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The Reign of the Servant Kings By Joseph C. Dillow A Review-Summary-Outline
Chapter 15—Apostasy and Divine Discipline
The position of Experimental Predestinarians (Calvinists) is that a true Christian will not persist in carnality to the point of physical death and that no true Christian can ever commit the sin of public repudiation of his faith in Christ. This chapter will examine biblical data that seems to suggest that a true Christian can not only be carnal, but he can actually commit apostasy as well.
New Testament Illustrations of Apostasy
Apostasy of Hymenaeus and Alexander
This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
These two men had “faith” and “a good conscience,” but they rejected both and have suffered shipwreck. While some will maintain that these two were never true believers, their spiritual state must be determined from the context of the passage and not from a theological system.
Three things are said about these two men: (1) they had believed; (2) they had given the evidence of regeneration in a good conscience; and (3) they needed to be taught not to blaspheme. If it were not for the third point, one would conclude on the premises of the Experimental Predestinarian that they were saved people. They had believed, and they had given some initial evidence of it.
However, even the third point paradoxically substantiates the thesis that they are regenerate. When Paul says they must be handed over to Satan, he calls to mind the only other illustration in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 5:5) of a man being handed over to Satan. In that passage a member of the congregation was involved in incest (5:1). However, even though he was obviously carnal, he would be saved in the day of Jesus Christ.
Hymenaeus and Alexander needed to be “taught” (Gk. paideuo). In the word’s other usages in the New Testament it is commonly used of divine chastening of discipline of the regenerate (1 Corinthians 11:32; Titus 2:12, 13; Hebrews 12:5, 6). The exegetical evidence seems to present these men as genuine Christians who have fallen away from the faith. It is possible that this Hymenaeus is the same individual referred to in Paul’s second epistle to Timothy.
And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:17-19)
Hymenaeus had such an impact on the faith of some believers that he actually overthrew the faith of some. The Greek word for “overthrow” means to “cause to fall, overturn, destroy.” In direct contradiction to our Lord’s words (John 6:39), they asserted that the resurrection had already occurred and thereby destroyed the faith of some.
When Paul says, “The Lord knows those who are His,” he is not saying that the Lord knows those who are truly regenerate in contrast to those who are not, implying that Hymenaeus was not regenerate. Paul quotes from the LXX (Septuagint—Greek translation of the Old Testament). The Hebrew translation of Numbers 16:5 reads: “Tomorrow morning the Lord will ‘show who is His’ and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him” (NKJV). The incident is instructive.
The verse is within the context where Korah had led a rebellion against Moses, claiming that Moses had no special calling from God to lead Israel. Moses replies that God will demonstrate who is appointed by God, Moses or the leaders of the rebellion. The LXX translates the Hebrew as “know,” and Paul follows this in 2 Timothy 2:19. So when he says that God “knows” those who are His, he is not saying something as banal as “God knows who is truly a Christian.” He is saying that God has intimacy with His chosen and appointed leaders and will actively demonstrate that fact. The Greek word for “know” often carries the sense of “appoint” or “know intimately.” To be “known” by God is to enjoy his favor (1 Corinthians 8:3); to be honored/respected by Him (1 Thessalonians 5:12); to enjoy intimacy with Him (John 17:3); or to be cared for by Him (Nahum 1:7; John 10:14; Genesis 18:19).
It may be that the apostle is saying that just as in the days of Korah, God appoints those in authority and will demonstrate this. If that is the case, then when Paul says that the Lord knows those “who are His,” he means “those whom He has appointed in authority.” This is, perhaps, in contrast to the presumption of teaching authority seen in Hymenaeus and Philetus. However, since the phrase is being quoted proverbially, and not precisely, we would not err if we said simply “the Lord cares for, knows intimately, and continues relationship with those who are His.” Even though their faith has been overturned by false leaders, God still loves them, cares for them, and continues relationship with them. They can never be removed from His family.
The conclusion is that Hymenaeus, Philetus, and those whom they damaged were true Christians who had embraced error and were catastrophically affected. But the Lord “knows those who are His,” that is, the Lord remains committed to and loves all His children. Paul is alluding to what he said in vs. 13: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (Romans 8:35-39). It is a guarantee of the eternal security of those who have departed, not a statement of discrimination between the saved and the unsaved as Experimental Predestinarians imagine.
