Posted on 09/17/2011 10:09:58 AM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3–4).
I will never forget what one of my church history professors told us one day in class in the late 1970s at Dallas Seminary. He said something like the following: Those of us who will follow Christ and His Word, as opposed to the rising emphasis upon religious experience, will increasingly become a smaller group until one day we will be on the outside of the American Evangelical Church looking in. My reaction to my professor was, “No, things will never get that bad within Evangelicalism.” Well, my professor was certainly right. I believe that just such a day has arrived! Like Jude, I would have loved to write about our common salvation, but the times are pressing in on biblical believers. We must contend earnestly for the faith!
New Testament Apostasy
The English word “apostasy” is a transliteration of the Greek noun apostasia and is made up of two smaller Greek words, which are apo and istemi. Apo means “from or away from,” while istemi means, “to stand.” Thus, taken together, the compound word has the idea of “to stand away from,” “depart from,” or “departure.” The verbal form aphistemi is used in 1 Timothy 4:1 and means, “to cause someone to move from a reference point, go away, withdraw.” [1] “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith . . .” (1 Tim. 4:1a). Apostasy, as used in this article means to depart from the faith of biblical Christianity. In other words, to no longer believe what the Bible teaches about anything.
The following is a list of the seven major passages that deal with the last days for the church: 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4; James 5:1-8; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 3:3-6; Jude 1-25. Every one of these passages emphasizes over and over again that the great characteristic of the final time of the church will be that of apostasy. The New Testament pictures the condition within the professing church at the end of the age by a system of denials.
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, in an extremely insightful statement characterized the last days for the church in the following way:
"A very extensive body of Scripture bears on the last days for the Church. Reference is to a restricted time at the very end of, and yet wholly within, the present age. Though this brief period immediately precedes the great tribulation and in some measure is a preparation for it, these two times of apostasy and confusion — though incomparable in history — are wholly separate the one from the other. Those Scriptures which set forth the last days for the Church give no consideration to political or world conditions but are confined to the Church itself. These Scriptures picture men as departing from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1-2). There will be a manifestation of characteristics which belong to unregenerate men, though it is under the profession of "a form of godliness" (cf. 2 Tim. 3:1-5). The indication is that, having denied the power of the blood of Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5 with Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:23-24; 2 Tim. 4:2-4), the leaders in these forms of righteousness will be unregenerate men from whom nothing more spiritual than this could proceed." (cf. 1 Cor. 2 :14). [3]
As can be observed from the above characterizations, apostasy occurs in two basic areas: 1) doctrinal defection from the Bible, and 2) immoral or ungodly behavior. The clear course of the last days for the church consists of constant warnings to the believer, especially to pastors and leaders, to be on guard within the flock against doctrinal defection, commonly known as apostasy. Such a characteristic provides for the believer today a clear sign that we are in the last days of the church age.
Christianity or Hinduism?
Caryl Matrisciana in her new video series exposing the new emerging Christianity entitled: Wide is the Gate says at the beginning of her presentation, “There are really only two basic worldviews. The Eastern mysticism of Hinduism . . . and the biblical worldview.” [4] I have long realized this myself when I learned in the 1970s that Hinduism was the polar-opposite of true biblical Christianity. Thus, any time one moves away from the Bible and its teachings by necessity one has to move in the direction of Hinduism and mysticism. My belief has been verified and strengthened over the years as we have seen metaphysical mysticism increasingly come into the Evangelical church during the last 40 years.
I was amazed to read a similar view back in the early 1890s by a pastor who had developed the same belief, but wrote of it in the late 1800s. Samuel J. Andrews wrote a book entitled Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict. [5] Andrews believes that the polar-opposite of biblical Christianity is what he calls pantheism and the church of his day was moving in that direction. Pantheism, which means that everything is god, is an excellent single term description of Hinduism.
Andrews noted that there are three stages in the history of ideas. “First, their origin in the minds of individual thinkers, . . . Secondly, their popularization and general diffusion. . . . Thirdly, when generally diffused, these ideas find their embodiment in laws and institutions.” [6] Andrews believed that the nineteenth century in which he lived was the second stage of transition to Pantheism, which means that we are clearly in the third and final stage of transition.
When I look at the final form of the apostasy, which will occur during the seven year tribulation in which the antichrist will be dominate, it appears to be a false system along the line of pantheism. There will be false signs and wonders that will be the basis upon which the False Prophet supports the Beast or the antichrist as noted in Revelation 13:13–15. This is reiterated in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 when speaking of the man of lawlessness, “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.” This will be the mysticism and magic of Satan himself. This deceptive apex is said to occur because unbelievers in the tribulation “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). One other passage of note in 2 Thessalonians 2 is verse 7 that tells us that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” during the current church age preparing the world for the entrance of the antichrist who is currently being restrained from making a full appearance until after the rapture.
