Apostasy
Apostasy
The Gr. word (apostasia) is found twice in the NT, but in neither case does English Version render apostasy. In Act 21:21 a charge is brought against St. Paul of teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses (lit. [Note: literally, literature.] apostasy from Moses). In 2Th 2:3 St. Paul assures the Thessalonian disciples that the day of the Lord shall not come except the falling away (lit. [Note: literally, literature.] the apostasy) come first, and the man of sin (marg. [Note: margin.] , with bettor textual justification, lawlessness) be revealed. It is sometimes assumed that the word first indicates that the revelation of the man of sin must be preceded in time by the apostasy (cf. article Man of Sin, and Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) iii. 226); but the relation of 2Th 2:2 to 2Th 2:3 makes it more natural to understand first as signifying that the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin, regarded as contemporaneous, must come before the day of the Lord. This is confirmed if we accept Nestles contention (Expository Times xvi. [1904-1905] 472) that in this passage should be taken as a translation of the Heb. (Belial [q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ])-a rendering that occurs frequently in Aquilas version and also in 3 Kings 21:13 in the Cod. Alexandrinus. In any case the Apostles reference is to the wide-spread expectation in the primitive Church (Mat 24:24, 1Jn 2:18; cf. Dan 12:11) that the return of Christ would be preceded by such a revelation of the power of the Antichrist (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) as would load to apostasy from the faith on the part of many professing Christians.
J. C. Lambert.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
APOSTASY
A forsaking or renouncing our religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration of it by our actions. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostacy; the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism; the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and, fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into paganism.
Apostasy may be farther considered as,
1.Original, in which we have all participated, Rom 3:23;
2.National, when a kingdom relinquishes the profession of Christianity;
3.Personal, when an individual backslides from God, Heb 10:38;
4.Final, when men are given up the judicial hardness of heart, as Judas.
5.See BACKSLIDING.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
apostasy
(Greek: apostasis, a standing-off)
A total defection from the Christian religion, after previous acceptance through faith and baptism . Refusal to accept a particular tenet of the faith is properly called heresy .
Apostasy may be merely interior, or exteriorly manifested as well. It may be formal (with full consciousness of the obligation to remain in the faith), or material (without such consciousness). Exterior formal apostasy involves excommunication, reserved in a special manner to the Holy See.
Apostasy from religious life is the unauthorized departure from a religious house of an inmate under perpetual vows, with the intention of not returning; or, if the departure be legitimate, a subsequent refusal to return in order thus to withdraw from the obligations of religious obedience (canon 644). Such apostates incur excommunication.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Apostasy
(apo, from, and stasis, station, standing, or position).
The word itself in its etymological sense, signifies the desertion of a post, the giving up of a state of life; he who voluntarily embraces a definite state of life cannot leave it, therefore, without becoming an apostate. Most authors, however, distinguish with Benedict XIV (De Synodo di£cesanâ, XIII, xi, 9), between three kinds of apostasy: apostasy a Fide or perfidi£, when a Christian gives up his faith; apostasy ab ordine, when a cleric abandons the ecclesiastical state; apostasy a religione, or monachatus, when a religious leaves the religious life. The Gloss on title 9 of the fifth book of the Decretals of Gregory IX mentions two other kinds of apostasy: apostasy inobedientiæ, disobedience to a command given by lawful authority, and iteratio baptismatis, the repetition of baptism, “quoniam reiterantes baptismum videntur apostatare dum recedunt a priori baptismate”. As all sin involves disobedience, the apostasy inobedientiæ does not constitute a specific offense. In the case of iteratio baptismatis, the offence falls rather under the head of heresy and irregularity than of apostasy; if the latter name has sometimes been given to it, it is due to the fact that the Decretals of Gregory IX combine into one title, under the rubric “De apostatis et reiterantibus baptisma” (V, title 9) the two distinct titles of the Justinian Code: “Ne sanctum baptisma iteretur” and” De apostatis ” (I, titles 6, 7), in Corpus juris civilis ed. Krueger, (Berlin, 1888); II 60-61. See München “Das kanonische Gerichtsverfahren und Strafrecht” (Cologne, 1874), II, 362, 363. Apostasy, in its strictest sense, means apostasy a Fide (St. Thomas, Summa theologica, II-II, Q. xii a. 1).