Apostasy in Hebrews
Apostasy is a real danger, just as the writer of Hebrews warned in chapter 10:
“For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition [Gk. apoleia—destruction, either temporal or eternal], but of those who believe to the saving [Gk. peripoiesia—preservation] of the soul. (Hebrews 10:37-39)
The “preserving of the soul” is a common term for the maintaining of physical life (it never means “go to heaven when you die”). Instead of experiencing “destruction,” they will live. The word “destruction” (Gk. apoleia) is the common term for “loss” or “destruction” in secular Greek. It is not a technical term for hell. Sometimes it means “waste” (Mark 14:4) and sometimes “execution” (Acts 25:16).
The context (10:26-38) refers to the possible execution of judgment in time on the sinning Christian. The judgment may include physical death or even worse (10:28). In order to avoid the possibility of this sin to physical death, this discipline resulting in ruin of one’s physical life, we must persevere in faith. The danger is that they will not. And if that occurs, that is, if “he shrinks back,” then God will have no pleasure in him.
Apostasy here is not theoretical; it is a real possibility. This is the apostasy of God’s “righteous one,” the regenerate son of God who has received the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Apostasy in Galatians
In Galatians 6:12 Paul seems to refer to those who are true believers who also have denied the faith:
As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
Submission to circumcision indicated cessation of faith in Christ (Galatians 2:17-21). In fact, it meant you counted Christ’s death as vain, had severed yourself from Christ (Galatians 5:2), had fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4), and were liable to judgment (5:10). To be severed from Christ and to fall from grace logically required a former standing in grace and connection with Christ from which to fall and be severed!
It is possible for those who are regenerate to deny the faith and forfeit their share in the coming kingdom. There is no need to assume that they lose salvation, as the Arminian maintains.
Apostasy in the Last Days
The apostle Paul specifically declares in Timothy that it is possible for believers to depart from the faith:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:1, 2)
Now if the Spirit “explicitly says” that apostasy from the faith is possible, by what right does anyone deny this? These people who fall away (depart from the faith) are believers and are contrasted with the liars who have a seared conscience (vs. 2). It was by means of these non-Christians that these believers were led into apostasy. The use of the Greek word aphistmi (“depart from”) implies a departure from a position once held and therefore refers to apostasy from the faith by those who once held it.
Denial of the Faith
When a man refuses to care for his household, he has in effect denied the faith:
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)
It is apparently possible for a true Christian to deny the faith and to be worse than a non-Christian.
Apostasy of Widows
Paul specifically says that some younger widows had departed from the faith and followed Satan:
Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some have already turned aside after Satan. (1 Timothy 5:14, 15)
Apostasy Due to Gnostic Deception
False teachers are often the cause for the departure from the faith by those who are truly regenerate:
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. (1Timothy 6:20, 21)
Some under Timothy’s care in the church had gone astray from the faith. Timothy, a Christian, is being warned against this very possibility.
Apostasy of Demas and Others
Toward the end of his life, Paul found himself deserted by many of his fellow-laborers. Among them were Demas (2 Timothy 4:10), Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Timothy 1:15), and a number of unnamed people (2 Timothy 4:16).
In another Timothy passage Paul refers to those who are “in opposition:”
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)
Who are these who are “in opposition”? While the phrase about repentance leading to a “knowledge of the truth” certainly could refer to the conversion of non-Christians, the parallel usage (Titus 1:1) refers to the knowledge necessary for those who already are Christians, so that they can live godly lives. Furthermore, the parallel passage about being ensnared by the devil clearly refers to believers (1 Timothy 3:7). It appears that the lapse of regenerate people is in view. They have fallen from the faith and become opponents of the apostle Paul!
Conclusion
Attempts to evade the force of these and other passages that teach the existence of the carnal Christian seem to be unconvincing. If one has one sin, he can apparently still be a Christian. But to have many, or to remain in a state of “constant and total” carnality, he then is not a Christian according to the Calvinist. How does one draw the line? What is constant and what is total? Apparently one sin is not total. How about two or three? In fact, the Corinthian believers were involved in “constant and total” sin. Paul came to them in A.D. 52 and then, four years later, they were still carnal. They had remained in constant divisiveness for at least four years.
