Are You An Apostate Christian?

By Dr. Ken Matto

{24} And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.  {25} This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.  {26} And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.  (Acts 18:24-26)

No I am not talking about a Christian losing their salvation because if a person is truly saved, then they cannot lose their salvation.  I have been saved for over 39 years and there is one thing which I have seen that has not changed is that Christians will never investigate or check anything out in the Scriptures to see if what they believe or adopt as a belief system is truly biblical.  So I would like to point out 16 problems which plague Christianity today.  Many pose the question concerning why there is no unity in Christianity today?  The answer is simple that Christians do not actually accept and embrace what the Bible specifically teaches.  They allow others to tell them what to believe whether right or wrong.  The 16 points I want to offer designate behavior of an apostate. 

The word “apostasia” is where we get the word “apostasy” from and basically means “a defection from truth.” It is found in two places in the New Testament.  The word carries with it other meanings such as “rebellion, apostasy, forsaking, departure.” 

And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.  (Acts 21:21)

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;  (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

To forsake something as we read in Acts 21:21 means an intentional forsaking of something.  In Acts 21:21, the Apostle Paul was accused of teaching the Jews to forsake the law of Moses.  In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, we read that it is a “falling away” which is a departure from the orthodox teachings of the Bible.  In both instances there is a willful departure from established truth and when that happens in the life of a believer in even just the slightest bit, it opens the door for them to accept further apostasy until they wind up fighting against the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 speaks about a time when there will come a falling away.  The Great Apostasy has already begun and it is not an event where millions of people are going to fall away at one time.  Keep in mind that the unbeliever, whether religious or not cannot fall away simply because they are already fallen by means of believing a false gospel or partaking in the world system which has no place for God in it.  When someone falls away, they must fall from something and that would be true biblical Christianity.  Each individual believer is responsible to keep themselves in the truth because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.  It is possible for the true believer to quench and grieve the Holy Spirit and we do this when we accept things which are not of God but are opposite.  Satan has been loosed to deceive the nations and one of his targets is the true believer whom he will try to derail and cause to ruin their Christian walk.  Since Christians spend more time staring at their phones than they do studying the Bible, Satan has been very successful in hamstringing the body of Christ so it becomes a weak entity and poses no threat to his advances.

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?  (Luke 18:8)

We live in a day when Christians now filter their beliefs and actions through personal preferences, bias, emotions and feelings.  No longer is the Bible used to confirm or refute our actions and beliefs.  This is why the Lord asks the question when he returns “shall he find faith on the earth?”  Basically the majority of Christians are filtering their actions and beliefs through themselves and not the Bible.  This is why Christianity is in such disarray and ask most Christians what they believe and why, they couldn’t tell you!  If unity is to be achieved in Christianity, then strict adherence to the Scriptures minus emotions, preferences, bias, and feelings must be observed.

These 16 points I am offering are part of the personal apostasy which has happened to many Christians and when you combine the millions of Christians who have adopted these beliefs and actions, then in the aggregate you have a major apostasy among Christianity.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.  (Jeremiah 6:16)

The new ways are devastating the effectiveness of Christianity and causing it to become weaker day by day.  This is why God places Jeremiah 6:16 in the Scriptures that we are to seek the old paths which is the biblically based source of Christianity instead of the modern feeling based counterfeit that many Christians have adopted.  If one compares Christianity to what it was just 100 years ago, you will see a steady decline in its effectiveness and that just didn’t happen by chance but because it has been invaded with all kinds of foreign beliefs and I mean beliefs foreign to the Scriptures.  God cannot bless and strengthen man-centered belief systems instead he will weaken them.  Did you compare how strong the United States was 100 years ago and now has become weakened?  Why? Because the Christianity which is supposed to be the conscience of this nation has also become weakened.  When the conscience is subdued, the body then does what it pleases and that is exactly what we are seeing today.  Let us ask a series of questions to see if you are contributing to the Great Apostasy.  Remember, just like a rain storm, it takes millions of raindrops to create that storm.  It means that if we are doing one apostate thing it may not look like a big deal but just think when you combine that apostate action with millions of others who are doing apostate actions, it will cause apostasy to rise in Christianity at an alarming rate and will affect everyone’s spirituality, including those who may be associated with the ones practicing apostasy.  Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!  (Matthew 18:7)  We must be very careful that our teachings and lifestyle are not harmfully  affecting anyone else.

