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Falling Away From What?
Feb 25, 2020 09:53:20   #
ziggy88 Loc: quincy illinois 62301
 
Falling Away From What?
Feb. 25th 2020
By Joel Joseph
Researched by Pastor Gary Boyd

Introduction:

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no 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.”

Yes I know what the verse above says. I say there will be no falling away!

There will be no falling away from the faith according to this particular verse, that is. Others do speak of an end-time falling away, but we need to look at all these misconceptions.

We will look at who will fall away and from what and how many will fall away and why.

Be prepared to have your traditional apple cart overturned by our Lord’s truth.

In this edition I will also look at some of the problem verses relating to the pre-tribulation rapture. You will have your hope revived in the pre-trib rapture.

“Falling away from the faith” – hogwash!

Parrots are not very clever. They just blurt out what they hear. Parrots are also not clever because to blurt out what they hear, means that they sanction and elevate those from whom they hear.

The word “faith” or any derivative of it does not appear in the original text of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 at all (look it up) It is a presumption. Some Bibles like the New King James, which I use, doesn’t use the word faith in this verse at all; and rightly so.

Presumption is fine, but not when it involves an addition or change to the Bible, or violates plain logic. Many cults are built on presumption. You must stick to original word usages.

The idea that this is a falling away from the faith, and is a required end-time sign before the coming of the Lord and the revealing of the antichrist is totally untrue, illogical, and gives rise to other false beliefs.

There are 37 warnings in the Bible against falling away, not all mean the same thing.

The most commonly used “reinforcement” to 2 Thessalonians 2:3 is 1Timothy 4:1. – Wrong!

Let’s look at 1Timothy 4:1 and its “falling away also translated as “depart.”

1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”

The big key in the verse above is the word “some.” It does not mean a massive worldwide apostasy. It means some! This is exactly what we have today; some are falling away.

The word “some” is Strong’s G5100 meaning “some one” It does not have a wider application meaning many!

If you read on to the next verse you will see that those who departed from the faith, were a small group who got into the curse of legalism. It was not a general, great apostasy from the faith at all.

We have a major problem now if the great apostasy or falling away is from the faith, and is a sign to be observed before the Lord comes and antichrist is revealed. If that is so, what is the cut off point? Where and when did the falling away from the faith begin? How many need to fall away?

In history we have already seen a great, great falling away from the faith, called the dark ages, created by the Catholic church, resulting in their leaders becoming amongst the world’s worst torturers and mass murderers (Inquisitions).

I say again: The word “great” apostasy is not in the original, and neither is the word “faith.”

If this is the case, we need to look elsewhere for the meaning of 2 Thessalonians 2:3. But first let me throw another spanner in the works of the traditional, wrong, presumed belief!

If we are in the end-time drama now, we should be able to clearly see and identify the so-called great apostasy from the faith.

But the Bible speaks of an end-time outpouring of the Spirit of God in the last days. (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17, Isaiah 44:3). This obviously contradicts the traditional “great apostasy from the faith!” There is actually no contradiction because it’s not a falling away from the faith.

Matthew 24:12 speaks of the “love of many growing cold.” But this is clearly a tribulation-period verse. It does not mean a falling away from the faith anyway. It means many will become loveless because of abounding wickedness in the tribulation, before the Second Coming. These are not necessarily believers.

The Bible speaks of grace abounding, where sin abounds. (Romans 5:20)

In the final analysis, we see a thriving, strong end time church (Philadelphia) while at the same time we see many who think they are Christians, while they are actually counterfeits, being spat out by our Lord (Laodicea).

With all of this in mind, we absolutely cannot say that an end time sign is a great apostasy and falling away from the faith.

2 Timothy 3:5 (Perilous times) “They will have a form of godliness, but deny its power...”

The verse above is often cited as proof of the falling away from the faith. It is not! It is speaking of counterfeit or professing Christians. Their “godliness” is outward and without power. You could include in this the modern Spirit-less, cross-less churches, but it is not the church at large.

Worldwide growth of Christianity:

I have gone through the statistics of the Pew Research Centre and others – for your benefit. If you like, simply type in: “Worldwide growth of Christianity” and you will get many sources of these statistics, all saying much the same things.

