What is an apostate church?
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K
Well, let's see. The Catholics think the Protestants left them, that means apostate. The Protestants think the Catholics left the sense of the early church, that means apostate. The Pentecostals think the Baptists are apostate for not believing in tongues as the early Christians did. The Baptists think the Pentecostals are apostate for believing in tongues when God clearly stopped them by 200AD. None of these groups are athiest. I'm not sure what these folks in social media mean, but it looks to me like in the view of someone, everyone is apostate. But I can't imagine anyone being proud of it.
J
I have noticed more people stating on social media that they belong to the apostate church. Aren't they atheist?
Otherwise, one could use the Catholic church as an example.
K
Depending on the context, it might be an attempt to say "Apostolic". I have seen some who sometimes are a few fries short of a happy meal do things like that.
Otherwise, one could use the Catholic church as an example.
Otherwise, one could use the Catholic church as an example.
T
These are some signs of Apostasy:[h=3]Sign/ Ignorance of Impending Judgment[/h]
Before God brings total destruction upon a wayward society, He generally gives many warnings. These may include a series of lesser calamities, continuing with increasing severity until men recognize their peril before God and turn to Him in repentance. If they continue unrepentant until their hardness exhausts God's patience, destruction will finally come.
Consider all the calamities that have fallen upon the world in recent years.
The role of God as overseer of human events hardly enters anyone's thoughts. No one heeds the warnings that are becoming ever louder and more frequent.
All this agrees with prophecy. The Bible says that in the Last Days, men will be ignorant of impending judgment. Recall what Jesus said about the coming of the Son of man.
Peter offers a similar warning.
[h=3]Sign: Moral Corruption in the Church[/h]
As we saw in an earlier lesson, Paul predicts that the churches in the Last Days would be filled with people who are gravely deficient in moral character.
[h=3]Sign: Disbelief in the Second Coming[/h]
Paul warns that men of the Last Days "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:4). Some of these fables are described by Peter.
The Second Coming is a central teaching of the New Testament, giving hope to a suffering church that evil in the world will someday be overthrown, and assuring the Jew that all of God's promises to Israel will in due time be fulfilled. If we search church history, we find that disbelief in the Second Coming hardly existed before the nineteenth century. Only after the rise of modern liberalism and modern skepticism did multitudes in the church begin to doubt core doctrines of the Bible. We conclude, then, that Peter is looking ahead to the sort of apostasy that has appeared only in modern times. The times in which we live are the fulfillment of what he calls "the last days."
[h=3]Sign: Disbelief in the Biblical Account of Origins[/h]
In Peter's outline of what scoffers in the Last Days would accept in place of the Biblical world view, he notices three of their beliefs, all of which are prevalent today.
[h=3]Sign: False Christs[/h]
If we live in the Last Days, do we also live in the period that the Bible designates the time of the end? In an earlier lesson, we argued that the time of the end refers to the period of history symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as the feet and toes of a great image. This would be the period when the nation of Israel returned to the world stage long after its departure in A.D. 70. The time of the end must therefore have begun in 1948 at the founding of modern Israel. We are now about sixty years into its unfolding.
We showed in an earlier lesson that Jesus in the Olivet Discourse divides the time of the end into three periods. He portrays the opening period with a few broad strokes.
Before God brings total destruction upon a wayward society, He generally gives many warnings. These may include a series of lesser calamities, continuing with increasing severity until men recognize their peril before God and turn to Him in repentance. If they continue unrepentant until their hardness exhausts God's patience, destruction will finally come.
Consider all the calamities that have fallen upon the world in recent years.
- According to Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurers, there were three times as many severe natural disasters in the 1990s than in the 1960s. The cost to world governments, after adjustment for inflation, was eight times as much, and the cost to insurers was sixteen times as much. The worst year on record was 1995, when damages due to the Kobe earthquake in Japan and other catastrophes amounted to $180 billion. Damages in the second worst year, 1999, amounted to $100 billion, and in the third worst year, 1998, to $90 billion (1).
- Since the 1980s, more than sixteen million people have died of AIDS. The rate of infection in some sub-Saharan African countries now exceeds 25%. The number of HIV-infected people in Russia has surpassed one million. The epidemic has become so severe that the United States government has declared it a threat to national security (2).
The role of God as overseer of human events hardly enters anyone's thoughts. No one heeds the warnings that are becoming ever louder and more frequent.
All this agrees with prophecy. The Bible says that in the Last Days, men will be ignorant of impending judgment. Recall what Jesus said about the coming of the Son of man.
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Just as the people in Noah's day lived in ignorance of the Flood until it swept them away, so people in the days before Christ's return will continue in their sins without any awareness that God will soon judge the world.38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Matthew 24:37-41
Peter offers a similar warning.
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Why will the people in the Last Days be ignorant of what is about to happen?4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2 Peter 3:3-10
- It will be a long time since Christ's first coming (v. 4).
- People will no longer believe that God judged the world once before, in Noah's day (v. 5).
- They will be in bondage to lusts (v. 3).
[h=3]Sign: Moral Corruption in the Church[/h]
As we saw in an earlier lesson, Paul predicts that the churches in the Last Days would be filled with people who are gravely deficient in moral character.