APOSTASY A FIDE, or PERFIDIÆ
Perfidiæ is the complete and voluntary abandonment of the Christian religion, whether the apostate embraces another religion such as Paganism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, etc., or merely makes profession of Naturalism, Rationalism, etc. The heretic differs from the apostate in that he only denies one or more of the doctrines of revealed religion, whereas the apostate denies the religion itself, a sin which has always been looked upon as one of the most grievous. The “Shepherd” of Hermas, a work written in Rome in the middle of the second century, states positively that there is no forgiveness for those who have wilfully denied the Lord. [Similit. ix. 26, 5; Funk, Opera Patrum apostolicorum (Tübingen, 1887), I, 547]. Apostasy belonged, therefore, to the class of sins for which the Church imposed perpetual penance and excommunication without hope of pardon, leaving the forgiveness of the sin to God alone. After the Decian persecution (249, 250), however, the great numbers of Lapsi and Libellatici, and the claims of the Martyres or Confessores, who assumed the right of remitting the sin of apostasy by giving the Lapsi a letter of communion, led to a relaxation of the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline. St. Cyprian and the Council of the African Church which met at Carthage in 251 admitted the principle of the Church’s right to remit the sin of apostasy, even before the hour of death. Pope Cornelius and the council which he held at Rome confirmed the decisions of the Synod of Carthage, and the discipline of forgiveness was gradually introduced into all the Churches. [Epistolæ S. Cypriani, 55 et 68; Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (Vienna, 1871), III, ii, ed. Hartel, 624, 666; Eusebius, Church History, VI, xliii, 1, 2]. Nevertheless, the Council of Elvira, held in Spain about the year 300, still refused forgiveness to apostates. [Harduin, Acta Conciliorum (Paris, 1715), I, 250; Funk, Kirchen-geschichtliche Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen (Paderborn, 1897), I, 155-181; Batiffol, Etudes d’histoire et de théologie positive (Paris, 1902) 1st series, 111-144]. When the Roman Empire became Christian, apostates were punished by deprivation of all civil rights. They could not give evidence in a court of law, and could neither bequeath nor inherit property. To induce anyone to apostatize was an offence punishable with death [Theodosian Code, XVI, title 7, De apostatis; title 8, De Judæis; “Corpus juris romani ante-Justinianæi” (Bonn, 1840), 1521 – 1607; Code of Justinian I, title 7, De apostatis l. c. 60, 61]. In the Middle Ages, both civil and canon law classed apostates with heretics; so much so that title 9 of the fifth book of the Decretals of Gregory IX, which treats of apostasy, contains only a secondary provision concerning apostasy a Fide [iv, Friedberg, Corpus juris canonici (Leipzig, 1879-81), II, 790-792]. Boniface VIII however, by a provision which was amended in the sixth book of the Decretals [V, title 2, De h£reticis, 13 (Friedberg, II, 1075)], merely classes apostates with heretics in respect of the penalties which they incur. This decretal, which only mentions apostate Jews by name, was applied indifferently to all. The Inquisition could therefore proceed against them. The Spanish Inquisition was directed, at the end of the fifteenth century, chiefly against apostates, the Maranos, or new Christians, Jews converted by force rather than by conviction; while in 1609 it dealt severely with the Moriscos, or professedly-converted Moors of Spain.
