John writes in Revelation 1:12-13: “Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” Here John sees Christ glorified in his holy priestly garb. He is seen walking among the seven branch Menorah, like the Menorah in the Holy Place in the tabernacle. The fuel for its light was pure olive oil, which it needed to burn properly. This oil was to be fed into the lampstand and burn continuously on behalf of the children of Israel.

The lampstand in the Old Testament symbolized Jesus as the “Light of the World” that was to burn continually, giving its light in the Holy Place where the priest would be (John 1:7-9, 8:12, 9:5, 12:46; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Luke 1:78-79, 2:32; Revelation 21:23-24).  The responsibility of the priests was to keep the lamp burning. They had to feed it oil and trim its wicks so it would not smoke, but continue to burn without failing to give pure light.

It also symbolized the believer, in that the believer is also called the   “light of the World” (Mt.5:14-17). After Jesus ascended into heaven (John 9:5; Philippians 2:15; Luke 12:35; Ephesians 5:8-9) the believer is also called the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-17). For that reason the believer is also to walk in the light, i.e., His Word (I John 1:7). Therefore the lampstand can also be seen as a symbol of the Church, bringing the light to a world of darkness as representatives of Christ.

We see this motif continuing in Revelation 1:20: “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands:  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” Revelation 1:20 tells us the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Whenever the word “stars” is used symbolically, it refers to angels.  The seven lampstands are seven churches of which Christ is the head. Just as the oil lit up the whole Menorah (lampstand), so does the Holy Spirit illumine all the Churches.  The seven individual lampstands symbolize the seven local churches which represent the whole of the Church, not just different ages of the Church. Revelation 1:4 said they already existed in Asia at the time of the writing of Revelation, they were not just future churches or representative of Church ages only.  We can concede that these churches are examples of churches throughout all ages and that all seven can exist at the same time in type, as they have throughout history. The last church mentioned is Laodicea, during the latter times the Laodicean church would be dominant one. It is this Church that will be common in the end time and will usher in the apostasy.

Revelation 2:1: “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands… “The Lord walks among the churches in all ages to know them.  Jesus commends and rebukes them and gives a specific warning to this church in Revelation 2:5: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place-- unless you repent.” The removing of the church’s lampstand meant Christ’s Spirit would depart and leave them on their own, which in turn would result in them being as Laodicea (Laodicea means “men’s opinions ruling in place of God”). Loyalty to Christ can and often is replaced by loyalty to an organization, a church, and its leaders, substituting new rules and interpretations for Biblical truths. We can see this example in the cults.

We find that all the churches mentioned in Revelation exist at the same time, and we can find the faithful Church existing alongside the unfaithful Church today. But there is only one Church that will take over that will become the center of apostasy. The church of Laodicea has prepared the way for the great apostasy.  It has kept Christ out of the Church and from His people.  It has stood for nothing for so long that it has little effect on society, while at the same time it has allowed anything contrary to Christ’s teachings to come in.  Today the world looks at this Church and excuses its sin, because there is no salt left for conviction. This Church became lukewarm, seeking unity with everyone, showing tolerance for any doctrinal aberration and interpreting it as love. It is reflective of a Church that at end of the age has come under the influence of the world instead of being an influence in the world. The world wonders why should it be judged if there is no substantial difference between it and the Church.  But judgment begins in the House of God. The Lord is infinitely more concerned about His people than about the unbeliever. And so Jesus commends, warns and rebukes each church. Because God removes His lampstand from apostate churches they have resorted to worldly methods and techniques in order to continue to attract people. After all, one must keep the organizational wheels rolling!

