Posts Tagged ‘apostasy’
Finding an Unbroken Line of Churches
by Doy Moyer We sometimes hear talk about finding the original church. In the search for the original church, we may then make the mistake of thinking that we can find a line of churches that go all the way back to the 1st century to prove which one is the right church. Besides conflating…
Read MoreI Have a Closed Mind
by Fanning Yater Tant, Vanguard Magazine, January 25, 1979 This editorial is being written on my birthday (December 30). I have now attained my three score and ten, and have reached a point in life where I am neither ashamed nor afraid to say some things which would have been ranked heresy at a younger…
Read MoreThe Beginning of Apostasy
by Andy Sochor via Unmasking Sophistry, January-March 2023 As we noticed in “Early Persecution,” the early Christians openly faced severe persecution for the cause of Christ. While many abandoned their faith in order to avoid these persecutions, there were others who remained faithful even to the point of death. Because of this, the enemies of…
Read MoreStages of Decline
by Steve Wolfgang The stages of development often seen in religious fellowships, related here by historian David Edwin Harrell, Jr., are well worth contemplating in these times. From truth-oriented to group-oriented. From open controversy to closed controversy. From self-conscious rejection of society to self-conscious acceptance of society. From builders to preservers. [Ed Harrell, “B.C. Goodpasture:…
Read MoreDrifting Away
by Matthew W. Bassford Hebrews 2:1 contains one of the most sobering warnings in the entire Bible: “For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” A couple of verses later, the writer uses a rhetorical question to make the point that…
Read MoreWould We Recognize Trends Which Point to an Apostasy?
by Floyd Chappelear Sentry Magazine, March 2001 Salmagundi I have been attending churches of Christ for more than fifty years. I have been preaching the gospel for more than forty of them. I do not think it presumptuous to suggest that I know what I am talking about. The things that point to apostasy are not…
Read MoreThe Chains of the Past
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Chains-of-the-Past.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Colossians 3:1-11 I. In Charles Dickens’ story “A Christmas Story,” Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner who is wear chains of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds and heavy purses. When asked what the chains meant, “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the…
Read MoreSee If You Can Find a Man
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/See-If-You-Can-Find-a-Man.mp3 Text: Jeremiah 5:1-13 I. The last days of the southern kingdom of Judah A. The people had become very corrupt – Jeremiah 5:20-23 B. God purposed to severely punish His people – Jeremiah 5:26-31 II. But there is one hope – Jeremiah 5:1 A. Jeremiah is told to run through Jerusalem and find a man 1. A man who…
Read MoreIs a Christian who teaches error still a brother in Christ?
Question: A big fire started after our morning services this morning! One of our members here adamantly disagreed with me when I mentioned that when a brother sins by teaching doctrinal error, he must repent, and if he refuses to repent he is “a brother in error.” Until he does repent, we are no longer…
Read MoreThe Church in Crisis
by Edward O. Bragwell, Sr. I have a sermon titled “Crises in the Jerusalem Church” that I preach from time to time. It is based on notes that I took on a sermon I heard brother Clinton Hamilton preach many years ago. It points to several crises faced by the first congregation of Christians ever.…
Read MoreThe Pattern for Personal Apostasy
by Dee Bowman It seems to me that even evil follows a predictable pattern. I have seen one or two persons, on rare occasions, suddenly and unexpectedly bolt from the faith and forsake God – seemingly all in one motion. However, this has certainly been the exception and not the rule. Most people who leave…
Read MoreReactionary Apostasy
by Warren E. Berkley via Guardian of Truth, February 1, 1990 Here is a situation that isn’t hypothetical. It is common, and thus worthy of our attention. In a local church where there is a history of objection to the sponsoring church arrangement and other unauthorized innovations, war breaks out. Brethren “bite and devour one another,”…
Read MoreCan a person who was once a Christian, but now is as worldly as anyone else, come back?
Question: Hello, I John 1:9 says that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” but would that apply to someone who’s a baptized Christian but has been away from God for several months, committed fornication and has been very close to atheism? Mostly the atheism…
Read MoreThere’s No Security for the Believer in ‘Once Saved, Always Saved’
by Al Diestelkamp via Think on These Things, Volume 41, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2010 There is a belief in many Protestant churches, and especially popular among those who would describe themselves as “evangelicals,” known as the doctrine of “The Security of the Believer.” In Calvinism’s TULIP acronym, it is represented by the “P” for “Perseverance of…
Read MoreHow do I know if I have fallen from grace?
Question: What does it mean to fall from the grace? I’ve doubted Jesus so many times, I’m scared I’ve fallen. I pray to God to forgive me and ask Him to never let me go, never let me take my eyes off Christ or I’ll be lost. How do I know I haven’t fallen? Answer:…
Read MoreA Pattern of Departure from God
by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes, Vol. 58, No. 51, Dec. 18, 2009. Jeremiah the “weeping prophet,” was sent to warn God’s people to return to the Lord. His pleas to them, his tears for their rebellion, fill the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. He writes that Israel had forgotten the Lord (Jeremiah 2:32), they…
Read MoreThe Falling Away Comes First
by Carl A. Allen A problem confronting Timothy when Paul wrote the second epistle to him was that of some people, (Christians) believing the “resurrection is past already” (II Timothy 2:17-18). “But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus…
Read MoreThe Three Chairs
I. There is a tendency for groups of people to drift away from the truth as years go by A. Not necessarily one person leaving the faith, but as generation succeeds generation there is a tendency for children to not do as well as their parents. 1. It shows up as a gradual change, not a sudden departure…
Read More“When the Lord Opens the Door You Have to Seize the Opportunity…”
by Bob Lovelace For some reason. perhaps because it is beneficial to be reminded how apostasy works, or better yet because apostasy does indeed “work” and presents itself in order to perpetuate its working of error, I keep meeting those who say they really do not see anything wrong with instrumental music in worship. Conversation…
Read MoreNotes on Apostasy
Proverbs 15:10 Ezekiel 18 Ezekiel 33:12-16 Matthew 3:10 John 8:31 John 15:6 Acts 8:12-13 Acts 8:1824 Acts 20:28-30 Romans 11:16-24 I Corinthians 9:24-10:12 Colossians 1:22-23 Galatians 5:4-7 I Timothy 1:18-20 I Timothy 4:1-3 I Timothy 6:10 II Timothy 4:4-10 Hebrews 2:1 Hebrews 3:12-19 Hebrews 4:1 Hebrews 4:11 Hebrews 6:4-7 Hebrews 10:26-30 Hebrews 10:38-39 James 5:19-20…
Read MoreDrifting
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 I. J.D. Tant, a preacher in Texas back in the late 1800’s, often ended his articles with the warning, “Brethren, we are drifting.” A. Such seems to be the tendency of man. B. We forget the past and just assume that what is currently done has always been that way…
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