Who is responsible for the apostasy in the church?

I have often shared my thoughts on 2 Timothy 4 on my website. Paul writes to Timothy that there will come a time when people in the church will not accept sound doctrine. These are the people, under the guise of believers, that Jesus speaks of in John 15:6, those who do not abide in Him. These are the same people Paul says will fall away from the faith (the apostasy, 2 Thessalonians 2:3). These are the people Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Let us look at them in more detail. Read the following verse carefully:

³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, ⁴and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will be turned aside to fables. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Who are “they”? We need to understand how language works. In any language, when something or someone is named and identified, we will not continue to use the names when referring to them, but rather pronouns such as he, she, and they. To know who the “they” are that Paul is writing about here, we must go back in the text and look for a proper noun or an identified noun that the “they” could refer to. We find it in 2 Timothy 3:13 – wicked men and impostors, deceiving, and being deceived. They are identified here and later described as “they,” just as I also began this sentence with “they.” They sit in our congregations.

Now that we know who we are talking about, let us look at what they do.

1. They deceive others with their lies – the fables they believe (2 Timothy 3:13b). Fables are stories or retellings, usually just myths without factual evidence.
2. They are deceived in turn – they are ensnared by their own fables (2 Timothy 3:13b). They tell so many lies that they believe them themselves.
3. They do not tolerate sound doctrine – sound doctrine addresses their sin and they do not want to hear it (2 Timothy 4:3). In many churches, sound doctrine is questioned and dismissed as not relevant to our time. Then it is ignored.
4. They appoint for themselves teachers according to their own desires – teachers who preach what the congregation wants to hear, not what they need to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). Teachers are appointed based on their connections, not their ability to rightly divide the Word (2 Timothy 2:15).
5. They turn to fables – they fall away from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1 calls these fables “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons”; 2 Timothy 4:4). Poor translations, paraphrases, and other sources are doctrines of demons.
6. They turn away from the truth – they do not want to hear the truth but give in to seducing spirits (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3). The seducing spirits tickle their ears.

The problem in most of our churches is therefore that it is not necessarily the teacher(s) who primarily err by not preaching the Word purely, but because they (and their salaries) are under pressure if they do not preach what the congregation wants to hear. What is “sound doctrine”? It is the pure Word, and not ideas (fables) about the Word. I sit in the service every week and hear stories (fables) being told about the Word, but the focus is never really on the Word. Often there is not even a core text given that should be the anchor for the sermon. Sometimes it is really just a motivational speech delivered that aims to make people feel good. If you do not preach what they want to hear, they get annoyed, leave the congregation, and the pastor loses his salary due to falling income.

However, the above does not absolve the pastor from his responsibility. You who minister the Word have the task of preaching the full and true Word, not just the parts that fall well on the ear. I was a visitor at a mega-church. I did not consider myself a “partner”. The only “partners” are those with a lot of money who bribe the pastors. If you cannot contribute generously, your opinion does not count. Some of the rules that apply in this mega-church are the following:

1. “We don’t preach from Revelation because people will not understand it.” This came from the mouth of one of the pastors. I was shocked. Maybe it is because you as a pastor do not understand Revelation and do not have the ability to convey it effectively. There is also no hunger among listeners to study the Word. They think they can thrive on the lollipop (fables) that is served as word every week, without ever opening a Bible. My suggestion to him was that we should then just tear out Revelation and throw it away. Revelation is part of Eschatology, the study of the future of man and God’s complete revelation of Himself to man, specifically the coming and reign of Jesus Christ. Revelation is a book of hope, something that many people today lack, and many people no longer have.
2. “The rapture doesn’t exist.” Really? Just because you do not believe in the dogma of the rapture, does not mean it is not true. My friend, when the rapture occurs and you are left in the hell of what the tribulation will be, you will wish you had paid a little more attention to this dogma. Ministers do not preach it because they do not want to scare people. Let us then tear out of our Bibles Matthew’s gospel (at least chapters 24 and 25); John’s gospel (John 14:1-6); 1 and 2 Thessalonians; and all the other parts, books, and letters that speak of the Coming and Second Coming. It makes our Bibles much lighter to carry. This is now for those who still bother to bring a Bible to the service.

You see, what we have here is exactly what Paul said would happen. People do not want to hear sound doctrine, because it requires confession of their sins and repentance, as we experienced in the early church and as it is recorded in Acts 2:38 and 3:19. People no longer want to hear that they must change. They just want to hear that they are actually good, contrary to Romans 3:10-11 which states that no one is righteous or does good. For this reason, they ensure that teachers are appointed who do what the “church” says. These days there are other words for “church”. The church is now a “campus”, and there are no more elders and deacons, because that does not suit people’s style. They are not looking for someone who gives spiritual guidance. These people turn to fables, and this is what Paul actually concludes the main idea of his second letter to Timothy with. Fables are directly opposite to the Word and inspired by the devil. Fables make you feel good, but they deceive you (John 10:10a). The Word leads you to conversion and repentance, and to the truth (John 10:10b; 14:6).

Conclusion

It is easy to try to shift the blame. At the end of the day, however, it is you who must accept responsibility for your own spiritual growth. The pastor will be held responsible for not preaching the Word purely, but he will not stand by you and accept accountability for your spiritual decline. As a good friend of mine mentioned, the devil is wreaking havoc in our churches because too many people have too much money and manipulate others with it (2 Timothy 4:3), and too little knowledge about the Word and God’s will for our lives.

Read Paul’s two moving letters to his successor, Timothy, in more detail. See the heart of a spiritual father training his young disciple to follow in his footsteps and warn him about what would begin to happen in the church in his own time. Notice the heart of the Father who cares for you and does not want to see you be part of the apostasy, the ungodly people of 2 Timothy 3:13, but rather be the person who wants to live godly in Jesus Christ, and will be persecuted for their faith, in verse 12. Persecution will follow you, and this is the proof that you truly belong to Jesus Christ.

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