The Falling Away – A Theological Prophecy

“Is Jesus truly preeminent in your life? Is He number one? If He’s “a good two or three,” there will be nothing victorious about your experience. In this careening culture and in these perilous days, we must say as never before: “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.”
― Dr. David Jeremiah, Where Do We Go from Here?: How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems

Apostasy doesn’t reflect the rise of atheism in and of itself nor does it apply to everyone who chooses religious systems other than Christianity.
Instead, the concept of falling away has a narrower focus.
It applies specifically to apparent Christians to those who claim to follow Jesus, but then turned their backs on him.
Every apostate is an unbeliever but not every unbeliever is an apostate.
Here’s what I mean, there are many people who have never heard the gospel, they wouldn’t know the gospel from anything so they can’t be apostate, they can’t walk away from something you never heard of before.
They are unbelievers because they have not heard. But an apostate is well acquainted with the gospel.
He knows more than enough to be saved, but he walks away from it anyway.
And the sun also rises.
Ernest Hemingway said there are two ways to go bankrupt gradually and then suddenly, and it’s the same with spiritual bankruptcy.
We drift away gradually and then suddenly we’re out in the cold.
Are we living in the end times?
There may have never been another time in history.
When end times, prophecy has been more aligned with the culture and circumstances of the world than it is today.
I believe there are 10 phenomena we are witnessing today that were recorded centuries ago in Bible prophecy, seeing our circumstances in light of these prophecies should give us resolve purpose and hope and help us answer the question.
What are we to do with the world around us?
What hope do we have in times like these?
And ultimately, where do we go from here?
The Bible predicts the falling away of the church.
Is that what we are seeing today, including believers who are deconstructing their faith.
There seems to be a growing number of people rejecting God altogether and choosing no faith at all is apostasy.
A sign of the end times join Dr David Jeremiah for this special prophecy edition of Turning Point.
As he presents a sign of the end times, the falling away, a theological prophecy.
Imagine writing your first book at the age of 22 and watching it land on a bestsellers list everywhere.
A few years ago that happened to an American pastor.
His book conveyed biblical advice about love and relationship and it encouraged thousands of young people to make better choices.
This pastor became known for his speaking and writing and counseling as well as for nearly two decades of pastoral ministry in a local church.
Yet somehow and somewhere during those years, his own relationship with God evaporated.
In 2019, he announced his marriage had come to an end.
Then in a follow up post on Instagram, he disclosed an even deeper divorce.
He wrote quote, I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus.
The popular phrase for this is deconstruction.
The biblical phrase is falling away by all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian.
He wrote, I am not a Christian.
Many people tell me that there’s a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I am not there now, now that probably touches you in some way, but it cuts me to the heart because I am a pastor and this is happening to more pastors than I’ve ever seen before.
Many others seem to be falling away from Christ and his gospel.
I saw a recent op ed with this title. Everyone is leaving Christianity and nobody knows where they’re going.
This departure from biblical faith is happening so often that there’s a new word that’s been coined.
These defectors are no longer evangelicals there. X Van Jellicles. Why is that?
And what is that all about? Well, the falling away is not a new phenomenon throughout history.
There have been many who have taken up the banner of Christ only to lay it down again.
Even the first generation of Christians face challenges like this.
Have you ever heard about a guy named Demas? Yeah.
When Paul wrote to the Colossians and to Philemon, he sent them greetings from his coworker Dimas who was at his side In 2nd Timothy 4 10.
He described him like this demus has forsaken me, having loved this present world.
I’m almost hesitant to read Christian news sites these days because it seems like every time I do I read or hear somebody else who’s walked away from their faith.
Recent headlines are not encouraging and neither are the statistics.
There are more than 72 million millennials in America almost one quarter of our population, an increasingly large percentage of that generation has walked away from faith of any kind, choosing to identify themselves as religious.
Nones N O N E s. When you check on the questionnaire, are you a Baptist? Are you a Presbyterian?
Are you a Charismatic? Are you a Catholic? In the bottom part? Says none of the above.
That’s where they all check. None of the above. In 2008.
Researchers noted that close to a third of all millennials described themselves as religiously unaffiliated.