The rest of the book documents other aspects of their carnality: Jealousy, quarreling (3:3), toleration of incest (5:1), lawsuits against brothers (6:1), fornication (6:18), indifference to weaker brothers (chapters 8, 9), drunkenness (11:21), and egotistical use of spiritual gifts (14:4).
Certainly the description of these believers is one of “total and constant” carnality. In at least two cases their carnality persisted unto physical death (5:5; 11:30), and their physical death was a divine judgment upon them for their refusal to respond to the exhortations of the apostle.
It cannot be successfully argued that Scripture guarantees that those who believe will be kept in a state of belief to the final hour. What is guaranteed by Scripture is that God’s faithfulness is independent from our faith, “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful.”
Spiritual Consequences
Documenting the moral failures above is unpleasant but necessary. Until the possibility of ultimate failure is clear, the warnings against it have little relevance. Equally distasteful is the task of explaining the consequences of carnality for the believer, and they are severe indeed. The Scriptures set forth three consequences of sin: (1) divine discipline, (2) physical death, and (3) disinheritance.
Divine Discipline
The principle of judgment upon believers is found in many passages of the Old Testament—Solomon, Saul, David—that do not refer to loss of salvation but loss of the right to rule. The principle is that discipline results in judgment in time or forfeiture in eternity [Millennial Kingdom] but not loss of salvation. Reviewer’s comment: At this point the author covers several more examples in detail from the Old Testament.
The central passage in the Bible on the subject of divine discipline is Hebrews 12:3-11. Here it recounts that God’s purpose in discipline (punishment) is to correct errant behavior. He disciplines believers for their good that they may share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Every child of God will sooner or later experience this. His purpose is always to correct, the definite aim of which is for the believer’s profit, that he might be partakers of God’s holiness. Without this holiness “no man will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). To see the Lord means to fellowship with Him. Job, for example, said, “But now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). The parallel is precise. As a result of divine discipline Job came to “see” the Lord. The writer to the Hebrews, steeped in the Old Testament as he was, apparently had this passage in mind.
The Sin unto Death
The second consequence of carnality in the life of a believer is physical death. A number of passages already alluded to suggest that when a believer fails to respond to discipline, God may take him home. For example:
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19, 20)
It is apparently possible for a “brother” to stray from the truth and be in danger of death. Regenerate people are in view here. The reference to covering a multitude of sins is used elsewhere of covering the sins of the regenerate (1 Peter 4:8).
To “save a soul from death” was a way of saying “save a life,” i.e., save a man from physical death. No doubt James had a similar concern when he said, “And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:15). “Death” ultimately refers to physical death, the final consequence of protracted sin. It is probable; however, that James includes all that is involved in the path to death: misery, spiritual impoverishment, and severe divine discipline—all of these things and death as well.
Another passage that refers to the sin unto death is found in 1 John 5:16, 17: “There is a sin leading unto death.” It appears that physical death is in view. This is suggested by the fact that it is contrasted with physical life. Elsewhere in the epistle, when “eternal” life is meant, the adjective “eternal” is included. Second, John instructs his readers to pray for their “brother” that they might not experience death but “life.” How can a brother be prayed for that he might obtain “eternal life”? A “brother” already has eternal life. But if abundant life is meant, then the phrase not only makes sense but fits well with the thrust of the epistle: fellowship and joy (1 John 1:3-4). Also it makes good sense to pray that God will spare a sinning brother and restore him to fellowship. It is nonsensical to believe that the “brother” is a “professing Christian.” If John had meant a “professing brother,” he could have said so.
Paul explained that some of the Corinthians who had come intoxicated to the Lord’s Table were “weak and sick, and a number sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). The brother in the Corinthian church who was caught in adultery with his stepmother was turned over to Satan “for the destruction of his flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). Reviewer’s comment: Here the author takes two paragraphs to illustrate that the Corinthians in chapter 10 faced the possibility of sin unto physical death just as the believing, regenerate nation of Israel did in the past.
When a Christian is judged by God and experiences the sin unto physical death, it is evident that he has not only sinned but that he has persisted in sin unto the final hour, precisely what the adherents of the reformed doctrine of perseverance say cannot happen!
