1. What was already at work in the church in Paul's day?
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” 2 Thess. 2:7.
2. What class of men did he say would arise in the church?
“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30.
3. Through what experience was the church to pass, and what was to develop in the church, before Christ's second coming?
“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.” 2 Thess. 2:3.
4. In what was shown the first tangible evidence of this “falling away” from the truth of God?
The adoption of heathen rites and customs in the church.
Note.—“The bishops augmented the number of religious rites in the Christian worship, by way of accommodation to the infirmities and [pg 485] prejudices, both of Jews and heathen, in order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity.... For this purpose, they gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the gospel, and decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that solemn title. They used in that sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the terms employed in the heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as even to adopt some of the rites and of the ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted.”—Mosheim's “Ecclesiastical History” (Maclaine's translation), cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, pars. 2-5.
5. How early was this tendency manifested?