In the early morning hours of February 25 1956, future Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stood before a closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress, in what has become known as the “Secret Speech.” During the speech, Khrushchev denounced the late Premier Joseph Stalin’s abuse of power and repressive style of leadership. For Khrushchev, who had played an intimate role in Stalin’s corruption, it was a moment of truth and cleansing. However, while he was speaking, a note was passed through the audience and up to Khrushchev which asked,” What were you doing when Stalin committed all these atrocities?” Khrushchev shouted again, “Who sent up this note?” Not a person moved or spoke a word. Khrushchev again shouted, “Ill give him one minute to stand up!” The one minute of time passed and no one stood. Khrushchev then said, “All right, Ill tell you what I was doing. I was doing exactly what the writer of this note was doing--nothing! I was afraid to be counted.” From time to time, flags are flown at half mast around our country. It is a reminder to us that someone important has died. Perhaps the reason our generation of Christians are flying there flags of profession so lowly is because something vitally important is dying within our ranks. When you compare our twenty first century brand of Christianity with that possessed by first century Christians you can easily see that courage is dying a slow death. Courage is no longer demanded from our leaders, and our leaders no longer demand courage from us. Our lack of courage is both our failure and our fault. As Joshua assumed the leadership role after Moses death, the Lord encouraged him in Joshua 1:9, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage…” God has the right to both command and demand courage from the lives of those who serve as His ambassadors. In our generation there are Pharaohs we must face, mighty giants that we must fight, and many steep mountains to be climbed for the sake of the Gospel. The challenges and struggles that lie ahead of us can only be met with “good courage.” Do you have the mettle it takes to keep standing tall when everyone else around you has already sat down? Courage is a trait that demands we hold no reserves. In Daniel 6, when Daniel defied the decree of King Darius and prayed, he not only exposed himself to the potential of peril and pain, but he also laid his position and popularity on the line. For Daniel, spiritual courage was never a risk because a man who has surrendered the whole of his life into the hands of God no longer has anything to lose! Several years ago a missionary in India watched as a woman approached the Ganges River with a crippled son in her arms and a healthy son by her side. To his amazement, she sacrificed her healthy son into the crocodile infested waters. When asked why she had not sacrificed her crippled son instead, she replied, “In our country we always give our gods our best.” If only more Christians exhibited such faith! Saul kept “the best of the sheep and of the oxen…and all that was good” for himself, but lost his courage, his mind, and ultimately his kingdom. Annanias and Sapphira “kept back part” of the offering for themselves, but lost their reward, their credibility, and ultimately their lives. Nineteenth century evangelist George Mueller said, “God judges what we give by what we keep.” Anytime we are holding back something from God, it might just surprise us what God is holding back from us! Courage is a trait that demands we honor no retreats. In Nehemiah 6:3, when enemy messengers tried to distract, discourage and defeat the project of rebuilding the wall, Nehemiah said, “I cannot come down..” He kept pressing forward and refused to back off, back up or back down! Spiritual progress is never achieved from hearts that are always moving backwards. During the heat of a difficult battle, Napoleon shouted to his drummer, “Beat a retreat!” Standing heroic and saluting loyally, the drummer said, “Sir, you never taught me to beat a retreat. I can only beat a charge!” With renewed courage, Napoleon then shouted ,”Then beat a charge, drummer boy!” Certain defeat, quickly was turned into a resounding victory. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather a fixed resolve in the face of panic. Because David refused to run from the intimidating shadow of Goliath, he became the tallest man left on the battlefield. Because three Hebrew children would not budge on their conviction, they could not be beaten, blemished or burned. When his enemies demanded that he recant his writings, Martin Luther said, “Here I stand! I can do no other! God help me.” True faith does not commit in the face of confirmation, but rather it surrenders and presses forward in spite of consequence. Courage is a trait that demands we harbor no regrets. In Esther 4, Israel is facing annihilation and only Queen Esther is in a position to save them. After weighing out the consequences, Esther says in verse 16, “I will go into the king,…and if I perish, I perish.” That’s living with your mind made up! Twentieth century pastor and author Clarence McCartney once wroth, “Men who hesitate and linger are left behind by men who have decided and who bind what shall be to their will.” Life can often produce sudden and strategic moments that demand our courage. However, to delay or hesitate in that moment can leave you holding a lifetime of regret. Lot had the chance to leave Sodom courageously, but “while he lingered,” he lost the respect of his family. David had the chance to be courageous on the battlefield, but while he “tarried still in Jerusalem,” the enemy pierced his soul with a sword that ran throughout his family. Gifted preacher Tom Elliff recently reminded me of an old saying, “A man knows he is growing old when his regrets outnumber his dreams.” The courageous are never guaranteed fame and fortune, but cowards never have monuments erected in their honor either. In his 1978Harvard Commencement address, Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?” Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “He that is not with Me is against Me..” The implication is clear that the position of neutrality is never given to us! Can the Lord count on us to be the courageous voices, faithful prayer warriors, and extravagant givers to His work in these final hours of the church age?