The Laodicean church thought they were doing well and were spiritual. After all they were rich, so of course God must be blessing them. The wealthy mostly dress well and talk about their possessions to impress people. They focus on outward appearances and worldliness. But these people did not know their inward condition; they were blind and could not see. So the Lord asked if they would buy from Him gold refined in the fire (by their suffering) white garments (robes of salvation) and eye salve so they could see their condition. Today many see their success and prosperity as God’s blessing. The Laodicean Church was lukewarm. The Lord wanted them either cold or hot.  Hot water was used for healing; cold was used for refreshment. Instead, they could not make up their mind, they were standing for nothing, and were good for nothing. They lived in both worlds. Spiritually they could have been either all for God or not at all, but they were in between. If they were hot, they would have been approved. If they were cold, God could have changed them, but they were in the middle and He was unable do anything. This is the worst place to be, to be part of a church, doing church things, thinking you are a Christian when in fact you are not. The Laodiceans had just enough religiosity to get by and think they were fine. They were naked also. In the time of Christ all soldiers would sleep in their clothes, they would not take them off so they would be ready for battle. We are to be clothed in white garments, the righteousness of Christ. Jesus was saying they did not have his righteousness they were naked. Yet even this church is not hopeless; Christ can come in to the individual if He is allowed, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent “(v.19). This is the only Church that He is outside of and offers to come to the individual in the Church and not the collective Church. Because the whole Church  is removed from the truth of functioning in the word of God. This does not mean they abandon God’s word or name but only use portions of it that suit them, or change its meaning.  

Many have identified the Apostasy as individuals departing from the Church. Certainly over the centuries many individuals that had begun in the Church left and started their own cult.  However, this is only part of the picture as Jesus is addressing the Church He personally walks among. In modern times this falling away had started in liberal seminaries who sent teachers out to unsuspecting pulpits teaching their liberal ideas-- those who promote homosexuality, who ordain people that deny the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth and the essentials of the faith.  Then the new age movement began to emerge and infiltrate the Church with kingdom dominion theology and placing subjective experience over the authority of the objective Word of God.  Then the homosexual movement came through the Episcopal church along with feminists who disdain God as father. Now this apostasy has become something so widespread it encompasses most things that are considered sacred. Affecting almost all denominations to some degree.  Doctrines are distorted and abandoned, controlling shepherds are in charge, teaching coveting, wealth and perfect health as God’s will to all. They approve of divorce and accept homosexuality.

    Among the parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 is the parable of the leaven (Matthew 13:33), which depicts the course of this present Church age. It describes a progression of apostasy that radically escalates in the end.  [“ Apostasy “ refers to falling away from the true Faith which finds its instruction by God's word]. Jesus describes a woman putting leaven into three measures of meal, “until the whole was leavened.” Leaven puffs up; it represents pride, it does the opposite of what the gospel does, which humbles man and makes us God-reliant. Paul said, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Leaven in Scripture stands for sin and false teaching (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9), and the woman represents the Church. She did something God prohibits; she hid the leaven in the meal, mingling a foreign element into the body. This is speaking of a corrupting influence that would infiltrate all parts of the Church. As a little yeast, is hidden in the flour. It works silently until all the mass is brought under its influence. It shows evil existing till the end of the age, as things do not get better but worse. The parable tells us that the error which was first introduced by false teachers during the days of the Apostles (and was then small), will gradually increase through the centuries until, at the end, it is completed. And almost the entire Church will have been impacted in some way. By this characterization of leaven in the meal, believers are warned that false teaching will gradually increase through time until the entire church has been affected in some way. The ultimate fulfillment of this falling away is found in Revelation 17.  

The Timing of the Apostasy

Paul writes to the Thessalonians about those who have tried to deceive them with a false teaching on the Tribulation that was upsetting the church. Apparently after Paul left Thessalonica some false teachers came in and upset the church by teaching that believers were now in the Tribulation (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). They were being told that the Day of the Lord had come and that the rapture and resurrection had occurred, putting them in the Tribulation (The Day of the Lord is the most common title for the Great Tribulation--1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:18).

The main point of Paul’s letter was to comfort the believers of Thessalonica who were already experiencing persecution (first letter) and also correct them, letting them know that they were not in the Tribulation. Paul then wanted to clarify what would precede the Tribulation. He pointed out that the mystery of lawlessness was still being restrained, and because of this the Antichrist’s unveiling was still in the future, prior to Christ’s return. The Antichrist would be revealed at that time.

