Apostate Teachers
Jude 1-25
This is an adaptation of a sermon I recently gave at Agape Moldovan Baptist Church on the entirety of the book of Jude titled “Contending for the Faith.” I will reference parts of Jude throughout the article, so I recommend you read this alongside your Bible.
Jude’s purpose for writing is to remind the Church of the importance of contending, or fighting, for the faith. Often times when we think of the topic of contending for the faith, we think about how the world responds to the gospel message. We conjure up images of street evangelism, apologetics, and debates. We may imagine people receiving or rejecting the gospel. We may even think of our worldview and how it is contrary (or at least it should be) to the modern worldview. While it is certainly true that being a Bible-believing Christian is becoming increasingly more difficult, this is not the occasion for Jude’s writing to the Church. Instead, he writes to address the topic of apostate teachers and their infiltration into the Church with unbiblical and/or outright heretical teachings.
Apostasy Defined
A good working definition of apostasy is simply to say that it is the rejection of a formerly held belief. In terms of doctrine and theology, an apostate would be a person who either (a) once believed the Bible’s teaching on a specific topic but has since changed their position in favor of one that is no longer biblical or (b) they professed to believe, but never actually did. While an unbeliever may attempt to sway someone away from the faith, they are not an apostate because they never believed the gospel in the first place. An apostate teacher, however, is someone who teaches a doctrine that is contrary to the Scriptures while simultaneously professing to be a disciple of Christ. In many cases what they teach is not only biblically erroneous but also blasphemous. They are quite literally wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Enemies Within
As Jude writes, the Church had enemies outside of their ranks in the form of Rome. Nero was the emperor, and he was an absolute lunatic who was one of the most brutal persecutors of the Church. Most famously, he placed the blame for the burning of Rome on the Church. It was during his reign that the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred, likely as a result of the persecution of Nero after the burning of Rome. So of course, there will always be the world to contend with because the Christian who stands upon the word over and against the culture will face persecution as a result. As I watch our world become increasingly wicked, I am reminded that I will always know where the world stands in regard to the gospel of Christ. There’s no ambiguity there. I will never doubt that the world and all of its systems and ideologies stand in direct defiance of the gospel and hate everything about it.
However, there weren’t just enemies outside the Church, there were enemies inside the Church. This is the topic that Jude has chosen to address with them. I would argue that the greater concern is not so much the world around the Church, but the infiltration of the world within the Church in the form of apostate doctrines and teachers. It grieves me to say it, but this is a serious problem in the modern Church. Whether it is the prosperity gospel, progressive Christianity, universalism, deconstructionism, or something else entirely, the rejection of clear biblical doctrine is a major Church crisis that needs to be addressed. This is not a new problem, either. As long as the gospel has existed, there have been those who would pervert it and actively teach contrary to it all while presenting themselves as members of the flock of God. We are constantly warned in Scripture about such men and the eternal danger that they present.
Characteristics of Apostate Teachers
The most important thing to remember about apostasy is that it will often contain a small element of truth, but it is always truth twisted. It is often taught by charismatic and even seemingly nice guys who know how to speak the Church language (yes, Christianese is a thing). These men are cunning and according to Jude, have crept in unnoticed. I would liken it to dealing with a spy. Spies learn the language; they learn the culture of the nations they infiltrate so they can creep in and do their destructive work from the inside. Apostates work the same way. They know the Church language, they know Church culture, and they know what to say and how to act. For this reason, we need to be able to spot them so we can call them out by name and expose their unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11).
So, how do we do this? Let’s first address how to spot them. Listen to how Jude describes them in verses 12-13, “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Each of these images is a means through which we can identify an apostate teacher, so let’s examine each of them.
Hidden Reefs
If you do any kind of boating this makes total sense to you. If you see something sticking out of the water, you’ll know to steer your boat away from it. No one wants to intentionally damage their vessel and become a shipwreck. It’s not the rocks you can see that are the biggest problem, it’s the ones you can’t. According to Jude, these guys aren’t like the reefs and rocks you can see. They lurk just under the surface, making a shipwreck of their faith and the faith of those who follow them. Remember, what makes apostasy so dangerous is that it will often contain a small element of truth, but it is always truth twisted.
An example of this would be an intense focus on one aspect of God’s character to the exclusion of others. Those who focus on the love of God to the exclusion of His justice, wrath, and holiness will often affirm and celebrate what Scripture condemns in the name of love. In some instances, it leads to outright universalism, where everyone goes to heaven whether they believe in Christ or not because after all, God is love. From a biblical perspective, this is a complete perversion of God’s love, but it is based on the truth that God is love. Truth out of context and twisted. It is the hidden reef that is the foundation of apostasy.