Conclusion
Such preparation explains why we are seeing all the world’s false religions and belief systems increasingly unite against Bible believing Christians. This is where the world is headed. Either one is for Christ or he will be against him. No middle ground.
The common denominator for all anti-Christians is human experience set against God’s revelation. Since biblical Christianity is rooted and grounded in the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity became a man and entered history in order that He might die for man’s sin as a substitutionary sacrifice in order to provide salvation to those who believe, it is important for unbelievers to shift focus away from the God-Man to human experience. Biblical Christianity has to be stripped of the historical facts of Scripture like creation, the fall, the flood, the call of Abram, the exodus, the conquest, the Temple, the incarnation, the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, as well as His second coming. In its place is the self-discovery through some religious discipline of the inner self. Nothing more than human experience.
Human experience rather than God’s revelation is the common denominator that links all false religions and philosophies into a common bond. This is why the products of humanistic thinking is being brought into our Evangelical church through items such as psychology and psychotherapy, self-development, quietness and meditation exercises, Yoga, social justice, heath foods, and all kinds of metaphysical approaches that replace a biblical doctrine of holiness and sanctification. The gospel is taking a backseat to social programs and “do-goodism” since these metaphysical approaches seek to reform mankind instead of recognizing our sin and need for the Saviour. These kinds of trends being spearheaded by the emerging church within Evangelicalism are not making the gospel more relevant to the culture instead it is leading the way to hell by making the church no different than the world. It is also setting the stage for accepting the antichrist. Maranatha!
Endnotes
[1] W. F. Arndt, F. W. Danker, F. W. Gingrich, & Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 158.
[2] Taken from J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 155.
[3] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 8 Vols. (Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1948), vol. IV, p. 375.
[4] Caryl Matrisciana, Wide is the Gate: The Emerging New Christianity, Vol. 1 (Menifee, CA: Caryl Productions, 2011), @ the 4 minute mark of the DVD.
[5] Samuel J. Andrews, Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1898).
[6] Andrews, Christianity and Anti-Christianity, p. 201.
Oh, where in Scripture is it said that Satan is being held by Michael “behind” Christ?
I have already given you the Scripture, Christ's own Words, and you reject HIM and you demand more?
Well, you need to tell the Popes, catholic.com, newwordencyclopedia and many others of that because they all say it is.
Pope Pius XII solemnly defined in Munificentissimus Deus on Nov. 1, 1950, that the "Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."
The doctrine of the Assumption says that at the end of her life on earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven, just as Enoch, Elijah, and perhaps others had been before her. It’s also necessary to keep in mind what the Assumption is not. Some people think Catholics believe Mary "ascended" into heaven. That’s not correct. Christ, by his own power, ascended into heaven. Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She didn’t do it under her own power.
The Church has never formally defined whether she died or not, and the integrity of the doctrine of the Assumption would not be impaired if she did not in fact die, but the almost universal consensus is that she did die. Pope Pius XII, in Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defined that Mary, "after the completion of her earthly life" (note the silence regarding her death), "was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven." [http://www.catholic.com/library/Immaculate_Conception_and_Assum.asp]
Although the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary may somewhat controversially [http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Assumption_of_Mary]
The wasn’t part of any church untill the 5th century. It’s absent in scripture.
“The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is founded on the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the book De Transitu Virginis, falsely ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite” (Catholic Encyclopaedia).
The first church author to speak on the assumption, Gregory of Tours, based his teaching on the Transitus, perhaps because he accepted it as genuine. However, in 459 A.D. Pope Gelasius issued a decree that officially condemned and rejected the Transitus along with several other heretical writings. Pope Hormisdas reaffirmed this decree in the sixth century. It is ironic that this heretical teaching was later promoted within the Catholic Church, until eventually it was proclaimed a dogma in the twentieth century.
Looks like you really need to believe also or be considered “fallen away”.
The Roman Church solemnly warns anyone who “should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined (i.e. the Assumption), let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith (Munificentissimus Deus).
The apostates are the ones who have invented this doctrine. The faithful are those who, together with the early Christians, have remained steadfast in upholding the faith of the New Testament.
I think you Catholics had better do some intense study of what your Catholic Church used to be and how far they have fallen away. Notice how the whold concept was based on writings that were origianlly declared haresy.
Since Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, 'Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.'"
Since that command Satan has been held 'behind' Christ, now where is Christ now?
Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angles fought against the dragon (devil): and the dragon fought and his angels, (what Satan has a 'crew'.),
8 And prevailed NOT, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, call the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
We are going to have 'visitors', and they are NOT pleasant visitors they are pretenders.
There's more...Don't call any man father, and, Whatever else you do, don't let a grown man wear red shoes, comes to mind...
