The original question I was asked that inspired this series of articles centered around “how to talk to our ‘falling away’ fellow Christians” as these last days progress”. The first three parts of this series focused on attempting to explain why the falling away phenomenon is taking place and why Christians may be apathetic about what is going on. In this part I attempt to provide some methods that people can use to deal with Christians who are falling away and/or really apathetic about what is going on.
The “best” method I feel could reestablish a weak Christian’s faith is to cite Bible prophecies that have been accurately fulfilled because it illustrates how God can foresee everything and how accurate the Bible is.
- The best example I can think of is the preciseness of Daniel’s first sixty-nine week timeframe. The Book of Daniel indicated that specific events would trigger the start of the first week and end the sixty-ninth week within a 173,880 day period. My research confirms that the Bible is extremely precise predicting events that occurred 173,880 days apart. This preciseness/accuracy is not by chance…
Another method that could work to get a weak or an aphetic Christian’s attention is to cite 1 Timothy description of today’s conditions.
- 1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
- 1Ti 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
- 1Ti 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
Citing 1 Timothy may help get an apathetic or a weak Christian to realize that the Bible anticipates good and bad developments-even in today’s world. In addition, the passage may get a weak Christian to realize that the spiritual practices that they are tempted by are not condoned in the Bible.
Personally, I do not believe the Church is going to be spared from the Antichrist’s persecution (they will be spared from the Day of the Lord/the Wrath of God, which I believe begins after the opening of the sixth seal) so I do not agree with the premise that Christians do not have to worry because they will never see Antichrist’s persecution. If you are a Christian who also believes that the Church is going to endure Antichrist’s persecution a way to deal with people who may be apathetic towards Bible prophecy is to convince them that they will face the Antichrist.
- This could help to get apathetic Christians to see that there is much greater danger than they realized, which could motivate them to start learning more about what they face. However, convincing Christians that they will have to deal with Antichrist is easier said than done…
Even if you do believe the Church is going to be spared from the Antichrist’s persecution or are just unable to convince someone that they will face the Antichrist, you should prepare and/or convince an apathetic Christian to prepare to face Antichrist just in case. I do not see a downside to preparing for the worst because you minimize the probability that you will get blindsided if we do have to face the Antichrist. If we do not face the Antichrist then you will be happily surprised because you had prepared for the worst.
Finally, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible may be a verse that could motivate an apathetic Christian to actually begin to take heed of what is going on if you tell them about it. Proverbs 22:3 states that it is wise to prepare for difficulties we foresee and foolish not to.
Pro 22:3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on,
and are punished.
I get the sense from this verse that people who do not prepare basically deserve to face the consequences of their inaction no matter how bad those consequences may be.
- If a person knew that a category-five hurricane (typhoon or cyclone) was threatening where they live I doubt most people would be ignoring it. I suspect most people would be taking steps to protect their home, possessions, family, etc. The future is going to be like is a pro-longed disaster, so if it makes no sense for people to not prepare for a disastrous future if they are willing to prepare for a category-five hurricane.
- Although this is not the best comparison in the world, we may be like the modern day Noah. We tell people to watch out for stuff and to be ready for anything while people look at us like we are crazy. We are building a spiritual ark for onslaught that is to come. Meanwhile those who simply refuse to heed our warnings no matter how strongly we state our case are going to spiritually perish.
There are probably more methods that people can use to talk to Christians who are apathetic or falling away than what I cited. If you know anymore please feel free to post comments with your suggestions so that others can see them.
Update: Remember, we cannot save everyone. There will be some people who will refuse to listen to us no matter how strongly we state our case and there will be some people who know that we are correct but want to pretend that nothing is going on because they are scared. We cannot force people to follow our advice or force people to prepare so all we can do is to try our best to put people in a position to act
