Falling Away

I am not the least bit concerned about whether or not Christ will return in my lifetime. There are people who write about it as though they knew the very moment. I doubt that:

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32 KJV)

Was Christ speaking of His death? Destruction of the temple? His return? Doesn’t matter to me, for many other verses speak of His return. Only one book offers blessings simply for reading it, and that book is all about His coming.

What Christ said would continue to apply:

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: (Mark 13:35 KJV)

There are two things of great concern – our own efforts to keep from falling away from Christ’s calling, and our love for those in our life who have rejected His divinity.

Paul was concerned about churches being deceived:

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 opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 KJV)

Those are words of alert, so there is no reason to be surprised. Christ Himself has told us:

Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:11 KJV)

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. (Revelation 22:7 KJV)

While the prayer exists daily for His return to be moments away, the timing doesn’t matter. He has taught us to accept things in His time.

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. (2 Thessalonians 2:6 KJV)