title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: 1 Timothy 4:1 describes "falling away from the faith" in the last days in terms of falling into false, heretical beliefs. Lk. 8:13 probably refers to apostasy as a result of eschatological temptation. Here are people who have come to believe, who have received the gospel "with joy." But under the pressure of persecution and tribulation arising because of the faith, they break off the relationship with God into which they have entered. According to Hebrews 3:12, apostasy consists in an unbelieving and self-willed movement away from God (in contrast to Hebrews 3:14), which must be prevented at all costs. "aphistēmi" thus connotes in the passages just mentioned the serious situation of becoming separated from the living God after a previous turning towards him, by falling away from the faith. It is a movement of unbelief and sin, which can also be expressed by other words (cf. the par. to Luke 8:13 in Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:17; . . .). Expressions equivalent in meaning to the warning in 1 Timothy 4:1 include "nauageō", suffer shipwreck, 1:19; "astocheō" miss the mark, 1:6; 6:21; 2 Timothy 2:18; cf. also "aperchomai", go away, John 6:66; "apostrephō", turn away; "arneomai", deny; "metatithēmi", change, alter; "mē menein", do not abide, John 15:6; . . . [see also] the pictures of defection in Matthew 24:9–12, and Revelation 13."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Wolfgang Bauder goes on add that "piptō", fall (1 Corinthians 10:12; Hebrews 4:11), and "ekpiptō", fall off or from (Galatians 5:4; 2 Peter 3:17), is used figuratively in the New Testament to refer to "the consequent loss of salvation, rather than of a mere failure from which recovery can be made. It is a catastrophic fall, which means eternal ruin. If it were not so, all the warnings against falling would lose their threatening urgency. To fall into sin and guilt, as an expression of a total attitude, is to plunge into irrevocable misfortune."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The following passages where the verb "skandalizō" ("fall away from faith") and the noun "skandalon" ("enticement to unbelief, cause of salvation's loss, seduction"): are theologically important as well:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In the passive voice σκανδαλίζω ["skandalizō"] more often means . . . "fall away from faith." In the interpretation of the parable of the sower (Mark 4:13-20 par. Matt 13:18-23) those identified with the seeds sown on rocky ground, i.e., those "with no root in themselves," the inconstant


