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APOSTASY
Apostasy is when people turn away from
God’s Truth and accept and embrace false teachings. Backsliding
is to draw back or apostatize in matters of religion. This may be
either in part or complete; and may be both in doctrine and in moral
matters.
Jude’s little Book reminded his readers of God’s judgment
on those who had left the faith in the past. It is a warning against
false teachers; especially on two of the basic beliefs of Christianity
. . . the incarnation of Christ and Christian conduct. Jude wrote
to combat these false teachings and to encourage true doctrine and
right conduct. Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God. (KJV)
Apostasy shall abound in the last
days. Matthew 24:12 And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (KJV) The Last Days are from the resurrection of Christ to the Second
Coming of Christ. We are living in the “last days.”
2 Thes. 2:3 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;
(KJV)
All through history there have been people who were evil and against everything Christ stands for (1 John 2:18; John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). These antichrists have lived in every generation and will continue to work their evil. But, before Christ’s Second Coming, “the man of lawlessness. . . the man doomed to destruction,” a completely evil man, will arise. He will be Satan’s tool, equipped with Satan’s power (2 Thes. 2:9). This lawless man will be the Antichrist.
1 Tim. 4:1-3 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; [2] Speaking
lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
[3] Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which
God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which
believe and know the truth. (KJV) False teachers were and still are a threat to the church. Jesus and the apostles repeatedly warned against them (Mark 13:21-23; Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thes. 2:1-12; 2 Peter 3:3-7). If a teacher’s words contradict the Bible, his/her teaching is false. The Holy Spirit clearly tells us that in the last days some will turn away from the Truth; they will follow lying spirits and teachings that come from demons. These teachers are hypocrites and liars. They pretend to be religious, but their father is the devil, NOT God! We must guard against any teaching that causes us to dilute or reject any part of the Truth. Always check out what they believe about Christ.
Cautions against apostasy.
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the
living God. (KJV) The Bible warns us often not to “harden”
our hearts, meaning to stubbornly set ourselves against God so that
we are no longer able to turn to Him for forgiveness. Our hearts
depart from the living God when we refuse to believe Him. If we persist in unbelief, God
will eventually leave us alone in our sin. But God can give us new
hearts, new desires, and new spirits (Eze.36:22-27). Be aware of
the deceitfulness of sin, it attracts but also destroys. Satan is
very powerful and cunning. Beware!
2 Tim. 4:3-4 For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall
they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables. (KJV) People are turning away from the Truth
more and more with each passing day. They want NO part of the plain
Gospel of Christ. They seem to eat up false doctrines (fables) of
false teachers. The world seems to take pride and pleasure in denouncing
our precious Lord. Many people will go to a church only if they
hear a message they want to hear! If a pastor preaches the plain
Gospel of Christ, people will not come! They do NOT want to hear
that they are sinners and that they need a Saviour. They do NOT
want to hear that God has created a Hell as well as a Heaven and
that the majority of the people in the world will end up in Hell! Those of us who love Jesus and souls (the “few”
Mat.7:13-14), must be ever faithful and watchful, and must take
all opportunities of making known the Truth! Isaiah 30:10
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets,
Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits: (KJV) People have not changed since Isaiah’s
time. They did NOT want the Truth then . . . or now! They delight
in rebelling against God.
2 Peter 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing
ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away
with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (KJV) Those who are led away by false teachers, fall away from the stability
they had in Christ. To avoid being seduced by evil ones, let us
strive to grow in grace, faith, virtue and knowledge of our Lord.
Apostasy caused by worldliness. 2
Tim. 4:10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens
to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. (KJV) Demas loved worldly
benefits, comforts and pleasures. We can love the world because
God created it and its beauty, or we like Demas and millions of
others, can love the world with its tempting offers of pleasure,
comforts, riches, fame, power, possessions and sin; even if gaining
it means hurting people and neglecting the work God wants you to
do.
Matthew 13:20-22 But
he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that
heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; [21] Yet hath
he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation
or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
[22] He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth
the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. (KJV) The parable of the sower is plain and simple. The seed is
the Word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ (or
His disciples). Preaching to a multitude is sowing; we don’t
know where it will land. People’s hearts is the ground (soil).
Some ground, brings forth no fruit, while good soil brings forth
much. Some hearts are careless hearers, and are easy prey for Satan;
who, will be sure to rob you of the Word, if you are not careful
to keep it.
Hypocrites are like the stony ground, are glad to hear a good sermon,
but do not profit by it. They are told of free salvation, of the
believer’s privileges, and the happiness of Heaven, but it
doesn’t sink in. Then when some heavy trial comes their way,
or some sinful advantage may be had, they return to their old way
of life.