For your benefit, I have summarised the main points:

Some of the article headings include:

●“Surprising growth trends in Christianity”, ● “Do you think Christianity is dying – No”, ●”How Christianity is growing around the world”, ●”Why the Christian faith is becoming more and more popular”, ●”Mind blowing statistics about Christianity”

Christian growth

The Christian faith rose worldwide by 84% in 2018.

●Spirit-filled, Pentecostal evangelicals are growing the fastest, while non-Spirit-filled denominationalism and related churches are declining the fastest. ● Christianity is growing the fastest in Africa and the eastern nations of the world. ● Christianity is growing faster than the world population. ●In many nations of South America, Africa, and Asia the growth is explosive. ●Southern Africa is seeing growth by ten-fold since 2010. ●Over 10.2 million Muslim have converted to Christianity of late. ●The sale of Bibles worldwide is dramatically rising outstripping any other book ever. ●Bible sales worth $425 million occurred last year. ●Now 100 million additional Bibles are being printed for this year. ●Africa has the largest number of Christians worldwide in 2019, (631 million). ●Rwanda has just had the largest adult water baptism in the world a few weeks ago, with over 100,000 new-convert participants. ●Europe is seeing a decline in Christian conversions.

The big bottom line is that Christianity is growing fast worldwide. Of course I concede that it is near impossible to get accurate figures, but there is far too much evidence, all very similar, to reinforce the overall picture I have presented.

I do concede, and have written much about the falling away of sections of the church, like the non-Spirit-filled denominations and the many counterfeit and fraudulent churches out there, but these do not make up the overall big picture, by any means.

I ask you this: How can 2 Thessalonians 2:3 be talking of an end-time great apostasy from the faith, when the church worldwide is growing substantially? Do you see the problem, and it is massive?

No sir – we have to look a bit further than our noses, and the traditional blindly held, handed down talk from one parrot to another parrot, all flocking together.

This simple little presentation annihilates so many loud and long traditional beliefs! I suspect that many who read this will not change their traditional view. That’s what tradition does to you: It nullifies the truth. (Mark 7:13)

A lesson from history:

We have to dig for the real meaning of the apostasy. And it is a glorious dig for gold!

The original word for “apostasy” is Apostasia (Strong’s G646). It is derived from the root word “aphestemi.” Strong’s G868: Meaning to “depart”, “physical removal from”, or “to go away”. It has no association with faith in the word meaning itself. Context must be applied.

For those wanting to study this further; look up the word: “aphestemi.”

2 Thessalonians 2:3 uses this term “the apostasy.” The word “the” is in front. That means it is speaking of a specific departure and not a general undefined falling away over time. It is “the departure” that must come first.

“The Day will not come until the departure has happened first...” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) What “Day” is this speaking of? The Bible uses the word “day” for a 24 hour day, for the entire church age, for the tribulation period, and for the day of the Second Coming. Context must be applied.

The “Day” here, is the tribulation period as a whole.

A very powerful (and true) interpretation of the “apostasy / falling away / departure, is the rapture.

If we (rightly) say that the “Day shall not come until the departure (rapture) comes first and the man of sin is revealed...” That seals the pre-tribulation rapture. It also gets rid of the idea that the antichrist has to first appear on the stage before the rapture can occur.

Here is some powerful food for thought:

►Prior to the King James translation of 1611, (which I will never use, by the way) the Greek word “apostasia” was translated as “departure” and not falling away. It was believed to refer to the rapture of the church. “Falling away from the faith” is a much later doctrine, some 500 years old.

If you want to stick to “falling away” that’s fine, just know that the truth is it’s a falling away from the earth to heaven in the rapture and not from the faith.

Let’s write out 2 Thessalonians 3:2 both ways and notice the difference:

The present erroneous traditional position:
“Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come, unless the falling away (from the faith or great apostasy) comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”

Now the original Bible (truth) position:
“Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come, unless the departure (rapture) comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”

Do you see how dramatically this changes things, and makes such perfect sense?

