In ‘Looking for the signs of Jesus’ return’ since hearing “This is ALL about to be fulfilled”, one sign in particular continues to be blatantly obvious: the trans-sexual lobbying across church denominations with offensive flags of incomplete rainbows displayed in churches in support of ‘Pride’!  Most repugnant!

It’s one thing to apologise for the way ‘trans’-people have been treated by churches, but another to bow the knee to their selfish demands, deemed as ‘progressive’.

To any thinking Bible-believer it’s just one part of the fallen one’s strategy of attacking the future Bride of Christ to bring great internal division together with divergence from – as well as twisting! – God-given scripture of the Bible.

That source is as plain as a pikestaff in its usurpation of the sign God gave of His first Covenant with humanity – the seven-coloured rainbow.

Nevertheless, in view of my history I’ve been pleased to find churches of various styles have grown greatly in brotherly appreciation, despite the increasing satanic attacks.

Fallen by being kicked out of heaven, the hater of humanity’s main strategy has been to beguile church leaders into being ‘progressive’ instead of standing firmly upon the Word of God. Such reprobate leaders have led their churches into….

The Great Apostasy

2 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 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…

… 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2Thess 2)

That’s New King James Version. The Classical Amplified adds to verse 3 ‘[unless the predicted great ^[b]falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come]’- footnote [b] ‘A possible rendering of the Greek apostasia is “departure [of the church]“.’

Thus, the foretold falling away doesn’t so much refer to non-churchgoing public turning away from believing in our Father God and Jesus Christ as regular believers choosing to leave behind any belief and deliberately departing from the faith.

In the brief background to my Theological thoughts on salvation and apostasy I refer to ‘lost salvation’ as a topic for Saturday Men’s Bible study. In our online chat and saying the Lord had poked me to blog on it, I added my hope of getting a Deuteronomy 19:15 two-witness confirmation as soon as possible.

Indeed, I thought confirmation emerged with Friday’s news of Justin Welby’s apology for what was wrongly taken as a personal slight by the lead advocate in his Church’s move towards liturgical accommodation of trans-sexuality.

However, the usual personal confirmation was yet to come in Sunday morning’s service. A congregant with top diosecan connections briefed me about the disastrous outcome of last week’s Anglican General Synod.

CORRECT TRANSLATION? 

In last Thursday’s Theological thoughts on salvation and apostasy I refer to the interlinear Greek translation for ‘Falling away’ but noted a friend heading up Prophetic Releasers for UK Revival had commented upon my Facebook version of the previous day’s Bible Update: ‘Great Apostasy’ of Pope and Anglican leaders.

Geoffrey informs me the Literal Standard Translation of the Bible, a major revision of Robert Young’s Literal translation, posits an alternative “that puts a completely different outlook on this verse and the sequence of the departure (rapture) in future events”. He cites verse 3 as:

“do not let anyone deceive you in any way, because if the departure may not come first, then the man of lawlessness may not be revealed – the son of destruction.”

In my opinion, omitting any reference to ‘apostasia’ (falling away) makes the translation too ambiguous and unclear in what we expect of Holy Spirit-inspired revelation. What’s more, it’s just conjecture because the scriptural prophecy is actually being fulfilled in tandem with verses in other books.

So here’s A E Knock’s Concordant Method interlinear Greek translation, as published by Scripture4All, following this Introduction:

Click image for link to read in full

SCHISMATIC GENERAL SYNOD

Now, in catching up with my church friend’s recommended reading from the CEEC (Church of England Evangelical Council) it is abundantly clear the CoE is now moving into DEEP SCHISM

Some CEEC leaders’ comments (emphases mine)

• “For many in the Church of England a line was crossed this week that we prayed and hoped would not happen.”
• “We believe these proposals are being pursued without adequate provision and protection for those holding to the biblical, historic and global majority Anglican view on marriage and sexual intimacy. This underlines the failure of leadership by the archbishops and divided House and College of Bishops.”
• “CEEC regrets that these changes will cause deep division in PCCs and parishes, deaneries and dioceses the length and breadth of the country, in the same way that the Bishops and General Synod are divided.”
• Above from report of 17th November > https://ceec.info/responding-to-the-15-november-2023-general-synod-decision-looking-forward/
• Next from report of 12th October https://ceec.info/ceec-welcomes-bishops-dissenting-statement/
• “It is not very often that bishops from the House of Bishops express their dis-ease at something being proposed by the rest of the House. The statement is significant because of what it says.
• “First, they name the deep disagreement that exists within the House of Bishops.  To publicly acknowledge the depth of disagreement is significant, given the seismic changes the House of Bishops is pursuing.”

Also, in Premier Christianity’s opinion piece CofE leaders are ‘walking together’ into sin. It’s a bad joke, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre and Christian Concern, Andrea Williams, points out the bishops’ disingenuity

‘It is being widely reported that the Church of England’s governing body, General Synod, has backed trials of services blessing same-sex relationships. The Guardian says “services to celebrate gay marriages could be held within weeks”.

‘The CofE leadership are often at pains to claim that these services – and the prayers within them – only “ask for God’s blessing”, and that they don’t directly bless these relationships or sexual activity within them.

‘This is straight out of the CofE playbook: deceptive language that allows the de- facto approval of sin while pretending they’re not contradicting the Church’s doctrine of marriage. All this nuance is lost within minutes of the vote as media outlets report that these ‘blessings’ are going ahead.’

FOOTNOTE:

This post is an interim update before proceeding with theological thoughts on believers’ possibly losing their salvation, and alternatively to the Lord’s glorious promise of our personal salvation