Today the temporal penalties formerly inflicted on apostates and heretics cannot be enforced, and have fallen into abeyance. The spiritual penalties are the same as those which apply to heretics. In order, however, to incur these penalties, it is necessary, in accordance with the general principles of canon law, that the apostasy should be shown in some way. Apostates, with all who receive, protect, or befriend them, incur excommunication, reserved speciali modo to the Sovereign Pontiff (Constitution Apostolicæ Sedis, n° 1). They incur, moreover, the note of “infamy”, at least when their apostasy is notorious, and are “irregular”; an infamy and an irregularity which extend to the son and the grandson of an apostate father, and to the son of an apostate mother, should the parents die without being reconciled to the Church [Decree of Gratian, Distinction L, xxxii; V, tit. 2, ii, xv of the sixth book of the Decretals (Friedberg, I, 191, II, 1069 and 1075)]. Most authors, however, are of opinion that the irregularity affects only the children of parents who have joined some particular sect, or who have been personally condemned by ecclesiastical authority [Gasparri, De sacrâ ordinatione (Paris, 1893), II, 288 and 294; Lehmkuhl, Theologia moralis (Freiburg im Br., 1898), II, 725; Wernz, Jus decretalium (Rome, 1899), II, 200; Hollweck, Die kirchlichen Strafgesetze (Mainz, 1899), 162]. Apostates are debarred from ecclesiastical burial (Decretals of Gregory IX, Bk. V, title 7, viii, Friedberg, II, 779). Any writings of theirs, in which they uphold heresy and schism, or labour to undermine the foundations of faith, are on the Index, and those who read them incur the excommunication reserved, speciali modo to the Sovereign Pontiff [Constitution of Leo XIII, Officiorum et munerum, 25 January, 1897, i, v; Vermeersch, De prohibitione et censurâ librorum (Rome, 1901), 3d ed., 57, 112]. Apostasy constitutes an impediment to marriage, and the apostasy of husband or wife is a sufficient reason for separation a thoro et cohabitatione, which, according to many authorities, the ecclesiastical tribunal may make perpetual [Decretals of Gregory IX, IV, title 19, vi; (Friedberg, II, p. 722) ]. Others, however, maintain that this separation cannot be perpetual unless the innocent party embraces the religious state [Decretals of Gregory IX, ibidem, vii (Friedberg, II 722). See Gasparri, “Tractatus canonicus de matrimonio” (Paris, 1891), II, 283; De Becker, “De matrimonio” (Louvain, 1903), 2d ed., 424]. In the case of clerics, apostasy involves the loss of all dignities, offices, and benefices, and even of all clerical privileges (Decretals of Gregory IX. V, title 7, ix, xiii. See Hollweck, 163, 164).
APOSTASY AB ORDINE
This, according to the present discipline of the Church, is the abandonment of the clerical dress and state by clerics who have received major orders. Such, at least, is the definition given of it by most authorities. The ancient discipline of the Church, though it did not forbid the marriage of clerics, did not allow them to abandon the ecclesiastical state of their own will, even if they had only received minor orders. The Council of Chalcedon threatens with excommunication all deserting clerics without distinction (Hardouin, II, 603). This discipline, often infringed indeed, endured throughout a great part of the Middle Ages. Pope Leo IX decreed, at the Council of Reims (1049): “Ne quis monachus vel clericus a suo gradu apostataret”, all monks and clerks are forbidden to abandon their state (Hardouin, VI, 1007). The Decretals of Gregory IX, published in 1234, preserve traces of the older discipline under the title De apostatis, which forbids all clerks, without distinction, to abandon their state [V, title 9, i, iii (Friedberg, II, 790-791) ]. Innocent III had however, at an earlier date, given permission to clerks in minor orders to quit the ecclesiastical state of their own will (Decretals of Gregory IX, III, title 3, vii; see also x, Friedberg, II, 458-460). The Council of Trent did not restore the ancient discipline of the Church, but deemed it sufficient to command the bishops to exercise great prudence in bestowing the tonsure, and only laid the obligations involved in the clerical state on clerks who have received major orders and on those who enjoy an ecclesiastical benefice (Session XXIII, De Reformatione, iv, vi). Whence it follows that all other clerks can quit their state, but, by the very fact of doing so, lose all the privileges of the clergy. Even the clerk in minor orders who enjoys an ecclesiastical benefice, should he wish to be laicized, loses his benefice by the very fact of his laicization, a loss which is to be regarded not as the penalty, but as the consequence, of his having abandoned the ecclesiastical state. These considerations suffice, it would seem, to refute the opinion maintained by some writers [Hinschius, System des Katholischen Kirchenrechts (Berlin, 1895), V, 905], who think that a clerk in minor orders can, even at the present day, be an apostate ab ordine. This opinion is rejected, among others, by Scherer, [Handbuch des Kirchenrechtes (Gratz, 1886), I, 313; Wernz, II, 338, note 24; Hollweck, 299].
