The reason the so-church is in trouble is due to one word, apostasy. The falling away has occurred - not people leaving the 'church', but the literal meaning of falling away, ie defection from truth. alling away refers to those whithin the 'church' who have accepted false doctrine, turned aside. False doctrine within the congregation. A blend of truth and Falseness which equates to lukewarmness. The passage in 2 Thess 2 is very enlightening.
Going back a bit
Doctrinal truth has been in decline for years. Consider this: Scripture is inspired by the Father, with men writing as the Holy Spirit led them. Correct?
There is no instance in scripture of the Holy Spirit blessing an individual by causing them to fall on the floor. That is not written. The only instance was Ananias and Sapphira. Not a blessing. Judgement. That is written.
What we have world wide is an acceptance of this practice which has no foundation in scripture and no doctrinal verification.
This is my point. The Holy Spirit did not write it. There clearly is a spirit which is causing it to happen. I maintain that the spirit causing an individual to fall on the floor as occurring in congregations is NOT the Holy Spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are one and the same. The so called 'Toronto Blessing' was founded on experience and 'signs and wonders'. It's hallmark is spiritual drunkenness. There is no scriptural basis or endorsement for this. What there is, is 'Those that sleep, sleep in the night, those that are drunk are drunk in the night', and also 'Be sober, grave, serious.' If the Holy Spirit wrote that, why then would He proceed to make His followers drunk?
In 94/95 the international leaders of the evangelical churches entered into an Ecumenical Accord with the Vatican:
http://www.bereanpublishers.com/Ecumenism_What_Price_Unity/LettertoChuckColson.htm
The effect of this was that all mainstream evangelical, protestant and pentecostal churches gave assent to and came into agreement with the vatican on key issues of faith and doctrine - effectively creating a global quasi faith. The individual on the street will not be aware of this.
What is important to note is the very clear message in 2 Thess 2.
Relating to those who take pleasure in unrighteousness (ie, wrong standing before the God of truth), God Himself will send strong delusion, translated as 'certificate of divorce'
Any relationship with the Father can only be on the basis of His truth. However, the 'church' has majored its teaching on 'love and tolerance'. There is no emphasis on truth. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
Jesus is the husband. The church is His bride. The Son of God is the word of truth, God is the God of truth, that is His nature. The bride has the responsibility of ensuring it searches out, adheres to and grows in His truth as the Bereans did. When that happens, there is increasing fidelity in the marriage. Where doctrinal falsehood is embraced and allowed to flourish, there is a tainting of the relationship. False doctrine equals an immoral relationship. Immorality is the only justification for divorce.
This is a very strong statement. What I see is that the church has turned aside after false doctrine, looking for signs, miracles, hyped experiences. In the NT there is only one reference to music, in Revelation, there is no endorsement of music in the NT church - only to sing to yourselves.
Judgement begins in the house of God. But what form does this judgment take? HOW does the Almighty send judgment on the church? Because the church has taken this path, judgment has been sent by God, in the form of strong delusion.
The method the Father has used is to send spiritual delusion to divorce the followers of false doctrine from His truth.
This is the meaning of the parable of the tares and wheat. Matthew 24 states four times that a sign of end times will be false doctrine, false prophets, deception. It is a sorting out of those who will hold to truth and those who will go after the superficial. The leaders have been 'speaking lies with hypocrisy, having their conscience seared as with a hot iron' For that reason they cannot understand or change the path they are on.
A final note on 2 Thess 2,
Anti - Greek, Pseudo: False, misleading, spurious.
Christ - Greek, Christos: Anointing
Anti - False
Christ - Anointing
The book in The Bible deals with all religiousness, the bible is the most sacred thing in the world, for whoever is greek oarthodox, or chirstians, or catholics.
Once
Most of the Book of Revelation deals with the end times.
The book of Galatians is the authoritative book on this subject. It distinctly separates the law and the gospel, the works of the law and our faith in the gospel.
The Book of Revelations deals with Christ's advent also known as the second coming of Christ. The date is not revealed and many religions speculate as to when it will happen.
Science and The Bible don't have the same viewpoints on life. Science deals with what can be explained and the Bible deals with faith. There will be other viewpoints to follow this as we do not agree.
Frederick W. Claybrook has written: 'Once saved, always saved?' -- subject(s): Apostasy, Bible, Bible teaching, Christianity, Criticism, interpretation
The Apostasy was created on 2007-07-02.
The Great Apostasy began in 1130.
The seventh book in the bible is the book of Judges.
It would be better if you look it up yourself. The Bible is easily available in about 70 English versions, both in print and on the Internet. And like Jonah, this is a good book to read, showing how God deals with pride and lack of brotherly kindness. Obadiah
The largest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms.
The first four book in the Bible are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers! All of the books contain God's teachings even though the Bible has been seriously altered throughout history due to political compilation, translation from Hebrew (a high symbolic language with deep meaning lost in translation), and general fallibility of man. Genesis deals with the story of creation and Noah and the Flood. Exodus deals with Moses. Leviticus talks about Moses also. Numbers talks about more of the Lords dealings with man.