The Scripture is haunting. It echoes and reverberates throughout the spiritual hallways of the Church with each passing hour:
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. (1 Timothy 4:1)
This forewarning fits into the last-days pattern also given by the Apostle Paul in the familiar prophetic passage:
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 Thessalonians 2:3)
The “falling away,” apostasia in Greek, means a “departure from.” Paul prophesied in the 2 Timothy 4:1 passage that there will come a time at the end of the Church Age when people will depart from the “faith.” He says in 2 Thessalonians that this will be a general “falling away,” the apostasy of the end time. What is this “faith” from which people will fall away, and who are the “people” who will fall away? Another crucial question is: Can the departure that God, through Paul, warned about be recognized when it occurs?
“Faith,” as here defined, must, by context, be the faith in the One who is at the heart of the gospel—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, chosen from the foundation of the world to be the propitiation for the sin that separates fallen humanity from God. It is the faith you and I must have in order to confess with our mouths that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God, and to believe in the deepest part of our spirits that God raised Him from the dead.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)
A person can’t fall from a position (doctrinally speaking, in this case) he never has attained. The “people,” then, whom Paul the apostle is writing about in his prophecies of 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 are those who have believed in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls.
This brings us to the question: Can the departure God, through Paul, warned about be recognized when it occurs? To recognize that “falling away”—that apostasia, or apostasy—when it begins to happen, will almost certainly give the Christian attuned to God’s will a heads-up on the nearness of the Tribulation era, thus to the nearness of the Rapture of the Church.
We’ve looked at the “faith” as faith in Jesus for salvation, and at the “people” who will “depart” from the faith as being the Church—that is, the true Christians who are alive at the time of the end, when the apostasy takes place.
Although there are those who think this departure includes the possibility of one losing one’s salvation, the “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 cannot include that meaning. A quick look at Romans 8:38 and 39, to name just one security-of-the-believer passage, shows that God’s Word teaches that the believer can’t depart from the Heavenly Father to the point of losing his or her family status. Jesus, in John chapter 17, makes that absolutely clear. I suggest that if you have questions about this, read the Scriptures I just mentioned.
What, then, is meant by “departing from the faith”? Glad you asked. The “faith” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy 2:3 is a collection of faith principles wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. These principles are doctrines put forth by the Word of God. The Word of God is none other than the Lord Jesus:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
“People” at the time of the “falling away” will “depart” from the “faith”–the doctrines put forth by the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ. This departure will mark the generation of Christians at the very end of the Church Age.
The question that applies most relevantly to us today is: Are we seeing signals of the departure?
We have analyzed, dissected, examined, and inspected every end-time signal found in God’s Word many times in these commentaries: Israel again being in the land of promise; the EU looking to be the reviving Roman Empire; Russia, Persia (modern Iran), and other nations looking to be a nucleus that will one day form the Gog-Magog force of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. These, plus, all the other end-time characteristics of this generation.
However, I believe the most insidious of all the things taking place under the clever, devious hand of the devil—Satan—is the falling away, the departure from the faith being currently orchestrated by Lucifer, the fallen one.
This departure is evident to the spiritually discerning when looking at the church-growth movement. This “seeker-friendly” approach to both the saved and the lost (all who don’t know Christ) through New Age, corporation-type seminar seductiveness and brainwashing techniques that water down or completely eliminate true Bible doctrine has led in a profound departure from the “faith once delivered” (see Jude 1: 3).
