Great End-Times Revival Part 1 – the falling away

It’s no secret – I’ll even shout it from the rooftops – I believe there will be great end-times revival. My beliefs on the matter are a bit different from others in that I think there will be more than one stream of revival – imagine, if you can, Toronto, Brownsville, and Lakeland happening all at once in their respective cities – and this magnified worldwide! People won’t have to travel far to “go to the revival” because it will be happening in their own cities and in their own hearts. Glory to God!

It’s oft-argued by heresy hunters and critics of revival that the Bible does not speak of a great end-times revival. Instead, it speaks of the apostasy of the church and the great “falling away”.

I maintain that God speaks of both.

Let’s examine apostasy first, and get it out of the way (because it’s an ugly business, and also because when heresy hunters read this, I want them to read this part FIRST).

Throughout this article, I’m going to refer to a whole slew of people as “revivalists” – very loosely defined as anyone who believes in the power of God manifest in the here and now and actively working to bring about “on earth as it is in heaven”. This would include people from a broad spectrum of doctrine. I also refer to a passel of people as “heresy hunters” – those who devote their lives to picking for nits exposing heresy exalting satan and denigrating God. (for more on this, visit http://huntingheresyhunters.wordpress.com.)

The passage in question is from 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4; 9,10 -

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 is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. [...] The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they may be saved.

This is echoed in 1 Timothy 4:1 -

Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…

As a side note, it’s VERY interesting to me that Paul does not outline false prophecy, seeing angels, gold dust, feathers, or C. Peter Wagner as elements of deceiving spirits and demonic doctrines. He DOES however talk about speaking hypocritical lies, forbidding people to marry, and forbidding the eating of certain foods. (Hmmm. We could say Paul missed an opportunity but this IS after all the INSPIRED word of God – isn’t it?)

Let’s turn back to the “falling away”.

It’s quite clear from Scripture that there WILL be a falling away. There’s absolutely no doubt about it. Who will fall away is the question.

Heresy hunters have claimed that those falling away are revivalists. They claim that because revivalists regularly experience (and produce) signs and wonders, that these are the “lying” signs and wonders of the lawless one.

The Bible is quite clear – lying signs and wonders exalt the enemy. They do not turn people toward Jesus, they turn people away from God and toward false gods. They do not exalt the Lord God Almighty.

I have yet to hear a revivalist exalt the enemy. I have yet to see anyone turned away from Jesus or towards a false god. In fact, everything I’ve seen done at revivals exalts the One True God and seeks to give Him the glory for all that’s happening.

The entire stance of the heresy hunters is that one must operate within certain parameters in order to be a “true” Christian. Of course it’s true that there are some absolutes and that those absolutes are absolutely absolute (Jesus is Lord!) but look at what happened when the disciples tried to argue that people should do things THEIR way: Mark 9:38 Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 ”For he who is not against us is on our side.”

Now – there ARE people who will work miracles in His name but who are not headed to heaven. Who are they? Jesus says (Matthew 7:21-23) that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven and not everyone who does signs and wonders in His name are saved. Jesus says, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” The word “knew” is vital because we cannot approach God without knowing Him. The word implies an intimate relationship, as opposed to simply knowing about or intellectually assenting.

I believe there are two groups of people who are “falling away” – those who do not love the truth, those who lie and attack the brethren, and who do not exalt Jesus: the heresy hunters;  and people who call themselves Christians but who are fully engaged with the world: “Christians” who see astrologists and psychics, “Christians” who practice magick, “Christians” who chase after other gods, “Christians” who practice and support abortion, homosexuality, and other abominations. (For the heresy hunters: As an ex-witch I can say with quite a bit of authority that I’ve seen NO magick among revivalists, and most of the witchcraft I’ve seen is out of YOUR camp (using the loose definition of rebellion and manipulation).

For the sake of clarity and completeness, I want to add that many within the church believe that the “falling away” is represented by the rise of non-Christians in our society. I believe this is a sign of the times, but NOT the “falling away” – for something to fall away, it must have once been where it’s falling from (hope that makes sense).

Although this “falling away” MUST happen, I believe that it breaks God’s heart to see those who profess to love Him acting this way. It’s His desire that all people be saved and come to know the truth of Jesus Christ – and while you still draw breath, it’s not too late for repentance.

Next post on this topic will be Scriptural proofs for the End-Times revival(s).