Understanding What Apostasy Is

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Confronting Apostasy: Dealing With Scripture-Twisters

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part seven of a series. Read part six.

How will you respond when people twist Scripture to try to prevent you from doing what God’s Word commands you to do?

In our last article, we began considering a scenario that is becoming increasingly common in the church today. What would you do if you found yourself in this situation? You discover false teaching or even outright apostasy in your church. But others in the church – perhaps even your own pastor and church leadership – tell you to keep quiet about it, and they quote Scripture to back up their demand.

This is not some far-fetched scenario. It is very real. Many people in Evangelical and Reformed churches are facing this challenge today.

Over the past several years I have had the privilege of ministering to many people, literally from around the world, who are dealing with this kind of a situation. Many of them have asked for my advice because they know that I have faced such a situation myself. Two of my books, Christianity and Neo-Liberalism and A Denomination in Denial, described that particular crisis which unfolded in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I am grateful to say that I was not alone in confronting apostasy in that case, although those of us who did so were a minority. By God’s grace I can say to you that I am thoroughly convinced that we who confronted that particular apostasy did so in a manner that was thoroughly Biblical.

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Dealing With Apostasy: Don’t Be Intimidated

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part six of a series. Read part five.

Some people in the church will try to prevent you from doing your duty when apostasy appears. Don’t let them.

Thus far in this series, we have discussed three of the five keys to a Biblical response to apostasy. Key number one is that you need to be able to define and identify apostasy. You must do that on the basis of Scripture alone. Key number two is that you need to be absolutely clear about the Biblical basis for the proper response to apostasy. The basis of that response is to exercise the proper motivation – genuine Christian love – and to employ the proper standard – Biblical truth alone. Key number three is that you need to understand why any other response to apostasy is a wrong response. Many people refuse to deal with apostasy because they say it is not the loving thing to do. But we saw that what those people call Christian love is really a counterfeit. It is not agape love at all.

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Why All Other Reponses to Apostasy Are Wrong

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part five of a series. Read part four.

Christ commended the church at Ephesus for its stand against apostasy, but warned them about the danger of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

We have come now to the third of the five keys to a Biblically loving response to apostasy: You need to understand why other responses to apostasy in the church are wrong responses. Once again, this has to do with the Biblical definition of Christian love. What many people call Christian love is really a counterfeit. It is not agape love at all.

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Exposing Apostasy: The Right Motivation, The Right Standard

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part four of a series. Read part three.

The only Biblical motivation for confronting apostasy is love for Christ and His church, and the only standard for judging apostasy is the truth of God’s Word.

In this series our theme is an examination of five keys to a Biblically loving response to apostasy. In this article we shall focus on key number two: You need to be absolutely clear about the Biblical motivation for the proper response to apostasy. The proper response, the Biblical response, is based upon genuine Christian love – agape love.

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Understanding What Apostasy Is – And Is Not

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part three of a series. Read part two.

To properly confront it, you must understand what apostasy is, and is not, according to Scripture.

In our first article, I explained the reason for this series: Today, every Bible-believing Christian faces a disturbing reality. Survey after survey shows that there is a high statistical probability that you will, at some point, need to take a stand against apostasy within your own church.

We saw, in Colossians chapter two and 1 John chapter three, that the proper motivation for such an act of courage and faith is agape love. The Bible defines this as a self-sacrificial love that appreciates the preciousness of your fellow believers in the body of Christ, a love that demonstrates itself through active concern for their spiritual safety. Demonstrating such love may require you to make the self-sacrifice of putting your personal reputation on the line by sounding the alarm against apostasy.

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