A Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is a very useful book to have. This is a huge volume which lists every English word in the Bible as a translation of Hebrew of Greek. I have one that is beginning to become worn out. I also have a concordance of the New Testament which lists English words translated from the Greek, all for the King James Version.
Look up leaven in the New Testament. Matthew 13: 33 is a good place to study leaven. It says "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Leaven means to ferment, such that a small amount of leaven can cause a much larger loaf of bread to expand and become larger.
Christ in Matthew 13: 33 is talking about how a false doctrine that at first seems to change just a little of Christ's Gospel, but when it is more fully leavened, this false part of the Gospel increases and increases until almost the whole "church" is leavened.
What the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3 means is that the process of leavening has reached a point such that almost all of organized Christianity is leavened.
"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."
"Falling away" is a translation of the Greek word apostasia, which is so close to our English word that it requires no explanation. In fact, apostasy comes from apostasia.
A Greek word, having a meaning very similar to apostasy, plane, or error, is translated as "strong delusion" in II Thessalonians 2: 11, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
Those who have been in false doctrines for a while and will not come out of them, are in error, or to put it strongly, in strong delusion.
"So would you say sometimes we fight against God when debating with some people?"
If you are talking only to that one person who is in error and in apostasy, and he or she spits back at you, and/or goes into an attempted dialogue that sidesteps what you said to correct him, then you could begin to suspect he is in strong delusion. And then don't continue trying to correct him. But if you are on a forum, maybe not everyone is in strong delusion and a few might benefit from what you say.
� Matthew 24:3,9-13:� The disciples asked Jesus, �What will be the sign of your Coming and the end of the age?? Jesus answered�.. {During the Great Tribulation} �Then *YOU* will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and *YOU will be hated by all nations because of Me.� At that time many will turn away from the Faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of *MOST* will grow cold,{THE GREAT APOSTASY but he {The Called, Chosen & Faithful-Rev 17:14b} who stands firm to the End will be saved.�
This falling away or great Apostasy {NIV-Rebellion} was also prophesied in 2 Thess 2:1,3,8-11: "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him... Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for THAT DAY will not come until the rebellion {Apostasy} occurs {See Matt 24:9-13 above} and the Man of lawlessness:devil: {666} is revealed.{See Rev 13:5-8}...And then the lawless One :devil:{666} will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming {See Rev 19:20} The coming of the lawless one:devil: will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders{See Rev 13:13-15} and in in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing... For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion."
This will come as a tremendous shock for those who teach the Prosperity Gospel and who are mainly seeking earthly treasures rather than eternal Heavenly Rewards. They teach: If you accept Jesus as your Savior you have a free pass to Heaven and God forbid that you should suffer any persecution or go through the Great Tribulation; which fits in with the pre-trib doctrines which are designed to increase church membership at the expense of the Truth. When is the last time you heard a sermon on the virtues and courage of the many thousands of present-day martyrs?? And this is probably why there will be a great FALLING AWAY {THE GREAT APOSTASY} at the beginning of the Great Tribulation as per Matthew 24:9-13 & 2 Thess 2:3.
"And this is probably why there will be a great FALLING AWAY {THE GREAT APOSTASY} at the beginning of the Great Tribulation as per Matthew 24:9-13 & 2 Thess 2:3. "
Its not that there will be a great falling away at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, because the leavening of the churches has been going on since sometime in the early 20th century. But one has to believe scripture to discern when that leavening began. If you believe scripture then the leavening due to dispensationalism began when that theology began to take over the evangelical denominations in this country and was soon exported to other nations.
There were other false doctrines taught, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, even back in the 19th century - but these false doctrines didn't take over so many denominations as did dispensationalism starting in about 1890.
Dispensationalism is like an onion; you peel off one layer of false doctrines, only to find another layer of additional ones.
