The Nature and Causes of Apostasy – Part 17

Love of This World and its Passing Pleasures: Another Cause of Apostasy

By John Fast

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. – Hebrews 6:4-6 (NASB)

Before the days of GPS and satellite navigation, ships and planes were dependent upon a skilled navigator to guide them to their destination. The slightest error could cause a ship or plane to wander hundreds of miles off course from its intended destination without ever knowing until it was too late. During their entire journey they think they have been traveling on the right course, and not until it is too late to make any correction do they realize they have been on the wrong course. Likewise, a church and Christianity without a right and true understanding of the truths and doctrines of the Bible to guide it is as lost and useless as a navigator without a compass. All it can do is lead others astray: “forsaking the right way, they have gone astray” (2 Pt 2:15). Once the mind departs from the rule, guidance, and direction of Scripture, there is no limit to where it will wander, no limit to the errors it will believe and defend, no limit to the waves of uncertainty that will toss it here and there, and no limit to the rocks on which it must inevitably suffer shipwreck. All erroneous beliefs and opinions are nothing but the cleverly devised fables of people who have forsaken the guidance of Scripture. When people wander from, are willfully ignorant of, and persist in allowing themselves to be led astray from the clear and plain truths, principles, commands, and doctrines of Scripture, it is not that they believe nothing, rather it is they will believe anything, even the most hideous distortions of the gospel and of what it is to be Christian. Not only does this nation in general, but even more troubling and inexcusable, most of what today professes to be Christian, bears abundant witness to this fact.

The Greek verb planao, from which we get our word ‘planet’, and often translated by the word ‘error’, means ‘to wander or go astray’, or to denote a seducer and false teacher who is active in leading others astray. It is the word used by the Apostle Peter in the passage just referenced and translated “gone astray”. The word is used by Jude to describe the false teachers and seducers of his time as “wandering stars” (Jude 13). Jesus uses the word four times in Matthew 24 (4, 5, 11, 24) for false teachers who will ‘mislead’ others. Paul uses the word when he warns the Corinthians and Galatians not to be ‘deceived’ (1 Cor 6:9; 15:33; Gal 6:7), and the author of Hebrews uses the word when he warns his readers against the danger of hardening their hearts, attributing the reason for God’s anger toward Old Testament Israel to the fact that, “They always go astray in their heart; and they do not know My ways;” (Hb 3:10: cf. Ps 95:10). When people are ignorant of the ways of God, or even worse, when they willfully neglect, distort, misrepresent, reject, scoff at, and rebel against His ways which they have previously known, and when they no longer regard it important or worthwhile to have a true knowledge of God, His Word, His ways, and His commands (Rm 1:28), it is certain they will go astray, wander around aimlessly lost, and suffer inevitable shipwreck of their souls. Like Pharaoh they say, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice” (Ex 5:2).

Most who perish in their sin and error do so because they have had incompetent and blind guides to lead them; guides who themselves have wandered from and forsaken the right way and who lead others into a multitude of erroneous ways. It is not the disease that kills them, but their physician. The sheep go astray for lack of a shepherd. Being willfully ignorant of, and no longer accepting as valid and true the great truths and doctrines of Christianity, they have nothing to guide them but their own erroneous opinions, beliefs, ideologies, and superstitions, which are all the worse because they are believed, practiced, and defended against the most important truths and doctrines in the gospel. What God said of the shepherds of Israel is equally true today, “For those who guide this people are leading them astray; and those who are guided by them are brought to confusion” (Is 9:16). Never has there been a time in the history of the church when there has been so much confusion and error among those who profess to be Christian as exists in our day. Never has there been a time when so many imagine themselves to be in the right way when even a rudimentary comparison of their beliefs, practices, and ideologies with the plain meaning of Scripture would clearly show them to be in the wrong way. Those who obstinately persist in their error and in misleading others, or who persist in being misled, simply show they have never belonged to Jesus’ true flock, because His sheep hear His voice and will not obstinately persist in following the voice of a stranger (Jn 10:27).

In order for the mind to be led astray from the truth into error there must first exist an objective, infallible, unchanging, sufficient, and authoritative standard of truth. If someone simply exchanges one error for another they have not been led astray from the truth. For the mind to be led astray from the truth it must first have at least a familiarity with the truth. The mind cannot be led astray from what it has never known. This standard of truth is, of course, the Bible, but this is something which the unregenerate mind and modern Christianity thoroughly rejects, if not in so many words then certainly in its beliefs and practices. Modern science, psychology, education, and theology, we are told, has destroyed many “false” views of the Bible; they have destroyed its authority; they have destroyed its inerrancy; they have destroyed its historical accuracy; they have destroyed its exclusivity by equating it with the religious beliefs and writings of cults and pagan religions; they have destroyed it as the standard for morality and for judging between truth and error and between good and evil; they have destroyed it as the means of making conscience and the fear of God a great and powerful influence over the mind and life, and for all that makes a nation stable, orderly, just, and good; they have destroyed the Bible itself for all practical uses, namely, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tm 3:16). As a result, the mind and conscience of men and women have been delivered over to the unrighteousness, ungodly, and erroneous opinions, theories, and ideologies of their human leaders and instructors, whether religious or secular. They are at the root of the revision of the gospel, morality, the church, good and evil, right and wrong, and of what it is to be Christian that has been going on throughout this nation and modern Christianity for decades.

Under the pressure of these new views the Bible has been deemed to be not only fallible, unauthoritative, and a merely human book, but we are also told its historical accuracy is dubious; its commands, laws, doctrines, and truths are antiquated, primitive, chauvinistic, inadequate, and morally defective; its warnings and judgments are excessive and barbaric, and its untrustworthiness is so great that it gives us at times blurred and distorted ideas about God and His truth. The Bible, once so reverenced and influential, and regarded as the cornerstone upon which this nation, its laws, and all civil order is based, is now banned from the public arena, and any who might dare appeal to its truths and commands are denounced as a dangerous threat to freedom and democracy, when in reality the Bible is only a threat to error, sin, evil, and immorality. No people or nation has ever suffered from teaching, upholding, and being guided by God’s Word, but many have suffered and perished for corrupting, distorting, abusing, and rebelling against His Word. Most people today not only tolerate, but often demand limiting, restricting, and punishing the speaking and practicing of God’s truth, but will not tolerate having any restrictions or limitations placed upon their “right” to speak and practice sin, evil, error, and immorality. The fact that God has never given anyone the “right” to rebel against Him is deliberately ignored. Today it is perfectly acceptable to blaspheme the name of God and mock His Word, but intolerable and even criminal to speak against and expose evil as evil. Yes, the wrong guides have naturally and not unexpectedly led not only this nation, but most of what today professes to be Christian, down the wrong road into spiritual and moral darkness.

An error then is any deviation or departure in our thinking, beliefs, and judgments from the perfect rule, standard, and authority of Scripture. The reason Jesus gave for why the Sadducees were “mistaken” (planao) in their beliefs regarding the resurrection of the dead was because they did not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God (Mt 22:29). A true Christian may be, and often actually is, mistaken and misguided about many things, but they are willing to know their error, and will not obstinately maintain it and continue to live in it once it is clearly exposed as error and corrected by the perfect light of Scripture, and once they plainly see and discern it as error. It is not a question of whether a Christian is ever mistaken; rather it is how do they respond to truth once their error is exposed as error by the clear light of Scripture, and when they are shown, “This is the way, walk in it” (Is 30:21). This is what differentiates error from heresy and apostasy; both heresy and apostasy are accompanied by willful obstinacy. The heretic and apostate condemn themselves by stubbornly holding to their error, and by inventing novel, emotional, and pseudo-intellectual arguments, theories, and interpretations which they use to support and defend their erroneous opinions, beliefs, doctrines, and practices which they are unable to defend against the force and evidence of truth.

