Thread: New Testament Prophecy On the Apostasy In the Latter Times
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New Testament Prophecy On the Apostasy In the Latter Times
Posted : 15 Dec, 2012 09:16 AM
New Testament Prophecy On the Apostasy In the Latter Times
II Thessalonians 2: 3 says "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."
In the modern timeline, the falling away began at some point in the
19th century.
Why did the falling away in the modern timeline began in the 19th century? The Catholic Church had fallen away centuries earlier, and in part, the Protestant Reformation of Luther and Calvin corrected the false doctrines and practices of the Catholics.
The falling away began in the 19th century because of the rise of humanism and because major changes were taking place in the culture in Northern Europe and in North America. Christians at that time, that is, the church, which claimed to include all the Body of Christ, the elect, were not fully aware of these changes in culture and the paradigm shift that was going on then to undermine the authority of the absolute word of God, as "it is written."
Since the Body of Christ, the elect, just about entirely identified with the church they were not completely aware of the threat coming from the shift in thinking, called a paradigm shift, going on in the culture surrounding the church, and so the church lost millions of people to the cults of the 19th century.
In the U.S., for example, the individuality and self-reliance of the more rural protestant population began to be undermined and diminished by the loss of the small farm, a cultural change which spread from the East Coast west, and into the Midwest and later to the Great Planes and Texas. The small town and rural churches of the Great Planes West might have hung on to the Gospel of Christ longer, but in the larger cities the changes in the culture and the paradigm shift in thinking and knowing were stronger in their diminishing effect on the Gospel that Jude 1: 3 advises us to defend.
In the 19th century the U.S. was moving toward an urban population dominance and an urban lifestyle. And even in the later 19th century the money power of the usury bankers and power and influence of the huge corporations began to increase. The war of 1861-65 resulted in the federal government gaining power as the central dominant government over the states and also over the people. Before 1865 the federal government had little governing authority over the individual citizens. All these developments moved the country and its culture toward more and more of a top-down system, so that if an elite could get control at the top, it could dominate the culture of the entire nation, and that elite included the seminary professors and other top Christian leaders.
As a result of humanism and the cultural change as a paradigm shift, many Christians lost their love of the truth (II Thessalonians 2: 10-12) and zeal to protect the faith and Gospel of Christ. So, the false prophets of the 19th century and the cults began to gain more and more Christian followers.
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), Ellen G. White (1827-1915), Edward Irving (1792 �1834 John Darby (1800 -1882), Charles T. Russell (1852-1916), and and C.I. Scofield (1843 -1921) were some of the major false prophets of the 19th century who influenced Christians. The most influential 19th century false doctrines,or cults, were the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormon Cult, Christian Science and Dispensationalism. Because dispensationalism took over so many evangelical Christian denominations, beginning in the late 19th century, this false doctrine had so many followers by the mid 20th century that it was hard to call it a cult.
Several exact dates for the beginning of the falling away from the doctrines of Christ, the true Gospel, could be proposed. For example, the time of the Niagra Bible Conferences from 1876 to 1897, when
dispensationalism was spread in the United States is an early possible date. Another date that
is important for the falling away is 1909 when the first edition of
the Scofield Reference Bible was published by Oxford University Press. So, the falling away began sometime in the 19th century, or very early 20th century.
Luke 13: 21 on the leavening of the church supports II Thessalonians
2: 3-4. That text says "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid
in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." The word till
indicates the leavening occurs over time.
Paul in I Corinthians 5: 6-7 warns that "Know ye not that a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as
ye are unleavened."
He is warning that a little bit of false doctrine will grow and
contaminate the entire loaf, that is, a little bit of false doctrine
will increase over time and make an entire ministry impure in its
teachings.
"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." Matthew 24: 11
"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;" I Timothy 4: 1
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and
being deceived." II Timothy 3: 13.