And just 10 years later, that number had grown to 42 and there are more troubling numbers.
Church membership in America has suffered a decades long decline no matter what you hear from church growth.
Experts about the explosion of the church, let me give you the truth.
When Gallup first measured us church membership in 1937 the number came in at 73% In early 1980s.
more than 70% of American adults were church members in the year 2000. It was 65% by 2010.
It was 59 And now less than half of Americans, 47% belong to the local church and there are corresponding declines in regular church attendance.
That’s not a good sign. That’s not a good study. That’s not a good trend.
But the core issue here isn’t even people falling away from the church or falling away from faith.
We’re talking in this lesson about falling away from Jesus himself.
These are people who have and these words are stark trampled, the Son of God underfoot, treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that sanctified them and insulted the spirit of grace.
What does this mean?
What does this mean to us apostasy doesn’t reflect the rise of atheism in and of itself?
Nor does it apply to everyone who chooses religious systems other than Christianity?
Instead, the concept of falling away has a narrower focus.
It applies specifically to apparent Christians to those who claim to follow Jesus, but then turned their backs on him.
Every apostate is an unbeliever but not every unbeliever is an apostate. Here’s what I mean.
There are many people who have never heard the gospel, they wouldn’t know the gospel for many thing.
So they can’t be apostate, they can’t walk away from something you never heard of before.
They are unbelievers because they have not heard but an apostate is well acquainted with the gospel.
He knows more than enough to be saved, but he walks away from it anyway.
And the sun also rises. Ernest Hemingway said there are two ways to go bankrupt gradually.
And then suddenly, and it’s the same with spiritual bankruptcy.
We drift away gradually and then suddenly we’re out in the cold.
Why am I talking about this theme of falling away? Why should I even bring it up?
It seems sort of extraneous to some of you wondering where is he going with this?
Because the proliferation of apostasy is an important but overlooked, often piece to the end times puzzle.
As we know from scripture.
One of the signs of the end times is a rising number of self proclaimed Christians who ultimately reject Christ.
Let me show you where that is in the Bible second Thessalonians chapter two verses one through three.
Here’s what the word of God says.
Now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as from us as though the day of Christ had come.
Now, listen carefully, 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.
This is indeed a prophecy about tomorrow that has implications for us today.
This falling away that Paul is writing about is not just some gradual defection from the church.
Paul calls this the falling away like it’s a specific thing at a specific time, at a specific moment.
Paul calls this departure from the faith and it will happen according to the scripture during what we call the tribulation period.
Now, most of you know, enough about prophecy to know there’s some general things you should be aware of.
First of all, the next thing that’s going to happen in the future is the rapture of the church.
The Bible says that the Lord is going to descend and take to heaven, those who have put their trust in him and that can happen any time.
There’s no signs for that. It could happen before we say amen.
At the end of this service, we could go to heaven before we go home and that would be alright because we’d really be home then amen.
So you don’t have to worry about that.
You know, you say, well, what’s going to happen before Jesus comes to get us?
Not one thing he can come anytime after the rapture when the saints are all gone on this earth, the Bible teaches, there’s going to be a period of seven years of tribulation.
This will be literally hell on earth. And it’s divided into two sections, 3.5 years.
The first part of the tribulation and the last part, the last 3.5 years is called the great tribulation.
Now, when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said in the tribulation period, there’s going to be a great falling away, a great defection from the faith.
Now, let’s just suppose that this is not something that happens until the middle of the tribulation.
I don’t believe that’s true, but let’s just give ourselves a little wiggle room here.
Let’s say that this falling away doesn’t happen until halfway through the tribulation period. That would be 3.5 years.
And let’s remember that the tribulation commences immediately after the rapture of the church. Watch this.
And let’s not forget that the rapture could happen at any moment and that the tribulation is a period of seven years so that the middle of the tribulation is just 3.5 years.
If all those things are true and they are the falling away could happen within our lifetime.
If Jesus came back today, it would happen within 3.5 years.
So this isn’t just something way out in the future that we don’t have to be concerned about.
It could happen and it could start happening before we go to heaven.