Worldly cares are correctly compared to thorns, for they came in
with sin, and are a fruit of the curse. Worldly cares really do
hinder our gaining any advantage from the Word of God. The deceitfulness
of riches is the culprit that causes people to backslide from God.
But, they cannot deceive us unless we first put our trust in them,
but when we do, then they choke out the good seed.
What sets apart the good ground is fruitfulness. True Christians
are fruitful, hypocrites are not! Christ does not say that the good
ground has no stones or no thorns; but it has nothing to hinder
its fruitfulness. We are not all alike; we should aim for the highest,
to bring forth the most fruit.
Guilt and punishment of. Hebrews
10:26, 29-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins, [29] Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he
be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
[30] For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me,
I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge
his people. [31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God. (KJV) The warning against apostasy
is advised for many good reasons. Those who willingly and
purposely sin after they know about the Truth of Jesus, were never
saved in the first place. If anyone despises and rejects Christ,
the only Saviour; they despise and resist the Holy Spirit, the only
Sanctifier; and they despise and forsake the Gospel, the only way
of salvation. When this happens, there is no more hope for
them. It will be a terrifying thing indeed to one day stand before
the Almighty Judge and try to explain their decision. The
punishment can’t be worse than to die without mercy, because
those who choose that route, chose to die without God’s mercy
and grace, which they chose to despise. Not only the justice of
God is despised, but His abused grace and mercy call for vengeance.
It is much wiser to choose the benefit of Christ’s Sacrifice,
and to accept the blessings of God’s mercy and grace. Him
that comes to Christ, will in no wise be cast out.
Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the
soul. (KJV) God is never pleased with the hypocritical profession
of a person nor in any of their superficial, external duties and
services. In fact, He looks down on them with great displeasure.
But those who have been faithful to Him, have hope for His mercy
and grace, for they shall receive the end of their faith and patience,
which is none other than the salvation of their souls. If we live
by faith, and die in faith, our souls are safe for ever.
2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. (KJV) The Word of Truth (Gospel) is the water of life. Only it can refresh our soul. But, false teachers, false professors are like dried-up springs, like huge, black clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them in the deepest darkness.
Apostasy is worse than ignorance. 2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. [21] For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. [22] But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (KJV) Peter is NOT speaking of “born again” believers, but of a person who has learned ABOUT Christ and HOW to be saved, and has been influenced by Christians, but THEN rejects the Truth and returns to his/her sin. A person like this is worse off than before, because he/she has rejected the only way out of sin, and the only possible Way of salvation. They are like a person who can’t swim and are drowning in the ocean, but refuses to grab the life-saving rope thrown to him/her. Anyone who turns away from Christ throws away his/her only means of salvation.
Psalm 106:39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. (KJV) Israel constantly turned away from God. After all the great miracles they saw, they still turned from God and worshipped the idols of the land. We must NOT condemn or judge Israel! We all are sinners! Every last one of us! We must remove the beam from our own eye before we can take the speck from another’s eye (Luke 6:41-42). Many time we find ourselves attracted by the world’s many gods: riches, power, convenience, fame, sex, pleasure, etc. Just as Israel forgot God, we too are susceptible to forgetting Him and giving in to the pressures of an evil world (idolatry). Please remember all that God has done for you so you won’t be drawn away from Him by the world’s temporary and fleeting pleasures.
Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. (KJV) As long as the people of Judah continued to sin, they cut themselves off from God’s help. But what about us? When you feel lonely and separated from God, remember that God will NOT abandon you. It is our sins that cut us off from Him. It’s us! NOT God! The only sure way to cure this loneliness, this abandoned feeling, is to restore your relationship with God by confessing your sin, obeying Him and regular communication with Him (Psalm 140:13; Isaiah 1:16-19; 1 John 1:9).
Jeremiah 17:5-8 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. [6] For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. [7] Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. [8] For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (KJV) There are two kinds of people . . . those who trust in human beings and those who trust in the Lord. The people of Judah were trusting in false gods and military alliances instead of God, and thus they were barren and unfruitful. In contrast, those who trust in the Lord flourish like trees planted by water (Psalm 1). In times of trouble, those who trust in human beings will be spiritually weak, so they will have no strength to draw on. But those who trust in the Lord will have abundant strength (John 15:1-5).
