It’s not people leaving the church that marks apostasy, it’s the church leaving Jesus!

By: Mike Helms
June 3, 2010

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…”  (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Scripture tells us that before the return of Jesus we will see a great apostasy, a great falling away.  But a falling away from what?  Some point to the large number of people leaving churches as evidence of this great falling away- “they are walking away from the faith”.  But it’s not people leaving the church that marks apostasy, it’s the church leaving Jesus!

I wrote the song “Whatever happened To Jesus?” early in my Christian walk.  I was in love with Jesus as a new believer and was grieved by what I saw happening in the church.  It almost seemed like the church was desperate to be accepted by the culture, and wanted to prove to the world that we could be just as good at anything they did, and have just as much fun.  The catch phrase at the time was, “Christians can have fun too!”  Instead of rejecting the world system, the goal seemed to be to embrace it.  That whole mentality bothered me a lot!  Hadn’t I just gotten free from the world’s pull?  Didn’t Jesus just call me out of all this mess?  Why in the world would I want to go back to what I left?  “Can this be what God has in mind for His Church?”

 Whatever happened to Jesus?

It’s been 23 years since I wrote “Whatever Happened To Jesus?”.  It’s message has been on my heart since I became a Christian and I’m releasing it now because I think it’s “for such a time as this.”  Over the last 23 years things have only gotten worse.  We have embraced the world to such a degree that in many churches one would be hard pressed to see any real difference between the surrounding culture and the church.  The word of God often takes second place to the words of men, and is often twisted to embrace that which it directly forbids!  One obvious sign of apostasy is the rejection of God’s Word:

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”  (2 Timothy 2:2-4)

Embracing a world system which God rejects (1 John 2:15-17), and turning aside from God’s truth can only lead to a falling away from Jesus.  While His name may be invoked and retained, in actuality He has been left behind while we go to follow our own desires and ideas.  In essence we are no longer following Him however much we may say we are.

The spirit of anti-Christ works by seduction

Before the anti-Christ comes there will first be a spirit of anti-Christ that permeates the world. (1 John 4:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Christians speculate on who the anti-Christ will be and if he’s presently in the world, but the scripture tells us that before the anti-Christ makes his appearance there will be a widespread anti-Christ influence that is seen.  We tend to of think “anti-Christ” as something that’s “against Christ”, but the Greek brings out further meaning:

Greek: anticristoV, meaning “instead of Christ,” or “against Christ”

The spirit of anti-Christ is evident when “instead of Christ” we get something else in His place! And that is exactly what has happened today in many churches.  When Jesus becomes a mere figurehead in the church while we go about without Him doing our own thing, the spirit of anti-Christ has come in… the focus is taken away from Christ and replaced by something else other than Him.  The spirit of anti-Christ doesn’t come into the church with a megaphone shouting, “Hey! I’m against Christ!”; rather, it comes as a “seduction”- an enticement to something thought desirable.  This, of course, is the devil’s modus operandi:

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

A pure devotion to Jesus

Paul, the apostle, wrote that he was concerned that perhaps we would drift away from a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ”, and embrace “another Jesus”.

I’m not sure I know what the terms “Christian” and “Church”  mean anymore in our present day.  Can you believe anything and practice anything, put the name “Christian” on it, and that alone makes it Christian?  Does putting a sign on the door and calling it a “church” make it one?  Is the church called to embrace the surrounding culture and resemble it?  It would seem so.  The spirit of anti-Christ has come in boldly using His name.  It may not look like anything that we see in God’s word, it may even embrace the world (and in some cases outright sin) in direct contradiction to God’s word, but as long as we call it “Christian” and use the name “Jesus” as Paul said, we “put up with it easily enough.”

We are in the midst of an anti-Christ onslaught where Jesus and His truth are being replaced with cheap substitutes, while His name is proudly attached to the very things He hates! 

It’s not people leaving the church that marks apostasy, it’s the church leaving Jesus!

Revelation 2:4 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”

In my first post, “Whatever Happened To Jesus?” I address the relationship issue that I believe is key to our current condition.  We are the Bride of Christ and God desires us to be wholly His.  When we forsake our “first love” of Him it leads to an inevitable downhill slide and it’s not long before we’re committing adultery with the world.  We cannot be unfaithful in this way without hardening ourselves, otherwise our straying heart would constantly condemn us.  In Hosea the LORD says, “Let her remove the adulterous look from her face…”  (Hosea 2:2)  Please read my first post where I talk about God’s steadfast love for His people even though they are unfaithful to Him, but for now let’s understand that’s He’s not content to be one of a number of lovers- He desires that we be wholly His.

Loved, but told the truth…

God’s love for His people is beyond words!  And yet, God does not hesitate to tell it like it is:

“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.  A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD…” (Hosea 5:4) 

His love is not mere sentimentality; He will not refrain from telling the truth- God expects a change in His beloved.  Things cannot go on as they have with the expectation that everything will be okay! 

“Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt.  And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”  (Hosea 5:15)

Repentance is not just an Old Testament concept, it runs all through the New Testament as well:

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…” (Acts 3:19)

“When God raised up His servant, he sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”  (Acts 3:26)

A final plea to return to Jesus!

We are witnessing a great “falling away”.  Now is not the time to mess around and play games! As we witness apostasy growing it is a clear sign that the end is getting near.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…”  (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Is this really the time to be wandering away from Jesus?

The scriptures are filled with examples of straying from the Lord and are given to warn us and turn us back to Him.  “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come…”  (1 Corinthians 10:11)  It’s time to return to Jesus before it’s too late.  As we witness the spirit of anti-Christ permeating the world and the church we should understand that this is exactly what scripture said would happen before the Lord returns for His own; the time to return to the Lord is now!

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.”  (Hosea 14:4)

“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,
   ”In the time of my favor I heard you,
      and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

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