It won’t fully, completely happen until we’re in heaven, but it could start happening before that the Christians in Thessaloniki, we’re facing this kind of persecution.
So they believe the last days were upon them and they were troubled and we should be troubled when we go through trouble.
Right. That’s part of it. But Paul wrote this letter to them to say, look, don’t be soon troubled because the falling away hasn’t happened yet.
So you’re not in the tribulation.
If you’re in the tribulation, the falling away would have happened, but it hasn’t happened.
That hasn’t happened for us yet either.
You know, I sometimes hear people talk about how, before Jesus comes back, we’re going to have this great worldwide revival.
Have you ever heard anybody say that? Well, I hope we do.
But there’s not anything in the Bible about that.
Somebody got their wires mixed when they started teaching that because that’s not true.
You know what is in the Bible? In the Bible?
It says there’s going to be a great defection from the faith before Jesus comes back And there is going to be a revival in the tribulation period.
You know why 144,000 Jewish witnesses are gonna be let loose on the earth.
If you can’t get a revival of that, there’s no hope and two witnesses, two special witnesses are going to do miraculous things.
And the Bible says that thousands will come to Christ during the tribulation period, but not before we go to heaven.
Could there be a great awakening?
I believe there could be and I pray that there would be every day because that will just give us a few more years to preach the gospel.
Sometimes I think we might be on the edge of it and then sometimes I think it’s so far away, you’ll never see it.
But what I want you to know is this, while the scripture does not prophesy a great revival, that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be one but what you need to know what the scripture does prophesy is, there will be a defection at the end of the age.
So here is this prophecy in Thessalonians and John put it this way.
This is really a very specific verse. First John 2 18 and 19, he said it is the last hour.
And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrist have come by which we know that it is the last hour they went out from us.
They were not of us for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
John said there are many people who, who were in the church and they went out and they became part of the false gospel.
He said they went out because they were never a part of us.
They went out from us but they were never of us. How can this happen?
How could anyone who has tasted the goodness of Christ in the church and the love of God, how could they ever fall away?
Well, I’m gonna give you three things that could happen and I think they all are in play.
Why do some people get discouraged and walk away from their faith?
First of all, some people fall away because they’re deceived.
First, Timothy 41 and two says it this way.
Now the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
According to this passage of scripture, there are unseen demonic forces that are operating in our world enticing and deceiving people into abandoning their faith in Christ.
Their influence, even in the church will only increase as we draw near to the end of history.
It’s overwhelming to see the deception that’s going on within the church.
You can watch it, you can see it. Maybe it’s touched you or your family. You’ve been victimized by it.
The passage in first Timothy warns of false teachers who traffic in lies and hypocrisy.
These men and women attempt to cause spiritual damage and to manipulate God’s people for their own purposes.
They’re cold, they’re callous and they’re calculating and Paul says they don’t even have a conscience anymore. It’s been seared.
They have lost moral sensitivity and their spiritual compass is, are broken.
That’s the reason why some people fall away. They get caught up in a spiritual scam.
Can I get a witness?
Some people fall away because they’re disillusioned In Luke eight Jesus told a parable, illustrating the reasons why people fall away from the Gospel.
You know the parable. He said there was this farmer who went out to sow seed and he broadcasted over a wide area and some of the seed fell on pathway or on road where it was trampled down, other seed fell on the rocky soil.
And as soon as the plants sprang up, they withered away, having no root and some seed fell on a thorny patch and were choked by Briers and some of the seed fell on prepared soil yielding a great harvest.
When the Lord’s disciple asked him to explain the parable, he revealed that the seed represented the gospel message.
Here is jesus’ explanation of what that story means.
He said those by the wayside are the ones who here and the devil comes and takes away the word out of their heart lest they should believe and be saved.
But the ones on the rock are those who when they hear, receive the word with joy and have no root who believe for a while in time of temptation fall away.
Now, the ones that fell among thorns are those who when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.
Here’s what Jesus was saying. The first reason people walk away from the Gospel is that the devil comes and takes the word out of their hearts.
Did you know that I sometimes have prayed.
Lord, don’t let the devil steal the word of God from the people of God before they get to the parking lot.