The new paradigm instituted by the champions of the church-growth movement has been the shift from New Testament Christianity to “new spirituality-driven Christianity.” Like in the modern corporate organization, invented in large part by German economic guru Peter Drucker, who mentored some of the leading designers of the church-growth movement, the system is more an organism than an organization—adopting Drucker’s model based upon Freudian psychology and Darwinian evolutionary principles. The individual is assigned a value, and he or she must fit in or be removed from the system. To put it as I long ago heard one person of the movement say: “Pillars just hold things up. So, they need to be moved out of the way.” So, those who hold to doctrine must get out of the way so no one will have their feelings hurt by talk of sin, blood atonement, and eternal punishment in the place called Hell, if repentance is not forthcoming. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote God’s view of this watering-down of doctrine:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)
Are we at the point of departure from the faith prophesied for the very end of the Church Age? Maybe we can get a better sense by looking at one more area of Scripture pertaining to the matter:
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 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 Timothy 4:1–4)
There is another prophetically scheduled departure to consider. It’s the one we should be looking forward to. It is a God-ordained departure that will remove every child of God of the Church Age–living and dead—from the earth in one millisecond:
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
Based upon the spiritual departure from the true faith we are seeing, the physical (spacial) departure of the Church from planet earth in the Rapture must be near indeed!
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Thank you Terry, for making it clear that true, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, children of God can not lose their salvation.
Yesterday we had a back and forth about the impact of AI and how it portends the Rapture of the Church. In that same vein, we are seeing a rapid rise of AI Jesus, AI Church, AI Worship, and AI Sermons. All are crafted to tear down the pillars of our faith and substitute grace and salvation, paid for by the Blood of our Savior, with a cheap, artificial, soul-damning, modern “Christianity.” It is unbelievable, and it is spreading like a highly contagious disease.
Days of Noah and Lot.
I have to add that the main disciple of Peter Drucker that is primarily responsible for implementing his globalist principles and architect of the seeker friendly model in the church is Rick Warren of saddleback church.
That’s a fact! Rick Warren has been a scourge upon the Christian Church.
I have close family who used to attend his church in Orange County. I sat them down and laid out all that Warren has done, and who he is. They ostracized me over it for two years, but finally changed churches. Opening the eyes of those being led astray sure isn’t an easy task, especially not when they love who they follow, but we are called to do it.
I was part of a mega church that went down this path. Took me awhile to recognize the gradual inflow of liberal theology and increasing departure from biblical teaching but we finally left for a small Bible church. Now I find myself leading a home church. Kind of unexpected but here I am. Thankfully I follow many good teachers which helps me stay on track. Terry is one of them
Thanks Terry! End Times teaching is a priority, and I find that I can do a fair job (maybe a C+) because of all the good material I can access. Striving to be better
Praise the Lord He led you away from false teachings to prepare you for these times.
You likely do much better than a C+, and your home church surely appreciates you; your humility is commendable!
Thanks. I am convinced that an amateur led home church can work if good teachers are followed and continual prayer for understanding. As economic issues become more severe there may be a lot more home churches. But I don’t know if the traditional church model is ready for that. I hope so
I believe the Lord loves good home churches. That’s how the church began. It seems when size, buildings, social media, etc, enter into the mix, the church strays from its original mandate.
One day, not far from now, the only churches true Believers will be able to attend, will be home churches. Everything else will be the one world religion church evolving into worship of Satan/Antichrist.
How privileged we are, as Americans, to be able to worship however we choose. God still sheds His grace on us.
Agreed. But I believe the next 2-3 years is a time God calls the church to get ready for what’s coming. I hope for the rapture but prepare for persecution. The day is coming when Bible believers will have to make tough choices. That day is not far off.
Good for you, A. Clark! I’m glad you have assembled some like-minded people together. You now belong to a True Church – something in increasingly short supply these days. I expect you already rate at least an “A.”
Let’s see if I’m right about that at the Bema!
Thanks for the encouragement. The meals my wife makes as part of our meetings certainly will merit that rating 😂
This is very confusing to me.
If a person who is once saved is always saved, how can they fall away? It seems to me that a saved person can’t fall away from the fundamental belief of being saved by Jesus’ atonement foe his or her sins, though they might be misled on other doctrines such as the validity of priestly absolution, purgatory, speaking in tongues as evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, etc.