Paul’s correction to the Church at Thessalonica came with the warning “Let no one deceive you.”  It should seem obvious that Paul was not writing about our gathering together to Him - Christ (v.3) before that that day. This gathering will not come first without two things happening prior to that: 1) The falling away would come first  (then the day comes), 2) and the man of sin would be revealed. Here Paul is obviously talking about two different matters: our gathering together to Him (v.1) and a falling away (v.3). Paul states that the Day of the Lord will not come without the Apostasy coming first; that prior to Christ’s coming a falling away from the Faith will occur. Therefore he warns us who are living at the time, “Let no one deceive you”, giving the same warning Jesus did in the beginning of his discourse in Matthew 24.

As Paul mentions the coming of our Lord Jesus and also our gathering together to Him, (v.1) he appears to be indicating two events, distinguishing between two comings of Jesus (1 Thessalonians 3:13, tells us that when Jesus comes it is with the saints who have died). One coming is for His Church and the other with His Church, when He will judge a rebellious world and set up His kingdom reign on earth for 1,000 years with the saints under Him co-reigning.

2 Thessalonians 2:1, “And our gathering together to Him.” The Greek word for ‘gathering together’ is epi sunagogues.  Epi means “above,” and sunagoges means“to collect together.” This is not a reference to our being gathered to Jesus after He descends to earth to set up His kingdom, but to our being gathered up to Him. We are called FROM ABOVE by the Lord to meet Him and be united together in the air and brought to the place He has already prepared (John14). Our gathering together up to Him is more accurately translated “our being gathered up to Him’” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). He is the object we go to; He does not come down to meet us on earth, we go up to Him first.

It hasn't been until modern times that the Rapture has been abandoned for earthly “triumphalism” and Christianizing the World first, before Christ could come. (Kingdom Now, Dominion Theology) This is all part of the falling away and not preparing or watching for His coming.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 says, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” (In Matthew 24:4 Christ first warned of the deception of those who come in His name three times, but He also speaks of what will occur before the Abomination of Desolation.)

By deception Paul is giving a warning, just like Christ did. Paul refers to “tricks” of any kind, saying to be on guard. Christ’s return will not occur before certain important things take place, so the timing is important. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 in the phrase “the falling away” the word Apostasia is used, which comes from the Greek verb aphistemi, which literally means, “to depart” or “revolt.” Paul spoke of another departure (1 Timothy 4:1) and used the same Greek word. However, in 1 Timothy Paul added the words “depart from the faith” instead of “depart” by itself, qualifying the phrase. Paul states the reason for their falling away:, because they are listening to demons, who are deceiving spirits. So they are being deceived by teachings that are contrary to the word of God and this is occurring inside the Church.

Greek scholar A.T Robertson writes of this word “Plutarch uses it of political revolt and it occurs in 1 Maccabees 2:15 about Antiochus Epiphanes who was enforcing the apostasy from Judaism to Hellenism.  In Joshua 22:22 it occurs for rebellion against the Lord.  It seems clear that the word here means a religious revolt and the use of the definite article (heô) seems to mean that Paul had spoken to the Thessalonians about it.

V.1 “Concerning the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him,” will not happen until AFTER the Apostasy occurs. There is no other way to understand these words without changing the context for the words and the grammatical construction of this verse. Those who teach prophecy will rarely touch on this all-encompassing event, the falling away from the faith. Why not, when this falling away or apostasy is the main indication of the Church’s condition in the last hour? It will affect the Church more than anything else in history, but it is ignored and even questioned as a possible event. How can you teach on end time prophecy without it?

The apostasy of professing Christianity has increased with a momentum that is stunning to those watching its growth. It has gone off the Richter scale.  In the absence of the lampstand ( the presence of Christ), devils have stepped in and taken over in many churches. This falling away has certainly begun and is picking up momentum each year, month, and week. Whole movements have arisen that draw huge crowds by catering to the natural mans desires and prey on his propensity of being deceived by the supernatural. They are being offered the very things Christ refused and warned against in his teachings.

The conflict that the Church once had with the World has been embraced and brought into the church. It  has created a sharp division between traditional biblical purists and new revelation revivalists and liberal Christianity.

How did this all Happen?

I have already touched in general on the Church in the 20^th Century and the development of divergent tributaries all flowing away from the word of God. But for us as individuals, apostasy specifically begins with indifference, holding no convictions,   and having no boldness for the truth; and so we become men pleasers and lovers of the World, instead of lovers of God and His truth.  In time it becomes nothing short than a total abandonment of Christ and His teachings.