Such are the beliefs and practices of Roman Catholicism, the beliefs and practices of so-called ‘deliverance ministries’, of the Word of Faith movement, of the ‘seeker sensitive’ movement, of feminists and feminized men who support and defend women pastors, ministers, and teachers, of so-called progressive Christianity, and, in fact, the beliefs and practices of most of what today professes and pretends to be Christian. Human weakness and ignorance, the deceitfulness of our own hearts, may lead a person into error, but hardness of heart and an obstinate and prideful unwillingness to submit the mind and life to the force of truth and authority of Scripture will lead and fasten them in heresy and apostasy. Many people spend more time and effort devising and developing for themselves novel arguments to defend some error they have taken up, than they do for the most saving truths and doctrines of the gospel. Afterall, how else is someone to come up with something new and novel for their doctoral thesis or their latest book. How else does someone justify invalidating the clear and plain Word of God for the sake of their own human ideologies, theories, opinions, and carnal reasonings. To prefer and defend our own errors and opinions before the clear truths, doctrines, and commands of Scripture is to set up ourselves as our own sovereign authority instead of God and His Word. The powerful opposition which the natural man has for the sovereign authority of God, especially to God as Lawgiver, is emphatically expressed by the apostle Paul, “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Rm 8:7). The unregenerate mind is naturally hostile to the sovereignty and authority of God and His Word. It utterly refuses to submit itself, not just to this part or that part, but to the absolute sovereign authority of the whole of Scripture. It will stand on its own terms and defend its own novel and erroneous, and even immoral and degenerate beliefs and opinions against Scripture’s sovereign authority, thereby setting up itself as its own sovereign authority. It would have God subject Himself and be obedient to their minds, and to do nothing that is contrary to their own wills, beliefs, opinions, reasonings, understandings, presuppositions, and desires.

Therefore, the Word of God, which is our sole sovereign standard and authority, must be the only rule and yardstick to test and discover errors. Only those “who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hb 5:14), that is, who have their minds trained and transformed by sound biblical truth and doctrine, will be able to discern truth from error, and separate error when it is mixed with truth, as it very often is. It is self-evident that most of what professes to be Christian today, to say nothing of society in general, is not only incapable of discerning between good and evil, but calls, defends, and affirms evil as good and condemns good as evil. It is not enough to simply convince a person of error, and that their beliefs, understandings, and practices differ from those of other people, or that they are even against common sense. It is not enough to say, “that violates my personal religious beliefs”, because a person’s personal beliefs are not the rule and standard of truth. Someone’s personal beliefs will inevitably violate and trample upon someone else’s personal beliefs. The belief that a man has the right to enter a women’s restroom, compete in women’s sports, and share women’s locker rooms, certainly tramples upon not only the beliefs and dignity of women who believe otherwise, but upon common decency and common sense. Science, psychology, philosophy, human reason, statistics, worldly ideologies, the opinions of other men and other religions, the subtle and pseudointellectual nuancing and theological fence sitting of ‘scholars’, theologians, panels, committees, or seminary boards are not the rule and standard of truth. Religious liberty does not make all religious opinions equally true, nor does it require validating all as equally true, rather it simply gives people the liberty to live and die in their error. The Muslim’s Paradise, the Hindu’s Valhalla, and the Buddhist’s Enlightenment is not the Kingdom of God, but simply different terms for the kingdom of darkness. True Christian liberty is liberty from the power of sin, Satan, the world, and soul-destroying errors. Popular and majority opinion is not the standard of truth. The vast majority of mankind have always been wrong in their beliefs and opinions regarding spiritual and moral truths, good and evil, the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of sin, and the nature of true salvation. Conservatism is not the equivalent of Christianity. Modernity is not the standard of truth. What is today considered to be ‘progressive’ is simply the regressive, degenerative, and paganizing effects that always accompany the rejection of God and His Word. Modern progressivism is neither modern or progressive, and so-called ‘progressive’ Christianity is no Christianity at all. Sincerity of belief is not the standard of truth, for people can be, and often are, sincerely wrong. Antiquity is not the standard of truth. Truth is always older than error. A lie is always a lie and an error is always an error no matter how ancient. What people today venerate as an ancient belief was once a new error. When someone can tell us how long it may take for an error to turn into a truth, then antiquity might serve as a standard of truth. We must obey the clear command of Scripture by bringing everything under the rule of Scripture and examine carefully how it agrees or disagrees with it: “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Th 5:21, 22). J.C. Ryle emphasized the necessity of this fundamental principle when he wrote,

“The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are His marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive, hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away.” [1]

Jonathan Edwards stressed the same truth when in his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, he stated, “And here I would observe, that we are to take the Scriptures as our guide in such things. This is the great and standing rule which God has given to his church, in order to guide them in things relating to the great concerns of their souls; and it is an infallible and sufficient rule …. And we need not be afraid to trust these rules. Doubtless that Spirit who inspired the Scriptures knew how to give us good rules, by which to distinguish his operations from all that is falsely pretended to be from him.” [2]

Likewise, Charles Hodge stated in his book The Way of Life, first published in 1841, “As, however, the Scriptures themselves not only teach us what the truth is, but also how it operates upon an enlightened conscience and believing heart, our safest appeal is to them. It is there that we can best learn how we ought to feel and act in view of what the Bible teaches us of sin, of justification, faith, and repentance; since genuine religious experience is simply the accordance of our views and feelings with the truth of God.” [3]

Most of what professes to be Christian today does just the opposite; it vigorously works to bring the objective truth of God into accordance with their own subjective and erroneous views, judgments, opinions, ideologies, practices, feelings, and experiences. Evangelism has become “sharing my faith”, not proclaiming “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The gospel has been revised from a declaration of objective and redemptive truths which must be believed and obeyed by faith, into a message of subjective beliefs, opinions, and feelings that offer self-fulfillment, self-importance, and self-empowerment to anyone, regardless of what they might believe or how they might live. Little or no distinction is made, much less tolerated, between truth and error or between the genuine operations of the Holy Spirit and “all that is falsely pretended to be from him”.

Those who reject, or who substitute some other standard for that of the Bible, in their accusing others of error, are usually found to be in great error themselves. Such is the case with Arminians who in charging error against those who hold to the biblical doctrine of God’s sovereign election, would make man sovereign in salvation by having salvation to be contingent upon our own free will; or antinomians who charge the error of ‘legalism’ against those who hold to the biblical doctrine of sanctification, holiness, repentance, and the true nature of regeneration; or charismatics who charge error against those who deny God is still giving new revelation; or Roman Catholics who charge not only error, but heresy against all who hold to the doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from any human works, cooperation, or contribution; or so-called ‘progressive’ Christianity whose twisted, perverted, and demonic distortions of God, Jesus, His love, and His gospel are as far from the Christianity taught by Scripture as anything could possibly be.

When someone or something is today accused of being ‘unchristian’, usually what is meant is that they differ from and are opposed to their erroneous ideas, beliefs, practices, and opinions of what it is to be Christian, not that they deviate from and are contrary to the clear and plain truths, doctrines, and commands of the gospel. Many today will blame and excuse their error on the pretended obscurity of Scripture. This is to be like Adam who, to justify himself, blamed his sin on the woman that God gave him. They blame their error on the Scriptures which God has given. They will accuse those who are not as unstable and fickle as they are about the truths and commands of the gospel, and who do not change their opinions every month in order to accommodate the latest theological fad and the ever-changing opinions of the culture as they do, but rather are constant, unwavering, and steadfast in their profession of the truth, of being arrogant, unscholarly, intolerant, out of touch, incendiary, hateful, and narrow-minded.

