Falling Away From the Truth Begins

It has been foretold that a mighty deception will settle like a veil over human history. The veil will cover and hide the truth of God… the whole world would be led astray, the truth will be hidden, the way will be narrow and few will find it, many would hear the call of the message but few would be chosen.

Doesn’t this seems contradictory to the accepted world history of a church, a religion, aggressively spreading and progressively growing over the centuries. Spreading and growing until it reached a
position of domination on our planet.

What the word of God foretells and what history reports and records appear to be very different. The record of history is not up for dispute… so did the bible miss the mark? Did the word of God underestimate the power of the message and how it would spread across the planet?

Prophecies of a Mighty & Powerful Church

Revelation 4:1; 5:1-2, 5; 6:2 the 7 seals give us a foretelling of the general themes of human history from the time of Jesus death up to the time right before His 2^nd coming. [provide chart of parallel to Matthew 24]

The first seal opened reveals a mighty figure riding a white horse wearing a crown of authority and rule. The white horse and rider certainly makes us think of Christ coming in great triumph Revelation 19:11-16. But the rider released with the first seal in Revelation 6 is not Christ… but looks like Christ. Instead this rider is one who goes forth in the name of Christ to create confusion and deception.

The coming Christ wears the mark of royal authority on his head… a diadem. The rider of the first seal wears only the wreath of victory [stephanos]. The false rider is indeed victorious… but he is no king of kings or lord of lords.

The coming Christ of Revelation 19 wields the sword of God’s word to gain his victories. The rider of the first seal uses the bow, the military weapons of human warfare, subjugation and power.

In Matthew 24:5 Jesus prophesied saying “many will come in my name proclaiming ‘I am the Christ’ but will deceive many.” The prophecy of the 1^st of the 7 seals tells of the same deception but reveals to us that this deception will actually prevail, and conquer.

Deception will be the winner and wear the wreath of victory.

Where Did The Rider of the First Seal Come From?

2 Peter 2:1-3 the ride of deception begins in the Church of God… the very congregations formerly pastored by Peter, Paul, and John.

Note: Scripture predicts false teachings not only about ethical matters [sensual pleasure vs. the holiness of God], it foretells false teachings about the very nature of who and what Jesus Christ was and is. We are also told: many within the church will fall for it.

1 John 2:18-19 a little over a decade later John reports that adversaries of Christ have risen up in the church. Sometimes they lead people off... presumably to create followings of their own. Sometimes they stay and later undermine the congregation they are part of.

3 John 9-10 there is no specific indication of a doctrinal dispute. But John has written something Diotrephes does not want read or distributed in the congregation. Diotrephes even wants to put people siding with John out of the church congregation. Remember, John was an eye witness to the ministry of Jesus… but the church leader Diotrephes wanted to limit John’s influence in the church.

Church History Gets Murky After John’ Death…

If people like Diotrephes were getting the upper hand in local church congregations its plausible that true believers were losing control of the situation. Even to the point of getting forced out of their own congregations. Perhaps having to start up afresh somewhere else. Further and further to the fringes and then beyond the frontiers of the empire.

In the meantime a new brand of christianity began expanding rapidly. I would guess it had enough of the true message of hope to attract new believers… but it also had the additional appeal of confirming to deeply entrenched human philosophies and ideas.

After the death of John in the 90’s any written record of what was going on in the church gets murky and scarce. Its as if a dark cloak were spread over the church. Then about 150 years later the dark cloak is taken away… but what is then revealed is very different from the Church Jesus Himself established.

One obscure example can be found of this period is found in the reference to Polycarp. He seems to be a true believer from Ephesus. Polycarp attended a sort of church council in 150 AD to discuss keeping Passover instead of the new easter celebration popular in Rome.

The report from the original council was friendly and collegial [they agreed to disagree]… but by 193 AD Polycarp was kicked out of the church for his faithfulness to what had been passed along to him by John.

By 250-300 AD the visible church was filled with controversy and doctrinal disputes. But those who held fast to the teachings of the apostles and Jesus had become a small minority pushed to the outermost fringes of the empire. By this time they no longer had a place at any of the church leadership meetings.

The White Rider Emerges From the Shadows

During the decades of the early 300’s Diocletian became emperor of the Roman state. He greatly intensified persecution on this new religion called christianity. Diocletian’s persecution involved the burning all books, scrolls, manuscripts related to the church. This may account for the absence of information about the years from 100 AD to 250 AD.