Romans 1:24-32 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. [26] For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: [27] And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. [28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; [29] Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, [30] Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, [31] Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: [32] Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (KJV) People choose to reject God, and God allows them to do it. God does not usually stop us from making choices that are against His will. He lets us go our own way, even though He knows we will one day regret our decisions. Does life without God look like freedom to you? Look again! There is no worse slavery than slavery to sin.
The United States public school system began with the Bible. Five years after establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Puritans in Boston started the first elementary school supported by tax money. In 1647, they passed an ordinance which marked the beginning of the U.S. Public School system. Among other things, the ordinance required at least 1 qualified teacher for every 50 householders, and a grammar school in every town of more than 100 families. It also put the Bible in the center of its curriculum, asserting that it is “one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures.”
The following is from Encyclopedias, etc.
Eighty-eight of the first 100 colleges founded in America were organized to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War, except University of Pennsylvania, was establish by some branch of the Christian church. Even at the University of Pennsylvania, the evangelist George Whitefield played a prominent part. The first building of the present university was built to accommodate the crowds which wanted to hear Whitefield preach. A statue of Whitefield stands on that campus today.
Harvard’s Christ-Centered “Rules and Precepts” (adopted in 1646), read: (1) Every one shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. (2) Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of him. (3) Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths...” Because of this, 52% of the 17th century Harvard graduates became ministers!
How did colleges apostasize? Harvard permitted freedom in matters of theology and made no religious requirement of college officers; Yale drifted partly in concern for academic excellence amidst an environment of agnosticism and unitarianism; Dartmouth and Columbia only had a statement in its charter about the great principles of Christianity and morality in which true Christians of each denomination are generally agreed. It had no strong statement of faith. Princeton yielded because of pressure from alumni. Princeton’s charter insisted on a saved faculty, but did not require this of its students. As it turned out more and more non-Christian alumni who could give or withhold donations, it finally succumbed to their demand for a voice in the management and educational policies.
Martin Luther warned: “I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates to Hell, unless they diligently labor to explain the Holy Scriptures and to engrave them upon the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution where men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.”
History has shown that once a school or church compromises its position and sells short the fundamental doctrines of the Word that there is no chance of their going back to retrieve that which they originally adhered to. Not once has there been an apostate body that returned to fundamentalism.
When King’s College, now Columbia University, opened in 1754, the following was part of an advertisement published for the school: “The chief thing that is aimed at in this college is to teach and engage children to know God in Jesus Christ.”
Columbia Princeton in its early days insisted that the faculty be “convinced of the necessity of religious experience for salvation.” John Witherspoon, first president of Princeton, said: “Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ. “Cursed be all learning that is not coincident with the cross of Christ. “Cursed be all learning that is not subservient to the cross of Christ.”
The first college, Harvard, was established for “Christ and the Church.” In his bequest of the first large gift to what is now Harvard University, John Harvard said: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main ends of his life and studies; to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning and see that the Lord only giveth wisdom. Let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to see Christ as Lord and Master.” Above Harvard’s gates are etched today these words: “After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessities for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.”
Yale, from its beginning in 1701, was more conservative. In 1825, a Yale gospel group traveled around the country in evangelistic ministry. Timothy Dwight, president from 1795 to 1817, advised the class of 1814: “Christ is the only, the true, the living way of access to God. Give up yourselves therefore to him, with a cordial confidence, and the great work of life is done.” For the president of any great university to make such a statement today would probably be educational suicide.
William and Mary was established “that the Christian faith might be propagated.” Dartmouth was founded to train men as missionaries to the Indians.
Modernism now permeates every major denomination. Though there are Bible-believing, God-fearing people in every church, the control of every major denomination is in the hand of the liberals. So-called Christian leaders boldly and blatantly deny the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Inspiration of the Scriptures, and Atoning Sacrifice of Christ, the Literal Resurrection of Christ, and they ridicule the Second Coming of Christ.
Resurrection is Nonsense. An Arlington, Virginia, minister said, “We have closed our minds to such trivial considerations as the question of the resurrection of Christ. If you fundamentalists wish to believe that nonsense, we have no objections, but we have more important things to preach than the presence or absence of an empty tomb 20 centuries old.”
Nothing Is Sure. “There is nothing I can absolutely affirm,” said the young seminarian as he reflected about his religious convictions. In another month the 25-year-old, dark-haired student will be awarded a bachelor of divinity degree by New York’s Union Theological Seminary.
The Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy is based on:
- 1. Virgin Birth of Christ.
- 2. Deity of Christ.
- 3. Substitutionary atonement.
- 4. Bodily resurrection.
- 5. Second coming of Christ.
- 6. Inerrant authority of Scripture.
