When will it stop as we await the end of faith?

When will it stop as we await the end of faith?

“I tell you he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.  But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?  (Lk 18: 8).  The one question that must loom before the Lord as he is not too far from Jerusalem and his final days on earth.  

In retrospect, the Incarnation was to be the impetus of our salvation even though it wasn’t felt until Christ rose from the dead.  This event precludes the passion but has a deeper meaning when some may still be here as the church falls to apostasy.  Herein is the ultimate threat that has implications of a reality that has already begun.  

“If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.”  (Heb 10: 26 - 27).  “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  (Heb 10: 31).  

“For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay.  But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him.”  (Heb 10: 37 - 38).  

“We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.”  (Heb 10: 39).  

An apostasy that has already begun will be by those who have no longer a faith to hold onto.  Of all the stripes of sin that confront humans is the loss of faith.  It isn’t that God doesn’t want to reach us with his mercy and forgive us our sins.  By faith we are able to confess and be forgiven for our sins.  Apostasy becomes the very evil without goodness to remind us what faith means between God and us.  This is the quest that Jesus spoke about and it was not just rhetoric but a fear that his people will not recognize who he is

The writer of Hebrews puts the question before all of us; without Christ, his Suffering/death/resurrection is the pattern for our faith to eternal salvation.  Apostates won’t believe and the only destiny is hell.  Because without that faith in his Incarnation and all that it promises is the very path to faith and eternity with God.

“But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death , because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the Lord, your God, has directed you to take, he has preached apostasy from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from that place of slavery.  Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.”  “If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly tp serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nation, near at hand of far away, from one end of the earth to each other:do not yield to him, nor look with pity upon him.”   Dt 13:6 - 9).  

Warnings from the earliest period of God’s leading and saving his remnant that he loves.  Apostasy was already approaching the chosen people and it will end in eternal death.

Ralph B. Hathaway