Pandemic

[b][u]The 'disease": It's symptoms, contagion and prevention.[/u][/b]

Mat 24:10-13 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many [b]and because [u]iniquity[/u] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold[/b] but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

[b][u]Barnes Notes on [/u] Mat 24:10 -

Many shall be offended -[/b] See the notes at Mat_5:29. Many shall stumble, fall, apostatize from a profession of religion. Many who “professed” to love me will then show that they had no “real” attachment to me; and in those trying times it will be seen that they knew nothing of genuine Christian love. See 1Jo_2:19.
[b]Shall betray one another -[/b] Those who thus apostatize from professed attachment to me will betray others who really love me. This they would do to secure their own safety, by revealing the names, habitations, or places of concealment of others.
[b]Shall hate one another -[/b] Not that real Christians would do this, but those who had professed to be such would then show that they were not his true followers, and would hate one another. Luke adds that they should be betrayed “by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends,” Luk_21:16. They would break over the most tender ties to surrender Christians to punishment. So great would be their hatred of Christianity, that it would overcome all the natural endearments of kindred and home. This, in the persecutions of Christians, has often occurred, and nothing shows more fully the deep and deadly hatred of the human heart to the gospel. Compare the notes at Mat_10:21.

[b][u]A.T. Robertson on[/u] Mat 24:12
Shall wax cold[/b] (psugēsetai). Second future passive indicative from psuchō. To breathe cool by blowing, to grow cold, “spiritual energy blighted or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind” (Vincent).
[b]The love of many[/b] (hē agapē tōn pollōn). Love of the brotherhood gives way to mutual hatred and suspicion.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come[b] a falling away first[/b], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition

[b][u]Adam Clarke on[/u] 2Th 2:3
Except there come a falling away first -[/b] We have the original word αποστασια in our word apostasy; and by this term we understand a dereliction of the essential principles of religious truth - either a total abandonment of Christianity itself, or such a corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system completely inefficient to salvation.

[b]Contagion - How it could spread -[/b]

Heb 12:15, 16 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, [b]and thereby many be defiled[/b]; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

[b][u]Barnes Notes[/u] on Heb 12:15 "And thereby many be defiled"[/b] - Led away from the faith and corrupted. One wicked man, and especially one hypocrite in the church, may be the means of destroying many others.

[b]Strong Warnings and how you may be able to help - Jude 1:1-25[/b]

Remember - [i]those who have exposed themselves to this infection are 'miserable' and "misery Loves company."[/i]

[b]Recommendations from Drs Jamieson, Fausset & Brown from Jude 1:23[/b]

[i]"Three kinds of patients require three kinds of medical treatment.

The three classes are:

(1) those who contend with you (accusative case in oldest manuscripts), whom you should convict;

(2) those who are as brands already in the fire, of which hell-fire is the consummation: these you should try to save by snatching them out;

(3) those who are objects of compassion, whom accordingly you should compassionate (and help if occasion should offer), but at the same time not let pity degenerate into connivance at their error.
Your compassion is to be accompanied “with fear” of being at all defiled by them."[/i]

[b]Personal Disease Prevention - 1 John 2:1-29[/b]

Please feel free to report any information that you've experienced in your area and to share any other helpful advise. Thank you!

Kathleen - GOD Bless you!

Ginnyrose - Six years ago, I felt the LORD tell me to "gird up my heart" for the falling-away - so that when His Word is fulfilled and there is a 'falling-away', that my heart would not be broken beyond the ability to bear it. The more you love people and most especially the Church - the harder it will hit you if they start 'falling' around you.

Bitterness is sometimes a symptom of this 'falling-away' "disease or infection", but I was thinking about this new 'flu' that we're hearing so much about. Some get headaches with no fever - others the intestinal part - others respiratory with high fevers and so forth.

It's the falling away because of "iniquity abounding" and being "offended" as Jesus said, at the Price of following through With Him in these days and the harder days ahead.

No matter how much I "gird up my heart" - it's still very hard to emotionally handle, when it's someone close to home or even if they were just in the Church at one time.

It was "unbelief" and then [b]choosing[/b] to fall back into sin that made them bitter in Heb 12:15 and these are not content until they spread either "doubts about GOD" or cause others to feel that the Christian cannot resist these sins.

Misery loves company and I've never met anyone as miserable as the backslidden.
Just hearing the thousands of excuses of "why" they're backslidden can tire one out, no matter how long you've known the LORD and for the young in Christ - it can be 'contagious' - causing their faith and mind to be 'defiled' or contaminated.

The idea I suppose, is to know 'when' to put the 'diseased' on isolation [medical term], lest many be defiled - or when to stay and help.

The Only difference with this 'disease' is, that a person gets it by [i]Choice.[/i]

Falling away is a choice.

Pray one for another and all the more as iniquity abounds.

Thanks Sisters.

Ginnyrose wrote: "You know what? seems to me that closer you are to a person the more likely you are blinded to what is going on UNTIL one day and then it may be too late."

Yes - very often the case - because you don't Want to see it. You hope it's just a bad year or passing fad or merely a stumble. And having experienced all of the above - I know that once you do notice and do go into action to try to help - that it can be very consuming and the enemy can use it to distract your mind from where HE had planned for your life. The enemy begins to use them to consume your thoughts on them alone.
I suppose that's why I felt that we need to have discernment and a shield and saw this through working in Hospitals. We truly do need discernment, increasingly and to guard our own hearts and be sure we hold up the Shield of Faith which is The Word of GOD with the armor on.
Dealing with the backslidden just reminds me of working in the infectious disease section of the hospital, in these last days.

When I got off of here after my last post, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I shouldn't be comparing this to this present flu pandemic - but a word the Lord gave me as an example of this a long time ago was "Spiritual AIDS".

The apostasy or falling away is so much like AIDS.
I probably shut that out of my mind because of the horror of it.

I need an encouraging word now. Thank you Ginnyrose!

Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking 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.