Those who are only partially convinced of truth, must be a “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (Jm 1:8). Half the mind goes one way, and half goes the other – the Bible might all be true or it might not all be true, it might all be inerrant and infallible or it might not, it might all be historically accurate or it might not, it might mean one thing or it could mean another, God might still be giving new revelation today or He might not, the world, its values, and its ideologies might be ungodly or they might safely be integrated with Scripture – and so it is easily swayed and led astray by the least wind of error. The person who professes to believe a truth, yet is not fully convinced from Scripture of that truth, cannot be expected to faithfully adhere to it against all the plausible and persuasive arguments of error; it cannot be expected to have “the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Th 2:10). As John Owen writes,

“He that hath not an experience of a divine authority in it [i.e. Scripture] upon his own soul and conscience will not be steadfast when his trial shall come. God looks with regard unto them alone who tremble at His Word, as owning His present authority in it”. [4]

Wherever error finds an unstable and uncertain mind, its work is more than half done before it makes one assault. How great a harvest have seducers, deceivers, errorists, heretics, and apostates had among the vast majority of professing Christians today. There is not a false teacher, either living or dead, who today will not find a hundred times more eager customers for their error than will the most faithful teacher of sound doctrine find for the truth. The untaught, unstable, and fickle multitude have more regard for novelty, mysticism, entertainment, and error than for truth.

None are more prone to easily receive and tenaciously defend errors than those who are the heads and ringleaders of errors, especially when they have fought to defend them, invented novel, pseudointellectual, and Scripture-twisting arguments to support them, built their entire system of theology on them, and when their own self-interests are so entwined with them. There is great danger in assuming, especially in times of apostasy when there is so much erroneous thinking and false teaching afoot, that what we have heard and been taught all our life is what is taught by the Bible. Many believe that natural human intelligence, learning, reason, feelings, and experience are sufficient guides by which to direct our life. Natural intelligence and reason certainly have their place and use in directing us in a knowledge of natural and earthly things, but they are entirely insufficient to guide us in spiritual and moral truths, doctrines, behavior, and practices, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1Cor 2:14). Whenever we lean on our own understanding it will never fail to lead us astray. Natural intelligence and human reason are to always be in marked subordination to the sovereign authority of Scripture, and while human reason is to receive, to explain, to harmonize, and to be instructed by and conformed to God’s revealed truth, it is never to usurp the throne and exalt itself over God’s Word, but to be a faithful servant and steward of His Word.

Shaping the Mind and Conscience

A person’s mind, morality, and conscience can be shaped and trained by error and evil as well as by truth and good, as can a nation’s collective mind and conscience. The corrosive and conscience-searing effects of over one-hundred years of atheistical public and private education, pagan moral relativism, and the intentional and diabolical indoctrination of the minds of children in worldly, immoral, degenerate, and godless ideologies, and the more recent influence of the internet and social media, have created multiple generations of godless people who are not only incapable of distinguishing between truth and error and between good and evil, but who now call evil good and good evil, and who have no respect or regard for any authority other than their own mind. Like Pavlov’s dogs, their minds have been conditioned to unthinkingly respond to certain stimuli; they have been trained what to think, not how to think. Their thinking and reasoning are influenced and shaped by ungodliness, immorality, the mob, and social media, not by biblical truth and good. The sad truth is, our modern world of superficial sound bites, texts, tweets, memes, Google searches, blogs, podcasts, and now Artificial Intelligence (“artificial” being the key word) has degraded our ability for deep, rational, and sustained thought. Many are incapable of it; they are either incapable or unwilling to heed the admonition of God to, “Put Me in remembrance; let us argue our case together, state your cause, that you may be proved right” (Is 43:26). Most are incapable of even giving a reason for what they believe, much less capable of rationally defending what they believe against the force of truth. Couple this with the undermining and rejection of Scripture as the only rule and authority for truth and error and good and evil by most of what professes to be Christian, then the only guide we are left with is our own shallow, vain, worldly, indoctrinated, uneducated, corrupted, and sin-depraved minds. If through the Law of God comes the knowledge of sin (Rm 3:20), then to do away with the Law of God is to do away with any true consciousness of sin and evil.  What J. Gresham Machen stated over one-hundred years ago is even more true today,

“The consciousness of sin was formerly the starting point of all preaching; but today it is gone. Characteristic of the modern age, above all else, is a supreme confidence in human goodness; the religious literature of the day is redolent of that confidence. Get beneath the rough exterior of men, we are told, and we shall discover enough self-sacrifice to found upon it the hope of society; the world’s evil, it is said, can be overcome with the world’s good; no help is needed from the outside world. What has produced this satisfaction with human goodness? What has become of the consciousness of sin? The consciousness of sin has certainly been lost. But what has removed it from the heart of men? …. But the loss of the consciousness of sin …. has its roots in a mighty spiritual process which has been active during the past seventy-five years. Like other great movements, that process has come silently – so silently that its results have been achieved before the plain man was even aware of what was taking place. Nevertheless, despite all superficial continuity, a remarkable change has come about within the last seventy-five years. The change is nothing less than the substitution of paganism for Christianity as the dominant view of life.” [5]

A hundred and fifty years ago Western civilization, despite its many flaws, failures, and inconsistences, was predominately Christian in its values, morality, and understanding of good and evil because the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and its moral truths were the basis of all education, laws, and government. There was a common public consciousness of sin and of the great difference between good and evil. Today Western civilization is not merely predominantly pagan, it is entirely pagan. As a guide and influence for public opinion the Bible, its commands, and its truths has been replaced by secular and atheistical media, godless educators, science, the mob, and social media, and as a guide for right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral, the Bible has been replaced by lawmakers, courts, the blog, the podcast, and the social media influencer. It is no mere coincidence that the decline in the church’s belief and commitment to the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, and its increased tolerance for error and worldliness, coincides with its decline in holy character and moral influence.

When the truths, commands, and doctrines of the Bible no longer exert any influence over the minds, consciences, and lives of people, then all they have left to guide them are their own erroneous beliefs and opinions, thereby eliminating any objective standard of good and evil, eroding the rule of law, destroying any sense of morality, undercutting the foundation of all civilized society, with the result that evil is regarded as good, and every man not only does what is right in his own eyes, but demands the right to do what is right in their own eyes, even if what they regard as right is in fact evil. Scripture assures us, “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves” (Rm 14:22). When a people, church, denomination, or nation defends, approves of, and votes for what the Bible clearly forbids and condemns as evil, and when they ban, outlaw, and call evil what the Bible calls good, they only condemn themselves to lawlessness, moral and social chaos, and eventual collapse and destruction.

Mankind’s natural propensity to sin and evil, instead of being self-controlled and internally constrained by a mind and conscience trained and governed by God’s Holy Word, must now be restrained and governed by increasing external force, and even that is opposed and resisted. Self-government is not self-determination and refusing to be governed by any law and rule other than that of our own mind; rather it is the governing of ourselves according to the sovereign Law of God. When people can no longer govern themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God, then eventually evil and lawlessness must be restrained by some external totalitarian force to avoid the total collapse of civilized society. Like King Joash who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest …. But after the death of Jehoiada the officials came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; …. Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; though they testified against them, they would not listen” (2 Chr 24:2; 17-19). As long as there was some godly external influence and control Joash did what was right in the sight of God, but because he had no internal convictions and restraint, as soon as the external was removed, he abandoned the ways of God and His Word, and resisted and refused any and all attempts to bring him back to the ways of God and His Word.

