Reasons and Causes 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)

Whatever hopes, beliefs, and assurances that the vast majority of people in this world have for their life after death, they are not founded on the truth of God’s Word, which is the only sure ground of hope. When the Apostle Paul told Gentile believers in Ephesus, that before their conversion they were “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12), he did not mean they were devoid of their own self-made hopes. Read more »

Apostasy After the Time of the Apostles

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)

The New Testament repeatedly warns that men and women who seek to corrupt and destroy the gospel and to pervert, redefine, and deny the essential doctrines of Christianity come from two sources, namely, from outside the church and from inside the church. Read more »

THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY – Part 8

Partial Apostasy from the Gospel

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) Read more »

Partial Apostasy from the Gospel

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) Read more »

Subjecting Christ to Open Shame

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)

This world is a wicked and evil world. It is a dark world. It is a doomed world, “the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Pt 3:7). The New Testament does not offer to make this present world better; rather, we are told it will get worse and worse, “But evil men (that is, the non-Christian world) and impostors (the false Christian world) will proceed from bad to worse,” (2 Tim 3:13). Read more »