A Definition for Apostasy

Apostasy is not an empty church… it's a full church, but full of people who don't know and don't strive to truly know the God of the Scriptures, preferring to swallow spurious doctrines on Sundays rather than read and strive to understand the Word of God.
Apostasy may appear to be the Church, but it is permeated by the world: conforming to and participating in the customs and "relevant culture," valuing human beings above the will of God himself.

Apostasy is the church where conversions are psychological, occurring through promises without biblical basis, where worship must please the public, and the word "rational" is replaced by sensationalist and extravagant displays.

The Color Code and the Study of Scripture

I have been studying the Bible.
Since 2005 I have maintained the habit of using a "color code" in everything I write: I color my books, handouts, and even my copy of the Apologetic Bible, in order to facilitate consultation by topic: I relate gold to tithes and finances; red highlights the characteristics of the enemies (Satan, demons, false prophets…); green highlights truths and purple points to the Scriptures.

Making such notes is a pleasure, for reading God's Word is always useful and teaches us about its own meaning. It was through this diligence that I ended up being enlightened about the true nature of the apostasy of the last days.
Let's look at an essential text:

The most relevant sequences for this study are in bold, and through the very word of God, we will seek a better understanding of what the FULL MANIFESTATION OF APOSTASY is right before us!
Please note that this study is NOT ABOUT THE ANTICHRIST, nor will I address the reconstruction of the temple: we will talk about the "churches" of our day, their departure from biblical foundations, and who is responsible for this.

The word "Apostasy"“

According to definition from the Bible.online portal, The word "apostasy" means "the act of turning away or distancing oneself from a relationship with God.".
The Aurélio dictionary corroborates this definition:

• Apostasy (from the Greek apostasia) — Feminine noun.
  • Separation or desertion from the constituted body (of an institution, a party, a corporation) to which one belonged.
  • Abandonment of faith by a church, especially a Christian church.
  • Abandonment of religious or priestly life.

Now, the first thought that might come to mind when reading such explanations is that the churches will become empty… after all, it seems that everyone will stray, distance themselves, or abandon their churches, but please, let us observe Paul's words more carefully—especially verses 10 and 11. 2ⁿᵈ Thessalonians 2— when it mentions false signs and wonders being presented, as well as deception for those who They perish because they did not receive the love of the truth..

Churches are already full of false signs and wonders, and to avoid making this text endless, I think it's best not to even begin citing absurd examples of heresies created to deceive those too lazy to learn the word of God. However, the mere fact that someone is announcing signs, wonders, revivals (...or any of these modern "best-selling" novelties) is reason enough for us to be suspicious of what might be found, especially in light of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself:

We are no longer in a "time of celebration"... quite the contrary: according to the word of God and the signs that, according to it, should be observed, we are clearly living in the last days!

You can say:
— Well, these movements, even unbiblical ones, have only helped to bring more people to the churches! Every day more and more people are converted through the use of such techniques… surely this can only be from God!
Excuse me, dear reader, but neither man nor his techniques have the power to convince the sinner: genuine conversion does not occur when we promise lies.

Regarding this subject, I will transcribe an excerpt from the enlightening text by Ray Comfort Regarding the things that have been happening in many churches in our day:

Deluded Passenger Syndrome: Reason to Abandon Faith?

The tragedy of modern evangelism is that, at the turn of the 20th century, when God's law was abandoned and despised in its ability to convert souls and lead sinners to Christ, proponents of modern evangelism had to find another reason for sinners to respond to the gospel. And the way modern evangelists found to attract such sinners was the strategy of "improving their quality of life."“
The Gospel has degenerated into something like: “"Jesus Christ will give you peace, joy, love, personal fulfillment, and lasting happiness."”.

Now, to illustrate the unbiblical nature Regarding this very popular teaching, I would like you to listen very carefully to the following anecdote, because the essence of what I am teaching is based on this little story I am about to tell.
So please read carefully:

Flying Without a Parachute…

Two men are sitting on a plane.
The first person is given a parachute and instructed to put it on, because, The parachute would improve the quality of your flight..
He is somewhat skeptical at first because he can't see how using a parachute on an airplane could improve the quality of his flight.
After a while, however, he decides to try it out to see if what he had been told was really true.

So, when he puts on the parachute, he notices the weight on his shoulders and discovers that he has difficulty sitting up straight. Even so, he doesn't take off the parachute immediately, comforting himself with the fact that he was told the parachute would improve his flight.
So, he decides to give it some time to see if this thing actually works.
While waiting, he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him because he is using a parachute mid-flight.