This describes not only our nation today, but most of what professes and pretends to be Christian. We have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind. We have sown ungodliness and are now reaping further ungodliness (2 Tm 2:16). We have sown lawlessness and are now reaping unrestrained lawlessness (Rm 6:19). We have sown to our own flesh, and are now reaping the most irrational and abominable forms of moral and societal perversions and corruption this nation has ever experienced (Gal 6:8). We have used our national blessings and freedoms to serve our idols, indulge our lusts without restraint, and rebel against God and His Word. Yet despite all these obvious effects of rebelling against God and His Word, most today reject, and are rabidly hostile to any attempts to bring them back to the ways and Word of God. Any attempt to simply have the Ten Commandments, not taught, but merely displayed in public schools, is met with the utmost opposition and ruled to be ‘unconstitutional’, thereby outlawing God’s Law. People do not like the consequences of sin and rebellion against God, but they refuse to admit it is their sin and rebellion which is the cause of the consequences. Most today are like the people described in the Book or Revelation in that even while they are experiencing the judgement of God, “they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts” (Rv 9:21).  All of God’s scriptural examples and warnings against the danger of refusing Him and His Word – warnings such as Hebrews 12:25, “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns them from heaven” – are habitually ignored, ridiculed, scoffed at, and treated with the utmost contempt and are regarded as just so much religious superstition. Errors that once took years to spread and infiltrate themselves into the minds of people are now disseminated and accepted as true by multitudes in a matter of minutes and days, especially when they are taken up and promoted by someone who already has a large following, and when they meet with people whose minds and consciences have been trained and are governed by error, evil, and ungodliness instead of truth, good, and godliness.

Error is often more influential on the mind and conscience than truth is. This is because error does not present itself to the mind as error, but in the name and guise of plausible truth, and under the semblance of truth it secures the conscience, and strongly influences the mind and affections. The media, politicians, judges, social anarchists, and godless educators have become experts at influencing people’s thinking by crafting images, stories, and arguments designed to manipulate and stir-up the emotions. Even most preaching and so-called ‘worship’ music today is designed to stimulate and manipulate the emotions, not inform and instruct the mind with truth. The arguments which people invent to support their irrational error and evil are typically subjective and hypothetical emotional arguments, not arguments based on objective rational truths drawn from Scripture. Error can be made to appear very beautiful, plausible, moral, intellectual, loving, compassionate, scientific, and ‘spiritual’, but it is just beautifully adorned error. Error and evil become obvious when they are measured against the perfect rule and standard of Scripture, which is why Scripture must be banned from being the sole rule and standard for truth and good.

Error, being more agreeable to the fleshly mind and more indulgent to the wisdom of this world than truth, is, for that reason, that much more embraced by the deceived heart and mind, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so” (Jer 5:31). People believe what is false, even what is obviously false and evil, because they want to believe it. They refuse to believe and obey the truth because they take pleasure in wickedness (2 Th 2:12). It is an inviolable principle of Scripture spoken by Jesus Himself that men love darkness rather than the light (Jn 3:19). It is the nature of error to “spread like gangrene” (2 Tm 2:17), whereas truth is always vigorously opposed by the unregenerate mind (2 Tm 3:8). The reason people turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to error (2 Tm 4:4) is because they love their error more than truth. The spirit of error, which is the same as the spirit of the world (1 Jn 2:16; Jm 3:15), has an affinity and like-mindedness to the things of this world; its wisdom, lusts, ideologies, values, morality, reasonings, and priorities. This is the great advantage which the world has over the minds of natural men who are by nature worldly-minded and hostile to the truth (Jude 19). The world tempts and entices them with what they already love and like, namely, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16).

The world presents itself to the mind as something other than it really is, as truth instead of error, as good instead of evil, as love instead of hate, as rational instead of irrational, as just instead of unjust, as freedom instead of bondage, as pleasure instead of pain, as self-fulfillment instead of self-destruction, as progressive instead of regressive, as Christian instead of pagan, and as a civil right instead of a moral wrong. It appeals to, entices, and flatters the carnal minds and darkened understandings of earthly-minded men and women under the guise of plausible truth. The world persuades them to follow their own hearts and minds, to trust in their own human reasonings and carnal understandings, to believe in their own innate goodness, and to pursue their own ungodly lusts, desires, ambitions, and dispositions. The spirit of the world will turn Jesus and His gospel into the means of self-fulfillment, self-importance, self-expression, liberation from worldly oppression, rather than the only way to be reconciled to a holy and offended God. A mind under the power and influence of error is restless and anxious to propagate its errors to others, and these errors degrade, corrupt, and eat the power and life out of true Christianity, leaving behind a form of godliness that denies its power, and a Christianity that is Christian in name only. The Christianity that still subsists today is a Christianity that has been highjacked by and made agreeable to the carnal and worldly mind. It is largely imitative of what the carnal and worldly minds of most people imagine it is to be Christian, and what is not imitative is usually bizarre and ungodly in the extreme. What the author of the preface to Jonathan Edwards’ Distinguishing Marks, Mr. Cooper, said in 1741 concerning the state of Christianity then, is even more true today,

“But what a dead and barren time has it now been, for a great while, with all the churches of the Reformation. The golden showers have been restrained; the influences of the Spirit suspended; and the consequence has been, that the gospel has not had any eminent success. Conversions have been rare and dubious; few sons and daughters have been born to God, …. That this has been the sad state of [Christianity] among us in this land, for many years…will be acknowledged by all who have spiritual senses exercised, as it has been lamented by faithful minsters and serious Christians.” [6]

Errors, like many kinds of noxious and pernicious weeds, once they have seeded themselves in a field, are virtually impossible to eradicate, especially if those errors are hereditary errors, and have grown up with us from childhood. It is a great advantage to both truth or error to have an early and prolonged possession of the mind, but error must also have a virtually monopolistic influence and possession of the mind. Truth can always hold its own against error, but error cannot tolerate any competition from truth, because the worst enemy of error and evil is the truth. Darkness always hates the light (Jn 3:19-21). Cain is always killing Abel (1 Jn 3:12). It was by means of a monopolistic system of education that Hitler indoctrinated the children and youth of Germany in demonic Nazi ideology. What made this possible was that for decades liberal German theologians had been undermining the truths and doctrines of Scripture, causing almost the entire nation to lapse into a semi-pagan condition. It is by this means that a secular and godless society and education system, a society and system which has banned the Bible and its truths from having any influence on the mind and conscience, has progressively and systematically indoctrinated and trained the minds and consciences of most people today, even most professing Christians, to the point where most are unwilling to listen to any truth, no matter how fundamental and obvious, that would expose, refute, and overthrow their error. The Pharisees had many erroneous beliefs about the Law, their own righteousness, the kingdom of God, the Messiah, all of which were powerfully refuted by Jesus, but this did not root their errors out of their heads and hearts; errors on which all their carnal and worldly self-interests depended. Instead, they stubbornly clung to and defended their errors, viewed Jesus and His teaching as a great threat to themselves and their worldly interests, incited the multitudes against Him, and even justified their having Jesus put to death. Their error was their god. It allowed them to live in their sin and at the same time believe they would not suffer the wrath of a holy and just God.

The same is true today. How hard it is to rid the heart and mind of errors once they have been leavened by them, and taken root in them. It is with errors as it is with trees; it is easier to uproot a young sapling tree after it is newly planted than one that has become firmly rooted and established. It is easier to uproot an error with truth when it is first planted in the mind than after it has taken root and become firmly established. This is why the greatest enemy to error and evil is truth, and why the ungodly and unrighteous go to such great lengths to suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rm 1:18). The ungodly errors and worldly ideologies which have been used to indoctrinate, and that now influence the minds and consciences of most people today, even most professing Christians, have not only gone virtually unopposed, but in many cases, they have been defended, integrated, and assimilated into the teaching and practice of virtually all that professes to be Christian. Even when they are exposed as error by the clear light of Scripture, because Scripture is no longer regarded as the sovereign authority, most still continue to cling to, defend, and live and die in their errors, even integrating and assimilating their errors with Scripture, and inventing arguments with which to defend them against the clear and plain truths of Scripture, and even against common sense, thereby allowing them to become firmly rooted, to the extent that some have chosen to die in their sin and error rather than part with their beloved errors and soul-damning heresies. It is not ‘Christian nationalism’ to have the mind and conscience influenced and governed by the fear of God and reverence for His Word, rather, it is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Pv 1:7; 9:10). God’s sovereign rule cannot be despised and rejected without meriting the greatest divine judgment.