Today, after three ineffectual notices, the apostate clerk loses, ipso facto, the privileges of clergy [Decretals of Gregory IX, V, title 9, i; title 39, xxiii, xxv (Friedberg, II, 790 and 897)]. By the very fact of apostasy he incurs infamy, which, however is only an infamy of fact, not one of law imposed by canonical legislation. Infamy involves irregularity, and is an offense punishable by the loss of ecclesiastical benefices. Finally, should the apostate persist in his apostasy, the bishop may excommunicate him [Constit. of Benedict XIII, Apostolicæ ecclesiæ regimine, 2 May, 1725, in Bullarum amplissima collectio (Rome, 1736), XI, ii, 400].
APOSTASY A RELIGIONE, OR MONACHATUS
Monachatus is the culpable departure of a religious from his monastery with the intention of not returning to it and of withdrawing himself from the obligations of the religious life. A monk, therefore, who leaves his monastery with the intention of returning is not an apostate, but a runaway, and so is the one who leaves it intending to enter another religious order. The monks and hermits of the early Church made no vow always continuing to live the ascetic life upon which they had entered. The rule of St. Pachomius, the father of the c£nobitical life, allowed the religious to leave his monastery [Ladenze, Histoire du cénobitisme pakhomien (Louvain, 1898), 285]. But from the fourth century onwards the religious state became perpetual, and in 385 Pope Siricius, in his letter to Himerius, expresses indignation against religious men or women who were unfaithful to their propositum sanctitatis (Hardouin, I, 848, 849). The Council of Chalcedon decreed that the religious who desired to return to the world should be excommunicated, and the Second Council of Arles called him an apostate (Hardouin, II, 602, 603, 775). Throughout the Middle Ages numerous councils and papal decretals insisted on this perpetuity of the religious life, of which Peter Damian was one of the great champions (Migne, P.L., CXLV, 674-678). Paul IV, at the time of the Council of Trent, instituted very strict legislation against apostates by his Bull Postquam., dated 20 July, 1558. These provisions were, however, recalled, two years later, by Pius IV, in the Constitution, Sedis apostolicæ, of 3 April, 1560 (Bullarum amplissima collectio [Rome, 1745], IV, i, 343, and IV, ii, 10).
