The definition of “apostasy” from the Greek “apostasia,” meaning “revolt”; apo- (away from, off) + -(hi) stanai (to stand)] defection; abandonment of what one once held, stood for or believed. It’s usually used when someone makes a clear break with an orthodoxy or established belief or doctrine they once held.

The apostate churches are those that have forsaken the pure “gospel of the grace of God” that the ascended celestial Christ gave directly to the Apostle Paul. Paul describes an apostasy as being characteristic of the “last days”; occurring during the time of “the dispensation of the grace of God” in which we live today (Eph 3:1-3), a time after Israel is (and they have been) set aside (Rom 11:25). We see the apostasy whereby many of the so-called Christian churches have become liberal/progressive, humanistic social organizations operating under the pretext of being an expression of the Christian church. The true pure gospel that saves men and changes hearts is no where to be found among them.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a FALLING AWAY (GK APOSTASIA) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)  

Paul below writes to Timothy concerning the prevailing character of people in “the last days” of this age. Note the utter self-interest, self-serving, and self-loving character of the people. Paul also describes and the kind of false, empty “form (Gk. morphosis, appearance) of godliness” that would prevail in that time. There is little doubt in my mind that Paul is describing a time such as that in which we live today.

“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. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Paul describes not only the terrible fallen character of the masses of people of the coming “last days,” but also “the apostate church.” These are churches that may keep the outward “form” of so-called Christianity – having services, singing, referring to Jesus (but as on a par with other notable men, as simply a great teacher, etc). They “deny the power (of God)” (v5), not believing in the “power” of God to save and change lives.  They may construct “philosophy” from misused “words of the Bible” to fit their interest and tickle the ears of their adherents, but they have no real reliance upon God as there refuge. God’s grace and power, which then is absent because the grace they deny only works “through faith,” through trust in Christ’s cross and Spirit. They rely upon man and man’s methods to “fix the world” - humanism, psychology, social engineering, politics, and ecumenism through compromise. They try to make the world “just,” “fair,” and “nice” through their effort to promulgate their versions of a social gospel, which is not “the gospel of the grace of God.” Their faith is in man, not in God, and this is the core of humanism; their faith in man is an evil substitute for reliance upon God. Just as Satan did, they are essentially declaring we can and “will be like the most high God” (Isa 14:14). Actually, the true church is not “like Christ,” it consist of the actual incarnation of Christ life within the members of “the church, which is His body” (Eph 1:22b-23a) on earth today.

The true Church today possesses His life and power to overcome sin and death by faith in His cross-work. The grace gospel is only enjoyed by faith in God’s love and provision by Christ’s cross for the hopeless and helpless race of fallen humanity. But the apostates embrace the “progressive” liberal humanistic beliefs formed of manmade erroneous “doctrines of devils” (1Tim 4:1), the “spirit of error” (1Jn 4:6). They erroneously hope and believe in man’s basic goodness, while the Bible makes clear that man has an inner problem. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,” Mark 7:21. Man is conceived “in sin” (Psa 51:5) and sin is man’s inherent indwelling fallen nature (Rom 7:17-25). The fallen man worships the creature more than the creator (Rom 1:25), thus promulgating man-centered religion. Fallen man thus strives for human rights, animal rights, and the “environment”; these become more of a concern to them than God’s eternal plan of the ages (Eph 3:11). Having their minds blinded by “the god of this world” (2Cor 4:4), the apostates have corrupted views on such matters as justice, abortion, and sexual morality. They carnal man actually opposes the simple truths of the Bible (Rom 8:7).

But how did this apostasy, this falling away, and compromised mixed gospel occur? Nothing is new. We can see the same issue prevailed from the time of Israel, in the heart of its leaders and of the people. Church leaders themselves today seem to be mimicking what occurred in Israel in Jeremiah’s day. “The prophets prophesy (speak) falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so…” (Jeremiah 5:31a) Amazingly, here the Lord says of Israel deviant leadership “…my people love to have it so…” Sadly, quite often the Sunday church attendees prefer having an intermediary class of religious leaders; a clergy serving between them and the Lord. The clergy/laity system that prevails today is a distortion of God’s structure that was designed for the pure edification (building up) of the members of “the church, which is His body.” Many people desire the clergy as a “mediatorial religious class” so they will not have to endure a personal, one on one, heartfelt relationship with the Lord; thus they accept these corrupted church leaders we see among us today. Of course Paul says we today have no intermediary except Christ Jesus Himself (Rom 8:34). “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (1Timothy 2:5)

