CHAPTER XIV
APOSTASY
[The Great "Falling Away"]

INTRODUCTION

In various places and in diverse ways the Scriptures warn about the dangers that will encompass the saints of God at the end of the age - so much so that the "very elect" shall be "DECEIVED" (Mat. 24:24); but I Tim. 4:1-2 is the only passage in the Bible which explicitly shows the special cause of the peril to the church in the closing days of this era, and how Satan will break in upon her members, and by DECEPTION beguile many:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

"Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ..." (I Tim. 4:1-2)

The word hypocrisy here means to present a lie as the truth.

"THINGS AREN'T WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE"

The peril to the church at the close of the age, then, is from people who present a lie as the truth; from hypocrites who claim to be one thing, but who in reality are something else altogether; people who pass themselves off as Christians, but who are, nonetheless, unalterably opposed to God - much as Judas was.

The peril from such men concerns every true Christian in the "Latter Days." The prophecy declares that (1) some Christians shall fall away from the faith; and (2) the reason for their fall will be that they have given heed to a deception - a teaching which outwardly appears to lead to God and to bring about "good," but which in reality leads to disgrace and dishonor.

These hypocrites are believed because outwardly they appear to be "good," to be "spiritual." The so-called "good life" or "spiritual life" of these hypocrites is taken as a sufficient guarantee for their teaching.

But goodness is no guarantor of the truth: all teaching must be judged against the Written Word. Nothing else will suffice. To think that goodness and "good intentions" are adequate warrants for the truth is to take the first step down the road to deception. Such thinking has its foundation in the prevalent idea that everything that Satan does is manifestly evil, the truth not being realized that he works under cover of light. (2 Cor. 11:14)

We repeat, there is only one principle for testing the source of all doctrine - and that is not "good intentions," but the Written Word, the Bible.

APOSTASY: THE "FALLING AWAY"

But how is it possible that so many evangelicals - including a vast portion of our leadership - could have allowed themselves to be so dulled spiritually that they have become such easy targets for these hypocrites? The answer is apostasy! Apostasy is not necessarily false doctrine and/or sin - though it can be this, and there can be no question that these things inevitably follow in the wake of apostasy - but rather it is, in the first instance, the FALLING AWAY of Christians from a view of themselves as citizens of Christ's heavenly kingdom to a view of themselves as citizens of the kingdom of this world. The Bible says:

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [i.e., the day of the rapture and resurrection] shall not come, except there come a FALLING AWAY [i.e., apostasy] first ..." (2 Thess. 2:3)

If we truly are aliens to this world, as the Scriptures so plainly declare we are, what should we have to do with its politics? - nothing of course. Nonetheless, that's what millions and millions of Christians in the United States have involved themselves in as they have flocked to the Republican Party and anointed it as "God's Party" dedicated to the mission of "taking back the country for Christ and the church."

But, again, if we are truly aliens to this world, why should we seek to involve ourselves in the politics of what amounts to be a "foreign country?" To do so diverts us from the single mission that we have been Scripturally commissioned to accomplish - to convince as many people as possible as we journey through this "foreign and hostile land" to join us in seeking that better land - that "heavenly country" whose builder and maker is God.

To get involved politically in the land we say we are leaving is to reveal ourselves as nothing more than frauds - people who don't really intend to leave - and unbelievers have a stubborn and pernicious way of noticing such inconsistencies; and then we have the chutzpah and temerity to wonder why we are so ineffectual in leading people to Christ?

THE BAIT WHICH LEADS TO
APOSTASY: THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH

It's wealth - or, as is more often the case, the desire for wealth (for most people never really get it) - which blinds us to the transitory nature of our connection to this world and which leads us into apostasy. Apostasy inevitably develops when Christians - because of their worldly comfort and wealth, or simply their desire for material things - refuse to acknowledge in word, deed, or action the fact that they are merely "pilgrims and strangers" - aliens - to this world and this present life.

It is the desire for material things which diverts Christians from their journey - from seeing this world as merely a "way station" on their path towards a better world. Paul wasn't just kidding around when He said,

"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

"And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

"For they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (II Tim. 6:7-10)

Dom Helder Camara of Brazil was right when he wrote:

"I used to think, when I was a child, that Christ might have been exaggerating when He warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how ... [impossible] it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money [or the desire for money] has a dangerous way of putting scales on one's eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people's hands, eyes, lips and hearts."

