What is the "Great Falling Away"?
"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,
who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."
(2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
Paul asserts that before our Lord's return there is to be a "falling away" from the faith
and a revealing of "that man of sin" - the Antichrist. This falling away is not a denial of
faith itself; rather, it is a corruption of the faith. A rejection of all faith would deceive
no one, but Satan's corruption of the faith of Christ has deceived many. Seeing this
apostasy taking place in his day, the apostle John wrote, "As ye have heard that
Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists. . . . They went out from us,
but they were not of us" (I John 2:18-19). An example of this is found in Acts 15, when
"certain men" went out from the assembly in Jerusalem, teaching things which the apostles
did not teach. Thus, as John said, those men went out from the assembly led by Peter,
James, and other apostles in Jerusalem, but they were not of the apostles' spirit. They
were holy Ghost baptized "brethren", but they had an agenda and a doctrine that was not
God's.
Before we can understand what this "falling away" is, we must first understand what
people will be falling away FROM. Odd as it may at first sound, Satan encourages men
to serve Christ Jesus - but he redefines what serving Jesus means! By its form of
godliness, his vain religion deceives every soul not led by God's Spirit. Satan has
deceived the whole world (Rev.12:9), inspiring millions to worship God "after the
doctrines and commandments of men" rather than "in Spirit and in truth"; and his
crowning achievement in false religion has been that religion which boldly calls itself by
the name of Christ: Christianity! "Christianity" is NOT God's holy congregation. There
are many within "Christianity" who have never even received the Spirit of God (the
baptism of the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues). What men will fall
away FROM is the truth that the elect are ONLY those people in whom the Spirit of
God dwells. What men will GO INTO, is a religion where there is an "appearance" of
righteousness, but which lacks God's approval. And the name of this "place" is
"Christianity" - that is where those who have "gone out from us", and those who have
"fallen away" will end up. To "fall away" is to become a Christian, and to like being
one!
Those who have "fallen away" have a "spirit" leading them, and that "spirit" is the spirit of
Antichrist. The Antichrist had already come in the apostle John's day, for he told the elect
"there are many Antichrists". Paul said this man of sin would be "revealed" -
not a physical man but a "man of sin", the spiritual son of Satan. The coming of the
Antichrist is not a future event; he has been in our midst for almost two millennia. What
is yet to come, as Paul said, is the revealing of that man of sin, for he has disguised
himself!
That the Antichrist has not yet come is in fact a doctrine of the Antichrist himself! By
this clever ruse, he diverts the elect's attention to the future, while he continues to
steal our joy, quench the Spirit, and destroy our fellowship. While misguided believers
look for the appearing of the dreaded Antichrist, he works freely in our midst,
unhindered because he is unrevealed!
Let us reveal now, to you, this spirit which rules in the hearts of those who have "fallen
away" from the true faith in Christ Jesus: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every SPIRIT [not every person!] that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is of God. And every SPIRIT that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world" (1Jn.4:2,3).
The Spirit of God is not a dumb spirit (1Cor.12:3). It speaks (in tongues) through the
person when it enters. Jesus said, "When the comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the
Father, HE shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness" (Jn.15:26,27).
This is exactly what happened to Jesus's disciples on the day of Pentecost. They received
the holy Ghost and began to testify in tongues "as the Spirit gave them
utterance." Paul compared this supernatural confession of Christ to the
birth-cry of an new-born infant, saying, "Ye have received the spirit of adoption
[into the family of God], whereby we cry, `Abba, Father'" (Rom.8:15).
Any spirit that fails to meet the Lord's condition of a verbal confession when it enters is
not the holy Spirit. It is instead Satan's substitute: the spirit of Antichrist. The
first-century A.D. definition of anti was "instead of", and this is what "antichrist" really
means: instead-of-Christ. The Spirit of God confesses Christ when it enters (1Jn.4: 1-3),
but in John's day some forsook the truth and began to claim the holy Spirit without that
divinely ordained evidence: speaking in tongues. What they had actually received was
Satan's deeply religious, instead-of-Christ spirit. The spirit of Antichrist denies that
speaking in tongues is the sign of receiving the holy Ghost, because that essential truth
exposes him to be the powerless fraud that he is. The spirit of Antichrist is the spirit of
unsanctified religion, and that evil spirit dwells in the temple of the believer who believes
his sins were washed away before he was baptized with God's holy Ghost.
My friend, if you are professing to be born again but have not spoken in tongues; or if
you have received the baptism of the Spirit but are telling others it is not part of the
conversion experience, you are dangerously entangled with the "instead-of-Christ" spirit,
the Antichrist, though you may be sincere in your believing. Multitudes today are
persuaded by Satan's ministers that they are born again without receiving the holy Ghost
with its heavenly witness! Others have been convinced that when they DID receive the
Spirit, it was merely "something extra". Instead of following Christ, Christian multitudes
have been seduced by the powerless christ which Satan offers them. More than any
other, it is the confession of this truth which provokes a bitter reaction from those
entangled in the Antichrist's religious system (2Tim.3:12). Those who have "fallen away"
cannot understand, or do not want to understand this truth - because they do not want to
repent. That is why God has turned them over to Christianity.
God's children are so sincere about doing what they think is God's will, they often
become the most fiercely loyal members of Christianity - but only because they think
Christianity is of God! If they didn't care about pleasing God, Satan couldn't make
merchandise of them (2Pet.2:1-3). Being zealous, they are very useful to Satan in his
efforts to strengthen and enlarge his unordained religion. Satan accomplishes this by
persuading God's children to express their love for God in ways which, in fact, dishonor
and deny Him. This is Christianity. The religion of "the fallen away", and we are calling
every person who loves Jesus OUT of it. Your response to this call will reveal your
condition. Are you a member of the real body of Christ? Or are you "fallen away"?
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