A GREAT FALLING AWAY
"That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first" (2Thessalonians 2:2-3)

FALLING AWAY FROM CHURCHES

Another strikingly fulfilled prophecy regarding the time-period immediately before Jesus returns is found in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2:

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE COME A FALLING AWAY FIRST. 2Thessalonians 2:2,3

That day-of Christ's Second Coming-shall not come except there comes a falling away first!" In the original Greek it says "a great apostasy", a "cooling off", a "falling away" must happen first. Has this happened today?--Of even so-called Christians? Are many cooling off and falling away from the church and from Christ and from God in indifference?--Yes!

There's never been a time in the world's history when there's been such a falling away as there has been within the last few years! Church attendance has gotten so poor in some denominations that they've had to close their doors! They've had to close approximately one-third of all the churches in England because of lack of attendance!--That's what you call a falling away!--A real falling out with the Lord and the church! There has been a tremendous decrease in church attendance Worldwide! Even the Catholic Church is having a hard time getting new priests.

[EDITOR NOTE This is not to say that church attendance is any indication of how much we love God and our neighbour as ourselves!"-Even Jesus Himself preferred to work outside of temples and the religious system!]

THE FACTS:

  • Religion Today reports that "many Canadians have left Christianity--or simply ignore it as irrelevant. In 1991, 82% of Canadians identified in some way with the Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox faiths. By 1996, the figure had fallen to 68%."
  • In six years, (What's the time period? What six year time period? JO) the proportion of the Catholic population [in Britain] attending weekly Mass has fallen from nearly a third to a quarter. Scotland is facing a similar decline. (The Times)
  • England: More than 70 serving Anglican priests are members of an organization that does not believe in the literal truth of the Bible, the existence of God, or the resurrection. (Sunday Times)
  • Religion Today says: "Most Europeans are 'post-Christian,'" Assemblies of God European director Greg Mundis said. Agnosticism, atheism, materialism, and nihilism keep millions of people from recognizing the truth of Jesus Christ, he said. "In France there are more witches than Bible-believing preachers," Mundis said.
  • German churches are facing a "fall into insignificance," according to the German magazine Der Spiegel.
  • The young "know nothing of religion, so they have no prejudices against it," observed Neil Blough, a Mennonite church historian in a Paris suburb. "Some of them even think Jesus and God are American inventions." (Washington Post Foreign Service)
  • Angus Reid found that 22 percent of Canadians worship weekly, as compared with 40 percent of Americans, and that 35 percent pray at least weekly, as compared with 55 percent of Americans. (Christian Science Monitor)
  • Almost a third of Anglican clergy believe that the Virgin Birth is a legend or are unsure if it is true. Even among churchgoing Anglicans, about half believe that it happened. The Church of England's attendance figures have fallen so sharply that less than 2% of the population now worships at church each Sunday, and only 1% regularly take communion. (The London Times)
  • About 20% of people who call themselves Protestant and 10% of Catholics in Germany are atheists, a Readers Digest study found.
Not just from churches, but There's a great falling away from faith, from the Bible and from Jesus has taking taken place throughout the world today because of unbelief, loss of faith in God, loss of faith in His Creation, and loss of faith in the Bible. When have you ever heard of such an age before, of sceptics and agnostics and unbelievers and just downright atheists against God?--A horrible falling away! But the worst and most pitiful of all is the falling away of Christians themselves, believers themselves.The question is why has this happened?

FALLING AWAY FROM THE FAITH
The Apostle Paul warned in the same chapter of the Falling Away:

"...Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ...God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2Thessalonians 2:10,11)

The cause of this Falling away is that people just don't love the Truth anymore, and therefore God sends them delusion. In other words, He removes His protection and thus allows false teachers to come to the fore who deceive the people.

"The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine (the truth); but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And THEY SHALL TURN AWAY THEIR EARS FROM THE TRUTH, AND SHALL BE TURNED UNTO FABLES!"