As the law stands today, the canonical penalties are inflected only upon apostates in the strict sense, that is, those professed with solemn vows, with whom Jesuit scholastics are classed by privilege. Religious belonging to congregations with only simple vows, therefore, and those with simple vows in orders which also take solemn vows, do not incur these penalties. 1. Apostasy is a grave sin, the absolution of which the superior may reserve to himself [Decree “Sanctissimus” of Clement VIII, 26 May, 1593, “Bullarum ampl. Collectio” (Rome, 1756), V, v, 254]. 2. The religious is suspended from the exercise of all orders which he may have received during the period of his apostasy, nor is this penalty removed by his return to his monastery [Decretals of Gregory IX, V, title 9, vi (Friedberg, II, 792)]. 3. He is bound by all the obligations laid on him by his vows and the constitutions of his order, but if he has laid aside the religious habit, and if a judicial sentence has pronounced his deposition, he loses all the privileges of his order, in particular that of exemption from the jurisdiction of the ordinary and the right of being supported at the expense of his community (Council of Trent, Session XXV, de regularibus, xix). 4. The fact of laving aside the religious habit involves the penalty of excommunication [III tit. 24, ii, of the sixth book of Decretals (Friedberg II, 1065)]. 5. In several religious orders apostates incur the penalty of excommunication, even when they have not laid aside the religious habit, in virtue of special privileges granted to the order. 6. The apostate is bound to return to his monastery as soon as possible, and the Council of Trent enjoins bishops to punish religious who shall have left their monasteries without the permission of their superiors, as deserters (Session XXV, de regularibus, iv). Moreover, the bishop is bound to take possession of the person of the apostate monk and to send him back to his superior [Decree of the Congregation of the Council, 21 September, 1624, in “Bullarum amplissima collectio” (Rome, 1756), V, v, 248]. In the case of an apostate nun who leaves a convent enjoying pontifical cloister, she incurs the excommunication reserved simpliciter to the Sovereign Pontiff [Constitution Apostolicæ Sedis, n° 6. See Vermeersch, “De religiosis institutis et personis” (Rome, 1902), I, 200; Hollweck, 299; Scherer, II, 838. See also HERESY, IRREGULARITY, CLERIC, RELIGIOUS ORDERS].
———————————–
In addition to the works already referred to, the older canonists may be consulted, especially SCHMALZGRÜBER and REIFFENSTUEL, who in their commentaries follow the order of the Decretals, at Book V, title 9. As modern canonists no longer treat of apostasy under a special heading, they must be consulted where they refer to ordinations and irregularities, the duties of the clerical state, the obligations of religious offenses and penalties, and, chiefly, when they write concerning heresy. See also FERRARIS, Bibliotheca Canonica (Rome, 1889), s.v. Apostasia, BEUGNET, in Dict. de théol. cath (Paris, 1901), AMTHOR, De Apostasia Liber Singularis (Coburg, 1833), FEJÉR, Jus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ adversus Apostatas (Pesth, 1847); SCHMIDT, Der Austritt aus der Kirche (Leipzig, 1893); SCOTUS PLACENTINUS, De Obligatione Regularis extra regularem domum commorantis, de Apostatis et Fugitivis (Cologne, 1647); THOMASIUS, De Desertione Ordinis Ecclesiastici (Halle, 1707), SCHMID, Apostasia vom Ordenstande (Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benediktiner und dem Cistercienser Orden (1886, VII, 29-42).
A. VAN HOVE Transcribed by Vernon Bremberg Dedicated to the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Apostasy
(, revolt), a forsaking or renouncing religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration by actions. The Greek term is employed by Paul to designate the falling away ( ), which in his time was held in check by some obstacle ( , ), 2Th 2:3. It means one of two things: (1) Political defection (Gen 14:4, Sept.; 2Ch 13:6, Sept.; Act 5:37); (2) Religious defection (Act 21:21; 1Ti 4:1; Heb 3:12). The first is the common classical use of the word. The second is more usual in the N.T.; so St. Ambrose understands it (Comm. in Luk 20:20). This (apostasy) implies (apostates). An organized religious body being supposed, some of whose members should fall away from the true faith, the persons so falling away would be , though still formally unsevered from the religious body; and the body itself, while, in respect to its faithful members, it would retain its character and name, might yet, in respect to its other members, be designated an . It is such a corrupted religious body as this that Paul seems to mean. He elsewhere describes this religious defection by some of its peculiar characteristics. These are seducing spirits, doctrines of daemons, hypocritical lying, a seared conscience, a forbidding of marriage and of meats, a form of godliness without the power thereof (1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:5). The antitype may be found in the corrupted Church of Christ in so far as it was corrupted. The same body, in so far as it maintained the faith and love, was the bride and the spouse, and in so far as it fell away from God, was the , just as Jerusalem of old was at once Sion the beloved city, and Sodom the bloody city the Church of God and the Synagogue of Satan. It is of the nature of a religious defection to grow up by degrees. We should not, therefore, be able to lay the finger on any special moment at which it commenced. St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered that it was already existing in his time. Now, he says, is the , for men have fallen away () from the right faith. This, then, is the , and we must begin to look out for the enemy; already he has begun to send his forerunners, that the prey may be ready for him at his coming (Catech. 15:9). SEE MAN OF SIN. The primitive Christian Church distinguished several kinds of apostasy; the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism; the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and, fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into paganism. SEE LIBELLATICI; SEE SACRIFICATI; SEE TRADITORES (Farrar, s.v.).
