Drowning in Apostasy

BibleProphecyBlog.com ^ | 9/17/2011 | Dr. Thomas Ice

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3–4).

I will never forget what one of my church history professors told us one day in class in the late 1970s at Dallas Seminary. He said something like the following: Those of us who will follow Christ and His Word, as opposed to the rising emphasis upon religious experience, will increasingly become a smaller group until one day we will be on the outside of the American Evangelical Church looking in. My reaction to my professor was, “No, things will never get that bad within Evangelicalism.” Well, my professor was certainly right. I believe that just such a day has arrived! Like Jude, I would have loved to write about our common salvation, but the times are pressing in on biblical believers. We must contend earnestly for the faith!

New Testament Apostasy

The English word “apostasy” is a transliteration of the Greek noun apostasia and is made up of two smaller Greek words, which are apo and istemi. Apo means “from or away from,” while istemi means, “to stand.” Thus, taken together, the compound word has the idea of “to stand away from,” “depart from,” or “departure.” The verbal form aphistemi is used in 1 Timothy 4:1 and means, “to cause someone to move from a reference point, go away, withdraw.” [1] “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith . . .” (1 Tim. 4:1a). Apostasy, as used in this article means to depart from the faith of biblical Christianity. In other words, to no longer believe what the Bible teaches about anything.

The following is a list of the seven major passages that deal with the last days for the church: 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4; James 5:1-8; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 3:3-6; Jude 1-25. Every one of these passages emphasizes over and over again that the great characteristic of the final time of the church will be that of apostasy. The New Testament pictures the condition within the professing church at the end of the age by a system of denials.

• Denial of GOD — Luke 17:26; 2 Timothy 3:4-5
• Denial of CHRIST — 1 John 2:18; 4:3; 2 Peter 2:6
• Denial of CHRIST’S RETURN — 2 Peter 3:3-4
• Denial of THE FAITH — 1 Timothy 4:1-2; Jude 3
• Denial of SOUND DOCTRINE — 2 Timothy 4:3-4
• Denial of THE SEPARATED LIFE — 2 Timothy 3:1-7
• Denial of CHRISTIAN LIBERTY — 1 Timothy 4:3-4
• Denial of MORALS — 2 Timothy 3:1-8,13; Jude 18
• Denial of AUTHORITY — 2 Timothy 3:4 [2]

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, in an extremely insightful statement characterized the last days for the church in the following way:

"A very extensive body of Scripture bears on the last days for the Church. Reference is to a restricted time at the very end of, and yet wholly within, the present age. Though this brief period immediately precedes the great tribulation and in some measure is a preparation for it, these two times of apostasy and confusion — though incomparable in history — are wholly separate the one from the other. Those Scriptures which set forth the last days for the Church give no consideration to political or world conditions but are confined to the Church itself. These Scriptures picture men as departing from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1-2). There will be a manifestation of characteristics which belong to unregenerate men, though it is under the profession of "a form of godliness" (cf. 2 Tim. 3:1-5). The indication is that, having denied the power of the blood of Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5 with Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:23-24; 2 Tim. 4:2-4), the leaders in these forms of righteousness will be unregenerate men from whom nothing more spiritual than this could proceed." (cf. 1 Cor. 2 :14). [3]

As can be observed from the above characterizations, apostasy occurs in two basic areas: 1) doctrinal defection from the Bible, and 2) immoral or ungodly behavior. The clear course of the last days for the church consists of constant warnings to the believer, especially to pastors and leaders, to be on guard within the flock against doctrinal defection, commonly known as apostasy. Such a characteristic provides for the believer today a clear sign that we are in the last days of the church age.

Christianity or Hinduism?

Caryl Matrisciana in her new video series exposing the new emerging Christianity entitled: Wide is the Gate says at the beginning of her presentation, “There are really only two basic worldviews. The Eastern mysticism of Hinduism . . . and the biblical worldview.” [4] I have long realized this myself when I learned in the 1970s that Hinduism was the polar-opposite of true biblical Christianity. Thus, any time one moves away from the Bible and its teachings by necessity one has to move in the direction of Hinduism and mysticism. My belief has been verified and strengthened over the years as we have seen metaphysical mysticism increasingly come into the Evangelical church during the last 40 years.

I was amazed to read a similar view back in the early 1890s by a pastor who had developed the same belief, but wrote of it in the late 1800s. Samuel J. Andrews wrote a book entitled Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict. [5] Andrews believes that the polar-opposite of biblical Christianity is what he calls pantheism and the church of his day was moving in that direction. Pantheism, which means that everything is god, is an excellent single term description of Hinduism.