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Is this the situation we find in churches today? If we take into account all churches with a Bible-believing heritage, even though they have drifted far into apostasy and worldliness, the answer is clearly, yes. Within my lifetime I have seen within these churches a sharp decline in integrity. Many who profess Christ today are indeed selfish and self-centered, obsessed with gaining more of the world's pleasure and prosperity, difficult to get along with, as prone as unbelievers to quarrel with family and to separate from a spouse. Many are truly blasphemers. It is shocking that in some churches today it is acceptable to use the word "God" as an expletive. A few years ago, the famous preacher Warren Wiersbe wrote a book entitled The Integrity Crisis (3). He complained that pragmatism, profiteering, and immorality are plaguing the church at the highest levels. Unfortunately, he is right. Yet corruption behind the pulpit is merely a reflection of corruption in the pew. Men of poor character are rising to lead churches and church bodies because men of good character are in short supply.2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
[h=3]Sign: Disbelief in the Second Coming[/h]
Paul warns that men of the Last Days "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:4). Some of these fables are described by Peter.
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
In an earlier lesson, we demonstrated that the scoffers Peter anticipates would belong to organized Christianity. They would consider the original teachers of the Second Coming—that is, the apostles and their followers—to be their spiritual fathers. Yet Peter makes the shocking prediction that these self-styled Christians would regard the promise of Christ's coming as no more than an ancient superstition.4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:3-7
The Second Coming is a central teaching of the New Testament, giving hope to a suffering church that evil in the world will someday be overthrown, and assuring the Jew that all of God's promises to Israel will in due time be fulfilled. If we search church history, we find that disbelief in the Second Coming hardly existed before the nineteenth century. Only after the rise of modern liberalism and modern skepticism did multitudes in the church begin to doubt core doctrines of the Bible. We conclude, then, that Peter is looking ahead to the sort of apostasy that has appeared only in modern times. The times in which we live are the fulfillment of what he calls "the last days."
[h=3]Sign: Disbelief in the Biblical Account of Origins[/h]
In Peter's outline of what scoffers in the Last Days would accept in place of the Biblical world view, he notices three of their beliefs, all of which are prevalent today.
- They would believe in a beginning (v. 4). Indeed, the second law of thermodynamics compels modern science to admit that the universe must have originated at a definite time. Modern science tells the following story: "All the matter of the universe was originally squeezed into a huge, superdense fireball. Being supremely unstable, this fireball exploded within a moment after coming into existence, and from the Big Bang, as it is called, all matter and energy raced outward into the vast reaches of space. Today, in continuation of the outward motion initiated by the Big Bang, every celestial body is still moving rapidly away from every other celestial body." This picture of origins is, of course, merely false speculation.
- They would believe that the history of the earth has never been interrupted by unusual events like the Flood (v. 5). The prophecy has come true. The dominant view of modern science is that all past changes in the earth have been like the gradual changes we see today—that the present condition of the earth owes nothing to great catastrophes, but rather is the end product of a uniform development. The doctrine that the past is like the present is known as uniformitarianism.
- They would believe in something called "creation" (v. 4). The word can refer to either a creative process or a created thing. In the Greek text, the word is not preceded by a definite article. Verse 4 says only "the beginning of creation." Therefore, the word likely denotes a creative process. What the scoffers would acknowledge is that everything did not suddenly appear in its present form. While rejecting special creation by God, they would believe that a creative process has been at work since the beginning to bring the universe from a state of primordial chaos to the elegant complexity we see today. The doctrine that the universe has undergone such a development is known as evolution. Together, the doctrines of uniformitarianism and evolution imply that the universe is very old.
[h=3]Sign: False Christs[/h]
If we live in the Last Days, do we also live in the period that the Bible designates the time of the end? In an earlier lesson, we argued that the time of the end refers to the period of history symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as the feet and toes of a great image. This would be the period when the nation of Israel returned to the world stage long after its departure in A.D. 70. The time of the end must therefore have begun in 1948 at the founding of modern Israel. We are now about sixty years into its unfolding.
We showed in an earlier lesson that Jesus in the Olivet Discourse divides the time of the end into three periods. He portrays the opening period with a few broad strokes.
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
The proof that the time of the end has already begun comes from examining this description of the opening period. One sign that history has passed into the opening period would be the appearance of many deceivers in the church who claim to be Christ. Two movements in the modern church fit this prediction.5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24:4-6
- Since 1900 and especially since 1948, mainline Protestantism and even segments of Catholicism have been dominated by a theology known as Modernism. The basic tenet of Modernism is that the historical Jesus was no more than a man. From the belief that all humanity shares the essential nature of Christ has followed the presumption that everyone has Christ-potential—that everyone can, by following His example, become His equal in compassion, moral virtue, penetrating intelligence, and spiritual consciousness. In whom did the leaders of Modernism believe that Christ-potential had been more fully realized than in themselves? Indeed, many among them believed and taught that they were as Christ. Yet though they heaped upon themselves and their followers the flattery that they were imitating Christ, knowing Christ, and becoming Christ, they were in fact walking in obedience to their father, the devil.
- During the same period, a new brand of false Christianity arose that has gained millions of adherents. This is the modern tongues-speaking movement, embracing all churches that call themselves Pentecostal or charismatic. The leaders of this movement represent themselves as Christ, which means "anointed," in the sense that they claim to have an anointing equivalent to that of Jesus and the apostles. They pretend that by a mere exhalation of their lips or wave of their hand or chanting of their voice they can communicate the Spirit to others, the result being some immediate and dramatic sign of His presence. The usual sign is babbling, which, in an attempt to dignify it, the people in this movement call speaking in tongues. Other signs might be violent agitation of the body, swooning, falling down, or even hysterical laughter. All this is a counterfeit Christianity leading people away from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
T
im sorry, i was unaware the "discussion" was still taking place as the original post was over a month ago. i just wanted to share what i had found on the subject of apostacy. i am new to this forum. i was reading several different forums and just decided to post that for information to see if the original poster would want me to elaborate on the subject