Over the past century a version of apostasy from Paul’s grace gospel and salvation message has reached beyond the obvious clearly liberal, humanistic, social, apostate “church” organizations, into the so-called Bible believing churches. They have also strayed from Paul’s pure “gospel of the grace of God.” Many, which at one time were properly conservative and fundamental in their theology based upon pure grace, have now become infected with a corrupted version of the gospel that consists of a mixture of both law and grace, thus nullifying the very grace of God that saves. When we consider the issue of the “mixed” gospel that seems to prevail today, which is not “the gospel of the grace of God,” we can understand why there are so many unregenerated and “still born” souls sitting in the pews. Paul wrote; “The law is not of faith” (Gal 3:12) and it cannot save. The law binds one to “the curse of law” (Gal 3:10), which is “having to keep the entire law” (James 2:10). This of course is impossible (1John 1:8).

Ones who have been subject to this false mixed gospel of law and grace may attend church services weekly without any sincere interest in the things of the Lord, and yet not be saved at all. They may call themselves Christians since they attend a so-called Bible believing and Bible preaching church that preaches many of the right words, but their church attendance counts for nothing. Many people have truly come to know Christ as Savior after having been sincere, religious “church members” for years. Though faithful supporters of a church organization they had never experienced the truth of 2Cor. 5:17: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.” It is possible to be a member in good standing of some church organization, yet be outside of the one true invisible Church, “the body of Christ,” of which only the Apostle Paul writes.

Once we understand the gospel for today – the gospel of the unadulterated “grace of God,” it’s plain to see that the majority of the church at large has forsaken Paul’s pure “gospel of the grace of God” to some degree or another. Nevertheless, simply receiving the pure grace of God is the only means of salvation today. Many souls have never really heard the pure grace gospel of “the faith,” as the ascended Christ delivered it to Paul for us today. Having only heard a false, compromised, mixed gospel, many of the pew sitters have not heard the clear uncompromised word of the truth of key elements of the genuine “saving faith.” Many then live under the illusion that they are fine without having come to a personal spirit-union with the Lord. They think they’re saved by their good works, their weekly church attendance and their faith in the mixed (law& grace) gospel that they hear preached from the pulpits of their fallen away apostate and many of the so-called Bible preaching churches.

I trust that the outcome of this series will be a clarification of the simple “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) for those who would believe, and also for those who now count themselves as believers. I trust that in seeing the pure “gospel of the grace of God” all would be provoked to make a firm commitment to an uncompromised faith in Christ alone as their savior and Lord. As Peter said “we ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). It’s only by trusting in Paul’s gospel that we come to “the power of God unto salvation,” which then is able to enlighten us and renew our lives now and for eternity.

As you can see, in writing this series I’ve felt led of the Lord to be quite frank. It is not my intention to attack individuals, denominations or groups. Yet, in declaring the truth it cannot be helped but to expose the corrupt teachings of the religious organizations of men that are not the truth. We cannot compromise the truth of “the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom 1:16). Many today claim to be speaking as the so-called church, while in fact they’ve fallen away from the pure and simple “gospel of the grace of God.”

“I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: for it is THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH… (Romans 1:16a)

I pray that this series will heighten the key truths that are the core elements and doctrines upon which we stand in “the faith.” I trust that this series may be a blessing to the members of “the body of Christ” who value the truth of God as He has declared it through His Moses for “the dispensation of the grace of God”  – the Apostle Paul. The truths of “the faith” declare the effectual way of salvation that is only found “in Christ.” The truth of the power of faith in Christ’s cross as being absolutely sufficient for salvation and life is the sole basis of the salvation and eternal security. His cross makes us to stand before Him as “holy and without blame… in (His) love” (Eph 1:4). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HATH BLESSED US WITH ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST: ⁴ According as HE HATH CHOSEN US IN HIM before the foundation of the world, THAT WE SHOULD BE HOLY AND WITHOUT BLAME BEFORE HIM IN LOVE: (Ephesians 1:2-4).

