Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - FALLING AWAY

 FALLING AWAY

In 2 Thessalonians this is written:

…for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first… 

(2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Now, this is really referring to the Day of the Lord but a falling away from the faith and religion has occurred many times throughout history; being documented first in the book of Genesis.

…the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 

and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil… 

And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth… 

(Genesis 6:5,6)

Now every time that man fell away did not usher in the Day of the Lord but it often did usher in times of despondency and destruction. This has been documented many times throughout the Bible and is really no different in our own day. Again, there has been a falling away from the church in that church attendance has steadily declined over the past century. Since 2000, people who attend church on a regular basis has slipped from about 35% to about 20% and those who never attend has increased from about 12% to near 35%.* So, the falling away is occurring again and the question is why? Some reasons may include the following.

First, the church no longer preaches as it did in the beginning. Paul said that he and his companions:

…preach[ed] Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness… 

(1Corinthians 1:23)

…and the early church grew like wildfire. Perhaps we again need to get back to the same basics as did the early church.

Second, the church often seems to be influenced by so-called prophets and their false revelations. The false revelations put forward by such persons are more often influenced by self benefit than by truth.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, 

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 

(Matthew 7:15)  

Additionally, the church also seems to be inundated with false teachers, who misconstrue God’s word and as a result mislead many. People often leave the assembly because they can feel the mistruths presented.

But there were false prophets among the people, 

even as there will be false teachers among you, 

who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, 

even denying the Lord who bought them, 

and bring on themselves swift destruction. 

(2 Peter 2:1)

Finally, there are cases where the Word itself seems to have been altered by interpretation so that the Word may not be accurate even if delivered honestly. This may, in part, be why the Bible itself says to:

Test all things; hold fast to what is good. 

(1Thessalonians 5:21)

…no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation… 

(2 Peter 1:20)

As a consequence of all this, there has been a falling away from the church with a further consequence of a decline in church funding. This results in less ability to do what the church was intended to do. We seem to forget that we were:

 

…created in Christ Jesus for good works… 

(Ephesians 2:10) 

…and also that:

…heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, 

also the earth and all that is in it. 

(Deuteronomy 10:14)

Perhaps a better understanding of these things might lead to a more coming to and a less falling away from the church body.

At the very least, it is certainly something to think about.

*churchtrac The State of Church Attendance: Trends and Statistics [2024]