Chapter Five: “A Theological Prophecy—The Falling Away
From David Jeremiah’s book “Where Do We Go From Here?”
“That Day will not come unless the falling away comes first.” 2 THESSALONIANS 2: 3
Last minute, I was compelled to include Ch. Five because I recall very little if any explicit teaching over the pulpit on Apostasy, but that is more of an admission of me not being attentive than it is such not being presented! I know full well I lost many of you the past week with these lengthy reads on content you that may rile you and that is ok with me; at least you know where the truth (you may say “my version”) can be found when needed or desired. My mission is only to present as I’m prompted.
Imagine writing your first book at age twenty-two and watching it land on bestseller lists everywhere. A few years ago, that happened to an American pastor. His book conveyed biblical advice about love and relationships, and it encouraged thousands of young people to make better choices. Here’s a quote from its pages: “The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and as we watch, the world says, ‘This is love.’ God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, ‘This is love.’” 1
Those phrases pack a punch! It’s no wonder this pastor became known for his speaking, writing, and counseling, as well as for nearly two decades of pastoral ministry in a local church. But in 2019, he announced his marriage had come to an end. Then, in a follow-up post on Instagram, he disclosed something even more troubling:
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, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now. 2
That cuts me to the heart, especially because he isn’t alone. 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. Few Know Where They’re Going.” 3
This departure from biblical faith is happening so often that a new word has been coined. These defectors are no longer evangelicals; they are exvangelicals.
Why is that? And what does it mean?
This “falling away” is not a new phenomenon. Throughout history, many have taken up the banner of Christ only to lay it down again. Even the first generation of Christians faced this challenge.
Do you know about Demas? When Paul wrote to the Colossians and to Philemon, he sent them greetings from his coworker Demas, who was at his side (Col. 4: 14; Philem. 1: 24). Yet in his final letter, Paul told Timothy, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4: 10).
Another book in the Bible is devoted to this topic—the short epistle of Jude, written by our Lord’s half-brother, the son of Joseph and Mary. It’s the next-to-the-last book of the Bible, and Jude stated his purpose succinctly: “To contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3).
It helps me to realize the apostles faced the same problem of falling away we’re seeing today. Yet the trend toward apostasy seems to be accelerating in our times. I’m almost hesitant to read Christian news sites because I don’t want to hear of another pastor failing or another prominent believer rejecting the faith. Recent headlines aren’t encouraging, and neither are the statistics.
There are more than 72 million Millennials in America—almost a quarter of the population. 4 An increasingly large percentage of that generation has walked away from faith of any kind, choosing to identify as “religious nones.” In 2008, researchers noted that close to a third of Millennials (31.9 percent) described themselves as religiously unaffiliated. Just ten years later, that number was 42.7 percent. 5
There are more troubling numbers. Church membership in America has suffered a decades-long decline. When Gallup first measured US church membership in 1937, the number came in at 73 percent. Even in the early 1980s, more than 70 percent of American adults were church members. In the year 2000, it was 65 percent. By 2010, it was 59 percent. In 2020, it was 50 percent. Now less than half of Americans belong to a local church, with corresponding declines in regular church attendance. 6
But the core issue isn’t that people are falling away from church, or even falling away from faith. We’re talking about falling away from Jesus Himself. We’re talking about branches that cut themselves off from the vine. These are people who have—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” (Heb. 10: 29 NIV).
Remember Judas the disciple? He’s the clearest example of apostasy in the Bible. He was among Jesus’ inner circle. He had greater access to Christ than almost any other person in his day—walking and talking with the Savior, witnessing the miracles, and watching lives be transformed. Yet Judas still fell away.
So did a pastor here in California. After several instances of publicly criticizing the Bible’s views on sexuality, this man was asked to resign from the church. He also lost his teaching positions at two Christian universities. As a result, he decided to live for a year without God. In his words, he planned to “try on” atheism as a New Year’s resolution.
“For the next 12 months I will live as if there is no God,” he wrote. “I will not pray, read the Bible for inspiration, refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else’s circumstances.” 7
At the end of his experiment, he officially rejected his lifelong belief, declaring on National Public Radio, “I don’t think that God exists.” 8
Again, this man didn’t simply fall away from the church and from the faith. He chose to abandon the Savior, and it left him with nothing except atheism—which, literally, is faith in nothing.