This time has come, and these days are here, and their ears have turned from the truth and they are turned unto fables!-- The enemies of truth did not sit still this last century and especially these last few decades! They embarked on an insidious mass propaganda program, the process of DE-CHRISTIANISATION. Anti-Christian elements infiltrated and succesfully bought up Hollywood, monopolised the international Media, took over the Publishing Industry, hijacked the entire Western education system and much more. Thus we have been subjected to a process of cultural revolution, mass propaganda, and virtual re-education, as they were in a position to push their AC philosophies and theories on us of Secular Humanism, Marxism, Nietzschism, Scepticism, Nihilism, Atheism and Materialism, etc., but especially the false rationalisation for their unbelief and cornerstone of their whole thinking...the Theory of Evolution!

FROM: "APPEAL FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM"

We believe that the blatant anti-religious bias of major television networks, movie studios and news magazines provides convincing evidence that a determined effort is underway--not only in the U.S., but worldwide--to erode and overthrow the fundamental beliefs and spiritual values which we hold most dear.

In his book, Free Speech or Propaganda?--How the Media Distorts the Truth (1990), Marlin Maddoux accurately describes the anti-religious slant of the programs broadcast by the mass media manipulators of Hollywood and New York:

"I don't think most Americans have yet fully grasped the awesome power of persuasion held by the people who skillfully use television. Nor do they understand that this power is being systematically used to undermine the religious faith of the people. . . . Religiously motivated characters are likely to be [portrayed as] neurotics for whom religion is a form of sickness."

We believe that an ungodly agenda is being pursued by an elite clique of individuals to undermine religious faith and to deny believers their religious freedom. Furthermore, we see this erosion of spiritual values as a fulfillment of Biblical predictions that just before God intervenes in this war-torn world to establish His Blessed Kingdom on Earth, the world will experience an unprecedented apostasy. The prophets of the Bible warn that Mankind will ultimately fall under the dominion of a ruthless anti-God New World Order which will severely persecute all who refuse to renounce their faith and embrace the new state-sponsored creed. Citizens of this rapidly rising One World Government will be required to worship its demagogic dictator, a vile oppressor described in Scripture as "the Beast!" (See Revelation chapter 13, The Holy Bible.)

It's Time to Unite and Stand Up for Our Religious Rights

AS GODLY VALUES and religious practices are cast aside (and in some cases, actually banned by secular humanist forces), and the shadows of anti-God darkness deepen across the globe, we beseech all people of faith to join together in resisting the anti-religious forces that seek to denigrate our faith and rob us all of our religious liberties.

FACTS:

  • "Lest we take comfort in the protection of the great American system of free press, let me remind you that never in the history of a civilization has a single cadre of individuals who do not share the dominant values of their society wielded so much power to shape and alter the thinking of the masses. With the average American home glued to the tube seven-and-a-half to nine hours every single day, the media elite are more powerful in creating and twisting public opinion than the government! So great is this power that elected officials themselves live in more fear of the media's cameras and microphones than they do an assassin's bullet. Murder by media is far more commonplace. (Larry W. Poland, Ph.D.)
  • "Before you are through with this article, we will have documented for you the turning of the media and intellectuals against values you hold dear. You will see the fangs of the secular press reaching out to claw to pieces any rivals to its hedonistic, relativistic, Man-centered World view. But mainstream film and TV producers are becoming decidedly anti-Christian as well. No sooner had the processing fluids dried on the film The Last Temptation of Christ than Universal Pictures was presented with a movie script in which evangelical Christians were the villains. ... They take great delight in ridiculing and damning the "religious right wing" and in lumping all Christians together as "fun-hating fundamentalists." (From "How to Prepare for the Coming Persecution," by Larry W. Poland, Ph.D.)
  • Large-scale rejection of Christianity has resulted in "enormous cultural change" as Christian values have faded in government, education, and the media, according to a report prepared for evangelical Protestant leaders. (Religion Today)
  • But the culture within which we are all immersed breeds immorality and nourishes the worst that is within us. Its pervasive voices and faces have become increasingly brutish, vulgar, vile and violent. Our music, books, movies, sitcoms, soap operas and video games pound out messages of mayhem and depravity, the audience ever younger. This decadent culture has invaded and overwhelmed the church, the family and the school--the conscience-forming institutions of our society. The Supreme Court has upheld laws that are openly hostile to religious speech and expression, particularly in government schools, where prayer is prohibited, and God, by mandate, is treated as a pariah. (Linda Bowles, Creators Syndicat)

