The Reformed Witness
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of Knowledge: But fools despise Wisdom and Instruction"
Proverbs 1:7

These verses clearly identify the character of Apostasy. Carefully consider the fifth verse.

Paul’s warning was against those that were merely “playing church”. He identifies the “make believers”, as opposed to the “True Believers”, and warns of their hypocritical nature and character. Although these folks outwardly identified with the Gospel of Christ, they had not the Spirit of Christ. Thus, they were unable to exhibit the passion of Christ by engaging the culture on every level of life.

Although these factors contribute to the gross apostasy of the visible church, we can still identify another destructive ill that the modern church has embraced; forgetfulness.

 The Scriptures also characterize apostasy by seasons of forgetfulness, which, in turn, always lead the bondage of idolatry. (see Reformed Witness Vol. 1 Issue 3) Forgetfulness is pre-requisite to idolatry.

  

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 “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;”

(Deuteronomy 4:9 AV)

It doesn’t take an expert in Theology, or Church History, to realize that the modern church has lapsed into a dreadful state of impotence. Pride, ignorance, arrogance, and complacency are serious contributing factors to the horrific character of today’s modern church.

It is precisely this “apostasy” (lit. falling away) that is responsible for a majority of the social, and political evils of the land. Whenever the Church of the Lord Jesus fails to educate against current social and political evils, as well as actively protesting when these evils surface, she has not fulfilled her commission. Yet, despite the myriad of evidence, both church leaders and church members refuse for the most part, to acknowledge social, political and economic problems as stemming from the church themselves. They have insisted that their commission is restricted to the “Theological Community” and should only concern itself with Ecclesiastical problems, and ought never to interface with the “real affairs” concerning our culture. Thus, erroneous ideology negates a fundamental principle which has been widely ignored by Ecclesiastic and Civil rulers. It is the principle which sets the Church as the “Watchman” in matters of God’s Law, and social obedience to it. Our day can easily be characterized as “perilous times”.

In the third chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, the Apostle Paul warns of the nature and character of the church during apostate conditions.