I’ve been appalled in recent years when would-be shepherds of God’s flock have questioned foundational elements of Christian doctrine, including:
The Denials of End Time Apostates
Denial of God – 2 Tim.3:4-5
Denial of Christ – I John 4:3
Denial of Christ’s Return – 2 Peter 3:3-4
Denial of Faith – Jude 3-4
Denial of Sound Doctrine – 2 Tim. 4:3-4
Denial of the Separated Life – 2 Tim.3:1-7
Denial of Christian Liberty – 1 Tim.4:3-4
Denial of Morals – Jude 18
If Jude were alive today, he would take notice. So should we. But don’t despair. There’s hope even in the face of apostasy. God knows those who are His, and He will bring them home safely. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10: 28–29). Paul expressed the same hope, declaring, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1: 6). And don’t forget Jude, who ended his book praising “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (v. 24).
What Does This Mean?
To be clear, apostasy is not the same thing as atheism. By apostasy, I’m not referring to people in general who reject Christianity or deny the truth of the gospel. 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 turn their backs on Him. Here is the best definition I have found for the term apostasy:
The Greek word for apostasy is found only twice in the New Testament (Acts 21: 21, II Thess. 2: 3). . . . The word means ‘a falling away from,’ a deserting or turning from a position or view formerly held . . . Spiritual apostasy occurs when a person who once claimed to be a believer, departs from what he formerly professed to believe. An apostate is not one who was saved and then lost his or her salvation. An apostate, though having claimed to be a believer, never was saved in the first place. 9
Every apostate is an unbeliever, but not every unbeliever is an apostate. Do you see the difference? There are many people who have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel, even in part. They are unbelievers because they have not heard. But an apostate is well acquainted with the gospel. He or she knows more than enough to be saved and, yes, has even professed to follow Christ. But at some point, they turn their backs on the Savior. Their commitment wasn’t real, and their decision wasn’t authentic. Those who are Christians in pretense are non-Christians in reality, and sooner or later reality wins.
Why am I talking about this theme of falling away? Because the proliferation of apostasy is an important, but often overlooked, piece to the end times puzzle. As we know from Scripture, one of the signs of the imminent return of Christ is a rising number of self-proclaimed Christians who ultimately reject Christ.
The Bible 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 if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 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 Thess. 2: 1–3, emphasis added).
This is indeed a prophecy about tomorrow that has implications for us today. This falling away that Paul was writing about is not just some gradual defection from Christ. Paul called this the falling away. This will be a specific, recognizable departure from the faith during the tribulation.
Let’s bring it a little closer. According to the Bible, the tribulation period will begin immediately after the rapture of the church. Paul told the Thessalonians that the tribulation could not begin until the Antichrist was revealed and the falling away occurred. Here is the order of events: Christ comes to rapture His saints to heaven. At that moment, tribulation breaks out all over the earth and the Antichrist is unmasked. Finally, at the same time, the falling away occurs.
We know from our study of prophecy that the rapture is a sudden signless event. Nothing needs to happen for Christ to return for His own. But here is what we are prone to miss if we do not think carefully. If the rapture could happen at any moment, the “falling away” could also happen at any moment. In fact, what we have been describing, what is happening right now, could very well be the front edge of the “falling away” that Paul was explaining to the Thessalonian believers.
The point I’m making is this: we see the acceleration of people falling away happening now. Apostasy is on the rise even as you read this. To me, it’s another sign that we’re moving toward the end with increasing speed. Paul wrote his words about “the falling away” to the church in Thessalonica, which was facing heavy levels of persecution. The Christians there believed the last days were upon them.
Paul told them not to be troubled, for all Christians will encounter difficulties, even persecution. The thing to watch for, Paul said, was increased apostasy. That is a predictive sign of the approach of Christ’s return and of God’s final judgment. Before the return of Christ, a great falling away will occur.
I hope to see a great spiritual revival before the rapture. It can happen. But there’s no specific evidence in Scripture that a spiritual awakening must occur before Christ comes for His church. On the contrary, Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 reveal that unbelief will continue to rise on a global scale, including increased apostasy within the church, until a tipping point is reached prior to the day of God’s judgment.
John said, “It is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us” (1 John 2: 18–19).
In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus said, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24: 12). How can this happen? How could anyone who has tasted the goodness of Christ ever choose to fall away? There are many reasons, of course, but let’s focus three specific ones.
Some Fall Away Because They Are 1.) Deceived; 2.) Disillusioned; or 3.) Distracted
Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s easy to become discouraged when we consider the prevalence of apostasy in the church and in our world today, and if we’re not careful, we can begin to think of apostasy almost as a disease, something that can be “caught” like a cold or the flu.
