The Coming Apostasy

Jay N. Forrest

“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” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

From this passage we learn that there are two events that must precede the second coming of Christ. The first is the falling away or apostasy. The second is the revelation of the man of sin, this is Antichrist. What is this apostasy that is predicted to take place before the return of Christ? Apostasy is a falling away, a defection, revolt or rebellion. The Amplified Bible accurately defines it in this verse, it is “the [predicted] great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians.”

Notice that it is not “an” apostasy, but “the” apostasy. There have been many apostasies in the history of the church, but this one is special. This apostasy will be the great one that will take place just before the coming of Christ. It will be great because “lawlessness will abound, [and] the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). The New American Standard Bible translates it, “most people’s love will grow cold.” That is a chilly picture of the future.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). This departure from the faith will take place “in latter times.” We are living in those latter times. It says that during this time some will depart from the faith; in other words, they will fall away. Not that they will stop being religious but that they will depart from the true faith to follow after demon inspired religion. It says they will depart to chase after “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”

Great Deception: Jesus warned us about a great deception that will take place in the last days. It will be a time when “many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). Notice that there will not be a few false representatives of Christ, but many. And also notice that there will not be only a few that are deceived by them, but many will be deceived by them. We ought to be watchful and wise.

When Jesus was asked, “what will be the sign of You coming and the end of the age,” that He answered them strangely. The first thing we might of thought of was the revealing of Antichrist, or plagues, or signs in the heavens. Jesus chose none of those as the first sign of the end. Rather, He warned, “Take heed that no one deceive you” (Matthew 24:3-4). He then enumerates the various ways that deception will arise. So the sure sign of the end of the age is wide spread deception and deceivers.

Over and over again Jesus emphasized the scope of this end time deception, warning that many will be taken in and deceived. “For many will come. . . and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). The book of Revelation says that Satan “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). This great deception of the devil causes the great falling away, which comes before the coming of Christ. Do not let anybody fool you, we are going to see apostasy not revival before Christ returns. This great deception will be a religion where man is exalted and the true God is rejected. Man will be his own god.

The Bible says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). This again is predicting a time of apostasy, a time when people turn away from the truth and turn to man made myths. This has already begun. Today we are seeing the greatest falling away in all of history. We are living in the age of the itching ears. Already people will not listen to the truth. Everything must be “positive.” and under their holy banner of positiveness they wander off after man made fictions.

Today there are positive churches, with positive pastors, preaching positive sermons, about positively nothing. God has called no one to be positive. Positive is not a Bible word; truth on the other hand is. But today people won’t listen to the truth, it doesn’t please their itching ears.

Lucifer’s Lie: But Satan has something to please the itching ears of Christians and non-Christians alike. It is a hellish lie that feeds the pride of booth fallen angels and fallen man. Satan was the first to proclaim it, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Then in the garden of Eden he became the first evangelist of this hellish lie. He said to Eve, “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Needless to say they fell for Lucifer’s lie and paid dearly for it.

But this hellish lie has not been put to rest. Not only is this lie still being proclaimed, but soon this lie will come to full bloom in the person of Antichrist. The Bible tells us that the Antichrist will exalt “himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4). An better translation of this would be, “who opposes all that is called God or that is worshiped, and exalts himself, even to seat himself in the temple of God, and openly declare himself a god.”

Antichrist will not claim to be God in the classical Biblical sense, but a man who has achieved godhood. The Bible says that he will not “regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above them all” (Daniel 11:37). Talk about an ego problem. The Bible also explains why people will believe the lie, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. . . . And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

The new world religion of Antichrist will be thought of as scientific. It will be a religion of self-love and self-worship, centered in man himself. It will be oriented to man’s personal success rather than to the glory of the one true God. Mankind will worship antichrist because he has reached godhood, and because they also hope to achieve godhood. Evolution will play an important part in the religion of Antichrist. It has common, even scientific, belief that man is evolving towards godhood. There are many cults already proclaiming Lucifer’s lie of man’s future godhood, some of them include Mormonism, Religious Science, Humanism, Unity, Hinduism, Scientology, and other mind sciences. Their basic teaching is that man reaches godhood through an evolutionary process, and by mastering the forces inherent in nature and the cosmos. This is known as cosmic evolution.

No doubt, these forces inherent in nature and the cosmos, is what the Bible is refers to as the “god of forces” that Antichrist will honor (Daniel 11:38). And it is the god of forces that will be worshiped by the world, not knowing that the god of forces is Satan (Revelation 13:4).

Growing Toward Godhood: But it is not only the world that is falling for Lucifer’s lie. One Baptist minister has written, “To understand God is finally to realize one’s own godhood.” Another minister has written, “All humans are incarnations of deity.” Another vary popular motivational speaker has said, “When God looks in the mirror, He sees me! When I look in the mirror, I see God! Oh, hallelujah. . . . I’m an exact duplicate of God.” Another Pentecostal television preacher has said, “You are. . . a God kind of Creature.” The most popular word and faith preacher proclaimed, “You don’t have a God in you. You are one.”

A popular Christian author proclaims, “Brag on yourself from time to time.” Oh how the demons must be laughing! Another author whose book is recommend by many leading Evangelicals, explains Lucifer’s lie in a nutshell, “God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Itself). We are growing toward godhood. God is the goal of evolution.” Unfortunately the is not the road less traveled. More and more are buying into this Satanic lie. This is nothing more than pride gone wild. Hell is rejoicing as the church proclaims Lucifer’s lie. All this is nothing short of self idolatry. Men are dead to God because they are alive to self. Self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking are the essence and life of pride. All of church history the church denounced self-esteem, today we affirm it. In the past self-esteem was a terrible vice; today it is a wonderful virtue. We need to repent of our worship of self. We need to deny self, not esteem. We need to die to self, not love it.

Much that is being done in our Evangelical churches is being done in the power of self, for the esteem of self. If we can make things happen by seeing, saying, and thinking positive, are we not playing God? Is that not nothing more than self-effort? Truly we need to repent of the sin of playing God. Man is preoccupied with self. Self has become the predominant theme of a large percentage of Christian books and sermons. People are buying all kinds of self-help books, but self does not need help. “Self-help is no help at all” (Matthew 16:25 The Message). Self needs death. There are crying, dying, hurting people out there and we are so caught up in ourselves. We must either deny self or deny Christ. It is either one or the other. Death to self! Oh come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Turn from self and turn to God.

Becoming gods. That is the old lie in the new age. The New Age movement embraces and proclaims this lie. This is the lie that will deceive many and will play a part in the great falling away. Will we turn for our self-will, self-seeking, and self-worship, or will we depart from the faith to chase after deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons?

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).

www.jayforrest.org, Copyright © 2003 By Jay N. Forrest. All Rights Reserved.. Document used by permission

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