Do you use a Modern Version?

Modern versions are counterfeits and it does not matter what some degreed expert says.  God gave us one Bible and not 300.  The King James Bible served the church well for over 400 years and Christians must realize that Satan would do anything to weaken the church and the Christian so their testimony is so weak, it counts for nothing against the wisdom of the world.  The modern versions use Roman Catholic manuscripts and Rome has been no friend of the true Christian.  This is why the church and Christians who use them have so much confusion and do not know the Bible, simply because if they use a modern version, they don’t have the Bible.  The false versions are a departure from the true Word of God because of the corruptions found in each and every version.¹

1. 2 Corinthians 2:17

Do you Believe in Free Will?

The Bible teaches that when man sinned in the Garden of Eden,¹ they went into a state of spiritual death.  They lived physically but died spiritually.  A spiritually dead person has no power to regenerate themselves just as a physically dead person has no power to resurrect themselves.²  The Bible states that you are either a slave of sin or a servant of Christ.³  There is no neutral state waiting for your decision.  God has stated that he chose the believer from the foundation of the world and we do not choose him because we are in a state of spiritual death.⁴  When God saves someone he resurrects their soul unto life.  So free will, not being taught in the Bible, is a departure from the truth of God’s salvation plan.

1. Genesis 2:16-17

2. Ephesians 2:1-5

3. Romans 6:16-20

4. Revelation 13:8 & 17:8

What Do you Do to Further the Kingdom of God?

The Bible teaches that Jesus gave us a command to send forth the gospel to all the world which means we are to teach all nations.¹  Are you involved in any ministry?  Are you involved in a personal ministry since the Holy Spirit indwells all believers empowering them to fulfill the Great Commission?  If you are doing nothing to further the Kingdom of God, then you are a lazy, apostate Christian who has no reason of  existence.²  Every Christian needs to be involved in some aspect of ministry because this is how the body of Christ grows in number and in influencing society.  Doing nothing is laziness and shows a rebellious spirit toward God.

1. Mark 16:15

2. Proverbs 19:15; Ecclesiastes 10:18

Do you Believe God Begs the Sinner?

Many Christians believe and teach that God is waiting for the sinner to come to him for salvation.  First of all, no one seeks after God which is a solid biblical teaching and secondly, since when is the ruling God of this universe subject to the dictates of unsaved man who is in rebellion to God in his sins?¹  God does not beg the sinner to accept Jesus instead those whom he has chosen from before the foundation of the world will become saved sometime during their life.²  To believe that the Sovereign God of this universe somehow kowtows to man’s dead will is a definite defection from truth.

1. Romans 3:11

2. John 6:37

Do you Tolerate Sins like Sodomy?

In the time we live in the modern church has accepted certain sins such as sodomy.  They live in fear of the sodomite community instead of challenging them with the truth of the gospel they instead adopt an attitude of conciliation which means they do not confront the sins of society.¹  If the church was being true to their calling, abortion would have been eliminated before it began but the church relegated the fight to phony pro-life organizations whose goal is to make sure the CEO makes a six figure salary.² Toleration of any sin is departure from the truths taught in Scripture.  Why do you think there were martyrs in the time of the Roman Empire?  Why do you think there were martyrs in the Middle Ages when the Roman Catholic church was murdering Christians by the thousands?  The answer to both of those questions is that they refused to defect from the truths they knew and refused to worship false religion in both cases.³  Unlike the modern church that accepts the very sins that sent the martyrs to their deaths.

1. Revelation 2:20

2. Proverbs 24:11

3. Revelation 2:13

Do you Love People Right into Hell?