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: ones, go astray to their own ruin when persecuted on account of the word, i.e., they fall away from faith (Mark 4:17 par. Matt 13:21). The Lukan parallel reads appropriately ἀφίστημι ["aphistēmi", fall away] (8:13). In Matt 24:10 Jesus predicts that in the end time many will fall away ["skandalizō"]. The result is that they will hate one another, wickedness will be multiplied, and love will grow cold. Yet whoever endures in love until the end will be saved (vv. 11, 13).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: . . . In the Johannine farewell address (John 16:1) σκανδαλίζω ["skandalizō"] does not only imply an "endangering of faith" . . . but rather "falling away from faith" entirely, from which the disciples and Christians are to be kept. . . . In the active voice σκανδαλίζω ["skandalizō"] means "cause someone to fall away from (or reject) faith," as in the saying of Jesus about the person who ""causes" one of these little ones who believe in me "to sin [stumble]"" (Mark 9:42 par. Matt 18:6/Luke 17:2). The Christian is enjoined to reject anything that might be an obstacle to faith, as emphasized in Mark 9:43,45,47 in metaphorical, hyperbolic language: Hand, foot, and eye--in Jewish understanding the loci of lust or sinful desires--must be given up if they threaten to become the cause of loss of faith and thus of salvation. This . . . underscores the seriousness of conviction within which one must persevere if one wishes to enter (eternal) life or the kingdom of God. . . . Matt 5:29, 30 also issues an exhortation to decisive action [cf. Matt 18:8, 9]. . . . According to 1 Cor 8:9 a Christian's freedom regarding eating food offered to idols reaches its limit when it becomes a stumbling block to one's brother (πρόσκομμα ["proskomma"]). Hence Paul emphasizes that he will never again eat meat if by doing so he causes his brother to fall and thus to lose salvation (σκανδαλίζω ["skandalizō"], v. 13a, b), since otherwise that weaker brother is destroyed by the knowledge of the "stronger" (v. 11). Whoever sins against his brothers sins also against Christ (v. 12). . . . Within the context of the protection of the "little ones" in the Church, i.e., probably the "weak ones" ([Matthew] 18:6-10), Jesus utters an eschatological threat ("woe!") against the world (alienated from God) because of "temptations to sin" (v. 7a); though he allows that such "temptations" must come (v. 7b), he finally hurls an eschatological "woe!" against the person by whom the "temptation" comes (v. 7c). σκάνδαλον ["skandalon"] used here of the temptation to fall away from faith. The parallel, Luke 17:1, like Matt 18:7b, also underscores that such temptations are unavoidable; nonetheless, the person by whom they come receives the eschatological "woe!" that already places him under divine judgment. . . . In Rom 14:13 Paul admonishes the "strong," whose position he fundamentally shares (v. 14), not to cause the "weak" any "stumbling block to faith" through eating habits . . . . In Rom 16:17 the σκάνδαλον ["skandalon"] are the various satanic activities of the false teachers who endanger the salvation of Church members, who are being seduced into falling away from correct teaching; such teachers also threaten both the unity and very existence of the Church. Similarly, in Rev 2:14 σκάνδαλον ["skandalon"] refers to a "stumbling block" to faith in the context of false teaching. According to 1 John 2:10 there is no cause for stumbling or sin in a believer who loves his brother . . . i.e., no cause for unbelief and thus a loss of salvation.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Paul Barnett notes that James warns his readers of the possibility of temptation leading to apostasy. While a person is not tempted by God to sin, they can be "lured and enticed by his own desires" to sin (James 1:13–15). He adds, "This letter has in mind a 'way' ("hodos", James 5:20) of belief and behavior, from which one may be "led astray" ("planasthe", James 1:16; i.e., by the influence of others) or 'stray from' ("planēthē", James 5:19; i.e., by one's own decision). Either way the one who is away from the true path is in jeopardy in regard to his or her personal salvation (James 5:20)."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Barnett also mentions that "2 Peter addresses the grim situation of apostasy expressed by immorality (2 Peter 2:2–3, 14-16), under the influence of false teachers who have 'denied the master who bought them' (2 Peter 2:1, 17-22)." Furthermore, in the book of Revelation:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: It is clear that the churches of Asia are subject to persecution and its accompanying pressure to apostatize that arise from a Jewish quarter in Smyrna and Philadelphia (Revelation 2:9) and from the emperor cult in Pergamum (Revelation 2:13). At the same time various false teachings are touching the churches of Ephesus (Revelation 2:6), Pergamum (Revelation 2:14–15) and Thyatira (Revelation 2:20). The language of "deception," that is, of being "led astray," is applied to the false prophetess, Jezebel (Revelation 2:20). Satan, the source of all these persecution and false teachings, is also "the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). The metaphor, "deception" ("planaō"), implies a path of truth from which one might be "turned aside." Against these Satan-inspired obstacles the reader are called upon to "conquer," that is, to overcome these problems.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The Epistle to the Hebrews is the classic text on the subject of apostasy in the New Testament. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight argues that the warning passages (2:1–4; 3:7–4:13; 5:11–6:12; 10:19–39; 12:1–29) should be read and interpreted "as an organic whole, each of which expresses four components of the author’s message." These four components are "(1) the subjects or audience in danger of committing the sin, (2) the sin that leads to (3) the exhortation, which if not followed, leads to (4) the consequences of that sin." McKnight concluded from his study that (1) the subjects of this letter were genuine "believers, persons who . . . had converted to Jesus Christ,” (2) The sin "is apostasy, a deliberate and public act of deconfessing Jesus Christ, a rejection of God's Spirit, and a refusal to submit to God and His will," (3) the exhortation is "to a persevering faithfulness to God and his revelation of the new covenant in Jesus Christ," (4) the consequences involve "eternal damnation if a person does not persevere in the faith." B. J. Oropeza concludes that apostasy threatens the community in Hebrews on two fronts: mistreatment by outsiders (persecution) and malaise involving reluctance to listen to godly exhortation.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery" states that "There are at least four distinct images in Scripture of the concept of apostasy. All connote an intentional defection from the faith." These images are: Rebellion; Turning Away; Falling Away; Adultery.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "In classical literature "apostasia" was used to denote a coup or defection. By extension, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) always uses this word to portray a rebellion against God (; )."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "Apostasy is also pictured as the heart turning away from God (Jeremiah 17:5–6) and righteousness (Ezekiel 3:20). In the OT it centers on Israel's breaking covenant relationship with God through disobedience to the law (Jeremiah 2:19), especially following other gods (Judges 2:19) and practicing their immorality (Daniel 9:9–11). . . . Following the Lord or journeying with him is one of the chief images of faithfulness in the Scriptures. . . . The . . . Hebrew root ("swr") is used to picture those who have turned away and ceased to follow God ('I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me,' 1 Samuel 15:11). . . . The image of turning away from the Lord, who is the rightful leader, and following behind false gods is the dominant image for apostasy in the Old Testament."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "The image of falling, with the sense of going to eternal destruction, is particularly evident in the New Testament. . . . In his [Christ’s] parable of the wise and foolish builder, in which the house built on sand falls with a crash in the midst of a storm (Matthew 7:24–27) . . . he painted a highly memorable image of the dangers of falling spiritually."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: One of the most common images for apostasy in the Old Testament is adultery. "Apostasy is symbolized as Israel the faithless spouse turning away from Yahweh her marriage partner to pursue the advances of other gods (Jeremiah 2:1–3; Ezekiel 16). . . . 'Your children have forsaken me and sworn by god that are not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes' (Jeremiah 5:7, NIV). Adultery is used most often to graphically name the horror of the betrayal and covenant breaking involved in idolatry. Like literal adultery it does include the idea of someone blinded by infatuation, in this case for an idol: 'How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts . . . which have lusted after their idols' (Ezekiel 6:9)."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: A variety of colorful images are used to describe Israel's apostasy: "a rebellious ox, a prostitute, a wild vine, a stain that will not wash off, a camel in heat and a thief caught in thievery (Jeremiah 2:19-28)." Images of peril attend apostasy, for to have forsaken God is to come under his judgment (Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 6:14–15; 17:2–7). "The New Testament contains a host of images of apostasy, including a plant taking root among the rocks but withering under the hot sun of testing (Mark 4:5–6, 17 par.), or those who fall prey to the wiles of false teachers (Matthew 24:11), heretical beliefs (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3–4), worldliness and its defilement (2 Peter 2:20–22), and persecution (Matthew 24:9–10; Revelation 3:8). The Christian apostate is pictured as a branch that does not abide in the vine of Christ and thus withers and is cast into the fire (John 15:6). Animal behavior is evoked in a dog returning to its vomit or a clean pig returning to the mire (2 Peter 2:22)."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Paul Barnett says, "Believers in the era following that of the apostles probably suffered a greater intensity to turn aside from Christ than did their predecessors. They ... were vulnerable to Jewish reprisals as well as action from the state. Details of the pressure applied to Christians to apostatize is given from both Christian and non-Christian sources ... It is understandable, therefore, that the postapostolic literature should contain many warnings not to apostatize."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: According to B. J. Oropeza, the warning passages in the New Testament describe at least three basic dangers which could lead a Christian to apostatize from Christ and the Christian faith:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Persecution is highlighted in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the First Epistle of Peter. The issue of false teachers/teachings is found in the Johannine and Pauline epistles, in the Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of Jude. A number of sections in the writings of Paul and James focus on vices and virtues. "These and other early texts helped to shape the trajectory of Christian response to the phenomenon of defection in the post-apostolic era. The Christians were to persevere through various types of opposition, standing firm against temptation, false doctrine, hardships and persecution."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The following translation from various early Christian writers is provided by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson in the "Ante-Nicene Fathers".


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Clement of Rome (c. 96) writes to the Corinthian congregation whose unity has been threatened because a "few rash and self-confident persons" have kindled shameful and detestable seditions towards the established leaders (presbyters) in the congregation ("1 Clement" 1). This jealous rivalry and envy has caused righteousness and peace to depart from the community ("1 Clement" 3). The writer laments: "Every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world." ("1 Clement" 3) Since history has demonstrated that many evils have flowed from envy and jealousy ("1 Clement" 4-6), the Corinthians are exhorted to repent ("1 Clement" 7-8), yield obedience to God's "glorious will," and to "forsake all fruitless labors and strife, and envy, which leads to death" ("1 Clement" 9:1). Furthermore, they are to "be of humble mind, laying aside all haughtiness, and pride, and foolishness, and angry feelings" ("1 Clement" 13), and "to obey God rather than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation [jealous rivalry]" ("1 Clement" 14). He then warns, "For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good" ("1 Clement" 14; cf. 47). Clement bids his readers to cleave "to those who cultivate peace with godliness" ("1 Clement" 15), and to follow the humility and submission that Christ and other saints practiced ("1 Clement" 16-19), which brings peace and harmony with others ("1 Clement" 19-20). Clement then gives these exhortations and warnings:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Those responsible for laying the foundation of this sedition are urged to submit to the presbyters, repent, and to lay aside their pride and arrogance. For it is better that they occupy a humble place in the flock of Christ, than being highly exalted and ultimately "cast out from the hope of His people" ("1 Clement" 57).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Similar to Clement, Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107) warns believers about following a schismatic person:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Keep yourselves from those evil plants which Jesus Christ does not tend, because they are not the planting of the Father. Not that I have found any division among you, but exceeding purity. For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ("Epistle of the Philadelphians" 3)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The author of the epistle of Barnabas (c. 100) both admonishes and warns his readers about coming dangers:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In the last chapters of the epistle of Barnabas (18-21), the author sets two ways before Christians which are described in the metaphors of light and darkness (referring to abstaining from or the practicing of vices). Those who walk in the light "will be glorified in the kingdom of heaven" ("Barnabas" 21:1), and will be "safe in the day of judgment" ("Barnabas" 21:6). While those who walk in darkness will experience "eternal death with punishment" ("Barnabas" 20:1), and will be "destroyed with their works" ("Barnabas" 21:1).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "The Didache (c. 100) also maintains two ways: the way of life or death. The way of life is associated with loving God and one's neighbor. It involves abstaining from vices mentioned in the Ten Commandments or related to bodily lusts, sorcery, and idolatry (including meat sacrificed to idols). The way of death includes the practices of these vices ("Didache" 1-6).”


