Gross apostasy is raging in the Church today, and most professing Christians seem to be unaware of how serious it has become. That’s because the average Christian today is biblically ignorant. How did this happen?
To help us answer this question, we’ve invited one of Lamb & Lion Ministries’ dearest friends, Dennis Pollock, to this week’s episode of Christ in Prophecy. Dennis served as Dr. David Reagan’s Assistant Evangelist for almost 12 years, from 1993 to 2005, at which time he formed his own ministry called Spirit of Grace.
Defining Apostasy and Heresy
Tim Moore: Dennis, I’d like to first define our terms. How would you define apostasy? And, how does apostasy differ from heresy as it affects the Church?
Dennis Pollock: I would say that apostasy and heresy are two close friends. Apostasy is more of a drifting away from standard orthodox biblical Christianity towards something that is much less than that, something which often becomes very dangerous. In my mind, heresy relates to a specific doctrine that you just totally misconstrue.
Tim Moore: I agree that apostasy too often is a drifting away. Whether due to an individual or an entire church, what once was biblically grounded and certain begins to drift to reeling on uncertainty. They no longer believe in the tenets of the Christian faith. Whereas heresy, that affects a specific doctrine, which either gets added to or adulterated in terminology. With heresy, people are adding ideas that are not scriptural.
We could call apostasy a movement in terms of the Church’s position on a biblical subject. For example, look at marriage. Too many Christians now are becoming very mushy on the issue of marriage. Many pastors are afraid to talk about sexual sin, whether they involve cohabitation or other sexual sins. There’s a clear drifting away from biblical principles. That’s where we are going today — the Church is drifting away from what God and His Son have revealed.
Nathan Jones: To add to these definitions, it appears that heresy seems to be focused more on a willingness or a desire to break away from Christian orthodoxy. Apostasy appears to be built on ignorance. It can be an accidental happening. You put your desires for what the Bible should say over what the Bible actually teaches. So, with the one you are purposefully trying to change the biblical doctrines of the Church, and with the other you change them through ignorance or your own personal desires. Either way, you are changing the direction of the Church away from its true biblical teaching.
Tim Moore: Too often apostasy arises because churches are ignoring a good portion of the Word of God. They preach on favorite passages or favorite stories, but they don’t preach the whole counsel of God.
Heresy #1: Denying Jesus
Tim Moore: Dennis, you received a letter from a fellow who made this outrageous comment: “The teachings of Jesus have nothing to do with modern Christianity.” He argued that Christians should pay attention only to the grace teachings of Paul. How did you respond?
Dennis Pollock: The first response in my heart was just shock. How could anybody who professed to be a Christian actually believe that Christianity has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus? And, I’ve heard so many comments made by other people that didn’t go quite so far in their claims, but they were essentially saying the same thing.
Such apostasy has become a huge issue for the Church in our day. We are not talking about a group of 12 people in some little country church that have gotten doctrinally off track. No! We are talking about millions of Christians who have decided that Jesus and Paul preached different Gospels. They claim that Paul was right, but Jesus was only right for His day and age and is no longer right for us today.
Basically what these heretics want you to do is go to the Gospels in the New Testament, go specifically to the cross, and then with everything to the left of the cross — that’d be all of Jesus’ teachings and His life story — just rip the pages out and don’t pay attention to them because they claim Jesus will mess you up. They purport that it’s okay to think about the cross and the resurrection but forget Christ’s teachings. They say we are now New Testament Christians, so we believe only in Paul.
I recorded a YouTube message on my channel titled, “Did Jesus and Paul Preach the Same Gospel?” You wouldn’t believe how many criticisms I received. I was blasted over and over by people telling me I was ignorant, I’m a fool, I’m this, I’m that. This is crazy! Some even made the outrageous claim that everybody knows Paul showed the real gospel and what Jesus said isn’t even relevant.
And so, I responded to these people by making a lot more videos about this issue. When I realized just how many people believe this way, I realized they needed correcting.
Heresy #2: Denying the Inspiration of the Bible
Tim Moore: Some people go to the other extreme. They focus solely on the Gospels, but they misinterpret them. For example, they will claim that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality, whereas Paul condemned it. Therefore, Paul must have been wrong, or he was just fixated on the subject due to his own backward day and age. They pick and choose what elements of Jesus’ teachings that they wish to adopt. They commit apostasy because they do not take the whole counsel of the Word of God.
Nathan Jones: That is indeed the flip side of the coin. I encounter this heretical claim quite a lot when answering the Bible questions that come into the ministry. I get these “Red Letter Christians” who are very proud that they only read the red letters of the Bible. Of course, the ancient manuscripts did not have the sayings of Jesus set apart by red ink, but modern translators have colored the words of Jesus in red for easy reference. They’ll say that only what Jesus said really matters, and the other 40-some authors such as Paul, well they’re heretics who taught a totally different gospel than Jesus did.
