The Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy speaks of the last days.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. [2 Timothy 3:1-5. KJV]
Before we discuss the growing apostasy of the church, we must place it in context with the end times. The last days spoken of by Paul include the entire Christian era that began with Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and the establishment of the Church. But at the end of the those last days (the church age) things will become ever-increasingly worse in the world including a rapid disintegration of moral standards and a great increase in false believers and churches within God’s kingdom.[1]
In the last days great numbers of the professing church will depart from biblical truth in both word and deed. This departure is called apostasy and means to “fall away” or abandonment and rebellion. Within the church, the apostasy will take two forms. The first is theological apostasy in which false leaders will depart from and reject part or all of the New Testament teachings of Christ and the apostles. Under these false leaders and teachers, a false salvation and cheap grace will replace salvation through Christ’s atoning sacrifice at Calvary, repentance, turning from sin, and adherence to God’s standards of living. The false leaders and teachers will offer a gospel centered on the self and its needs and desires. The second type is moral apostasy in which one severs his relationship with Christ and embraces sin and immorality. Although proclaiming right doctrine and New Testament Christianity’s teachings, they will abandon the moral standards as taught by the New Testament in exchange for money, success, honor, and a large following.[2]
When this general apostasy (often called the Great Apostasy) will occur is described by Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…[2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. KJV]
In his first letter, Paul had assured the Thessalonians that the true follower of Christ would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be delivered from the coming wrath of God that was to fall upon the earth. Christians call this the rapture which also signals the beginning of the seven years of tribulation in which God’s wrath will be poured out upon the world. Paul’s continued assurances in the second letter were necessary because certain false teachers claimed that God had already begun to pour out His final wrath on the earth. Paul explained that before God’s final wrath would be loosed, two things must occur: there must be a specific falling away and the “man of sin” will be revealed. These two events signal that day when God’s wrath will be loosed. But we must remember that there is a sequence of events leading up to this time. During the entire church age, iniquity has been at work, but as the last days of the age draw to a close, evil becomes progressively worse. As the flood tide of evil swells as the end of the age nears, apostasy within the church will grow to startling proportions. Following the rapture of the true church, the Holy Spirit will no longer restrain the man of lawlessness (the Antichrist) who will then be revealed. Following the rapture of the true church, the remaining apostate church enters into a total rebellion against God and His Word.[3]
Evidence of a generalized apostasy within the church
Between 1870 and 1930 there was a great surge of apostasy within the church. Most of it was centered on the liberal church that eventually dominated the American church. Fundamentalists of the era who stayed true to New Testament Christianity were demeaned and marginalized. They had largely abandoned the culture until the mid to late 1940s when some fundamentalists emerged. Those fundamentalists became known as neo-evangelicals who once again engaged the culture while remaining true to the teachings of Christ and the apostles. But as America progressed through the remainder of the century and into the twenty-first century, a large portion of the evangelical church had succumbed to spirit of the age and slid into apostasy.
The apostasy that was embraced by the liberal church in the early part of the twentieth century has now entered much of the evangelical church in the last half of the twentieth century and first two decades of the twenty-first century. The extent to which this escalating apostasy has grown is evident in many quarters of the evangelical church and is symbolized by a recent occurrence of significant importance.
The Yale Covenant
On October 7, 2007, 138 Muslim scholars from throughout the Muslim world, representing every major school of the Islamic faith, sent an open letter “to leaders of Christian churches, everywhere.” The Muslim scholars pointed to the common ground between Muslims and Christians with regards to the commands to love God and to love one’s neighbors. With reconciliation as their goal, the Muslim scholars proposed that these common grounds would serve as the basis for a dialogue between the two religious faiths. This invitation was titled “A Common Word between Us and You.” In response to the Muslim “Common Word,” the Reconciliation Program at Yale University and several members of the Yale Divinity School community responded on November 13, 2007 with a full-page advertisement in the New York Times. Titled “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You’,” the Yale response was signed by 130 Christian leaders and scholars and subsequently by an additional 180 prominent signatories.[4] This response has become known as the Yale Covenant.
The Yale response to the Muslim’s “A Common Word” contained a preamble, statements about world peace and religious peace, common ground, love of God, love of neighbor, and “The Task Before Us.” The document begins by asking Muslims to forgive Christians for their guilt in sinning against “our Muslim neighbors” in the past (the Crusades) and in the present (e.g., excesses of the “war on terror”).[5]
There are two essential questions that must be answered to determine the legitimacy of the Christian response to “A Common Word.” First, is Allah the same God that Christians worship? Second, is the Christian concept of love the same as that of Islam? If the answers to one or both of these questions is no, then it is apparent that no common ground exists and that those Christians who promote such commonality have departed from biblical truth and have become apostate.
In Parts II and III we shall examine the so-called common ground between Islam and Christianity as identified by the Muslim scholars and signers of the Yale Covenant.
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] Donald C. Stamps, Study Notes and Articles, The Full Life Study Bible – New Testament, King James Version, gen. ed. Donald C. Stamps, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1990), p. 500.
[2] Ibid., p. 478.
[3] Ibid., pp. 474-475.
[4] “A ‘Common Word’ at Yale: Frequently Asked Questions,” Yale Center for Faith and Culture, http://faith.yale.edu/common-word/common-word-yale-frequently-asked-questions (accessed April 27, 2016).
[5] “‘A Common Word’ Christian Response,” Yale Center for Faith and Culture, http://faith.yale.edu/common-word/common-word-christian-response (accessed April 27, 2016).