Because I think that he’s really active at the end of the service, whatever you heard that maybe touched your heart or caused you to think something that you should think.
If you’re not careful before you get out of this place, the devil come and steal right out of your heart.
The second reason is more complicated.
Jesus describes those who hear the gospel and they receive the word with joy. Listen to that.
That means they’re emotional and these people are genuinely excited about Christianity.
They’ve seen the Brokenness of the world and they felt the Brokenness in their own spirit and they know there must be something better and these people encounter the truth and they receive the message with joy and they’re all excited and they see a pathway to peace and purpose and meaning.
It’s what they’ve always been looking for. But stony ground believers have no route.
So when times of testing come, the Bible says they fall away, many of these people are not looking for a savior, they’re looking for a solution.
They want their problems to go away and they don’t want to surrender anything to get that.
They want the blessings of belief without the burden of swimming against the cultural stream.
And they like the idea of the gospel, but they lack a personal commitment to Christ, sooner or later when they began to be disillusioned, disenchanted and disappointed this fall away.
I know people like that.
Sometimes the people that are most emotional about being saved are the same people who are the most emotional about what happens to them when anything comes into their life, they’re not expecting and how many of, you know, God gets blamed for everything.
Some people fall away because they’re deceived others because they’re disillusioned.
And the last one is probably where a lot of us would fit if we’re in any of these categories.
Some fall away because they’re distracted.
Verse 14 of Luke eight says now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard go out and are choked with cares and the pleasures of life and they bring no fruit to maturity.
Jesus said many fall away simply because they get distracted when forced to choose between spiritual things following Christ and physical cares and riches and pleasures of life.
They can’t see past their own noses. They allow the pull of desire to lead them.
They let go of their faith in order to grab all that the world has and they grab with both hands and there’s nothing left to hold on to Jesus with.
I know that’s not a pretty picture but what God has chosen us to be here for as his witnesses, this is a critical thing.
So as Francis Schaeffer once said, how should we then live with all this going on. What should we do?
How can we make sure that we are never among those who fall away? I know this.
There’s not a person in this room who if you sat down and talked to him and said, would you like to be among those who fall away?
Nobody would say yes, nobody wants to do that. Nobody’s purpose to do that.
You have Children who have done that. You have friends who have done that. You know, the pain of that.
You don’t want anything to do with that.
So how do we protect ourselves from that happening to us and to the people we love.
First of all, examine yourselves. That’s what the scripture says.
Second Corinthians 13 5, examine yourselves as to whether or not you’re in the faith, test yourselves.
Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
The most important thing you can do in response to this message is to make sure that you are truly a Christian And you’re not a Christian just because you grew up in the church.
You are not a Christian just because your parents are Christians.
You’re not a Christian because you’ve lived a good life.
You are not a Christian because you have served in the church and done great things for God.
One of the most sobering passages in the Bible is found in Matthew Chapter seven. Here’s what it says.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But he who does the will of my father in heaven?
Many said, Jesus will say to me in that day, Lord Lord, have we not prophesy in your name?
Have we not cast out demons in your name? Have we not done many wonders in your name?
And I will say to them, I never knew you depart from me. You who practice lawlessness?
Is there a more stark frightening verse than that?
Jesus is not saying that good works do not matter what he is saying is that good works will not get you to heaven.
If you want to read more about this, I suggest you read the book of James when you get home today, go back to the second Corinthian passage.
It says, do you not know that Christ is in you? Let me ask you that question.
Do you know that Christ is in you? Have you put your trust in Him?
Are you certain that he’s living in your heart? This is not some cultural Christianity.
Sometimes people grow up in Christian families and they think, well, my parents were Christians, my brothers and sisters are Christians.
I must be a Christian to not God doesn’t have any grandchildren. He just has Children.
So that’s the most important thing.
Has there ever been a time in your life when you have personally invited Christ to forgive you of your sin and become your savior.
That is what matters, that is what determines whether you are a true Christian or a Christian in name only.
That’s the one thing. If you get that straight, you will never fall away. Number two, encourage yourselves.
I love this. In first Samuel 36 we read this about David. David was in one big mess.