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians (2nd century) the vice of covetousness is a significant danger. Presbyters are advised to be "keeping far off from all covetousness" ("Philippians" 6). Polycarp expresses his grief over a former presbyter Valens and his wife who apparently committed some act of covetousness. He hopes that the Lord will grant them repentance. He enjoins his readers to "abstain from covetousness," and "every form of evil," and goes on to give this warning, "If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen" ("Philippians" 11). Polycarp says believers "ought to walk worthy of His commandments and glory," and that deacons are to be blameless, not slanderers or lovers of money, but temperate in all things, "walking according to the truth of the Lord" ("Philippians" 5). He then adds:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live worthily of Him, "we shall also reign together with Him," provided only we believe. In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in, as with a bridle, from every kind of evil. For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since "every lust wars against the spirit;" [1 Peter 2:11] and "neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God," [1 Corinthians 6:9–10] nor those who do things inconsistent and unbecoming. Wherefore, it is needful to abstain from all these things, being subject to the presbyters and deacons, as unto God and Christ. ("Philippians" 5)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In an ancient sermon (c. 150) the author exhorts his audience to pursue righteousness and abstain from vices:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Let us, then, not only call Him Lord, for that will not save us. For He saith, "Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall be saved, but he that worketh righteousness." Wherefore, brethren, let us confess Him by our works, by loving one another, by not committing adultery, or speaking evil of one another, or cherishing envy; but by being continent, compassionate, and good. We ought also to sympathize with one another, and not be avaricious. By such works let us confess Him, and not by those that are of an opposite kind. And it is not fitting that we should fear men, but rather God. For this reason, if we should do such [wicked] things, the Lord hath said, "Even though ye were gathered together to me in my very bosom, yet if ye were not to keep my commandments, I would cast you off, and say unto you, Depart from me; I know you not whence ye are, ye workers of iniquity." ("2 Clement" 4)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The author further summons his readers to "do the will of Him that called us," ("2 Clement" 5) and to consider


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: that the sojourning in the flesh in this world is but brief and transient, but the promise of Christ is great and wonderful, even the rest of the kingdom to come, and of life everlasting. By what course of conduct, then, shall we attain these things, but by leading a holy and righteous life, and by deeming these worldly things as not belonging to us, and not fixing our desires upon them? For if we desire to possess them, we fall away from the path of righteousness. ("2 Clement" 5)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The writer goes on to say that this present world (which urges one to "adultery and corruption, avarice and deceit"), is an enemy to the world to come (which "bids farewell to these things"), and thus, we cannot "be the friends of both" ("2 Clement" 6). Therefore,


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: for our instruction . . . that we might know, in the first place, that our God and theirs is one, and that sins do not please Him although committed by men of renown; and in the second place, that we should keep from wickedness. For if these men of old time, who preceded us in the gifts [bestowed upon them], and for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, when they committed any sin and served fleshly lusts, were rendered objects of such disgrace, what shall the men of the present day suffer, who have despised the Lord’s coming, and become the slaves of their own lusts? And truly the death of the Lord became [the means of] healing and remission of sins to the former, but Christ shall not die again in behalf of those who now commit sin, for death shall no more have dominion over Him. . . . We ought not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, to be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but be shut out from His kingdom. And therefore it was that Paul said, "For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also spare not thee" [Romans 11:21]. . . . ("Against Heresies", Book 4:27.2)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Irenaeus proceeds to quote from 1 Corinthians 10:1–12, where Israel fell under the judgment of God for craving evil things, and then comments:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: As then the unrighteous, the idolaters, and fornicators perished, so also is it now: for both the Lord declares, that such persons are sent into eternal fire; and the apostle says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." [1 Corinthians 6:9–10] And as it was not to those who are without that he said these things, but to us—lest we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God, by doing any such thing. . . . And again does the apostle say, "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of mistrust. Be not ye therefore partakers with them." [Ephesians 5:6–7] ("Against Heresies", Book 4:27.4)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The "early Christians frequently believed that apostasy came by way of deceivers at the instigation of the devil, and terrible consequences awaited such people." The writings of Ignatius have several warnings about being on guard against false teachers and the heresy they disseminate. In the letter to the Christians at Ephesus, Ignatius is happy to report that "all live according to the truth, and that no sect has any dwelling-place among you. Nor, indeed, do you hearken to any one rather than to Jesus Christ speaking in truth" ("Epistle to the Ephesians" 6). He mentions that there are false teachers who "are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom you must flee as you would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom you must be on your guard" ("Epistle to the Ephesians" 7). The readers are further admonished to "Let not then any one deceive you" ("Epistle to the Ephesians" 8), and commended because "you did not allow [false teachers] to sow among you, but stopped your ears, that you might not receive those things [i.e., false doctrines] which were sown by them" ("Epistle to the Ephesians" 9). Ignatius then gives this solemn warning:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Do not err, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh have suffered death, how much more shall this be the case with any one who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a one becoming defiled [in this way], shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that hearkens unto him. . . . Be not anointed with the bad odor of the doctrine of the prince of this world; let him not lead you away captive from the life which is set before you. And why are we not all prudent, since we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? Why do we foolishly perish, not recognizing the gift which the Lord has of a truth sent to us? ("Epistle to the Ephesians" 16-17)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In the letter to the Magnesians, Ignatius admonishes his readers, "Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable" ("Epistle to Magnesians" 8). Later he writes: "I desire to guard you beforehand, that you fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but that you attain to full assurance in regard to the birth, and passion, and resurrection which took place in the time of the government of Pontius Pilate, being truly and certainly accomplished by Jesus Christ, who is our hope, from which may no one of you ever be turned aside" ("Epistle to Magnesians" 11). In yet another letter, Ignatius entreats his readers to