Andrews noted that there are three stages in the history of ideas. “First, their origin in the minds of individual thinkers, . . . Secondly, their popularization and general diffusion. . . . Thirdly, when generally diffused, these ideas find their embodiment in laws and institutions.” [6] Andrews believed that the nineteenth century in which he lived was the second stage of transition to Pantheism, which means that we are clearly in the third and final stage of transition.

When I look at the final form of the apostasy, which will occur during the seven year tribulation in which the antichrist will be dominate, it appears to be a false system along the line of pantheism. There will be false signs and wonders that will be the basis upon which the False Prophet supports the Beast or the antichrist as noted in Revelation 13:13–15. This is reiterated in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 when speaking of the man of lawlessness, “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.” This will be the mysticism and magic of Satan himself. This deceptive apex is said to occur because unbelievers in the tribulation “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). One other passage of note in 2 Thessalonians 2 is verse 7 that tells us that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” during the current church age preparing the world for the entrance of the antichrist who is currently being restrained from making a full appearance until after the rapture.

Conclusion

Such preparation explains why we are seeing all the world’s false religions and belief systems increasingly unite against Bible believing Christians. This is where the world is headed. Either one is for Christ or he will be against him. No middle ground.

The common denominator for all anti-Christians is human experience set against God’s revelation. Since biblical Christianity is rooted and grounded in the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity became a man and entered history in order that He might die for man’s sin as a substitutionary sacrifice in order to provide salvation to those who believe, it is important for unbelievers to shift focus away from the God-Man to human experience. Biblical Christianity has to be stripped of the historical facts of Scripture like creation, the fall, the flood, the call of Abram, the exodus, the conquest, the Temple, the incarnation, the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, as well as His second coming. In its place is the self-discovery through some religious discipline of the inner self. Nothing more than human experience.

Human experience rather than God’s revelation is the common denominator that links all false religions and philosophies into a common bond. This is why the products of humanistic thinking is being brought into our Evangelical church through items such as psychology and psychotherapy, self-development, quietness and meditation exercises, Yoga, social justice, heath foods, and all kinds of metaphysical approaches that replace a biblical doctrine of holiness and sanctification. The gospel is taking a backseat to social programs and “do-goodism” since these metaphysical approaches seek to reform mankind instead of recognizing our sin and need for the Saviour. These kinds of trends being spearheaded by the emerging church within Evangelicalism are not making the gospel more relevant to the culture instead it is leading the way to hell by making the church no different than the world. It is also setting the stage for accepting the antichrist. Maranatha!

Endnotes

[1] W. F. Arndt, F. W. Danker, F. W. Gingrich, & Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 158.
[2] Taken from J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 155.
[3] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 8 Vols. (Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1948), vol. IV, p. 375.
[4] Caryl Matrisciana, Wide is the Gate: The Emerging New Christianity, Vol. 1 (Menifee, CA: Caryl Productions, 2011), @ the 4 minute mark of the DVD.
[5] Samuel J. Andrews, Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1898).
[6] Andrews, Christianity and Anti-Christianity, p. 201.

[Iscool]

The dead are already 'risen' so naturally they would be first. Nobody is going to come back in a spiritual body hunting their flesh remains.

Plausible theory if you completely erase 1Cor. 15 and many other scriptures...

Act 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

But unfortunately, I guess, Paul declared ALL of scripture to us so it would seem that we ought to read and study that scripture; all of it...

We must figure out how to reconcile ALL of the scripture without throwing a bunch of it away...

Paul says the bodies in the grave will become spiritual bodies and be risen as the spiritual body of Jesus Christ has risen...That's part of the whole counsel of God...

So I will believe it as everyone should, even if they can't understand it...

[Iscool]

Oh so many have made as many 'trumps' as they need to make themselves a new doctrine. BUT Paul knew when he said at the LAST trump all flesh would be changed, because that is the trump that Christ returns. The 7 trumps, the 7 seals, the 7 vials are what Christ old His disciples would need be, the 'signs' leading up to His return. AND Christ never said one WORD about Him sneaking back to take His Bride, He told us to WATCH for those signs until His return to take a harvest with that double edged sword, that cuts both ways.

Jesus says Christians will sneak away and meet Jesus up there somewhere...No one said Jesus will sneak back to the earth to take his Bride...

The fact is, the Wedding that makes the church the Bride takes place while those 7 Trumpets, Seals and Vials are being opened an unleashed against the earth, in Heaven...

[aruanan]

Jesus says Christians will sneak away and meet Jesus up there somewhere...No one said Jesus will sneak back to the earth to take his Bride...

