During the end-time “falling away”, why will believers reject Jesus?
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 that people are condemned because (1) they do not love the truth; and (2) they take pleasure in unrighteousness. Paul explains to Timothy that those who depart from the faith will do so after “giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). A few years later, Paul adds that, “they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Tim. 4:3). Paul describes this type of believer (and unbeliever) in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The central issue is that they are lovers of themselves. The victorious believer in Revelation 12:11 will overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and the fact that they did not love their lives to the death.