The Great Apostasy: Lost Forever

An apostate soul is lost forever.

There is an abundance of Biblical proof that shows anyone that apostatizes cannot repent – and even stronger – has been given a reprobate mind and will not repent.

The Greek word apostasion means a divorcement.

The apostate person has divorced the truth of God and has been divorced by the Holy Spirit. They are lost forever.

There is a multitude in today’s church, which are so captured by the watered down message that they refuse to even believe “plain truths” from the Holy Scripture.

Please consider what is evident in the very term apostate.

We are not discussing someone going back into sin or simply ceasing to walk with the Lord.
That is backsliding and we see a clear picture of that in the prodigal son in chapter fifteen of Luke. He left the Father’s House and wandered far from home, but he came to himself and returned.
I have often said that there is a little of the prodigal in every one of us. We have all had to repent because we failed to be fully obedient.

This state of a soul has no real kinship to apostasy.

Apostate people are more religious than the true saints.

They have departed from the great principles and established doctrines of the Holy Bible and are committed to guaranteeing that everybody else does the same.

Apostasy is a departure from truth while being convinced that they have discovered greater truths.

It is the replacement of the eternal truth with religious human imagination.

The book, The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenney is an excellent case in point. He states that the Bible is where God has been and the new revelation is where God is now at work. Rick Warren is clearly at the same point. He has replaced the Born Again life by the Holy Ghost with a “purpose driven life” of psychological relativisms.

In the apostate world there are many paths to God, and Jesus Christ is only one of them.

The absolute teaching of Jesus Christ about an eternal Hell and eternal Lake of Fire is now to simply lie in the grave and fail to enjoy God forever.

The Bible can be pen-knifed by the apostate church and almost every truth can have varied meanings.

Separated living is a relic of the past and the Christian is free of all restraints in the Ten Commandments, etc.

A ballgame on Sunday night is just as spiritual to this company as a great sermon from God’s eternal truth.

Romance music has replaced the music that lifts the spirit of man into the Holy of Holies, where God’s Spirit sanctifies and purifies the soul.

The Holy Bible warned us of this End Time phenomenon.

The most powerful Scripture about apostasy is in the great book of Hebrews.

This passage has been almost ignored by most Bible teachers because it upsets their weak theology. “And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall “Fall Away,” to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:3-6).

Apostle Paul does not just suggest the end results; he proclaims without question that this state of apostasy cannot repent.

Please note the words, “fall away,” which identifies the apostate person and states that they were once partakers of the Holy Ghost, were once enlightened, and had tasted the Word of God and the world to come.

But, now, they have turned from all of that great life and cannot return to their former spiritual state.

The term “fall away” is from a unique Greek word that applies to the person that is part of the “falling away” or “apostasia” we see in II Thessalonians chapter two, verse three.

The prophecy of II Thessalonians is a clear companion to the truth in Hebrews. As the apostle writes about the coming Antichrist and the Day of Christ, he warns us of the “falling away.” “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that 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” (II Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Again, we see “falling away” from the two Greek words, apostasia and apostasion.

These are very religious persons who have turned to “another gospel.” They did not love the pure word of God and were wise in the flesh to create their own theology.

They watered down the truth to draw the crowds into their great fold. And, then, they must keep compromising to keep the crowds.

The Holy Ghost takes the apostle right down to the fine point of what the results will be, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thessalonians 2:7-12).

God’s omniscient Spirit warns them that He will give them “strong delusion,” and “that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned.”
It is not the truth that saves the soul.

The world is full of people that know the Bible.

Many souls study the Bible just to argue their deception more successfully.

It is the “love of the truth” that saves the soul.
Now, we are discovering the real heart of apostasy. It is to reject the truth for error and our highly intellectual church world is fulfilling this prophetic design to a tee.

There is clear evidence that this condition of apostasy is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
The Spirit of Truth is absolutely the Holy Ghost.

To reject truth, to change truth, to water down truth is to grieve, quench, and blaspheme the Spirit. The whole matter of apostasy is the forsaking of truth.

The Holy Ghost inspired every Bible writer and they wrote as “they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:21). There is no way you can blaspheme Him more readily than when you attack His revelation. From Moses, the writer of the Pentateuch, to John, the writer of the Book of Revelation, the Bible is the pure Word of God.

The final proof of apostasy is found in Revelation chapter twenty-two. The Spirit said, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).

When you alter the Bible, you are an apostate person and will be eternally lost.
Joseph R. Chambers