The Great Falling Away

The Lexham Bible Dictionary defines apostasy as:

A public denial of a previously held religious belief and a distancing from the community that holds to it. Almost always it has connotations of rebellion, betrayal, treachery or faithlessness.

Greek transliteration is: a falling away or turning away

The best I can determine, the word apostasy is found only twice in the NT. Acts 21:21, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3, we will take a closer look at the latter of these two passages as well as some others that teach us about the falling away.

One other definition I’d like to examine before we get going is the phrase “end-times” or “last days”.

For the purpose of today’s message end-times or last days is:

From the time Jesus first appears until His Second Coming.

Today, we are considering how apostasy correlates to end times.

BODY

Today’s message is centered around Jude’s epistle, which is 1 Chapter long. We’ll be looking at other scripture that supports Jude’s epistle, as we consider:

What is apostasy?

3 types or areas of apostasy.

As Christians, what is our response to apostasy?

What is apostasy?

I gave you the definition, but we need to understand who is an apostate.

Not the same as an unbeliever.

An apostate once believed in God, but has since rejected Him.

Has fallen or turned away from God.

I’d like to begin looking at scripture and understand how serious God takes the apostate.

Let’s start in the OT:

Deuteronomy 13:1–5 ““If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.”

Deuteronomy 13:6–11 ““If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.”

Pretty serious stuff, huh?

Now, something in the NT:

Hebrews 6:4–6 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

This is what we are examining today.

In doing this we will consider three types or areas of apostasy:

Apostasy of the individual

The apostasy of the body of Christ

The apostasy of a nation

As mentioned, our message is centered around Jude, but only touch on a few key points in Jude, before we dig in a bit deeper in other passages.

Epistle of Jude is 1 chapter consisting of 25 verses.

He was brother of James and 1/2 brother of Jesus.

(see Matt 13:55, and Mark 6:3.)

3 main themes:

Battle for the Faith (contend)

Judgement

Hope