Jesus said,

"Lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also ... No man can serve two masters [or two kingdoms]: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve [both] God and mammon [i.e., you cannot serve heaven and this world at the same time]." (Mat. 6:19-24)

Speaking of those who have given up on viewing themselves as citizens of heaven, and have reverted back to seeing themselves as citizens of this world, Paul said,

"For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who have become the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their future is ... loss ... [for] all they think about is this life here on earth." [Phil. 3:18-19 (Amp.)]

Apostasy - i.e., that condition of thinking which leads us to perceive ourselves more as citizens of this world than of heaven - results when our attachment to the things or "treasures" of this life - our cars, our houses, our careers, etc. - overwhelm us and cause us to think of ourselves not as aliens to this world, but as "permanent residents." Once we as Christians have acquiesced in this way of thinking we have created the conditions necessary to open us up to Satanic DECEPTION.

DECEPTION

If all that the Bible contains on the subject of evil could be exhaustively dealt with, we should find that more knowledge is given on the technique - the methodology - of Satan than many have realized, and at the heart of his technique is deception. From Genesis to Revelation the work of Satan as a deceiver can be traced, until the climax is reached in the "Great Deception" of the "very elect" in the "Latter Days."

Deception is truly a sinister and clandestine craft, and its work today in what passes for "evangelical Christianity" has become so lethal and toxic that the faith of countless numbers of heretofore sound Bible-believing Christians is being poisoned; yet it is so subtle and delicate in its intrigue that those who have been entangled in its web of fraud and trickery hardly realize that their faith has been thus corrupted.

We find recorded in Genesis Satan's first work as deceiver, and the subtle form of his method of deception. We see him here working upon man's highest and purest desires, and cloaking his own purpose of ruin under the guise of seeking to lead men and women into a closer relationship with God. We see him using good to bring about evil; suggesting evil to bring about good. Caught with the bait of being "wise" and "like God," man is blinded to the principle of obedience, and is deceived - and in the end, the desire to be "good" has counted for little. Indeed, the cleverest way in which the devil deceives is when he comes in the likeness of somebody or something which apparently causes a person to "be more like God" and/or to be "good." But the Bible somberly warns us:

"There is a way which seemeth right (i.e., good) unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12)

THE PROBLEM & THE SOLUTION
(THE BAIT AND THE TRAP)

Let's now pause and think about all this, particularly as it pertains to the Religious Right - remembering all the while that what follows could have only occurred to a people who have given up on seeing themselves as subjects of an heavenly kingdom, and have instead grown accustomed to thinking of themselves as citizens of this present world.

A very wise person once said,

"Satan's greatest ruse is to first create a problem, and then offer the solution. The problem created is the bait; the poison is in the solution."

In the case of the Religious Right, the problem which Satan has created consists largely in what is perceived (and perhaps rightfully so) as a fundamental moral collapse of the society at large over the last three to four decades: specifically, the breakdown of the traditional family, the concomitant upsurge of single parent families, the growth of militant feminism, the acceptance of homosexuality as an "alternate life-style," Congressional and judicial acquiescence to the insane concept of women in combat, the increase in crime of all sorts, the rise of sexual permissiveness, the acceptance of "abortion on demand" - the list seems endless. When all this is combined with the new multicultural chic and the "political correctness" that is currently in vogue - a style of thinking which arrogantly and disdainfully denigrates the nation's older European-based, Christian civilization - it's enough to create a cultural firestorm, an enormous rage which has emotionally seized control of countless numbers of evangelicals and blinded them to their own eschatology (or doctrine of "end times").

The problem Satan has created seems compelling, persuasive, convincing; it demands action. The bait is set. The solution? - evangelicals must "enter the lists" (or arena); they must involve themselves and their churches politically to "stop the madness." The trap is sprung!

Without realizing it, they have fallen victim to the same trap that German Christians fell victim to sixty years ago with regard to Hitler.

