Apostate traitors and Spies 2

This article on Apostate traitors is continued from Apostate spies and traitors 1

(3) Use and abuse of doctrine.

One of the things about this experience is that I immediately identified this couple as having some serious doctrinal problems. I went the extra mile in both talking with them, and checking their doctrine. When Mary went out witnessing, I paired up with her for the first few dozen times, and she did explain the gospel as I understood it. She was very eager to argue though.

I insist on a theorem or axiom in my thinking…

Good doctrine causes correct conduct, and visa versa, i.e. bad doctrine causes incorrect conduct.

The outworking of this axiom is that when a person’s conduct is incorrect and unbiblical, then their doctrinal understanding is also corrupt. Therefore building on that axiom, when a member cannot get along with another member, and this is repeated no matter how many different pairing you make, and even so wrong as to not get along with the church, that person’s basic understanding is just wrong. This leads one to even question their salvation.

Technical Note: An apostate is somebody who knows the gospel and doctrine of Christ, and even knowing it, turns from it to some other doctrine and gospel. In this case, I told Mary this, and said that I have heard her give the gospel to others, and now she was returning to the JWs, she was denying the deity of Jesus. She went bonkers on that, and said first that she was still believing that Jesus is the Savior, and that she is saved, and that I was trying to pressure her. When I insisted that she was an apostate, and that she could not attend and support a JWs kingdom hall if she was truly saved, she got up crying and left (but nonetheless they went back to the JWs).




Meditating on this experience formed another axiom.

Salvation makes a person reasonable, and being reasonable, they be open to exhortation, rebuke, and correction.

I have had a lot of experience in the last few years with people who are hard to get along with. In every case, I have come to ultimately question their salvation. The fact that they don’t agree with me is a minor one. The issue is that they refuse to be reasonable. If I give in to them in order to accomodate them into our fellowship, and even so, they still cannot get along, then something is wrong. We have had people who simply cannot be in the same “space” (auditorium) as some other Christian. What this reveals to me is an unreasonableness that implies an unconverted heart.

If we are saved by grace, we will not be rough to our fellow Christians. In Mat 18:22.35 Christ gave the parable of the unforgiving servant. If Christ forgave us our sins, then there is no offence that we should not forgive in our brethren. Stubbornness on this point indicates an unconverted heart.

The unconverted have a weird inability to understand and practice this. If pressured excessively, they will give in on a single count and return to being unforgiving as a general rule of life.

Why are these people “apostate traitors”?

The issue is hard to see for some people, but we have a life-bond in Christ. This life bond is that God is love, and therefore anybody that is saved, partakes of that love life-bond, and actually lives in it. Although we are to love Christ (God), we are to practice “love” in loving our brethren in Christ. Anything that would “unplug” that love activity for the brethren is a betrayal of God in us.

They betray Christ and us because they abandon and refuse to submit to the moral pattern of Christ. Doing this, they become enemies of the cross.

More Posts on Error-Abuse Issues

Pastor David Cox is a missionary. See my ministry updates here.