It is a great judgment of God to be given over to a deceived and erroneous mind, and to have the idol of our own mind and erroneous opinions be the rule and guide for our life, and to put more trust in the fallible and often irrational wisdom, ideologies, and opinions of our own mind, or in the minds of others, than in the perfect, infallible, inerrant, and all sufficient Word of God. Modern Christianity, in its fanatical pursuit of acceptance, novelty, and ‘success’, has imbibed, defended, integrated, and assimilated the erroneous thinking and opinions of the world concerning sin, God, Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, the gospel, morality, good and evil, and what it is to be Christian. Rather than heed the gospel command to “come out from their midst and be separate” (2 Cor 6:17), modern Christianity has been enticed, seduced, led astray, and taken captive “through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col 2:8), and have “followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Pt 2:15).

Those who love the wages of unrighteousness will always work to corrupt, undermine, and suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Those who persist in misleading others and in being misled will always oppose God’s Law because it is the sole rule and standard of righteousness. It is an immutable principle of Scripture that “when lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold” (Mt 24:12). As ungodliness, unrighteousness, and lawlessness increases the natural result is the suppression, intolerance, and often violent opposition of truth and good, and the dissolution of civilized society. The unmatched level and nature of unrestrained lawlessness, immorality, deviancy, violence, and chaos which we are witnessing today, especially in our cities, and very often tolerated, excused, justified, and aided and abetted by godless judges, educators, and government officials, is the natural and inevitable consequence that always accompanies rebellion against God. People who love the wages of unrighteousness can blame this lawlessness on anything they like, but by their obstinate determination to pursue unrighteousness and live in rebellion to God, they only continue to make things worse. By turning away from God, His ways, and His Word, and by trusting in their own erroneous human wisdom, reason, and goodness, this nation, and most of what professes to be Christian, has placed itself under the curse of Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord”. Just as Israel “mingled with the nations, and learned their practices, and served their idols” (Ps 106:35, 36), in the same way modern Christianity has learned and adopted the erroneous ideologies and practices of the world and now serves its idols, chief of which are self and the world.

Love of This World: Another Cause of Apostasy

Love of this present world, its pretended wisdom, its ideologies, its approval, our life in it, and the fleeting pleasures of it, has betrayed, and continues to betray, innumerable multitudes into apostacy from the gospel. Such, we are told by the apostle Paul, was the case with Demas, “having loved this present world, has deserted me” (2 Tm 4:10). In forsaking Paul for the world, Demas forsook the truths and doctrines of the gospel taught by Paul which were incompatible with his love for this present world. He was unwilling to come out from among them and be separate (2 Cor 6:17). By loving the one, he simply showed that he really hated the other. By loving this present world, he showed himself to be at heart an enemy of God (Jm 4:4). Having put his hand to the plow, he looked back, thereby rendering himself unfit for the kingdom of God (Lk 9:62). The world choked out the Word (Mk 4:18, 19). When the truths and doctrines of the gospel are received by people whose hearts are filled with the cares, worries, desires, and love for the things of this present world, they never bear any fruit of obedience, holiness, and perseverance in the ways and truths of God; rather, they will often work to invent and defend plausible arguments which seem to legitimize their love for this world, turn it into a virtue, and even compatible with a profession of being Christian. Jesus stated the immutable truth that, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). Wherever the heart is, the mind will be there also. It is obvious that the heart and mind of what professes to be Christian today is firmly rooted in the things of this present world.

It is self-evident that most of what today goes by the name of Christian cares very little, if anything at all, about separation from the world. In fact, just the opposite is true. Modern Christianity has taken great pains and gone to great lengths, mostly under the pretext of ‘evangelism’, ‘church growth’, and ‘love for the lost’, to pattern itself after the world, to accommodate its teaching and practices to the world, and to make itself attractive to and indistinguishable from the world. In this it has admirably succeeded, and in the process, it has ceased to be Christian except in name only. Any apparent difference is only cosmetic and superficial. Like a tattoo, its profession of faith is all for show with no practical use. It is a faith that is devoid of any knowledge of God, His Word, and of what it means to be Christian. It produces no practical holiness, no obedience, no love of the truth, no forsaking of sin, no conformity to the Law of God, nor any separation from the world. It is deathly afraid of being too separate and distinct from the world for fear of becoming ‘irrelevant’. It refuses to make clear distinctions between truth and error, what is of God and what is of the world, what is and is not Christian, for fear of being regarded judgmental and exclusive instead of affirming and inclusive. It has lost all consciousness of sin, to the point that it has turned sin into a virtue. It proclaims by its actions that it is love for this present world, and not the Law of God, that is written on its heart. The Bible, Jesus Christ, and Christianity are simply the means for pursuing their own worldly goals and ambitions.

For decades we have been hearing professing Christians loudly declaring that the church must ‘change or die’; that Christianity must not be ‘too narrow and exclusive’, and that there is no harm, but real benefit, in things that, less than a hundred years ago, the most immature Christians would have recognized and avoided as worldly, sinful, and destructive to the soul. In every age it is those who only wear the name ‘Christian’, without the reality, that have always sought to be friends with the world, to preserve their life in this world, to make Christianity attractive to the world, to appease the hostility of the world, to collaborate with the world, and have always resisted and refused to “come out from their midst and be separate” (2 Cor 6:17). A Jesus, gospel, church, and Christianity that the world loves are surely ones that God hates. A church and Christianity that has lost its holiness and become, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from the world, is as useless as salt that has lost its saltiness; “It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Mt 5:13). It is self-evident that modern Christianity, instead of being salt, preserving not only this nation, but most of what professes to be Christian from corruption, has only contributed to the lawlessness and immorality by undermining and rejecting the sovereign authority of Scripture and by weakening and removing the restraints which true Christianity imposes on the minds and consciences of men and women.

It is not flagrant sin, blatant unbelief, obvious error and heresy which robs Christianity of its credibility, influence, life, and power; rather, it is its love of the world, its fear of the world, its accommodation, assimilation, integration, and appeasement of the world, the pleasures of the world, the values of the world, the priorities of the world, the cares and worries of the world, the ideologies and principles of the world, the success and business models of the world, the money of the world, the desire to be accepted and admired by the world, the desire to fit in with the world, and to be indistinguishable from the world. It cannot give up this idol; it must have the world. Modern Christianity, in all its forms, could not have so aggressively and intentionally sought to befriend, imitate, integrate, collaborate, and thoroughly assimilate the practices, values, standards, opinions, and ideologies of the world if it had not first loved this present world, and no person, church, or denomination continues in their love of this world except those who love the wages of unrighteousness and are unwilling to “come out from their midst and be separate”.

Those who are of the world set their minds on the things of this world. Every worldly-minded person has their minds closed against the warnings, reproofs, promises, counsels, and commands of God. This is why modern Christianity not only ignores but scoffs at the Apostle John’s warning, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 Jn 5:21). The name of Christian is still among and upon much of this nation and modern Christianity, but the spirit of it has mostly vanished, and in its place has been substituted the spirit of the world. It is bad to continue in a love for this world, or in any error for that matter, out of ignorance of the truths and doctrines of Scripture, but it is abundantly worse to willfully maintain and defend it against the clear light of Scripture. It is always dangerous to live in error, but it is exceedingly dangerous to defend error against the clear and plain truths of Scripture, and to legitimize that error and turn it into a virtue. This is such an insult to the Spirit of God that He usually punishes those who do so by giving them over to a judicial spiritual hardening and blindness, and by giving them over to their error, their sin, their lawlessness, their unrighteousness, their apostasy, and to their love for this present world and its passing pleasures, “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices” (Pv 1:31).