Perhaps this “falling way” is directed more toward the church as an organization. Individual believers won’t fall away but the church as institutions can – and certainly has these days. This explains how it can come to accept the “doctrines of demons” as an organized entity and draw in people who were not saved before with false doctrine.
I hope someone who reads this can help me sort this out.
Hi Ed, Terry clarified that the truly saved can never fall away. But many people who think they are saved, and are not truly converted, will fall away in these times.
There are a tremendous number of people who claim faith in Jesus, but don’t believe in the most important fundamentals of faith. They have syncretistic (mixing Christianity with false practices-like the RCC promotes, or believing that their works are an integral part of what saves them.) Mormons do not worship Jesus, they have another Jesus. Same with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, many Methodists and Presbyterians and even Baptists now. They are following doctrines of demons and they reject that Jesus is the only way, or that He is just one way, or that He saves everyone no matter what they believe, or that He wasn’t born of a virgin, or the resurrection is an allegory, or that Hell isn’t real, and on it goes. There is a terrible level of false theology in the world. Again, most people who say they are Christians simply are not, as evidenced by the most recent Barna Study.
Only those who are are indwelled by the Holy Spirit are saved. That is the #1 requirement for entering the Kingdom, we must be born again…as I know you know! I pray that many of these lukewarm, or deceived, souls will become part of the Tribulation Saints after the Rapture. Better late than never.
Thanks, Robin. Looks like my premise that truly saved people won’t be deceived by major false doctrine scams, but I imagine they can still be mislead to some degree – since we all only see in the glass darkly in this life.
I do believe the Holy Spirit will cause someone to feel unease even if they are in a physical place that God doesn’t want them to be. This happened to me in my former parish.
As its rector finally caved in and abandoned his opposition to the un-biblical stances of the Episcopal leadership, the sense of peace I always got when entering the building went away. It just became an empty building. What came to mind was Ezekiel’s account of the Shekinah abandoning the temple in Jerusalem (chapters 10 & 11), leaving it empty. I had the sense that the Holy Spirit had left the building, being forced out because people just didn’t want him here anymore than the Israelites had wanted him in their temple.
Wasn’t long after that when I left, too. I thought I’d feel badly if I ever left there, having grown up in this church, but I actually departed with a sense of relief. I never have and would never go back, even as just a visitor. Out of morbid curiosity I check out its website once in a while. To give you an idea on what is going on there now, they had an LGBT movie night about a month ago.
My exit continues to be vindicated.
What you describe Ed, is discernment, and it is a gift of the Spirit. It grows stronger the more we pray for it and read scripture. This is something the Lord wants for all of us, and will always provide it to us when we ask for it.
Whether we heade the Spirit when He directs us is another thing altogether. Praise Jesus that you were (are) willing to follow where He leads you! So many people wait too long to move in the direction He points us to. Most of the time I’m obedient, but I can recall times when I second guessed His guidance…only to eventually learn that, yes indeed, He’s moving me where He wants me to go.
Why do I resist?! My flesh, no doubt about that. It isn’t irrational to wonder if it is really Him leading, or just my own fears/uncertainties. As time goes by, and my faith with Jesus deepens, I follow more quickly, and don’t question as often. Prayer is the miraculous gift He has provided to guide me, especially when I am doubt.
Regarding the church situation, I left my former church 2+ years ago because they were bringing in people to speak to our congregation that I knew were on the “broad road” and it created distrust in me; to the point that I didn’t even want to walk through their doors. (That was the Holy Spirit at work, protecting me.) After a few months of wrestling with my doubts, a friend offered to take me to her church, and what a Godsend that has been! That experience taught me the Lord is always faithful to lead us to “the better” when we are willing to trust Him, and give up “the familiar.”
