Post by Cindy on Nov 21, 2016 12:02:29 GMT -5
We've often spoken of how things will be in the last days and we generally speak as if it was future - even if "near" future. However, as far as the falling away from the faith goes, I believe that's already happened. It's in the past and simply continues to get worse - although it's hard to see how it can get much worse than it already is. Let's see what the Bible says about this time: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3–4) and “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) Of course there's many other similar verses as well. I think we can all agree however that the Church is badly corrupted today. There are more false teachers than good ones.
I've often heard believers wonder if there were any others who were truly saved in their area at all. But we know that God always saves a remnant for Himself. Now we're finding out what it's like to be part of a remnant. Remember how Elijah felt? He thought he was the only one left too, but God told him that He had 7,000 others who were also saved. Not many if you consider that's out of an entire country of people. The vast majority of the people had fallen away, just like today.
I was thinking about the book I wrote before I was saved. At the end I'd put my name and address so that others could write to me if they needed encouragement or help. The book is an embarrassment to me now, because it mixes new age junk with scripture. I received a great many letters over the years, including letters from many "Christians". But in the approximate 30 years since I wrote that book, I received only ONE letter by a Christian, telling me the Truth about Jesus and how He could help me and how I could be saved. I cherish that letter. I wrote back to that Saint, and thanked her, telling her that I had been saved just a few short years before receiving it, but was thankful that there was at least someone brave enough to at least try and tell me the truth. All the other Christians that read that book, just wanted to use what I'd learned, which was fine, but they didn't have the courage to tell me how wrong I was about some things.
When I look back on my adult life, before I was saved, thinking about how I went to church ever single Sunday and how I was quite active in the church too. I have to wonder why none of the pastors of the few churches I attended ever held me accountable for how I was living. I didn't change churches unless I moved to another state, so I stayed in each one for years. Yet when I was living with a man without the benefit of marriage, no one said a word to me! Not the pastors or any of the church members. No one! When other sins were quite evident in my life, again, no one said anything to me about them. No one held me accountable for calling myself Christian and living like the rest of the world. But then I guess most of them lived like the world too. I'm speaking now of the last 40 years. That's a very long time! The one time anyone held me accountable was my godparents when I was a teenager. Once I was saved, I actually looked for someone to hold me accountable and finally found one person, although they told me up front that they really didn't want to do it, and they stopped just as quickly as they could find an excuse to do so.
I'm not saying that there are no churches that attempt to live the way the Lord tells us to, and that do their best to hold the members of their congregations accountable, and teach them to hold each other accountable. I am saying that those churches are very few and far between today though. And that's because the Church has fallen away. It's rebelled and prefers to hear false teaching instead of the Truth. They want to be saved from trials and suffering, not from sin and hell. Most don't even really believe in hell anyway.
Jesus told us that the last days would be like the Days of Noah and Lot, and there's been a great deal of talk about what those days were like. The biggest thing that marked both of those times though, was that there was a great falling away from the Truth. In Noah's time only his family was left! In Lot's time, there weren't many more. And today the same thing has happened. It's not future, it's already happened. The only thing each new day brings is yet more people falling to the way side. I've said any number of times over the recent years that God is calling His children to get serious, and He is. But this time is to determine or show just who really belongs to Him and who really doesn't. As things get worse, financial problems, government, etc. people are choosing which side they want to belong to. Those who choose God will still suffer like the others, but their suffering will end and they'll enjoy eternity without any tears, sorrow or pain. The rest, and that will be the vast majority, will suffer here as well, but their suffering will continue through all eternity. I'm just glad that I know what my eternity will be like. Those who really belong to the Lord will persevere through it all, and hang on to the Truth as it's written in His Word. Those who don't really belong to Him, will fall away and accept false teaching and prefer it to the truth, even fight for it. They may claim to be Christians, but the Lord doesn't know them.
God uses the Church to help restrain sin, and because of the falling away, sin is not being restrained by the church. He also uses the government to restrain sin, and again, the government is no longer doing so. God uses our consciences to restrain sin, but the conscience must be trained by the Word of Truth and the Holy Spirit in order to function correctly, and that is no longer happening for most people anymore. Instead they train their consciences by what the false teachers tell them, such as that homosexuality and abortion are ok, etc. So that restraint is also falling down. Finally, the Holy Spirit within all who are truly saved restrains sin as well, but because there are so few of us left, there isn't as much influence to restrain sin any longer - which is obvious like all the others when we see what's going on in the world. All of these are part of the great falling away.
This is one of the main reasons that I know that the rapture will happen "soon", because I know that the falling away has already occurred. When Jesus calls us to meet Him in the air, the final restraint will be removed and humanity will be left to enjoy their evil for a short time before He comes again to judge them.
I've often heard believers wonder if there were any others who were truly saved in their area at all. But we know that God always saves a remnant for Himself. Now we're finding out what it's like to be part of a remnant. Remember how Elijah felt? He thought he was the only one left too, but God told him that He had 7,000 others who were also saved. Not many if you consider that's out of an entire country of people. The vast majority of the people had fallen away, just like today.
I was thinking about the book I wrote before I was saved. At the end I'd put my name and address so that others could write to me if they needed encouragement or help. The book is an embarrassment to me now, because it mixes new age junk with scripture. I received a great many letters over the years, including letters from many "Christians". But in the approximate 30 years since I wrote that book, I received only ONE letter by a Christian, telling me the Truth about Jesus and how He could help me and how I could be saved. I cherish that letter. I wrote back to that Saint, and thanked her, telling her that I had been saved just a few short years before receiving it, but was thankful that there was at least someone brave enough to at least try and tell me the truth. All the other Christians that read that book, just wanted to use what I'd learned, which was fine, but they didn't have the courage to tell me how wrong I was about some things.
When I look back on my adult life, before I was saved, thinking about how I went to church ever single Sunday and how I was quite active in the church too. I have to wonder why none of the pastors of the few churches I attended ever held me accountable for how I was living. I didn't change churches unless I moved to another state, so I stayed in each one for years. Yet when I was living with a man without the benefit of marriage, no one said a word to me! Not the pastors or any of the church members. No one! When other sins were quite evident in my life, again, no one said anything to me about them. No one held me accountable for calling myself Christian and living like the rest of the world. But then I guess most of them lived like the world too. I'm speaking now of the last 40 years. That's a very long time! The one time anyone held me accountable was my godparents when I was a teenager. Once I was saved, I actually looked for someone to hold me accountable and finally found one person, although they told me up front that they really didn't want to do it, and they stopped just as quickly as they could find an excuse to do so.
I'm not saying that there are no churches that attempt to live the way the Lord tells us to, and that do their best to hold the members of their congregations accountable, and teach them to hold each other accountable. I am saying that those churches are very few and far between today though. And that's because the Church has fallen away. It's rebelled and prefers to hear false teaching instead of the Truth. They want to be saved from trials and suffering, not from sin and hell. Most don't even really believe in hell anyway.
Jesus told us that the last days would be like the Days of Noah and Lot, and there's been a great deal of talk about what those days were like. The biggest thing that marked both of those times though, was that there was a great falling away from the Truth. In Noah's time only his family was left! In Lot's time, there weren't many more. And today the same thing has happened. It's not future, it's already happened. The only thing each new day brings is yet more people falling to the way side. I've said any number of times over the recent years that God is calling His children to get serious, and He is. But this time is to determine or show just who really belongs to Him and who really doesn't. As things get worse, financial problems, government, etc. people are choosing which side they want to belong to. Those who choose God will still suffer like the others, but their suffering will end and they'll enjoy eternity without any tears, sorrow or pain. The rest, and that will be the vast majority, will suffer here as well, but their suffering will continue through all eternity. I'm just glad that I know what my eternity will be like. Those who really belong to the Lord will persevere through it all, and hang on to the Truth as it's written in His Word. Those who don't really belong to Him, will fall away and accept false teaching and prefer it to the truth, even fight for it. They may claim to be Christians, but the Lord doesn't know them.
God uses the Church to help restrain sin, and because of the falling away, sin is not being restrained by the church. He also uses the government to restrain sin, and again, the government is no longer doing so. God uses our consciences to restrain sin, but the conscience must be trained by the Word of Truth and the Holy Spirit in order to function correctly, and that is no longer happening for most people anymore. Instead they train their consciences by what the false teachers tell them, such as that homosexuality and abortion are ok, etc. So that restraint is also falling down. Finally, the Holy Spirit within all who are truly saved restrains sin as well, but because there are so few of us left, there isn't as much influence to restrain sin any longer - which is obvious like all the others when we see what's going on in the world. All of these are part of the great falling away.
This is one of the main reasons that I know that the rapture will happen "soon", because I know that the falling away has already occurred. When Jesus calls us to meet Him in the air, the final restraint will be removed and humanity will be left to enjoy their evil for a short time before He comes again to judge them.