Millennial Disinheritance
The final consequence of protracted carnality is forfeiture of reward and stinging rebuke when the King returns to establish His rule. The loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ is often referred to but rarely specifically defined:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men . . . . (2 Corinthians 5:10)
. . . For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. . . . So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10, 12)
In the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1-14, such disinheritance is in view. At the marriage feast of the Lamb a great celebration will occur. However, not all will participate in that joy. The parable says nothing about those who are not truly Christians being at the wedding banquet. Those who are unbelievers will never enter the kingdom at all, much less the wedding banquet. The parable teaches that the unfaithful Christian will be excluded from the light and joy of the celebration. It will become painfully evident that there are those who are regenerate slaves who do not persevere in their efforts to be properly attired at the marriage feast.
The parable describes a great banquet, and the Lord invites all of His servants to attend. The invitation to attend is to be understood as an invitation to national Israel to accept Christ as Messiah. Yet, because some refused to come and even killed the Lord’s messengers, the invitation (of salvation) was extended to all, not just those who are descended from Abraham. So both Jews and Gentiles—the good and bad—were invited, but the Lord found one who came who should not be there. Why? It was because he was not suitably attired with a proper “wedding garment.”
The wedding garment does not represent the imputed righteousness of Christ, but of the deeds suitable to qualify to participate in the King’s banquet. The nature of the garment is made explicitly clear in Revelation 19:7, 8:
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
What the friend at the wedding banquet lacked was not justification but a life of righteous acts. He was a “friend” of his Master, had responded to the invitation (vs. 10), and had believed in Him. His failure to persevere in his life of works was terrible:
Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:13, 14)
Several questions are raised by this striking warning:
In the ancient Near East such festivity normally took place at night. The banquet hall is brilliantly lit up but, by contrast, the gardens around them are in darkness. All that is meant is “darkness that is without, outside the house.” The parable, as a metaphor, refers to the darkness as exclusion from the light and joy of the metochoi. The binding of the hands and feet is a metaphor for exclusion from the activity of reigning with Messiah, and the joy and light are metaphors for the joy of the faithful as they unite with their King and receive their rewards (cf. Hebrews 1:8, 9). Reviewer’s comment: The author continues to make his argument for several paragraphs utilizing several passages from Matthew and Luke; yet, to this reviewer, it appears that he may be subject to some confusion between designations for the Jews as opposed to Gentile believers. Each reader will need to judge this matter for himself by acquiring the book and studying this portion of it.
Those Christians who fail to persevere to the end, who are carnal, will experience three negatives at the future judgment: (1) a stinging rebuke (Matthew 24:45-51), (2) exclusion from the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13), and (3) millennial disinheritance (Matthew 25:14-30).
Confession
The recovery of the carnal Christian requires that he “repent” (2 Corinthians 7:10; Revelation 2:5), elsewhere defined as “confession.” (1 John 1:9). There are two kinds of forgiveness in the New Testament. One pertains to our eternal salvation (justification by faith), the other to our temporal fellowship with the Father. The Lord referred to this second kind of forgiveness when He said to Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (John 13:8). Peter told the Lord to wash him all over if that was the case. To this Jesus replied, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). The “washing of feet” refers to forgiveness pertaining to one’s walk, to the restoration of fellowship of a regenerate (“bathed”) person. The believer is told in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” The meaning is plain: for the believer to deal with his sins in the present will preclude his being judged for them in the future at the judgment seat of Christ.
Conclusion
The danger of apostasy is real. Many readers of this book have known people who once believed, who witnessed, who prayed, who read their Bibles and yet did not finish their course. To say they were never saved to begin with begs the question and in many instances contradicts their personal knowledge of those people.
No! The danger is real, and one must stay close to Christ, or he too can face the prospects of discipline and disinheritance. The Christian life is not easy and believing God in the midst of trails and suffering is hardest of all. Many have abandoned faith due to their disappointment with God.
Fortunately, God has not left the believer alone. God has, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, provided all the resources needed for the believer to avoid this danger and to live the abundant life. It is to this resource of the power of the Holy Spirit that must now be addressed in the following chapter.
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