Those who watch for signals of Christ’s return are familiar with Paul the apostle’s warning about a massive “falling away” (apostasia) before Antichrist is revealed:

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 Greek word apostasia is most often thought to be a falling-away or departure from the faith. However, some authorities in the study of Bible prophecy—for example, Dr. Thomas Ice, head of the PreTrib Study Group—believe the word also can mean a spatial or physical departure—as when the Church leaves earth in the Rapture.

I agree that the word not only can represent both a departure from faith, but also a departure of believers when Christ calls the Church into the clouds of Glory.

In this case, I would like to look at the 2 Thessalonians 2:3 “falling away” (apostasia) in the sense of a falling away from the Christian faith—particularly in America.

I believe a massive movement of non-Christian religious fervor is proof positive of just how late we are in this Age of Grace (Church Age) dispensation. There is little doubt that some denominations within Christendom have departed from the faith. All we have to do is to look at the area of the world from which America came (was birthed) to understand that apostasia or apostasy set in worldwide long ago.

England’s great church edifices in London and other cities are but tourist attractions. The church where John Wesley preached those great sermons and others stand only as tourist traps, their magnificent pulpits and stained-glass surroundings silent witness to the empty, richly polished mahogany pews where hundreds and thousands of believers once worshipped.

In America, some mainline denominations have experienced rifts that created schisms that have diluted or completely severed adherence to true doctrines found in God’s Word. Some have adopted social issues as part of this split from doctrinal truth. For example, some denominations now embrace homosexuality and even abortion as their invitation to all who seek validation in their sinful lifestyles.

While all this is true—Christendom’s defection from the faith in those instances—we must address another departure that is blatantly taking place in our nation. It is growing at an exponential rate and is part of a worldwide satanic assault.

I refer to the embrace of Islam that is literally taking over major cities and even beginning to grow, seemingly unstoppably, in former Christian faith-based places like those found in Texas. The Muslim culture is now in every direction one looks. The following links to these stories on Raptureready.com news tell the story of the growing turn from Christianity and toward Islam.

These stories were posted on one news day—Wednesday, July 1, 2026.

• Another City Falls: Downtown Chicago Seized for Islam
  While our leaders obsess over Europe’s slow death, Chicago is being captured. On June 25, thousands of Shia Muslims, for their annual Ashura procession, seized streets in the heart of the city: burqas, black flags, and men beating their chests in mourning for their prophet – a public show of force and total commitment to their ideology.
• Conquered Texas: Muslims Turn Houston Streets Into Islamic Battlegrounds In Annual Takeover
  Nothing says Texas like Muslims beating themselves in the streets outside of a mosque. Why stay inside the mosque and beat yourselves privately when you can take the spectacle to American public streets in a deliberate show of force? That is exactly what Shia Muslims are doing in Houston, Texas, during the annual Muharram Juloos.
• Dearborn Has Been Conquered By An Islamic Army – Without Firing a Single Shot
  For the 13th year, March for Justice flooded Dearborn streets (Tlaib’s district) to honor Imam Hussain. No American flag. Instead, Shi’ite flags flew as a blatant show of power and foreign allegiance in the heart of America. Also the police force is being Islamized.
• Detroit Archbishop Surrenders to Islam: Celebrates New Mega-Mosque While His Own Churches Are Shuttered
  “There is no place where I feel more respect, fraternity, and kindness.” That is what Archbishop Weisenburger declared at the June 2026 opening of the $16–20 million Imam Al-Hasanain Mosque in Dearborn Heights. He stood with Rep. Tlaib and Shia Muslim leaders and called the mosque a “sacred place” with “profound divine presence.”

Some will say this isn’t true apostasy in the vein described by the apostle Paul. But because some founding fathers, such as John Adams, once declared the new nation of America to be a Christian nation—that is, founded on Judeo-Christian principles (biblical principles)—it is clearly in the process of departing from God’s divine direction intended for our nation.

Upon our 250th birthday, America’s undeniable movement away from Heaven’s governance and toward that issued by Islam’s god is most telling as to where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline, I think.

The Antichrist must at this very moment be standing in the shadows of the immediate future, awaiting his time to take advantage of mankind’s defection from God’s governance.

This is sad, tragic, and all the expressions of catastrophe one can muster. The world is on the precipice of the Tribulation. But those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are destined for a glorious future beyond any superlative one could speak.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

The True Church, all born-again believers, are about to experience a magnificent Departure! We can sense in the deepest part of our spirits that Jesus Christ is about to make the shout that snatches all believers to Himself in a millisecond—the twinkling of an eye!

Once again, here is how to go to the Lord when he says: “Come up here!” (as He called John the Revelator, Revelation 4:1).

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)