But apostasy isn’t caught like an illness. It’s not something that happens to you out of the blue. It’s a choice. A decision you make based on your on values and priorities.
So what can we do to protect ourselves from that ever happening to us? How can we make sure that we are never among those who fall away. I’d like to suggest three things you can do to immunize yourself against this danger.
- Examine Yourself. 2 Cor. 13:5 Paul wrote: “examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?”
- Encourage Yourself. We learn this technique from David who came to a very disheartening moment in his life while fleeing from King Saul according to 1 Samuel 30:6, “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”
- Exercise Yourself. Finally, if you want to stay confident and strong, it is important to keep growing in your faith, and that requires exercise.
According to July 29, 2018 Business Insider, LeBron James spends about $ 1.5 million each year caring for his body. Where does the money go? LeBron keeps his home gym updated. He’s said to have replicated the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavalier’s gyms in his home. He has a cryochamber in his home, which uses liquid nitrogen to give him something akin to an ice bath. He also has a hyperbaric chamber that puts more oxygen in his body. He doesn’t hesitate to hire and pay for the best trainers, massage therapists, and chefs in the world. He eats only the best and healthiest foods. And he invests in compression gear to wear on airplanes.
LeBron spares no expense to keep his body working like a sleek machine. His former teammate Mike Miller said, “He puts a lot of money behind taking care of his body. A lot of people think it’s a big expense, but that big expense has allowed him to make a lot more money for a long period of time.” 15
If a basketball player is that concerned about taking care of his body, shouldn’t you and I be diligent to take care of our souls? The Bible says, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4: 8).
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 of late.
Andrew Murray, in Holiest of All, wrote this powerful paragraph:
“In commerce, in study, in war, it is so often said there is no safety but in advance. To stand still is to go back. To cease effort is to lose ground. To slacken the pace, before the goal is reached, is to lose the race. The only sure mark of our being true Christians, of our really loving Christ, is the deep longing and the steady effort to know more of Him. Tens of thousands have proved that to be content with beginning well is but the first step on a backward course, that ends in losing all. . . . Let us press on. 16”
The apostle Peter said, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1: 10). “These things” refers back to eight character qualities listed in verses 5–7: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Could Peter have been more emphatic? If we keep growing in these traits, we’ll never stumble.
Now, let me make one thing clear. When Peter said we will never stumble, he didn’t mean we will never make a mistake or commit a sin. He meant we’ll never shipwreck our faith. We’ll never fall away from Christ.
Earlier I mentioned the book of Jude, a small one-page letter near the end of the Bible. It’s all about the dangers of false teachers and the temptation to fall away. Reading Jude can help us make the right choices when facing pressure. His words are critical for those of us living in a culture and in a church defined by increasing apostasy.
Jude wrote to Christians experiencing double pressure. They faced extreme persecution, and they were under spiritual attack from heresies of all kinds. Most of the influential leaders of the early church had been martyred—including Peter, Paul, and James—which left both churches and individual Christians feeling vulnerable.
In the darkness of that moment, Jude’s epistle provided a ray of hope. In just two verses near the end of his tiny epistle, Jude explained to Christians how to remain committed to Christ during a time of increased apostasy: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith . . . keep yourselves in the love of God” (vv. 20–21). Jude was speaking to Christians, and the phrase building yourselves up conveys the idea of continuation. Jude was not speaking of a one-time event, but rather a life-long process. In other words, Jude told us to keep building ourselves up.
You will notice that these passages use the word yourself or himself. You must not wait for someone else to do this for you. This is your responsibility.
You must continue to cultivate your relationship with the Lord. Your walk with God is not static. You are either growing in Him or you are beginning to grow cold toward Him.
This is why God warned the church in Ephesus, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Rev. 2: 4–5).
Examine yourself, encourage yourself, and exercise yourself in the Lord. And most of all just keep going and growing. Don’t stop! Don’t look back! Just keep walking with the Lord.
“Chapter 5: A Theological Prophecy: The Falling Away
Bibliography
1. Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2003), 67.
2. Caleb Parke, “Well-Known Christian Author, Purity Advocate, Renounces His Faith: ‘I Hope You Can Forgive Me,’” Fox News, July 29, 2019, https:// www.foxnews.com/ faith-values/ christian-author-joshua-harris-kissed-dating-goodbye-faith.”