Paul said the day of the Lord would not come before there was a "falling away" and antichrist moved into the church groups. In other words, Jesus Christ will not return until this has happened... Antichrist in the church groups today and the church groups have fallen away... from scripture ... as they set up doctrines to please men.
II Thess 2 ... Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3Let 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; 4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
First: A "falling away ...
Several years ago, God opened my eyes to see this "falling away" and to know what it means.
The falling away in the church was not people leaving the church group.
The falling away was church groups falling away from the word of God and setting up another doctrine to approve man, to please man, so more people would want to come to church.
A few years ago, I attended a dinner in Lubbock. I was seated next to a man who was wearing the biggest cross I have ever seen. I was horrified. This man began speaking immediately, telling that he is the retired pastor from Indiana Baptist Church. Then he began telling of a problem at their church. They keep having such an increase in numbers attending their church they can't get enough seating room for all the people. He said they even built an add on to their building and now it is full of people. He said they didn't know what they were going to do.
I said, "If you would begin telling them the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery about 1/2 of the people would leave and you would have plenty of seating at your church."
He was very shocked.
But I knew they were having the increase in numbers because they were withholding and changing scripture.
Jesus said ... Mt. 5:32 ... But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
3 Forms of Adultery:
- The faithful wife who divorced committed adultery if she remarried
- The husband who divorced the faithful wife was the cause of the adultery when the wife has been faithful and he divorces that faithful wife
- The man who married her, when she had been divorced, committed adultery
If you speak that message at your church group, many will leave your church group ... or they will drive you out of their church group ... But this is what Jesus said about the matter.
This example is the clearest example to help one to see the great falling away from the scriptures that has taken place in the church groups in our lifetime.
While it is hard to see, we can know that the coming of Jesus draws much closer because of the evil in the church groups.
There are church denominations in the USA today who allow homosexuals to be their ministers. Fornicators are welcome to join many of the church groups. Sin is brought into the congregation and welcomed where there is no correction which would offend the person who is sinning and therefore no shame nor repentance.
All these things are examples of the falling away of the church group from scripture and antichrist reigning over the church group.
Who is antichrist?
People in churches used to cite certain humans they thought were antichrist based on politics.
But all this falling away and antichrist spoken of in II Thess. 2 is to happen in the church, not in the world.
II Thess 2:4 ... (antichrist) Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit ... Antichrist was going to sit in the individual humans and make his temple inside that human copying the Holy Spirit ... And those humans were going to boastfully flaunt themselves in the congregations in shameless ways.
Antichrist is not one man. Antichrist is a spirit in the hearts of the humans. Antichrist goes in a way opposite to Christ, always opposing the way of God ... and all this in the churches.
II Thess. 2:4 ... Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
That is exactly what we see in the church groups when certain scriptures are removed and substitute doctrines set up to approve man in what he wants to do in this life.
Paul saw antichrist in his day ... Acts 20 ... 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Paul knew as soon as he was removed, these men would rise up in the church group as they spoke perverse things.
John saw the same thing: I Jn. 2 ... 18 Little children, it is the last time:and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
The end of the people who remove scripture and the people who participate in the removal of scripture by joining in these congregations:
II Thess. 2 ... because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
God gave me the following dream to show me we cannot sit there among them ...
Poison gas dream: In 1979, God gave me the following dream. There was a room filled with people and a
man was speaking to these people. I went in and sat down and began
listening. Then another man rushed into the room and said, "Stop ... can't you see. It's
too late. It's already begun." The first man resumed
speaking. But I looked out the window to see what was happening. I
was shocked in what I saw. There was a civil defense warning system on
top of a tall pole. A type of
poison gas was coming out of the speaker. The shocking thing was
this: The system that was set up to warn us was being used to gas us to
death. And it was coming from our own speakers.
In the dream, I looked at the man sitting next to me. His eyes were open. He had a big smile on his face. But he was dead! He was a corpse though he was looking directly at the speaker and seemed to be paying attention. Then I looked at the other people in the room and they were all dead though they looked alive. And as I sat there listening to the speaker, I felt myself falling asleep (dying). I knew it would kill me too if I sat there among them.