It cannot be a great (worldwide) apostasy or falling away from the faith, which is undefined in starting point, numbers and ending point. (And has already occurred anyway)

One of the end-time signs is the gospel being preached in every nation. That also contradicts a great apostasy and falling away from the faith, worldwide as many teach.

Ancient biblical keys to the rapture:

Our Lord in His word gives some very detailed, clear, descriptions about His coming, both at the rapture and at the Second Coming. We need to take careful note of the differences. You cannot merge them together into one event – the Second Coming.

Carefully note all the descriptive details about the Second Coming in the two verses below and note the words in bold. And then note the details of the rapture verse below it in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

Matthew 24:29-31 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. And they (angels) will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Revelation 1:7 “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, and they also who pierced Him (Israel). And the tribes of the nations shall mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”

(Many commentators believe that “clouds” in the verse above is a reference to shining glory.)

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel (singular) and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

(“Clouds” in this verse above speaks of literal clouds up in the air.)

●We see many cosmic, atmospheric signs, some supernatural, at the Second Coming and none at all at the rapture.

●We see the people of the world “mourning” as they see the Lord coming, slowly, descending, just as He left. There is no such thing at the rapture, which happens in an instant in the air.

●At the Second Coming, every eye will see Him. None, but the raptured themselves, will see Him at the rapture.

●Angels do the gathering of the tribulation saints at the end of the tribulation.

●The Lord Himself does the gathering at the rapture.

Here are some more verses succinctly describing the conditions at the Second Coming. None of these are evident at the rapture – not one!

Isaiah 24:23 (Impending judgement of the earth) “Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and from Jerusalem.”

Joel 2:10 (The day of the Lord) “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark and the stars diminish in brightness.”

Wrath - for whom?

The tribulation is a unique, never again to be seen, most severe period in world history in which the ●wrath of Satan, the ●wrath of man, the ●wrath of nature, and the ●wrath of God runs simultaneously.

Nahum 1:2 “...He reserves His wrath for His enemies.”

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “...He delivers us from the wrath to come.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9 “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation...”

The verse below offers a great, wonderful comfort:

Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My word to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial (tribulation period) which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

Rewards are coming while wrath is being poured out:

What a thought to know that the wrath of God is coming in the tribulation period. At the same time true Christians will be given great rewards in heaven!

Wrath or reward – yikes!

The Christian life is not about striving for rewards, primarily, but never forget that our Lord has chosen to give those that qualify, eternal rewards.

Loving our Lord is one thing, but remember that He loves us intensely and forever.



Reply
Feb 25, 2020 10:37:18   #
bahmer
 
Amen and Amen thanks ziggy88 for clarifying that for all of us here on OPP. I am looking forward to the rapture and am wondering if it will be this year or next. Thanks again for clarifying those bible verses for all to see and read.

Reply
Feb 25, 2020 10:51:08   #
Wonttakeitanymore
 
Thank you! God bless you!

Reply
 
 
Feb 25, 2020 11:39:47   #
Lonewolf
 
Thanks for the post I'm not realy focused on end times though they will arrive on God's time and their is nothing I can do to change that, so I stay focused on sharing the gospel of Christ.

Reply
Feb 25, 2020 12:58:19   #
bahmer
 
Lonewolf wrote:
Thanks for the post I'm not realy focused on end times though they will arrive on God's time and their is nothing I can do to change that, so I stay focused on sharing the gospel of Christ.


Do you share the gospel of Christ as you share your hatred of Trump or after you share your hatred of Trump which is it and which Bible verses do you use when you share your hatred of Trump. Just curious is all?

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Feb 26, 2020 10:29:24   #
TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!
 
bahmer wrote:
Amen and Amen thanks ziggy88 for clarifying that for all of us here on OPP. I am looking forward to the rapture and am wondering if it will be this year or next. Thanks again for clarifying those bible verses for all to see and read.
Amen and Amen thanks ziggy88 for clarifying that f... (show quote)


I have no problem with sooner than later!👍

Reply
Feb 26, 2020 22:59:58   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
Silly virgins with no oil. But truth should have been taught like in the two churches that Christ found acceptable, not the other five that don't have GODs light.
Remember the 'burden of the LORD' that Ziggy was mistaken and contrary to GOD.

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