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“What is apostasy?”

The word “apostasy” comes from the Greek ἀποστασία, transliterated apostasia. Very few English translations of the Bible use it much. Strong’s defines it as falling away or defection. It’s closely related to the word commonly translated “divorce” in the New Testament. One place we do find it is in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, where it refers to a major future event in which the “man of sin” is revealed to the world.

THE Apostasy

It reads like this in my ESV:

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion [ἀποστασία] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

Other translators go with “apostasy” or “falling away” to translate ἀποστασία. Paul is predicting a massive, worldwide public defection from all that is good, beautiful or true epitomized in the character of a lawless individual who will claim to be God incarnate and exalt himself to the position of global ruler and sole object of worship. The man of sin will not just oppose the worship of Christ but also any sort of religious belief. Used in this sense, “the apostasy” is a singular event in human history.

More Common Usage

The word ἀποστασία is also used more commonly to describe any abandonment of something once believed or publicly professed. When Paul visited Jerusalem, he met with James and the elders of the church there. They warned him his visit might be misinterpreted because of the lies others had spread about him. Concerning the many Jews who had believed in Jerusalem, they said:

“They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.”

The word “forsake” there is our old friend ἀποστασία. In some places it’s also translated as “abandon”. But if it’s possible to apostatize from Moses and Judaism, then it’s possible to apostatize from Mohamed and Islam, or any other religious system. One may certainly apostatize from Christianity and Christ, though I don’t recommend it. The thing that distinguishes apostasy from heresy is its extremity. A heretic holds views that are not mainstream, but he retains belief of a sort. He may not have saving faith, but he believes in something. An apostate rejects all that. He is not afraid to publicly declare that he has no part in Christ and to turn away from everything he once pretended to believe.

Fake Discipleship

I use the word “pretended” because John reminds us “many antichrists” have gone out from among the people of God into the world. That’s what apostasy is: it’s the spirit of antichrist, total rejection of the truth. It’s the evidence of fake discipleship. John says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” When a man or woman apostatizes and leaves the faith for good, it is evidence they never really loved Christ at all. Had they done so, they could not have repudiated the faith. (Yes, it’s not wildly dissimilar to the alleged “No True Scotsman” fallacy, but it’s 100% biblical, so I’ll stick with it.)

I made use of the word apostasy far too casually in my youth. “Apostate” is a too damning a label to pin on just anyone. It’s one of the harshest critiques that can be leveled. It’s not used often in scripture. I suspect Christians should not need to use it very often either. You might as well stamp “hellbound” on a man’s forehead as call him apostate.