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death. Be on your guard, therefore, against such persons. ("Epistle to the Trallians" 6-7)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and ate and drank. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life. ("Epistle to the Trallians" 9)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "The final section of the Didache echoes the Synoptic tradition (Matthew 24:4–13, 15, 21–26; Mark 13:5ff; Luke 21:8ff; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3ff; Revelation 13:13–14) when it warns against apostasy through the deception of false prophets in the last days:"


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord comes. But often shall you come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if you be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as the Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. ("Didache" 16)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Tertullian argues that believers ought not to be surprised or alarmed at the existence of heresies since Christ and his apostles told us beforehand that they would arise and gave, "in anticipation, warnings to avoid them" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 4, cf. 1). Neither should believers be surprised that heresies "subvert the faith of some" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 1). Heresies are a trial to faith, giving faith the opportunity to be approved ("Prescriptions Against Heretics" 1). While heresies "are produced for the weakening and the extinction of faith," they have "no strength whenever they encounter a really powerful faith" ("Prescriptions Against Heretics" 2). According to Tertullian, heresy is whatever contradicts the "rule of faith" which he defends as


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; that this Word is called His Son, and, under the name of God, was seen in diverse manners by the patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by the Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having ascended into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent instead of Himself the Power of the Holy Ghost to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened, together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as it will be proved, was taught by Christ, and raises among ourselves no other questions than those which heresies introduce, and which make men heretics. ("Prescription Against Heretics" 13)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Tertullian sees heretics as ravenous wolves "lurking within to waste the flock of Christ" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 4). They pervert the Scriptures by interpreting them to suit their own purposes ("Prescription Against Heretics" 17, cf. 4, 38). Their teaching opposes the teaching "handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 37). While persecution makes martyrs, "heresy only apostates" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 4). In the face of heresies, which may cause a bishop or deacon to "have fallen from the rule (of faith)," the Christian must remain true to the faith, for "no one is a Christian but he who perseveres even to the end" ("Prescription Against Heretics" 3).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Christian apologist Justin Martyr engages in a dialogue with Trypho (c. 160), who says, "I believe, however, that many of those who say that they confess Jesus, and are called Christians, eat meats offered to idols, and declare that they are by no means injured in consequence" ("Dialogue with Trypho" 35). Justin's response highlights the importance of remaining faithful to "the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ" in the face of false teachers:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The fact that there are such men confessing themselves to be Christians, and admitting the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, yet not teaching His doctrines, but those of the spirits of error, causes us who are disciples of the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, to be more faithful and steadfast in the hope announced by Him. For what things He predicted would take place in His name, these we do see being actually accomplished in our sight. For he said, "Many shall come in My name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." And, "There shall be schisms and heresies." [1 Corinthians 11:19] And, "Beware of false prophets, who shall come to you clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." And, "Many false Christ's and false apostles shall arise, and shall deceive many of the faithful." There are, therefore, and there were many, my friends, who, coming forward in the name of Jesus, taught both to speak and act impious and blasphemous things; and these are called by us after the name of the men from whom each doctrine and opinion had its origin. (For some in one way, others in another, teach to blaspheme the Maker of all things, and Christ . . . Yet they style themselves Christians. . . .) Some are called Marcians, and some Valentinians, and some Basilidians, and some Saturnilians, and others by other names; each called after the originator of the individual opinion. . . . So that, in consequence of these events, we know that Jesus foreknew what would happen after Him, as well as in consequence of many other events which He foretold would befall those who believed on and confessed Him, the Christ. For all that we suffer, even when killed by friends, He foretold would take place; so that it is manifest no word or act of His can be found fault with. Wherefore we pray for you and for all other men who hate us; in order that you, having repented along with us, may not blaspheme Him who, by His works, by the mighty deeds even now wrought through His name, by the words He taught, by the prophecies announced concerning Him, is the blameless, and in all things irreproachable, Christ Jesus; but, believing on Him, may be saved in His second glorious advent, and may not be condemned to fire by Him. ("Dialogue with Trypho" 35)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Clement of Alexandria (c. 195) advises against giving into heretical men and their heresies in writing:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: He who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome "and strait." And let him who has once received the Gospel, even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation, "not turn back, like Lot's wife," as is said; and let him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies. . . . He, who has spurned the ecclesiastical tradition, and darted off to the opinions of heretical men, has ceased to be a man of God and to remain faithful to the Lord. ("The Stromata", Book 7:16)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Cyprian (c. 251) bids his readers to "use foresight and watching with an anxious heart, both to perceive and to beware of the wiles of the crafty foe, that we, who have put on Christ the wisdom of God the Father, may not seem to be wanting in wisdom in the matter of providing for our salvation" ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:1). He cautions that "it is not persecution alone that is to be feared; nor those things which advance by open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God," for we have an enemy who is to be more feared and guarded against because he secretly creeps in to deceive us under the appearance of peace ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:1). By following the example of the Lord in recognizing and resisting the temptations of the devil, Christians will not be "incautiously turned back into the nets of death," but go on to "possess the immortality that we have received" ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:2). Only by standing fast in learning and doing what Christ commanded does the Christian have security against the onslaughts of the world ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:2). He who does not "must of necessity waver and wander, and, caught away by a spirit of error . . . be blown about; and he will make no advance in his walk towards salvation, because he does not keep the truth of the way of salvation." ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:2)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Cyprian says the devil, when he see his idols forsaken and temples deserted by new believers, devises a fraud under "the Christian name to deceive the incautious" ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:3):