He starts to feel somewhat humiliated. When the other passengers begin pointing and laughing at him, he can't take it anymore!
Then he shrinks back in his armchair, rips off the parachute, and throws it to the ground.
Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, for it seems he has been told an absurd lie!

The second man also receives a parachute, but listen to what he is told:
“"Put on this parachute, because at any moment you will have to jump from this plane and we are at 25,000 feet."”.
He is very grateful and immediately puts on the parachute;
He doesn't even notice the weight of the object on his shoulders, much less is he bothered by the fact that he can't sit properly, because his mind is occupied (or even consumed) by the thought of what would happen if he jumped without the parachute.
Let's analyze the reason and the outcome of each passenger's experience:

• The reason for first man The idea of putting on the parachute was simply to improve the quality of his trip; the result of the experience was that he felt humiliated by the passengers, became disillusioned, and quite bitter towards those who gave him the parachute.
  He will need a long time to recover from the experience and possibly..., He'll never accept something like that again..
• O second man He put on the parachute simply to escape a fatal jump, and, knowing what would happen if he jumped unprepared, he has a deep joy and peace in his heart, knowing that he will be saved from certain and terrible death.
  This knowledge gives him the ability to endure the scorn of the other passengers, and his attitude towards the person who offered him the parachute is one of deep gratitude.

Now, listen to what modern evangelism methods say:
“"Put the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. He will give you love, joy, peace, personal fulfillment, and lasting happiness."”.
In other words: “"Jesus will make your journey better"”.
In this way, the sinner responds to the appeal in an experimental way and puts on (or “wears”) the Lord Jesus to see if the “advertisement” is true.

And what comes next?
Temptation, tribulation, and persecution… the other “passengers” mock him.
So what does he do then?
He tears the Lord Jesus from his hands and throws him to the ground, because he feels offended by the Word (see Mark 4:17).
He was understandably disappointed and quite bitter, for he had been promised peace, joy, love, fulfillment, and lasting happiness, but all he received was trials and humiliation!
Then, he begins to direct his bitterness towards those who gave him the famous "good news"... and his final state is worse than the first: another inoculated and embittered deviant.

Santos, instead of preaching that Jesus improves the quality of the flight, we should be warning passengers that they will have to jump out of the plane, that is:

And then, when the sinner understands the terrible consequences of breaking God's Law, he will run to the arms of the Savior to escape the wrath to come!
If we are to be true and faithful witnesses, we must preach that there is a wrath to come:

Why regret it?

Understand that the issue is not about happiness, but rather, justice: it doesn't matter how happy the sinner may be or how much he may be enjoying "the fleeting pleasures of sin" (see Hebrews 11:25Without the righteousness of Christ, he will perish on the day of wrath.

Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it is not legitimate to use such fruits as propaganda for salvation!
If we persist in doing this, sinners will respond to the message with an impure motive, devoid of repentance.

Now… can you remember why the second passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he knew the parachute would save him from certain death! And as a believer, as Paul said, I have “"Joy and peace in believing"” (Romans 15:13), because I know that the righteousness of Christ will deliver me from the wrath to come.
With these thoughts in mind, let's carefully analyze a…

Incident On Board The Plane

A new flight attendant appears, carrying a tray of coffee that is boiling hot.
It's her first day on the job and she wants to make it a memorable day for the passengers… and she succeeds: as she's walking down the aisle, she trips and spills hot coffee on our second passenger's lap!
What was his reaction when he felt the boiling liquid burn his skin?
Does he yell, "Ouch! That hurts!"?

Yeah, he feels the pain.
Will he rip off the parachute and throw it to the ground?
Does he yell, "Damn parachute!"?
No. Why would he do that?
He didn't put on the parachute to improve the quality of his flight, but to save himself from certain death.
Therefore, the incident causes him to cling even more tightly to the parachute and he can hardly wait for the moment to jump.

So, if we “put on” the Lord Jesus for the right reason—that is, to escape the wrath to come—when tribulation comes and the “flight” becomes turbulent, we will not be angry with God, nor will we lose our peace and joy.
Why would we do this?
We don't accept Jesus to improve our lifestyle: we accept him to escape the wrath to come!

Therefore, instead of provoking anger, tribulation leads the true believer closer to the Savior!
Unfortunately, we have literally multitudes of people who profess to be Christians, but who lose their joy and peace as soon as the journey gets turbulent.
Why?
Because they are the product of a humanistic gospel: believers who came to Jesus without repentance, without which there is no salvation.

