This leads up to the prophesied "falling away" we are to consider. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the day of the Lord, the day of judgment] shall not come, except there coming a falling away first [Greek, APOSTASIA, apostasy], and that man of sin [the Antichrist] be revealed, the son of perdition " (2 Thess. 2:33Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (2 Thessalonians 2:3)). Here we get the coming apostasy clearly foretold, the first signs of which were seen in the apostolic age. We have seen how the seven parables of the kingdom of heaven, and the seven addresses to the Church in Asia, are prophetic of the decline that sets in wherever man stands in responsibility to God.
We will now trace very cursorily how things have developed from that day to this present time, leading on to the full and final apostasy of Christendom, as foretold in the Scriptures.