I’m mentioning this to my brethren in Christ to admonish you to not fall away into deception by what is coming upon us all in the very near future. Lord Jesus warned us about a singular false-Christ in Matthew 24:23-26 that will work great signs and wonders, that IF it were possible, would deceive even His “very elect.” That “if it were possible” means His “very elect” cannot be deceived, yet it reveals just how powerful in deception that coming false-Messiah is going to be. In the Revelation 13:4-8 Scripture it shows that the whole world will worship the “dragon” (Satan), except for those who’s names are written in the book of life.
Apostle Paul was giving this same warning to the Church in 2 Thessalonians 2. The “man of sin” Paul mentioned that will work with all power and signs and lying wonders is the same false-Messiah Lord Jesus was warning us about in Matthew 24:23-26.
Apostle Paul called the Deception to that coming false-Messiah as a great falling away (apostasia in the Greek). Today most Churches are wrongly interpreting that falling away to explain their lower attendance with many brethren no longer attending Church. They also come up with other reasons. But none of those reasons are what Paul’s great apostasy away from Christ is about, for the time for that great falling away is not here yet today.
That great apostasy of many believers is about being deceived by that false-Messiah thinking He is Lord Jesus having returned. That is why Paul called that the “strong delusion”. This is the warning that all of today’s Churches should be teaching us about. It is a “strong meat” teaching from God’s Word because many don’t understand how some believers can still be deceived.
The 7 Messages Lord Jesus gave in His Book of Revelation Chapters 2 & 3 reveals how brethren can be deceived. Out of seven Churches in Asia, there were only two Churches that had no problem which Jesus did not rebuke. The other five Churches each had specific problems that Jesus rebuked and warned them to repent, lest He remove their symbolic candlestick in Heaven. With those two Churches that He had no rebuke for, He showed how they had stayed in His Word, and that they both understood about the “synagogue of Satan” who only say… they are Jews, but are not. In other words, they knew how to recognize Christ’s greatest enemies here on earth, i.e., Satan’s elect that worship him, the tares in the parable of the tares of the field; the crept in unawares of Jude 4, etc.
One of the greatest doctrines of men that is designed to cause deceived brethren to fall away to that coming false-Messiah is the teaching of the false Pre-trib Rapture theory that was first preached in 1830’s Britain. It is designed to make the deceived believer want to be “taken” by that first Messiah that comes, which will be a fake. Other doctrines of men that try to push these events of the end to the past are also designed to deceive brethren into accepting that first Messiah that comes who will be a fake. Many will be deceived and think that first Messiah coming is Lord Jesus. But don’t you believe it brethren in Christ, for that first one coming will be the pseudo-Christ Lord Jesus warned us about.
Actually, if you take a sane perspective upon the Bible, and view Jesus as a true, not a false, prophet, life gets much easier in some ways, more demanding in others.
You are delivered from anxious paralysis
You are delivered from making a fool of yourself with sinister boo-talk (0) ravings that raise one false alarm after another. And every time history skids past another of your imaginary stop signs, you look even more like a credulous simpleton who need not be taken seriously.
Ties of family and friendship can be reaffirmed, since you are at liberty to take a real interest in those around you, and their hopes and aspirations. And show them how in the Lord Jesus Christ these quests can be fulfilling and productive. (1)
You can enjoy the liberty to pursue long-term projects.
Master a demanding vocation (artist, musician, engineer, entrepreneur, scholara, writer)
Marry (2)
Have lots of children
Build a family with a generation-spanning vision that shapes history for centuries to come.
Master a new language
Expect more from yourself and God, since you renounce excuses for mediocrity.
A sane eschatology recognizes that the Great Tribulation occurred when Jesus said it would, to the people He said would experience it: this (not that) generation.
A sane eschatology recognizes that the Great Apostasy was so complete that the vast majority of Jewish people, to this very day, deny the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(0) Read it aloud, and remember that sinister is another word for left.
(1) Gary Gygax, co-founder of the FRP genre, became a believer in God, and perhaps even a Christian, when he realized that life itself bore the hallmarks of design: a quest to complete, foes to overcome, resources to gather, allies to recruit. Design implies Designer, right?
(2) No romance without finance! The last great revival the USA experienced swept millions of young people into the Kingdom. The movement was, alas, contaminated with a virulent strain of apocalyptic hysteria. Many of those kids drifted around as deracinated vagabonds, since there was “no time” for getting down to business in the real world.
As I had said in my post, the time for the great falling away (apostasia) that Apostle Paul warned of is not here yet today. It is specifically only about the “strong delusion” of the coming false-Messiah appearing in Jerusalem that will play our Lord Jesus Christ with the power of miracles that will cause the whole world to believe that false one is God. That will be during the coming “great tribulation” time, which is not here yet today.
But men’s doctrines today love to steer one away from recognizing what that “strong delusion” is actually about which Apostle Paul was revealing…
2 Thess 2:3-4
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.
KJV
2 Thess 2:8-12
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 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.
KJV