DESPONDENT APOSTASY.

Apostasy is described as the abandonment of One’s religious faith for something else. On the other hand, the religious apostate is simply an irredeemable backslider. If a professed believer continues to sin consciously after he has received the knowledge of the truth, he becomes a backslider and the unrepentant backslider will glide stealthily into despondent apostasy. The Scripture says that if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of truth, there remains no sacrifice for sins; (Heb 10:26). Jesus warned His followers on the importance of patience and perseverance in the faith and good works if they want to save their souls. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but there shall not an hair of your head perish, in your patience shall you possess your souls; (Luk 21:17-19). So, there is nothing like eternal security; nothing like once saved, forever saved. Genuine Salvation is always a current experience and a dynamic event. However, those who are sanctified and live righteously will not profane the Blood of the Covenant by which true believers are sealed unto the Spirit of Grace through Faith in Christ. Those are they that are promised faultless Spirit by the Lord to enjoy divine preservation to the end. Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; (Jude 1:24).

Jesus said: Some followers went out from us, because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued with us but they went out; (1John 2:19). This simply means, there were some christians who were once genuinely born-again and committed worshipers who invariably glided to apostasy. However, it is common of nominal christians to backslide into apostasy for the slightest of reasons. While it is easy for nominal church goers to backslider because of their stunted spiritual growth and slip into apostasy, christians with sanctification experience are least expected to backslide after they have received the faith with joy and acquired sufficient spiritual growth and required experience to make them remain standing. The hope of eternal life promised by the Lord ought to be the engine needed to propel believers to end the race for heavenly Kingdom successfully. So, true believers must not jettison their faith in exchange for worldliness, no matter the severity of afflictions, hardships and persecutions. There is nothing valuably gainful in this world which can exchange for the soul of man: (MK 8:37). It will take a lot of divine Grace for christians with superficial faith to make it to heaven even if they appear to be genuine believers. Only the sanctified brethren can possess enduring faith and prevailing perseverance to overcome temptations and remain abiding in Christ to the end.

No doubt that apostasy is not a respecter of nominal believers with superficial salvation and stunted spiritual growth. Nominal believers buckle easily under unbearable challenges, hardships and temptations; causing them to break up their relationship with the Lord. It should be known that christianity is not only a religion, it is a life to live. Because the Lord knows that, believers can easily fall to a state of apostasy with little challenges, He made available for man the second work of Grace and made it a mandatory experience for all His followers. The second work of Grace through Christ’s atoning Blood, also known as Sanctification of the heart or the removal of the Adamic nature from the heart of man; is the power of God to bring about total regeneration of heart in God’s children to make them holy as Himself. Be ye holy for I AM holy; (1Pet 1:16). With holiness of heart, the root of sin is completely removed from the heart of believers and they can no more commit sins because they are children of God, born of Him in Christ; (1John 3:9). Therefore, genuinely sanctified christians cannot glide into apostasy. However, those highly reverenced leaders of the religious circle, who become apostatised are examples of personalities of great deception in cassocks. They are nominal leaders in high positions, pretentiously professing to be what they are not. Their hypocrisies will expose them one day with great shame. So, without sanctification, a christian is not immune against apostasy and he can not make heaven of God; because without holiness no man can see the Lord; (Heb 12:14).