The Falling Away

       Before we consider the chronos recorded in Revelation, let’s make sure we understand the state of affairs on the earth at the end of this age. It didn’t take the Holy Spirit long to bring to the disciples’ remembrance the things Jesus had taught them, particularly concerning His second coming. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonian Church confirms that the early Church Fathers understood God’s prophetic great Week, they understood that Jesus would come again to raise up His Body, and that this would occur at the dawn of the last Day, the Day of the Lord.
        Paul warned, “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, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).
        You may recall that we covered this earlier in connection with Daniel’s prophecy recorded in Daniel 8 concerning the rise of the 4th Beast and the transgression of desolation once the Jews rebuild the apostate temple. The falling away or apostasy has to do with the Jews’ rejection of Christ as the Son of God. This rejection was the ultimate transgression against God and His plan of redemption.
        End-Time Lesson: The extended nature of the tribulation of those Days—Days 5 and 6 when counting from Christ—not only affects the Church. It also affects the Jews. From their perspective, it began with the Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD when the Temple of Jesus’ time was destroyed, with no stone left standing. The Jewish survivors were scattered across the nations—in what is called the Diaspora. No matter where they went, they were met with persecution, what is called anti-Semitism. Scripture calls this extended time of distress for the Jews the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jesus predicted that “they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all the nations” (Luke 21:24).
        As Romans 11 explains, Israel, God’s natural branch, was cut off because they missed the time of their visitation by rejecting the Messiah. Of course, this was all prophesied in the Old Testament. However, in His mercy, God had also prophesied that they would return to the Promised Land. This occurred after World War II through a UN resolution in 1948 that officially recognized Israel as a nation state. Though many Jews returned to the Promised Land, the vast majority did not return to the Lord.
      Let’s fast-forward to see why the rebuilt temple and the reinstatement of the animal sacrifices is the true falling away from Heaven’s perspective. Revelation 4 shows us the throne room of Heaven. It’s important that we note who is present at this stage in the vision. God is on the throne. He is in the midst of the four living creatures and the 24 elders who represent the Old Testament saints whom Jesus released from captivity by preaching the Gospel. They are surrounded by angels. Then we see a Lamb, as though it has been slain, standing before the throne. This is the ascended Christ.
       Before we see what happens next, we need to pick up an important detail from Hebrews 9:11-13. “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” This is when Christ anointed the Most Holy Place, one of the divine objectives given in Daniel 9:24 concerning Christ’s first and second comings.
       With the “once for all” sacrifice complete, Jesus could then legally take the scroll of inheritance—the title deed of the earth—from the right hand of the Father as seen in Revelation 5. “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:24-26).
       Can you see why the rebuilt temple and its animal sacrifices is detestable to the Lord? Not only have His people rejected Him, but they have also turned away from His ways and corrupted the cultural institutions of society with the ways of the kingdom of darkness. They have fully divorced themselves from their covenantal relationship with God. No wonder what comes next is ordained of God. Stay tuned.