America apostatizes! “What’s that?” you say. It means the USA has fallen. “Fallen from what?” you say. Fallen from that which is good. It’s in the Bible, well, sort of.
During Passion Week, perhaps two or three days before Jesus was arrested, condemned, and then crucified, he delivered a famous sermon about the future to his apostles while they all sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and the beautiful temple buildings below. Jesus predicted concerning those buildings made of huge limestones cut from quarries, “not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down” (Matthew 24.2 NRSV). It was an astounding prediction that came true exactly one generation later, when the Romans destroyed the place in 70 AD.
Jesus then predicted, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24.7). But then he added, “all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs” (v. 8). Just think of a woman enduring labor before delivering a child. Thus, Jesus said there would be much suffering in the latter stages before the birth of a new life, similar to the coming of the kingdom of God. That is how it will be as humanity draws closer and closer to the end of the age and the dawning of that new age to come, when Jesus will return, bringing with him the promised kingdom of God to earth in all of its glory and power.
The End Times “Increase in Lawlessness”
During that late period of suffering that will precede that blessed new age, Jesus said, “Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24.10-12). The words “fall away” translate the word skandalisthesontai in the original Greek text, from which we get our English word “scandal.”
Notice that Jesus said that latter period will be marked especially by an “increase in lawlessness.” That is what America has experienced with the re-election of Donald Trump has president. Especially in the aftermath of his previous four-year term as president, he broke several important laws set forth in our blessed Constitution. Most importantly was his false allegation that the 2020 presidential election had been fraudulent and that he had really won. That led to his effort on January 6, 2021, to overthrow our national government by stoking his followers to commit insurrection by storming the U.S. Capitol that day.
In my opinion, and that of many Americans, Donald Trump afterwards should have soon been investigated and prosecuted by our Department of Justice according to federal laws for that violation. But he was not. Instead, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was more concerned for the reputation of the Justice Department, which he headed, due to criticism from Donald Trump and his MAGA crowd. Garland should have pursued justice first against the main perpetrator of the overrun of the Capitol, Trump, instead of the minions who merely did what he told them to do. The result has been that it became too late to prosecute Trump—thus justice delayed was justice denied—because he as president will soon end those court cases against him. If justice would have been carried out concerning Trump, I believe he never would have been able to become president again as he now has. This result is what Jesus meant when he said in his Olivet Discourse that “many will fall away … because of the increase of lawlessness.”
Final Apostasy: A Falling Away from Goodness
The apostle Paul—who wrote 13 letters that comprise 25% of the Bible’s New Testament—wrote of that latter period that Jesus predicted by saying of it, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4.1-2). The word “renounce” translates apostesontai in the Greek text, from which we derive our English noun “apostasy” and the verb “apostatize,” which mean “renounce,” “depart” or “fall away.”
Paul sheds further light on this subject about the future in another letter. Therein he states, “In the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive” (2 Timothy 3.1-2). I’m 83 years old, and having been a pro golfer on the PGA Tour full time for thirty years, I’ve met a lot of people in my life, and some of them famous. But I don’t think I’ve ever known of anyone who fits this description by the apostle Paul so well about how people will be in the end times than the man who has now become our U.S. president again—Donald Trump. So, being our president and thus the most important person in this world, Trump sets the tone for how people can be in their character. Trump is the biggest liar, most conceited, and arrogant person I’ve ever seen. He is making this ill behavior the norm and thereby furthering the degeneracy of the end times.
Yet the Pew Survey told us that during Trump’s first election to become president, 81% of white, evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. And it appears that a similar percentage has done so this second time last week. And he gained a high percentage of Catholic voters as well.
“A Form of Godliness But Denying Its Power”
How could such a non-religious, immoral person as Donald Trump get that many professing Christians to vote for him? Well, there are many answers to that question. I think one answer is what the apostle Paul concludes in his above remark by adding concerning such people in the end times, that they will be “unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!” (2 Timothy 3.2-5).
Finally, the apostle Paul explains in another letter, “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ … Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. … For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, … And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” (2 Thessalonians 2.1, 3, 7-12).
Signs and Lying Wonders During the Apostasy
So, Paul says there will be “signs” and “lying wonders.” Many of these foolish Christians and others who have supported Donald Trump have believed that the assassination attempt on his life—in which a bullet barely struck his ear as he amazingly turned his face to avoid it entering his skull—was a miracle of God. And in Trump’s victory speech the next day after the election he spoke for ten minutes about it. He said, “The assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. … [I] felt very safe, because I had God on my side. … I’m not supposed to be here tonight, … I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.” I suspect a different explanation, such as what Paul says above. See my post on this.
Notice also Paul’s chronology as follows: (1) rebellion, (2) lawless one, and (3) Jesus. “Rebellion” translates apostasia in the Greek text. “Lawless one” is the person who some later Christians identified as “the antichrist” (1 John 1.18). And they added there will be many lesser “antichrists” who will precede him (v. 18, 22; 4.3; 2 John 7).
Paul is not original with this. Rather, he alludes to the Old Testament’s Daniel 8.23. It states, “when the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance shall arise, skilled in intrigue.” So, Daniel says there will be a period of transgression in full measure that will precede the appearance of this king. Thus, Paul’s rebellion (apostasy) corresponds to Daniel’s transgression, and Paul’s lawless one corresponds to Daniel’s bold king.
God’s Kingdom: Eternal Home of His People
To conclude, this great and final apostasy, this falling away at the end of the age, will be a departure from that which is good. I believe, more definitively, that it will be a falling away from the moral imperatives in God’s Ten Commandments which he gave to Moses and are recorded in the Bible in Exodus 20.1-17.
The Bible doesn’t say when this apostasy will begin or how long it will last. It seems to me, as I look back upon my life and the world in which I have lived for 83 years, that we are in this apostasy. If so, the comfort that true believers can take from this is that it is evidence of the existence of God because he predicted it through his holy prophets. We are just passing through this world on our way to that glorious kingdom of peace, justice, and righteousness that will be our eternal home. Jesus had said of it that he was going to “my Father’s house” to “prepare a place for you” (John 14.2). PRAISE THE LORD!
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