Shepherds Feeding Themselves
A true shepherd cares for the flock while apostates only care about themselves and their glory. They consider themselves to be the smartest ones in the room who don’t like to be questioned, and they will avoid people who know their Bibles in favor of those who don’t. You’ll find over time that what they teach ends up benefiting them more than anyone else. They will play on people’s emotions and use past hurts or doubts against them. You’ll hear things like, “Everyone can come in.” “Have you been hurt in the past?” “No one will hurt you here, we love everyone.” “If you just have more faith and sow a financial seed, (Insert what you are praying for here) will happen.” This is how an apostate reels people in so they can exploit them and take advantage of them for their own gain. At the end of the day, an apostate doesn’t feed the sheep with truth; he will starve the sheep with half-truths and lies while they benefit.
Waterless Clouds Swept Along by the Wind
Their teaching has no substance. You’ll hear apostates ask a lot of questions, but they don’t answer any of them. Maybe you’ve heard things like, “What does this mean to you?” “What is your experience?” “How does this make you feel?” “Does the Bible really say that, or have we misunderstood it?” Rob Bell (an apostate) was known to do this. He would always ask these seemingly provocative questions but would never answer them. It left the answer in your hands as the listener and, in essence, you could come up with anything you wanted as an answer and that was fine as long as it was true for you. That’s relative truth, which is apostasy.
This is all nothing more than an attempt to cater to the culture by stripping the Bible of its authority and supplanting it with human emotions that, like clouds, change with the direction of the wind. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that the heart is deceptive and desperately sick. We cannot trust how we feel because feelings are subjective and can never determine truth. If what we teach and believe is based on how we feel and not based on the Bible it doesn’t have any substance. If we ask questions and offer no answers, there is no substance. Like a cloud you can swipe your hand through, it’s empty.
Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone, is tragically becoming an increasingly rare value in the Church. But we would do well to remember that when we cease to be governed by the Scripture we cease to be disciples of Christ. So, it may sound good, it may sound provocative, but there is no substance or foundation to it because it is not biblical.
Fruitless Trees in Late Autumn
The apostate teaching has the appearance of truth but has no evidence of it. One of our favorite family activities is going to Pine Hill Orchard up in Colrain. We like to get apples and my wife will make apple butter and apple pie and apple this and that. I know an apple tree when I see one because it bears fruit. I can eat an apple right off the tree and it will taste good. But if that apple tree doesn’t have apples on it, I couldn’t tell it apart from another tree of similar size. They both look the same. In similar fashion, an apostate will give the appearance of godliness but will have no discernable fruit of it in their own lives, thus denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5).
Wild Waves
Apostates are destructive. Water is known to be the most formidable force on the earth. A tsunami will utterly destroy anything in its path. The waves on the ocean in a storm will sink a ship. So, it is with an apostate. Their teaching is eternally devastating to those who receive it. According to Jude 5, apostate teachers and those who follow them are assured destruction just as much as those in Christ are assured salvation.
Wandering Stars
Before GPS, stars were used by maritime navigators to get them to their destination. But they had to know how the stars would be positioned in certain seasons or they would follow them incorrectly and be lost. A lot of ships lost at sea are never seen again. Apostate teaching is like poor navigation, it leads you nowhere and will only get you lost. The deeper down the hole of apostasy a person goes, the harder it is to turn away from it.
Be Watchful
For these reasons, we must be watchful, and warn others to be watchful. We have been warned that such teachers exist, so we cannot claim ignorance. Our only means of defense against such wolves is to know the word of God. The importance of Bible study cannot be overemphasized here. While it may seem cliché for me to tell you to read your Bible and pray for God to enlighten your understanding of it, apart from knowing God and His word, you will never be able to discern truth from lie, especially when that lie is a perversion of truth. We are promised that we will be kept in Christ (Jude 1), but we are mistaken if we think that we will not have to be watchful and contend for the faith. Just as the Jews in Nehemiah’s day rebuilt the wall with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, so too are we to labor to build the kingdom while simultaneously keeping vigilant watch over ourselves and our fellow Christians.
Pray for Repentance
Because Christ lives, there is always hope that people will repent. Paul told Timothy that, “The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26). This was written by a man who relentlessly hunted down God’s people only to become one of them and die for the sake of Christ; but not until after he was confronted with his sin. We must be willing to confront apostates, call them out by name as a means of warning, enact loving and gracious church discipline, and pray for their repentance. The goal of confronting an apostate is twofold, to protect God’s people and to lead the apostate to the truth in order that they may be restored.
Summary
Apostate teachers are the enemy within the Church, the wolves among the sheep. My prayer is that by knowing how to spot them you will be able to mark them, avoid their teaching, and confront them in the hopes that they will repent and recant. As an act of grace, God has not left us in the dark as to the characteristics of these teachers and how to deal with them, but make no mistake, we must be on our guard, we must be courageous, and we must remain in Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria
