Lesson for October 8, 2025
Biblical Apostasy, Biblical Heresy, and the Spirit of Antichrist
Biblical apostasy is defined as a believer or unbeliever who deliberately rejects or distorts the revealed truth of the Word of God. Biblical heresy is defined as a believer or an unbeliever who rejects or distorts the truth of the Word of God as a result of being deceived by Satan or his ministers. Antichrist is defined as anyone who assumes the identity of Christ or opposes Christ. The spirit of antichrist is, therefore, anyone who lines up in opposition to Christ. (Galatians 1:6-9; II Peter 2:1-22; Jude 1-25; I Timothy 4:1-16; II Timothy 2:24-26; 3:1-7; 4:1-4; I John 2:18-22; II Thessalonians 2:1-12; Acts 19:1-7)
The first test of biblical apostasy, biblical heresy or the spirit of antichrist is the clarity of the Gospel message. Those who distort the Gospel can be, even without knowing it, apostate, heretical and antichrist. In Galatians 1, Paul described what the fate should be of those that preach a false gospel message. He said that they should be accursed, which meant to be destroyed. The message is already accursed. We are told in God’s Word to test the “spirits” (intents) of people. (I John 4:1) The best test is what do they say about salvation and eternal life. (Galatians 1:6-9)
The Gospel is not: “turn from sin,” “do penance to atone for your sins,” “make Jesus your Lord,” “invite Christ into your heart or life,” “commit your life to Christ,” “give your heart or life to Christ,” or “repent of your sins,” “be water baptized,” “join a church,” or any other form of human works. Those that preach this are apostates and enemies of the Cross of Christ, and it would be better for them to be accursed or destroyed. It is a serious matter to God to distort the truth of the Gospel. It would be better for a believer that distorts the Gospel to be destroyed and be taken to Heaven now, rather than to stand before Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ and explain why they distorted His Gospel. (Philippians 3:17-19; Romans 14:10)
The Gospel message is faith alone in Christ alone. Faith is non-meritorious; all the merit is in the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. When a person realizes that they cannot work their way to Heaven by good deeds and they change their minds (the true meaning of repentance) about Christ and by faith accept His substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross as the payment for their sin, God gives that person the gift of eternal life (salvation). (John 3:16,17,18,36; 6:47; II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:8; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; I John 5:13)
The second test of biblical apostasy, biblical heresy, or the spirit of antichrist is the doctrinal accuracy of the message. This is where it takes a greater amount of doctrine in the soul to discern the false from the true. Only through spiritual growth can a believer avoid being deceived by these false teachers.
There are some obvious signs that a preacher or teacher is presenting false doctrine. For example, the motive of most false teachers is fortune, fame, and power. There are some ministers, however, that appear to be sincere and appear to have correct motives but have allowed themselves to be deceived. Both are still teaching false doctrine, and both are enemies of the Cross of Christ. (II Timothy 2:25-26; II Timothy 3:1-7)
We must keep in mind that Satan and his ministers of darkness present themselves as ministers of righteousness and angels of light but are instead wolves in sheep’s clothing. One of Satan’s greatest counterfeits to the truth is emotion. Though a wonderful gift from God, the misuse of emotion leads to all kinds of false teachings. The most obvious one is displayed by the Charismatics or Pentecostals. They fake the true ministries of the Holy Spirit with emotional experience. The ministries of God the Holy Spirit are not seen or felt, they are simply facts stated in God’s Word for us to believe. (II Corinthians 11:13-15; Romans 16:18)
Even though these false teachers often use Biblical phrases, passages, and Christian-sounding words, they distort the truth by taking passages out of context, ignoring dispensational truth, or in some cases changing the meaning of God’s Word to fit their particular ideas. In some instances, they accidentally present truth. Satan is the great counterfeiter. Therefore, what his ministers teach is mixed with a small amount of truth in order to look like the real thing. Beware… you must always evaluate the message in light of the truth of God’s Word. (II Peter 2:1-22)
A primary distortion that we see today is the misapplication of spiritual gifts. Not all spiritual gifts were permanent, many were temporary. When the temporary gifts are being taught as relative for today, that is false teaching. The reasons that God gave certain people in the first century these temporary gifts was for evangelism of Jews from many nations, to confirm their divine authority for the formation of the early church, to detect heresy in the early church, to confirm the truth of the Gospel, and to teach doctrine not yet a part of the Canon of Scripture.