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: He has invented heresies and schisms, whereby he might subvert the faith, might corrupt the truth, might divide the unity. Those whom he cannot keep in the darkness of the old way, he circumvents and deceives by the error of a new way. He snatches men from the Church itself; and while they seem to themselves to have already approached to the light, and to have escaped the night of the world, he pours over them again, in their unconsciousness, new darkness; so that, although they do not stand firm with the Gospel of Christ, and with the observation and law of Christ, they still call themselves Christians, and, walking in darkness, they think that they have the light, while the adversary is flattering and deceiving, who, according to the apostle's word, transforms himself into an angel of light, and equips his ministers as if they were the ministers of righteousness, who maintain night instead of day, death for salvation, despair under the offer of hope, perfidy under the pretext of faith, antichrist under the name of Christ; so that, while they feign things like the truth, they make void the truth by their subtlety. This happens, beloved brethren, so long as we do not return to the source of truth, as we do not seek the head nor keep the teaching of the heavenly Master. ("The Treatises of Cyprian" 1:3)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In view of Eusebius (c. 260-340), Simon Magus was the author of heresy (cf. Acts 8:9–24), and the devil is to be blamed for bringing the Samaritan magician to Rome and empowering him with deceitful arts which led many astray (Eus. "Hist. Eccl." 2.13). The magician was supposedly aided by demons and venerated as a god, and Helen, his companion, was thought to be his first emanation (Just. "Apol." 1.26; "Adv. Haer." 1.33; cf. "Iren Haer." 1.23:1–4). Simon's successor, Menander of Samaria, was considered to be another instrument of the devil; he claimed to save humans from the aeons through magical arts. After baptism, his followers believed themselves to be immortal in the present life. It is stated that those who claim such people as their saviors have fallen away from the true hope (Eus. "Hist. Eccl." 3.26). Basilides of Alexandria and Saturninus of Antioch followed Menander's ways. Adherents of the former declared that eating meat sacrificed to idols or renouncing the faith in times of persecution were matters of indifference. Carpocrates is labeled as the first of the Gnostics. His followers allegedly transmitted Simon’s magic in an open manner. Eusebius asserts that the devil’s intention was to entrap many believers and bring them to the abyss of destruction by following these deceivers ("Hist. Eccl." 4.7).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Clement seeks to inspire perseverance in the midst of suffering with these words: "Let us, therefore, work righteousness, that we may be saved to the end. Blessed are they who obey these commandments, even if for a brief space they suffer in this world, and they will gather the imperishable fruit of the resurrection. Let not the godly man, therefore, grieve; if for the present he suffer affliction, blessed is the time that awaits him there; rising up to life again with the fathers he will rejoice for ever without a grief" ("2 Clement" 19).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Cyprian (c. 250), commands the presbyters and deacons to take care of the poor and "especially those who have stood with unshaken faith and have not forsaken Christ's flock" while in prison ("The Epistles of Cyprian" 5:2). These "glorious confessors" need to be instructed that


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: they ought to be humble and modest and peaceable, that they should maintain the honor of their name, so that those who have achieved glory by what they have testified, may achieve glory also by their characters. . . . For there remains more than what is yet seen to be accomplished, since it is written "Praise not any man before his death;" and again, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." [Revelation 2:10] And the Lord also says, "He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved." [Matthew 10:22]. Let them imitate the Lord, who at the very time of His passion was not more proud, but more humble. ("The Epistles of Cyprian" 5:2)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Ignatius's letter to the Christians in Rome gives valuable insight into the heart of a Christian who is prepared for martyrdom. Ignatius hopes to see them when he arrives as a prisoner. He fears that the love they have for him will, in some way, save him from certain death ("Epistle to the Romans" 1-2). Yet, he desires to "obtain grace to cling to my lot without hindrance unto the end" so that he may "attain to God" ("Epistle to the Romans" 1). He requests prayer for "both inward and outward strength" that he might not "merely be called a Christian, but really found to be one,"—a Christian "deemed faithful" ("Epistle to the Romans" 3). He says:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: I write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless you hinder me. . . . Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body. . . . Then shall I truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Entreat Christ for me, that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice [to God]. . . . But when I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being a prisoner, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain. . . . And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ. All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die in behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth. "For what shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?" Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This is the gain which is laid up for me. . . . Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God. ("Epistle to the Romans" 4-6)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Tertullian believes that martyrdom is necessary at times in order for soldiers in God's army to obey the command to not worship idols.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: If, therefore, it is evident that from the beginning this kind of worship [of idols] has both been forbidden—witness the commands so numerous and weighty—and that it has never been engaged in without punishment following, as examples so numerous and impressive show, and that no offense is counted by God so presumptuous as a trespass of this sort, we ought further to perceive the purport of both the divine threatenings and their fulfillments, which was even then commended not only by the not calling in question, but also by the enduring of martyrdoms, for which certainly He had given occasion by forbidding idolatry. . . . The injunction is given me not to make mention of any other god, not even by speaking—as little by the tongue as by the hand—to fashion a god, and not to worship or in any way show reverence to another than Him only who thus commands me, whom I am both bid fear that I may not be forsaken by Him, and love with my whole being, that I may die for Him. Serving as a soldier under this oath, I am challenged by the enemy. If I surrender to them, I am as they are. In maintaining this oath, I fight furiously in battle, am wounded, hewn in pieces, slain. Who wished this fatal issue to his soldier, but he who sealed him by such an oath? ("Scorpiace" 4)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In the following chapter Tertullian maintains that "martyrdom is good," especially when the Christian faces the temptation to worship idols, which is forbidden. He goes on to write,