The Scripture tells us in the end  times the love of many will grow cold. (In Mt.24 Jesus' explains this is because of lawlessness not heeding His word.)

Loving people enough to confront them with the truth is abandoned and the doctrines are changed to fit the culture. The Laodicean church had slowly been losing its first love and the result was not obeying the Lord's commands: “occupy until I come” and teach them the truth (discipleship). Open mindedness and the acceptance of any doctrine for the sake of unity is worldly tolerance, and not a display of real love. But Laodicea boasts in its riches and how well off they are. “It’s the best of times for the Church!” Is the cry. Sound familiar.

While history has shown the growth of various apostasies by cults springing up by those who left the Church. (there is evidence of both in the End Times: 1 Timothy 4:1-3 and 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4), the Scriptures point to an apostasy among those who once followed God who are still in the church.  It is a world-wide rebellion, not just a few but many. The article in the verse makes it even more significant; this is not a falling away, but the falling away, the great and final rebellion against God, his word and rulership in individual lives, and churches. A departure from His word and replacement by another's.  This is different from error, which results from ignorance. Although it includes false beliefs and error. The motivation is willful and it defies what the Word states because of an adherence to its own deception.

How does a group of Christians or a whole church that loves the Lord fall away? By not adhering to the commands found in the Word. The Scriptures are put aside for agendas and other activities. Paul warns of false teachers rising up from among the church, and being on our guard against worldliness.  All to often today's Church measures success by size and popularity, just as the Bible said it would in the end. It begins with just a small compromise and from there it is just a matter of time before one doesn't even realize they can't even find the place they have drifted from. Without an anchor the tide takes us where it wants.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”(1 Tim. 4:1). Notice that “some will depart from the faith,” not all. Tolerance has been the main cause of leaving any absolutes in the Word of God.  We simply do not love the truth more than other things and it eventually comes to be replaced with what can only be identified as lies.  Lies can be disguised and embraced because they are easier to comprehend than the truth which takes good soil to be sowed in.  

God has commanded that His people separate from error not to join in with it. People who reject this command eventually find themselves on the side of apostasy. How can it be possible then, that God is now calling for the walls of separation to be broken down?   This is not the great commission but the great confusion which will continually grow into the great apostasy.

James says where there is confusion every evil thing is there. Today's ecumenical tolerance in the name of love and unity has made much of the Church depart from the truth which subsequently has left it with little power.  It has not brought what so many have promised. For  example those who wanted to unite in mission with the Roman Catholic Church for social change now find themselves in a predicament, as the Pope has recently been photographed kissing the Koran (inside the Vatican). If we continue to wink at falsehood we will eventually shut our eyes to the truth. (Rom. 16:17,18; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:16-21, 3:5,13; Titus 1:10-13; 3:9-11; 2 John 7-11; Rev. 18:4).

 Eventually a last days apostate Church, along with the rest of the world will accept the Mark of the Beast as an allegiance to global unity, it may even become a deterrent to terrorism. This mark comes to be a required in the middle of the Tribulation, so there is no way to identify it with certainty now. However it is obvious that a system will need to be implemented to further economic unity and global monetary success. Revelation 13 tells us that no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark. Today it is very hard to do any business without computers throughout most of the world. 

  Numerous mass population identification and tracking systems have been developed, such as an implantable chip or a transponder placed in a plastic wristband. This Identification and Tracking technology will be used in the New World order system for the global economy. Right now on the books the US has a patent for a number tattoo for everyone in America.  There is also a patent for a digital transceiver chip called digital angel. This is a “implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the ‘wearer’ or by the monitoring facility. A novel sensation feedback feature will even allow the wearer to control the device to some degree. The ‘smart’ device is also small enough to be hidden inconspicuously on or within valuable personal belongings” (On December 10, 1999, Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. (ADS) acquired the patent rights to this technology, which the company refers to as “Digital Angel®.”) On May 10, 2002 it became the official day to be implanted in humans. Several have already volunteered and taken the chip. The technology is here, it only waits for certain individual who will bring it all together.