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| How has church fallen away from 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. (II Timothy 4:4,5) 15-1: The short, quick answer first. Since surely such a question, assumed to be sincere, came from a reading of this part of the Bible in the first place, then the same Scripture--II Timothy 4:4,5--almost answers within itself the question by looking above at the capitalized THEYs or related words. Short, simple, and quick, it is that (1) THEY who will not endure sound doctrine that are falling away, and who but Christians and church members previously had any sound doctrine; (2) THEIR OWN DESIRES seems like it could apply to all that are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (II Timothy 3:1-5) {by the way this section of the same book of II Timothy has describes the THEYs of church members who have lost their way, “having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof”}; (3) THEY that have itching ears in churches and denominations because they want to hear something new and flattering that tickles their ears; (4) THEY vote to kick out of the churches, men of God of sound doctrine and long service, destroying like the Bible Baptists Fundamentalists that split and presently control the SBC, destroying the careers and reputations of Christian brothers, while they apply their own desires and influence in the direct of popular and select Bible preachers; (5) THEMSELVES will heap up teachers, preachers, and pastors, and even denominational leaders {ways to know we are now approximately 40 years into the falling away as a world-wide movement among churches and denominations} like themselves of itching ears, that they can control out of their own desires, and that will compliment them as “the people of God” {by no means wasting their time out there in the community instead of caring for members}; (6) the THEIR EARS that are “turned away from truth”, counts the ears in any of your churches and denominations for both the unsound of II Timothy 4:4,5 and that of the bad habits of church members of II Timothy 3:1-8; and (7) if you can not see the casualities in churches and denominations today where there is an obvious turning away from truth and into fables then you just do not have “eyes to see and ears to hear”, or you don’t want to see IT! 15-2: It is not THE CHURCH that is falling away, that is the number of real, eternal church members written in heaven where we do not presently have access to the records {although many BBFs think they can read those records from a distance}; but it is the local churches and denominations that have so many members falling away from their “first love” of God, Christ, and the Bible, that the whole local church and/or denomination appears that way. For this part of the long answer, please go to the web page or PDF on “Who Adds to the Church and Where?”, also “Refreshing Evangelism adds to the church of the Firstborn” as well as other messages in the Refreshing Evangelism series. 15-3: To wrap up the long answer, you should download the following extensive Bible presentations in PDF. 1. WHAT THE CHURCHES DON’T WANT YOU TO HEAR, that they are leaders in the Falling Away. 2. SNATCHING, STUMBLING, AND THE FALLING AWAY. 3. HIDEOUT FOR BAD HABITS. 4. DEN OF THIEVES. 5. SOME SOUNDS OF SOUND FAITH. 15-4: If you desire a challenge that is sufficient for the Falling Away, please go to the book by Jerry and Ann McMichael on FRIENDS OF JESUS IN THIS AGE OF BIBLE AND THE COMPUTER, which serious surveys and applies the advice of Jesus to disciples with the definitive answer of “If you are my disciples you will do what I have commanded you”, and you will love one another to the extent of “humble unselfish service.” 15-5: Finally, look at the larger context of Ephesians and Ephesus with the THEYs, if you have any remaining doubt that it is the New Testament churches of then and now, that are falling away. 1. You know how faithful Paul, the writer of the epistle of Ephesians, was to the teachings of Jesus, so that naturally you would expect that when Paul talked of a time in the future when “For the TIME will come when they will not endure sound doctrine”, he was talking about the same TIME and GROUP as in Matthew 24:11-14. {For more Bible on the last day, historical and eschatological, sequences of the END, you may want to download the PDF END.pdf. “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold {by the way, this is the primary HOW as in “How has the church fallen away from truth?”, it is the love of Christians losing, in the words of Revelation 2:4 “their first love”, like at the church of Ephesus in the first century--did Paul know this would happen shortly after his life, yes; and give it as an example of what not to do of the great apostasy of the last few years called THE Falling Away, yes} But he who endures to the end {if you do not read into this that some Christians will be on the earth at the end and during the falling away, you are indeed foolish, deceived by a false rapture and a false millennium} shall be saved. {You see, who be saved except Christians?} And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations {if not there now, it can not be long}. and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24: 11-14) 2. Yes, Paul was writing specifically to Timothy, his own son in the faith, and a typical preacher and evangelist; but as with all Scripture, it is given for our examples “upon whom the end of the ages has come”. 3. Recall how Paul told in Acts x:xx how “savage wolves” as church leaders would come to the church at Ephesus, and throughout the world. This is the same falling away that he wrote to Timothy about, a precursor and bad example of the great apostasy at the end of time. 4. If you call the falling away of the church at Ephesus and the other churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 2 and 3) at the lesser falling away as compared to the great apostasy of the Falling away of today, what then would you call the falling away of “the latter times”, that is what is midway between great and lesser except just an early, say midway between 100-2013, or say around 850 A.D. extensive falling away from sound doctrine? “Now the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (I Timothy 4:1,2) NOTE: Being midway in history, “latter times” as contrasted to last days and the end of last days with “for the time will come”, it should be noted that all these problems have continued to the present with a: (1) departing from the faith {another way of how the churches have fallen away}; (2) doctrines of devils and deceiving attitudes and spirits, another way for churches to fall away; (3) speaking lies in hypocrisy, you can see how that would your church into the falling away; (4) having their conscience seared with a hot iron, who some of those church members that you can honestly judge with righteous judgment as there (John 7: 24 ); (5) forbidding to marry and some meats, well you know the denominations that are there now and have been for centuries. 5. Have you noticed how close these words from Jesus and Paul sound like the time of II Thessalonians 2:1-12 when “the falling away comes first” (2:3) before the famous Day of the LORD and Lord of both OT and NT, called “the day of Christ” so you will not, like the BBFs, get confused about a false rapture and mileinium before the End. {Please read the details of II Thessalonians 2:12 including how Satan has been restrained by the Holy Spirit since the Holy Spirit came in great presence and power after the Ascension of Christ, and how the releasing of Satan from the bondage of a counter force against “sin, righteousness, and judgment” will bring with a rising tide of sin and lawlessness, the final days of the Falling Away. {As and guide you may also want to read on this site “Holy Spirit versus Satan.} NOTE: Sorry but the long answer turned into a longer answer as we attempted to do justice to the subject from the Bible. In short, the completed answer to this critical question is on the page, "The How of the Falling Away". There you can also download the complete answer in PDF. |