FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
PAUL’S PROPHESIED ‘FALLING AWAY’ OR GREAT APOSTASY OF THE EARLY CHURCH
“Now brethren, concerning the (second) coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you to not too shaken in mind and troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless THE FALLING AWAY comes first, and THE MAN OF SIN be revealed, THE SON OF PERDITION, who opposes and exalts himself ABOVE all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thess. 2:1-4, NKJV (See verses 5-12).
Apostle Paul was not only the quintessential apostle to the Gentiles; he was a prophet, too. He foretold of the great apostasy of the Church, described as the “falling away” and the earliest beginnings of the development of the Papacy.
The book of Hebrews was written first to the early Christians who expected Jesus to return soon in their time by revealing to them, and to our time as well, that Christ would not come before the papacy would have been fully exposed by the third angel’s message, and by providing the details of Christ’s penultimate office closing work in the heavenly sanctuary as the merciful High Priest, all-powerful Mediator, Advocate and Intercessor for His faithful followers on earth, and in closing, the righteous Judge of all the earth and mankind.
As Paul wrote in Romans, “For we shally stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” “So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:10,12. Paul here is echoing and re-emphasizing to the New Testament Christian what Solomon wrote in the Old Testament: “Let us hear the CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the WHOLE DUTY of man.
For God shall bring EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT, with every SECRET thing, whether if it be good or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13,14, KJV. Now, back to more recorded historical details of this great “falling away.” “Speaking of this great immoral pagan feast [Sun worship] Cardinal Newman says: ‘It certainly is possible that the consciousness of the sanctifying power in Christianity may have acted as a TEMPTATION to sins, whether of DECEIT or VIOLENCE; as if the habit or state of GRACE destroyed the sinfulness of certain acts, or as if THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.’-‘ Development of Christian Doctrine,’ p. 379. London: 1878.
Here we see the seeds of the distortion and corruption of the meaning and purpose of ‘grace’ as is taught in the Christian mainstream today! Also, the Jesuit brainchild of “the end justifies the means” finds its earliest origins at time, as an eminent Roman Catholic author, Cardinal Newman, wrote in his book. More tomorrow. God bless, NMF