Two Seasons

There are two seasons in particular in which this love for the world is the primary cause of greatly multiplying the number of apostates from the truths and doctrines of Scripture. The first is that of affliction and persecution. Jesus compared these to the seed that “was sown on the rocky places; this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Mt 13:20, 21). It is not simply affliction and persecution per se, or that which comes from being “canceled” for one’s political and moral views, or for being conservative instead of liberal and progressive. Nor is it affliction and persecution against anyone or anything that professes to be Christian, because unbelievers do not, nor are they able, to make any distinction between true and false Christianity. Rather, it is specifically affliction and persecution which “arises because of the word”, that is, it is a direct result of being faithful to, and refusing to compromise, reject, water down, twist, or misrepresent any of the truths, doctrines, and commands of the gospel, and from exposing sin, error, and evil for what it is by the clear light and authority of God’s Word.

Affliction (thlipsis) is any suffering, trial, tribulation, hardship, or trouble. Persecution (diogmos) is an organized, targeted, and systematic program to oppress, harass, intimidate, subjugate, and eliminate people, such as Nazi Germany did to the Jews and to anyone who exposed and opposed them and their demonic ideologies. It is what Roman Catholicism did to the Reformers, what the Church of England did to the Scottish Covenanters and to the Puritans, and what many tyrannical and totalitarian governments, groups, religions, and people do to their political and ideological opponents. In a time and season when such affliction and persecution “arises”, that is, when they first come into being and begin to exist “because of the word”, this will multiply the number of people who fall away from the truths and doctrines of Scripture. In times when the Bible is reverenced and regarded as authoritative, and when most people’s minds and consciences have been trained and are influenced by biblical truths, principles, and morality, there is little danger in affirming, speaking, and practicing spiritual and moral truth, because there is a shared morality and general consensus regarding good and evil. But when and where God and His Word is no longer respected and reverenced, when His Word ceases to be the rule and standard for good and evil, where the mind and conscience of most people have been trained by error, evil, superstition, and immorality, and when the world and their error is their god, then affliction and persecution will inevitably arise because of the Word, for the simple reason that the Word testifies of the world, “that its deeds are evil” (Jn 7:7).

The person themselves may never experience affliction and persecution because of the Word, but the fact that such overt hostility to the clear teaching of Scripture now exists and that others have experienced affliction and persecution because of the Word is enough to make them fall away. They see how costly faithfulness to God and His Word has been to the worldly interests of others; a cost they themselves are unwilling to pay. They see how others have been ridiculed, marginalized, and vilified, and that such faithfulness is no longer socially and culturally tolerated. They see that such faithfulness is now a barrier to worldly success and academic and intellectual prestige, and so they would rather sin than suffer. They will define ‘Christian’ in terms so broad so as to exclude virtually nothing or no one that professes to be Christian. They will tell themselves and others that just because parts of the Bible were once true does not mean they are still true, and that modern science and theologians have discovered “facts” which make it impossible for the modern mind to believe all that the Bible teaches. They fear incurring the displeasure of man more than being unfaithful to God. They will call a “he” a “she” and a “him” a “her” out of fear of being accused of the crime of “misgendering”. They love the approval of men rather than the approval of God (Jn 12:43). They would rather compromise, appease, and invent and defend a Christianity that is Christian in name only, and deceive themselves that they are truly Christian, than expose themselves to the possibility of suffering any loss to their worldly self-interests because of the Word. They will invent reasons and arguments to justify and defend their unfaithfulness. They will say, as if it’s a virtue, that they do not allow their personal religious beliefs and convictions to influence their public life. They will give their unfaithfulness respectable names such as ‘tolerance’, ‘inclusivity’, ‘compassion’, ‘respect’, ‘acceptance’, and even ‘love’, thereby deceptively turning their sin into a virtue. They will maintain enough of the truths and doctrines of Christianity – albeit modified, revised, and watered down – to be respectable, but not enough to incite opposition and make them unpopular and uncomfortable. They will give biblical terms new meanings and invent a different Jesus and different gospel that corresponds to this unchristian Christianity. They will assimilate, integrate, and imitate enough of the world to keep them from becoming ‘irrelevant’ and incurring the world’s displeasure, but not enough to make their apostasy obvious.

The first thing which affliction and persecution because of the Word attacks the minds of people with is their worldly self-interests; their wealth, honors, reputations, pleasures, desires, careers, livelihoods, possessions, friendships, and relationships are all endangered by an unwavering faithfulness and obedience to God’s Word. It might be they were willing for a time to follow Christ, but when they see that all they have and love in this world is endangered, and might possibly even be lost, then they fall away. They begin to ‘rethink’ certain truths and doctrines they once professed, and to invent arguments to defend their falling away from the truth. They will search heaven and earth to find others, either modern or ancient, living or dead, who have fallen away into the same errors, and who will defend, justify, and affirm them in their falling away from the truth. They will misquote and misrepresent the writings of well-known Christians from the past in a desperate and dishonest attempt to show these men believed the same things they now believe. They might be sorry for a while to have forsaken that truth or doctrine which they once held dear, received with joy, and perhaps even taught to others, but as sorry as they are, love for this present world overcomes all other considerations and objections, and away they go into apostasy. Such times and seasons have driven multitudes from the truth into error. The apostate, atheistical, and immoral times in which we now live have driven, and continues to drive multitudes into apostasy from the truths and doctrines of the gospel.

A second season when the love of this world more easily predisposes men and women to apostasy is when and where error and superstition are exalted and institutionalized; when and where human reason, desires, opinion, imagination, arguments, theories, ideologies, feelings, experiences become the ultimate authority; when and where human authority is exalted to a level not only equal with God’s sovereign authority, but above it, even in things spiritual and moral. It makes no difference if this error and superstition is religious in nature, such as the unbiblical dogmas of Roman Catholicism, or the teachings of cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness, or pretended extrabiblical revelations, or whether it is secular in nature and pretends to have a wisdom, knowledge, and authority superior to that of Scripture, but are really nothing more than “the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the truth” (1Tm 6:20, 21).

We need look no further for examples of this than the nations – most conspicuously this nation – where the Bible, its truths, its commandments, its morality, and its gospel once held a dominant place in the hearts and minds of its people, but now exalts, enthrones, and even institutionalizes into law, the most wicked, ungodly, unrighteous, immoral, irrational, and self-destructive behaviors and ideologies in direct opposition to God’s perfect and holy truths, commands, and doctrines. Laws have been enacted and enforced that decree moral wrongs and perversions to be civil and constitutional rights worthy of protection and respect, and that permit, protect, and legalize what God forbids, prohibits, and condemns. All the nations that once professed to be influenced and guided by the truths and doctrines of Scripture are now totally apostate. All their institutions of government, education, judicial are not only apostate, but hostile to the truths, doctrines, commands, principles, and morality of Christianity. Even most of what remains that professes to be Christian no longer regards the Bible as the supreme authority and the only rule by which we are to test and distinguish truth from error, good from evil, and right from wrong. The great Puritan Steven Charnock was correct when he stated,

“When men will not let God be the judge of good and evil, but put in their own vote, controlling His to establish their own; such are not content to be as gods, subordinate to the supreme God, to sit at His feet; nor coordinate with Him to sit equal upon His throne; but paramount to Him, to over-top and shadow His crown; – a boldness that leaves the serpent, in the first temptation, under the character of a more commendable modesty; who advised our first parents to attempt to be as gods, but not above Him, and would [undermine] a law of God, but not enact a contrary one to be observed by them …. And it is a farther contempt of God’s authority, when good men are oppressed by the sole weight of power, for not observing such laws, as if they had a real sovereignty over the consciences of men, more than God Himself …. to impose laws upon the conscience, which Christ has not imposed, has deservedly been thought the very spirit of antichrist; it may be called also the spirit of anti-god.” [7]

It is self-evident that not only this nation in general, but most of what professes to be Christian, is, in fact, not only post-Christian, but anti-God. It is not only tyrannical, but anti-God to impose and enforce laws that demand people to violate God’s Law and  their own conscience in order to obey man’s law. It is anti-God to require people to undergo “sensitivity training”, which is nothing but an attempt to coerce the conscience into affirming evil as good. What else can we call the enacting and enforcing of laws that ban and outlaw God’s Law, and that punish people for obeying God’s Law! What else can we call lawmakers, judges, employers, educators, and organizations, that impose rules and laws that oppress and penalize people for refusing to call evil good, or that punish people for exposing and opposing evil as evil! What else can we call so-called ‘faith leaders’ who show more reverence for the latest theological fad, religious opinion, evolutionary dogma, and the authority of the culture and social media mob than for the clear and plain Word of God! What else can we call limiting God’s sovereignty in salvation to our own fallen sense of what is and is not “fair”, and that would not allow God to be the Lord and administrator of His own sovereign grace!

