apostasy
Definition
Apostasy (Greek: ἀποστασία, apostasia; “a standing away from”) describes the process of departure from God — ranging from gradual religious neglect to a wholesale rejection of the knowledge of God. In the corpus authors, the term is deployed broadly: for the collective-historical apostasy of humanity (Rom. 1) as well as for the danger facing the individual believer who leaves the path of obedience.
In the context of the danger to the believer, apostasy refers to a falling away from a previously held position of faith — not necessarily the total loss of the relationship with God, but a departure from the way of discipleship.
Usage variants by author
Warnock
Warnock describes in his exposition of Rom. 1 a threefold progressive pattern of collective human apostasy. Each phase represents a deeper level of departure:
Stage 1 — Failing to glorify God as God (Rom. 1:21):
“When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. This was the first step downward. When we refuse to give God His sovereignty, and to thank Him for His goodness and for who He is, this is the first step away from the light and into the darkness.” [Who Are You?, chap. 5]
Stage 2 — Changing the truth of God into a lie (Rom. 1:25):
“Man ‘changes the truth of God into a lie’ and worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator. Unless man returns to his God this is inevitable.” [Who Are You?, chap. 5]
Stage 3 — Refusing to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28):
“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And God said: If you don’t want Me in your thoughts, I will blot out every trace of light you have ever known, and I will allow more darkness and evil than you will be able to handle. So they were given over to a reprobate mind (Gr. adokimos): the mind that cannot pass the test; it becomes worthless, rejected.” [Who Are You?, chap. 5]
The end-state of apostasy is for Warnock the condition of the adokimos mind: a faculty that can no longer pass the test and has lost its capacity for discernment. Apostasy has both an individual and a collective-historical dimension: in Adam’s disobedience, all people participate in the same fallen humanity (Rom. 3:23).