FOLLOWING IN GERMANY'S FOOTSTEPS

Germany's defeat during the First World War had led to the rise of a liberal-left, anti-Christian, anti-right parliamentary coalition which seemed to hold in contempt all the values of "Old Germany." Indeed, wherever German Christians looked in the 1920s and early '30s, they found little to comfort them: the cherished national values of hard work, self-discipline, and patriotism embodied in the conservative Lutheran and Catholic value systems of the "Old Reich" were being openly undermined and ridiculed. Pacifist and feminist novels which seemed to deride manhood - and men in general - abounded; on the stage, incest, pederasty or - at the very least - marital infidelity were glorified. Illustrated magazines featured nude dancers and international gangsters, frequently shown in company with each other; movies like the Blue Angel (Marlene Dietrich) and entertainers like Josephine Baker, who could be found cavorting naked on the stage in Berlin as often as she could be seen in Paris, corrupted the younger generation by glamorizing sadism and rape. Prostitutes and their pimps were the main heroes of the day. Indeed, it appeared as if only criminals, the blasphemous, and homosexuals were of any interest to modern culture. It seemed as though Berlin had taken over from Paris as the world capital of lasciviousness and obscenity.

A kind of left-wing, liberal excess - the Kabarett Kultur - dominated the media, a liberalism which glorified sexual and cultural indulgence and which consigned the values of "ordinary folk" - which the liberal intelligentsia claimed were either stupid or barbaric, "das platte, all zu platte Volk" - to the rubbish heap. The literati were in command! - enemies of order, the profiteers of chaos! Like tubercular bacilli, they affected all the weak cells in the body politic. Rootless themselves, they bitterly attacked any manifestation of manly patriotism and healthy morality. They had no shame or modesty, they were the apostles of sensationalism forever in search of new trends and fashions, however worthless.

German Christians regarded the left-wing intellects as a noxious and cancerous element - more dangerous than gangsters. Why? - because ordinary criminals were merely engaged in offenses against property and persons, whereas the left-wing intelligentsia was helping to bring about the spiritual murder of an entire nation.

In assessing the moral and cultural decay which surrounded them, most German Christians had come to believe that this pathology of rot and decadence was by no means accidental - it was a concerted and centrally planned process - a deliberate conspiracy by socialists and left-wing, avant-guard radicals to undermine everything that was still healthy in Germany so that the country could never again recover and rise to greatness. Their stranglehold had to be broken to make a cultural recovery possible. But in attempting to set things right, in attempting to end the left's stranglehold on Germany, German Christians helped to create a nightmare which ultimately not only consumed them, but Germany and German Christianity as well. In the end, the solution was far, far worse than the problem which had at first seemed to necessitate it.

It's in the light of this kind of reality that William Thackeray once said:

"The wicked are wicked no doubt, and they go astray and they fall and they come to their own deserts; but who can tell the mischief the (so-called) virtuous do."

EVANGELICAL MISCONCEPTIONS
RE. GERMAN CHRISTIANITY

Today, it is commonly believed in evangelical circles in America that Hitler was a "New Age" theosophist and that the reason German Christians had been seduced by him is because they had earlier abandoned the "fundamentals" of their faith - largely as a result of the "Higher Criticism of the Bible" which was then in vogue throughout fashionable and intellectual sections of German society. But that simply is not true! The so-called "Higher Criticism" had no more taken hold on the great majority of German Christians than it had on the great mass of American Christians. Average German Christians - as opposed to some church intellectuals - had remained as "fundamental" in their faith as they had ever been - and Hitler, while he may indeed have been a theosophist in his "inner most being" - and shown himself as such to his inner circle of friends and associates - he was extremely careful to present himself as a traditional "Christian conservative" to the German people (see Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944 and Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler: The Missing Years).

The fact of the matter is, the public persona that Hitler constantly cultivated was that of a "Christian Savior" commissioned by God to save the nation from the liberal rot which had overtaken it. Indeed, Hitler - in his first radio address to the German people after coming to power - announced,

"The national government ... will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality."

Hardly the words of an outspoken theosophist!

