THE FALLING AWAY OF THE CHURCH:
THIS CONCEPT CANNOT BE FOUND
IN THE BIBLE AT ALL !
“The falling away of the church”:
THIS CONCEPT CANNOT BE FOUND
IN THE BIBLE AT ALL!
JAN LILLEBY
The concept of a supposed ‘theological prophecy’ – which is called in Christianity for “The Falling Away” – is widely spread around in several denominations.
The concept has in it a scenario in which the Christian Church…world-wide…and by considerable numbers, shall all of a sudden fall away from its belief in Jesus Christ.
Well, this is how it goes if one is not rightly dividing the word of God. The known theologian Miles Coverdale, in the prologue of his 1535 Coverdale Bible wrote,
"It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth after."
I recently watched a video posted in YouTube, in which Dr. David Jeremiah, born in 1941, Southern Baptist pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, near San Diego, CA, held a sermon regarding this very topic, The Falling Away of the Church.
Let me also say that I have no personal grudges or any sort of disrespect towards this Christian pastor, neither do I have any knowledge of him as to how he conducts his personal life etcetera. God bless this pastor in His Grace. But he seems to be one representing this kind of concept, so I chose to refer to him in that regard. He is one among quite a number of pastors holding this Bible view. Here, in my homeland Norway, I have heard several times pastors/preachers referring to this so-called apostasy of the Church. So it’s nothing new…this doctrinal sidetrack has existed quite some time I think. Now, having given you a name and a local church, - why not go to their web site and check what is taught in the various topics? David Jeremiah seems to be a capable and learned pastor, and I am confident that he might be able to help you in your faith, if you seek for answers regarding the Bible in general.
However, after listening to and watching his sermon, I have to say that I do not agree to his assertions of such a scenario, in which the Christian Church will – in considerable numbers - fall away from the faith in Christ. Whether the entire Church or a minor or major fraction of it.
I shall shortly come to details why I disagree – but much of that rests on the fact that the apostle Paul, in his teachings to the Thessalonians, did not address the Church.
He addressed only the ‘Israel of God’ – that is, the Jesus-believers inside Jewry and their proselytes (we often call them the Messianic believers) and NOT THE CHURCH AT ALL. As Paul wrote his prophecy, the Church dispensation had not yet been revealed/established!
This mirrors off from my Coverdale-quote above. The entire book of Acts was written only regarding the Messianic believers and their leadership…the apostles. The book is displaying how it was that Israel fell away from God as His nation on earth. I recommend that you read my book on this topic, and you can down load it here on my site free of charge; title “The Book of Acts – The Story of Israel’s Falling Away From God”.
Paul’s word on the ‘Falling Away’ concept, 2 Thes. 2:1-4, NASB,
“1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless * the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”
We clearly see how it was that Paul was concerned for his believers at Thessalonica: He obviously had heard bad (false) rumors regarding the Parousia, - Greek for the Second Advent of Christ. In other words: that Jesus already may have come back down to Israel…Paul calling it for ‘the day of the Lord’, Verses 1 and 2.
Verse 3 is Paul’s explanation of how it will become in the days before His second coming: ISRAEL (not the Church) is taken with apostasy – a ‘falling away’ – from their God as a nation. That is, the entire nation being regarded as having fell from God, and Him no longer being their God.
This apostasy is going to cause that infamous person in Bible prophecy to come forth in Israel: the Anti-Christ; the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction – who occupies the temple and claim to be their God, or rather…Israel’s Messiah King. He will be stealing the seat which only can belong to Jesus Christ, verse 4.
THE APOSTASY HAPPENED BACK IN 60 CE
WHEN PAUL ARRIVED ROME
From my book “The Story of Israel’s Falling Away From God” I have clipped in the following:
“The preaching of the earthly Kingdom of God is found in Acts 1:3-6 as Bible truth for the believers at that time; later – in Acts 19:8 we find Paul using three months to preach the Kingdom of God to the synagogue at Ephesus, and finally we find him still preaching the Kingdom of God in Acts 28:31! This tells us that the Acts has ONLY the Kingdom of God as the Gospel-truth at that time, all throughout the 30 years of Acts history. God cannot have two kinds of Gospels, one with the kingdom on earth as hope of salvation, and the other one as heaven up above as hope of salvation. It has to be one or the other, and not both. It is impossible that these two types of Gospels could have run side by side.
