Sources and Manifestations of Apostasy
The peace and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you and your household. I bless you in the precious and mighty name of Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord for this time, which allows us to establish, through the Word and the Holy Spirit, instruction for the times in which we live.
We have begun this new time to study this very subject because it is necessary for every man and woman of faith to know what we are facing in these end times. We all talk about the coming of Jesus Christ, and many times we say, “Come, Lord Jesus,” but we have not realized that the times before the coming of Jesus Christ are difficult and dangerous times, as stated in the Word of the Lord. For these times, we must be properly prepared, clothed, and trained; otherwise, we will not be able to face them.
In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus speaks to His disciples and lays down a teaching for each of us, saying that the apostate movement will grow so much that it could even deceive His elect. This shows us the need to be vigilant and prepared. Prepared for what? Let us understand what exactly apostasy is in today’s teaching. Let us study what is the source of apostasy and what are its manifestations. We have defined the word apostasy etymologically, and we know what it means. We also know its manifestation.
But let us go a little further into the word and study what the source of apostasy really is. The characteristics alone are not going to help us much; it is necessary that we understand where it comes from, how apostasy comes from, so that we can not only identify it, but above all, we can prevent the apostate movement from establishing itself in our regions. This is the subject we are going to present: the source of apostasy.
The Apostasy Source
We will go to the Word of the Lord, and this will surprise us very much, because the apostasy – and we will begin to see it immediately – is born in the very heart of the Church. I am going to give you several texts in this lesson so that you can verify that the apostasy is closer than we ourselves think.
Some years ago, men and women who were trying to define apostasy characterized it as a movement in the classrooms of the universities, identifying that the apostasy would come out of the universities, that it would come out of the cloisters of higher education. But the Word of the Lord, the Spirit of God who reveals Himself through the Word, lets us know that the apostasy is born within the Church, not outside; it is born within the Church.
Let us go immediately to Acts, chapter 20, verses 29 and 30: “For I know that after my departure,” Paul says to the elders of the churches in Ephesus, “for I know that after my departure ravenous wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among you men will arise, speaking perverse things, taking disciples after themselves. “From among you shall arise lovers of their own selves,” as he defines it in his letter to Timothy, “lovers of their own selves, who shall take away after them many disciples“.
Apostasy is a satanic movement. It is a spiritual movement, but it is a satanic movement. What we have often ignored, and here the Spirit of God reveals to us through His Word, is that apostasy is not born outside, apostasy does not come from outside the Church and at a certain moment it comes and attacks it. We realize that apostasy is born in the very heart of the Church, and this is hard and to some extent difficult to accept, but it is what the Word of the Lord establishes: “I know that after My departure men will arise, who will not spare the cattle, and from among yourselves they will arise,” it says in verse 30, “men who will speak perverse things to lead the disciples after them“.
I turn to the first letter of the apostle John. The apostle John also gives a warning about this very thing in chapter 2, verses 18 and 19. I read verse 18: “Little children, these are the last times. And as you have heard that an antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have begun to be; wherefore we know that it is the last time.” Already from the time of the apostles, we are talking about the end of the first century, they gave the warning through the Holy Spirit: “It is already the last time. How much more are we in the last days? In fact, we are already living in the last times.
I continue to read in verse 19, it says, “They went out from us,” notice, “they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us; but they went out that it might be made manifest that they are not all of us“.
It is the last time because many antichrists have begun to appear and the surprise that the Apostle John, the last of the twelve apostles of Jesus, notes is that “they have gone out from us“. And it is important that we understand this and that we integrate it into our life of faith, so that we can not only recognize it when it is close, that is, when it manifests itself in its different forms that we will see in this same teaching, but above all that we can stop it, because that is the purpose. The purpose is that we can stop this movement.
“They came out of us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained of us“. This is the statement of the apostle John. But the important thing that the Word establishes for us is that apostasy is born in the very heart of the Church.
The Apostle Paul, when he writes to Timothy and says: “In the last times there will be men who are lovers of their own selves“, is not describing people who will be outside the Church, because, as he himself says, “What use is it for me to speak of people who are outside the Church? When in reality the purpose and what the Lord has sent me to do is for those who are within the Church“.
It is important that we understand this, and this is crucial: we should not look outside, but be concerned that they do not arise within us. That is the purpose.
