What’s the deadliest assumption a follower of the God of Israel can make?
It’s to hold to the idea that no TRUE believer can fall away from the faith.
Unfortunately, this is a teaching that a large portion of the evangelical church promotes.
They’ll say that if someone is deceived and walks away from the faith, they were never truly a believer in the first place.
Well, I’ve got news for them, homies.
That notion DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS the plain teaching of the Bible.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about the “Old” or New Testament.
And boy, do I DESPISE that term, the “Old” Testament.
If it ain’t possible to fall away, then why do the Scriptures repeatedly warn us again and again and again of that very possibility?
It doesn’t even make any sense.
Ya feeling me here?
The pattern established in 2nd Samuel Chapter 15 is a perfect example of those who were loyal to God’s anointed (King David) but were then deceived by a charismatic leader (Absalom) who pretended to be a good and righteous ruler.
I told you Absalom was a prototype for the anti-Christ.
David paved the way for his appearance by being an absentee landlord for way too long.
That’s why the people started to lose faith.
The same thing happened when Moses tarried for too long up on Mount Sinai.
The people grew weary and lost patience.
That resulted in the whole Golden Calf fiasco.
And we’re told the same thing is gonna happen during the post-resurrection period after Yeshua ascends to heaven until he returns.
There’s gonna be a huge falling away.
Many worshippers lost faith over the centuries because they assumed that if Yeshua were going to return, he would’ve already.
Again, patterns folks.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Biblical patterns do NOT change (despite what the gentile church says).
During Yeshua’s absence, a charismatic false shepherd will emerge with a solution to all of the chaos happening in the world.
He will succeed in duping a good portion of the believing world that he is the savior God has sent.
Messiah warned us about this:
“Beware of the false prophets!
They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing,
But underneath, they are hungry wolves!
You will recognize them by their fruit.
Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes?
Or figs from thistles?
Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit,
But a poor tree produces bad fruit.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit.
Or a poor tree has good fruit.
Any tree that does not produce good fruit
is cut down and thrown in the fire!
So you will recognize them by their fruit.
“Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.
On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord!
Didn’t we prophesy in your name?
Didn’t we expel demons in your name?
Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’
Then I will tell them to their faces,
‘I never knew you! Get away from me,
you workers of lawlessness!’“
-Matthew 7:15-23
Alrighty, let’s switch over to the takeaway.
Yeshua said, “You shall know a false prophet by his fruits.”
Specifically, what type of fruit is he talking about?
The answer is “lawlessness.”
Or one who goes against the Torah.
One other thing.
Yeshua is speaking about believers here.
He is talking about folks who will give up their faith in the true Messiah and go drooling after the charismatic anti-Christ.
And again, what will be the chief attribute of the anti-Christ?
The answer is LAWLESSNESS, LAWLESSNESS, and LAWLESSNESS.
It reminds me of a comment I received from a Jewish friend, Steven Bruck, and the creator of the Messianic Moment website, who said:
“I agree, and if we take as fact that the anti-Christ will reject the Torah, then most Christians have already taken the mark.
Anyone who says Yeshua did away with the law is, by definition, lawless and has rejected the Torah.
Maybe a sign of the anti-Christ isn’t just that he rejects the Torah, but that he leads others to do so, as well.
If that is true, then the stage is set, and has been set for nearly two millennia.
I believe the only reason Yeshua hasn’t returned is that God is still waiting for as many as possible to see the truth, and return to living as God says, not as someone following a religion preaching rejection of God’s Torah.
Your ministry, and mine, and many others (thankfully) are beginning to help people who have been misled to the path of destruction (thinking they are walking in God’s ways) back to the path of righteousness, but we are the ones on the road less travelled.”
If you wanna access more of his incredible insights, check out Steven’s website here: https://www.messianicmoment.com/
And you know what?
I couldn’t have articulated things better than Steven himself.
So I think I’ll end it right here.
See ya all next time.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.
For that day will not come
until the rebellion occurs
and the man of lawlessness is revealed,
The man is doomed to destruction.
He will oppose and will exalt himself over
everything that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in God’s temple,
proclaiming himself to be God.“
-2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work;
But the one who now holds it back will continue
to do so till he is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord Yeshua will overthrow with
The breath of his mouth and destroy
by the splendor of his coming.
The coming of the lawless one will be
by how Satan works.
He will use all sorts of displays of power
through signs and wonders that serve the lie,
and all the ways that wickedness deceives
those who are perishing.
They perish because they refused to
Love the truth and so be saved.
-2 Thessalonians 2:7-10
“Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish
them but to fulfill them.
For truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear
from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Therefore, anyone who sets aside
one of the least of these commands
and teaches others accordingly
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
But whoever practices and teaches
These commands will be called
great in the kingdom of heaven.”
-Matthew 5:17-19
That Jewish reader you quote sure knows what he is talking about! 😉
Just went back into the article to give you full credit as well as reference your website.
As always, thank you for your awesome insights.
Be blessed!