At an early period it was held that the church was bound, by the passages of Scripture in which the sin of apostasy is referred to, either entirely to refuse absolution to those excommunicated for it, or at least to defer it until the hour of death. Later, however, this rigor against apostates was modified, and they were restored to the church on condition of certain prescribed penances. Subsequently ecclesiastical usage distinguished between apostasia perfidice, inobedientice, and irregularitatis. The two latter were reduced in the Roman Church to two species of defection, so that apostasia inobedientice was made identical with apostasy from monastic vows (apostasia a monachatu), and apostasia irregularitatis with apostasy from the priesthood (apostasia a clericatu). Both apostasy from monastic vows (when a monk left his monastery without permission of his superior) and apostasy from the priesthood (when a priest returned to the world) were punished by the Council of Chalcedon with the anathema, and later ecclesiastical legislation threatened them with the loss of the privileges of the order and the clerical rank in addition to excommunication, infamy, and irregularity. It required the bishop to imprison such transgressors; but apostates from vows he was required to deliver over to their superiors, that they might be punished according to the laws and customs of their orders. The state governments lent the secular arm to execute these laws. With regard to apostasy from the faith, an ordinance of Boniface III determined that apostates to Judaism should be dealt with as heretics, and this ordinance afterward regulated the treatment not only of such, but of all apostates. Toward apostates to Islamism, or so called renegades, the church exercises this discipline to the present day. Toward the apostates to modern atheism the same discipline could not be exercised, because generally they do not expressly renounce church fellowship. The Roman empire, as early as under the first Christian emperors, regarded apostasy as a civil crime, and punished it with confiscation, inability to give testimony or to bequeath, with infamy, etc. The German empire adopted the provisions of the ecclesiastical legislation, and treated apostasy as heresy. The German criminal practice knew, therefore, nothing of a particular penalty for this crime; and after the criminal code of Charles V abolished the penalty of heresy, the punishment of apostasy generally ceased in the German criminal law.’ In Protestant Church disciplines no mention is made of apostasy from the Christian religion to Judaism or Islamism, because this kind of apostasy was little to be expected in the provinces for which they were designed. The national churches pursued, however, defection from their communion through the customary stages of church discipline to excommunication. SEE APOSTATE.
We, in these latter times, may apostatize, though under different circumstances from those above described. The term apostasy is perverted when it is applied to a withdrawal from any system of mere polity; it is legitimately used only in connection with a departure from the written truth of God in some form, public or personal. Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. 16, ch. 6, s.v: SEE BACKSLIDING.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Apostasy
APOSTASY.A defection from the tenets of some religious community. In Act 21:21 it describes the charge brought against St. Paul by the Jews, viz., that he taught that the Jews should abandon Mosaism. In 2Th 2:3 it describes the defection of Christians which was to accompany the man of lawlessness; i.e. the Antichrist. This expectation is an illustration of what seems to have been a common beliefthat the return of the Christ to establish His Kingdom would be preceded by exceptional activity on the part of His superhuman opponent, and that this would result in an abandonment of Christian faith on the part of many of those nominally Christian.