He was in a fight for his life. His troops were all fighting with him.
They left camp one day when they came back, all their families had been taken, including their wives and their Children and David’s their leader.
And you can imagine how that went through the camp and they hated David.
They turned on him, they were going to kill him. He had nobody. He was totally all by himself.
And this is what it says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God.
You must not wait for someone else to do this for you. This is your responsibility yourself.
There’s some things we need to do.
First of all, we need to examine ourselves and make sure we’re in the faith.
You, you can all do that. In fact, you don’t probably have to do much of an examination.
You already know. Secondly, encourage yourself. You say, well, I’m kind of down now about my faith.
Well, I’m sorry about that, but you know, there’s not anybody going to rush to your help.
So learn how to do it yourself, learn how to take care of yourself.
And the word of God learn how to take care of yourself and building up your most holy faith.
It’s good to have people help you.
It’s wonderful to be in a small group where somebody encourages you, but that’s not always gonna happen.
So you better learn how to take care of yourself.
Number three, This one you’ll love exercise yourself. I love this verse.
Exercise yourself toward Godliness. 1st, Timothy 4 7 and eight. For bodily exercise profits little.
But Godliness is profitable for all things.
Having promise of the life that now is and of that, which is to come.
If you want to stay confident and strong in your faith, it is important that you keep growing in your faith stagnant.
Faith is the devil’s playground and he will fill your heart and mind with doubts.
Just when you really need God, it will occur to you that he has not been very important to you late in life.
Some of you walked with the Lord really closely, but you’ve gotten so busy with everything and maybe your business is in trouble and you’ve got family problems and all that.
And you said, well, I’m just gonna put God on hold until I get through this.
The worst thing you could ever do.
The best thing you can do to assure yourself of your walk with the Lord is just keep walking with him.
Set new goals for the things you’re gonna do with Christ, ask him every day, Lord, what can I do for you?
How can I be a part of what you’re doing? Show me the way to be involved in the kingdom.
If you just want to be a bystander and sit on the sideline, you are a target.
If you’re gonna be a target, at least be a moving one. Right.
Moving forward, moving forward to do something for God.
You know, it’s possible to start out well to love Jesus with all of your heart.
And then all of a sudden one day you realize things aren’t the way they used to be.
That’s what happened to the people in Ephesus and God had warned them. And John wrote this in revelation two.
He said, nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love.
Remember from where you have fallen repent and do the first works.
John said to the people in the office at one time, you were really red hot for God.
You were on fire. Church was open for something that needed to be done and you were the first one to volunteer anything that could help move the ball forward for Christ.
You were on the team. But then suddenly a lot of other things came along like we read about in the parable, you were choked out by everything that’s going on in the world.
And if you’re not careful, your faith can be marginalized until it really has no impact on your life at all.
That’s what John told these people in emphasis that was so cold. Their faith had grown cold.
Maybe it’s time for you to do a little self examination and ask yourself, am I walking like I once did or have I allowed all these things to push me away?
Remember, this is your choice, Jesus is with you. He will keep you from falling and he will empower you.
He has every intention of presenting you faultless before the Father.
Once your race comes to an end, so until that moment, just keep going. Keep running.
Don’t look back, don’t give up, commit to building up your faith and the faith of those around you.
And let me give you a little benediction to end this message and to bless your life.
The blessing of jude. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to God, our savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, Dominion and power both now and forevermore.
Now unto Him, who is able to keep you from stumbling? Praise God.
We have a God who doesn’t let us go either.
We can say we’re not gonna let you go, but God doesn’t let you go either.
And when you place your faith in Him, when you trust Him, he will keep you from stumbling.
Thank you for joining me today.
On turning point, the more we study scripture, the more we understand that our loving God desires to have a personal relationship with each one of us.
If you would like to begin that relationship and ensure that you will spend eternity with Christ, you must simply repent of your sin and ask Jesus Christ to become your Lord and Savior.
If you’ve taken this step of faith today, I encourage you to share your decision with other Christians at a trustworthy ministry or a local church and to continue growing in your faith, may God bless you?
And I look forward to seeing you next time right here on turning point.