First of all, let us emphasize the biblical teaching that in the not-too-distant future, prior to Christ’s return, there WILL BE a falling away from the Truth. We have written extensively on this subject. We are setting forth excerpts from several of our Q&A’s:
We state the following in our Q&A on the 144,00:
“… the Bible even prophecies that in the future, prior to Christ’s return, true Church members will fall away from the Truth, because they did not receive the love of the Truth and did not believe the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:10, 12). Because of lawlessness, the love of God within them will grow cold (Matthew 24:12), and they will become an easy target for Satan’s ministers (2 Corinthians 11:14-15) who will deceive them through their lying signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 11; Matthew 24:11, 24). Hopefully, their falling away will not be permanent and they will come again to ‘repentance so that they may know the truth,’ and that they ‘may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will’ (2 Timothy 2:25-26).”
The end-time falling away from the Truth refers to converted Christians. It will reach its climax at the approximate time when the man of sin—the false prophet—manifests himself just prior to and during the Great Tribulation, claiming to be God and sitting in the Temple of God.
We say this in the Q&A about a future Temple prior to Christ’s return
“Another Scripture, indicating the existence of a future temple in Jerusalem, just prior to Christ’s return, can be found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. Paul writes: ‘Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of Christ’s return] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.’…
“However, we read that the returning Christ will consume the man of sin ‘with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming’ (2 Thessalonians 2:8). Therefore, this man of sin will exist at the time of Christ’s return. He will proclaim himself to be God, not just ‘a god.’ It is highly unlikely that Paul was talking about the Church as the temple of God in this context. There is no Biblical evidence that the false prophet will be sitting in God’s true Church, proclaiming himself to be God. However, Christ warned His Church in Matthew 24:11 that ‘many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.’
“One argument that has been advanced for the idea that the ‘man of sin’ is or will be a religious leader within the true Church of God is that he allegedly has to fall away from the truth, which he once knew. This is, however, not in accordance with Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 does not say that the end-time ‘man of sin’ must fall away from the truth, which he once understood. Rather, the passage only states that Christ will not return ‘unless the falling away comes first, AND the man of sin is revealed.’”
Some have proposed that the coming falling away refers to traditional Christianity, which will exert a more powerful influence on the world. But this interpretation is erroneous.
We state the following in our Q&A about the future apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3
“The context of these verses is interesting. This is talking about a falling away from the truth, and it is the only place in the Bible where the word ‘apostasia’ is used. The apostle Paul is addressing ‘brethren’ (verse 1) about an apostasy especially at the end time, as ‘the man of sin’ is also mentioned who is to reveal himself during the very last days, and who will sit in the temple of God and pretend to be God himself. This strongly indicates that the Jews will build a temple in Jerusalem prior to Christ’s return, where they will bring sacrifices, and that the man of sin or the false prophet will occupy the temple for a while, when the armies of the beast power will occupy the city of Jerusalem and suppress the daily sacrifices. All of this will be fulfilling aspects of Christ’s end time warning that the abomination of desolation will be set up or standing at the holy place, where it should not be (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14).
“It is correct, of course, that an apostasy from the true gospel already began during the lifetime of Paul, when he stated that he marvelled that so many in the Church of God had turned to another gospel (Galatians 1:6-7). But Paul’s warning, taken as a whole, is not about others who did not or do not have the truth, but he is addressing those who had learned it and who would nevertheless ‘fall away’ or leave their own beliefs behind and go off in a different direction.
“It is therefore clear that any revival of orthodox Christianity, including a revival of the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church or the different Protestant churches (as mentioned in Revelation 13 and 17), is not in any way to be viewed as being an aspect of the end-time apostasy or falling away from true biblical teaching. How can orthodox Christianity ‘fall away’ from biblical beliefs that they do not accept in the first place, and have never accepted? For instance, the Catholic and Protestant churches have rejected, for nearly two millennia, the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days…
“The Protestant Church, even though they officially rejected and still reject the authority of the Catholic Church to change the teachings of the Bible, nevertheless followed the lead of the Catholic Church and adopted Sunday worship, while rejecting the Sabbath. Martin Luther himself declared that the Bible teaches the observance of the Sabbath, agreeing with the Waldenses who insisted at the time that the Sabbath must be kept, but he concluded that one should instead continue the observance of Sunday, as to avoid an unnecessary uproar. Other Protestant ‘reformers’ such as Calvin understood that Easter is a pagan holiday, which is not enjoined in Scripture, but which the Catholic Church adopted from pagans who kept this day in honour of pagan gods. The goal was to bring those pagans into the fold of the Catholic Church. However, these same Protestant ‘reformers’ did not feel it necessary to abrogate Easter observance…
“At the same time, a false concept of God is being taught, where He is misrepresented as a Trinity—One Person in Three Persons—while the Bible clearly rejects such absurd doctrine. The list could go on and on, but suffice to say that orthodox Christianity could not be part of an end time ‘apostasia’, because they never had the truth in the first place from which to renege, and they most certainly do not have the truth today…
“The true Church of God has always been a ‘little flock’… It must be remembered that ‘a falling away’ doesn’t have to be millions of people. It is a falling away from a small flock, which the Church of God has always been, and therefore, numerically, won’t be millions of people. The ‘falling away’ is only in connection with where the truth is and has been preached – and that is in the Church of God… Paul’s warning for us today is therefore very sobering: Even though a falling away did undoubtedly take place at the time when a new administration came to power in the Worldwide Church of God [WCG], after the death of its human leader, Herbert Armstrong, in 1986, the apostasy from the truth within the Church of God will continue. As many fell away from the truth then, so many will still fall away in the future…”
The commentary of Bengel’s Gnomen adds:
“The apostasy and the mystery of iniquity are a great evil… Apostasy is a falling away from the faith… Some of those who had received it drew back [and departed] from the living God…”
The coming end-time apostasy refers to true converted Christians who will fall away from the Truth. As we will point out below, even though we might hope for the better, their departure might very well be a final decision in many cases, leading to the unpardonable sin. We should realize that this departure does not only refer to a “handful” of people. It is true that the Bible does not use the term “GREAT” or “GREATER” falling away in 2 Thessalonians 2. However, it is also correct that it has been commonly understood that Paul had a GREAT apostasy in mind, which—relatively speaking—will be, in some way, greater than prior apostasies. For instance, the headline of the New King James Bible for 2 Thessalonians 2 reads, “The Great Apostasy.” The Ryrie Study Bible comments about the coming apostasy: “An aggressive and climactic revolt against God.”
The Benson Commentary writes about the coming apostasy: “The article here is emphatical, denoting both that this was to be a great apostasy, the apostasy, by way of eminence, (the general, grand departure of the whole visible church into idolatrous worship,) and that the Thessalonians had been already apprized of its coming.”
After all, Paul uses the end-time falling away from the Truth and the manifestation of the man of sin as important and critical visible signs for the arrival of the day of the Lord–the return of Jesus Christ. If he had only a minor event in mind or just a few Christians who were to forsake the Truth, then this would hardly be an obvious and convincing sign for Christ’s return, as Christians have fallen away from the Truth as long as the Church of God has existed, and as many Christians HAD fallen away from the Truth at the time of Paul, as Paul explains in the first chapter of the letter to the Galatians.
When we consider the falling away from the Truth in the days of the [now defunct] Worldwide Church of God [WCG], after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, how can there still be a “great” apostasy, when today, the numbers of members and attendees in all Church of God organizations are so much smaller than in the days of WCG, and when after Mr. Armstrong died, more than 100,000 people (an approximate estimate) forsook the teachings of the Bible? Another question is, how can the coming falling away from the Truth be GREATER than the falling away from the Truth in WCG’s days?
First, we should ask ourselves as to how many Church attendees were actually truly converted in WCG days and understood, embraced and LOVED the Truth, before they subsequently departed. In this regard, you might carefully consider biblical passages such as 1 John 2:19 and 2 Timothy 2:15-20, referring to Church “attendees” who were not converted and ultimately left the fellowship with the true Church… or who stayed in the Church organization, without being truly converted servants of God (compare 3 John 9-10; Jude 4, 19). If true, then they did not really depart from the Truth (even though they might have “known” aspects of the Truth, the Truth was never part of their lives), and their judgment will still come in the future, while converted Christians are already being judged today (1 Peter 4:17).
