Recognizing The Great Apostasy

In Hebrews 10:23-25, we read, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” We are told to stay strong in our faith and to always come together as a church. This is especially important as we see the Day approaching. The word “Day” refers to the calamities and persecutions that will come upon the earth during the final season before Christ’s return. We are not supposed to forsake the church, but when we look around us right now, it seems that more and more people are leaving. Why? What’s going on? I think what we see happening can be explained by our passage of Scripture, so let’s go ahead and get started with verses 1-2.

Christ Has Not Yet Returned (vv. 1-2)

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

In verses 1-2, we learn that “the occasion of Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians was to correct some of the errors concerning the endtimes that the believers had heard from false teachers. Among the falsehoods, was that the day of the Lord [had] already come (2 Thessalonians 2:2). The Christians in Thessalonica were afraid that Jesus had already [returned, that] they had missed the rapture, and [that] they were now in the Tribulation . . . Paul writes his second letter to assure them that, contrary to what they had heard, and despite the persecution they were enduring, the ‘day of Christ’ had not yet come.”(1) He then began to tell them how to recognize the season of our Lord’s return.

The Falling Away Must Happen (vv. 3-5)

3 Let no one 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, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

Paul begins to tell them, “The endtimes are near when these specific things begin to happen.” First, there will be “the falling away” (v. 3). “The word rendered ‘falling away’ is apostasia. Of course, you need no theological degree to see that this term is where our English word ‘apostasy’ originated. ‘Apostasy’ simply means ‘a defection from truth, falling away, [and] forsaking’ . . . The word apostasia is the feminine form of apostasion, which itself means . . . ‘divorce’ or ‘writing of divorcement.’ Apostasion appears twice in Matthew and once in Mark(2) [with] Moses writing the ‘bill of divorcement’ under the Law . . . The idea is [of] one party leaving another. Now, carry that concept over into 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and it becomes clear [that] someone is leaving someone else.”(3)

And right now, there appears to be a massive divorcement from the church; and it is leaving behind the hurt and pain of a divorce, as those who seemed to be with us until the very end have suddenly rejected having any fellowship with us! They have just up and vanished without even a goodbye. “The Bible indicates that there will be a great apostasy during the end times . . . The King James Version calls it ‘the falling away,’ while the NIV . . . calls it ‘the rebellion.’ And that’s what an apostasy is; a rebellion – an abandonment of the truth. The end times will include a wholesale rejection of God’s revelation, [and] a further ‘falling away’ of an already fallen world.”(4) “Every age has its defectors, but [noteworthy is the fact that] the falling away at the end times will be complete and worldwide. The whole planet will be in rebellion against God and [Jesus] Christ.”(5)

In Matthew 24:6-14, here’s what Jesus said about the beginning of the end: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”