Who are Apostates?

Can a true born again believer become an apostate?

The dictionary meaning of Apostate: a person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle.

Many Christians struggle when they hear the word Apostate. What is an Apostate? Can any Christian become an Apostate?

Well! First of all, it would be helpful to understand what an Apostate is not.

An Apostate is not an unbeliever. There are many unbelievers in the world and we as believers very likely know quite a lot of people who are not true Christians. They may be people that say they are Atheists or Agnostics.
We may know lots of people who are professors of other main line faiths, like Islam, Bhuddism, Hindism etc.
These are “believers” but they are not believers in the Christian faith. Some of these believers do believe in Jesus but reject that Jesus is divine and reject that He died to pay for the sin of man. So these cannot be Apostates.

Sadly, some of the words and phrases used by true Christians are being used by many other religions.
To say I am a believer does not necessarily mean you are a true Christian. Even the term “Born again”, “Saved” or “Converted” are being used today by those who are not truly born again.
There is a complete difference between someone who professes Jesus Christ to someone who possesses Jesus Christ.

To claim to be a Christian does not mean you are a true born again Christian.
There are many that claim the name of Christian simply because they were baptised as an infant. There are those who claim to be Christians because they follow a certain set of rules or church traditions.
There are those who believe they are Christians because they belong to a believing family or because they were born in a Christian country. Or simply because they attend a church.
To be a true Christian, according to scripture is that one must accept that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and died and rose again from the dead. One must recognise that they are separated from God by their sin, confess and repent of their sin and receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour for the forgiveness of sin.

It is repentance and faith in Christ that brings forgiveness and salvation. This is what a true Christian is.

This was made clear from the delivery of the gospel by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost.
 

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 

Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Also, the Apostle Paul preached the same gospel.
 

Acts 16:30  Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 
31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”…
Act 16:32  And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 
 

There are even those who claim to be Christians, simply to profit from the gospel.

The Apostle Paul said this in his letter to the Corinthian church.

2 Cor 2:17 For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.
 

So, let us be clear. An Apostate cannot be a Muslim, a Seikh, a Bhuddist, etc, because they never claimed to be Christians at all. They never professed the truth of the Gospel so they are unbelievers, not Apostates.
An Agnostic or someone who claims to be an Atheist is not an Apostate, for they never professed to be a Christian. They are simply unbelievers.
However, with someone who has professed the faith of Jesus Christ and then rejected that profession of faith it is they who are real Apostates.

Remember, it is not a professor of the faith who is a true Christian but one who possesses Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:.
 

Another  thing. An Apostate is not a Christian who is struggling with his faith.

There are many people who are Christians and who love Jesus, that have periods of backsliding and periods of struggle and even periods of disobedience.
We can see this in the lives of many true believers.

There is no doubt that King David was not an Apostate. He was a man that God called a man after God’s own heart. Yet he sinned by adultery with Bathsheba and was guilty of having her husband Uriah killed.

There is no doubt that the Apostle Peter was not an Apostate, yet he denied Jesus three times.

Or the Apostle Paul who said:

1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Also in Romans:
 

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ythe law, that it is good. 
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 
18 For I know that nothing good dwells ain me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 
23 but I see in my members fanother law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from gthis body of death? 
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

So, a believer is not an Apostate because he falls to temptation and sins, for all true Christians are susceptible to sin.

What then, is an Apostate?
 

An Apostate is someone who is inside God’s covenant community, who is part of the visible Church, who has professed faith in Christ, who seems to be a believer, who looks like any other Christian.
He may talk the talk, he may carry a bible, he probably partakes of the Lord’s Supper and is a member of that congregation.
However, at some later date, he consciously and intentionally repudiates that belief in Christ and leaves the covenant community. That is what an Apostate is.
They are those that never really were Christians at all. They were just professors and not possessors.
They may look like a Christian, act like a Christian and talk like a Christian, but are not true Christians.

When a person is born into a family, they are, like it or not, part of that family. No matter how much they say they are not, the truth is they are by birth, part of that family.

When one is truly born again of the Spirit of God. They are grafted into the family of God and they belong to the family of God.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, (Jesus Christ) to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:.

However, someone who professes to belong to a certain family but was never truly born of that family, is a false family member, unless of course they were adopted into that family by law.

In Matthews gospel chapter 25:1 -12.

Jesus told a parable about ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom. Five were wise and five were foolish.
All ten virgins were probably dressed the same, they all had lamp’s, they were all waiting for the same thing.
By looking at them, it would be hard to see any difference.
However, we are told that five wise virgins had oil in their lamps and five foolish virgins had no oil.
When the five foolish virgin’s lamps went out, they asked for oil from the others, who refused, for they only had enough for themselves.
Whilst the five foolish virgin were away trying to buy oil, the bridegroom came and the five wise virgin’s went into the wedding and the door was closed.
When the five foolish virgins came back and knocked on the door, the bridegroom said some tragic words.
“Go away, I never knew you”.
The five foolish virgins looked the part, they had the correct gear but they did not have the main ingredient “the oil”.
The oil is representative of the Holy Spirit.

The scriptures make it very clear:

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

2 Corinthians 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
 

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

A true Christian is one who has been born again and has the Spirit of God dwelling in him.
A true Christian will never deny his faith, for he is saved by the power of the Holy Spirit and is kept by the same power.

John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 

John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

Romans 8: 38,39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing and in no way can any true born again Christian, be separated from the family of God, even by themselves. “nor anything else in all creation”

There are however, scriptures that tell us that there were professing Christians who did become Apostate.

2 Timothy 4:10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

An Apostate then, is someone who professes the faith of Jesus Christ but never really repented and put their trust and faith in Him.
 

Jude 1:12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fears, serving themselves., They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;

2 Peter 2:17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
 

Apostates are those that have an appearance of being Christian’s but are not true Christians.
 

2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

So, can a person become a true Christian and at some future point, lose that salvation?
The answer is NO.
Apostates are not people who were Christians and then stop being Christians. Apostates were never Christians to begin with and only later did it become apparent that they weren’t Christians.
I quote a previous scripture because it is very relevant.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

Quote by Dr. Michael J. Kruger (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh)

Here’s the upshot of the whole thing for us:
God uses the stories of apostates to warn his people. Time and time again he says, “Don’t end up like that person. Don’t prove later to find yourself to be a non-Christian. Stay the course; persevere.”
That doesn’t mean people can actually lose their salvation, but God uses those warnings and uses the examples of apostates to encourage his people to stay true to the faith. This is something that we’re always going to face in the church, but thankfully we can trust that we’re in God’s hands, and when we’re in God’s hands, no one can be plucked out of the hands of the Father. End of Quote.