When Jesus asked this question two thousand years ago, He was alerting His followers about the prevailing spiritual condition of people on earth at the time of His return. Jesus knew the answer: the close of the age would be marked by a mass defection from the truth. His preaching was replete with warnings about staying awake, sober, ready, and enduring until the end. Jesus also warned people about the love of many growing cold, betrayal, and falling away. What will they be falling away from? The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Let’s look at the current defection from the faith leading toward total apostasy and what we can do about it (Luke 18:8).
According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 63% of Americans claim to be Christian. The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University has that number at 70%, while Barna Research found between 66-70% of Americans identify as Christian, varying by age group. These surveys are all recent, but what is telling is that although the majority of Americans claim to be Christian, approximately only 50% have a biblical worldview. I can only describe this watered-down faith as having it my way version of Christianity instead of trust and obey Christianity.
When Jesus asked if He would find faith when He returns, it wasn’t the sort of faith that is popular today. Popular phrases like “Prayer changes things,” or “God is good all the time,” and “faith over fear” are all true. They can also be religious platitudes that get likes on social media but belie the dismal spiritual condition of our hearts. Before we know it, our faith is based on our feelings rather than the word of God. Many Christians love and live in this world like it’s going to go on forever instead of longing for eternity in a city whose builder and maker is God (1 John 2:15-17).
For the watered-down version of Christian life to work, we must find like-minded preachers to tickle our itching ears. These hirelings are the norm, not the exception, in many churches. They readily teach about blessings, abundance, and experiences but rarely about taking up your cross or counting the cost of being in the faith.
Another reason for the growing apostasy is that many Christians aren’t living as if Jesus is coming back anytime soon. The blessed hope has been the desire of all faithful followers of Jesus for over twenty centuries. Eschatology: the study of the end times and the attention we give to it, oftentimes, will be an accurate measure of our being in the faith or a departure from it. We obey Jesus because we love Him, and belief in His imminent return should encourage us to live holy lives and to continue in the faith until He comes for us or calls us home (2 Corinthians 13:5).
In the parable of the ten virgins, five were ready with flasks of oil. Although the other five went out to meet the bridegroom, they had no oil, and their lamps were going out. If we are to be ready for Jesus’s return, we must have oil in our lamps by the Holy Spirit living inside of us and helping us discern the late hour we live in. We have to watch and be ready because we don’t know the day or hour of His return.
Another reason for the growing apostasy and dwindling number of people in the faith is due to a wrong view of God. Much of the Western church is serving a god they feel comfortable with, an idol of sorts. I heard one excellent preacher say that you can’t go down into your basement or a closet and remake the One true God to your liking. He is an all-consuming fire and dwells in unapproachable light. The Bible tells us to be holy as He is holy. But if we reduce God down to a cosmic grandpa who winks at sin, it gives us license to live however we want instead of being the just who live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4 & Romans 1:17).
Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies. We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper “mystery.” – A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
A right concept of faith is a matter of eternal destiny. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We don’t put our faith in faith itself but in God alone. We’re saved by grace, through faith, and this is something we can’t add to or do on our own. We were bought and brought near by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 2:13).
How do we finish well and endure to the end to be found in the faith when Jesus, the Son of Man, returns? The Apostle John gives us an example of what being in the faith looks like, even amid hardship. He was writing to the churches and doing so from the remote island penal colony of Patmos. Regardless of his trials and the time he was there, the way he begins the book of Revelation gives us encouragement about how to be found in the faith. He said that he was banished to Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Moreover, John was in the Spirit, which means he was filled with and directed by the Holy Spirit.
As we wait and want to be found in the faith when Jesus comes for us, let’s be full of the Holy Spirit and living for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Every blessing as you hold fast in the faith until Jesus comes (Jude 1:20-21).
All for Him,
Howard
YouTube video – When the Son of Man Comes, Will He Find Faith on Earth: https://youtu.be/9nkYIT607rA?t=1
Podcast episode – When the Son of Man Comes, Will He Find Faith on Earth: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-the-son-of-man-comes-will-he-find-faith-on-earth/id1565453348?i=1000709315816
The post When the Son of Man Comes, Will He Find Faith…? :: By Howard Green appeared first on Rapture Ready.
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