If you have swallowed the phony love which exudes from apostate Christianity then no doubt you have loved people right into hell.  You cannot reach everyone but those in your family and among your friends are your mission field.  To allow a person to continue in sin without a warning from you means you have shirked your duty.¹  If you warn them by giving them a tract or speaking with them, you have done your job.  Either they are the Elect and will become saved or they are not the Elect and will not become saved but you have done your spiritual duty. To love people into hell is not love but a form of hatred because you know the truth where they are heading and if they don’t get saved, there will come a day when it will be their last day and you will feel the sorrow for avoiding your duty.  Now don’t get me wrong, it is not your fault if they died unsaved but since we do not know who the Elect of God are, we must witness to each one or try our best to get the gospel into different areas, even witnessing to people we do not know.  True love is tough and tells people what they need to hear not what they want to hear.²  To replace true love with phony love is a departure from the teachings of Scriptures.

1. Ezekiel 3:18-21

2. 2 Timothy 4:3

Do you accept Roman Catholicism as another Denomination?

The Roman Catholic Church is nothing more than the Cult of the Virgin which goes back to ancient times including Diana of the Ephesians and Ishtar of Babylon.  It has never taught a way of salvation and is a false church.  They only teach a smidgeon of truth such as Christ is God and the Virgin birth which gives it just enough legitimacy to be considered a Christian denomination by other undiscerning, apostate churches.  The majority of their priests are sodomites.  They have continually fought against true Christianity since their inception and have even resorted to murdering and torturing millions of true Christians who rejected their false teachings such as transubstantiation, worship of relics and images, praying to the Saints, the Rosary, Indulgences, etc.  None of these are found or taught in Scripture.  There is no Pope, Cardinal, Arch Bishop, Monsignor, or even a special class of priests taught in the New Testament Scriptures.  They murdered anyone who would translate the Bible in the language of the common people such as William Tyndale and John Rogers who worked with Tyndale and then in 1537 created the Matthews Bible.  Roman Catholicism is such a departure from orthodox Christianity, it is inconceivable that anyone can consider them a Christian denomination.¹  This is apostasy of the highest order.

1. 2 Peter 2:1

Do you speak about everything but Christ?

In our day we have conversations about everything except the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now no one is telling you to climb up on a desk at work and start preaching.  If we work then it is our responsibility and a good testimony that we give the company a good days work.  There are other times when we can bring up the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation.  I remember once at church I was having a biblical conversation with some brothers in the back and some guy breaks into the group asking us if we want to buy tickets to a soccer game.  Even in church Christians do not talk spiritual things.  If we are to evangelize, then we are to speak and not only about sports or the weather either.  We need to tailor our speech to the spiritual things and not just the secular things.¹  As Christians if all we do is speak of secular things then we have departed from the proper testimony which is required of the true believer.

1. 1 John 4:5-6

Do you get your Theology from compromised Radio ministries or TV ministries?

Many Christians have undertaken the lifetime project of never studying the Bible for themselves.¹  Why should they?  All they have to do is turn on the radio and listen to their favorite compromised ministry.  The problem with that type of mentality is that you are subjecting yourself to the beliefs of someone else without even realizing it.  The problem with relegating your thinking to media ministries is that every half hour or hour you will hear a different teaching and by the end of just 3 hours, you will have heard many divergent beliefs and will become confused.²  The reason I say that all media ministries are compromised is because they must continue to tell the people what they want to hear in palatable language so the donations keep coming in.  Many of the ministry speakers are making six figure salaries so to keep up that lifestyle, they must compromise to keep the coffers filled.³  If you analyze some of these speakers, most of them are story tellers and never get into the deep truths of the Bible and that is because they don’t know the Bible.  I have heard famous media preachers teach more on philosophy and psychology than the Bible.  Any time you adopt and support these compromised ministries, you have departed from the truth of Scripture and the true Christian message and therefore have committed apostasy.

1. 2 Timothy 2:15

2. 1 Corinthians 14:33

3. Luke 16:24; 1Timothy 6:17; James 1:11

Do you Compromise your Testimony under the Umbrella of not Offending?

