16 The great falling away | nazareneisrael2house

The great falling away.

From the beginning of Nazarene Judaism, evil forces aimed to destroy it and because of sustained attacks, the movement almost vanished by the fourth century. But, it never disappeared totally, as there have always been Torah observant individuals who believed in Yahshua the Messiah. The forces against us are the same forces that are against our Jewish brothers, namely anti-Semitism, which is in actual fact lawlessness. Rav Shaul in his address to the Ephesian elders said in Acts 20: 29 & 30, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; (30) and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw the disciples after them.” In fact the great falling away is an essential part of the end time events that will precede the return of Yahshua our Messiah, as we read from 2 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 3: ‘Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Master Yahshua Messiah, and our gathering together to Him. (2) That you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of YHVH has come. (3) Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy (falling away) comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.’

We read about the great falling away, during the last days in both the Tanach and the Renewed Covenant. The falling away will be mainly due to deception, by the Priests in Israel, as prophesied by Micah in Micah 3: 5 – 7, saying: ‘Thus says YHVH concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; when they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry, “Peace,” but against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. (6) Therefore it will be night for you - without vision, and darkness for you – without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will become dark over them. (7) The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from Elohim.’ We might have an idea when the end is near, but only YHVH knows the exact time of the events that will soon overtake the world, as Yahshua indicated in Matthew 24: 36, as follows: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” We have even in our time seen the embarrassment of many prophets who set dates about the return of Yahshua in the recent past – so the prophesy in Micah 3 has already come true in our time. If we want to rule under Yahshua in the Kingdom of Elohim, we need to remain loyal; we need to believe and study the word of YHVH and proclaim the coming Kingdom of Elohim. It is only by so doing that we will become kings and priests, as Yahshua confirmed in Matthew 24: 46 & 47, saying: “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. (47) Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.”

We read about the great apostasy in the Renewed Covenant where Yahshua warned His disciples in Matthew 24: 10 - 12, saying: ‘And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. (11) And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. (12) And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love (for Torah truth) will grow cold.’ After we’ve been called, we need to bear fruit; we need to do our part in proclaiming the good news of the coming Kingdom of Elohim. Yahshua warned us in the parable of the seed in Luke 8: 15 – 18, saying: “And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance. (16) Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or put it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light. (17) For nothing is hidden that shall not become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. (18)Therefore take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him shall more be given, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.” We also read about the great apostasy from 1 Timothy 4: 1 – 2, as follows: ‘But the spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.’ Many of those whom YHVH has called in the past have left again, to follow people who contradict YHVH and Yahshua (the word of Elohim): Some people stopped believing in the Oneness of Elohim and others contradict the word of Elohim, denying that Judah is the Lawgiver of Elohim, as may be read from among other Psalm 60: 7(KJV) in this way: ‘Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength (helmet or protection) of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver.’ Others left because we are performing our function as watchmen (Nazarenes); writing warning sermons to warn believers against wrongdoing, impending troubles, and proclaiming the good news.

Our commission is to proclaim the coming Kingdom of Elohim, as Yahshua did immediately after His immersion and temptation by the Adversary. Ask yourself: Why am I here? Am I here to save my own skin, or am I here to do what Yahshua did, i.e. proclaiming the good news of the coming Kingdom of Elohim, despite the consequences? We do not proclaim the Kingdom of Elohim to anyone by moving into a secluded little town, living out the rest of our lives as hermits. That is much like we’ve read in Luke 8, about hiding our light under a bushel. We need to reflect the Kingdom of Elohim (be it in a limited and imperfect way) and do the work of believing in the One whom He has sent, here and now. We read Yahshua’s words in this regard from Matthew 16: 24 & 25, as follows: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (25) For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” We also read from Luke 12: 31: “But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you.” When we are busy about our Father’s business, He will both protect us and provide in our every need. Yes, life is going to become very hard in the near future, but we have the commission to keep telling people about the better world that is coming soon; we have to proclaim the Kingdom of Elohim to all the world for a witness, then the end will come (Matthew 24: 14). We do not go out on street corners and shout for people to repent, because we know according to John 6: 44, that YHVH does the calling.