This cannot come clearer, but tells us that the Church, the ‘One New Man’ the Body of Christ is not found in the entire Acts story. It all deals with Israel and how they were influenced by the apostles, and how the end result came out negative with the falling away of Israel. They said No Thanks! - To the bitter end.”
If we find such clear evidence of one singular type of message over a period of more than thirty years, like the one we can call ‘The Kingdom Gospel to Israel’ – mentioned in my clip, this means there are no way to escape these Bible facts, not to mention Bible truths!
Acts 1 and Jesus revealing Himself to His disciples for 40 days, teaching them the cause of the Kingdom of God on earth with Himself as their King, and how to go preaching it, was in 28 CE. Paul at Ephesus in Acts 19, was around 55-56 CE – 25-28 years later than Pentecost Acts 2; and finally Paul arriving Rome early summer 60 CE and met with the Sanhedrin counsel in which he was declined, as the counsel did not repent – all of them – believing on Jesus as the Messiah. Luke ended his book by Acts 28:31 telling of Paul still pounding on the shut door of Jewry, trying to persuade them of Jesus as Messiah. This was in 62 CE, 34 years after Pentecost Acts 2.
The message in those years was only the Gospel of the earthly millennial Kingdom of God, promising Jesus as the King of Israel at His Second Advent.
Peter clearly reflected this in his second speech in Acts 3, as he claimed that the entire nation should repent and believe on Jesus Christ, as in Acts 3:19-23, NASB,
“19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
22 "Moses said, 'THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you.
23 'And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.”
There are three main issues found in Peter’s speech, all concerning Israel, and none concerning the Church dispensation. Peter knew nothing of any future Church dispensation…like what God revealed to Paul (Eph. 3:1-3).
The first is: Israel had to repent as a nation, ALL of them, so God could send them the restoration of Israel, by having Jesus return from heaven and establish the promised Kingdom, verses 19-21.
The second is: the fact that such a future restoration of Israel, is depending upon the whole nation to repent first, Verse 21.
The third is: if not repenting (as a whole nation) they would be utterly destroyed…which history proves really happened, as Rome crushed the nation in 70 CE, and burnt the temple down. Verses 22 and 23, Peter referring to Moses’ prophecy of doom.
Jesus prophesied several times of the destruction of Jerusalem…and He even wept over the cruel disaster which would hit them at that future day, due to their lack of repentance to the Lord. Also we find in Mat. 22:7 that the destruction to come, would be an act of revenge, since the nation was guilty in murdering His messengers, namely the apostles. The King got infuriated and sent His soldiers (the Roman army) and killed those murderers, Jesus said in His prophetic parable.
Within the time of Acts, 28 – 62 CE, the nation had fallen away from God, which is the very same as the apostasy told by Paul in 2 Thes. 2:1-3.
No folks, the concept which has ridden Christianity as a Damocles Sword for decades – a supposed Falling-away-of-the-Church – is nowhere to be found in the Bible. It only exists in the minds of preachers and ministers who did not bother to go rightly dividing the word of God.
Israel is not the same as the Church, and vice-versa. The two are entirely different regarding doctrine of faith.
Israel was only offered to have the earthly Kingdom of God by Him sending down His Messiah King, Jesus. But the Church, the ‘one new man’ as found in Eph. 2:13-15 has a heavenly calling and hope of salvation. Paul had a fresh new revelation of a hidden or secret truth which God had kept to Himself in all ages: that the Law of Moses would be abolished, and the wall of partition torn down between Gentiles and Jews, so by faith creating that ‘one new man’ – the Church for which Jesus is the Head.