In my daily Bible studies, I’m reading Judges and finished the story of Gideon again. What came through to me is how incredibly gracious and patient the Lord was with Gideon, even with all of his fears and doubts. Gideon didn’t doubt a little, he doubted a lot and put the Lord to the test multiple times. I don’t judge him for that, he was singled out to be a great servant and wasn’t confident he was ‘worthy’ (most of us are not Joseph or Daniel) or up to the task. It seems likely I’d feel the same way, given his circumstances.
Gideon’s story helps me to remember God is not upset with me when I’m imperfect. He knows how frail I am, and how skittish I can be. It’s marvelous that He calls us His sheep, because that’s exactly what we are…not very smart, easily led astray, prone to wander, and we desperately need our Good Shepherd, 24/7, as the wolves are multiplying. Perilous times indeed.
Maranatha!
Thanks for telling me about the times God directed you on your journey. As I think about it, I had a “bad feeling” about the Covid shots, especially the MRNA versions. As a result, I just got the J & J, though I probably shouldn’t have even done that. After reading of the subsequent adverse reactions, I am glad I didn’t.
Even before that, “something” made me suspicious about Covid altogether and I decided to investigate. We has a “15 days to flatten the curve” here in Connecticut where people were pressured to isolate themselves during that time. I figured, if this was on the level, the Covid rates should drop precipitously within a month or so. They actually went UP! That’s when I knew it was a big lie. That something was, no doubt, the Holy Spirit.
As you said, the ability to be led by the Spirit increases if we allow it to. I have lost count how many times I just “happened” to be put in the right place at the right time. Just amazing and it shows how God can even use imperfect tools to get a job done.
I am very much looking forward to what he has in store for me to do once I leave here.
God bless!
When you look at the church today, it’s made up of a large percentage of people who are biblically illiterate and have no understanding of the gospel. A form of godliness but denying its power (the power is the gospel). They go to the big entertainment based churches hearing anti-biblical self improvement messages and outwardly appear as Christians but accept every sin of the culture and reject the truth of the Bible. Lawbreakers.
There are too many assurances in the Bible for those who are saved. My favorite is this one: Romans 8:14-16
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children.
It is the Spirit that testifies to your spirit that you are a child of God. When you have the Holy Spirit, that’s resurrection power. There’s no going back from that.
Well said! Becoming Scripturally-literate allows one access to that discernment. Part of this for me is that many times, a passage or verse will come to mind whenever I need it for any particular situation. Had I not read the Bible often, I would not have had this information available.
It, of course, goes beyond this. I often get a sense of something (or someone) that just doesn’t “read right.” Generally is proven out in the course of time. The few times it hasn’t, I blame on my imperfect sight (seeing in the glass darkly).
This signal is going out fine but the receiver has some trouble picking it up sometimes.
Imagine that in the world to come how amazing it will be to finally see clearly!
I love that analogy Ed, we are ‘the receivers’ in every way!
Helps to resort to my science geek inclinations!
Glad you liked that comparison.
Amen.
I’ve recommended it before but I’ll do it again, there is a wonderful book called Only Two Religions by Peter Jones. He explains how deceived people are regarding their salvation because a false teacher, or false religious system, lays out a system and tells them they have nothing to worry about.
That’s why Paul, in the Bible, tells us to test ourselves in 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” We are supposed to do a deep dive to confirm we are truly saved. I know people who believed they were Christians for years, before discovering that wasn’t the truth! Thank the Lord He opened their eyes and their hearts to fully turn to Him.
We can see from the earliest days of Christianity there have always been professing false converts.
We can’t always know if someone is indwelled by the Holy Spirit; the sanctification process works at God’s pace in each Believer. That’s why it is dangerous to claim someone is, or is not, a Believer. That is God’s exclusive domain. Time is the only way to know, and to observe the fruit they bear.
The article presented by Terry and all the comments were excellent! There is indeed demonic entrenchment in some of these so called Churches that tap into New Age Spiritualism or embrace materialism as equal to holiness.
Terry ~ Do you have any audio versions of your articles? ~ Lee