For example, the reference to Polycarp is a quote found in Eusibius’ history of the church. Eusibias is quoting from and earlier record of church history written by Papius. All Papius’ writings were destroyed. All we have are quotations of his writing referenced in other books.

After Diocletian there was a 10 year period of political turmoil in the empire. Various factions fought what amounted to a small scale civil war to have their man placed on the throne. When the dust settled a guy named Constantine came out on top.

During those challenging years the christians had not taken sides politically and retained at least some form of uncompromised moral authority.

Constantine sees an opportunity!

Perhaps this unaffiliated but very popular religion could be used to unite the fractured society and culture of the empire. Constantine makes 2 executive actions:

1. Constantine legalizes christianity
2. 2 years later, Constantine presides over the first of several church councils to resolve major doctrinal disputes.

Note: to a man like Constantine such wrangling over words would only undermine the christian religion’s usefulness in bringing unity to the empire. Constantine himself presides over the meeting. He would provide the final judgment on which teachings would become the officially sanctioned doctrines of this church… backed up and enforced, if necessary, by police and military.

Constantine wasn’t even a believer, he wasn’t baptized, he still worshiped the mighty sun god. Constantine was a head of state looking for a way to provide social stability and unity for his empire.

The Church Hits The Big Time!

In exchange for government support and sanction these leaders of the christian church allowed the government assume the role of deciding and enforcing doctrinal and administrative matters. With the support of Roman police, military, and financial resources a church presenting itself as the proclaimers of Christ would grow in power and influence.

In the 400’s millions… all across the empire... began pouring into this church. Probably drawn more by the appeal of state sponsored religion than by any type of spiritual calling. History also records that these new converts never really gave up their pagan ideas and practices… strange rituals and folk celebrations… philosophies of immortality, heaven, hell, even the very idea of who and what God is.

Church leaders, who had themselves already accepted a lot of error, were simply unable to counteract these customs and superstitions. They baptized people en masse figuring they could sort out all the craziness later.

What was the result?

State approved christianity was a strange mix of beliefs, practises, and customs from many sources. To this day it remains hard to tell where paganism ends and biblical truth begins.

Jesus’ Message to the Church

Before the 1^st seal is opened and the white rider is revealed, there comes a long message from the living and glorified Christ addressed to His church. Its written to 7 congregations in existence in the 90s when the revelation was recorded. The number 7 is most likely meant to be understood to signify completeness. The message was to be to the whole church and gave a full picture of the trends and divisions already beginning in the church at that time.

Trends and divisions that would become so great, it would result in 2 separate groups pursuing very different agendas.

In His message, Christ makes note of obedience and disobedience… showing who He would bless and who He would reject. He offers praise where praise is due and criticism where criticism is due.

Christ compliments devoted members for their service, labor, patience, perseverance, endurance, and faith.

His criticisms tell us a lot.

• There is a wake up call to those who were spiritually weak, indifferent, and blind to their precarious and pathetic condition.
• He has very harsh words for false teachers: those who followed the doctrine of Balaam, the practises of the Nicolatians, and those gave in to the allure of Jezebel.

Revelation 2:18-29 “sexual immorality” covers all those who teach a misrepresentation of grace that encourages tacit permission to ignore God’s commands. “Food offered to idols” covers mixing false religious practises with true.

The “deep things of Satan”… that subject would require a lot more time than we have available. In this category I would put the horribly misleading teachings about the immortality of the soul, lawlessness, and the nature of God. Clearly, Satan had infiltrated the church on a fundamental level promoting deep, thought provoking, but misleading ideas.

While some were plumbing the depths of Satan…. There were others who not put up with those ideas and the people who promoted them.

Revelation 2:2-3 in spite of Satan’s influence some remained strong and faithful

Revelation 3:8-12 the number of those who remained true and faithful was and is small

Christ’s message to the church at the close of the age calls out two distinct religious approaches emerged from the days of the original apostles.

One that remains faithful to Christ… and teaches faithfulness to Christ.

One that has become deluded… and teaches others that same delusion.

Conclusion:

A mighty deception has settled over the face of the earth. Most are fooled into believing this falsehood accurately represents the teaching of God through scripture.

Make it your goal to know the truth… and know that you know the truth. 


We have created a 3 part sermon series to help you take a good look at this important subject:

1. The Rise of Lawlessness transcript | podcast
2. The Falling Away From The Truth Begins transcript | podcast
3. The Church of God in Today's World transcript | podcast

If you want to explore this subject as a personal study of your own, request a copy of The Church Jesus Built and start finding the answers in the pages of your own bible.