Some of the religious leaders in Paul's day had departed from the faith. They would not endure sound doctrine and resisted the truth to such an extent that Paul openly called them blasphemers. They had made shipwreck of their faith and were busily engaged in trying to steer the ship of other men's lives onto the same rocks.
Paul wrote to the young minister who was his son in the faith urging him to loyalty to his Lord. He pointed out to Timothy the fallacy of the scholarship of that day, which was the cause of this departure from the true faith, and warned him to have nothing to do with it but to give himself afresh to a study of the Word.
1 Timothy 6:20-21, "O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; ... which some professing have erred concerning the faith."
2 Timothy 2:16-18, "But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, ... and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; ... men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some."
2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth no to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Paul also warned the little flock at Ephesus and the whole Church under his care of the grievous wolves and the false hirelings who would enter in among them to draw the flock away from the Shepherd. He faithfully exposed these men and their seductive methods in his Epistles to the churches.
Acts 20:29-30, "For I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock: ... also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
2 Corinthians 11:13-15, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ ... And no marvel; for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."
Paul declared that these men were guilty of bringing division into the Church. When they departed from the faith of the Gospel instead of separating also from the Church that had preached and taught this Gospel from its inception, and establishing an organization upon their new tenets, they did the very unethical thing of remaining within the Church and of attempting to gain control over it. Though teaching a doctrine contrary to that which the Christians had been taught yet they apparently used such a vocabulary that it would be difficult for their simple-hearted hearers to detect its falseness. They ensnared many through genial manners and fair words. Such was the beginning of apostasy.
Romans 16:17-18, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned; and turn away from them, For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent."
Colossians 2:4, 8, "And this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words ... Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
Under the inspiration of the divine Spirit Paul foretold the apostasy that would sweep throughout the entire professing Church and would eat at its very vitals. Into a veritable whirlpool of doubt, disbelief and disloyalty multitudes would be drawn.
No Spirit-taught student of the Word of God and of the universal condition of Christendom doubts that the day of this prophesied apostasy is already upon us. In the churches of the mission field as well as in those of the homelands this declension from the true faith and this disloyalty to Him who is the Truth is in every day evidence.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 4)
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