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: For martyrdom strives against and opposes idolatry. But to strive against and oppose evil cannot be ought but good. . . . For martyrdom contends with idolatry, not from some malice which they share, but from its own kindness; for it delivers from idolatry. Who will not proclaim that to be good which delivers from idolatry? What else is the opposition between idolatry and martyrdom, than that between life and death? Life will be counted to be martyrdom as much as idolatry to be death. . . . Thus martyrdoms also rage furiously, but for salvation. God also will be at liberty to heal for everlasting life by means of fires and swords, and all that is painful. ("Scorpiace" 5)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Tertullian has a long discussion on the certainty of persecutions and the reality of death for followers of Christ. Quoting extensively from the teachings of Jesus, Tertullian urges Christians towards faithful endurance in order to obtain final salvation with God.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: When setting forth His chief commands, "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." [Matthew 5:10] The following statement, indeed, applies first to all without restriction, then especially to the apostles themselves: "Blessed shall you be when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, since very great is your reward in heaven; for so used their fathers to do even to the prophets." [Matthew 5:11–12] So that He likewise foretold their having to be themselves also slain, after the example of the prophets. . . . The rule about enduring persecution also would have had respect to us too, as to disciples by inheritance, and, (as it were,) bushes from the apostolic seed. For even thus again does He address words of guidance to the apostles: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;" [Matthew 10:16] and, "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles," etc. [Matthew 10:17–18] Now when He adds, "But the brother will deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death," [Matthew 10:21] He has clearly announced with reference to the others, (that they would be subjected to) this form of unrighteous conduct, which we do not find exemplified in the case of the apostles. For none of them had experience of a father or a brother as a betrayer, which very many of us have. Then He returns to the apostles: "And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." How much more shall we, for whom there exists the necessity of being delivered up by parents too! Thus, by allotting this very betrayal, now to the apostles, now to all, He pours out the same destruction upon all the possessors of the name, on whom the name, along with the condition that it be an object of hatred, will rest. But he who will endure on to the end—this man will be saved. By enduring what but persecution—betrayal—death? For to endure to the end is naught else than to suffer the end. And therefore there immediately follows, "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his own lord;" [Matthew 10:24] because, seeing the Master and Lord Himself was steadfast in suffering persecution, betrayal and death, much more will it be the duty of His servants and disciples to bear the same, that they may not seem as if superior to Him, or to have got an immunity from the assaults of unrighteousness, since this itself should be glory enough for them, to be conformed to the sufferings of their Lord and Master; and, preparing them for the endurance of these, He reminds them that they must not fear such persons as kill the body only, but are not able to destroy the soul, but that they must dedicate fear to Him rather who has such power that He can kill both body and soul, and destroy them in hell [Matthew 10:28]. Who, pray, are these slayers of the body only, but the governors and kings aforesaid—men, I suppose? Who is the ruler of the soul also, but God only? Who is this but the threatener of fires hereafter, He without whose will not even one of two sparrows falls to the ground; that is, not even one of the two substances of man, flesh or spirit, because the number of our hairs also has been recorded before Him? Fear not, therefore. When He adds, "You are of more value than many sparrows," He makes promise that we shall not in vain—that is, not without profit—fall to the ground if we choose to be killed by men rather than by God. "Whosoever therefore will confess in me before men, in him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven; and whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny also before my Father who is in heaven." [Matthew 10:32–34] [What] if a Christian is to be stoned . . . burned . . . butchered . . . [or] put an end to by beasts . . . ? He who will endure these assaults to the end, the same shall be saved. . . . For what does He add after finishing with confession and denial? "Think not that I have come to send peace on earth, but a sword,"—undoubtedly on the earth. "For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." [Matthew 10:34–35] For so is it brought to pass, that the brother delivers up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children rise up against the parents, and cause them to die. And he who endures to the end let that man be saved. [Matthew 10:22] So that this whole course of procedure characteristic of the Lord's sword, which has been sent not to heaven, but to earth, makes confession also to be there, which by enduring to the end is to issue in the suffering of death. In the same manner, therefore, we maintain that the other announcements too refer to the condition of martyrdom. "He," says Jesus, "who will value his own life also more than me, is not worthy of me," [Luke 14:26] —that is, he who will rather live by denying, than die by confessing, me; and "he who finds his life shall lose it; but he who loses it for my sake shall find it." [Matthew 10:39] Therefore indeed he finds it, who, in winning life, denies; but he who thinks that he wins it by denying, will lose it in hell. On the other hand, he who, through confessing, is killed, will lose it for the present, but is also about to find it unto everlasting life. Who, now, should know better the marrow of the Scriptures than the school of Christ itself?—the persons whom the Lord both chose for Himself as scholars, certainly to be fully instructed in all points, and appointed to us for masters to instruct us in all points. To whom would He have rather made known the veiled import of His own language, than to him to whom He disclosed the likeness of His own glory—to Peter, John, and James, and afterwards to Paul, to whom He granted participation in (the joys of) paradise too, prior to his martyrdom? Or do they also write differently from what they think—teachers using deceit, not truth? Addressing the Christians of Pontus, Peter, at all events, says, "How great indeed is the glory, if you suffer patiently, without being punished as evildoers! For this is a lovely feature, and even hereunto were you called, since Christ also suffered for us, leaving you Himself as an example, that you should follow His own steps." [1 Peter 2:20–21] And again: "Beloved, be not alarmed by the fiery trial which is taking place among you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. For, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, do you rejoice; that, when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; because glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you: if only none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters; yet (if any man suffer) as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." [1 Peter 4:12–14] John, in fact, exhorts us to lay down our lives even for our brethren, <nowiki>[</nowiki><nowiki>]</nowiki> affirming that there is no fear in love: "For perfect love casts out fear, since fear has punishment; and he who fears is not perfect in love." [1 John 4:18] What fear would it be better to understand (as here meant), than that which gives rise to denial? What love does he assert to be perfect, but that which puts fear to flight, and gives courage to confess? What penalty will he appoint as the punishment of fear, but that which he who denies is about to pay, who has to be slain, body and soul, in hell? And if he teaches that we must die for the brethren, how much more for the Lord,—he being sufficiently prepared, by his own Revelation too, for giving such advice! For indeed the Spirit had sent the injunction to the angel of the church in Smyrna: "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life." [Revelation 2:10] Also to the angel of the church in Pergamus (mention was made) of Antipas, [Revelation 2:13] the very faithful martyr, who was slain where Satan dwells. Also to the angel of the church in Philadelphia [Revelation 3:10] (it was signified) that he who had not denied the name of the Lord was delivered from the last trial. Then to every conqueror the Spirit promises now the tree of life, and exemption from the second death; now the hidden manna with the stone of glistening whiteness, and the name unknown (to every man save him that receives it); now power to rule with a rod of iron, and the brightness of the morning star; now the being clothed in white raiment, and not having the name blotted out of the book of life, and being made in the temple of God a pillar with the inscription on it of the name of God and of the Lord, and of the heavenly Jerusalem; now a sitting with the Lord on His throne . . . . Who, pray, are these so blessed conquerors, but martyrs in the strict sense of the word? For indeed theirs are the victories whose also are the fights; theirs, however, are the fights whose also is the blood. But the souls of the martyrs both peacefully rest in the meantime under the altar, [Revelation 6:9] and support their patience by the assured hope of revenge; and, clothed in their robes, wear the dazzling halo of brightness, until others also may fully share in their glory. For yet again a countless throng are revealed, clothed in white and distinguished by palms of victory, celebrating their triumph doubtless over Antichrist, since one of the elders says, "These are they who come out of that great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." [Revelation 7:14] For the flesh is the clothing of the soul. The uncleanness, indeed, is washed away by baptism, but the stains are changed into dazzling whiteness by martyrdom. . . . When great Babylon likewise is represented as drunk with the blood of the saints, [Revelation 17:6] doubtless the supplies needful for her drunkenness are furnished by the cups of martyrdoms; and what suffering the fear of martyrdoms will entail, is in like manner shown. For among all the castaways, nay, taking precedence of them all, are the fearful. "But the fearful," says John—and then come the others—"will have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone." [Revelation 21:8] Thus fear, which, as stated in his epistle, love drives out, has punishment. ("Scorpiace" 9–12)