God’s Word is not only no longer allowed to be the sovereign judge and authority of good and evil, it is intolerable and illegal for it to be regarded as such, thereby enthroning the unstable and corrupt mind of man as the only sovereign authority by which to judge right and wrong, truth and error, and good and evil. Banning, prohibiting, and outlawing God’s Law, and enthroning human wisdom, opinion, and ideologies above God’s Law does not serve the best interests of a nation or make a people and nation better, but it eventually destroys them, both in this world and for eternity. God never established any government or gave authority to any people to outlaw His laws, and to substitute and establish their own. Opposing and ruling against the sovereign authority of God has been fatal to rulers and nations. This is one of God’s bitterest judgments; to give people over to their own reprobate minds as their sole authority for truth and error and for good and evil; “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your own apostasies will reprove you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God, and the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord God of hosts. (Jer 2:19).

Those whose minds are filled with a love for this world eventually find that a steadfast adherence and obedience to the truths, commands, doctrines, and principles of Scripture stands in the way of their pursuit of worldly wealth, honor, success, intellectual prestige, carnal pleasures, desires, and ambitions. Such people never fail to sacrifice, in one degree or another, their minds, their convictions, their consciences, and their souls to this idol of the world. Such a season is to be feared more than outright persecution. Comparatively few people can be violently forced to compromise or renounce their faith, convictions, and consciences. Historically persecution has had the opposite effect. But when the world dangles its baits, and mixes them with various plausible arguments to stifle and appease their consciences and maintain their reputations, then no barrier can be set up that will restrain the power of their love for this world. Once great universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which were founded to train and equip men in the truths, doctrines, and commands of the gospel, were not violently and suddenly forced into their current state of degeneracy, apostasy, and hostility to God and His Word. Rather it was love for this present world that caused them to gradually sacrifice all their founding principles, beliefs, and convictions, to sear their consciences, and to eventually become rabidly anti-God. The same is true of most denominations, ministries, seminaries, and churches today; they have gone the way of the world. The world’s empty promises, deceptive arguments and errors, false reasonings, unbiblical ideologies, elementary principles, and fleshly enticements have caused more nations, institutions, ministries, seminaries, churches, and people to fall away from the faith into error and apostasy than persecution ever has or ever could. When the primary concern of most people is the economy, worldly prosperity, their life in this world, and having the freedom to engage in the most evil, depraved, barbaric, and immoral behaviors and practices, instead of truth, goodness, and righteousness, there can be no doubt that the god in which they trust, serve, love, and worship is the god of this world (1 Jn 5:19).

As long as the world is enthroned in the minds of men and women and made their idol, as long as their minds remain conformed to this world, as long as the lust for worldly gain and pleasure and the fear of loss are the dominant principles, affections, and motives by which their mind and life are directed, then reverence and love for the truth stands on very unstable and sandy ground. Such superficial faith will never stand the tests of faith. When we see that the minds of multitudes are under the power of this idol, even the minds of most who make a profession of being Christian, the only confidence we can have that any will continue steadfast in their profession of the truth is if they are never exposed to either of these two temptations, which is, of course, impossible. The awful truth is, there is not one dominant lust and sin, not one spiritual and moral rebellion indulged in, not one act of lawlessness willfully continued in, not one error obstinately persisted in, that does not predispose the mind and heart to first devalue, and then to deviate from, and then to forsake, and then to vote and decide against the truths, doctrines, and commands of Scripture when the occasions for doing so arise and present themselves.

The Unseen Participant

We are clearly told by Scripture that Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), not in the sense that he is sovereign over it, but in that he is the god which the unregenerate world serves and worships, because all forms of idolatry and paganism are in fact the worship of demons (1 Cor 10:20). Whoever or whatever someone honors, reverences, fears, loves, and serves above God and His Word is an idol. It makes no difference if the idol is a piece of wood or stone, or if it is a lust, error, ideology, self, this present world, or a God and Jesus of someone’s own imagination. Every idol is simply what the mind that created it imagines God to be like, which is why most people imagine God to be just like themselves, “You thought I was just like you;” (Ps 50:21). When and where government officials, judges, educators, business leaders, and even many so-called ‘faith leaders’ justify their wicked actions by saying, “We don’t make the laws, we just follow them”, which, by the way, is exactly the defense given by Nazi leaders at the Nuremburg Trials in their attempt to absolve themselves of any guilt for their evil atrocities, they are admitting that they regard man and not God is the one and only Lawgiver, and that the god they serve and worship is the god of this world. They want to do the will of their father the devil (Jn 8:44), not the clear and plain will of God.

Scripture clearly teaches that the true Christian’s “struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heaven places” (Eph 6:12), and that “the whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19). Satan was the ringleader of the first apostasy from God, filling Eve’s mind with prejudices against the truth and deceiving and leading her mind astray by means of “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh” (“the tree was good for food” – Gn 3:6), “the lust of the eyes” (“that it was a delight to the eyes” – Gn 3:6), “and the boastful pride of life” (“and that the tree was desirable to make one wise” – Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Satan’s means and methods have not changed, he still prowls around working to lure, entice, seduce, deceive, and lead the mind astray by means of all that is in the world. He has succeeded by means of the world’s pretended superior wisdom and boastful pride of life in deceiving the minds of most professing Christians into denying that such a being as Satan even exists, and to regard his existence as just so much ancient myth and superstition; a fable invented by the mind of ancient and uneducated man to account for the presence of evil in the world.

The first act Satan engaged in after His apostasy was to lead an angelic rebellion against God, and the first work he engaged in on earth, and he did it successfully, was to lead mankind into the guilt of the same rebellion. Ever since God revealed His plan for recovering and reconciling sinful man to Himself, a plan from which Satan and the fallen angels are justly excluded, Satan has pursued the work of opposing God’s plan of salvation, and of blinding “the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4). After his successful assault on Adam and Eve, Satan quickly carried the whole world into idolatry, rebellion, and into various forms of self-salvation. After God destroyed the world with the flood, Satan again quickly led mankind into rebellion and the idolatry of self and the world in which men tried to usurp for themselves the power and authority that belongs only to God (Gn 11:1-6). After God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, Satan quickly deceived them into making for themselves and worshiping an idol instead of the one true God. And ever since God has been pleased to make known the way of life and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, Satan’s twofold work has been first to blind the mind in order to keep people from receiving the true gospel, and secondly to lead astray the minds of those who have received the gospel.

The first he has done in two ways; first, by stirring up and inciting violent and bloody persecutions against those who had professed faith in Christ in order to deter others from receiving the gospel and living a life of obedience to Christ, and the second is by blinding the minds of people and filling them with prejudices and hostility against the truth, just as Paul stated (2 Cor 4:4). Failing in his attempt to drive people away from the gospel by means of persecution, Satan’s principal work in the world has been and continues to be the corrupting of the truth, and leading the minds of people astray from the truth, either in part or in whole. He does this by means of his human instruments, namely false teachers and their erroneous doctrines, who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness and who dress themselves in sheep’s clothing, and secretly introduce destructive errors and heresies, and who teach the doctrines of demons, a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different Christianity (2 Cor 11:4,14,15; 2 Pt 2:1, 2; 1 Tm 4:1).