Thus far I’ve have written about the apostate protestant church, which once held true to Paul’s gospel and has now for the most part forsaken the truth of Paul’s pure grace gospel. We might now ask; what about the Roman Catholic Church? Having been raised a Catholic, I have some basis for the observations I will offer. Beside the apostate protestant churches, we have the “religious,” Roman Catholic Church (the RCC). The RCC does believe in much of Christ’s cross-work for salvation, but …then they add many requirements that serve to negate the sufficiency of God’s grace given to us in Christ’s fully sufficient cross-work. The RCC adds things such as; blind obedience to papal authority and the teaching authority of the Magisterium. The RCC adds requirements such as; adhering to church tradition, Maryology, and reverence of the canonized saints, idols, and relics; then also they promote the forbidden abominable practice of necromancy through communion and prayer to and with these “dead saints” (Deuteronomy 18:9-11, see necromancy verse 11,), the keeping of seven sacraments, observing “holy days of obligation,” and confession of sins to an intermediary priest. Yet, after all the RCC teaches that no person, including its popes, is fit for heaven directly after death, so all the faithful must pass through an intermediary state called Purgatory and endure there for an unknowable and unspecified period of time before heaven can be achieved. The RCC requires “penitent works” and offers the opportunity to exercise “indulgences” such as paying money to “the church” to achieve reduced time in Purgatory. RCC doctrine says these indulgences are a supposed means to achieve a reduced sentence, or time-off, from the unspecified and unknowable time to be spent in Purgatory (before heaven). By all this the RCC essentially is saying God’s offering of the sinless life of Jesus Christ as sacrifice for the sins of mankind at Calvary is inadequate or insufficient as the sole basis of man’s salvation… so their adherents must add these works to Christ’s cross work, under the terms of the RCC’s authority, in order to be saved to heaven. What a heresy and what an offense this must be to God who gave His “only begotten Son” for the sins of the world. Jesus said; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in (trusts in) him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). (I have entirely devoted Part 13 to Roman Catholicism, to offer greater detail.)

All religious requirements of good works (protestant or RCC) are obviously not at all in accord with Paul’s message of the pure grace gospel for today. Paul says any degree of works “to be justified the law” makes God’s “grace… that came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) “of no effect” (Gal 5:4), void, useless.

“CHRIST IS BECOME OF NO EFFECT (NO BENEFIT) UNTO YOU, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4)

Paul would call these apostate and religious practices and doctrines “anathema” (to be banned, Gal 1:9); as “another gospel,” which is not the gospel. Paul says there is but one requirement for the forgiveness of sins, to be “justified from all things”… that is to “believe,” to “trust in” Christ cross work for us. 

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that THROUGH THIS MAN (CHRIST) is preached unto you THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS: ³⁹ And by him ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:38-39)  

To all this that I’ve noted above, Paul would warn the apostates and those religious and legalistic Christians who are bent upon “meritorious works,” as he did here to the Galatians. “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into THE GRACE of Christ unto another gospel” (Gal 1:6).

The vast majority evangelicals have fallen to apostasy in their effort to win the world, using the world’s methods and compromise. They misuse of the Word of God, not knowing what they do. Paul calls us to still stand in the truth in such a time as we live today. On standing in the time of apostasy, Cornelius Stam wrote this. He sights the well known story of the three Hebrew children who stood to suffer in the time of test under Babylon’s Nebuchadnezzar.

“When the Babylonian multitudes prostrated their selves in worship before the golden god which Nebuchadnezzar had erected, three young Hebrews refused to bow and remained standing, erect and alone.

When called before Nebuchadnezzar to answer for their impudence and threatened with death in a fiery furnace, they answered:

“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us... but if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Dan. 3:17,18).

This is the stand every believer should take for God and His truth. He is able to deliver us from persecution if we stand true, but even if He does not see fit to do this we should still stand alone, if necessary, for the light He has given us from His Word.

Many have suffered temporary loss for standing for their convictions. Hebrews 11 lists among the heroes of faith some who were “tortured, not accepting deliverance,” and others who suffered “trial of cruel mockings and scourgings ...bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (Heb. 11:35-37).

But we read that these all “obtained a good report” before God and looked forward to “a better resurrection” (Verse. 35, 39).

As the apostasy rises all about us and those who stand for God’s truth are often ridiculed and despised, may God give us the grace to stand true regardless of the cost, remembering that any sufferings for Christ are only temporary while the rewards will be eternal.”