3 Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to discuss with the chief priests and temple officers how he might betray Jesus to them.
Luke 22:3-4 BSB
Because of Judas’s love for money (John 12:5-6), he opened up the door to Satan, which he gladly took. The result was a betrayal. Jesus said that it would have been better if Judas didn’t exist than to betray the Son of God (Matthew 26:23-25).
Today, we call this apostasy, when someone claims faith in Jesus Christ but walks away from Him. As you can see, the devil’s hand is in a person’s apostasy. The thoughts of leaving Jesus and speaking ill about Him comes from Satan. There are many atheists, who at one point and time, were professing Christians, but after abandoning the Lord, they seem driven to speak evil of Jesus. Their behavior and sinful desires come from the devil, who is the one manipulating them to participate in his evil plans against God and His saints.
Satan’s goal is to cause as many Christians as he can to abandon the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 BSB
The rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 & 2 Thessalonians 2:1) is the event when Jesus will take the Christians to heaven to be with Him forever before the seven-year Tribulation.
The phrase “for it will not come” refers to the Great Tribulation, which will not start “until the rebellion” or apostasy takes place through the Antichrist when he takes his step on the world stage to sign a seven-year treaty with Israel and the surrounding nations for “peace” (a false peace). Those signs are an indication that the Seven-Year Great Tribulation has begun, however, the rapture will take place first (see 1 Thessalonians 1:10).
The homosexual agenda belongs to Satan, and he has brought it to the churches to make the hearts of those who are not anchored in Christ turn away from Him. The devil will take many professing Christians to hell by convincing them that sexual immorality is not sinful, thus deceiving them to accept that which the Word of God has condemned.
Right before Jesus comes, there will be fewer Christians on earth (Luke 18:8) who will be the ones to get raptured. Satan wants many people to go to hell with him, and the sad part about it is that he will be successful.
Imagine you go to the kitchen, and you see a basket full of apples. You think that you have many apples, but as you look more into the basket, you notice that the ones at the bottom are all rotten. The apples at the top are good, but the ones at the bottom are bad. Only a few apples are good to eat. That is what’s happening to Christianity. Many people claim to be Christians, but as 2 Thessalonians 2 says, many will apostatize, showing that only a few are genuinely saved.
If you call yourself a Christian, you better understand that the devil has targeted you to destroy your faith by having you accept another “truth” that opposes what the Scripture teaches.
How grounded are you in Christ? You better start digging yourself, real firm and deep in the Word of God because the enemy will try his hardest you pull you out of it.
Hebrews 6:4-6 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— 6 and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.
As you can see with the verses above, a person can partake in the ministry but they at one point in time, decide to apostatize (walk away), making up their minds to reject Jesus Christ.
Look at the words and phrases which express not being committed yet to the Lord.
Enlightened
Tasted heavenly gifts
Shared in the work of the Holy Spirit
Tested the goodness of God’s Word
These words show a person who at one point in his life took the Bible for what it said, saw the spiritual gifts in action, the works of the Holy Spirit, and how good God’s Word is to people, bringing them from death to life.
So, the words: tasted and shared can be understood in the life of Judas Iscariot who belonged to the devil, as he was going to betray Jesus, and yet this man was enlightened, tasted and shared in the ministry of Jesus Christ even though Jesus called him a devil in John 6. Tasting and sharing is a person who’s getting their feet wet if I can use that analogy. The person is not all the way in the water. They have just gotten their feet wet but not the whole body, symbolizing salvation through immersion.
There are some people who like what Christianity teaches but haven’t, in their hearts and minds, given themselves wholly to Jesus Christ. That is a person who is in danger of falling away because they still don’t have the Holy Spirit.
For those who are genuinely saved, the Holy Spirit will never ever leave that person. A person who leaves Jesus shows that there was always a vacancy of the Holy Spirit in their heart.
The Permanency Of The Holy Spirit Dwelling In A Person At Conversion
15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17 BSB
Those Who Never Had The Holy Spirit And Walked Away, But At One Time Professed To Be A Christian
They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.
Spiritual Minefield 