The apostle Paul compared the attempt by false teachers to fill the minds of the Corinthians with prejudices against the truth and lead their minds away from it to Satan’s deception of Eve. Paul was concerned that their minds might be corrupted and led astray by another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel (2 Cor 4:4), that is, by error. The same Satan that deceived Eve was working to deceive them by means of his human instruments (2 Cor 11:14, 15). People fall away from the faith because they pay “attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons,” (1 Tm 4:1), which are propagated “by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their conscience as with a branding iron,” (2 Tm 4:2). Deceitful (planao) spirits are errors that are really the teaching of demons, and the means by which they are propagated is through Satan’s human instruments who speak falsely and whose teaching is hypocritical because it contradicts, undermines, corrupts, and opposes the clear and plain truths, doctrines, and commands of Scripture. They are able to do this because they have a seared conscience. Their conscience has been trained by error and evil and made insensible to the distinction between truth and error, good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral; they have lost all consciousness of the sense of sin. This is how Satan sows chaos, havoc, and lawlessness not just in denominations and churches, but in society in general, by filling the minds of people with prejudices against the truth, and turning them away from it.

Josiah Pratt a nineteenth century British pastor understood the spiritual nature of error and the grave danger it poses to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, writing, “Let us consider well how much and plainly our Lord Himself, and His holy apostles, especially St. Paul, speak of the devil’s working on men by error. We shall dread and hate error more than we do, and be more keen in detecting it in even its distant approaches, when we rightly estimate its power as an instrument of evil.”[8]

J.C. Ryle also understood the danger of error, “False doctrine does not meet men face to face, and proclaim that it is false. It does not blow a trumpet before it, and endeavor openly to turn us away from the truth as it is in Jesus. It does not come before men in broad day, and summon them to surrender. It approaches us secretly, quietly, insidiously, plausibly, and in such a way as to disarm man’s suspicion, and throw him off his guard. It is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and Satan in the garb of an angel of light, who have always proved the most dangerous foes of the church of Christ. …. Let us beware of the insidiousness of false doctrine. Like the fruit of which Eve and Adam ate, it looks at first sight pleasant and good, and a thing to be desired. Poison is not written upon it, and so people are not afraid. Like counterfeit coin, it is not stamped ‘bad’; it passes current from the very likeness it bears to the truth.” [9]

Such statements stand in stark contrast to the tolerance and defense of error and to the wholesale acceptance of anything that professes to be Christian which is today so highly regarded as a great Christian virtue. It is self-evident that modern Christianity grossly underestimates the power of error as an instrument of evil. The idea that error and false teaching is just a harmless difference of opinion, or a friendly and scholarly exchange of ideas, is not only directly contrary to the clear teaching and numerous warnings of Scripture, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:1), but it is a doctrine of demons which has filled innumerable minds with prejudices against the truth and led them astray from it . The command to test the spirits implies an objective, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient standard of truth against which all other beliefs, teachings, ideologies, and opinions must be compared. Error never appears more erroneous, and evil never appears more evil than when it is placed side by side against the clear and plain truths, doctrines, and commands of Scripture, which is why unrighteous people will always work to corrupt and suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and the real reason why Scripture is no longer permitted to be the sole standard for truth and error and for good and evil.

There is an irreconcilable hostility and hatred between Satan and Scripture; between his kingdom of darkness, which is this world, and God’s kingdom of light. The Bible is the only book that exposes the unfruitful deeds of darkness. It is the only book that testifies of the world that its deeds are evil. It is the only book that reveals the true nature of God, the true way of salvation, the true nature of Christianity, the true nature of man, and the true nature of error, sin, and evil. It is the only book that clearly distinguishes between truth and error, good and evil, moral and immoral, and right and wrong. God’s Law is not just applicable to the professing Christian, but to all of mankind. An absence of God’s Law is a barrier to a true understanding of the gospel, which is the message of how sinners can be free from the judgement which the Law imposes on gulity sinners. This is the reason for the hostility of worldly and wicked people against the truths, commands, and doctrines of Scripture; people who can easily accept and tolerate any form of religion, any false teaching, any false gospel, any false Jesus, any doctrine of demons, any perversion and blasphemy against God and His Word, but who cannot tolerate the truth.

God does not sit idly by, looking upon all this as a passive and unconcerned spectator. He never has and never will allow any people or nation to corrupt and forsake His truths, and to rebel against and finally usurp His sovereign authority without inflicting upon them His severest judgments. God’s severest judgments are His spiritual judgments whereby He gives the minds of people over to their sin and error for which they have corrupted and forsaken His truths, commands, and doctrines (Rm 1:28-32). This truth, which was once so prominent, as J.C. Ryle writes, is now rarely heard,

“Scripture teaches plainly that God rules everything in this world, that He deals with nations as they deal with Him, …. But of one thing I am very sure, the State that begins by sowing the seed of national neglect of God, will sooner or later reap a harvest of national disaster and national ruin.” [10]

Today this kind of witness against rejecting God and His Word, if not totally silenced, barely rises above a whisper. State the most elementary Christian truth today and its hits people’s ears like a fire alarm because the superficiality of our faith, our unwillingness and inability to correct error with truth, and our timidity and reluctance to speak the unadulterated truth, has kept us from hearing this kind of truth. Jesus clearly teaches that He will reject all those who are ashamed of Him and His words (Mk 8:38). God justly and righteously forsakes those who willfully and deliberately forsake Him and His Word. Scripture and history both teach us that when a nation listens to Satan and pays attention to the doctrines of demons, and when it suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and exchanges the truth of God for a lie, there will always be an inevitable and irresistible descent into spiritual and moral darkness, unrestrained lawlessness, and hostile and violent hatred for God, His Word, and for those who keep, teach, preach, and live His Word (2 Tm 3:12), and who faithfully and fearlessly expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness and testify of the world that its deeds are evil.

Despite all the powers of darkness and all the natural hostility of unregenerate men and women to the truths, commands, and doctrines of Scripture, the gates of hell can never prevail over the truths of God or over His true people. Truth may be rare, it may be battered and beaten, some of its few remaining heralds may be silenced by death, but it can never be dead. It is error and evil that is short-lived, “Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a moment” (Pv 12:19); “that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless is momentary” (Job 20:5). Heaven and earth will pass away, but God’s truth will never pass away (Mt 24:35). No matter how much or how violently or how deceptively evil seeks to overcome and conquer truth and good by means of evil men, the true Christian always overcomes and conquers evil with good (Rm 12:21), with the greatest good being the speaking and living of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

Let all who have the love of the truth so as to be saved pray the prayer which the prophet Jeremiah prayed when he lamented the destruction of Jerusalem which God destroyed for its willful forsaking of Him and His Word, “Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us, and are exceedingly angry with us” (Lam 5:21, 22). Let us prove ourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves (Jm 1:22), by proclaiming and obeying the command of Scripture, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Return to Me,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘That I may return to you,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zech 1:3). If we refuse to do so, or if we do so in deception, that is, not with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, then we do so to our peril (Jer 3:10). Therefore, let us be diligent to “prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Phil 2:15).

In the next study I will examine some of the occasions and causes of apostasy from the holiness which the gospel always produces and requires.

[1] J.C. Ryle, Light From Old Times (Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan, 2000), 23-24.

[2] Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005), 260

[3] Charles Hodge, The Way of Life (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2020), vi.

[4] John Owen, The Works of John Owen Vol 7 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 158.

[5] J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1923), 64, 65

[6] Jonathan Edwards, Works, 257-258.

[7] Steven Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Vol 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 431, 433.

[8] J. Pratt and J.H. Pratt, Memoir of the Rev. Josiah Pratt (London: Seeleys, 1849), 341.

[9] J.C. Ryle, Knots Untied (Edinburg: Banner of Truth, 2016), 374, 377.

[10] Quoted in Iain Murray, J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone (Edinburg: Banner of Truth, 2016), 230, 231.