If We Deny Him: Examples of Biblical Apostasy

by Keenan Lyon

Contrary to the assumptions of some, the warnings were not given merely because there are no other motives by which believers may be motivated to persevere; for there are other motives, such as gratitude to God for His forgiveness and grace, increased joy through faithfulness, concern for the spiritual need of those who are influenced by our lives, and the promise of more abundant reward. The warnings were given, not to supply a lack of any motive for perseverance, but because of the existence of a real and deadly peril with which we must reckon.

That the peril of apostasy is real, rather than imaginary, is evident from the fact that the Bible records actual instances of it. Numerous examples are to be found in the Bible. We shall cite only some instances in the New Testament.

Jude warns his readers against the peril which constantly confronts them in the insidious activities of apostate teachers among them. In his description of apostates who "turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and deny the only LORD God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 4) and whose wicked careers and just condemnation "were before of old foretold" (prographo, to write or describe beforehand; see Eph:3:3) by Enoch (vv. 14,15) and others in ancient times, Jude declares that they are "trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots" (v:12; see John 15:1-6).

Jude's language is explicit. The word apothanonta (dead) is an aorist participle, rather than an adjective, and the verbal aspect of the participle must not be overlooked. Jude's description, literally is "twice having died." It is concerned with the past, rather than the future. The tragic circumstance, "twice dead," is the lot of men who, having once "passed out of death into life" through faith in Jesus Christ, have turned back to walk no more with Him, so becoming "dead in trespasses and in sins" once again. "Twice dead" can only refer to the fact that men who once were alive in Christ have again become spiritually dead by severing their union with Him "who is our life." Furthermore, Jude refers to the specific occasion and cause of their spiritual death: "They went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished [apolonto, 2nd aorist indicative middle, killed themselves] in the gainsaying of Korah" (v.11).

Like Korah and his company of old, who denied the unique authority of Moses and profanely usurped the functions of the ordained priesthood, the apostates whom Jude cites denied the unique authority of the one Mediator and the finality of His Gospel, as defined by Jesus and the Apostles. From Jude's comments, it is evident that their defection had its origin and development in their love of lascivious living and their practical repudiation of the implications of the lordship of Christ over the personal lives of all who would be His. They were therefore "without fruit" (John 15:1-5, 2 Pet. 1:8) and, as the inevitable outcome, were plucked up by the roots and became "wandering stars". Despite their inward spiritual defection, they still retained their outward affiliation with the believers, continuing to enjoy places of prominence and leadership. Through their spiritual defection, they had become men who had "slipped in stealthily" into positions of undeserved influence and honor. (To assume that Jude meant in v:4 that they had originally entered the church on the strength of empty professions which were false from the beginning and that they never had been other than mere hypocrites is to contradict the historical examples which he cites - the apostates in the wilderness [v. 5] and the angels who kept not their first estate [v.6] - and to deny his assertion that they "killed themselves" in their rebellion against the Lord after the example of Korah [v:11] and are now "twice dead." Furthermore, to adopt such such an assumption is to nullify Jude's urgent warning to believers to beware the peril of following the same tragic course as the apostates [vv. 20,21].

In his Second Epistle, Peter writes at length concerning apostates who, "denying [arneomai, disown, renounce] the Lord who bought them" (2:1), for love of "the wages of unrighteousness" (2:15), "have left the straight road and gone astray," becoming "dried-up springs" (2:15,17). There could be no greater tragedy. "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge [epignosis, full and true knowledge] of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein  and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way [hodos, road - "the straight road," v:15] of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn back [epistrepho] from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (2 Pet:2:20,21).

They who assume that Peter's reference to apostates as "dogs" and "sows" proves that they never were actually under grace do not likewise assume that Jeremiah's reference to the children of Israel in Judah as "a wild ass" proves that they never were "the sheep of His pasture." The shameful epithet was applied by Jeremiah (2:24) only after the people had forsaken the Lord (2:13; 17:13) and turned aside in iniquity and idolatry. Likewise, it is only after they "have forsaken the right way and are gone astray" that Peter likens apostates to dogs and sows. He could well have referred to them as "wild asses." But there were familiar proverbs about dogs and sows which so aptly illustrated their case. Let us accept the record at face value.