I want to go to another passage in Jude, which is only one chapter. Look at what he says in verses 3 and 4. He gives a different instruction and the audience is not the same. That is the important thing: the audience is not the same. Not because we find it in the Scriptures, these letters were addressed to the same audience; they were addressed to different audiences who were in different regions according to the places where the apostles were. But the important thing is that each one of them establishes practically the same word, which is nothing more than the Spirit of God warning that apostasy is born in the heart of the Church.
Verse 3 says: “Dearly beloved, because I had great anxiety to write unto you concerning the common salvation, it was necessary for me to write unto you, warning you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints“.
And here comes the instruction, verse 4: “For certain men have crept in privily, who were condemned from the beginning to this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into a reproach, and deny God, who alone reigns, and our Lord Jesus Christ“.
They have established themselves, they did not come identifying themselves as antichrists; they came and established themselves as any man establishes himself, as any woman establishes herself when she visits a congregation. They established themselves as believers, but they ended up establishing themselves as ungodly men, as ungodly women, establishing a doctrine that is not the doctrine of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
There is another text that I would like to share with you: in the second letter of the apostle Peter, in chapter 2, the apostle Peter also gives a warning similar to the one that we have read so far. We have seen the apostle Paul, the apostle John, Jude, and now we are looking at the apostle Peter, verse 1 of chapter 2: “But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall bring in“, listen carefully, “false doctrines in secret, denying the Lord who saved them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction. They will bring in heresies of destruction in secret“.
The very purpose of apostasy is to cause the man of faith to be lost, to cause the woman of faith to be lost. But not to lead them to sin, and this is what we have to understand: not to lead them to sin, that is, not to promote or to appease a sinful activity. That is why many people will be confused and that is why many people will be led down the path of apostasy, because it has nothing to do with sin.
Then what does it have to do with? It has to do with doctrine that is not conformed to the Word, doctrine that does not stand on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Peter joins this list of men who have established the admonition for God’s people to understand that apostasy comes from within the church itself.
I want to go to another text, in Matthew. I want to go through chapter 24, the teaching that Jesus gave just before His crucifixion. Look at what Matthew says, chapter 24, verses 10 and 11: “Then many shall offend, and shall betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because wickedness shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” False prophets will arise and deceive many.
Apostasy is a satanic movement. It is a spiritual but satanic movement. It has nothing to do with sin; I am talking about a sinful activity. Because almost always when you talk about a person who is not walking according to the Lord, almost always the tendency is to look for, “You are in sin, you have fallen into sin. But let me tell you that apostasy has this very special characteristic: it does not promote sin, sinful activity. It does not promote falling into scandalous sins. It does not do that, but it does promote a doctrine that is not supported by the Word of the Lord, and that is what we need to understand.
All these texts, and they are not the only ones, but all these texts help us to understand that apostasy is not born outside the Church; apostasy is born within the Church.
The news that shocked the apostles when Jesus was sitting at the table the night he was betrayed, when he was eating the paschal lamb, the news that shocked them was: “One of you will betray me, one of you will betray me“. And with that word, Jesus was not only speaking about what was going to happen that night, Jesus was speaking prophetically, reaching out prophetically to our time to say, “One of you will betray me, one of you will betray me”.
Apostasy is born in the heart of the Church. Perhaps this has impressed more than one of us, and I believe that this is the purpose of the Holy Spirit: to impress us, because many times we have been asleep, many times we have been unaware of the spiritual reality. We have promoted, we have activated within a parish or within a region, but we have not really been aware of what we are facing. Therefore, it is important that we locate the source of the apostasy. We cannot look for it outside; we have to identify the source of the apostasy within, in the heart of the Church, because it is within the Church that it will emerge.
And everyone could say: “And what church? And what church?” Or we could even begin to point to some specific ones. The Spirit of the Lord tells us: all, all churches, none is excluded, because that is what the Word says.
In Matthew chapter 13, when the parables are found, Jesus presented a parable, the parable of the wheat and the tares, which we all know. While the laborers were sleeping, an enemy came and sowed tares.
Apostasy in the Church: A Call to Discernment
This is the satanic activity that is present in all churches, and that is why the call of the Spirit of God is to be awake. The Spirit of God invites us to search the Word. When we look at Acts, chapter 17, we find a reference that we need to highlight. The writer Luke points out that when Paul went down from Thessalonica to Berea and established the Word, the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians. Why? Because they searched the Scriptures every day to see if what they were being told was true. This is the attitude of the man and woman of faith. It is not just a matter of listening to a message, a sermon or a preaching for one’s own benefit, that is, to feed oneself spiritually, but to take the responsibility of searching. For what purpose? To be aware that apostasy can attack us all at any moment.