THE FABLE OF EVOLUTION
Entire countries of former Christianity, so-called Christendom, have abandoned their faith for the false teaching of Evolution, for which there is no foundation in proven fact whatsoever, just pure theories, lies, fantasy and guesswork! That is the basic teaching which has replaced Christianity: Evolution, which is the survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog and might is right! So what's happened to the former Christian faith?--It's out the window, even out the windows of many churches! Thanks largely to Charles Darwin and his evolutionary "doctrine of devils" (1Ti.4:1), in the past 100 years the so-called Christian world has turned around and denied its own faith, lost its aim, its purpose and its excuse for existence!

By abandoning God, the Bible and Christianity and putting nothing in its place except the animalistic, cannibalistic religion of Evolution, the result has been total anarchy and chaos! After all, if there is no Creator nor Creation, then life is just a meaningless, chaotic process of Evolution! If there's no God, then there's no Ruler. And if there's no Ruler, then there are no rules! And if there are no rules or laws, then nothing is either right or wrong! They say--

"A monkey is your god and you might as well 'do your own thing' and do as you please.--Kill and rob or do whatever you want to do! It doesn't matter! Nothing's right! Nothing's wrong! It's merely relative and blah blah blah blah!" No wonder they're coming out of school today like little savages!--Total savages! back to the jungle!--The asphalt jungle! "Me first, and to Hell with the rest of you!!"

The late U.S. supreme court justice, Frederick Moore, summed things up perfectly when he said, "Nothing is more certain in modern society than the principle that there are no absolutes!" To abandon the Ruler they had to throw away all the rules, and the result is total anarchy! To abandon the One Who gives the orders they had to abandon order, and the result is total chaos! To get rid of God they had to get rid of the absolutes--the right and the wrong and the meaning and the reason for things--and the result is total insanity, madness! "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind!" (Hos.8:7)

You cannot have any kind of order without some kind of moral basis, a code of conduct, a sense of right & wrong, of good & evil, of what's right to do & what you shouldn't do. A psychiatric doctor in an Atlanta hospital rightly asserts, "Crime will continue to increase as restraints on behaviour are weakened. With the decline of religion, with the decline of tradition, with the loss of family structure, the crime rate is headed for double digit figures."

So things are not getting better & better, as Evolution purports! The Bible predicts just the opposite!--"In the Last Days, evil men & seducers shall wax worse & worse, deceiving & being deceived!" (2Ti.3:1,13)

 

EXTRA SOURCES: GOOD THOUGHTS:

A FALLING AWAY OF THE CHURCHES (2Tim.4:3; Mat.24:12)

61. It has been estimated that probably 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ.

62. In America, more money is spent on tobacco in one year than both the U.S. & Canada have spent on missions since the White Man discovered America.

63. A survey taken of 520 clergy & laymen of the NCC (National Council of Churches), showed that only a little over half believed Jesus to be divine, & only 62% believe in an afterlife.

64. McCall Magazine took a survey of 3000 Protestant clergymen. The article stated that "A considerable number rejected altogether the idea of a personal God. A majority of the youngest group cannot be said to believe in a Virgin birth or to regard Jesus as divine."

65. In the U.S. in high schools the word "Christmas" has been eliminated. One high school principal says, "We do not use Christmas, instead we use the word holiday. When we plan holiday activities we must ask ourselves, does the activity create a religious observance? If the answer is yes, then the activity will not take place."

66. It is illegal in U.S. public schools to read the Bible, but many states require that a Bible is provided for every convict in jail. So if the children can't read the Bible in school, they'll be able to read it when they get to prison.