Can you even imagine such a thing, Christians falling away from the faith at the end of the age, just prior to the Lord’s second coming? Believers. Faithful to the end, almost. But then something comes along and undermines their faith and they fall away. That, my friend, is hard to imagine. It makes me wonder, what in the whole wide world could cause such a thing. What kind of delusion could be so deceptive and so powerful that it would dash the faith of many of the faithful?
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that the coming of the Lord would not occur until first the apostasy comes (II Thes 2:4), and also the man of lawlessness is revealed. The two things may be one and the same, but more likely Paul is delineating two separate events. The apostasy is referring to a falling away, a falling away of believers, not a rebellion of lawlessness spurred on by counterfeit miracles and deceptions that leads to condemnation (II Thes 2:9-12).
The apostasy at the end of the age is assuredly the same as that foretold by Jesus himself during a discourse with His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Jesus responds to two questions from the disciples, the second one being this: “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”( Mt 24:3) Jesus answers that question with some profound information pertinent to us today.
“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mt 24:10-13)
Jesus portrayed the falling away with a different word than Paul used. Paul simply used a word, “apostasia”. Jesus used a word, “skandalizo”, meaning that believers will be tripped up by a scandal so great that they will give up their faith. Furthermore, believers will be so scandalized that they will betray and hate each other. Can you imagine a scandal, a deceptive false teaching, so great that Christians turn on one another and many fall away?
Jesus seems to mention two causes for such a scandal, for this great apostasy. First, many false prophets will arise and deceive the faithful. This is talking about preachers and teachers in the church who lead the faithful into error on such a magnitude that it causes despair and giving up on God. The second cause is the unbridled increase in wickedness, corollary to Paul’s description of the unleashing of lawlessness. This uncontrolled wickedness will cause the love of believers to grow cold. Their love for one another, perhaps, but more importantly, their love for God. They will reason, “God has lost control of this world, why should I trust and love Him?”
I want to suggest what this false teaching might be that will scandalize the faith of Christians at the end of the age, causing them to fall away. But first, consider a similar occurrence at the first advent of Jesus, when the disciples fell away at the time of the crucifixion of Messiah. They were scandalized and deceived, for centuries, into believing that Jesus would establish a sovereign and everlasting Messianic kingdom, based on the teaching of Daniel’s prophecies. Jesus told them repeatedly that He must be betrayed by the Jewish leaders, and be killed, and then rise again. But the disciples never heard Him. Not once did it register. They could not accept what He was saying because their overwhelming bias was so strong that such a statement of death went in one ear and out the other. And the concept of rising again from death was missed as well, especially since they could not conceive of the fact that Jesus, the Messiah, must be put to death. When the leaders came to arrest Jesus, Peter was still wielding a sword, trying to turn back the tide. When the trial came on the scene the disciples ran and hid, except for Peter, who denied he even knew Jesus. After the crucifixion the disciples were in total disarray -- dismayed and hopeless. They had trusted Jesus to be Messiah, but that hope and belief now seemed to have all been for naught.
Only the empty tomb and the appearance of Jesus brought light to the confusion, and understanding to correct their misplaced bias.
So what will be the false teaching at the end of the age causing many Christians to fall away prior to the second appearance of Jesus? Fact is, the false teaching is already in place. The scandal has already created an overwhelming bias. And when the events leading up to the second coming of Jesus begin unfolding, on schedule, as God prescribed, many will be confused, dismayed, betrayed. They will lose hope and faith. I am not making that up. Jesus predicted it, and so did Paul.
Christians have been indoctrinated, for well over a hundred years now, that the timeline for the second coming calls for Christians to be raptured before a seven-year “Tribulation” period. They believe that all the evil of Antichrist will unfold during that period while Christians will be long gone. They expect a temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, prior to the Lord’s return, so that Antichrist can abominate it.
How confusing it will be for Christians when America comes to its demise. When democracy unravels and the great beast of Revelation 13 crumbles. When the eighth beast of Revelation 17 comes on the scene and an Arab caliph leads an army of 200 million against Israel. When the build up to Armageddon occurs while we are still here to witness it. All this while we are still here on earth, since the rapture will not happen until the seventh trumpet (Rev 14:15-16), at the very last minute when we are caught up to be with Jesus as He returns to mete out the wrath of God (Rev 17:11-14; 19:14-16). Confusion, because it doesn’t happen the way their bias has led them to believe. Then confusion leads to dismay and fear. Then many will go into hiding, or denial, and hate those who still trust God. And many will fall away.
I have been asked many times, “Why is prophecy important, anyways? I respect the fact that you, Dave, have a burden to understand and explain Biblical prophecy, and that you have written a book about it. But really, God is going to do what He is going to do anyways. So, what difference does it make to figure out what is right and what is not?” I finally had to take that question seriously and came up with only one answer. Because many will fall away. God revealed His plan in great detail (albeit difficult to decipher) so that His chosen ones might understand what is happening before their very eyes at the end of the age. He knew that false teaching would scandalize and deceive many, and they would despair and fall away. But God wants the truth and the evidence to be available so that those who will believe may stand firm to the end.