There is little doubt that we are today in the midst of widespread apostasy. By that term we mean: Departure from the faith once for all delivered to the saints, for which we are to earnestly contend.[1] I believe that apostates include two types of people:

1) Those who have knowingly turned completely from Christ and no longer even pretend to be Christians; and

2) Those who still claim to be Christians but have departed from the faith.

The latter would likewise be divided into two groups:

a) Those who deliberately twist the Scriptures, perverting the gospel " to draw away disciples after them" [2] or who endorse false teachers (though they know better) because they want to share their fame and power[3]- or who simply want to be " positive" so as to " offend" no one; and

b) The naive, who are genuinely deceived by false prophets/teachers.

Apostasy, of course, in some measure, has existed as long as the church. (Most of the epistles involve, to some extent, correction of false doctrine and practice that was already in the early church in the days of the apostles.) It is the mushrooming, widespread incidence of the apostasy described under 2) above, however, among those who claim to be Christians, that I believe Scripture points to as a specific sign of the last days just prior to the Rapture.

The question, of course, must be faced whether today' s apostasy (as this paper proposes) has anything to do with prophecies concerning the last days. If so, it would seem that this " sign of the last days" has been largely overlooked by many, if not most, prophecy teachers. They usually cite as " last-days signs" only " wars and rumors of wars... nation shall rise against nation...kingdom against kingdom...famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes," [4] unusual weather, the move to a cashless society, the revival of the Roman Empire, etc.

I have been criticized for years by those who complain, " Deal with prophecy, if you wish, but stick to your subject- don' t mix in apostasy!" In fact, one cannot adequately deal with the former while ignoring the latter. When asked by His disciples, " What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world," [5] the first words from Christ identified apostasy as the foremost sign of the last days. In His response, He emphasized religious deception three times- and He specified what it would involve:

Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many....[6] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many....[7] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.[8]

Christ' s warning made several things clear:

1) The major sign of the nearness of His coming would be religious deception by professing Christian leaders;

2) A central feature of the deception would be false prophets showing " great signs and wonders," which, though convincing, would also be false;

3) The repetition of the word, " many," indicated that this religious deception would be widespread, apparently worldwide; and

4) The words Christs, prophets, signs and wonders, and elect indicated that the deception would be among professing Christians, i.e., inside the church.

This warning was echoed by Jude. The first reason he gave why we must " earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints" was the fact that " there are certain men crept in [inside the church] unawares...ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." [9]

" False Christs" ?! There have been many in our day (from Jim Jones to David Koresh), who gathered followers by claiming to be Christ. There are numerous gurus in India who claim to be the latest reincarnation of Jesus Christ. The false " Christs" presented by novels, videos, and movies have multiplied since Jesus Christ Superstar beyond reciting. None is even close to the true Jesus Christ of Scripture. The " Jesus" of The DaVinci Code is a complete fraud dreamed up by atheists. The " Jesus" of the ABC-TV presentation of Judas confessed to Judas that he " blew it" in chasing the moneychangers out of the Temple: " I lost my temper."

That Mel Gibson' s The Passion of the Christ received almost universal praise as " biblically accurate" from solid evangelical leaders is another indication of apostasy that has crept into the best pulpits unawares. In fact, it was almost all unbiblical. Christ stomping on a huge serpent slithering into Gethsemane, and Satan tempting him there; Pilate' s wife giving linens to the two Marys to wipe up Christ' s blood; Jesus knocked off a bridge on the way to the cross, where he dangles from a chain and confronts Judas hiding beneath it; Saint Veronica giving her veil to Christ to wipe his face, and the image of his face remaining on it as the first icon; a raven plucking out the eye of one thief on an adjoining cross; the endless beatings by Roman soldiers, giving the impression that Christ suffered more physically than any other person, and that his physical sufferings (which could only condemn us) paid for our sins; not a hint that " the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all...it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin" [10]- all of this and more was unbiblical, much of it from the visions of a mystic nun or devices from the imagination of the director to arouse emotions. Nor did anyone seem disturbed that a sinful man was pretending to be the One who declared, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," [11] and whom Paul described as " God manifest in the flesh." [12]

The most prominent false Christ today is Sun Myung Moon, who openly declares that he is the Messiah come to earth to complete the mission Jesus failed to accomplish: establish the " perfect family." Yet some prominent evangelicals have spoken at conferences convened by Moon, sharing the platform that featured the man who says he is perfecting the work " left unaccomplished by Jesus." [13]

But what is the faith, a departure from which marks one as an apostate? Some might say that as long as a person believes that Christ died for his sins, was buried, and rose the third day, he is saved. But that declaration does not express the true gospel. As defined by Paul, the gospel declares the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures.[14] Surely that involves who the biblical God is, who the biblical Christ is, what the biblical problem between God and man is, the biblical and only means of man' s forgiveness by God, and the eternal consequences as taught in the Bible for those who reject the biblical gospel. None of these is a peripheral point of doctrine to be ignored or compromised. To do so would be a departure from the faith into apostasy to proclaim a false gospel.

The entire Word of God, of course, is foundational to the faith. The Bible is one book and it is all interrelated, every part to every other. Sadly, the church and world are being robbed of the pure Word of God- and by those who claim to be evangelical Christians. Eugene Peterson' s The Message (NavPress, 1993) is one example. Instead of " that the world through him might be saved," [15] The Message says, " He came to help, to put the world right again." That sounds like social and political action, the same old " social gospel," downgrading salvation to earthly improvement, and it is found throughout this entire " version" of Scripture. John 3:31 says, " He that cometh from above is above all...." The Message says, " The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God." First Peter 5:10 says that God has " called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus...." The Message says God " will have you put together and on your feet." What Peterson has done to God' s Word is blasphemous!

Peterson dares to change the words and meaning of Scripture! Hebrews 11:4 declares, " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," but The Message says, " It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference." Obviously, both belief and action are important and interdependent. Moreover, Peterson has robbed his readers of the major theme of Scripture: the Lamb slain for our redemption.

Men like Peterson have no conscience about changing what God says, replacing His words with their own. Yet The Message is quoted more than 80 times by Rick Warren in The Purpose-Driven Life, which has now sold about 26 million copies, unprecedented in history. No greater promotion of this mass of heresy could be given than Warren' s endorsement! Sadly, this huge bestseller quotes paraphrases far more than it quotes the Bible, encouraging a growing trend of departure from the words of God (" thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" - Jeremiah 15:16) to misrepresentations thereof coming out of men' s imaginations. This is exactly what God condemns two chapters earlier.[16]

Yet Peterson' s Message is also praised by other Christian leaders such as J. I. Packer, Warren Wiersbe, Jack W. Hayford, and Richard Foster. Peterson is " Consulting Editor, New Testament," for the Renovar