Trends of Apostasy

Scripture: 2 Peter 2:12-22

Song: Break Thou The Bread Of Life

“There will be false teachers among you” (2:1). We must be wary. Not alarmists but sober. Not over the “churches of Christ” but “among you,” within our own local fellowship, over ourselves. What are the warning signs of such apostasy?

Imbalance (vv. 12, 17, 19). Blind, brutish instinct that sees everything as relating to one’s own peculiar doctrine or practice.

Caustic, malicious practices (v. 12). Departure from fair, logical, amiable exchange to bitter, irrational, and abusive treatment of persons and ideas.

Pompocity (v. 13). Spirit of arrogance surrounding those who fancy themselves “in the know.”

Licentiousness (vv. 13, 18, 19). Loosening of moral restraint resulting from an unbalanced diet of teaching.

Shrewdness (vv. 13-14). Use of subtle and underhanded methods to win a following.

Covetousness (vv. 14-16). Change of religion into a profitable enterprise.

Intolerance (v. 16). Stubbornness toward correction and hatred for dissenters.

False assurances (v. 19). Salvation is understood to be based on principles other than grace and faith.

Impracticality (v. 18). Teaching which expresses social, intellectual, sensational, or political aims rather than a way of life and service.

"Many will follow their destructive ways” (v. 2). We likely don’t consider ourselves prospects for apostasy. But it can happen. Especially if we fail to keep intimate contact with God’s word.

Jason Moore