As Octavius Winslow wrote, the apostate will for all eternity cry out, “God is holy; I was a sinner; I rejected His salvation, I turned my back upon His gospel, I despised His Son, I hated God Himself, I lived in my sins, I loved my sins, I died in my sins, and now I am lost to all eternity! And God is righteous in my condemnation!”

Anyone who has been in local church ministry for any amount of time is well-acquainted with disappointment. Things like criticism, gossip, and less-than-ideal fruit are normal. And, in some sense, you get used to that.

But there is one thing that seems to never get easier: when an individual who has professed Christ, immersed in the local church, and served in ministries, departs from the faith. AKA, “apostasy.” John Owen defined apostasy as “continued persistent rebellion and disobedience to God and his word,” or “total and final and public renunciation of all the chief principles and doctrines of Christianity.”

As our leadership team has had to grapple with this recently, we wanted to share a few things we’ve learned from the tragedy of apostasy:

1. We’ve learned to weep over apostates.

The wound is deep and multi-directional. There is the weeping over the shock of it all. There is weeping over the callousness apostates show to the ministry they’ve received. Often, they will shun your care and past ministry to them with a cutting indifference. They do not know your pain as you pour out your heart for them in secret prayer. Often, those in apostasy will not believe you when you tell them that you love them. Nor do they care.

Even more, there is weeping over the disloyalty to Jesus Christ. Weeping over the betrayal of the body of Christ, the betrayal of other loved ones involved, their hard-heartedness, their blown witness, the unbelievers they will lead further astray, and over the believers they lead astray. And weeping over the eternal punishment they will face if they do not repent.

If you weep over apostates, it’s a good thing. By God’s grace, you still care and have fought the constant creep of callousness.

2. We’ve learned that apostasy is pretty normal.

I was recently reminded that apostasy is as old as the universe. Satan, who was likely among the angelic choir which applauded God for his work in creation (Job 38:7), only later used his words for the destruction thereof (Gen. 3:1).

Then there is the Old Testament, which is largely the history of God’s grace and judgment on an apostate nation.

Incredibly, after three years spent with the Lord of glory, one out of Christ’s twelve apostacized. And outside of the twelve, departure was a regular thing: “And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:65-66).

The “many” in v. 66 always gets me. Not few, but many, pulled a nonchalant, about-face on His Majesty. Incredible. But also normal.

Of course, in the parable of the tares and the wheat, Christ lets it be known that there will always be wheat-looking tares in the church.

The Apostles also experienced it. Demas appeared to start well, being named in the ranks of Paul’s “fellow-workers” (Col. 4:14, Philem. 23), only to be choked out later by the cares of the world (2 Tim 4:10).

If that happened to Christ and the Apostles, what should the people of God today expect? “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1).

3. We’ve been reminded that God’s people have a vicious enemy.

The longer we are in local church ministry, the more we believe in Satan and demons. Attacks on sound local churches happen that are far beyond neutral coincidence. It’s hard to miss the systematic and unrelenting damage they attempt to do. And they seem to never clock out.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

But, on the other hand, be encouraged if you encounter Satan’s attack. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, his bout with Apollyon meant he was going in the right direction.

4. We’ve been reminded that, because apostasy is common, leadership needs to say hard things.

As I look back on a recent apostasy situation, I regret not saying some harder things to people. Would it have prevented the apostasy? It would have been faithful, though uncomfortable, to do so. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6).

5. We’ve been reminded that every Christian is called to help prevent each other’s apostasy.

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:12-14).

According to this passage, mutual exhortation is one of God’s means of preventing apostasy. And the writer of Hebrews was not talking to elite Christians, but every Christian. The address is to “brothers.” One of the responsibilities in getting to be a Christian is keeping each other away from the apostasy abyss.

6. We’ve been reminded that fighting for sanctification is essential to finishing in glorification.

By the grace of God alone, a sinner passes from condemnation to salvation, through sanctification, into glorification. And God has ordained that sanctification not happen by effortless drift. His grace empowers that fight-stage of our salvation.

Even the life of the Apostle Paul was filled with fight language. His approach to the Christian life included things like, “I run” (1 Cor. 9:26), “I buffet my body” (1 Cor. 9:27), and, “I press on” (Phil. 3:14). The only time where he seems to let up was when his execution was imminent (2 Tim. 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith”).

He knew that none of us are beyond apostasy. And he knew that God’s ordained means of persevering in the faith is fighting the fight of faith.

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