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Readings from the early church fathers such as these led patristic scholar David Bercot to conclude: "Since the early Christians believed that our continued faith and obedience are necessary for salvation, it naturally follows that they believed that a 'saved' person could still end up being lost [through apostasy]."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: There appears to be three primary perspectives on apostasy in Protestantism: Classical or Reformed Calvinism, Moderate Calvinism, Reformed Arminianism.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: According to John Calvin (1509–1564), once the Holy Spirit brings a person to regeneration (i.e., gives them spiritual life) this experience cannot be lost and leads to final salvation with God. In Calvin's theology, God has predestined to regenerate some (the elect) to eternal life and not to regenerate others (the non-elect) which ensures their eternal damnation ("Calvin's Institutes" 3.21:5; cf. 3.2:15–40, 14.6–9, 18–20, 24.6f.). The elect may fall away from God's grace temporarily, but the truly elect will eventually be restored and not plunge into final apostasy. Calvin believed that "The Lord uses the fear of final apostasy in order to safeguard true believers against it. Only the ones who ignore the threat are in real danger of falling away." Calvin viewed the passages on apostasy found in Hebrews (6:4–6; 10:26–29) as applying to those in the church having a false faith—reprobates (i.e., unbelievers) who have never experienced regeneration. John Jefferson Davis writes:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Even though Calvin believes that regeneration is irreversible . . . he does not conclude that the Christian has any cause for spiritual complacency. Persevering in God's grace requires, on the human side, "severe and arduous effort." . . . The believer needs to continually feed his soul on the preaching of the Word and to grow in faith throughout the whole course of life. Since it is easy for the believer to fall away for a time from the grace of God, there is constant need for "striving and vigilance, if we would persevere in the grace of God." Calvin thus balances his theological certitudes with pastoral warnings. . . . The believer must continually exercise faith and obedience to make "his calling and election sure."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Others in the Reformed tradition followed Calvin's theology on election, regeneration, perseverance, and apostasy: Zacharias Ursinus (1534–1583); William Perkins (1558–1602); John Owen (1616–1683); John Gill (1697–1771); Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758); and George Whitefield (1714–1770). The Reformed confessions such as the "Canons of the Synod of Dort" (1619) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) also express views parallel with Calvin's theology.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In his book, "Reign of the Servant Kings: A Study of Eternal Security and the Final Significance of Man", Free Grace author Joseph Dillow seeks to chart a middle position between the Reformed Calvinist and Arminian position on apostasy. Dillow accepts "the Reformed position that those who are truly born again can never lose their salvation." But he also accepts the Arminian position that the warning passages concerning apostasy in the New Testament (e.g., Hebrews 6) are directed to genuine Christians, not merely professing Christians who are in reality unbelievers as reformed Calvinists assert. There are real dangers in these warning passages, but contrary to the Arminian view, it "is "not [the] loss of salvation but severe divine discipline" (physical death or worse) in the present time and loss of reward, and even rebuke, at the judgment seat of Christ." Dillow, like other Free Grace adherents, disagrees with reformed Calvinists and Arminians in holding that saving faith in Christ "must" continue in order for a person to obtain final salvation with God. The prominent authors for the Moderate Calvinist perspective are: R. T. Kendall; Zane C. Hodges; Charles C. Ryrie; Charles Stanley; Norman L. Geisler; and Tony Evans.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Reformed Arminianism derives its name from pastor and theologian James Arminius (1560–1609). Right up until his death, Arminius was undecided as to whether a believer could apostasize. However, he did affirm like Calvin that believers must continually exercise faith in order to obtain final salvation with God. After the death of Arminius, the Remonstrants maintained their leader's view that the believer has power through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to be victorious over sin, Satan, and the world, and his uncertainty regarding the possibility of apostasy. This is evidenced in the fifth article drafted by its leaders in 1610. Sometime between 1610, and the official proceeding of the Synod of Dort (1618), the Remonstrants became fully persuaded in their minds that the Scriptures taught that a true believer was capable of apostasizing. They formalized their views in "The Opinion of the Remonstrants" (1618). Points three and four in the fifth article read:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: True believers can fall from true faith and can fall into such sins as cannot be consistent with true and justifying faith; not only is it possible for this to happen, but it even happens frequently. True believers are able to fall through their own fault into shameful and atrocious deeds, to persevere and to die in them; and therefore finally to fall and to perish.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Reformed Arminian scholar Robert Picirilli remarks: "Ever since that early period, then, when the issue was being examined again, Arminians have taught that those who are truly saved need to be warned against apostasy as a real and possible danger." Important treatments regarding apostasy have come from the following Arminians: Thomas Olivers (1725–1799); Richard Watson (1781–1833); Thomas O. Summers (1812–1882); Albert Nash (1812–1900); and William Burt Pope (1822–1903).


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The following Christian denominations affirm their belief in the possibility of apostasy in either their articles or statements of faith, or by way of a position paper.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Theologians such as Augustine, Aquinas and Luther believed that some people who did not receive a gift of perseverance can lose the grace of baptismal regeneration and justification.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Augustine (354–430) believed in a specific gift of perseverance given to some baptized Christians. Augustine did not believe that someone can in this life know with infallible certitude that he is in fact among the elect, and that he will finally persevere. Thus, those who didn't receive the gift of perseverance can reject justification and lose baptismal regeneration.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: As Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, (1225–1274) held that justified people can finally be lost. Similarly, Martin Luther (1483–1546) believed that salvation or


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: regeneration occurred through the waters of baptism. "But," noted the Reformer, "all of us do not remain with our baptism. Many fall away from Christ and become false Christians." In his commentary on 2 Peter 2:22 he writes as follows on apostates in the Church: "Through baptism these people threw out unbelief, had their unclean way of life washed away, and entered into a pure life of faith and love. Now they fall away into unbelief and their own works, and they soil themselves again in filth."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In his comments on Galatians 5:4, "Ye are fallen from grace," Luther writes, "To fall from grace means to lose the atonement, the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness, liberty, and life which Jesus has merited for us by His death and resurrection. To lose the grace of God means to gain the wrath and judgment of God, death, the bondage of the devil, and everlasting condemnation."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) wrote a commentary on Romans in 1540. On this particular passage: "Brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom. 8:12-13, ESV), Melanchthon calls this "teaching about the new obedience." Paul gives this teaching so people "born again by faith" "may understand what the obedience in the saints is like, and what is the nature of the sin on account of which they fall from grace and lose faith and the Holy Spirit." This new obedience "acknowledges God, obeys him, and fights against the impulses of the flesh which carry a person along against the will of God." When Paul says "'If you mortify the actions of the flesh by the Spirit,' he testifies that there are in saints some sinful actions, namely, concupiscence [i.e., strong sexual desire; lust]; various evil desires; . . . being inflamed with desire for revenge; hatred; avarice [i.e., greed]; etc." These sins do not lead to "eternal death" when the saints fight against these sins by faith through Christ their mediator. It is


