I woke up this morning with this on my mind.
I have heard all my life that there would be a ‘great falling away’. Scripture refers to it…"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first..." 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
I know of many people that are ‘falling away’. Good people. People that I have enjoyed friendships with. People that I have loved, and dearly love to this day. People that have sat in the same pews as me and worshipped in the same church as me. Many have lead in the worship experience, many have been in the ministry, and many have been raised in the ministry. These good people are simply ‘falling away’.
This term ‘falling away’ or ‘apostasy’ means; to depart from revealed truth, to lead away, seduce, mislead; to defect, to blind the eyes of the people by manipulating the truth. It's a walking away from the truth that you've once known in favor of something else. ….(In Matthew 24, verses 4-12, the Lord specifically warns about this time.)
One of the things that most disturbs me, is no one appears to have any fear of the Lord, or even of Hell any longer….(that hard stance is surely politically incorrect and ‘uneducated’). Although the Word of God clearly tells us that millions of those who claim to be Christian will stand before God and be quite surprised when they hear, “Away from Me, I never knew you.” Though they will tell him of all the great and wonderful things they did in His Name, He will still say ‘I never knew you’.
I ask myself, “How can this be?”….I am sure that there are many factors, but can one be that they have allowed things into their lives that has desensitized them? Did they open their selves up to television, media, internet, ‘higher’ learning,…and now they can no longer discern right from wrong - Holy from unholy - The pure from the profane?
The spirit of this world is ‘the old ways/paths are archaic - we need change.’ There are so many spiritual and political parallels that I see. Obama’s campaign mantra was ‘CHANGE’. ‘There is a new and better way to do this.’… Now the White House sports shirtsleeves, bare arms, and have replaced the once ‘Sacred’ Office, with an informal, laid-back posture - where EVERYTHING is accepted. Can you see the parallels??
We have seen young couples marry, and after the parents in all faith and trust give their daughters hand over in marriage, the young man all of the sudden has a ‘new and better’ way, and pulls the young new wife (who was lovingly been raised in the ‘old paths’) into the web of deception and apostasy (‘Change’). Oh the sorrow that this has brought the parents, it is one that I cannot even imagine. My husband has described the actions of this young man as the highest form of ‘treason’, and has gone so far as saying that when he marries our daughter, he is adding vows in the marriage ceremony that vow the young man to keep the sacred beliefs that we lovingly and fearfully raised our daughter in.
Oh what a time we are living in. It makes me want to embrace the truth harder and more intensely to my heart than I ever have before. I desire more than ever to love what God loves and hate what God hates. I pray for discernment, so that I can discern right from wrong, holy from unholy, and the pure from the profane. I will ALWAYS have accountability in my life. I will NEVER do away with Elders in my life. They are my balance. I NEED them in my life. I pray that I will not only have a love for God in my heart, but always a healthy fear of God in my heart.
If you are reading this and if any part describes you, - go back. You are not enlightened, just the opposite…you have been blinded. Find that real Man of God in your life and come home. The Prodigal did, and what a homecoming that was!