Remember, they did not have the completed Canon of Scripture, as we do today. God’s Word is very clear, and it should be obvious to the advancing believer that those who attempt to use these temporary gifts, have rejected truth.
If a person has the will or the desire to know doctrinal truth, God will provide it. Therefore, if a person does not have doctrinal truth, it stands to reason that they do not want it. (I Corinthians 2:9-12, 13:8-10; Mark 16:20; Jeremiah 29:13; John 7:17, 14:26, 16:13; Acts 17:27; Romans 1:18-25; II Peter 3:9)
Temporary gifts include:
- Speaking in tongues – the ability to speak a known language not previously learned.
- Interpretation of tongues – the ability to translate these known languages.
- Healing – the ability to heal at will, regardless of the other person’s faith or lack of faith.
- Miracles – the ability to perform miracles at will.
- Faith – companion to healing and miracles involving the faith of the person with the gift, not the one receiving the healing or miracle.
- Discerning of spirits – the ability to detect heresy in the church
- Knowledge – knowing Bible knowledge not yet in the Canon of Scripture
- Apostleship – men with divine authority over several churches
- Prophecy – foretelling or forthtelling events or doctrines not yet recorded in the Canon of Scripture
“Practice” of any of these temporary gifts or assigning to oneself the title of apostle or prophet (or prophetess) should raise a “red flag” for the advancing believer that these people are apostates or heretics.
The third test of biblical apostasy, biblical heresy, or the spirit of antichrist involves the motive of the preacher or teacher. This, of course, is very difficult to determine since we do not have the ability to read a person’s mind. We can, however, compare the fruits of their labor with the truth that we find in God’s Word. “By their fruit you shall know them”. Fruit is equal to production. There are two kinds of production, human good and divine good. You must know the difference.
Quite often what is proclaimed to be divine good is in fact human good. We know from Scripture that all human good is wood, hay and straw and will be burned up at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It has to do with the person’s spiritual status and motive. Good done by a believer under the control of God the Holy Spirit is divine good and is rewardable in eternity. Good done by a believer that is being controlled by the sin nature (with its accompanying wrong mental attitude) is human good and not rewardable. Therefore, in the Christian way of life, attitude is everything. Wrong attitude equals wrong motive. Right attitude equals right motive. (I John 2:18-22; I Corinthians 3:11-15)
We will be able to discern this wrong motive from the false teacher only if we have developed our spiritual I.Q. through the study and application of Bible doctrine. When the motive for doing “God’s work” is to gain favor, wealth, notoriety, or power, it is wrong. Even when the motive is pure, God’s work must be done God’s way, or it is still wrong. In the Christian life, the ends do not justify the means. We are told to separate ourselves from these false teachers. This means we should not acknowledge them, fellowship with them, be on television with them, send them money, participate in their programs, attend their churches, attend their meetings or conferences, or in any way condone what they are doing or saying. (II Corinthians 6:11-18; II John 9-11)
You may recall a story about a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. One sinned deliberately and the other one was deceived by Satan. Apostasy and heresy were introduced into the world. Adam deliberately disobeyed God and chose Eve over God. Eve was deceived into sin by distorting and adding to God’s Word by the influence of Satan. The result was the same for both of them, spiritual death (separation from God). Fortunately, they both chose the salvation solution provided by the same One Who had walked with them in the Garden and taught them the Word of God daily, our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-13)
There have always been false teachers around. However, the Bible tells us that as human history continues and we draw closer to the Rapture of the Church (calling out of all believers to meet Christ in the air), false teaching will increase. We are seeing a lot of what the Bible predicts, as we get closer to the Rapture. It is, therefore, our responsibility as Christians to be aware of these false teachers, identify them, and have nothing to do with them.