Turning from Truth: Heresy & Apostasy
Daily Devo: June 6, 2024
2 Timothy 4:3-4 ~ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Let us start by defining a couple of words. “Apostasy” is an abandonment of what one has professed; a total desertion, or departure from one's faith or religion. “Heresy” is a fundamental error in religion, or an error of opinion respecting some fundamental doctrine of religion. Heresy, in law, is an offense against Christianity, consisting in a denial of some of its essential doctrines, publicly avowed and obstinately maintained. Heresy leads to apostasy. When we have an error being taught in the church it is only a matter of time before the devil will be able to pull people into apostasy. My firm belief is that in America many churches have become heretical in their teachings and have caused a great many churches to fall by the wayside and become apostate.
There is a sect of Baptists wondering why they do not have the number of conversions and baptisms that they once had. But their seminaries have become Calvinistic in their teachings and their doctrine. Calvinism at its very core is anti-evangelical and therefore anti-Christ and anti-missionary. Our Lord Jesus taught confrontational evangelism; He went out into places where the sinners were at and confronted them in love with the Gospel. Paul carried the Gospel into Asia and Europe where it eventually went into Germany and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean into America. But Calvinism teaches that there is no need to go because people are predestined by God to go to Heaven or hell, and we cannot do anything about it.
This apostate stand started with heresy. They taught that Old Testament stories were not literal stories and that there was no need to take them as literal. They teach that God did not part the Red Sea; they simply went around the end of the sea where the water was only three or four inches deep. Even if that were true – and it is not – it would still be a great miracle because God drowned one of the greatest armies in that day in four inches of water! Their departure continued when they began to teach that Jesus was not the Son of God in the flesh until He was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism in the Jordan River. Here we see that heresy, which is erroneous doctrine and departure from the truth, leads to apostasy, a departure from the fundamental doctrines of the faith.
It is my observation that these heretical departures from the faith began with the changing of the Word of God. When in the 1870’s men began to determine that there were “many and grievous” errors in the Authorized King James Bible the devil deceived them into revising and rewriting God’s Holy Word. At that point in time many of the great revivals began to cease and are now non-existent. The manuscripts they used were corrupt and tainted. The men who secretly had a hand in providing portions of manuscripts were corrupt, and from all their writings there is not found one single profession of faith in Christ as their Lord and Saviour. There is a great deal of evidence in their writings of darkness and corruption in their minds as to spiritual beliefs, and some that are not so godly.
In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 we are warned that these things will come to pass. There are those who are turning away from doctrinally sound, Bible preaching churches today. They want to hear things that do not condemn and convict them for indulging in the things of the world. They have become rebellious in the eyes of God: “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isa 30:9-10).
Therefore, we need real preachers, men who are not afraid of losing their position in a church but love the Lord and live their lives to please Him, not the people. But even in this, the man of God must love the people and preach with fire and fervency as well as with love, kindness, and compassion. If God’s man loves the people as he should, with the love of Christ in his heart, he can preach like John the Baptist at times, like John the Beloved at other times, and the people will stay the course and God will bless the church with fruitfulness.
Do not be duped into compromising Biblical Truths for the sake of unity, acceptance, or likeability in the world. Stay the course by staying in God’s Word.
Dr. Todd Taylor