Note what Jesus says about believers being gathered up at the sound of a trumpet and what Paul says about believers being gathered up, the dead resurrected, the living transformed, at the sound of a trumpet. Both are describing the SAME event involving the SAME group of people: the elect = the Bride of Christ = believers = the church = the children of faith of Abraham, from the first generation on earth to the last. There is no distinction in Christ.

Jesus:

Matthew 25:
30 And then [after the tribulation] shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Paul:

I Corinthians 15:
2 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

II Thessalonians 4:
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

[Iscool]

Both are describing the SAME event involving the SAME group of people:

Too many 'not so subtle' differences to be the same event...

At the one, no one sees Jesus...And it's only Christians who go up in the Rapture to see and be with the Lord...Jesus doesn't come to earth...We go up...
In the other, everyone sees Jesus, and they see him because he sets foot on earth...

And again, we see in Revelation where the Bride is attending the Wedding with the Groom while the Tribulation is taking place on the earth...The Bride is in heaven during the Tribulation...

[aruanan]

Too many 'not so subtle' differences to be the same event...

At the one, no one sees Jesus...And it's only Christians who go up in the Rapture to see and be with the Lord...Jesus doesn't come to earth...We go up...

Again, you haven't offered any evidence using the text. I have. I suggest the reason that you cannot see they are the same event is that you have accepted a doctrine the continued acceptance of which makes you have to postulate the existence of something not in evidence--theological dark matter.

Remember Jesus saying that if people come claiming that Jesus has come unseen to a secret or hidden place not to believe them because they are those trying to fool the elect and that when he finally did come it would be evident to every living person on earth? The secret rapture is an example of what Jesus was specifically warning us about. So, in that sense, the appearance of the secret rapture doctrine could be taken as a sign of the last days.

[marbren]

1 Corinthians 15:23 Common English Bible (CEB) 23 Each event will happen in the right order: Christ, the first crop of the harvest,then those who belong to Christ at his coming,

Hi GiovannaNicoletta, Does this translation, which I never used in the past, try to incorporate the rapture as the first fruits rather than the standard interpretation of Our Lord Jesus Christ being the first fruits?

[mas cerveza por favor]

You transpose Paul’s exhortations against the Jewish law into condemnation of Christian good works? This is pure innovation. None of the historical Church Councils or Early Christian Fathers interpreted Paul’s words this way. You have taken on latter-day human traditions.

[ravenwolf]

The judgment of God is the final act ...indeed there is a judgement of ALL men ...that includes Mary ... who is already in heaven ...so a rapture does not eliminate that .

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When you speak of the rapture, do you see cars wrecking because the driver has vanished, or people just vanishing?

[ravenwolf]

What Paul wrote is true. But you are not reading what Paul said. The dead are already ‘risen’

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I do not believe the dead are risen yet unless we are now living in the last day, i guess we could be because a day is as a thousand years.

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John ch 6
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 14
1
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

---

The only ones who get to be with Jesus before the last day are the ones referred to as the first fruits.

---

1cor 15:23
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

---

[marbren]

The only ones who get to be with Jesus before the last day are the ones referred to as the first fruits. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1cor 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Does the first fruits mean the rapture in you opinion? Should there be a comma after Christ in this verse?

[ravenwolf]

Does the first fruits mean the rapture in you opinion? Should there be a comma after Christ in this verse?

---

No, and yes there should be a coma, but it shows in rev 14 what the first fruits are

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1And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
2
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
3
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
4
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

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As you can see the above scripture identifies the first fruits as the 144000, this would contradict cor 15 v 23 if it is took to mean that Christ was the first fruit, but who are they?

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Hosea 6
2
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

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Sure sounds to me like some one went with Jesus, as this follows rev, also there is a scripture in the OT that they would sing a new song but i can not find it at this time.

It also says they were virgins for they had not been defiled by women I don,t believe it would be talking about any one after the old testament times.

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Romans ch 8
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

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We can see by this that Paul had not been Glorified, but if you read on you can see that Paul knew that Jesus was not the only one who had been glorified.

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28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Cor 15:42 and 43
So also [is] the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

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When Jesus was resurrected he was glorified, so these people that Paul is talking about must also have been raised in glory and went with Jesus, among them must have been the Godly men that told O Christs comming many years prior to the event.

Well i am not a scholar, i am just a grade school drop out but that is the way it makes sense to me.

[marbren]

Should there be a comma after Christ in this verse?

I do believe Christ is identified as the firstfruits. I may have posted my question too quickly .

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV) 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

Why does the NIV add a comma however?

[Iscool]

Remember Jesus saying that if people come claiming that Jesus has come unseen to a secret or hidden place not to believe them because they are those trying to fool the elect and that when he finally did come it would be evident to every living person on earth?

