The Great Falling Away Part 2. Apostasy in the ranks.

“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; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Similarly, in Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of it in verses 11 and 12 in connection with false teaching. He says, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

So what do we mean by apostasy? Apostasy, or falling away, as Paul describes it in II Thessalonians 2, is departure from the truth of God’s Word by those who once, in a certain sense, held to that truth. This means that apostasy is not something that happens outside of the church. It is not something that happens to pagans and atheists, but to those who were once known as Christians. They fall away. They once stood for the Christian faith.

Apostasy is not simply a departure from truth, from objective truth, it is a departure, in the end, from Christ Himself, the way of salvation—because the truth of God’s Word revealed in Scripture is not just ideas. It is not just ‘something,’ but it refers to salvation. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Falling away is falling away from Christ and opposition to Christ.

We see this apostasy taking place in this generation as in others. But also, it can happen to groups of people—to churches and denominations. A church that was once faithful, that loved and confessed the truth, that preached God’s Word, that disciplined those who walked in sin, falls away. Little by little the truth is given away, piece by piece, and discipline falls away.

Finally, false teachers come into the church, and a whole group of people departs together. This is what is described in the letters in Revelations 2 and 3 to the churches in Asia Minor. The church at Ephesus had left her first love; there was false teaching in the church; there was no discipline as there should have been, and, in the end, Christ removes the candlestick and He calls such churches departing to go back to their first love and to repent and go to their first works.

So how do we avoid flying away ourselves?
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