Thoughts on Apostasy by Pastoral Intern Mark Kuo

Recently a renowned Christian pastor and author announced his departure from the faith and divorced his wife. Apostasy is indeed sad.  Yet what is worse is that some Christians tend to rationalize apostasy. They think apostasy provides a good opportunity for the apostates to reflect on what they believe and thus help them find truth. Some Christians, on the other hand, because of obvious examples of apostasy, tend to think Christians may lose their salvation by apostasy. What then should Christians think about apostasy, and how should they guard themselves from apostasy according to the Scriptures?

First, apostasy DOES NOT mean that a person once has salvation but later loses it. The Bible warns professing believers against apostasy (Heb. 4:4-6, 10:26-29). Professing believers include both true and false believers. True believers, though they may fall into grievous sins, will never lose their salvation and will certainly persevere in faith by God’s persevering grace (Jn. 10:28-29; WCF 17-1). False believers, however, if they never come to saving faith, will eventually deny faith when persecution or tribulation comes. Notice that when they apostatize, in fact they have NOT lost their salvation, because they have NEVER had salvation. Apostasy implies the absence, rather than the loss, of salvation.

Second, God uses warnings against apostasy as one of the means to preserve His elect so that they will persevere. Knowing our spiritual sluggishness and feebleness, God sovereignly uses severe warnings to keep us humble about our weakness and sinfulness, watchful to surrounding temptations, dependent upon God’s grace, and diligent to use all the means of grace, which, by the Spirit’s power, help produce our perseverance. That is why, after the warnings in Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26-29, the author shows confidence that those who heeded the warnings would persevere: “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. ” (Heb. 6:9); “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Heb. 10:39)

Sometimes God may even use such warnings to awaken false believers to examine their hearts which leads to their conversion.

Third, apostasy dishonors Christ. For those who once profess faith in Christ and yet later deny Him, their sin is in a sense more grievous than those who never profess, because they “crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame” (Heb. 10:6). Thus, whenever anyone goes on in apostasy, we ought to feel holy grief and wrath for the sake of Christ’s glory. Apostasy does nothing but trample Christ again after all that He has done for sinners.

Fourth, apostasy damages the soul. Hebrews 6:4-6 cannot be clearer: “For it is impossible… if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance”. There is never anything positive about apostasy, period! Jesus says, “whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Matthew 13:12). Those who hardened their hearts after hearing and seeing so much of Jesus’ words and works, even what they had already heard would be taken away as a divine judgment. Thus, apostasy by its own nature would most likely lead to God’s judgment and more stubbornness, instead of the discovery and embrace of truth.

Fifth, there is no excuse for apostasy, because it denies the undeniable truth which has been clearly taught to them and understood by them. 

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Here are some commonly alleged reasons for apostasy: God cannot be loving if He sends people to hell; God cannot be good if He allows this or that to happen in my life. Some Christians have hurt me so badly that that I cannot believe in God anymore. The Bible is full of contradictions, and/or is not in harmony with modern scientific researches so it is not trustworthy. All these statements share a thesis in common: “My ultimate authority of faith and practice will be anything but God and His Word. As long as God’s Word and works do not fit my chosen authority, I’ll leave God anyway”. The ultimate reason for apostasy is not a lack of knowledge, but the absence of faith in God’s Word, and the problem lies not in the Bible but in the unregenerate heart. Thus, no apostate can ever have any excuse.

Sixth, bulletproofing against apostasy is to make diligent use of all the ordinary means of grace. God is sovereign in saving and preserving His elect. Yet God does so through the divinely ordained means of grace (i.e. word, prayer, and sacraments). Thus, we are responsible to use such means in order to persevere in faith, especially when our faith seems weak and shaky.

In Hebrews chapter 6, preceding the warnings, we are taught to keep growing in grace unceasingly “to perfection”, and not stop in the very “foundation”(6:1). Following the warning, we are taught to show “diligence” in order to obtain “assurance of hope until the end” (6:11), and not “become sluggish”, but imitate the example of “those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:12). Likewise, in Hebrews chapter 10, preceding the warning, we are taught not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” but to “stir up love and good works…exhorting one another” (10:25).

The Bible not only NEVER rationalizes or excuses apostasy, but also unequivocally and seriously admonishes believers to fight against apostasy by using all the means of grace. Jesus says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (Jn. 10:27). So a true believer with a new heart, however weak he or she may be, will have a desire for God’s word and consequently a desire for the word-based means of grace: hearing the word being read, taught, and preached, praying according to the word, and partaking the sacraments as visible pictures of the word. And we rely not upon the means themselves, but upon the Spirit who powerfully effectuates those means unto our salvation which includes our perseverance.

May we walk with the Lord by faith and not by sight, working out our “own salvation with fear and trembling”, relying not on ourselves but on the grace of God, who first “works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12a-13).  Amen.