You guys are constantly running scriptures together...I don't know how you can come up with any kind of cohesive understanding of every thing you run together...

What you claim is nothing any where near what the bible describes as the Rapture...And none of us have ever said or will say that Jesus is here or Jesus is there...

[aruanan]

What you claim is nothing any where near what the bible describes as the Rapture...And none of us have ever said or will say that Jesus is here or Jesus is there...

Selective reading. Some passages threaten the pre-trib rapture doctrine so they are not seen at all or are asserted, contrary to their details, to be supportive of it. Other passages don't directly threaten it so their silence is taken as being supportive. All those things Jesus said about folks in the latter days claiming that Jesus is here or Jesus is there have this in common: a limited appearance that will be known only to a select few, such as the secret pre-trib rapture. Jesus goes on to thoroughly trash that view by saying that his return will be like lightning flashing across the sky and says that everyone, both the believers and unbelievers alike will see it.

Jesus said at the end of the age he'll come back for his people and take them after he clears out the evil-doers from in their midst, saying one will be taken, one will be left. Taken where? his disciples ask. To wind up as corpses fed upon by carrion birds, Jesus says.

The pre-trib folks say, well, obviously this can't be the rapture because the rapture has to happen before the tribulation and what Jesus is describing happens after it. So, the rapture disappears from the teachings of Jesus in Matthew.

Paul describes the return of Jesus for his people on the Day of the Lord, the Day of Christ, the same Day of the Lord that Peter describes as the end of everything when the heavens and the earth will be melted with fervent heat in preparation for the creation of the new heavens and new earth. The pre-trib folks say, well, that can't be referring to the rapture because the rapture happens before the tribulation and this Day of the Lord as described by Peter obviously has to come way after that, so the rapture, because of the Day of the Lord linking it through Peter to the dissolution of the present world, has to disappear from Paul's discussion, too. And since Paul linked both the catching up on that day along with the resurrection preceding it (the first of the two resurrections mentioned in Revelation) with the trumpet of the Lord that also appears in Jesus's description of his return and the collection of his people in Matthew, the rapture has to disappear from I Corinthians.

But if this happened then the pre-trib rapture folk would have nothing at all in the writings of Paul to describe as the rapture, not even I Thessalonians that also describes the matter in terms of the trumpet of God preceding the raising of the dead in Christ."

And, so, the secret pre-trib rapture completely disappears from Matthew, I Corinthians, and I Thessalonians, and even from II Thessalonians in which Paul tells the believers that the day of Christ and their gathering together to Jesus isn't going to happen until after the man of sin is revealed whom Jesus will shortly deal with in flaming vengeance upon his return. But according to the pre-trib rapture folk, this gathering together of believers to Jesus on the day of Christ cannot be "the rapture" because Paul says it's not going to happen until after the man of sin, taken to be the anti-Christ, is revealed and dealt with by Jesus and they maintain that the secret rapture will happen before either of those events. And so, the secret rapture becomes so secret that it disappears from Matthew 25, I Corinthians 15, I Thessalonians 4, and II Thessalonians 2.

[Iscool]

HaHaHa...Quite a story...

[aruanan]

Why does the NIV add a comma however?

Because "the firstfruits" stands in apposition to "Christ." Appositions are sometimes set off by commas. Such as, "Bill, the neighborhood watch commander, filled the group in on details of his meeting with the police." Bill IS the neighborhood watch commander. The use of the comma doesn't make him any less so.

[marbren]

Because "the firstfruits" stands in apposition to "Christ." Appositions are sometimes set off by commas.

I agree, The idea that firstfruits might mean the rapture was only a question and speculation on my part.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV) For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

[marbren]

And so, the secret rapture becomes so secret that it disappears from Matthew 25, I Corinthians 15, I Thessalonians 4, and II Thessalonians 2.

You do have a point of view. When I read it the Israel key is missing. My assumption is that you understand that the church is now Israel during this age of grace.

Romans 11:1 (NIV) 1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

History shows man has and is rejecting Israel but never God.

[marbren]

Genesis 12:3 (NIV) 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I pray that, Obama and the USA vetoes Palestinian statehood on Friday in the UN.

[aruanan]

You do have a point of view. When I read it the Israel key is missing. My assumption is that you understand that the church is now Israel during this age of grace.

Well, according to Paul, the Gentile believers, through their faith in Christ, are grafted into the promises of the covenant established by God with Abraham. We who were far off and aliens to the commonwealth of Israel were made one with God's people. At bottom, all those who are called by God and respond to him are justified by Jesus, who came in the last days, whether they are of the first generation of humans or the last or anywhere in between.