At least have the courage to admit that you don't believe the Bible and think that you are qualified to state that some Scriptures are true and some are not.
You posted nothing to validate your false doctrines and the Scripture doesn't exist to validate your false doctrines.
You are living, breathing proof that Jesus is coming soon for His bride and proof of the truth of this article.
Sorry, that's not scripture...That's your Catholic catechism...
Ok I read this two times and gained NOTHING. Yes, Jesus is coming, but HE does NOT come first. Now you can believe the apostasy because as Paul continues to write in IIThessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming IS after the working of Satan with all power and sign and lying wonders, (the apostasy)
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
I let you read verse 12 because it speaks of a 'wedding out of season' which is the apostasy.
As much as you fling empty accusations I am NOT going to wish you happy wedding bells because YOU are not going to be a happy bride.
Since the book of Revelation is the book that gives the events which will happen during the Tribulation, why don't you post the verses in Revelation that tell what happens with the Church?
And I'm not talking about the Tribulation saints- those who come to Christ during the Tribulation. I'm talking about the people who were saved during this present Age of Grace. I'll need the Scripture from Revelation that talks about the Church, not the Tribulation saints.
Let's see the Scripture from Revelation between chapter 4 and chapter 20 when God talks about the Church coming back to earth with Christ.
Let's see the Scripture.
Actually there is more scriptural back up for the rapture than for a sinless Mary 'assumed" into heaven and now her Sons chief advisor and co redeemer .
Personally I am 'pan millennial " ( it will all pan out in the end)
But I can defend the rapture, from scripture better than you can Maryology
He is "the Prince of the Powers of the Air". Eph. 2:2.
He is "the god of this World" (Age). 2 Cor. 4:4.
He still has his abode in the "Heavenlies" and has access to God. He accuses the brethren day and night.
He is by NO means bound at this time.
“There isn’t going to be any rapture.”
That is your Opinion. It’s not reflective of the Word of God.
Was there a Flood?
Prophecy is about 25% of the Bible.
Every time a preterist “avoids prophecy”, they’re tearing pages from their Bibles!
The rapture is supported in at least three BIBLE passages. Mary herself proclaimed that God was her Savior....
...talk about inventing doctrine out of thin air ....
But theres good news too...
Mary was one of the women praying in the Upper Room at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit shown up like a mighty rushing wind and baptised all of the 120 of the men and women there with the fire and power of the Spirit and they all started to speak in tongues....
The 11 disciples were there
Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalaine, Salome the mother of John and James, the other Mary and so on...
Mary, Martha and Lazarus...
Peters wife and mother-in-law...
plus the brothers of Jesus,
and a few others
So Mary was filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues with the rest...
Wow, I really missed the boat; I had shrimp for supper. And at a Catholic establishment, no less!
Hint: Catholics aren't "under the law" at all, if by "under the law" you mean what Paul meant by the phrase.
No, it isn't. De Transitu is only one source that speaks of the Assumption, and it wasn't "declared haresy" because of its teaching of the Assumption, but for other reasons.
I fail to see why you would find the Assumption such an intolerable doctrine, though. We think Mary was raptured on the early flight. So what?
Better take a look at the list of what the Catholic Church demands of you.
Find me another prior to the 5th century.
>>I fail to see why you would find the Assumption such an intolerable doctrine, though.<<
Well, let’s look at a few reasons.
Scripture says.
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
But Catholics say.
"Membership in the Militia means complete dedication to the Kingdom of God and to the salvation of souls through Mary Immaculate." -Pope John Paul II
"We have an advocate in Mary that the father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot say no to. It is impossible for them to say no to her! -Fr. Stephan Scheier
Jesus says Christians belong to Him.
Romans 1:6 among whom are ye also called to be Jesus Christ's:
But Catholics say.
Pope John Paull II has 'dedicated himself and his Pontificate to Our Lady.' He bears the letter "M" for Mary in his coat of arms. And his personal motto, which is embroidered on the side of his robes in Latin is the following: "TOTUS TUUS SUM MARIA", which in English translates to: "MARY, I'M ALL YOURS."
Jesus says He is the way and no one comes to the Father but by Him.
"John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Acts 4:10-12 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. [11] This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. [12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
But Catholics say.
"Oh Lady, you are the refuge of all the abandoned; behold me here and now abandoned by all. You are my only hope. You alone are my only hope; you alone can help me; have pity on me." [Taken from the Glories of Mary. Chapter 7, Page 132. By St. Alphonsus Liguori. He was declared "Venerable", 4 May, 1796; was beatified in 1816, and canonized in 1839. In 1871, he was declared a Doctor of the Church.] Catholics claim her blessed holy mother.
But Jesus says.
"But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke 11:28)
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