Salvation

7. Don’t you think that the faith of those who apostatize could be ‘a false faith’?

No, it can’t be a false faith, for this reason: if their faith was false, it would not make sense to state that they have apostatized. For one cannot apostatize from a false faith, but only from the true faith. I will show you this from the Scriptures.

Paul, after saying that Jesus Christ was “believed on in the world” (1 Timothy 3:16 – NKJV), says: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1 – NKJV). As you can see, it is some of those who have believed in Jesus Christ who will abandon their faith in Jesus giving heed to heresies.

Peter says about the false teachers who are among the brethren: “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2.15 – NKJV). Therefore, if one day they were on the right way, that means that they also had faith, and in fact shortly before Peter said about them that they “will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1 – NKJV). Notice carefully that they also had been bought, in that the Scripture says that one day the Lord bought them. Who are those who have been bought by the Lord? Are they not those who have believed in the Lord? Of course, they are, for Paul says to the believers in Corinth: “You were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 7:23 – NKJV), and to the believers of Galatia: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13 – NKJV). Therefore, these false teachers also believed in the Lord who bought them, but at a certain point they renounced their faith and the latter end is worse for them than the beginning, and the Scripture says of them: “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the Holy commandments delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:21 – NKJV). Can one have known the way of righteousness without first having believed in Christ? Of course not.

Surely, the false faith exists; for if the true faith exists it is impossible that the false faith should not exist. Nevertheless, it cannot be said about those who apostatize or abandon the faith that before their apostasy they had a false faith.

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