Shailer Mathews.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Apostasy
Though the word ‘apostasy’ does not occur in the A.V., the Greek word occurs from which the English word is derived. In Act 21:21 Paul was told that he was accused of teaching the Jews who were among the Gentiles to apostatise from Moses. Paul taught freedom from the law by the death of the Christ and this would appear to a strict Jew as apostasy. The same word is used in 2Th 2:3, where it is taught that the day of the Lord could not come until there came ‘the apostasy,’ or the falling from Christianity in connection with the manifestation of the man of sin. See ANTICHRIST.
Though the general apostasy there spoken of cannot come till after the saints are taken to heaven, yet there may be, as there has been, individual falling away. See, for instance, Heb 3:12; Heb 10:26; Heb 10:28, and the epistle of Jude. There are solemn warnings also that show that such apostasy will be more and more general as the close of the present dispensation approaches. 1Ti 4:1-3. Now a falling away necessarily implies a position which can be fallen from, a profession has been made which has been deliberately given up. This is, as scripture says, like the dog returning to his vomit, and the sow to her wallowing in the mire. It is not a Christian falling into some sin, from which grace can recover him; but a definite relinquishing of Christianity. Scripture holds out no hope in a case of deliberate apostasy, though nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Apostasy
Described
Deu 13:13; Heb 3:12
Caused by persecution
Mat 24:9-10; Luk 8:13
Caused by worldliness
2Ti 4:10
Guilt and punishment of
Zep 1:4-6; Heb 10:25-31; Heb 10:39; 2Pe 2:17; 2Pe 2:20-22
Cautions against
Heb 3:12; 2Pe 3:17
Shall abound in the latter days
Mat 24:12; 2Th 2:3; 1Ti 4:1-3 Antichrist
Unclassified scriptures relating to
– General references
Deu 32:15; 1Ch 28:9; Isa 1:28; Isa 65:11-16; Jer 17:5-6; Eze 3:20; Eze 18:24; Eze 18:26; Eze 33:12-13; Eze 33:18; Mat 13:20-21; Mar 4:5-17; Luk 8:13; Mat 24:10; Mat 24:12; Luk 11:24-26; Joh 15:6; Act 7:39-43; 1Co 9:27; 2Th 2:3; 2Th 2:11-12; 1Ti 4:1-2; 2Ti 3:1-9; 2Ti 4:3-4; Heb 6:4-8; Heb 10:26-29; 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 2:15; 2Pe 2:17; 2Pe 2:20-22; 2Pe 3:17; Jud 1:4-6 Backsliders; Reprobacy
Instances of:
– Instances of:
Exo 32; Num 14
– Saul
1Sa 15:26-29; 1Sa 18:12; 1Sa 28:15; 1Sa 28:18
– Amaziah
2Ch 25:14; 2Ch 25:27
– Disciples
Joh 6:66
– Judas
Mat 26:14-16; Mat 27:3-5; Mar 14:10-11; Luk 22:3-6; Luk 22:47-48; Act 1:16-18
– Hymenaeus and Alexander
1Ti 1:19-20
– Phygellus and Hermogenes
2Ti 1:15 Backsliders, Backsliding of Israel
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Apostasy
a deserting or abandoning of the true religion. The word is borrowed from the Latin apostatare, or apostare, to despise or violate any thing. Hence apostatare leges anciently signified to transgress the laws. The Latin apostatare, again, comes from ,
from, and , I stand. Among the Romanists, apostasy only signifies the forsaking of a religious order, whereof a man had made profession, without a lawful dispensation. The ancients distinguished three kinds of apostasy: the first, a supererogatione, is committed by a priest, or religious, who abandons his profession, and returns to his lay state; the second, a mandatis Dei, by a person of any condition, who abandons the commands of God, though he retains his faith; the third, a fide, by him who not only abandons his works, but also the faith. There is this difference between an apostate and a heretic; that the latter only abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former renounces the whole. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostasy. The first was that of those who relapsed from Christianity into Judaism; the second, that of those who blended Judaism and Christianity together; and the third was that of those who, after having been Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism.