What Is the Great "Falling Away"?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 Thessalonians 4, Revelation 19, Acts 2, Joel 2, Luke 19:10, 2 Peter 3:9, Matthew 24

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-is-the-great-falling-away
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Let's first of all look at the context. So, first and second Thessalonians, most scholars believe that they were the first books written by Paul and possibly the first books to be written in the New Testament around AD 49 or 50. When you read First Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul gives an assurance of the coming of the Lord, uh what we often call the rapture, that we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so forth.

So in 2 Thessalonians, if you start at the beginning of the chapter of chapter 2, he says,"Now some of you think the Lord's already come." So apparently they got his first letter, are all excited, then some are worried. Well, maybe he's already come and we missed it. And so he wants to reassure them. Now, I'll give you a little aside. There is some uh difference of opinion among Christians about the coming of the Lord. So, uh, most of us in the United Pentecostal Church International, but by no means all, would think of, uh, two phases of his coming. So, he's coming back to earth, but he comes in the clouds to catch away the saints, which we call the rapture, which is from the Latin word meaning catch away, which is first Thessalonians 4.

And then there's seven years of tribulation on earth, but there's the marriage supper of the lamb with Christ. And then at the end of that time, Jesus actually physically comes down to earth with his saints and that's in Revelation 19 and defeats the armies of the Antichrist and ushers in the last judgment and the eternal state. Now, some that would be called a pre-tribulation rapture position. However, there's some believe mid-tribulation, some the end of the tribulation. So that what I just described, the saints will meet the Lord in the air pretty much as he's coming down and so they'll immediately reverse course and come down with him.

Uh so I mentioned that because that's a sub another subject, but uh it could influence how we look at this. So, I'm going to look at the second coming of Jesus as the total picture that I just described both the catching away of the saints and uh his physically coming back to earth to establish the millennial kingdom, the the reign of a thousand years and then issued the eternal state. I I failed to to include that a moment ago. And so whether you what regardless of the timing of the rapture, I think my answer remains the same. So the Apostle Paul is saying, "No, this hasn't happened yet.

Don't be alarmed. No, Jesus hasn't caught away the saints." And I think that fear actually fits better with the two-faced approach because if Jesus had already come back to earth and established his kingdom, seems like you would know it. But if the rapture had taken place, maybe people were left behind and they're worried that they were left behind. They're worried they didn't know it. So the apostle Paul is saying no although this is coming it hasn't happened yet and one of the reasons why we know it hasn't happened yet is before it comes there's going to be a great falling away so this is very early in the church the history of the church where the church is expanding churches are being established the church of course is very small in comparison to the world population but it was growing and so he could reassure them no we're expanding we're planting new churches we're going to different parts of the known world, the the Mediterranean world.

And so, um, you don't have to worry about this happening immediately. One of the signs that you will know to start being prepared, whether it's you personally or a future generation, is when there's a great falling away. And that would indicate a lot of people departing from the faith. Um, and a mass exodus of people departing from the faith. And then he goes on to explain eventually that will appear that will turn into this man of sin which we often call the antichrist although the apostle Paul did not use that term but this man of sin this evil ruler will stand up and he will oppose God and many people will be deceived.

They will believe he is the Messiah that he is not the false Christ but the Christ and then the end will come. So whether that happens before the rapture or during the tribulation after the rapture or not, the point remains the same. And and it's also interesting that uh that Paul says it that he who now restrains will restrain until he's taken out of the way and then this wicked ruler will be revealed. And a lot of commentators, I think the New King James even capitalizes he and that's the Holy Spirit. So when God withdraws his active presence, obviously God's spirit still is everywhere. But at when God withdraws his active presence, again many people feel that would be when the church is raptured.

uh while there still could be people who turn to the Lord and are saved as far as the spirit moving in a great way that will be withdrawn. So the great falling away then would be this mass exodus of believers uh before the coming of the Lord and or a mass deception of believers. So the question will be uh when will that happen and I think we can say it's already happened in a to a great measure but obviously we don't know how far it's going to go eventually it will come to the point where many people openly accept this false Christ and that hasn't happened yet in in its fullest extent but we can see in human history so in the first century the church continued to expand and the second century also But then at uh in the ensuing centuries as Christianity became predominant in the Roman Empire unfortunately paganism influenced Christianity and so there was a form of godliness but the initial fervor was largely gone.

So for example Jesus name baptism persisted but eventually was largely replaced with three-fold baptism. The doctrine of the trinity came into effect in the 4th century. um the experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, while that did persist, it was largely gone from the institutionalized church. So you could say really as of the 4th century, you saw this great falling away. So anytime after that, you could say the prophecy could easily be fulfilled uh without hesitation. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened even before, but definitely by that time. So in our day we have millions of professing Christians who have no real experience with God who do not have a understanding of biblical doctrine.

So we can say we're living in the time of great falling away. So the prophecy could be fulfilled at any moment. Um the Lord could come whether the rapture or his coming back to earth. It's all shaping up that the prophecy could be fulfilled. Now, some people take a very negative view saying, "Well, that means we can't really have end time revival. That's that's not realistic. That's not going to happen." But I argue that there can be a great falling away and a great revival at the same time. And I believe that's exactly what's happening. Because in Acts chapter 2, the Apostle Peter quoted from the prophecy of Joel chapter 2.

In the last days, says God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Then he mentioned your sons and daughters, male and female, young and old, uh, maid servants and men's servants. So that would be every class of people, uh, even from the lowest parts of the socioeconomic system. And so he's basically saying universal revival and that's in the last days. Well, if the apostle Peter could claim that for the book of acts, the first century, how much more can we claim the same thing for the 21st century? I think we are even more in the last days. So I think the promise of revival certainly remains for us and that should not be shocking because God's plan is to seek and save the lost.

Uh Luke 19:10. And God is not willing that anyone perish but all that come to should come to repentance. Second Peter 3:9. So God is actively seeking for sinners and God is actively wanting to lead people to repentance and to salvation. So there's never a time which we should say, well revival can't happen or it's not going to happen or we don't expect it. But to the contrary, if we believe we are living in the last days, which certainly we are much more in the last days than any other time in history and and certainly compared to the apostolic era of the first century. Well, then we have the promise that God will pour out his spirit on all flesh, all people, all um ethnicities, uh every class of people.

And so we should not use this passage in 2 Thessalonians to minimize the the truth of worldwide revival. In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, uh when it's talking about the end time, Jesus talked about the end time in you can see that in Matthew chap 24, for example, um he says, "The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for witness and then shall the end come." So it it looks like the Bible is saying yes, there's going to be a massive falling away as profess professing Christians or professing believers in God will be deceived. Uh even to the point that when the antichrist is revealed, they will follow him.

Uh and I think we can say that's shaping up. That's evident that there are masses of professing Christians and professing believers of various religions um that are abandoning whatever truth they've had. uh and they're opening their hearts to accept a false messiah. Uh but at the same time there is among believers there is a uh you know among the church there's a great revival and a great influx of souls. So I see the great falling away as referring to people abandoning the truth u that's found in the word of God that was preached in the first century. But at the same time there still is the promise of great end time revival.