Apostasy

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

(Heb. mesubaa [ Matthew 12:31-32; Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-29; 1 John 5:16-17 ). G. C. Berkouwer comments: "We must underscore the deep seriousness of the biblical warning against apostasy after enlightenment' and after the knowledge of the truth.' This is the apostasy which reviles the Spirit of grace and despises the Son of God and crucifies the Man of Sorrows anew" (p. 343). Berkouwer is correct to refute the idea that this sin against the Holy Spirit is a mysterium iniquitatis ("a mystery of sin"), a sin difficult, if at all possible, to define precisely in the Bible.

Apostatizing from God's redemptive covenant is an act of unpardonable transgression and rebellion. All other sins are forgiven on true repentance and faith. Those who fall out of fellowship with the saints are restored to full communion through confession of sin and reaffirmation of faith in Jesus Christ. Excommunication, as a final step in the process of ecclesiastical discipline, is undertaken in the hope of restoring the wayward sinner who has fallen into grievous sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-5 ).

Israel of old repeatedly broke covenant with God. By impugning the name and works of Yahweh, Israel despised her calling and proved to be a stubborn and disobedient nation. Pentateuchal law identifies covenantal faithlessness as apostasy (see, e.g., the curses of the covenant pronounced on Mount Ebal by the Israelites in Deuteronomy 27:9-26 ). With respect to temporal blessing in the land of promise, restoration of Israel to divine favor after covenant breaking was always a consequence of divine grace and mercy, not because of meritorious works on Israel's part.

In biblical prophecy apostasy is an eschatological sign of the impending day of the Lord, a precursor of the final day of judgment. Ancient Israel's experience of divine wrath and displeasure served as typological foreshadowings of that latter day. The increase in apostasy in these last days of the church's wilderness experience is associated with the appearance of the "man of lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 ).

Mark W. Karlberg

See also Backsliding; Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit; Denial

Bibliography . G. C. Berkouwer, Sin  ; idem, The Return of Christ  ; A. A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future  ; H. Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology .

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

A forsaking or renouncing our religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration of it by our actions. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostacy; the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism; the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and, fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into paganism.

Apostasy may be farther considered as,

1. Original, in which we have all participated, Romans 3:23;

2. National, when a kingdom relinquishes the profession of Christianity;

3. Personal, when an individual backslides from God, Hebrews 10:38;

4. Final, when men are given up the judicial hardness of heart, as Judas.

5. See BACKSLIDING.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Old Testament The Old Testament speaks of “falling away” in terms of a person's deserting to a foreign king (2 Kings 25:11; Jeremiah 37:13-14; Jeremiah 39:9; Jeremiah 52:15 ). Associated ideas, however, include the concept of religious unfaithfulness: “rebellion” (Joshua 22:22 ); “cast away” (2 Chronicles 29:19 ); “trespass” (2 Chronicles 33:19 ); and “backslidings” (Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 8:5 ). NAS uses “apostasy” in Jeremiah 8:5 and Hosea 14:4 with the plural in Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 5:6; Jeremiah 14:7 .

The prophets picture Israel's history as the history of turning from God to other gods, from His law to injustice and lawlessness, from His anointed king to foreign kings, and from His word to the word of foreign kings. This is defined simply as forsaking God, not fearing Him (Jeremiah 2:19 ). Such action was sin, for which the people had to ask forgiveness (Jeremiah 14:7-9 ) and repent (Jeremiah 8:4-7 ). The basic narrative of Judges, Samuel, Kings is that Israel fell away from God, choosing selfish ways rather than His ways. Exile resulted. Still God's fallen people had hope. In freedom God could choose to turn away His anger and heal their “backsliding” (Hosea 14:4 ).

New Testament The English word “apostasy” is derived from a Greek word ( apostasia ) that means, “to stand away from.” The Greek noun occurs twice in the New Testament (Acts 21:21; 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ), though it is not translated as “apostasy” in the King James Version. A related noun is used for a divorce (Matthew 5:31; Matthew 19:7; Mark 10:4 ). The corresponding Greek verb occurs nine times.

Acts 21:21 states an accusation made against Paul that he was leading Jews outside Palestine to abandon the law of Moses. Such apostasy was defined as failing to circumcise Jewish children and to observe distinctive Jewish customs.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Paul addressed those who had been deceived into believing that the day of the Lord had already come. He taught that an apostasy would precede the day of the Lord. The Spirit had explicitly revealed this falling away from the faith ( 1 Timothy 4:1 ). Such apostasy in the latter times will involve doctrinal deception, moral insensitivity, and ethical departures from God's truth.

Associated New Testament concepts include the parable of the soils, in which Jesus spoke of those who believe for a while but “fall away” in time of temptation (Luke 8:13 ). At the judgment, those who work iniquity will be told to “depart” (Luke 13:27 ). Paul “withdrew” from the synagogue in Ephesus (Acts 19:9 ) because of the opposition he found there, and he counseled Timothy to “withdraw” from those who advocate a different doctrine (1 Timothy 6:3-5 ). Hebrews speaks of falling away from the living God because of “an evil heart of unbelief” (1 Timothy 3:12 ). Those who fall away cannot be renewed again to repentance (Hebrews 6:6 ). Yet God is able to keep the believer from falling (Jude 1:24 ).

Implications Apostasy certainly is a biblical concept, but the implications of the teaching have been hotly debated. The debate has centered on the issue of apostasy and salvation. Based on the concept of God's sovereign grace, some hold that, though true believers may stray, they will never totally fall away. Others affirm that any who fall away were never really saved. Though they may have “believed” for a while, they never experienced regeneration. Still others argue that the biblical warnings against apostasy are real and that believers maintain the freedom, at least potentially, to reject God's salvation.

Persons worried about apostasy should recognize that conviction of sin in itself is evidence that one has not fallen away. Desire for salvation shows one does not have “an evil heart of unbelief.”

Michael Fink

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

APOSTASY . A defection from the tenets of some religious community. In Acts 21:21 it describes the charge brought against St. Paul by the Jews, viz., that he taught that the Jews should abandon Mosaism. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 it describes the defection of Christians which was to accompany the ‘man of lawlessness’; i.e. the Antichrist. This expectation is an illustration of what seems to have been a common belief that the return of the Christ to establish His Kingdom would be preceded by exceptional activity on the part of His superhuman opponent, and that this would result in an abandonment of Christian faith on the part of many of those nominally Christian.

Shailer Mathews.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

The Gr. word ἀποστασία ( apostasia ) is found twice in the NT, but in neither case does English Versionrender ‘apostasy.’ In Acts 21:21 a charge is brought against St. Paul of teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles ‘to forsake Moses’ (lit.[Note: literally, literature.]‘apostasy from Moses’). In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 St. Paul assures the Thessalonian disciples that the day of the Lord shall not come ‘except the falling away (lit.[Note: literally, literature.]‘the apostasy’) come first, and the man of sin (marg.[Note: margin.], with bettor textual justification, ‘lawlessness’) be revealed.’ It is sometimes assumed that the word ‘first’ indicates that the revelation of the ‘man of sin’ must be preceded in time by the apostasy (cf. articleMan of Sin, and Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) iii. 226); but the relation of 2 Thessalonians 2:2 to 2 Thessalonians 2:3 makes it more natural to understand ‘first’ as signifying that the apostasy and the revelation of the ‘man of sin,’ regarded as contemporaneous, must come before the day of the Lord. This is confirmed if we accept Nestle’s contention ( Expository Times xvi. [1904-1905] 472) that ἡ ἀποστασία in this passage should be taken as a translation of the Heb. בְּלִיַעַל (Belial [ q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ])-a rendering that occurs frequently in Aquila’s version and also in 3 Kings 21:13 in the Cod. Alexandrinus. In any case the Apostle’s reference is to the wide-spread expectation in the primitive Church (Matthew 24:24, 1 John 2:18; cf. Daniel 12:11) that the return of Christ would be preceded by such a revelation of the power of the Antichrist ( q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) as would load to apostasy from the faith on the part of many professing Christians.

J. C. Lambert.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Though the word 'apostasy' does not occur in the A.V., the Greek word occurs from which the English word is derived. In Acts 21:21 Paul was told that he was accused of teaching the Jews who were among the Gentiles to apostatise from Moses. Paul taught freedom from the law by the death of the Christ and this would appear to a strict Jew as apostasy. The same word is used in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 , where it is taught that the day of the Lord could not come until there came ' the apostasy,' or the falling from Christianity in connection with the manifestation of the man of sin. See ANTICHRIST.

Though the general apostasy there spoken of cannot come till after the saints are taken to heaven, yet there may be, as there has been, individual falling away. See, for instance, Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 10:26,28 , and the epistle of Jude. There are solemn warnings also that show that such apostasy will be more and more general as the close of the present dispensation approaches. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 . Now a falling away necessarily implies a position which can be fallen from, a profession has been made which has been deliberately given up. This is, as scripture says, like the dog returning to his vomit, and the sow to her wallowing in the mire. It is not a Christian falling into some sin, from which grace can recover him; but a definite relinquishing of Christianity. Scripture holds out no hope in a case of deliberate apostasy, though nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

a deserting or abandoning of the true religion. The word is borrowed from the Latin apostatare, or apostare, to despise or violate any thing. Hence apostatare leges anciently signified to transgress the laws. The Latin apostatare, again, comes from απο ,

from, and ιστημι , I stand. Among the Romanists, apostasy only signifies the forsaking of a religious order, whereof a man had made profession, without a lawful dispensation. The ancients distinguished three kinds of apostasy: the first, a supererogatione, is committed by a priest, or religious, who abandons his profession, and returns to his lay state; the second, a mandatis Dei, by a person of any condition, who abandons the commands of God, though he retains his faith; the third, a fide, by him who not only abandons his works, but also the faith. There is this difference between an apostate and a heretic; that the latter only abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former renounces the whole. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostasy. The first was that of those who relapsed from Christianity into Judaism; the second, that of those who blended Judaism and Christianity together; and the third was that of those who, after having been Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism.

