to expect the exact same treatment He received:
John 15:18-23 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.
In order to endure this time of truth emerging in darkness, we need to be ready to stand, even when everyone we know is telling us to back down. This starts small and grows. Jesus promised it would start with churches and then go up the food chain, into governmental authorities. The ones who haul you before "synagogues" because they worry about how your message makes the church look are the same ones who will turn loyal fundamental Christians over to authorities when their livelihood is threatened by the government. Everyone must stand for truth now or later. Now is the time to train your heart to stand. If you wait, it only gets more dangerous for everyone as those who fear men continue to betray the true messages of warning. Anyone who stands for truth will be made ready to stand more...anyone who falls in the small beginnings of tribulation will fall away when the pressure increases. Now is the time to find out what Jesus is doing in this hour and get ready to endure!
Mark 13:8-13 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.