I made minor changes to Fernando Guarany Jr.'s original translation. If you'd like to read the full message, search for "The Devil's Greatest Secret." I don't know about you, but sometimes I just want to skip ahead...

I remember well that when I finished reading this text for the first time, my eyes were brimming with tears, because it is precisely this false promise of the "better journey" that most evangelism has been based on! In light of this, someone might argue:
But... one way or another, at least filling the churches prevents apostasy, doesn't it?

WRONG answer!
See — in 2 Thessalonians 2:11The reason why people perish: They perish because they did not receive the love of the truth.!
And what is this so-called "love of truth"?
Now, if you don't know, let's read it together:

Notice that “receiving the love of the truth” is an analogy to STRIVING TO RECEIVE THE CONTENT OF GOD'S WORD AND TO KNOW IT!

The Two Doors: Where the Path Divides

Knowing that ALL who come to the gospel with the primary expectation of an improvement in their overall quality of life are entering through the wrong door, we find support for this shocking statement in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ about the two doors:

It's likely that you, like me in the past, still think that the wide gate is the path followed by the wicked (the "world") and the narrow gate is the Church (represented by so many different ecclesiastical organizations), but please pay close attention to the following reasoning:
The act of "entering through a door" already indicates the intention to go somewhere!
Given this information, we can be certain that it is not the "worldly" people who enter through the wide gate: Sinners don't even try to enter any door. And they're staying well away from either of the two doors!
Does that make sense to you?

So we can be sure that those who enter through the wide gate are those who initially intend to seek Jesus, but—unable to assume the responsibility and face the difficulties inherent in this search—simply believe that they can do whatever they want and God will accept any kind of "“strange fire”…
It's no use saying that "these people's intentions are pure" or that "they are innocent because they are being guided by an incompetent pastor" or that "God accepts any kind of worship": the Bible is clear in stating that human innocence does not exempt them from guilt before God.

The Error Operation

The fact that a person is being deceived and led down strange paths because they believe what a false teacher says does not make the blame for their complicity attributable to anyone other than themselves and their unwillingness (lack of effort) to "receive the love of the truth":

Note that, right after the reference to the two gates, Jesus mentions precisely the ravenous wolves, which are the many false prophets of today… and THE BIBLE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY COINCIDENCE!

If you, dear reader, are noticing that your leader cares more about the quantity than the quality of his fruits, be very careful: having a temple full of thorns and thistles has never been an indicator of spiritual health, but, on the contrary, of the most terrible APOSTASY!
Even worse is when such fraudulent workers try to become unquestionable, isolating themselves behind absurd doctrines such as “"spiritual covering"” or “"Do not touch the anointed ones"”… in this case we cannot avoid the rule of citing only what the biblical content recommends:

I imagine that, having read this far, some readers must already be more than shocked, but it is my duty to inform you that the widespread tolerance and the concept of "permissive love" presented as the basis for the existence of some churches are not really the "love" to which the word of God refers: of the two doors, these are wide open!

More and more people are confusing the Lord God with Santa Claus... and that's one of the worst mistakes a human being can make, because saying “"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."” It is one of the most cowardly and self-indulgent ways to distort biblical truth!
See what Jesus Christ says:

Now, since the “RIGHT JUSTICE”"One of the synonyms for the very WORD OF GOD, we have above a lesson that we should not use human or aesthetic parameters for judgment, but rather the parameter presented by God. This recommendation supports another very important text:"

The rules of the game are clear and have been written the same way for almost two thousand years, yet humankind keeps trying to invent new things to distort the Truth and present a more "pleasant," more "popular" gospel... nothing but deception, psychologism, humanism, and heresies.
God is love, but He is also justice, and, I repeat, justice based solely on the biblical model… and never on human evaluation (see Isaiah 64:6).

There are countless people who claim to be Christians but refuse to acknowledge the genuine faith recommended by God, yet paradoxically live in search of signs to strengthen their personal experiences, to justify their half-baked "faith"... people who tirelessly dedicate themselves to seeking signs and wonders, forgetting an important biblical quote:

How impressive: we're once again citing the Scriptures as the EXCLUSIVE BASIS OF FAITH!
Note that out-of-context excerpts—so commonly used by trendy preachers and writers—and catchy phrases—usually embedded in popular "gospel" songs—are not effective: the power of faith lies in studying and understanding the word of God, which may not be so sonorous or pleasing to you, but IT IS THE TRUTH!

