We are all apostate to a degree: Jeremiah described men as “brutish” in knowledge (Jeremiah 10:14); Paul observed that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and are generally “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:3); John warned “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8); many of the faithful have denounced the wickedness, hatred, pride, vanity, foolishness and hardheartedness of men who seek peace and security where it cannot be found—in possessions, in sin, and in oppressions.
Faith has a history of fits and starts. History shows that the general condition of
humanity has been apostasy. For example,
faith in the God of Israel has been anything but common in most civilizations (ie.
in Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and etc.) and most places (even today). It was fragile even among the children of
Israel. Often, they chose idols over God. They had epochs of unbelief, captivity, and
dispersion; and they had eras of faith, emancipation, and reunion. Even to God’s most trusted servants, faith has
seemed, at times, tenuous. For example,
our New Testament portrait of Peter, the "rock"--a self-deprecating portrait preserved at Peter’s
behest-- is one of a man who was generally bewildered by the words, will, and works of
God, a man who was often rebuked by Jesus (“thou savorest not the things that be of God”--Matthew 16:21-23).
Nothing, it seems, has been more tenuous
than truth about God. Nothing has been
less secure. The hands of men have been too
ambitious, too cruel, too weak, too self-serving, to hold the truth and oracles
of God long. In fact, apostasy has been
so common, it may seem that this is how God wanted the world to be. I don’t think that it reveals God’s will that men
have only had that portion of God’s word that they were prepared for and willing
to receive and keep. To me, it reveals
God’s great mercy.
That apostasy has
been prevalent is no marvel, as Paul observed, because “Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). John the Revelator beheld a whore representing the dominion of wickedness over all the earth, and among all nations and people.
Paul anticipated that the truth would be persistently imperiled. He exhorted believers to “be not soon shaken
in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from
us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-4). Paul anticipated that churches would fall into
apostasy; he anticipated a day when the son of perdition would show himself to
be God even in the holiest place(s).
I am encouraged by the examples of Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-39). As they worshipped God, in a conquered, abject country,
captive to an apostate empire, in a temple overseen by apostates (Pharisees),
God rewarded them for their faith: they
saw and recognized the Christ child and rejoiced in His coming. We can have confidence--in perilous times, in
a fallen world--that God will reward our sincere faith and love of truth.
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