The Falling Away

“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, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)

3:30 AM, and I can't sleep...again.

Recently, a close friend of ours knowingly and willingly hardened his heart against God, and has chosen to walk with Him no more.

He doesn't want anyone's help or counsel. His mind is made up.

His decision has left me stunned. 

I am heartbroken, but I think I'm more numb than anything.

Looking back over the last several years of our friendship, remembering the times we gathered in our home for fellowship and worship, thinking back on the difficult trials we endured together, I can't say as I can think of a time when I could have seen this coming. Difficulties and heartbreaking disappointments, yes.

But this? 

No.

How can this be?

Another friend whom I've known for about six years, went through, (and eventually lost) a long, brutal divorce and child custody battle. His wife actually used to teach a women's bible study at our church. He and I broke bread together often, praying for one another, getting into God's Word together. He virtually had the entire bible memorized. I believed he really loved the Lord.

Now he blasphemes God and has disowned Him. He blames God for every bad thing that has happened to him. He got taken to the cleaners in the divorce. His wife cheated on him and had set him up on a bogus spousal abuse charge. He spent time in jail and many hours in anger management classes. His wife has also walked away from God and now thinks Christianity is a big joke. She has chosen a life of partying and fornication. And their three children have been caught in the middle of their insane war against each other. 

Another man who I used to know at our church has a similar sad story. He once told us at a men's group how his wife used to "love the Lord" and she actually "led him to Christ." They have five children together. Since then, she hooked up with her high school sweetheart and left her husband. The last I heard of her, she was a stripper at a local "gentlemen's club."

I could go on and on. 

Tragic story after tragic story of people who supposedly once loved the Lord, but have now hardened their hearts against Him and have walked away. Abandoned Him. Fallen away. 

Apostate.

Hearing these kinds of stories used to bring me to the brink of madness, in trying to understand how people who once professed to love God, could now disown Him and hate everything He stands for.

What in the world is going on?

A great apostasy—the falling away—is foretold in the Bible.

“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 Thessalonians 2:3)

What is the falling away?

The word used in the original Greek language of the New Testament is Apostasia:

"Defection from truth, (“apostasy”): falling away, forsake."

Here is another verse which clearly foretells this defection from the truth:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

A key phrase from that passage is, "According to their own desires."

Unless one is completely asleep at the wheel of spiritual discernment and not paying any attention to what's going on all around us, never in our lifetime has this defection from the truth of God's Word been more blatantly pervasive than it is today.

People are calling the evil morality of today's corrupt world, "good" and the goodness of God's truth, "evil."  The greatest sin in the eyes of today's ungodly culture is what they label as "intolerance."

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” (Isaiah 5:20)

So, how does this current "falling away" among (so-called) "Christians" happen?

How can people who once professed to be followers of Christ be so easily led away into apostasy?

“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;  and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,  as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.” (2 Peter 3:14-17)

The Apostle Peter makes it quite clear here that it is "untaught, unstable people who twist the truth of the Scriptures" and are thus, "led away with the error of the wicked."

     —And they do so to their own destruction.

I've tried reasoning with my blasphemous friend, pleading with him to really consider the end of his disowning Christ. But he said he truly "doesn't care." He claims that he would rather "spend eternity in fiery torment than to worship and adore God."  His last smug words to me were: "So let it be written, so let it be done."

This is insanity. 

Unbelievable—unless you understand that this dark time in human history was clearly foretold in the Bible.

And we are currently smack-dab in the middle of the great Falling Away. And maybe even closer to the end of it than we think.

What do you think?

Perhaps you know someone who has chosen to disown God and walk away from Him like my friend has. All we can do is pray for these people, pleading with them, and reasoning with them from God's Word, as they are open to listen.

As painful as it is to see people falling away like this, it does indicate that the return of the Lord is nearer than it ever has been before.

And never before has it been more important to stand upon the Truth of God's Word—testing every twisted doctrine and philosophy of man by the holy Scriptures.

Well-meaning, so-called "Christian" people are everywhere, with sugar-coated messages that are pleasing to itching ears, promising health, wealth, and spiritual experiences that are not supported by God's pure Word.

Don't fall for it. 

Test every word. Test every "spirit." Test their fruit. Test every spiritual experience. 

—“Test all things; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.