If such truth is known and the true gospel is spread… it will be the downfall of ecclesiastical enterprises that depend on large crowds to sustain luxurious buildings and astronomical salaries for some “star” leaders: who, once enlightened, will give an audience to so many TV and radio programs based on fables instead of solid biblical foundations? Who will consume these absurd songs?

This would cause the collapse of an entire "gospel industry," built around the ignorance, fanaticism, and superstitions of a people who prefer to disguise their stupidity (calling it "love") rather than save themselves through knowledge of God's word.

Now let's highlight the most curious fact in this whole story: the one who will sink these people even further into their deceptions will not be Satan, but God himself! See the undeniable truth:

This was the first study that left me astonished, and honestly, I'd rather be wrong: it was much easier to think that 100% of the errors were operated solely by Satan!
In a country where literate people barely know how to read and, moreover, detest reading… how many will be saved? How many will understand the word of God correctly?

I worry about those who go around performing and living based on grand signs and wonders, because I already know exactly what "words" they will have in their dialogue with God on Judgment Day:

So, my dear ones, I conclude with the recommendation that, of the two doors, you enter through the right one and concern yourselves more with knowing the Truth, discerning the deceptions planted… seeking salvation through knowledge of the Scriptures and the consequent sanctification: Apostasy does not mean that the temple will be empty of people, but rather empty of the true Holy Spirit of God… empty of genuine Christians, knowledgeable of the Word of God, willing to fight for the veracity of the Scriptures and follow their commands.

The Nod After Two Decades

More than twenty years have passed since this original article was presented to the world, and its claims have never been refuted. However, after so much time meditating on the Scriptures and observing facts and details, I have gained a new perspective on some of the people who, even during the fully established apostasy, have not yet been sealed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

I recently returned to a congregation, and I must say that finding a church that still perseveres in expounding biblical truths left me absolutely astonished. I will leave the narrative of this process for another article, but the complement to this study is the result of a sad realization I made during my "contribution" to the community: many children of leaders, upon reaching adulthood, simply abandon the community in which they were raised, claiming to no longer have (or never have had) faith in the gospel.

This is undeniably shocking and truly painful for any Christian who has instructed their children in one way and then suffers and blames themselves, without understanding the reason that led them to repeat Absalom's rebellion.

The Mystery of Preknowledge and the Saints of the Tribulation

The fact is that after so much analysis and writing about biblical prophecies, I ended up glimpsing a shocking, perhaps quite painful, possibility, but one that, in some way, can serve as encouragement for all those who are seeing their children renouncing the faith and, in light of this, revealing that they were never truly indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

I will not transcribe the entire articles here, but if this issue is of interest to you, I recommend carefully consulting each link provided in this conclusion, because the fact that a person has never received the pledge of salvation directly implies that they will not have any inheritance to receive through the removal of the one who holds the antichrist (check 2 Thessalonians 2:7 and article about The True Holy Spirit).

The fact is that God, Almighty, cannot be surprised and, as recorded in Ephesians 1:4, He has already chosen his elect since before the foundation of the world, that is, if He — And only Him! — He already knows the final outcome of each and every human “free will,” so why wouldn’t He also have foreknowledge of those who will reign for a thousand years alongside Christ?

The Inconvenient Perspective of Breath

I admit that even for me, who put the theory into practice and documented it, it was quite difficult to consider the possibility that it is necessary for those who will reign with Christ not to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit at that moment. Singular of the story in which He will be removed so that the prophecy concerning the revelation of the wicked one may be fulfilled… just as it is necessary that there be saints here so that—fulfilling Daniel 7:21 e Revelation 13:7 — be defeated.

I'm sure I'll be hated for presenting this utterly unusual and inconvenient perspective, but it was because of it that I myself became less harsh on those many people currently living in deception even without being in open rebellion against the Lord: given the signs we can observe, some of them are probably destined—as quoted in...’The Tautology of Revelation 14 — to reign with Christ!

Fully aware that my role is simply to deliver the Word so that the Holy Spirit may (or may not!) bring about conviction, I continue steadfastly in spreading the word, but looking with even greater love upon the "friends of the gospel" and "grandchildren of God" (among whom are the children of Christians, whose rebellion does not erase the knowledge that may occasionally lead them to repentance).
Whether reigning with Christ or condemned, the blood of none of them will cry out in my hands.
Me? I have no intention of reigning.

Thank you for reading this far, and I truly need any help you can offer: comments, shares, and reactions help spread this content, which was produced with the intention of contributing to the edification of the Body of Christ in the world.
A shortened and easy-to-remember link to this post is:

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