The false doctrine about when the falling away is to occur says it does not begin until the tribulation. If this were true, then Goid would not have one good reason to bring about the "fire" of Zechariah 13:: 8-9 which is to refine a remnant and bring them out of false doctrines and out of the "church." "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and hat ye receive not of her plagues." I know some will say this applies only to financial and political Babylon, but it also applies to the Babylon of Revelation 17: 1-8, which is false religion, or false Christianity. Its t he second beast of Revelation 13: 11-18.
Actually, the leavening would pretty much have to start before the period of the tribulation to be a great falling away at that time. God has not revealed how long the tribulation will last. The seven years somehow deduced from Daniel 9: 25-27 is another onion layer of false doctrine brought to us by those who
kidnapped Christianity. I know there are time spans listed in prophecy, but nowhere does it say these are the entire period of the tribulation.
WILL THE REIGN OF 666 AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION LAST EXACTLY 1260 DAYS OR 42 {30-DAY} MONTHS??
**{#1}** Daniel 12:1b,2,7b:� �There will be a time of distress {The Great Tribulation} such as not happened from the beginning of nations until then.� But at that time {The Last Day} your people--*EVERYONE* whose name is found written in the book {Both OT & NT Saints}�will be delivered.� Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt�It will be for a time. times and half a time {Which is also 1260 days as per Rev 12:6,14, or 42� {30-day} months as per Rev 13:5} *ALL* these things will be *COMPLETED.��:peace:
**{#2}**�Rev 13:5,7: The beast will be given a mouth to utter blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 {30-day} months {Not 7 years}�He will be given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. COMPARE WITH
**{#3}**Dan 7:25: �He will speak against the Most High and oppress His saints.� The saints will be handed over to him for time {12 months}, times {24 months} and 1/2 a time {6 months}. {Not 7 years}
Events in Revelation that will occur during the 1260-day Tribulation are discussed in Rev 6:1 to 18:24, Events that will occur on the Last Day are recorded in Rev 6:12-17; Rev 11:15-19; Rev 14:14-20; Rev 16:17-21; Rev 19:1-21 & Rev 20:9b-15.�The Olivet discourse by Jesus about the End-Times are recorded in Matt 24 & 25, Mark 13 and Luke 21.� Events that will occur during the 1260-day Tribulation are recorded in Matt 24:9-28; Mark 13:5-23 and Luke 21:8-24. Events which will occur on the Last Day of the Tribulation including the 2nd Coming of Jesus are recorded in Matt 24:29-31; Matt 25:31-46; Mark 13:24-27, Luke 21:25-28 and 2 Peter 3:10-13. The glorious appearing of Jesus and the resurrection of His saints on the Last day of the Tribulation are mentioned in God's Word about 50 other times such as Titus 2:13: �WE wait for the blessed hope�the glorious APPEARING of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,�:applause:
For example: If the coming of 666 and the 1260-day Great Tribulation starts on June 8th, 2011 then the 2nd coming of Jesus would occur exactly 1260 days later on November 25th, 2014. When the 1260-day Great Tribulation begins God's saints will then know the exact day of the 2nd coming on the Last Day as per: Rev 3:3: Jesus says, �But {*IF*} you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.� I Thess 5:4: Paul said �But YOU BROTHERS :angel:{*CHURCH SAINTS*}, are not in darkness so that {*THIS DAY*} should surprise you like a thief.�
So true guys,:applause:... also just to add, leaven is not only meant the flase teachings and doctrine that many will attempt and have indeed brought into the church and people believe, but it is also to mean those unsaved people and unchurched folks how do not honor God with their hearts who have a form of godliness on the outside in words, but do not follow Jesus in their hearts or obey God's word of truth with their works or service, but deny the power of God. As were the Pharisees to whom Jesus was speak, they said the loved God and knew God, but had they truly KNOWN God in their hearts, they would not have crucified Jesus...
"Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees....How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?"
Matthew 16: 6, 11
I Corinthians 5: 6-8 "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
Leaven is false doctrine. It sounds like Paul in I Corinthians 5: 7-8 may be referring to false doctrines that were leftovers from the Old Covenant.
The Pharisees and Sadducees brought false doctrines to the people which Christ opposed. He didn't talk about the leaven of those who did not claim to be God's people.