Let’s get it straight.  The true gospel and the cross is an offense to the unbeliever and the liberal Christian.¹  Do you sugarcoat your message with all kinds of “God loves you or Jesus loves you” type messages.   The reality is that the love of God and the love of Christ are qualified and their love is reserved for the true believer.  Before salvation a person is at enmity with God and the Bible teaches plainly that God hates all workers of iniquity which means all the unsaved.²  The people must know this and to teach the phony love gospel may also mean that you may not be saved.  The true born again Christian desires to teach the full counsel of God and not to abbreviate the message by leaving out the reality of eternal damnation of the unbelievers.³  To omit any teachings so you will not offend your hearers means that you have departed from the true message and are under a banner of apostasy.

1. Romans 9:33; Galatians 5:11; 1 Peter 2:6-8

2. Psalm 5:5; Psalm 7:11

3. Acts 20:27

Does your Pastor do your thinking for you?

Many Christians sit in churches week after week and absorb the teachings of one man and eventually adopt his teachings.  The movie theater style of worship is dangerous because every week one man gets up in front of the congregation and teaches them which means if you attend a church of 250, then the pastor is doing the thinking for 250 people.  I and some of my friends have spoken with people over the years and many responses are like this, “Well, my pastor says…”  If you must bow the knee to the pastor of your church to remain a member, then get out of that church because it is not a church, it is a prison and the pastor is the warden.  We are to study the scriptures for ourselves.  This is the reason God gave the Holy Spirit to every believer because we all have ministries and should not be subject to the whims of one man attempting to build his personal kingdom.¹  Now I am not claiming that all pastors are like this but the majority of them feel threatened by anyone in the congregation that can think for themselves.  If your pastor teaches something which is against the true teachings of Scripture and you accept them because he is the pastor, then you and he have become apostates.²

1. John 16:13

2. Mark 7:7

Do you Investigate or Research a Teaching before Accepting It?

Many times we hear a teaching and just because of the person who taught it, we accept it as truth.  The Apostle Paul had commended the Bereans for searching out the Scriptures to see if what Paul taught was true.  Here was a great teacher of truth commending those who were checking him out to make sure everything he taught was the truth.¹  Keep in mind one principle, the more famous a Christian is, the more likely they are sold out to the world so they could keep their fame.  My admonition is that when you hear a teaching from a famous Christian you better check it out in scripture because fame is not a criteria for telling the truth.  Just because a Christian is famous does not mean they are walking closer with the Lord, in fact, it normally is just the opposite.  If you do not check out any teachings before you accept them, then there is a very good chance you will become apostate in your biblical understanding and will eventually pass that on to others.

1. Acts 17:11

Do you reject certain Teachings in Scripture if it interferes with your Plans?

Many Christians love the Bible until it begins to interfere with their plans.  One of the teachings of scripture which is totally ignored by churches and Christians in general is the teachings on marriage after divorce.¹  Pastors ignore it so they can build their kingdoms bigger and the bigger their kingdom is, the bigger the income.  The Bible forbids marriage after divorce calling it adultery and yet churches and Christians ignore it.  The Bible even forbids drinking alcohol as it states that we should not even look upon the wine in the glass and looking comes before drinking.²  To justify their drinking beer and whiskey and whatever, they proclaim that “Christ drank wine.”  I am still looking for the scripture where it specifically states that.  The Pharisees accused Christ of being a winebibber and a glutton.  An accusation is just that, an accusation, not proof.  Anytime we reject or ignore the teachings of scripture because it tends to foul up our plans then we have become apostates.

1. Matthew 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18

2. Proverbs 23:31

Do you Believe you can Lose your Salvation?

Many Christians have adopted the false teaching that you can lose your salvation and that ties back to the free will teaching which is an apostate teaching in itself.  This teaching basically vilifies the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary claiming it was insufficient to really save and man has to step in and save himself with his good works.¹  The Bible is very clear that once a person has become truly saved, they are kept by the power of God and sealed unto the day of redemption.²  Jesus himself said all that the Father gives him shall come to him and he will lose none.³  To ignore the teachings of Jesus and then claim a person has to save themselves by works is total apostasy and those who teach loss of salvation are not saved themselves.   One of the problems is that too many Christians listen to these glory hounds when they testify as they focus on themselves.  Have you ever heard one say, “I accepted the Lord when I was 5 but then I walked away from Jesus?”  They were never saved at 5 because they said a few words to please mommy and daddy and then went back home to stand guard over their toys so their brothers and sisters would not be able to play with them.

1. Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5

2. Ephesians 4:30; 1 Peter 1:5

3. John 6:37

Do you believe in Dispensationalism?

Dispensationalism is probably the biggest scourge on the truth of Christianity.  It started in 1830 when it was trance channeled through a woman named Margaret MacDonald at the Glasgow, Scotland prophecy conferences.  It is now the theological basis for almost every church in the world.  Dispensationalism cannot be proven in scripture and the false teachings pervading it have done nothing to improve biblical understanding, in fact, just the opposite has occurred.¹  It has created a generation of lazy Christians who do not want to do anything because they believe the rapture can happen at any moment.  The rapture is on the last day not before.²  What keeps dispensationalism alive is the teachings found in prophecy books.  They have turned the truths of Scripture into a Hollywood script to keep the excitement going so they can sell books and charge big entrance fees at Bible conferences.³  Dispensationalism is a false teaching which means that there are more false teachers in Christianity than true ones making it apostate.

1. Daniel 7:25

2. John 6:39; 40; 44; 54; 11:24; 12:48

3. Matthew 10:8

Do you believe Modern Israel is a fulfillment of Prophecy?

Right on the tails of the Dispensational movement is the glorification of the modern nation of Israel.  If God was going to re-birth the nation of Israel, don’t you think he should have mentioned it at least once in the New Testament?¹  God destroyed the ancient nation of Israel in 70 AD because once the Messiah came and went back to Heaven, there was no need for it anymore.²  The destruction of Jerusalem spelled the complete end of the Mosaic system since God was now dealing with the entire world with grace.³  What God destroyed completely in 70 A.D., the modern church now worships and glorifies.⁴  Many churches have the flag of Israel on their platforms showing their identification with that counterfeit nation.  Since 1948 when America became the lap dog for Israel our country has degenerated.  Look at our cities, education system, illegal immigration problem, drug problem, the low caliber of people being elected to office, etc.  Since 1948 we have never won a war, the churches have become weaker by compromising, Christians and churches are obsessed with that country and all under the belief they are God’s chosen people which is a lie because God has only one chosen people and that is those who are in Christ.⁵  Obsessing over modern Israel is a major apostasy in our day.

1. No Scripture

2. Daniel 9:26

3. Matthew 28:19-20

4. 2 Kings 17:12; Romans 2:22; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 John 5:21

5. John 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Peter 2:9-10

Summary

Apostasy need not come in large steps.  For example, you are not going to wake up tomorrow morning and say “I think I will reject the Trinity, I think I will reject the deity of Christ, I think I will reject the teaching that the Holy Spirit is deity.”  No apostasy does not come in large steps but in baby steps so it can mushroom with a firm footing.  You may be in a Christian book store looking at the books and then you come to the Bible section where there are probably 20 different modern translations.  You use the King James Bible but a little voice in the back of your mind says, “This ESV really reads well and I like the notes.”  So you put it back and then in the next week you hear the compromised preachers on the radio using an ESV and then next week you go back and buy the ESV after you are convinced that it is a good translation because famous preachers use it.  So now you ditch your King James Bible and start using the Roman Catholic ESV.  What you did was a compromise because you now took the real word of God out of your Christian walk and replaced it with a counterfeit.

That one compromise now opened the door for Satan to cleverly introduce you to other compromises all while your personal spiritual growth will now deteriorate.  The critical text of the Greek did not begin with Hort and Westcott in 1871 but a man named John Mill created a critical Greek text in 1707.  This means that for 164 years the critical text of Mill did not take foot until 1871 when Hort and Westcott created their critical text.  When the Revised Version of 1881 was completed it did not really take off until the first major translation from that text was published in 1952 being the Revised Standard Version containing all the corruptions of the critical Greek text.  So the false versions started to mushroom after 245 years since the first critical text was created.  As Christians we must be very vigilant in our lives concerning even the smallest departure from the truth because remember, a tree grows from a small seed and many raindrops can turn into a hurricane.

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