Two weeks later, on February 16, 1933, Hitler went even further in affirming his devotion to Christianity. In a speech at Stuttgart, Hitler asserted,

The National Socialist Women's Organization (Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, or NSF), affirmed all the recognized fundaments of Nazi ideology, including the preservation of Christian belief. Lili Otto, one of the leaders of the NSF wrote in 1933: "Our Frauenschaft flag carries the same colors as the Swastika flag, with our flag black stands out, solemn and worthy. On top shine forth the Christian cross in the color of purity, constantly warning us: 'You women and mothers, be real Christians; protect Christianity in your family, rear your children to love the savior.'"

"Today Christians ... stand at the head of Germany ... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity ... We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ... We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past ... [few] years."

Thus, while it may be true that - despite the rhetoric and the persona - Hitler was no Christian, and that evangelicals may be correct in pointing this fact out, evangelicals are still wrong - very wrong - in believing that German Christians themselves were anything but sincere and "fundamental" in their faith - and the fact is, they are being very self-serving in assuming otherwise. Why? - because it obscures the real reason German Christians were seduced by Hitler - why they didn't really investigate what actually lay beneath Hitler's public persona; after all, it wouldn't have been difficult to do. The evidence - despite Hitler's effort to hide it - was easy to find. The obvious reason is, they didn't want to!

They wanted to believe Hitler! - and anything which got in the way was swept aside! Their perceived need to be rescued from a liberalism which they believed had run amuck had so blinded them that they purposefully ignored any evidence which suggested that Hitler might be something else than what he had presented himself as - and they denounced all those who attempted to uncover the real truth as "unchristian" and "unpatriotic!"

THE ROAD TO HELL IS NOT
TRANSVERSED IN ONE GIANT STEP

In light of all this, the question that fairly begs to be asked is this: Are American evangelicals making the same mistake German Christians made sixty years ago with Hitler? In refusing to examine the motives behind their secular allies in the political and economic right, by condemning Christians who attempt to do so as being "unloving and uncaring," by denigrating those who question the spiritual wisdom - as opposed to the political wisdom - of a Catholic / evangelical alliance, etc. aren't American evangelicals going down the same road taken by German Christians sixty years ago? The answer, obviously, is yes!

The road that leads to Hell is not transversed with one giant step - but rather with innumerable small ones, each insignificant in itself, but when combined with countless others leads inevitably to the final destination. So also with the little compromises evangelicals are making today. Each compromise in itself is not much, and if left to itself would probably not count for anything - little steps, such as -

• When Chuck Swindall, president of Dallas Theological Seminary, agrees to participate in the activities of the "Promise Keepers" - never mind the fact that the organization encompasses within its membership people who are connected to groups inimical to the wider interests of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when one of its chief spokesmen, Robert Hicks, refers to Jesus as "a phallic kind of guy" [the phallus is the erect male sexual organ, i.e., the erect penis (Hicks, The Six Stages of Manhood, pg. 24)]. And it should be noted in this connection that despite the fact that the Promise Keepers no longer pass out this book at their assemblies and conferences, they continue to promote it to all their devotees, and it still forms the basis around which their small home gatherings are arranged - and Swindall should know this; and if he doesn't, it's because he has purposefully chosen not to.

• When Tim LaHaye accepts money from the Moonies - never mind the fact that the Moonies claim that Christ had sex with the women who followed Him.

• When Paul Crouch, President of TBN, says that he is going to "shoot" those who stand in the way of a Catholic / evangelical rapprochement - never mind the fact that Catholics have done nothing to renounce the heresies which impelled the Reformers to break with them in the first place.

• When prominent evangelical pastors throughout the country allow Death Squad leaders such as Mario and Adolfo Calero to speak at their churches - never mind the fact that the Caleros are connected to some of the most notorious Death Squads in South and Central America.

All these are little steps in and of themselves - but when combined, take us as evangelicals down a path, the destination of which is a dark and very evil place.

THE TRIFLING NATURE
OF TODAY'S CHRISTIANITY

When one begins to perceive this present world as one's permanent abode, then one cannot help but try to make oneself comfortable in it - which leads one invariably to embrace a form of Christianity that is frivolous and superficial, the kind of silly and trifling Christianity embraced by Atlanta preacher Bruce Wilkinson in his book, The Prayer of Jabez (a book so inane and foolish - even CHILDISH - that it fairly boggles the mind).

