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Webster's defines apostasy as renunciation of a religious faith and/or
abandonment of a previous loyalty; viz: defection, which is defined as
conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty (as to a person, cause, or
doctrine).
Apostasy is not always a bad thing. For example:
†. 1Thes 1:4-10 . . For we know, brothers loved by God, his choosing of you,
because the good news we preach did not turn up among you with speech
alone but also with power and with holy spirit and strong conviction, just as
you know what sort of men we became to you for your sakes; and you
became imitators of us and of the Lord, seeing that you accepted the word
under much tribulation with joy of holy spirit, so that you came to be an
example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
. . .The fact is, not only has the word of Jehovah sounded forth from you in
Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has spread
abroad, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves keep
reporting about the way we first entered in among you and how you turned
to God from your idols to slave for a living and true God, and to wait for his
Son from the heavens, whom he raised up from the dead, namely, Jesus,
who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.
Another example of the ideal kind of apostasy is my own.
I was baptized an infant into the Roman Catholic Church in 1944 and
subsequently attended its catechism till I completed First Holy Communion
and Confirmation. In 1968, for reasons of faith and practice, I renounced
Rome. I simply could not, in all good conscience, remain affiliated with a
denomination that I no longer believed in; so I defected.
Jehovah's Witnesses with honest reservations in their hearts about the
trustworthiness of the Watch Tower Society have got to leave it-- they have
to. Staying would not only be a sin against their conscience, but also against
their own better judgment.
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Webster's defines apostasy as renunciation of a religious faith and/or
abandonment of a previous loyalty; viz: defection, which is defined as
conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty (as to a person, cause, or
doctrine).
Apostasy is not always a bad thing. For example:
†. 1Thes 1:4-10 . . For we know, brothers loved by God, his choosing of you,
because the good news we preach did not turn up among you with speech
alone but also with power and with holy spirit and strong conviction, just as
you know what sort of men we became to you for your sakes; and you
became imitators of us and of the Lord, seeing that you accepted the word
under much tribulation with joy of holy spirit, so that you came to be an
example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
. . .The fact is, not only has the word of Jehovah sounded forth from you in
Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has spread
abroad, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves keep
reporting about the way we first entered in among you and how you turned
to God from your idols to slave for a living and true God, and to wait for his
Son from the heavens, whom he raised up from the dead, namely, Jesus,
who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.
Another example of the ideal kind of apostasy is my own.
I was baptized an infant into the Roman Catholic Church in 1944 and
subsequently attended its catechism till I completed First Holy Communion
and Confirmation. In 1968, for reasons of faith and practice, I renounced
Rome. I simply could not, in all good conscience, remain affiliated with a
denomination that I no longer believed in; so I defected.
Jehovah's Witnesses with honest reservations in their hearts about the
trustworthiness of the Watch Tower Society have got to leave it-- they have
to. Staying would not only be a sin against their conscience, but also against
their own better judgment.
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