Dennis Pollock: That again is a huge moving away from what Christians have always believed, even what Paul believed and what Jesus believed. The entirety of the Scriptures is inspired by God. It’s not like what Jesus said, well that’s inspired, but then when you read what Paul said, that’s uninspired. In fact, Paul himself taught that all Scripture is inspired by God. And, Peter said this about the prophets, that they were holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So, when I am reading Paul, I’m getting the words straight from the heart of God. When I am reading Jesus, I’m getting teachings straight from the heart of God, same with Isaiah, same with the books of Moses — the whole thing!
Tim Moore: We also hear people say, “I’m a New Testament Christian.” If you bring up anything out of the Old Testament, these “Christians” will counter: “Well, that was the Old Testament. That was a previous covenant which really doesn’t apply to us today.” And so, they discount the entire Old Testament in favor of the New Testament. They don’t know that Jesus came to fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and that Peter preached sermon after sermon that pointed to fulfilled prophecy as proof of Jesus being the Messiah.
Nathan Jones: I had to look these figures up because I was curious about them. When Jesus said, “It is written,” He was making one of 26 exact quotations from the Pentateuch, with 24 direct quotations from the remaining Old Testament books, and 78 indirect quotations from the Old Testament. Jesus called the Old Testament the “Scriptures,” “the Word of God,” and “the Wisdom of God.” Of all the books Jesus quoted, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and the Psalms were the most quoted. Jesus clearly cared about the entire Bible, for after all, He is a member of the Trinity, and the Trinity inspired the entire Bible. So, the Old Testament, the New Testament, Paul, Revelation — it’s all the Word of God.
In the second part of this discussion about major apostasies, we’ll look at the claim that the God of the Old Testament was a different being than the God of the New Testament.
Outstanding! Full blown apostasy now but just as predicted in the Bible! Thank you all!
This article is straightforward and clear. Most appreciated.
The litmus test I use is (1) do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? (2) If not why not? (3) if so, how may I encourage you?
This approach saves lots of time because it is difficult for anyone to weasel out of this.
Important that I pay attention to my own yieldedness to our Lord in these interactions.
I was led to Les Feldick last year and I’m sure it was from The Holy Spirit! I’ve been watching him and he teaches the entire Bible as the complete revealing of Gods plan for us. From Genesis to Revelation it is all tied together perfectly, rightly dividing the Word of God. If more people would start with his Bible studies from the beginning it would be such a Blessing to The Body of Christ today. Jimmy Snow is good also
Shared this article on Facebook. It is so needed. I’ve often run across such false beliefs on facebook, and when I try to point people to the truth, I’m treated with hatred and disdain. I’ve been told that when I’m ready to hear the “truth” they will discuss it with me. There is only ONE truth…and that is God’s truth. I believe we are in the last days leading up to the Tribulation days. As prophesied in the Word of God, I find that less and less people are able to hear the truth. They’ve been deceived (by choice) and seem to prefer it that way. 2 Thessalonians – They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
A third heresy is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not One (homoousia — meaning one essence). I never heard that preached; yet it is in the Apostles’ Creed. It should be hammered home in our churches. Otherwise, if neglected, it is like a virus which can’t be known by the senses yet it can infect and kill us. The FACT that Christ is God, not merely God-like or from God should be hammered home. Blessings to you, Jeffrey
I agreed with everything you all said about apostasy. I first started seeing it creep into the church in 1967. I would like to add some things to amplify what you said. First, a group of satanists met in France in 1914 to plot how they could infiltrate the church and lead it into apostasy. The ideas they proposed were written down in a format called The Armageddon Script. Attacking Jesus and Bible inspiration were only two of their targets for deception. Satanists like to infiltrate Pentecostal and Charismatic churches by impersonating apostles, prophets and evangelists. Todd Bentley’s counterfeit revival meetings in Lakeland, FL over 10 years ago is a prime example. I knew by discernment he was a fraud, but a Christian police officer investigated him and has proof he is a satanist. Satanists like to infiltrate evangelical and fundamentalist churches by pretending to be counselors. They particularly like to promote inner healing by using occult techniques such as psychopictometry, aka visualization. The Bible school I attended (1968-72) was infiltrated by a witch, who wanted to be a student. Thus, the false doctrines you are concerned about were planned. Warren Smith wrote a book called Deceived On Purpose in which he compares the teachings of an antichrist named Maitreya with the heresies of Rick Warren and Robert Schuler. They all overemphasize God’s love, grace, and mercy because the antichrist will offer these in such a way that it will be okay for people to keep on sinning because his love, grace, and mercy will overlook it. When I was a missionary in New Zealand, a pastor told me that no church in Dunedin would allow me to speak in their pulpits unless I only spoke about God’s love, grace, and/or mercy. They don’t want to hear about holiness, judgment, repentance, etc. According to Warren Smith’s book, the spirit of antichrist is behind this trend in the church. When I was in Bible school, one of my teachers was Dr. Gustave Hoyer. We worked with Dr. Ivan Panin during the last 10 years of his life on the numeric structure of the Bible. They were able to prove that the O.T. and N.T. in the Protestant Bible was inspired by God because every paragraph had a sum that could be evenly divided by 7. They also proved the apocryphal books in both testaments were not inspired because they lack this pattern. They also proved the Received Text is in the only N.T. manuscript with this pattern. The Majority and Alexandrian Texts lack this pattern due to all of the alterations and deletions. The Alexandrian Text was written by Origen to justify merging the church with the state. He changed everything he thought necessary to agree with the heresies proposed by Augustine to justify merging the church with the state under Constantine. Eusebius wrote the Majority Text for the same purpose. There are only 3 English versions of the Bible based upon the Received Text – KJV, NKJV and the Peshita. However, the Peshita was first translated into Aramaic by the Apostle Thomas and then to English. Since communism has its roots in satanism, it isn’t a coincidence that some communists were involved with one of the first modern translations called the RSV. Satanists gave us two translations – The Message and the New Century Version. I could say much more, but I need to keep this as brief as possible. Blessings to you all.
