Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
Christian asks, what is apostasy? Oh, I love that question. I’ll let you answer it.
Speaker 2
This is one of those beautifully simple questions with a lot of depth to it, actually. So apostasy actually comes from the Greek word apostasia, and it means falling away, defection, apostasy. See? And the word itself shows up twice in the Bible, at least in the King James version, the Greek word for it. And first of all, we see Paul being accused of apostasy. So this gives us an example of what it looks like. And this was because he was teaching the Christians that they didn’t need to be circumcised or followed the Jewish traditions. So we come to Acts 21, starting at verse 17, and it says, and when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day, Paul went in to be with James and the elders and all these people. And eventually some people come to Paul in verse 21 says, but they have been informed about you, Paul, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children or walk according to the customs. So King James translates that or new King James, as forsaking know, turning your back.
Speaker 2
That’s what the new living translation actually says. You’re causing the Gentiles to turn their back on the laws of Moses. If we jump back to Deuteronomy, we have another example of what it looks like to have apostasy. This one. It comes in Deuteronomy 13, starting at verse one. It talks about that there would be a prophet from time to time that might arise and might dream dreams and give a sign or wonder. And this is really interesting. Verse two says, and the sign or wonder could come to pass, which he spoke, saying, let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them. And God says, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or the dreamer dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you. So even if he makes a prediction, the prediction comes true. If he’s causing you to turn your back from God, don’t do that. You need to hold fast to him. And then in verse five says, but the prophet or dreamer dream shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God.
Speaker 2
And that word there, turn you away, is a Hebrew word, Sarah, which means apostasy, defection, turning aside, withdrawal. Very similar to apostasia that we see in the Greek. In Jeremiah 29 32, it says, Thus says the Lord, behold, I will punish shemamaya because he has taught rebellion against the Lord. And that word there would be the apostasy, jeremiah 219. It talks about, and your backsliding will rebuke you. You have forsaken the Lord your God. So this shows up multiple times. Now, this is really interesting. We were talking about the Book of Daniel, right? Daniel, in chapter eight at verse twelve, he talks about the rebellion that goes on with the Lord’s people, where there’s this horn power that shows up, takes away the daily sacrifice or just the daily, the ordinances, the processes that would go on at the sanctuary. He takes those away. And then if we jump to verse 13, it talks about the rebellion that causes desolation. And that should sound familiar because in Matthew 24, Jesus talks about 24, verses 15 to 16, Jesus talks about the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel, the prophet standing in the holy place. This is a big event.
Speaker 2
It’s a big event to Daniel. He sees this vision in multiple iterations, like three or four times, and then you have Jesus talking about this abomination of desolation, this rebellion and the deceit and all these things that are going to happen, the false prophets. Now we come to Paul in second thessalonians two, and this is the second time we see the word apostasia or apostasy. So second thessalonians two, verse one, it says, now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together. To Him, we ask you not to be shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. So he’s saying, don’t think yet that Jesus has already come or that it’s going to be tomorrow. It’s not. Paul says. He says verse three, let no one deceive you by any means for that day. The coming of Christ, the second coming, will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. That word, the falling away, is apostasia. So Paul’s talking about this great apostasy that would first have to come about in Christianity.
Speaker 2
So Christianity as a whole is turning its back on God, falling from its high place of glory to terrible state of sin and corruption and rebellion against God. So if you look at the new English translation, it will say, instead of fallen way, it will say rebellion. If you look at the NASB version, it will use the word apostasy here. So it’s really fascinating. This is a big event and sadly, a lot of people think that Christianity has had this slow, steady build of getting better and better and better through the centuries. And the Bible is telling us, whoa, hold on, no. Just like the Jews and the Hebrews had always kept falling into apostasy, guess what, Christianity, you’re going to fall into big time apostasy too, before Jesus will come. It’s good to understand apostasy. It’s turning yourself away from God rebelling. You could see more about this apostasy if you look at like Revelation 13, verses 48, talking about blasphemies persecution of the saints, the same sort of stuff that Daniel is talking about. And Paul is talking about. We see that in Revelation again. Just everything. God is about think the opposite.
Speaker 2
God’s about life, apostasy is about death, god’s about truth, apostasy is about deceit. It’s about, you know, hating as opposed to loving. At its core, it’s sin in his utmost by someone claiming to be a Christian, claiming to be God’s person, but actually doing the exact opposite of what God would want. They’re walking away from God rather than walking to God. Any thoughts, questions? V or Tina?
Speaker 1
I think that was good. I like that question. I love the apostasy. I have some friends that used to go paste. It was like a cool sounding word, even though it’s a terrible thing, but.
Speaker 2
It’S a cool word. But yeah, definitely one I think most of us don’t understand and think about. I mean, we know it’s bad. We know it’s bad.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