However, we give people the facts hereunto unheard of, using printed material and different webpages and the internet to get the message of the coming Kingdom of Elohim out into the world. However, we need sound doctrine, proven by at least two or three Scriptural witnesses to get Scriptural truth into the world. Only the naïve do not realize that the time to do the end time work is getting short. Soon there will be a famine of the word, when people will not hear the word of YHVH any longer, as we read from Amos 8: 11 – 12: “Behold, days are coming,” declares YHVH Elohim, “When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of YHVH. (12) And people will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of YHVH, but they will not find it.” It is as the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55: 6, saying: ‘Seek YHVH while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.’ This tells us that there will come a time in the near future, when material containing Elohim’s truth will not be available any longer. This could be as a result of pole-shifting that will cause major disruptions in electricity supply and will also adversely affect the communication channels we have grown so accustomed to. But it could also be as a result of the fact that there is no longer any planned maintenance to existing facilities due to mismanagement of financial resources.

We read from 1 Timothy 4; 1 that ‘some will fall away from the faith.’ What does it mean to fall away from the faith? Which faith? There is only one faith according to Ephesians 4: 5, which was once delivered to the saints – the called out ones as per Jude 3, in this way: ‘Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.’ Continuing in verse 4, we read Jude’s warning, as follows: ‘For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our Elohim into licentiousness and deny (from the Greek word ‘arneomai’ also meaning to contradict) our only Teacher and Master, Yahshua Messiah.’ If we want to make it into the Kingdom of Elohim, we need to continue in that faith to the end as we read in Revelation 14: 12: ‘Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of Elohim and their faith in Yahshua.’ Yes, Torah cannot be removed from faith as is confirmed in Psalm 119: 29 & 30, ‘Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me thy Law (Torah). (30) I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed thine ordinances before me.’ When Yahshua was on trial before Pilate, He answered in John 18: 37, saying: “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” In verse 38 of John 18, Pilate asked: “What is truth?” The answer to Pilate’s question may be found in Psalm 119: 142, as follows: “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness; and Thy Law (Torah) is truth.” In other words Yahshua came to bear witness to the Torah. Those who hear Torah, hear His voice. Yahshua furthermore stated in John 8: 31 & 32: ‘Yahshua therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, (32) and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”’ Rav Shaul spoke in Romans 1: 25 about those who exchanged the truth of Elohim for a lie, saying: ‘For they exchanged the truth of Elohim for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amein.’ Yahshua came to bear witness to the truth, as much as Satan and his agents came to speak lies. We read from John 8: 44, Yahshua talking about Satan and his agents as follows: “You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”

If Torah is truth, then what is Satan’s lie? His lie is simply that Torah has been done away with. As opposed to the true faith, once delivered to the saints (i.e. Nazarene Judaism – those who keep the Torah of Elohim and their faith in Yahshua), Christianity believe that their savior has done away with his father’s laws. We need to return to the faith of our fathers in the faith, namely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To find out about the faith of our fathers in the faith, we turn to the so-called faith chapter in the Scriptures, namely Hebrews 11 and read from verses 8 – 10, as follows: ‘By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is Elohim.’ This tells us that our fathers in the faith were fully aware of the coming Kingdom of Elohim. Apart from believing the Gospel of Elohim, our father Abraham also knew about and believed in the saving work that Yahshua was going to do in what was the future for him. We read part of Yahshua’s answer to the Jews in John 8: 56 – 58, as follows: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” ‘The Jews therefore said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”’ ‘Yahshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”’ We also know that Abraham believed in the resurrection as may be read in Hebrews 11: 17 – 19: ‘By faith Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that Elohim is able to raise men, even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type.’ As we have seen before Abraham knew that Yahshua was going to be impaled and resurrected in what was future to him, he received Isaac back as a type of Yahshua. Lastly our father Abraham also obeyed YHVH as we see from Genesis 26: 5 “because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