A Survey Of Seminarians
One of the first exposes of the beliefs of our future ministers was made by Redbook magazine. The publishers hired one of the top pollsters in the nation to survey a full representation of our seminaries which are supposedly preparing men for Christian service in the Protestant churches.
Here are some of the results of the ministers in training:
- 56 percent rejected the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.
- 71 percent rejected that there was life after death.
- 54 percent rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- And 98 percent rejected that there would be a personal return of Jesus Christ to this earth. (Daniel 12:2; Mark 16:6; Acts 1:11; Rev. 1:17)
X-Rated Sermon In Richardson, Texas, they’re still talking about the worldly ways of First Unitarian Church. On Sunday, Pastor William Nichols invited Diana King, a Unitarian from Fort Worth, to take part in the service. She did, and when she was through, Miss King—an exotic dancer at a Dallas nightspot—was wearing only a G-string. The congregation of 200 adults and children watched in fascinated silence as she shed her clothes in time with recorded music. Nichols said the dance fit “very well into our service” and nobody complained. He also said he didn’t think anyone was aroused, “but I don’t consider the erotic aspect of the dance wrong. After all, that’s the way we were conceived.” Miss King said it was something she wanted to do for a long time, and she would like to conduct classes for women church members. “I would like to do a sermon using the exotic dance, and members of the congregation could join me if they liked,” she commented. —Christianity Today
What do Unitarians and Universalists believe? Just about anything, in theory—since they have no requirements of belief—but an exhaustive survey of every fifteenth adult in the denomination shows an emerging doctrine of disbelief.
- Less than 3 percent now believe that God is a supernatural being who reveals himself in human history.
- Just under one-fourth believe God is real but not adequately describable,
- while 44.2 percent think God is the natural processes in the universe.
- The debate about Christ also seems to be dying out, with 59 percent no longer considering themselves Christians and a majority believing they know next to nothing about Christ.
- As might be expected, Unitarians and Universalists turn out to be individualistic (but with pretty unified liberal views on politics)
- and have education and income well above the national average.
Statistics show that the Satanic Bible outsells the Holy Bible one hundred to one on college campuses. You can walk into any bookstore and pick up a copy of the Satanic Bible in the religious books section. It contains disgustingly blasphemous statements about our Lord, but people are buying it by the scores. One such statement refers to Jesus on the cross with these words: “The watery blood of your impotent, mad redeemer.” And another, which scoffs at the resurrection, says, “The worm-eaten skull of Jehovah”—the ultimate marketing of blasphemy!
What happened in the days of Noah?
- (1) Tendency to reject God,
- (2) homosexuality and promiscuous sex activity among a large percentage of the population,
- (3) mixed marriages and a multiplicity of divorces,
- (4) numerous inventions,
- (5)apostasy,
- (6) rejection of God’s Word,
- (7) violence and bloodshed,
- (8) anarchy and lawlessness,
- (9) surfeiting and drunkenness,
- (10) buying and selling, and
- (11) planting and building. Sound familiar?
To encourage dialogue the World Council of Churches, WCC, has suggested that Chairs of Buddhists, Hindu and Muslim scholars be appointed in Christian universities and colleges, and that an appeal be made to Muslim, Hindu and Buddhists universities to have a Chair of Christian studies. Ecumenicists believe that divine truth is so rich and many-sided that only fragments are found in any one faith.
Pope Paul, in the summer of 1955, came to New York and made a speech for world peace before the U.N. His message centered around two points—peace and prosperity. It was a strong ecumenical appeal. The pope’s appeal was acclaimed by no less than 107 nations and major religions that gave promises of cooperation. Immediately after the Pope’s speech, a prominent Roman Catholic proposed to bring the various world religions into one fold—the UNICHURCH.
World Council Of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) held its first meeting in 1948. It is a fellowship of over 120 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Old Catholic churches from some 90 countries throughout the world. Total membership: 400 million.
The first goal of the ecumenical movement spearheaded by the WCC is to bring all churches into one visible organization. The ultimate goal of the movement is to bring all religions together. The WCC now holds dialogues on “peace” with representatives of 1.5 billion people on earth.
My comment: this has to be, according to the Bible. Revelation chapter 17 clearly states this Truth. ALL churches and demnoninations left behind at the Rapture (1 Thes.4:13-17), will be part of this one world, unichurch! The end is very near! Are you ready for Christ to come in the clouds and take you home? Or are you still a child of the devil? (1 John 3:10).
Click on desired topic below:
An Apostate World
Apostasy
Apostasy in the Last Days
Apostate Christianity
Carnal Nature
Christians Leaving God's Word
Unbelief
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