Apostasy Manifestations
Let us now turn to the second part. I would like to refer you to the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter, chapter 2. This passage deals with the manifestations of apostasy. What are these manifestations? What are their characteristics when they occur? But also, what can we do to prevent apostasy from manifesting in our church?
Let’s turn to 1 Peter 2:1-2: “Therefore put away all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy, all slander, and as newborn babies, desire the spiritual milk that is unadulterated, that by it you may grow up to salvation“.
Let us read verse 2 again: “As newborn babes, desire the spiritual milk that is unadulterated, that by it you may grow up to salvation“. The apostle says “pure milk“. Did we read that correctly? Yes, that is what he says: pure milk. What does that mean? What does the apostle mean by “pure milk“?
Syncretism as a Manifestation of Apostasy
Apostasy has a clear manifestation: syncretistic interpretation. What is syncretism? Let us define it. Syncretism consists in taking a part from here and a part from there, from different sources, not from the same origin nor from the same element, and combining them to create a mixture that is presented as a whole. It is taking from here, from there, from different sources, combining them, and offering them as one thing.
This is disturbing. Apostasy has this manifestation: it takes from different sources to present a single message. That is how apostasy comes. Be very careful, very careful, very careful. Our only source must be the Holy Scriptures. We have read it, we know it: “Search the Scriptures, for they bear witness about me, and in them you have eternal life. We do not need different sources or alternatives to present a single message. If we take from the Scriptures, but also from philosophy, theology or other elements to build a message, we are manufacturing apostasy. Do you understand? Apostasy is a syncretic interpretation, a mixture of different elements.
Falling away today
I want to tell you that we are already living it, we are already experiencing it. Many sermons are 50% Bible, 20% finance, 10% politics and 10% philosophy. That is not allowed, because that is how we build apostasy. Our only source must be the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scripture does not allow auxiliaries; it does not allow us to “help” the Holy Spirit. Apostasy occurs when we establish a syncretic interpretation.
Let us read verse 2 again: “Desire, as newborn babes, the unadulterated spiritual milk, that ye may grow up thereby unto salvation“. What then is the manifestation of apostasy? It is a syncretic interpretation where we take from different sources, many of which have nothing to do with the Scriptures.
Falling Away in the History of God’s People
A few minutes ago I mentioned that apostasy is born in the heart of the Church. I want to go back to the Old Testament to make a case, because this is not new. Sometimes we think it is something that is yet to come, but let me tell you: it is not new. It has arisen and has been maintained many times, in churches, in regions, and as we will see, in whole countries.
Let’s go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 23, verses 36 through 40. It says, “And the Lord said unto me, Wilt thou not judge Aholah and Aholibah? Declare their abominations: for they have committed adultery, and there is blood on their hands; they have committed fornication with their idols, and they have made their children, whom they gave me, pass through the fire, and burned them. They have defiled my sanctuary in that day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had sacrificed their children to their idols, they came into my sanctuary the same day to defile it; and behold, they did so in the midst of my house. And they called for men from afar off, to whom they had sent messengers; and, behold, they came. For their sake you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewels“.
Calling to Repent and Choose
I conclude with a text from the Old Testament, Amos 9:11: “In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and I will mend its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old“.
Restoration can only happen when there is a clear definition: “I and my house will serve the Lord“. This means removing pagan customs from my life, discarding pagan philosophies, and abhorring anathemas. God’s restoration and blessing come only when we walk under the obedience and lordship of Jesus Christ, not otherwise. There are many people who, like the priests of Baal, demand and make sacrifices: “I will fast,” “I will make long chains of prayer”. But these sacrifices are useless if you do not decide to walk in obedience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Here’s the key: If you don’t, you are building apostasy, you are moving in apostasy. What you believe you are preaching as the gospel is actually apostasy that you have accepted. That is why the message of the Holy Spirit is strong this time. It is a wake-up call, but also a call to repentance, to a firm and radical decision, not ambiguous or to satisfy the opinion of others. A radical decision: from today, become a man or woman of radical faith. Remove all this from your life. Make the decision for Christ, so that you can walk in the freedom of grace, in the mercy and love of God, to which we are called.
