The Greek word here translated "falling away" is apostasy.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess 2:1-4)
We believe flatly that the “Great Falling Away or Apostasy” has already taken place; the evidence is all about us, as witnessed in the tangle of errors (false doctrines) and confusion of Babylon. History most assuredly records the fulfillment of Paul's prophecy of a great falling away from the original simplicity and purity of the doctrines and life of the Christian Church, and of the secret working of an iniquitous, ambitious influence in the Church, prior to the development of Papacy.
"It was not till the fourth century--when imperial persecution had stopped; when [the Roman Emperor] Constantine was converted; when the Church was allied with the State; when the early faith was itself corrupted; when superstition and vain philosophy had entered the ranks of the faithful; when bishops became courtiers; when churches became both rich and splendid; when synods were brought under political influence; when monarchists [monks] had established a false principle of virtue; when politics and dogmatics went hand in hand, and emperors enforced the decrees of [church] councils--that men of rank entered the Church. When Christianity became the religion of the court and of the fashionable classes, it was used to support the very evils against which it originally protested.
The Church was not only impregnated with the errors of Pagan philosophy, but it adopted many of the ceremonies of oriental worship, which were both minute and magnificent. The churches became, in the fourth century, as imposing as the old temples of idolatry. Festivals became frequent and imposing. The people clung to them because they obtained excitement and a cessation from labor. Veneration for martyrs ripened into the introduction of images--a future source of popular idolatry. Christianity was emblazoned in pompous ceremonies. The veneration for saints approximated to their deification, and superstition exalted the mother of our Lord into an object of absolute worship. Communion tables became imposing altars typical of Jewish sacrifices, and the relics of martyrs were preserved as sacred amulets. Monastic life also ripened into a grand system of penance and expiatory rites. Armies of monks retired to gloomy and isolated places, and abandoned themselves to rhapsodies and fastings and self-expiation. They were a dismal and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical aims of life.
“As one error after another crept in, the Church fell from her position of trust in and support of the promises of her absent Lord, and began to love the world and the things of the world.”
"The clergy, ambitious and worldly, sought rank and distinction. They even thronged the courts of princes and aspired to temporal honors. They were no longer supported by the voluntary contributions of the faithful, but by revenues supplied by government, or property inherited from the old [pagan] temples. Great legacies were made to the Church by the rich, and these the clergy controlled. These bequests became sources of inexhaustible wealth.
As wealth increased and was entrusted to the clergy, they became indifferent to the wants of the people--no longer supported by them. They became lazy, arrogant and independent. The people were shut out of the government of the Church. The bishop became a grand personage who controlled and appointed his clergy. The Church was allied with the state, and religious dogmas were enforced by the sword of the magistrate.
An Imposing Hierarchy Was Established, of Various Grades, which Culminated in the Bishop of Rome. The Emperor decided points of faith, and the clergy were exempted from the burdens of the state. There was a great flocking to the priestly offices when the clergy wielded so much power and became so rich; and men were elevated to great sees [bishoprics], not because of their piety or talents, but their influence with the great. The mission of the Church was lost sight of in a degrading alliance with the State. Christianity was a pageant, ritualism, an arm of the State, a vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula."
Thus the great falling away from the faith, predicted by the Apostle Paul, is an established fact of history, all historians bear witness to it, even those who approve the assumption of power and eulogize the chief actors in the scheme.
The falling away, covering a period of centuries, was so gradual as to be much less noticeable to those who then lived in its midst than to us who see it as a whole; and the more deceiving was it because every step of organization, and every advance toward influence and authority in the Church and over the world, was taken in the name of Christ, and professedly to glorify him and fulfill his plans recorded in Scripture.
Thus was the Great Antichrist, the man of sin – an apostasy developed, the most dangerous, most subtle and most persistent opponent of true Christianity, and the most fiendish persecutor of the true saints.
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“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess 2:1-4)
We believe flatly that the “Great Falling Away or Apostasy” has already taken place; the evidence is all about us, as witnessed in the tangle of errors (false doctrines) and confusion of Babylon. History most assuredly records the fulfillment of Paul's prophecy of a great falling away from the original simplicity and purity of the doctrines and life of the Christian Church, and of the secret working of an iniquitous, ambitious influence in the Church, prior to the development of Papacy.
"It was not till the fourth century--when imperial persecution had stopped; when [the Roman Emperor] Constantine was converted; when the Church was allied with the State; when the early faith was itself corrupted; when superstition and vain philosophy had entered the ranks of the faithful; when bishops became courtiers; when churches became both rich and splendid; when synods were brought under political influence; when monarchists [monks] had established a false principle of virtue; when politics and dogmatics went hand in hand, and emperors enforced the decrees of [church] councils--that men of rank entered the Church. When Christianity became the religion of the court and of the fashionable classes, it was used to support the very evils against which it originally protested.
The Church was not only impregnated with the errors of Pagan philosophy, but it adopted many of the ceremonies of oriental worship, which were both minute and magnificent. The churches became, in the fourth century, as imposing as the old temples of idolatry. Festivals became frequent and imposing. The people clung to them because they obtained excitement and a cessation from labor. Veneration for martyrs ripened into the introduction of images--a future source of popular idolatry. Christianity was emblazoned in pompous ceremonies. The veneration for saints approximated to their deification, and superstition exalted the mother of our Lord into an object of absolute worship. Communion tables became imposing altars typical of Jewish sacrifices, and the relics of martyrs were preserved as sacred amulets. Monastic life also ripened into a grand system of penance and expiatory rites. Armies of monks retired to gloomy and isolated places, and abandoned themselves to rhapsodies and fastings and self-expiation. They were a dismal and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical aims of life.
“As one error after another crept in, the Church fell from her position of trust in and support of the promises of her absent Lord, and began to love the world and the things of the world.”
"The clergy, ambitious and worldly, sought rank and distinction. They even thronged the courts of princes and aspired to temporal honors. They were no longer supported by the voluntary contributions of the faithful, but by revenues supplied by government, or property inherited from the old [pagan] temples. Great legacies were made to the Church by the rich, and these the clergy controlled. These bequests became sources of inexhaustible wealth.
As wealth increased and was entrusted to the clergy, they became indifferent to the wants of the people--no longer supported by them. They became lazy, arrogant and independent. The people were shut out of the government of the Church. The bishop became a grand personage who controlled and appointed his clergy. The Church was allied with the state, and religious dogmas were enforced by the sword of the magistrate.
An Imposing Hierarchy Was Established, of Various Grades, which Culminated in the Bishop of Rome. The Emperor decided points of faith, and the clergy were exempted from the burdens of the state. There was a great flocking to the priestly offices when the clergy wielded so much power and became so rich; and men were elevated to great sees [bishoprics], not because of their piety or talents, but their influence with the great. The mission of the Church was lost sight of in a degrading alliance with the State. Christianity was a pageant, ritualism, an arm of the State, a vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula."
Thus the great falling away from the faith, predicted by the Apostle Paul, is an established fact of history, all historians bear witness to it, even those who approve the assumption of power and eulogize the chief actors in the scheme.
The falling away, covering a period of centuries, was so gradual as to be much less noticeable to those who then lived in its midst than to us who see it as a whole; and the more deceiving was it because every step of organization, and every advance toward influence and authority in the Church and over the world, was taken in the name of Christ, and professedly to glorify him and fulfill his plans recorded in Scripture.
Thus was the Great Antichrist, the man of sin – an apostasy developed, the most dangerous, most subtle and most persistent opponent of true Christianity, and the most fiendish persecutor of the true saints.
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