The book celebrates GREED as a guiding principle in the Christian life, and presents God as nothing more than a "SUGAR-DADDY" whose sole object in life is to make Christians happy. For example, Wilkinson writes:

"If you didn't ask God for a blessing yesterday, you didn't get all that you were supposed to have. And be sure to ask EXTRAVAGANTLY, for you nothing but God's fullest blessings (meaning, of course, MATERIAL blessings) will do. Don't worry about coming across as selfish, for this is exactly the kind of request our Father longs to hear ... you will be so overwhelmed ... that you will find yourself saying, 'It's too much! Hold some of your blessings back'."

What is Wilkinson talking about here? Certainly not Christ and the Gospel - unless he has in mind ANOTHER Christ and ANOTHER Gospel (Gal. 1:6-7); a Christ the Bible knows nothing about. Jesus taught,

"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." (Matt. 19:21)

AND,

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matt. 16:24)

AND,

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt. 6:19-21)

AND,

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matt. 6:24-25)

AND,

Finally the prophet Habakkuk writes,

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

"Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab. 3:17-18)

What's Habakkuk saying here? - he is saying that what REALLY "marks out" the man of God is his ability to REJOICE in the Lord when everything else is collapsing around him - hardly the Gospel according to Wilkinson.

And Wilkinson isn't alone here! The sad fact of the matter is, the type of Christianity that is being peddled to Christians today by the pastors of today's church is the fatuous and superficial kind where T-shirts promote "J. Christ" rather than "J. Crew," "Fruit of the Spirit" rather than "Fruit of the Loom," "Christ Supreme" instead of "Krispy Kreme" and where there are endless "spin-offs" to things like the Prayer of Jabez generated specifically for the sake of money: For example, a devotional volume to the Prayer of Jabez, an illustrated gift edition, a journal, a Bible study course, "Prayer of Jabez for Women," and "Prayer of Jabez for Little Ones" ("Dear God, Please bless me in a great big way!"), not to mention greeting cards, calendars, mugs, mousepads, etc.

MAKING CHRISTIANS VULNERABLE
TO ELITE MACHINATION AND STRATAGEMS

The Wilkinson brand of Christianity is the kind of Christianity where it's "cool to be a Christian" - and PROFITABLE; where Christianity is licensed and "bottled" for sale, and where individual Christians are reduced to the status of consumers for whatever their pastors are selling.

Ultimately, the great hazard Christians face in all this is the danger of being reduced to a "commodity" themselves - a "PRODUCT" TO BE MERCHANDISED BY THEIR PASTORS TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. And who exactly is the highest bidder? - the elites, of course. And sadly, that's precisely what is happening - Christians are being "sold out" by their pastors and leaders to the elites. [Please see our article, "The Rich Have Seized Control of the Church."]

The tragic fact of the matter is, the leadership of today's church view their parishioners as a passive assembly of AUTOMATONS to be "bought and sold" at auction for the benefit of whatever their elite masters in the Economic Right are interested in at any particular moment.

And what is it that the pastors receive in return? - MONEY! Lots and lots of MONEY! For example,

• Pat Robertson receives massive amounts of money from the John M. Olin Foundation, a channel for elite money that emanates out of the armaments industry.

• Then there is D. James Kennedy who receives money from the Carthage Foundation and the Allegheny Foundation, both of which are controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, as well as Gulf Oil and Alcoa money. Kennedy also receives financial backing from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, another elite channel for money that flows out of the electronics industry.

• Then there is Moonie money that goes to support people like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, the Rutherford Institute, and a whole host of other "big names" in the Christian world - and this is just a tiny sampling of what's going on.

Now does one really think that all this elite money is going to the church without any strings attached? Come on now! - what strictly religious connection does the armaments industry have with Pat Robertson; or the banking industry with Jerry Falwell? Be honest here! - what intersection of interests is there between the liquor industry (Adolf Coors - another funder of many in today's church), the electronics industry, and the oil industry on one hand, and the poor Carpenter of Nazareth on the other hand? Be honest! [Please see our article on Richard Mellon Scaife entitled, "Richard Mellon Scaife: The Evil That Money Can Do" for a look into the convoluted world that connects elite money to the leaders of today's church."]