The Great Falling Away

by Steve Bastin

“Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure to be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”  (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Apostasy is falling away.  Paul predicted a great falling away that would precede the return of the Lord.  Jesus’ promise that “the gates of Hades” would not prevail against his church was not a guarantee against a large portion of the church falling away.  More probably, Jesus was simply asserting that death would not prevent the building of his church.  Jesus’ church was established on the day of Pentecost following his resurrection.  His death on the cross was necessary for the beginning of his church.  Paul later told the elders of the church at Ephesus that the church was purchased with the blood of Jesus.

The falling away is a prediction that what was once a church of Christ would become an apostate church, a church that no longer belonged to Jesus.  It would become a church that acknowledged a man as its head.  It would allow a human to occupy the position that belongs only to God.

The Old Testament presents us with a vivid description of how those who are the people of God can depart from the principles that bind them to God.

Beginning at Mt. Sinai, God called the descendants of Jacob (Israel) to be His special people.  He had brought them out of Egypt and was leading them to the promised land.  When He gave His law, He spoke to the people through Moses, “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”

After the people of Israel settled in Canaan, their history is a record of people who continued to drift away from God until they were called back by a prophet, judge or king who reminded them of their obligation to their Creator and Redeemer.  God’s law did not change from Moses to Jesus, but the people were constantly changing in their respect for what Moses had written in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible).

Before Jesus began his ministry, God raised up John the Baptist as the last of the great prophets to call the people to repentance and a return to God.  John laid the groundwork for the effective work that Jesus was able to do.  Jesus challenged the traditions and practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees who had drifted from the law into their own traditions and practices.  They had fallen away and God was seeking to restore them to the faithful keeping of His law.  The law of Moses was intended to lead people to accept the Messiah whom God sent, Jesus.  Without respect for the law there could be no respect for Jesus who fulfilled the law.

Jesus died at Golgotha and with his blood established a new covenant between God and His people.  The New Testament was given to us by those whom Jesus chose as his witnesses and empowered with the Holy Spirit to accurately carry his teachings’ to

those first believers and all succeeding generations of believers.

Some would say that the New Testament gives no definite form to the government of the church.  This excuses the changes that have been made in government that have led to all the changes in church doctrine.

Jesus is the head of the church in the New Testament.  Individual congregations are led by men who are called elders, bishops or pastors.  There is no church-wide organization of the church with a hierarchy of men ruling over other men and congregations.  That is the change that led to changes in teaching.

The first century church had no organization that could vote on changes and make those changes binding on all the congregations.  It took almost three hundred years of gradual change to bring about that result.

Over time, congregations which were led by a group of men usually called presbyters or elder were persuaded to elect one from their number to be their head and the name bishop came to be reserved to this man alone.  It is unclear whether the election was for a period of time to be followed by the election of one of his fellow presbyters to then become bishop or whether it was an election for a lifetime.

In time it came to be a permanent election and only one presbyter was considered a bishop.  Over time, that one bishop came to have the rule over smaller congregations in outlying areas and so the ancient order of things was changed over time to that organization which became prevalent in the third century.

The bishops of the principle cities of the Roman Empire came to be viewed as above the bishops of smaller cities.  Thus began the system of metropolitans (chief bishops) which led over time to the elevation of the bishop of Rome to the position as head over all the churches in Europe and North Africa.

When Constantine became the ruler of the Roman government in the fourth century he declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire.  From being a small, obscure, persecuted religious group, the Christians became the most powerful religious group in the Roman Empire.

With the influx of new members came pagan ideas.  In order to accommodate these half-converted or, in some cases, unconverted new members, it was felt necessary for the church to adopt many of their customs and practices to avoid alienating them.

With the growth of the church came internal problems as theologians with more time than knowledge of the scriptures began to contend with each other about issues on which the Bible was silent.

As the controversies increased, Constantine, the Roman Emperor, called the church leaders to a meeting to establish the doctrine that everyone would be expected to accept.  In a vote of those who attended the meeting a decision was reached and anyone who disagreed was put out of the church.

The church had come a long way from the days when they looked only to Jesus as their leader and the twelve men whom he had personally chosen to be his witnesses.  Now men were elected by other men and assumed the right to speak where the Bible was silent and to change things that were clearly revealed in scripture.

The great falling away that Paul had predicted was fulfilled.  The words of Jesus to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing had been ignored.  What had once been the church of Christ, was his no longer.