Further, the concept of a “great” or “greater” falling away is relative. It may not be a “greater” falling away than it was at the time of Paul or at the time of WCG, when referring to numbers, but it will be a GREATER falling away in terms of importance and potentially eternal consequence. If the Body of Christ were to consist of 5 million converted members, then a departure of 1000 would not necessarily qualify as a great falling away. But when there are only 30,000 members, then 10,000 members who fall away can indeed be described as a great falling away. And in comparison, if many more members fall away than those who stay, then this would be a great falling away, in any event.
In addition, we hope that many of those who were converted and departed from the Truth in WCG’s days will return in the years to come, so that they would not be counted as those who departed from the Truth for good. The possibility of such a return is definitely implied in passages such as Revelation 2:5; 3:2-3, 17-19. And as we mentioned before, we also hope the same for those who will fall away in the future apostasy. But the extremely frightening warning is that many of those who will depart from the Truth in the future may very well depart for good—constituting a true departure and falling away of converted Church members from the Truth—as the love of God, poured out in their hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), will grow cold, and as they will forsake the Truth AND the love of the Truth, which they might have had at one time. The German Menge Bible renders this verse in 2 Thessalonians 2:10: “They did not make the love of the Truth a part of themselves.” The New International Version and many other translations say: “They refused to love the truth.”
The warning in this regard must not be overlooked. As the love of God would grow cold in them, so, as a consequence, the love of and for the Truth would grow cold in them as well. The love of God IS the keeping of His commandments (1 John 5:3), and without God’s love, lawlessness abounds, and vice versa (Matthew 24:12).
Hebrews 6:4-6 states very clearly: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance…”
When we speak of the fact that there will be “many” who will fall away in the future (compare Matthew 24:10-12; 2 Peter 2:1-2), we must realize how the Bible uses the word “many.” We state the following in our Q&A on the number of those who will be saved:
“First, we need to realize that the word ‘many’ is to be understood in context. It does not necessarily have to describe the vast majority of a group of people… We read in Acts 12:12 that Peter ‘came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where MANY were gathered together praying…’ In 1 Corinthians 11:30, Paul described the status of the brethren in Corinth, saying: ‘For this reason [because they did not properly discern Christ’s Sacrifice, when they partook of the symbols of bread and wine] MANY are weak and sick among you, and MANY sleep [having died prematurely].’
“We also read that at the time of Jesus’ death, ‘the graves were opened; and MANY bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many’ (Matthew 27:52-53). Verses 55-56 point out that ‘MANY women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James [the Less] and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.’
“In addition, Mark 14:56 informs us that at the time of Christ’s illegal ‘trial,’ ‘MANY bore false witness against Him, but their testimonies did not agree.’ So, we need to look at the use of the word ‘many’ in context. For instance, when we read that many brethren in Corinth had partaken of the Passover symbols in an unworthy manner, we are informed that a sizeable group had done so; this passage does not have to mean that the majority had acted in that way…”
God’s warning to all of us is clear. We are to retain the Truth, love the Truth and GROW in Christ’s knowledge of the Truth. We must not forsake or reject the Truth which has been entrusted to us (and God’s true Church is the foundation and pillar of the Truth; cp. 1 Timothy 3:15), and we must love God’s Truth so much that we will not refuse to accept further aspects of the Truth, whenever God reveals them to us in the pages of the Bible. We must continue to be zealous, steadfast and committed to God and His Word until the very end (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Hebrews 3:14). If we do, then God will protect and save us from the deceptions around us, so that we will NOT drift away (Hebrews 2:1), turn away from God and depart from Him (Hebrews 12:25; 3:12), fall through disobedience (Hebrews 4:11) and lose our salvation (Hebrews 2:3; 10:26-31).
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