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction." II Peter 2: 1
Paul's prophecy about the personality traits of people the last days
when perilous times shall come is also a prophecy of the falling away
from the Gospel once delivered to the saints. "This know also, that in
the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from
such turn away.
6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth." II Timothy 3: 1-7
Paul is not talking only about non-Christians here, but also about
Christians, because what he is saying describes a whole generation of
people in the last days, and more than one generation. It is almost as
though Paul has looked ahead to the counterculture of the sixties and
seventies of the last century and to the entire Baby Boomer generation
and is describing them - and their descendants. Transformational
Marxism since 1950 has brought about much of this change from the
older generations to the counterculture and the Baby Boomers.
New Testament Prophecy On the Apostasy In the Latter Times
Posted : 22 Dec, 2012 05:04 AM
When one side of this issue uses man made theology as authority and the other side uses scripture as authority, with scripture interpreting scripture, there is often endless argument. The argument never stops because those in the man made theology have been taught that theology for so long in the churches which follow that theology.
And - those in that theology believe that because it took over the majority of Christian denominations over a hundred years ago, that the majority must be right and the small numbers saying the theology contradicts the scriptures must be wrong.
And in addition II Thessalonians 2: 1-12: " And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
3. "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;
4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
The literal "hermeneutic" of Christian Zionism says II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 means that the "falling away" will only happen during the tribulation and that the man of sin is the one man super anti-Christ who will defile the newly built temple in Jerusalem in some way. Things are in the physical for the dispensationalists or Christian Zionists because they are proxies for all physical Israel.
For the Christian Zionists, they think its the "other guys" who do not have a love for the truth and are not saved or born again. and its the other guys who have the strong delusion. And the Christian Zionists have a love for the truth of their theology as it has been handed down from its founders.
In saying that II Thessalonians 2: 3-4, the falling away, has not happened yet, they are defending their false doctrine which is the majority church doctrine (the Reformed doctrine is the minority church doctrine). In saying that the man of sin as their anti-Christ figure is to sit in a literal physical temple in Jerusalem to fulfill Paul's prophecy in II Thessalonians 2: 4 the Christian Zionists are denying that physical Israel was predicted to be transformed in the Old Testament (II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16, and Jeremiah 19: 1-6), was said in the New Testament to have been given a new life (Luke 13: 6-9), pared down to a remnant in numbers (Romans 11: 5) and became a spiritual house (I Peter 2: 5) and in the first century A.D. became a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people (I Peter 2: 9).
"Ye must be born again." "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Christ said this to a Pharisee, a member of physical Israel.
Christian Zionism, in being a proxy theology for all physical Israel, the enemies of the Gospel (Romans 11: 28), lost the teaching that at the Cross and the Day of Pentecost, those in Christ became one, (Romans 10: 12, Galatians 3: 28, Ephesians 2: 11-19) whatever their genetics, and that physical Israel was transformed into a spiritual house. That which was physical, including being the chosen people by virtue of genetics, the physical temple building, circumcision, and animal sacrifice,was done away with. See Galatians 3: 3-29 for the change from the physical in genetics as the means of entry into the kingdom to faith which is spiritual. See I Corinthians 3: 16-17 and I Corinthians 6: 19 for the change from the physical temple to the believer as the temple of God.
But those in strong delusion cannot hear what scripture says which is different from what their theology says. They have been taught their theology so long they cannot hear scripture.
We don't know who is in such strong delusion that he cannot hear scripture. Some who appear now to be in strong delusion will come out of the theology to the truth before it is too late.
The Fifth Seal in Revelation 6: 9-10, talks about souls of men under God's alter who were killed for the word of God. This occurs after the four seals which are the four horses and riders, and could also occur in time after those seals are opened. Which means the martyrdom of Christians, which is going on in other parts of the world now, will happen here, and may be dead ahead, and will involve, in part, those who stay in false doctrines and those who come out of them.
And a time will come when it will be too late to turn to the truth, when Christ appears.
