The Falling Away

Paul warns Timothy that a time will come when "they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." (2 Timothy 4:3,4). He further taught the Thessalonians that Antichrist would not come "unless the falling away comes first" (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The word translated 'falling away' literally means 'apostasy'. It is referring to those who profess to be Christian but who twist the Word to mean what ever soothes their conscience or they will just deny that it is the Word of God. MSNBC's Lawrence O’Donnel, who is just this sort of person, recently stated -

"The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world. No half-smart religious person actually believes the book of Revelation. They are certain that their God would never turn into a malicious torturer and mass murderer beyond Hitler’s wildest dreams. Glenn Beck, of course, does believe the book of Revelation."

But, he is just a symptom of the times we live in. A time when much of the Christian Church has turned away from the truth of God's declared Word. They have 'itching ears', that means something foreign has gotten into their ears causing an irritation. That 'something foreign' is their own desire to live according to their way and not God's way. After all, many so called theologians have denied the virgin birth of Jesus. They also deny the creation as declared in Genesis. They deny the God-given governmental order of the family and the Church. They ordain women as Pastors when God says that women are denied usurping authority in the Church. They ordain homosexuals as Pastors, when God says homosexuality is an abomination to him. The condone divorce, when God says "I hate divorce". When the Church falls away from God's standards, there is nothing to restrain wickedness from permeating the land. That is what has happened.


Paul taught that this falling away would open the way for the Antichrist to emerge, with all his evil. But, thankfully there are a group of believers that will escape this evil. In the Book of Revelation, the book O'Donnel declares to be fiction, Jesus writes a letter to them. They were the Church of Philadelphia who  only had a little strength and were under much persecution. But, because they "kept My word, and have not denied My name" (Revelation 3:8) He promised to keep them from the hour of trial which would come upon the whole world to test them. Even so, at this time in history, there are those 'Philadelpians' who keep God's words and do not deny the word of Jesus.


I hope you choose to be one.