In his second letter to the Thessalonian church, a church comprising converts from the evangelistic ministry of Paul in Thessalonica, Paul lays to rest rumours and rumblings that the Day of the Lord, the Day when the righteous dead will be resurrected and those that remain alive on earth will be gathered together to Christ, had already come and emphasizes that the rapture of the Church will take place only after the following events have transpired:

1. The Great Apostasy/falling away takes place, and
2. The "son of destruction/perdition, the Antichrist, blasphemer is revealed and seats himself in the temple of God at Jerusalem AS GOD (1 Thess. 4:150-18)

So, what is this GREAT apostasy?

The Greek word translated 'apostasy' is Strong's G4624, skandalizō means the following: "To put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall, metaph.

• to offend
• to entice to sin
• to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey
• to cause to FALL AWAY

From these meanings, we can derive that there will be a great falling away of BELIEVERS from the faith PRIOR to the second coming of Christ, at which time the Church will be raptured.

While Paul does not elaborate in writing what this 'falling away' will look like or comprise, he REMINDS the Thessalonian church that he had taught them these things while he was with them physically in Thessalonica: "Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?" (v.5)

We must look to Christ's teachings on last day events and the signs that will herald His return to understand this great apostasy and why and how it will transpire.

Matt. 24:9: "Then they will HAND YOU OVER TO TRIBULATION and KILL YOU and you will be HATED BY ALL NATIONS because of My name.
10: and at that time MANY WILL FALL AWAY, and they will BETRAY one another and HATE one another.

This 'falling away' is clearly a RESULT of TRIBULATION OF BELIEVERS.

This is the great tribulation perpetrated on the Church by the Antichrist, where every believer that does not bow his knee to Satan and take the mark of the beast on his forehead or right arm will not be allowed to buy or sell and be PUT TO DEATH.

This 'greatest tribulation' in the HISTORY OF MANKIND will cause a CLEAR DIVIDE amongst those BELIEVERS that will ENDURE TO THE END and BE SAVED (Matt. 24:13) and those that FALL AWAY.

These BELIEVERS that fall away will largely comprise those that were ILL PREPARED for the fieriest test of their endurance and faith, many, many who were told by their pastors and ministers that the Church will be raptured prior to the coming of the Antichrist, lulling the Church into apathy, complacency and a false sense of security.

These believers will in turn BETRAY and HATE their fellow Christians who, in the midst of this global persecution, refuse to depart from the faith and bow to the Antichrist and take his mark. A thorough refining of the Church, a fiery test that will separate the wheat from the tares and the winnowing of the wheat from the chaff, the worldly believer from the godly one and the lukewarm from the 'hot' will be the great tribulation of the Church.

To compound things, there will be a plethora of FALSE PROPHETS, misleading and deceiving, 'validating' their 'ministry' with prolific miraculous signs and wonders.

Matt. 24:24: "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the ELECT."

Rampant and unchecked iniquity/lawlessness will be the order of the day. Paul calls this the 'mystery of lawlessness', this climate of lawlessness paving the way for the revealing of the 'lawless one' himself, the Antichrist.

This Antichrist, possessed and puppeteered by Satan, will himself be the MASTER deceiver, displaying signs, wonders and great power, luring and enticing into eternal perdition both those who have rejected the truth of the gospel and those who are on the brink of abandoning their faith.

2 Thess. 2:8: Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to and end by the appearance of His coming;
9: that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders,
10: and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved.
11: For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
12: in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Matt. 24:11: "And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people.
12: And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will become cold.
13: But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved.
14: This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come."

Christ taught that the gospel would be preached to every nation as a testimony prior to His return; Paul goes on to explain that those who willfully reject the truth of the gospel in favour of their wicked lifestyle will be DELUDED by GOD HIMSELF into following the Antichrist.

The 'great' falling away from the faith means exactly that, there will be MILLIONS of CHRISTIANS that will forsake their faith in Christ when face to face with the Antichrist and his tyrannical global rule of terror.

Ministers of God, it is incumbent upon you to STOP TEACHING THE FLOCK the FALSE DOCTRINE OF 'the GREAT ESCAPE'; this will only set them up for 'the GREAT APOSTASY'.

Instead, prepare them for the greatest tribulation of the saints in history, to be full of faith and to endure TILL THE END, to walk circumspectly, with wisdom, redeeming the time for the days are evil and to keep their lamps brimming over with oil, ready and n anticipation to meet their Saviour AFTER the tribulation of those days: