Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
AMERICA APOSTATIZES!

AMERICA APOSTATIZES!

Last updated on: November 9, 2024 at 12:28 am by Kermit Zarley

0 Comments

AMERICA APOSTATIZES! 2024-11-09T00:28:56-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Holy Bible

America apostatizes! “What’s that?” you say. It means the USA has fallen. “Fallen from what?” you say. Fallen from that which is good. It’s in the Bible, well, sort of.

During Passion Week, perhaps two or three days before Jesus was arrested, condemned, and then crucified, he delivered a famous sermon about the future to his apostles while they all sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and the beautiful temple buildings below. Jesus predicted concerning those buildings made of huge limestones cut from quarries, “not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down” (Matthew 24.2 NRSV). It was an astounding prediction that came true exactly one generation later, when the Romans destroyed the place in 70 AD.

Jesus then predicted, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24.7). But then he added, “all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs” (v. 8). Just think of a woman enduring labor before delivering a child. Thus, Jesus said there would be much suffering in the latter stages before the birth of a new life, similar to the coming of the kingdom of God. That is how it will be as humanity draws closer and closer to the end of the age and the dawning of that new age to come, when Jesus will return, bringing with him the promised kingdom of God to earth in all of its glory and power.

The End Times “Increase in Lawlessness”

During that late period of suffering that will precede that blessed new age, Jesus said, “Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24.10-12). The words “fall away” translate the word skandalisthesontai in the original Greek text, from which we get our English word “scandal.”

Notice that Jesus said that latter period will be marked especially by an “increase in lawlessness.” That is what America has experienced with the re-election of Donald Trump has president. Especially in the aftermath of his previous four-year term as president, he broke several important laws set forth in our blessed Constitution. Most importantly was his false allegation that the 2020 presidential election had been fraudulent and that he had really won. That led to his effort on January 6, 2021, to overthrow our national government by stoking his followers to commit insurrection by storming the U.S. Capitol that day.

In my opinion, and that of many Americans, Donald Trump afterwards should have soon been investigated and prosecuted by our Department of Justice according to federal laws for that violation. But he was not. Instead, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was more concerned for the reputation of the Justice Department, which he headed, due to criticism from Donald Trump and his MAGA crowd. Garland should have pursued justice first against the main perpetrator of the overrun of the Capitol, Trump, instead of the minions who merely did what he told them to do. The result has been that it became too late to prosecute Trump—thus justice delayed was justice denied—because he as president will soon end those court cases against him. If justice would have been carried out concerning Trump, I believe he never would have been able to become president again as he now has. This result is what Jesus meant when he said in his Olivet Discourse that “many will fall away … because of the increase of lawlessness.”

Final Apostasy: A Falling Away from Goodness

The apostle Paul—who wrote 13 letters that comprise 25% of the Bible’s New Testament—wrote of that latter period that Jesus predicted by saying of it, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4.1-2). The word “renounce” translates apostesontai in the Greek text, from which we derive our English noun “apostasy” and the verb “apostatize,” which mean “renounce,” “depart” or “fall away.”

Paul sheds further light on this subject about the future in another letter. Therein he states, “In the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive” (2 Timothy 3.1-2). I’m 83 years old, and having been a pro golfer on the PGA Tour full time for thirty years, I’ve met a lot of people in my life, and some of them famous. But I don’t think I’ve ever known of anyone who fits this description by the apostle Paul so well about how people will be in the end times than the man who has now become our U.S. president again—Donald Trump. So, being our president and thus the most important person in this world, Trump sets the tone for how people can be in their character. Trump is the biggest liar, most conceited, and arrogant person I’ve ever seen. He is making this ill behavior the norm and thereby furthering the degeneracy of the end times.

Yet the Pew Survey told us that during Trump’s first election to become president, 81% of white, evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. And it appears that a similar percentage has done so this second time last week. And he gained a high percentage of Catholic voters as well.

“A Form of Godliness But Denying Its Power”

How could such a non-religious, immoral person as Donald Trump get that many professing Christians to vote for him? Well, there are many answers to that question. I think one answer is what the apostle Paul concludes in his above remark by adding concerning such people in the end times, that they will be “unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!” (2 Timothy 3.2-5).

Finally, the apostle Paul explains in another letter, “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ … Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. … For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, … And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” (2 Thessalonians 2.1, 3, 7-12).

Signs and Lying Wonders During the Apostasy

So, Paul says there will be “signs” and “lying wonders.” Many of these foolish Christians and others who have supported Donald Trump have believed that the assassination attempt on his life—in which a bullet barely struck his ear as he amazingly turned his face to avoid it entering his skull—was a miracle of God. And in Trump’s victory speech the next day after the election he spoke for ten minutes about it. He said, “The assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. … [I] felt very safe, because I had God on my side. … I’m not supposed to be here tonight, … I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.” I suspect a different explanation, such as what Paul says above. See my post on this.

Notice also Paul’s chronology as follows: (1) rebellion, (2) lawless one, and (3) Jesus. “Rebellion” translates apostasia in the Greek text. “Lawless one” is the person who some later Christians identified as “the antichrist” (1 John 1.18). And they added there will be many lesser “antichrists” who will precede him (v. 18, 22; 4.3; 2 John 7).

Paul is not original with this. Rather, he alludes to the Old Testament’s Daniel 8.23. It states, “when the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance shall arise, skilled in intrigue.” So, Daniel says there will be a period of transgression in full measure that will precede the appearance of this king. Thus, Paul’s rebellion (apostasy) corresponds to Daniel’s transgression, and Paul’s lawless one corresponds to Daniel’s bold king.

God’s Kingdom: Eternal Home of His People

To conclude, this great and final apostasy, this falling away at the end of the age, will be a departure from that which is good. I believe, more definitively, that it will be a falling away from the moral imperatives in God’s Ten Commandments which he gave to Moses and are recorded in the Bible in Exodus 20.1-17.

The Bible doesn’t say when this apostasy will begin or how long it will last. It seems to me, as I look back upon my life and the world in which I have lived for 83 years, that we are in this apostasy. If so, the comfort that true believers can take from this is that it is evidence of the existence of God because he predicted it through his holy prophets. We are just passing through this world on our way to that glorious kingdom of peace, justice, and righteousness that will be our eternal home. Jesus had said of it that he was going to “my Father’s house” to “prepare a place for you” (John 14.2). PRAISE THE LORD!

Previous Post

November 3, 2024

Harris Looks Presidential and Trump Looks Dictatorial

Next Post

November 11, 2024 Trump's "America First" Is the Opposite of What Jesus Taught

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Glen, you seem to be advocating a preterist viewpoint, with which I disagree." I'm a ..."

Kermit Zarley

Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and ..."

"THESIS is a SCRIPTURE QUOTE.“Remember the predictions foretold by the holy prophets and by the ..."

glen smith

Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and ..."

"How are they going to answer it. They don't have unlimited financial resources. They're trying ..."

Kermit Zarley

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Getting Much Worse

"...but isn't that an important question to answer?"

Harold Porter

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Getting Much Worse

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the first piece of the Armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Belt of Truth The Sword of the Spirit The Helmet of Salvation The Shield of Faith

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »