Apostates and Apostasy
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1 ¶ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jude touches on a wide scope of biblical history. He starts with mentioning the angels who sinned during the early days of creation. He speaks about the Israelites leaving Egypt, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the death of Moses. He mentions Adam’s son, Cain. He refers to Balaam the prophet, the rebellion of Korah, and Enoch’s prophecy. He talks about the second coming.
From creation to the end of the age and many things in between, Jude covers it all in one short chapter.
And Jude is doing all of this in the context of warning us about the attack against truth by false teachers, and warning false teachers that they are going to get what is coming to them, and encouraging us to pay attention to our spiritual growth, never forgetting our mission of rescuing souls from going to hell.
And this little overview in no way does justice to really getting the impact of his letter. So let's continue digging in.
Let’s be reminded that Jude is writing to the same group that his brother writes to in the book of James, and this is the same group that Peter writes to in his first and second letters. The only difference is, Peter seems to have written to believers who fled from severe persecution and were still in the process of getting settled. Jude seems to be writing a while later. The Christians have been settled in their new surroundings for some time. Life finally was taking a turn for the better. Persecution is now a thing of the past for them. Church life is good.
But now, enter Satan. He had attempted to get at them while they were still in Jerusalem, by having them arrested and even put to death. They had escaped. Now he will try to destroy them from the inside.
Apostasy - the word means … standing or moving back or away. To separate oneself from. Peter did that at his ‘betrayal’. Does that make him an apostate? No, because there are several applications of the word apostasy.
The actual word is only used twice in scripture. Acts 21:21 is the first time it is mentioned. In that instance Paul is being put on the spot by James, the leader of the Jerusalem church. James says that he had received a report that Paul was teaching people to ‘forsake (apostatize) Moses’. The report was exaggerated of course, and Paul was actually putting ‘Moses’ (another word for old testament scripture) into perspective and showing how the old Testament was to be used in preparation to receive the Messiah. It has and had a very valid purpose … so simply ‘forsaking’ was quite an incorrect accusation being made against Paul.
Did Peter forsake the Lord? Not in his heart. Fear caused him to do what he did. God knew that. God looks at the heart. He knew that Peter did not want to be a betrayer. He knew Peter’s weak points. God understands the magnitude of the pressure we can be under. God looks at each situation individually.
The word apostasy can have different applications. Since it means to stand away, fall away, separate from … we need to ask, from what to what? The second use of the word apostasy in scripture helps to make this more clear.
Paul said the second coming (including the appearing of the antiChrist), could not come until the apostasy first takes place. Most t ranslations say it, ‘unless the falling away takes place’.
The coming apostasy means a falling away from all that is good in our society. What we have viewed as right, suddenly becomes wrong. What we (especially believers) see as wrong, suddenly it is right, accepted, promoted. The falling away, is a falling away from truth and God’s standards of right and wrong. Jesus said, And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:12
As the love of many (believers) grows cold, I expect they leave the church. They ‘defect’. That is a form of apostasy.
So the world defects, falls away from all that is right. Sin increases everywhere. It affects Christians as well, and they ‘fall away’. They are falling away from a commitment to Christ, or at the very least, from a commitment to the church body and fellowship. Are they falling away from actually believing in Jesus? We don’t know, but that would be another, totally separate type of apostasy.
The apostates of which Jude speaks have had every opportunity to grow in grace. They had access to the grace and mercy of God. God would not have inspired these words of Jude, condemning these apostates if He had not first given them every opportunity to follow Him.
The ones who have ‘crept’ into the church, had once been exposed to Christianity. But Jude says in verse 12 that they are twice dead, uprooted;
This opens the topic that has been debated down through the ages, and that topic is ‘eternal security vs apostasy’. Simply put, once saved - always saved, versus saved- and then becoming unsaved.
What is apostasy ‘from faith in Jesus’? Jude talks about it. The main part of his letter deals with once Christ professors, now turned deceivers.
The Bible talks about it in many places. It warns of the dangers and eternal consequences of apostasy.
What are the ‘degrees’ of unbelief and apostasy?
First - There are those who have never heard the gospel, therefore they have nothing in which to believe. (this one has nothing to do with apostasy or falling away)
Then there are those who have never heard the gospel, but have suspected that there is, and must have been, a creator. Some believe in what they have seen in creation .. but some (most) reject it. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Christians in Rome. I will expand on that later.
And then there are those who have heard the gospel being presented, knew basically what was being said, but ‘switched’ the radio to a different station. Some of these are the kids who heard it in Sunday school … but since they were ‘being made’ to attend by their parents, did not believe.
Then there are others who heard a gospel that promised them everything good. They heard and believed the good news about salvation, but did not realize that there was a ‘cost’ involved. They did not expect that persecution would come as a result of their Christian stand.
When bad times came they abandoned their commitment to Christ in order to avoid negative repercussions. Were they ever really saved to begin with? As far as the illustration goes, this seed, sprouted, began growing and now died. There are only two possible answers to what happened to them. 1, they were never saved to begin with, or 2, they stopped believing in Jesus as died spiritually.
And there are also those who were enjoying a busy and productive life, upon hearing there was a heaven to choose and a hell to shun, they chose to accept Jesus so that they could have a home assured them in heaven. They did not understand the commitment required of them to grow in faith, they were satisfied that their ‘names were written in heaven’ and continued with their increasingly busy lives to the point where any commitment to Christ at all was squeezed out. From all appearances, their ‘eternal life’ seemed to have been extinguished. Again, were they ever saved to begin with? Or have they died spiritually?
God is just and fair. He has said, “To whom much has been given, much shall be required. To whom little is given, little shall be required.”
I say that God is fair … that is in matters of providing Salvation to all. In matters of how he treats people overall, He is not fair. Jesus said that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And just so you know, the rain is not a negative. He is not talking about the bad things that rain down on us. He is talking about life-giving, produce and crop-sustaining rain. The unjust, who deserve less, get the rain also. And by the way … all of us do not deserve salvation. So fairness would say that we should all be lost. He gives us far more that we deserve … that is not fairness. But when it comes to the gospel call, it goes out to the whole world. It is a common salvation.
I want to explore two terms that we find in Jude that have to do with ‘eternal security’. They are the words, kept in verse 1, and the words twice dead, uprooted; in verse 12.
I do not simply believe in ‘once saved, always saved.’ I do however, believe in God’s eternal security for His children. Here is how I understand it.
First of all, we are not saved because of any performance on our part. Paul put it this way, 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
God requires that we repent of our sin (acknowledge our total sinful state and shortfall of perfection that God requires) and take his gift. He gave Jesus to pay for our sin debt. The gift of forgiveness is offered to all. As we take that gift we are expressing our belief. We are believing the Word of God which presents the information of Jesus, God’s Son, becoming man, living a perfect life, dying for our sin, rising back to life, interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, and soon to return and receive us into His presence forever. That is what we are believing. Some of us had more information, some less, but essentially that is what we are saying when we take Jesus as our Savior.
So what we have just acknowledged is that ‘believing’ is not work. We are saved by believing. That is not ‘being saved by works’.
Some may wonder … but if we have to ‘keep on believing’, isn’t that work? I don’t think so. For example, I am married. Do I have to keep on believing that to stay married? Is believing that I am married … work? No it is a ‘state’ or ‘position’ of belief that I am in. Is it possible that at some point a person ‘no longer believes that they are married’? Yes, in their mind, and that is when terrible things happen.
Can a person stop believing that Jesus is the Saviour of the world or that Jesus is God, the Son? Yes, it can happen. If at that point (only God knows the point) they no longer believe, a spiritual death takes place.
We all were ‘dead’ before we came to Christ and were ‘born from above’. Jude talks about these false teachers as true apostates. He is assuming that they, like all of us, were dead in tresspasses and sins, trusted Christ for salvation, and then, for whatever reason, died spiritually, making them ‘twice dead’. I am sure that some would take the position that they probably were never saved to begin with. And that they went through the motions of acting like Christians. Maybe they even thought they were Christians. And I am sure that applies to some. But Jude says that they are twice dead - period.
Normally, we pray for people that are struggling or have wandered away from God. But I want to discuss a verse that is almost never talked about. Apostle John says, If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life — to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 1John 5:16-17
How can we ever tell if someone has committed the dreaded “sin unto death”? Perhaps we can’t. But somehow Jude determined that these men were twice dead. They had committed the sin unto death. He is not praying for them, or even hinting that they need to repent. Perhaps you and I have known someone that we ‘suspect’ has gone back and died spiritually … and yet we pray for them … because we just don’t know.
But what about security? Jude said at the beginning that we are ‘kept’ by God. And we are. We should never be in the position that we wonder or worry. Why not? Well, allow me to remind us of the function and work of the Holy Spirit. John writes, And when He comes, (the Holy Spirit) He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: John 16:8
We must ask, why does the Holy Spirit do this? For one purpose only … to bring people to repentance and then to bring them to receive forgiveness as they trust in Christ. So follow this logic … why would the Holy Spirit convict someone who has actually committed the sin unto death? John says that there is no hope for them. So why convict them? It stands to reason that such an individual will not be under conviction at all. Their heart will be so hardened as to not care at all. As I said earlier, we do not know when that happens in a person’s life, so we just keep on praying for them. And, in the off chance that you are a somewhat fearful person … the kind of person that would think ‘What if I have committed the sin unto death? Oh no!’, you need to take comfort in the fact that if you care at all, if you are concerned about what you might have done or not done, you do not need to fear. Because God’s Spirit is speaking to your heart. He does not speak to someone who has ‘sinned unto death’. They have been written off by God, and they could not care in the least. Thought’s of sin and faithlessness never enter their minds. As the Spirit convicts you of things … be thankful that He is still in your life.
I want to include some verses from Hebrews that have been a point of controversy in the matter of eternal security.
I will present it from the Philips Translation: When you find men who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and received the Holy Spirit, who have known the wholesome nourishment of the Word of God and touched the spiritual resources of the eternal world and who then fall away, it proves impossible to make them repent as they did at first. For they are re-crucifying the Son of God in their own souls, and exposing him to contempt. Hebrews 6:4-6
In the NKJV the underlined words above read like this;
For it is impossible .. to renew them again to repentance.
The Hebrews passage mentions people ‘Who then fall away …’ What is ‘falling away’?
Here is what it is not. It is not ‘falling away from doing good works and service to God. It is not getting involved in sinful practices to the point where we have ‘fallen away’. Why not? Because that would make your salvation based on works, and clearly the scriptures teach that salvation is not based on works.
Then what is falling away? It is falling away from the ONE THING THAT GOT YOU SAVED TO BEGIN WITH. And that is belief (belief means faith) … the belief that Jesus is God’s resurrected Son who died for your sins. And as I said earlier, belief is not categorized as a ‘work’.
These false teachers that Jude is talking about are twice dead. They have fallen away from their primary belief that Jesus is the Christ. It is impossible for them to come back. They have committed the sin unto death.
Before we conclude this portion about ‘apostates’, I want to add another important section of scripture.
You are all, no doubt, familiar with the parable of Jesus regarding the sower and the seed.
Some seed was spilled onto the hard pathway, some landed on ground that was very rocky, some on soil that soon became overtaken by weed and finally some that fell on good soil and produced a crop.
I alluded earlier to a progression of exposure to the Word of God.
Seed that falls on the ‘way-side’ really represents no exposure at all. It is gone before it can do any good.
However there is seed that falls on hearts that seems to have taken root, but a crop never develops.
Jesus put it this way, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” Matthew 13:21-21
This also ‘apostasy’. It would seem that the persecution and suffering causes a serious and sad evaluation of truth. He is not just saying to himself, “This just isn’t worth it. I am throwing Christianity out!” I think it is worse than that. I think it starts with the thought, “This Christianity teaching probably isn’t true anyway. I think I am suffering for nothing”
At that point it still would not be apostasy. But when it reaches the point that he says, “There is just nothing to it. I don’t even know why I believed it to begin with “. At that point it COULD be apostasy, since this person has stopped believing. However it is STILL up to God and not us to evaluate.
The rocky soil represented persecution. Then Jesus talked about the seed that fell in ground that was overtaken by weeds. This represents another area that we really need to guard against. Jesus refers to it as the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Most of us are more familiar with this soil than the rocky soil. Have you experienced the cares of the world? Have you dealt with problems like, How am I ever going to pay for this? I will need to take on two jobs! Failed bad investments. Unexpected major bills. Unexpected major illnesses. Divorce. Death in the family.
Things like these can either drive us closer to God or drive us to despair. The downward steps of despair can bring us to the point where we are asking, Where is God. I need Him now. But nothing is changing. I don’t think there even is a God. As a matter of fact I know there is no God.
Once again, we are not God, so we cannot judge that this person has fallen away completely and become an apostate. But it could happen.
Seeking after the ‘stuff’ of this world can be deadly. Jesus said, the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. A person who has the ‘I want it all’ attitude may come to Christ for the wrong reason. Yes he wants forgiveness, yes he wants eternal life in heaven … but it is all about him and his wants. He also wants money … lots of it. In the process of a lifetime of struggling to get ahead, somewhere back there he forgot all about his commitment to Christ. Now he no longer believes. He has died spiritually. Ceasing to believe becomes deadly. Is he an ‘apostate’? Has he ‘lost his salvation’? Maybe. That is not for us to judge.
At some point in the future Christians are going to be put to a very serious ‘belief’ test. A very convincing, miracle working world leader will come onto the scene. He will be demanding worship. Some Christians may get very confused and think that he actually is some kind of a Jesus. They will worship him. They will be showing an outward visible sign that they believe in him. What is that ‘sign’? They will take his mark in their right hand or in their forehead. At that point they have sealed their doom. Believing in, worshipping this false prophet or antiChrist is the sin unto death, because they made a choice. They have chosen to believe in and worship ‘the beast’. They have ceased to believe in Jesus. (By the way, the beast won’t look like a beast.) Let’s read about it. 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name."
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
It is not ‘work’ to keep on believing in Jesus. But we can all get ourselves in spiritually unhealthy situations.
How can we ensure that our belief in Jesus remains permanent? The apostle Peter addresses exactly that thing.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:3-11
This is a good way to end this topic. Apostasy is spiritual death. In some cases spiritual suicide. Sometimes it means just departing from truth, good ethics and morals and not departing from faith in Jesus. Paul said that the second coming will not take place until the ‘great falling away’ takes place worldwide. He used the word apostasy. Jesus also said in Matthew the 24th chapter that wickedness would increase and a decrease in the love within churches would take place. So that is another use of the word apostasy.
But Peter’s words certainly guarantee that we will never reach the place where apostasy would ever become an issue in our lives.
But I want to encourage you to think of others and not only your own security. If you see a fellow christian ‘walking away’, James, Jude’s brother said, My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
So Jude said that apostates are in the church already. Paul predicted a rise in the numbers of false teachers in the last days. We are there. We want to be able to recognise them. So next time we will look at their style and the content of teaching.
Jude touches on a wide scope of biblical history. He starts with mentioning the angels who sinned during the early days of creation. He speaks about the Israelites leaving Egypt, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the death of Moses. He mentions Adam’s son, Cain. He refers to Balaam the prophet, the rebellion of Korah, and Enoch’s prophecy. He talks about the second coming.
From creation to the end of the age and many things in between, Jude covers it all in one short chapter.
And Jude is doing all of this in the context of warning us about the attack against truth by false teachers, and warning false teachers that they are going to get what is coming to them, and encouraging us to pay attention to our spiritual growth, never forgetting our mission of rescuing souls from going to hell.
And this little overview in no way does justice to really getting the impact of his letter. So let's continue digging in.
Let’s be reminded that Jude is writing to the same group that his brother writes to in the book of James, and this is the same group that Peter writes to in his first and second letters. The only difference is, Peter seems to have written to believers who fled from severe persecution and were still in the process of getting settled. Jude seems to be writing a while later. The Christians have been settled in their new surroundings for some time. Life finally was taking a turn for the better. Persecution is now a thing of the past for them. Church life is good.
But now, enter Satan. He had attempted to get at them while they were still in Jerusalem, by having them arrested and even put to death. They had escaped. Now he will try to destroy them from the inside.
Apostasy - the word means … standing or moving back or away. To separate oneself from. Peter did that at his ‘betrayal’. Does that make him an apostate? No, because there are several applications of the word apostasy.
The actual word is only used twice in scripture. Acts 21:21 is the first time it is mentioned. In that instance Paul is being put on the spot by James, the leader of the Jerusalem church. James says that he had received a report that Paul was teaching people to ‘forsake (apostatize) Moses’. The report was exaggerated of course, and Paul was actually putting ‘Moses’ (another word for old testament scripture) into perspective and showing how the old Testament was to be used in preparation to receive the Messiah. It has and had a very valid purpose … so simply ‘forsaking’ was quite an incorrect accusation being made against Paul.
Did Peter forsake the Lord? Not in his heart. Fear caused him to do what he did. God knew that. God looks at the heart. He knew that Peter did not want to be a betrayer. He knew Peter’s weak points. God understands the magnitude of the pressure we can be under. God looks at each situation individually.
The word apostasy can have different applications. Since it means to stand away, fall away, separate from … we need to ask, from what to what? The second use of the word apostasy in scripture helps to make this more clear.
Paul said the second coming (including the appearing of the antiChrist), could not come until the apostasy first takes place. Most t ranslations say it, ‘unless the falling away takes place’.
The coming apostasy means a falling away from all that is good in our society. What we have viewed as right, suddenly becomes wrong. What we (especially believers) see as wrong, suddenly it is right, accepted, promoted. The falling away, is a falling away from truth and God’s standards of right and wrong. Jesus said, And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:12
As the love of many (believers) grows cold, I expect they leave the church. They ‘defect’. That is a form of apostasy.
So the world defects, falls away from all that is right. Sin increases everywhere. It affects Christians as well, and they ‘fall away’. They are falling away from a commitment to Christ, or at the very least, from a commitment to the church body and fellowship. Are they falling away from actually believing in Jesus? We don’t know, but that would be another, totally separate type of apostasy.
The apostates of which Jude speaks have had every opportunity to grow in grace. They had access to the grace and mercy of God. God would not have inspired these words of Jude, condemning these apostates if He had not first given them every opportunity to follow Him.
The ones who have ‘crept’ into the church, had once been exposed to Christianity. But Jude says in verse 12 that they are twice dead, uprooted;
This opens the topic that has been debated down through the ages, and that topic is ‘eternal security vs apostasy’. Simply put, once saved - always saved, versus saved- and then becoming unsaved.
What is apostasy ‘from faith in Jesus’? Jude talks about it. The main part of his letter deals with once Christ professors, now turned deceivers.
The Bible talks about it in many places. It warns of the dangers and eternal consequences of apostasy.
What are the ‘degrees’ of unbelief and apostasy?
First - There are those who have never heard the gospel, therefore they have nothing in which to believe. (this one has nothing to do with apostasy or falling away)
Then there are those who have never heard the gospel, but have suspected that there is, and must have been, a creator. Some believe in what they have seen in creation .. but some (most) reject it. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Christians in Rome. I will expand on that later.
And then there are those who have heard the gospel being presented, knew basically what was being said, but ‘switched’ the radio to a different station. Some of these are the kids who heard it in Sunday school … but since they were ‘being made’ to attend by their parents, did not believe.
Then there are others who heard a gospel that promised them everything good. They heard and believed the good news about salvation, but did not realize that there was a ‘cost’ involved. They did not expect that persecution would come as a result of their Christian stand.
When bad times came they abandoned their commitment to Christ in order to avoid negative repercussions. Were they ever really saved to begin with? As far as the illustration goes, this seed, sprouted, began growing and now died. There are only two possible answers to what happened to them. 1, they were never saved to begin with, or 2, they stopped believing in Jesus as died spiritually.
And there are also those who were enjoying a busy and productive life, upon hearing there was a heaven to choose and a hell to shun, they chose to accept Jesus so that they could have a home assured them in heaven. They did not understand the commitment required of them to grow in faith, they were satisfied that their ‘names were written in heaven’ and continued with their increasingly busy lives to the point where any commitment to Christ at all was squeezed out. From all appearances, their ‘eternal life’ seemed to have been extinguished. Again, were they ever saved to begin with? Or have they died spiritually?
God is just and fair. He has said, “To whom much has been given, much shall be required. To whom little is given, little shall be required.”
I say that God is fair … that is in matters of providing Salvation to all. In matters of how he treats people overall, He is not fair. Jesus said that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And just so you know, the rain is not a negative. He is not talking about the bad things that rain down on us. He is talking about life-giving, produce and crop-sustaining rain. The unjust, who deserve less, get the rain also. And by the way … all of us do not deserve salvation. So fairness would say that we should all be lost. He gives us far more that we deserve … that is not fairness. But when it comes to the gospel call, it goes out to the whole world. It is a common salvation.
I want to explore two terms that we find in Jude that have to do with ‘eternal security’. They are the words, kept in verse 1, and the words twice dead, uprooted; in verse 12.
I do not simply believe in ‘once saved, always saved.’ I do however, believe in God’s eternal security for His children. Here is how I understand it.
First of all, we are not saved because of any performance on our part. Paul put it this way, 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
God requires that we repent of our sin (acknowledge our total sinful state and shortfall of perfection that God requires) and take his gift. He gave Jesus to pay for our sin debt. The gift of forgiveness is offered to all. As we take that gift we are expressing our belief. We are believing the Word of God which presents the information of Jesus, God’s Son, becoming man, living a perfect life, dying for our sin, rising back to life, interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, and soon to return and receive us into His presence forever. That is what we are believing. Some of us had more information, some less, but essentially that is what we are saying when we take Jesus as our Savior.
So what we have just acknowledged is that ‘believing’ is not work. We are saved by believing. That is not ‘being saved by works’.
Some may wonder … but if we have to ‘keep on believing’, isn’t that work? I don’t think so. For example, I am married. Do I have to keep on believing that to stay married? Is believing that I am married … work? No it is a ‘state’ or ‘position’ of belief that I am in. Is it possible that at some point a person ‘no longer believes that they are married’? Yes, in their mind, and that is when terrible things happen.
Can a person stop believing that Jesus is the Saviour of the world or that Jesus is God, the Son? Yes, it can happen. If at that point (only God knows the point) they no longer believe, a spiritual death takes place.
We all were ‘dead’ before we came to Christ and were ‘born from above’. Jude talks about these false teachers as true apostates. He is assuming that they, like all of us, were dead in tresspasses and sins, trusted Christ for salvation, and then, for whatever reason, died spiritually, making them ‘twice dead’. I am sure that some would take the position that they probably were never saved to begin with. And that they went through the motions of acting like Christians. Maybe they even thought they were Christians. And I am sure that applies to some. But Jude says that they are twice dead - period.
Normally, we pray for people that are struggling or have wandered away from God. But I want to discuss a verse that is almost never talked about. Apostle John says, If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life — to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 1John 5:16-17
How can we ever tell if someone has committed the dreaded “sin unto death”? Perhaps we can’t. But somehow Jude determined that these men were twice dead. They had committed the sin unto death. He is not praying for them, or even hinting that they need to repent. Perhaps you and I have known someone that we ‘suspect’ has gone back and died spiritually … and yet we pray for them … because we just don’t know.
But what about security? Jude said at the beginning that we are ‘kept’ by God. And we are. We should never be in the position that we wonder or worry. Why not? Well, allow me to remind us of the function and work of the Holy Spirit. John writes, And when He comes, (the Holy Spirit) He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: John 16:8
We must ask, why does the Holy Spirit do this? For one purpose only … to bring people to repentance and then to bring them to receive forgiveness as they trust in Christ. So follow this logic … why would the Holy Spirit convict someone who has actually committed the sin unto death? John says that there is no hope for them. So why convict them? It stands to reason that such an individual will not be under conviction at all. Their heart will be so hardened as to not care at all. As I said earlier, we do not know when that happens in a person’s life, so we just keep on praying for them. And, in the off chance that you are a somewhat fearful person … the kind of person that would think ‘What if I have committed the sin unto death? Oh no!’, you need to take comfort in the fact that if you care at all, if you are concerned about what you might have done or not done, you do not need to fear. Because God’s Spirit is speaking to your heart. He does not speak to someone who has ‘sinned unto death’. They have been written off by God, and they could not care in the least. Thought’s of sin and faithlessness never enter their minds. As the Spirit convicts you of things … be thankful that He is still in your life.
I want to include some verses from Hebrews that have been a point of controversy in the matter of eternal security.
I will present it from the Philips Translation: When you find men who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and received the Holy Spirit, who have known the wholesome nourishment of the Word of God and touched the spiritual resources of the eternal world and who then fall away, it proves impossible to make them repent as they did at first. For they are re-crucifying the Son of God in their own souls, and exposing him to contempt. Hebrews 6:4-6
In the NKJV the underlined words above read like this;
For it is impossible .. to renew them again to repentance.
The Hebrews passage mentions people ‘Who then fall away …’ What is ‘falling away’?
Here is what it is not. It is not ‘falling away from doing good works and service to God. It is not getting involved in sinful practices to the point where we have ‘fallen away’. Why not? Because that would make your salvation based on works, and clearly the scriptures teach that salvation is not based on works.
Then what is falling away? It is falling away from the ONE THING THAT GOT YOU SAVED TO BEGIN WITH. And that is belief (belief means faith) … the belief that Jesus is God’s resurrected Son who died for your sins. And as I said earlier, belief is not categorized as a ‘work’.