There is no conflict between Jesus and Paul! Jesus ministered to the Jews the Gospel of the Kingdom under the law and told his disciples to go only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-7).
The Jews rejected and crucified Jesus and were temporarily set aside while Jesus saved Paul and appointed him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Jesus
Revealed the “Mystery”(Ephesians 3:9), the Gospel of the Grace of God to Paul. Paul’s gospel is 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 16:25!
I agree with you. If the writer of the article disagrees with you, then I have to disagree with him. Not sure who he is talking about or what they have said – but what you stated is exactly how I understand it.
I am curious about the Seventh Day Adventist movement. I have a family member who is out to save the world to become Adventists.
To have an understanding of their beliefs I have listened to some their videos and read books, and their missions statement. I do not find Ellen G. White as a prophet as they believe she is on equal footing w the apostle Paul and I find this very disconcerting. Can someone shed some light on this for me?
What we know about the Seventh Day Adventists is posted in two articles at http://christinprophecy.org/articles/#Cults. The website http://www.watchman.org/ is James Walker’s site on cults. He was a Mormon before becoming saved and may have some further information for you.
I believe he may be referring to Les Feldick’s Ministries and may not have understood clearly what was taught.
Les has shown how Jesus and Peter spoke to the circumcised differently than Paul, who spoke to the uncircumcised. Paul referred to “my gospel” after the resurrection.
I was never drawn to Les so I never watched until about two years ago. Since then, I have gained much respect for him. He is a layman, a cattle rancher, so it is like sitting in front of your Sunday School teacher.
Mid-January I starting listening to his studies via the internet and they have been a focus of mine. As of this morning, I have done 436 half-hour studies. I am in Book 37. Since I am a reader, I have bought all 82 books. I prefer listening, but these give me the cross references.
I have always been told know the setting. Know who He is talking to and why it is being said. All scripture is for us but not all scripture is to us. Understanding Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, this makes sense that he is the only one who spoke about the rapture. Since the Tribulation was prophesied to complete the 70 weeks for the Jews and the O.T. contained those warnings, it makes sense that Jesus explained to them more fully in the gospels what to expect. The gospels were reaching out to the Jews who were to be priests and were to draw all men to Him.
We had a wonderful pastor who said to never put any man on a pedestal, including him. We are all at the foot of the cross and all are growing day by day. The LORD doesn’t reveal only to pastors and don’t be afraid of addressing him with something you may think the LORD has given you understanding on. With that in mind….
Paul R. Van Gorder wrote “Which Gospel When” back in 1979. At the time it didn’t mean anything to me because I didn’t know my Bible as I do today. He may have written it when he was with Our Daily Bread. Today, I understand what he meant. You can find a printout on the Internet, Paul’s Grace Message, Saturday, January 23, 2010.
Since the crucifixion, the gospel is given to Jew and Gentile alike as told in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The good news or gospel is that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he died and was buried and rose again. That was not the message in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that we name as the gospels. In those books He came primarily to His own under the covenant promises, with a couple of exceptions, to prove He was the promised Messiah fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures. Repeatedly, Jesus commanded: Matthew 10:5 “…” Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
If they would have believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the scriptures and He was Messiah as Peter acknowledged, the earthly kingdom would have started immediately. Their King had arrived. That was the good news to the Jews; however, they did not receive it. As we know from studying Revelation, they will not recognize Him until after the Trib. That is when the covenant promise of the kingdom will come about and they will get their 1000-year kingdom reign on earth. You and I are a part of the heavenly kingdom that is future.
In Mark 9:32 he taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.” But they did not understand this saying and were afraid to ask Him.
Nothing about dying for sins.
Les is not saying to ignore the other writers but understand who, why, when and where. Peter and Jesus spoke to the circumcised; Paul spoke to the uncircumcised, the Gentiles of which I belong
God continued to reach out to the Jew in the first part of Acts. The turning point came when Paul was converted and sent by God to preach to the Gentiles. The Church was a mystery.