This abolishment of the Law happened back at the cross 28 CE, but Jesus kept this truth to Himself, but finally revealed it to Paul as he was in jail in Rome (the second jailing) in 63-67 CE. Jesus did not reveal this truth in the entire time of Acts. This is easily traced by checking Acts for when and where any believer openly kept observing the Law. Paul is found observing the Law regarding Sabbath, as well as going to Jerusalem for Pentecost. James and the elders at Jerusalem testified in Acts 21:20 (year 58 CE) that thousands of believers among Israel’s population were zealous for the Law of Moses! It was PAUL, NOT PETER who was entrusted with this new revelation, of the Church consisting of members from all the world, and not only Israel and proselytes. But it had not been revealed to Paul in Acts time.
In Paul’s two only Church epistles, Ephesians and Colossians, he wrote not one single word anticipating any kind of a future mishap - of the Church leaving its faith in Christ behind!
Such a serious matter would most certainly have been taught in his two only Church epistles if it was true.
Here is what Paul wrote, as an essence of what the Grace-Gospel means to a believer,
Eph. 2:8-9, NASB,
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
WHAT OTHER BELIEFS ARE OFTEN FOUND WITH
CHURCHES WHICH TEACHES OF A FUTURE APOSTACY?
I cannot say that all of these errors are found inside the “Shadow Mountain Community Church” in San Diego. You will have to check for yourselves. But here is what I often find many places in the world, and most often in USA, sorry to say:
The so-called Great Tribulation and Armageddon, will come upon the entire world.
God will sternly punish USA (and every nation) for its sinful ways and for ridiculing or persecuting Christian faith communities.
The so-called ‘Rapture of the Church’ as in 1 Thes. 4 will rescue all Christian believers from the Great Tribulation, and transfer the Church up into heaven.
I could list more issues, but I stop at these three.
All of these are in error.
The Great Tribulation will only hit Israel in the end times, and it is rightfully called by Jer. 30:7 for ..the times of trouble for Jacob. When Jesus went to the cross, He warned those who stood alongside the road, and said …. Luke 23:28-30, NASB,
“28 Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.'
30 Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, 'FALL ON US,' AND TO THE HILLS, 'COVER US.'”
We find this tribulation scenario in Rev. 6:15-17 – frightened people in Israel calling out to the mountains to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb! Notice above, verse 28 in Luke 23: AND FOR YOUR CHILDREN. The ancestors of the Jews in the time of Jesus – the children – point clearly to a future Israel, and the mountains locally inside Israel’s land.
Jesus, as He comes down to stop the tribulation and the killings, set His feet upon Mt. Olives, which is right nearby Jerusalem; and the place shall be split in two according to Zec. 14:4,
"On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south."
How Christianity has gotten itself so wayward regarding understanding of the Bible, amazes me. Can they not read for themselves what is written???
My point 2 above, of God sending punishment upon nations for their sinful ways, is just as ridiculous as that of the idea of a world-wide ‘Hell on Earth’ tribulation. The criminal evils and all wickedness whatever it might be, is not punished in particular for any particular sin, whether murder, rape, illegal narcotic distribution, fraud, theft and other crimes…as well as eventual persecution of religious people, Christians or others, will not be cast into the Great Tribulation for punishment! In Church dispensation, God handles humanity from out of GRACE…we are in a Grace-dispensation (Greek, oikonomia) – also called stewardship or administration. God does not cast certain judgements and doom on certain villains or groups of ‘evil doers’ anywhere.
Only Israel will be targeted by God for punishments and huge scaring disasters. It will kick in shortly after God has taken His believing church into heaven, according to Col. 3:1-4…to be revealed with Christ in glory…which, by the way, is not the same operation as Paul once called the rapture (1 Thes 4).
My point 3 – the error of believing that the so-called RAPTURE UP IN CLOUDS at Jesus’ Second Advent, is meant for the Church dispensation. This teaching by Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 4:15-18) was for the ‘Israel of God’ – the Messianic believers in the Acts time, as they all expected Jesus to come for them as He should establish His Kingdom in Israel at their repentance. The nation never repented, and Jesus could therefore not come down to Israel (Greek, Parousia) – and thus coming down He should gather the saints up in clouds and land them in Jerusalem. The so-called ‘rapture’ was only promised to the Acts-body of believers, and does not concern the Church dispensation. The rapture will thus never happen, since the nation of Israel fell away from God.
The rapture was only for the Kingdom-saints, those who expected Jesus to establish His promised Kingdom in Israel!
Gracepano.com
