The Falling Away
By Terry James
One particular
prophetic signal is among the most powerful that points to the fact that we are
at the end of the age, yet it goes relatively unobserved. Its power is found in
its deceptive nature. We are right in the middle of this spiritual
senses-debilitating prophetic reality. Here’s where we find its foretelling:
“Now we beseech
you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is
at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition” (2 Thes. 2:10-3).
The great Apostle
Paul was prophesying that Christians of the church age will be gathered to
Christ in the rapture (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:6-7). This “day of Christ,” Paul
was telling those of his time, had not taken place, as some feared. Nor will it
take place, he wrote, until the “falling away” first happens, which ultimately
will lead to the son of perdition being revealed to the world.
The Greek term
for “falling away” here, is apostasia –from which the English appropriates the
word "apostasy." There is coming, this means, a departure from the
thing Antichrist both imitates and is totally against. What is that?
The spirit of
Antichrist, as well as the final and most terrible tyrant on earth, who will be
the Antichrist, will oppose Jesus Christ and the Lord’s purpose for coming to
Planet Earth. I propose that the apostasy Paul was talking about was in the
process of coming to pass while John, the one through whom Jesus gave the
Revelation, wrote:
“Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that
it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 Jn. 4:1-3).
So, the apostasia
had already begun in John’s time. But it is prophetically scheduled to get much
worse. Again, from what, in particular, are Paul and John telling us there will
be this apostasy, this departure, this falling away? The departure will take
place, denying that Christ has come in the flesh. Jesus said He came for a
specific purpose: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which
was lost” (Lk. 19:10).
This brings my
thoughts to Dr. Jerry Falwell, who went to his reward Tuesday, May 15, 2007.
Also, I must think a bit upon Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and others who attract
the throngs at their mega church-arenas in these closing days of the church
age. I’m aware of the can of worms such thought opens. But, it must be said.
So, here goes.
Many, maybe even
most, news reporters and pundits--it was obvious to me—were barely able to
contain their disdain for Jerry Falwell, upon announcing his death, and
subsequently analyzing his life. One reporter for CNN allowed, for example, an
avowed atheist to articulate his hatred for Falwell, not disagreeing with the
man when he called Falwell a “little toad,” and worse. The same reporter then
gave Franklin Graham one-tenth the time, and seemed frantic to get Graham off
the air, when the son of Billy Graham used the moment to point to Falwell’s faithfulness
to preaching and teaching salvation by Christ alone –that Jesus is the only way
to God the Father and to Heaven following death.
The same network
–and all other major networks—routinely castigated Falwell in life. They
continue to do so in his passing. Their anger stems, one can certainly infer,
from the politically incorrect stances Falwell took against abortion,
homosexuality, and other popular causes of the political and religious left.
However, it is the Liberty University founder’s stand for Christ as the only
way to salvation that got him into the most trouble with these same haters of
truth found in God’s Word, the Bible.
CNN talk host
Larry King and others are always quick to embrace Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and
others who would rather talk about unity and purpose, and the basic goodness of
mankind. The frothiness of their message is soothing relief to itching ears,
just as the Apostle Paul wrote would be the case as time of the end nears:
“For the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall
turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
There will be in
the last days, Paul wrote, those who will come preaching and teaching
falsehoods--falsehoods that include today half-truths. These half-truths that
proclaim God is love and that He will welcome everyone –no matter his or her
different belief systems--into Heaven with Him upon passing from this life are
lies from the father of lies. These same purveyors of the half-truths don’t
tell people what God says in His Word about sin. Sin –which each and everyone
of us is born into, and commits, because of our fallen nature, demands a cure.
That cure required that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, come to shed His blood on the
cross at Calvary as sacrifice so we can be redeemed, or brought into God’s
family for eternity. Without His shed blood for sin, there is no remission for
the soul-destroying disease called sin (Heb. 9:22).
I listened to Mr.
Osteen this past Sunday, and in the considerable minutes I spent listening, I
never once heard him mention sin. More telling, I never once heard him mention
the name of Jesus Christ. He said “God” quite a lot, but never once, the name
of Christ.
Jesus
represents a very narrow way. As a matter of fact, Jesus is the way, the truth,
and the life, and no one comes to God the Father, but by Jesus Christ (Jn.
14:6).
The falling
away from this truth that is taking place in these last moments of the age of
grace is something Jerry Falwell pointed out –eloquently, but bluntly, and
unequivocally. For this he was hated, as is the real Jesus of the Word of God.
Jerry Falwell
understood well Jesus' words about what will be the world’s attitude toward
those who adhere to the truth that Jesus is the narrow –the only—way to Heaven:
“If the world
hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the
word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also” (Jn. 15:18-20).
It is incumbent upon us who name the holy name of Jesus Christ to not be part of the falling away, the apostasy, that will grow exponentially from now until Christ returns.