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) An abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; a total desertion of departure from one's faith, principles, or party; esp., the renunciation of a religious faith; as, Julian's apostasy from Christianity.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(ἀποστασία , revolt), a forsaking or renouncing religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration by actions. The Greek term is employed by Paul to designate the "falling away" (ἡ ἀποστασία ), which in his time was held in check by some obstacle (τὸ κατέχον, ὁ κατέχων ), 2 Thessalonians 2:3. It means one of two things: (1) Political defection (Genesis 14:4, Sept.; 2 Chronicles 13:6, Sept.; Acts 5:37); (2) Religious defection (Acts 21:21; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:12). The first is the common classical use of the word. The second is more usual in the N.T.; so St. Ambrose understands it (Comm. in Luke 20:20). This ἀποστασία (apostasy) implies ἀπόσταται (apostates). An organized religious body being supposed, some of whose members should fall away from the true faith, the persons so falling away would be ἀπόσταται, though still formally unsevered from the religious body; and the body itself, while, in respect to its faithful members, it would retain its character and name, might yet, in respect to its other members, be designated an ἀποστασία . It is such a corrupted religious body as this that Paul seems to mean. He elsewhere describes this religious defection by some of its peculiar characteristics. These are seducing spirits, doctrines of daemons, hypocritical lying, a seared conscience, a forbidding of marriage and of meats, a form of godliness without the power thereof (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:5). The antitype may be found in the corrupted Church of Christ in so far as it was corrupted. The same body, in so far as it maintained the faith and love, was the bride and the spouse, and in so far as it "fell away" from God, was the ἀποστασία, just as Jerusalem of old was at once Sion the beloved city, and Sodom the bloody city — the Church of God and the Synagogue of Satan. It is of the nature of a religious defection to grow up by degrees. We should not, therefore, be able to lay the finger on any special moment at which it commenced. St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered that it was already existing in his time. "Now," he says, "is the ἀποστασία, for men have fallen away (ἀπέστησαν ) from the right faith. This, then, is the ἀποστασία , and we must begin to look out for the enemy; already he has begun to send his forerunners, that the prey may be ready for him at his coming" (Catech. 15:9). (See Man Of Sin). The primitive Christian Church distinguished several kinds of apostasy; the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism; the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and, fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into paganism. (See Libellatici); (See Sacrificati); (See Traditores) (Farrar, s.v.).

At an early period it was held that the church was bound, by the passages of Scripture in which the sin of apostasy is referred to, either entirely to refuse absolution to those excommunicated for it, or at least to defer it until the hour of death. Later, however, this rigor against apostates was modified, and they were restored to the church on condition of certain prescribed penances. Subsequently ecclesiastical usage distinguished between apostasia perfidice, inobedientice, and irregularitatis. The two latter were reduced in the Roman Church to two species of defection, so that apostasia inobedientice was made identical with apostasy from monastic vows (apostasia a monachatu), and apostasia irregularitatis with apostasy from the priesthood (apostasia a clericatu). Both apostasy from monastic vows (when a monk left his monastery without permission of his superior) and apostasy from the priesthood (when a priest returned to the world) were punished by the Council of Chalcedon with the anathema, and later ecclesiastical legislation threatened them with the loss of the privileges of the order and the clerical rank in addition to excommunication, infamy, and irregularity. It required the bishop to imprison such transgressors; but apostates from vows he was required to deliver over to their superiors, that they might be punished according to the laws and customs of their orders. The state governments lent the secular arm to execute these laws. With regard to apostasy from the faith, an ordinance of Boniface III determined that apostates to Judaism should be dealt with as heretics, and this ordinance afterward regulated the treatment not only of such, but of all apostates. Toward apostates to Islamism, or so called renegades, the church exercises this discipline to the present day. Toward the apostates to modern atheism the same discipline could not be exercised, because generally they do not expressly renounce church fellowship. The Roman empire, as early as under the first Christian emperors, regarded apostasy as a civil crime, and punished it with confiscation, inability to give testimony or to bequeath, with infamy, etc. The German empire adopted the provisions of the ecclesiastical legislation, and treated apostasy as heresy. The German criminal practice knew, therefore, nothing of a particular penalty for this crime; and after the criminal code of Charles V abolished the penalty of heresy, the punishment of apostasy generally ceased in the German criminal law.' In Protestant Church disciplines no mention is made of apostasy from the Christian religion to Judaism or Islamism, because this kind of apostasy was little to be expected in the provinces for which they were designed. The national churches pursued, however, defection from their communion through the customary stages of church discipline to excommunication. (See Apostate).

We, in these latter times, may apostatize, though under different circumstances from those above described. The term "apostasy" is perverted when it is applied to a withdrawal from any system of mere polity; it is legitimately used only in connection with a departure from the written truth of God in some form, public or personal. — Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. 16, ch. 6, s.v: (See Backsliding).