Now that we know what it is to ‘fall away from the faith’, let us continue to read about the great falling away, recorded in 2 Timothy 3: 1 – 7, as follows: ‘But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. (2) For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, (3) unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, (4) treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of Elohim; (5) holding to a form of godliness (faith or religion), although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these. (6) For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak woman weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, (7) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.’ Rav Shaul writes to Timothy telling him that the great falling away has to do with Torah observance, by those who are always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth of Torah. This might well be that they are always looking for answers outside of Torah. I have seen books written about Feast Days that run into hundreds of pages, by people who believe that YHVH took the Oracles away from our Jewish brothers, and gave it to them. However, this is a major lie as also witnessed in Romans 3: 3 & 4, in this way: ‘What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of Elohim, will it? (4) May it never be! Rather, let Elohim be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT THOU MIGHTEST BE JUSTIFIED IN THY WORDS, AND MIGHTEST PREVAIL, WHEN THOU ART JUDGED.”’ Most of these books are written by Israelites (non-Jews) who are known for their anti-Semitism, but once also kept the Feast Days of Elohim according to the Hebrew calendar. The point is that some would like to get into the Kingdom of Elohim without our Jewish Brothers, but YHVH tells us in Jeremiah 31: 31 - 33 that the new covenant (meaning the new marriage covenant) will be made with both the house of Israel and the house of Judah , the difference being that He will not have to write the Law on the hearts of Judah, as they are already obeying Torah fully, as follows: “Behold, days are coming,” declares YHVH, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (32) not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares YHVH. (33) But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares YHVH, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.” Those of us called out of the churches of the world (as per Romans 11: 5) are required to make Judah jealous (as per Romans 11: 11), until the fullness (the number determined by Elohim) of the Gentiles (those Israelites who believe they are Gentiles, plus some real Gentiles) have come in then all Israel will be saved; a remnant from both houses (as per Romans 11: 25 - 27).

We read further in 2 Timothy 4: 3 – 4: ‘For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; (4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths (lies).’ It is clear from these Scriptures that the great falling away has to do with the rejection of Torah. Rav Kepha wrote similar to Jude about the great falling away that will occur during the last days in 2 Peter 2: 1 & 2, saying: ‘But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying (contradicting) the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (2) And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned.’ Nazarene Judaism is under attack of Lawlessness, but also anti-Semitism. People in the world do not like what we teach, since it is the exact opposite of what they believe. We are told in Revelation 18: 4 to come out of the Babylon of confusion – where people teach against Torah observance. We need to come out of the churches of this world completely and get rid of the many false doctrines taught by them. Milk is normally very good for us, but when arsenic is added to the milk, it becomes lethal. That is how serious a little untruth is, when we teach about the way of Yahshua and what He taught whilst He was on earth. Poison in milk may result in (physical) death, but a little bit of untruth could result in our spiritual demise known as the second death.

We need to take our calling very seriously, and make sure we keep on doing Elohim’s will, by measuring our every thought and deed against Torah. We need to heed the warning in Hebrews 6: 4 – 6, as follows: ‘For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Set-apart Spirit, (5) and have tasted the good word of Elohim and the powers of the age to come, (6) and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of Elohim, and put Him to open shame.’ Let’s get rid of all falsehood, and teach others the Torah truth found in the word of YHVH. Let us focus our efforts on proclaiming the good news of the coming Kingdom of Elohim into the entire world. Then our needs will be provided for, and then the end shall come. Let us also remember that the only thing that we are able to take into the Kingdom of Elohim is a perfect character. The near future looks bleak, but fortunately we have Yahshua’s own promise in the last part of Matthew 24: 22, about the coming tribulation, saying: “but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.” Halleluyah!