These false teachers that Jude is talking about are twice dead. They have fallen away from their primary belief that Jesus is the Christ. It is impossible for them to come back. They have committed the sin unto death.
Before we conclude this portion about ‘apostates’, I want to add another important section of scripture.
You are all, no doubt, familiar with the parable of Jesus regarding the sower and the seed.
Some seed was spilled onto the hard pathway, some landed on ground that was very rocky, some on soil that soon became overtaken by weed and finally some that fell on good soil and produced a crop.
I alluded earlier to a progression of exposure to the Word of God.
Seed that falls on the ‘way-side’ really represents no exposure at all. It is gone before it can do any good.
However there is seed that falls on hearts that seems to have taken root, but a crop never develops.
Jesus put it this way, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” Matthew 13:21-21
This also ‘apostasy’. It would seem that the persecution and suffering causes a serious and sad evaluation of truth. He is not just saying to himself, “This just isn’t worth it. I am throwing Christianity out!” I think it is worse than that. I think it starts with the thought, “This Christianity teaching probably isn’t true anyway. I think I am suffering for nothing”
At that point it still would not be apostasy. But when it reaches the point that he says, “There is just nothing to it. I don’t even know why I believed it to begin with “. At that point it COULD be apostasy, since this person has stopped believing. However it is STILL up to God and not us to evaluate.
The rocky soil represented persecution. Then Jesus talked about the seed that fell in ground that was overtaken by weeds. This represents another area that we really need to guard against. Jesus refers to it as the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Most of us are more familiar with this soil than the rocky soil. Have you experienced the cares of the world? Have you dealt with problems like, How am I ever going to pay for this? I will need to take on two jobs! Failed bad investments. Unexpected major bills. Unexpected major illnesses. Divorce. Death in the family.
Things like these can either drive us closer to God or drive us to despair. The downward steps of despair can bring us to the point where we are asking, Where is God. I need Him now. But nothing is changing. I don’t think there even is a God. As a matter of fact I know there is no God.
Once again, we are not God, so we cannot judge that this person has fallen away completely and become an apostate. But it could happen.
Seeking after the ‘stuff’ of this world can be deadly. Jesus said, the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. A person who has the ‘I want it all’ attitude may come to Christ for the wrong reason. Yes he wants forgiveness, yes he wants eternal life in heaven … but it is all about him and his wants. He also wants money … lots of it. In the process of a lifetime of struggling to get ahead, somewhere back there he forgot all about his commitment to Christ. Now he no longer believes. He has died spiritually. Ceasing to believe becomes deadly. Is he an ‘apostate’? Has he ‘lost his salvation’? Maybe. That is not for us to judge.
At some point in the future Christians are going to be put to a very serious ‘belief’ test. A very convincing, miracle working world leader will come onto the scene. He will be demanding worship. Some Christians may get very confused and think that he actually is some kind of a Jesus. They will worship him. They will be showing an outward visible sign that they believe in him. What is that ‘sign’? They will take his mark in their right hand or in their forehead. At that point they have sealed their doom. Believing in, worshipping this false prophet or antiChrist is the sin unto death, because they made a choice. They have chosen to believe in and worship ‘the beast’. They have ceased to believe in Jesus. (By the way, the beast won’t look like a beast.) Let’s read about it. 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name."
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
It is not ‘work’ to keep on believing in Jesus. But we can all get ourselves in spiritually unhealthy situations.
How can we ensure that our belief in Jesus remains permanent? The apostle Peter addresses exactly that thing.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:3-11
This is a good way to end this topic. Apostasy is spiritual death. In some cases spiritual suicide. Sometimes it means just departing from truth, good ethics and morals and not departing from faith in Jesus. Paul said that the second coming will not take place until the ‘great falling away’ takes place worldwide. He used the word apostasy. Jesus also said in Matthew the 24th chapter that wickedness would increase and a decrease in the love within churches would take place. So that is another use of the word apostasy.
But Peter’s words certainly guarantee that we will never reach the place where apostasy would ever become an issue in our lives.
But I want to encourage you to think of others and not only your own security. If you see a fellow christian ‘walking away’, James, Jude’s brother said, My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
So Jude said that apostates are in the church already. Paul predicted a rise in the numbers of false teachers in the last days. We are there. We want to be able to recognise them. So next time we will look at their style and the content of teaching.