Apostasy

I do think it is a piece of the apostacy, but not exclusively or entirely.

If a church teaches "A" and then withdraws from teaching "A" then are they in a state of apostasy to their previous teachings? The answer is no; because, that church gets to set the standards for their doctrine and anyone who accepts the new standards and then turns away is an apostate to that churches doctrines.

Thus, if a church accepts various aspects of the gospel of Christ and then changes some of the things they previously taught then the church is not in apostasy to their previous standard; but, anyone who accepts this new standard and then turns away; they are the apostate to that church doctrine.


First of all however, all churches are in apostasy to Christ's gospel. Because, they are not perfect!!!! This means that we all are in a state of apostasy until we conform to the gospel that includes repentance for those offence by which we have gone into apostasy.

This means that the only possible avoidance to apostasy to the Savior's gospel is not to form an allegiance to a church but to Christ only via a refreshing of newness to his gospel (repentance). 

Thus, a church that is apostate to Christ's gospel can not be renewed through a change of their doctrine to a new state of apostasy.

Just my two cents worth.


Also, all the members of a church in apostasy are in apostasy themselves by virtue of being members of that church that is in apostasy. 

Yes, I think it moves apostasy to the next level that is open rebellion against God; that is a state of warfare against God. I do not see apostasy as a rebellion against God but the lesser and milder form that is often not malicious in nature. That next level that you are describing is the more serious push by Satan to overthrow and conquer. Thus, apostasy is often much more innocent and not intended to draw away from God; on the other hand, that willful intent to overthrow is more aggressive and wicked. Yes, both conditions are apostasy, but there is a line that makes one worse and as I said, it seems to me to be the willful intent to overthrow God's law that is the bad one.

So it would be that anyone striving to overthrow God's law as well as those who join with them are in open rebellion against God, and this is the condition of our country at this time. The willful change in our society that replaces the creation and nurture of children from the marriage between a man and a woman to a same sex marriage. That is the heart of the violation; the God given laws-of-creation of children and their development to follow Gods laws. Anyone with half a brain can see this violation. And because it is so blatantly obvious that we are a nation in rebellion against God's laws then we are ripe for his judgment. Secondly, any church accepting this condition of open rebellion as a part of their doctrine is also in open rebellion against God. May his judgment be swift and sure.

I have a difficult time understanding people who think the apostasy of the church has not happened. It is both happening now and happened long before any of us were born. The Roman Catholic church, was not always the Roman part. It was originally part of the catholic church. Catholic in scripture refers to the universal church or as some call it, the apostolic church. For 3 centuries the church was united and took great care to insure that you could go to Rome, Jerusalem, Smyrna or Corinth etc. and get the very same teachings as you got at all other churches founded by the apostles or disciples. Rome didn't begin to separate till later, in fact the council of Nicea was the first time Roman government was even allowed to be involved in the church. When you consider that in a short amount of time historically, the church went from universally passing a canon that forbade military service to any member, then after Rome became involved we see Christians killing Christians to gain bishop seats, how does that not constitute apostasy? Further, the different sects began to kill and persecute each other. We don't even need to go into papacy things or idol worship, or the selling of services to free your loved ones from purgatory, or a dozen easy pickings. Lets just look at the "modern" church. There are a vast majority of nominal Christians, those that believe in Christ, but don't even put up the pretense of following his examples and teachings. The scriptures teach women to be chaste and modest in attire and not adorned with jewelry in church. I don't remember when I attended a service where I didn't see fashion and tightly fitting and or low cut clothing worn by a vast number. Go to the beach or a pool. Look at all the Christians in speedos and bikinis. Do we truly believe that people in Christs day didn't have revealing clothing like this? Of course they did, Egyptian art depicts such things as does Roman, but it was strictly taught to christians not to dress and live as the world does. We are taught to Love our neighbors and to help the needy and the widows. Not just on occasion when it pleases us, but in our daily lives. Yet we are over run with homeless people and there are elderly dying alone in homes daily. We war for monetary gain and political reason, killing for "freedom", ignoring gods commands. We think it is okay to sit and enjoy television shows that are filled with sex and violence. We spend as much time finding ways to get out of doing work or making jobs easier, than we do doing actual work. we have created foods that cause cancers because it is faster and cheaper to splice DNA and tamper with what God made, than it is to work the fields as they did in Christs day. We have very little respect for the earth, we pollute it in more ways than we preserve it. we have more divorce than ever before, as well as rampant sex practices that have become the norm. The list of ways we have apostatized could fill a book. Yet we still wish to ignore our own behavior and the world around us as if the church is still actually following God's will, apart from one or two days a week in front of the congregation of the building we worship in. I'd say by any stretch of the imagination, their may be those within the church, that have not, but the church as a unit has apostatized long ago.

      

Perhaps the falling away being noted is that it concerns quantity. Yes, people have let their faith and belief go or have lost their first love and justified killing in the name of Jesus in the past. But, look at the population of the world. More and more people were being called than were falling away in the last 2000 years. As of 2015, 2.5 BILLION people identified as Christian in the world. In the year 1000 the estimated population of the whole world was around 310,000. Now, look at what has been coming to light lately, mainly in the Catholic Church, but also in other denominations. Pedophile priests, Ministers getting exposed for heinous crimes, and the current situation in Canada where church buildings are being burned because of the mass deaths/killing of indigenous children in the past. My allegedly atheist daughter told me that she wouldn't be surprised if Catholics started leaving that church in droves. When she said that my mind went immediately to 2 Thess. 2:3