Heart of believers in the last days
I wrote this in a 14-April-2019 facebook post:
Luke 18:7-8 "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
This passage of Scripture speaks of the scarcity of "faith" on earth when Jesus comes the second time.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let 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;"
In like manner, Apostle Paul confirms by the Spirit of God that there will be a "falling away" first before "that day" comes. The meaning of "that day" is given in verse 1 as "our gathering together unto him" when Jesus Christ comes the clouds. That would be the rapture. What is "falling away"? The answer is found in:
Luke 8:13 "They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
This is a verse from the Parable of the Sower. Jesus taught that there are four types of grounds whereby the heart of all men are represented:
The wayside ground;
The shallow ground;
The thorny ground; and
The good ground.
The focus here is on "falling away," ground type number 2, the shallow ground wherein there is not much earth. Paul use that to describe the heart of believers in the last days: one that looks like good ground on the surface, but right underneath is solid rock. Very deceptive.
That would be the face of Christianity on earth in the last days, just before the great and notable day of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall come in the clouds to gather God's elects unto himself. Churches all over the world would primarily be made up of such false converts, ones that would "fall away" in time of temptation. Very deceptive.
Genesis 4:26 "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD."
The hearts of believers in the last days would be like those who called upon the name of the LORD in the days of Noah but still perished in the flood, believers whom Peter calls "ungodly" (2 Peter 2:5). So, to answer the question:
"… Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
The answer is of course, No.
I’ve seen so much nonsense on social media recently about the world being on the verge of a great revival. That scripture, IMO puts that theory to permanent rest. The “elect will scarcely be saved.”