APPENDIX III

The WORLDVIEW and the DESTINATION of the UNREPENTANT MAKE BELIEVER/APOSTATE BELIEVER.

The DEFINITION of AN APOSTATE BELIEVER.

The Bible declares that in the end times there will be much false teaching in The Christian Church. This false teaching is being brought into The Church by the false teaching of pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets. These Make Believers and their false teachings are actually doctrines including Christian fiction taught them by demons. (1)
(1) Perilous Times and Perilous Men. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5) NKJV

I will use two different Christian dictionaries to define and help you know just how they define APOSTASY and its consequences: (Hebrew – meshuwbaah; Greek – parapiptoo, aphisteemi, apostasia):
“Defection from the faith, an act of unpardonable rebellion against God and his truth. The sin of apostasy results in the abandonment of Christian doctrine and conduct. With respect to the covenant relationship established through prior profession of faith (passive profession in the case of baptized infants), apostates place themselves under the curse and wrath of God as covenant breakers, having entered into a state of final and irrevocable condemnation. Those who apostatize are thus numbered among the reprobate. Since the resurrection of Christ, there is no distinction between blasphemy against Christ and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt 12:31-32; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-29; 1 John 5:16-17).
G. C. Berkouwer comments: “We must underscore the deep seriousness of the biblical warning against apostasy ‘after enlightenment’ and ‘after the knowledge of the truth.’ This is the apostasy which reviles the Spirit of grace and despises the Son of God and crucifies the Man of Sorrows anew” (p. 343). Berkouwer is correct to refute the idea that this sin against the Holy Spirit is a musterium iniquitatis (“a mystery of sin”), a sin difficult, if at all possible, to define precisely in the Bible.
“Apostatizing from God’s redemptive covenant is an act of unpardonable transgression and rebellion. All other sins are forgiven on true repentance and faith. Those who fall out of fellowship with the saints are restored to full communion through confession of sin and reaffirmation of faith in Jesus Christ. Excommunication, as a final step in the process of ecclesiastical discipline, is undertaken in the hope of restoring the wayward sinner who has fallen into grievous sin (1 Cor 5:1-5).
“In biblical prophecy apostasy is an eschatological sign of the impending day of the Lord, a precursor of the final day of judgment. Ancient Israel’s experience of divine wrath and displeasure served as typological foreshadowings of that latter day. The increase in apostasy in these last days of the church’s wilderness experience is associated with the appearance of the ‘man of lawlessness.” (2 Thess 2:1-3). (2)
Mark W. Karlberg
(2) (from Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Copyright © 1996 by Baker Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)

Another view of APOSTASY: A “falling away.” The common classical use of the word has to do with a political defection (Gen 14:4, LXX; 2 Chron 13:6, LXX; Acts 5:37). In the NT its more usual meaning is that of a religious defection (21:21; 4:1; 3:12). This is called “apostasy from the faith” (apostasia a fide): a secession from the church, and a disowning of the name of Christ. Some of its peculiar characteristics are mentioned, such as seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, hypocritical lying, a seared conscience, forbidding of marriage and of meats, a form of godliness without the power (1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:5). The grave nature of apostasy is shown by such passages as Heb 10:26-29; 2 Peter 2:15-21, and John 15:22. Apostasy as the act of a professed Christian, who knowingly and deliberately rejects revealed truth regarding the deity of Christ (1 John 4:1-3) and redemption through His atoning sacrifice (Phil 3:18; 2 Peter 2:1) is different from error, which may be the result of ignorance (Acts 19:1-6), or heresy, which may be the result of falling into the snare of Satan (2 Tim 2:25-26). Both error and heresy may accordingly be consistent with true faith. On the other hand, apostasy departs from the faith but not from the outward profession of it (2 Tim 3:5). Apostasy, whether among the angels (Isa 14:12-14; Ezek 28:15; Jude 6), in Israel (Isa 1:1-6; 5:5-7), or in the church (Rev 3:14-16) is irremediable and awaits judgment. Mankind’s apostasy in Adam (Gen 3:6-7) is curable only through the sacrifice of Christ. Apostates apparently can only be professors and not actual possessors of true salvation, otherwise their defection would incur severe chastening or, if this failed to restore them, untimely (physical) death (1 Cor 5:5; 11:32; 1 John 5:16).
(3) (from The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright © 1988.)

The DESTINY of the APOSTATE BELIEVER.

The article on APOSTACY from the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology states that it is the, “Defection from the faith, an act of unpardonable rebellion against God and his truth. The sin of apostasy results in the abandonment of Christian doctrine and conduct.” The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary makes the eye opening statement that “Apostates apparently can only be professors and not actual possessors of true salvation, otherwise their defection would incur severe chastening or, if this failed to restore them, untimely (physical) death (1 Cor 5:5; 11:32; 1 John 5:16).”

New Unger’s Bible Dictionary confirms APOSTACY is of a religious defection. This is called “apostasy from the faith: “a secession from the church, and a disowning of the name of Christ. Some of its peculiar characteristics are mentioned, such as seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, hypocritical lying, a seared conscience, forbidding of marriage and of meats, a form of godliness without the power (2 Timothy 3:5).”

Both articles declare this unrepented falling away from the true orthodox Christian faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross to be blasphemy of God the Holy Spirit which is an unpardonable eternal sin.