header image header image right header image left

Commentary:

How Many Will "Fall Away" in the Great Apostasy?





These are just my thoughts and my end time theories may not line up with yours.

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,"
1 Timothy 4:1


In the last days, people of faith will depart from the body of Christ. This is known as the great apostasy or falling away. Some Bible versions call it the rebellion.

How many will depart from the faith? Do we know? Well, maybe.


Here is what I believe:
The Bible gives us clues in the Parable of the Seed and from Zechariah 13:8-9

The parable of the seed, I believe, is a foreshadowing that 66% of Christians will be part of the Apostasy (falling away) in the end times, and Zechariah is a second witness that confirms it. (2 Corinthians 13:1 NASB)

The Seed Parable:
Read Matthew 13:18-23
The Parable of the Sower concerns a sower who scatters seed, which falls on four different types of ground:
hard ground (birds ate), rocky ground, thorny ground, good ground.

25% hear but reject the gospel because of deception of the Satan.
Birds ate seeds = deception (no faith ever took root)

75% hear and believe the gospel:
Two-thirds (66%) of those who initially believe, turn from the faith and one-third (33%) are faithful believers and produce fruit.


Zechariah's prophecy explains:
And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it. 9 This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"
--- Zechariah 13:8-9

The seeds that fell on rocky ground and thorny ground, (66% of all believers or 50% of the total hearers) are not truly saved and fall away from faith.

The Apostle John explains why: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
--- 1 John 2:19

The reasons in the seed parable these people turned from believing (apostasy):
Rocky soil = persecution     (some faith but did not last)
Thorns = greed                 (some faith but did not last)
The Bible calls greed, idolatry. (Colossians 3:5 NASB)

All three of these reasons for not receiving or for falling away from the faith are well rooted in end time events as warned in scripture.

deception (Colossians 2:8, James 1:16, 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 2 Peter 2:13, Matthew 24:4, 2 John 1:7)

persecution (1 John 3:13, John 15:20, John 16:33, John 15:18, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Luke 6:22, Revelation 2:10, 2 Timothy 3:12)

greed (Luke 12:15, 2 Peter 2:3, 2 Peter 2:14, 1 Timothy 6:9)
[greed includes money but also possessions like food. And food in the end times can only be obtained by those who can buy and sell - those who have the mark of the beast.]

good soild = lasting faith that produces fruit.
Only 25% of the total hear the word, understands, and receives the Word by faith. The good soil represents the one who is truly saved.


In the end times, 66% of those who call themselve Christians, will fall away from the faith in what the Bible calls the Apostasy.

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. --- Hebrews 3:12 NASB

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me. --- Psalm 101:3

If there are about 2 billion people on the planet who count themselves as Christian, then 1.3 billion will fall away.

How many of these will be raptured? How many martyred?
Any clues in the Bible?
I think there is!


Matthew 24:10
Matthew 24:10


35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

37 For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Hebrews 10:35-39




© 2023 End Time Living