Continue and Hold Fast
No one admires a quitter, especially when the end to be gained is very good. A quitter is a defeatist. Most people do admire a person who perseveres—one who persists in his course in spite of counter-influences and opposition or discouragement.
Paul wrote this to the Galatians: "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." Gal. 4:1818But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. (Galatians 4:18). In his personal letters to Timothy he exhorted him, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself [that is, his personal testimony], and them that hear thee [a right influence on others]." 1 Tim. 4:16.
The state of things around the believer in this world today is a fulfillment of this forecast, and the exhortation for us is definitely to continue—to persist in the course begun when we believed the gospel of our salvation. Our resource is the same as was Timothy's in 2 Tim. 3:16, 1716All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16‑17): "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Surely this means to persist all the way through to the end, not to give up.
There is a prophecy of the coming of a falling away (apostasy) foretold in 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). This open denial of Jesus as Lord has not yet come and will not come until after the rapture referred to in the first verse of the same chapter. But even now there is the giving up of the authority and efficacy of the Word of God, and of faith in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Thoughts of men have taken the place of the Word of God, and the will of man no longer allows the authority of the Word nor of Christ.
This abandonment of the supreme authority of God's Word, and the first condition of the Church and of principles upon which it was founded, is surely a moral departure or falling away from truth once known.
In Jude's epistle he tells of "certain men crept in unawares," who were "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If the great falling away has not yet come, we can say that the spirit of falling away has long ago taken hold upon the minds of men. We must be very careful to persevere in the sound doctrine of God's
Word and maintain its full authority in both profession and practice. There is terrific opposition against this path of faith and faithfulness, both from men and Satan. But "greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." 1 John 4:44Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4).
The willful sin of Heb. 10:2626For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, (Hebrews 10:26) is surely another indication of the open apostasy that is to come. As we increasingly see this spirit of departure from truth once known, what are we to do? Notice in this portion of God's Word that it is those who "have received the knowledge of the truth" who then sin willfully. Our security in going on for God is found in the preceding verse. "Not forsaking [not quitting, or not giving up] the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
To me it seems that in the last decade there has been an increase in giving up of truth once known.
What is your thought as to this?
C. Buchanan
"But continue thou in the
things which thou hast
learned and hast been
assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them.”