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: when those who had been sanctified indulge in and obey such desires, do not fight against them, and are without repentance. Such persons lose faith and the Holy Spirit and are condemned to eternal death unless they return to repentance. Thus when David had become an adulterer, he was without faith and the Holy Spirit, and would have been lost if he had not afterward been restored through repentance. Here belongs what is said in this passage: "If you will live according to the flesh," that is, if you will obey the evil desires, "you will die." The same thought is frequently repeated in Scripture. . . . 1 Cor. 6[:9]: "Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, ... will inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5[:21]: "Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Col. 3[:6]: "On account of which the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient . . ."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Puritan John Goodwin demonstrated that Melanchthon fully supported the possibility of Christians committing apostasy:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: "There are two errors . . . of fanatic men, which must briefly be confuted, who conceit that men regenerated cannot lapse” or fall, "and that though they do fall, and this against the light of their conscience, yet they are righteous," or in a state of justification. "This madness is to be condemned, and both instances and sayings from the scriptures of the apostles and prophets are opposed to it. Saul and David pleased God, were righteous, had the Holy Spirit given unto them, yet afterward fell, so that one of them perished utterly; the other returned again to God. There are many sayings" to the same point. And having cited, upon the said account, Matthew 12:43-44; 2 Peter 2:20-21; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Revelation 2:5., he subjoins: "These and the like sayings, being spoken of regenerate men, testify that they may fall, and that in case they fall against their consciences they please not God unless they be converted." Elsewhere thus: "Whereas it hath been said that sins remain in the regenerate, it is necessary that a difference be made; for certain it is that they who rush into sinful practices against conscience do not continue in grace, nor retain faith, righteousness, or the Holy Spirit; neither can faith stand with an evil purpose of heart against conscience." A little after: "But that they fall from grace, and shed faith and the Holy Spirit, and become guilty of the wrath of God and of eternal punishment, who commit sin against conscience, many sayings" in the Scriptures "clearly testify;" to which purpose he cites Galatians 5:19; 1 Corinthians 6:9, etc. . . . Writing upon the those words of the apostle [Paul], 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,"—"But that in some who had the beginnings of faith, and afterwards falling, return not, that faith of theirs was true before it was lost" or shaken out, "the sayings of Peter, 2 Peter 2:20, testifieth."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Thomas Helwys "was an English lawyer and theologian who holds an important place in American, Arminian, and Baptist history." In 1611 Helwys "outlined a declaration of faith that characterized the theology of the General Baptists." Point seven affirms his belief in apostasy:


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Men may fall away from the grace of GOD (Hebrews 12:15) and from the truth, which they have received and acknowledged (Hebrews 10:26) after they have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the HOLY SPIRIT, and have tasted of the good word of GOD, and of the powers of the world to come (Hebrews 6:4, 5). And after they have escaped from the filthiness of the World, may be tangled again therein and overcome (2 Peter 2:20). A righteous man may forsake his righteousness and perish (Ezekiel 18:24, 26). Therefore, let no man presume to think that because he has, or once had grace, therefore he shall always have grace. But let all men have assurance, that if they continue to the end, they will be saved. Let no man then presume; but let all work out their salvation with fear and trembling.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Simon Episcopius was the leader of the Remonstrants and primary author of "The Opinions of the Remonstrants 1618" and "The Arminian Confession of 1621." In the Confession the Remonstrants were "persuaded that none is to be easily condemned, or blotted out of the register of Christians who holds fast to faith in Christ, and in hope of the good things promised by him, [and who] seek from the heart to obey his commands . . . ." Furthermore,


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Even if it is true that those who are adept in the habit of faith and holiness can only with difficulty fall back to their former profaneness and dissoluteness of life (Hebrews 6), yet we believe that it is entirely possible, if not rarely done (Hebrews 6:4; Revelation 2 & 3; 2 Peter 2:18; Ezekiel 18:24; Hebrews 4:1–2; 10:28–29; 10:38–39; 1 Timothy 1:19–20; Romans 11:18) that they fall back little by little and until they completely lack their prior faith and charity. And having abandoned the way of righteousness, they revert to their worldly impurity which they had truly left, returning like pigs to wallowing in the mud and dogs to their vomit, and are again entangled in lusts of the flesh which they had formerly, truly fled. And thus totally and at length also they are finally torn from the grace of God unless they seriously repent in time.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: John Goodwin was a Puritan who "presented the Arminian position of falling away in "Redemption Redeemed" (1651)." Goodwins work was primarily dedicated to refuting the Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement, but he digresses from his main topic and spends 300 pages attempting to disprove the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional perseverance.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Thomas Grantham "was the English General Baptists’ foremost leader in the late seventeenth-century, during which time his "Christianismus Primitivus" [meaning: 'ancient Christianity'] served as the primary text for General Baptist theology." In it he writes,


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: That such who are true believers, even branches of Christ the vine, and that in the account of Christ whom he exhorts to abide in him, or such who have Charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, 1 Timothy 1:5, may nevertheless for want of watchfulness, swerve and turn aside from the same, and become dead branches, cast into the fire, and burned [John 15:6]. But such who add unto their Faith Virtue, and unto Virtue Knowledge, and unto Knowledge Temperance, &c. such shall never fall [2 Peter 1:5–10], for they are kept by the power of God though Faith unto Salvation [1 Peter 1:5].


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In the treatise "Predestination Calmly Considered" Wesley observed that believers might infer from their own experience of grace that it is impossible to finally fall away. Nevertheless, whatever assurance God might give to particular souls "I find no general promise in holy writ, that none who once believes shall finally fall." Scripture, and not personal experience or inferences drawn from it, states Wesley, must be decisive in the matter. In his treatise "Serious Thoughts on the Perseverance of the Saints" Wesley allows that the apostle Paul—and many believers today—were fully persuaded of their final perseverance. Nevertheless such an assurance does not prove that every believer will persevere or that every believer enjoys such assurance. Based on his reading of Hebrews 6:4, 6; 10:26–29; 2 Peter 2:20–21 and other NT texts, Wesley is persuaded that a true believer can make shipwreck of his faith and perish everlastingly.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: , the procedure for apostasy in the Catholic Church in Poland is a procedure defined on 19 February 2016. It can only be done in person, by delivering an application to a church parish priest in person. The procedure cannot be done by email, post or state administrative services. Apostasy gained in popularity during the October 2020 Polish protests.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Out of all Americans who identify as unaffiliated including atheists and agnostics, 41% were raised Protestant and 28% were raised Catholic according to the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape survey.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Apostasy is certainly a biblical concept, but the implications of the teaching have been hotly debated. The debate has centered on the issue of apostasy and salvation. Based on the concept of God's sovereign grace, some hold that, though true believers may stray, they will never totally fall away. Others affirm that any who fall away were never really saved. Though they may have "believed" for a while, they never experienced regeneration. Still others argue that the biblical warnings against apostasy are real and that believers maintain the freedom, at least potentially, to reject God's salvation.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: McKnight says that "apostasy ought not to be used as a continual threat so much as an occasional warning of the disaster that Christians may bring upon themselves if they do not examine themselves. As a warning, apostasy can function as a moral injunction that strengthens commitment to holiness as well as the need to turn in complete trust to God in Christ through his Spirit." Some argue that the desire for salvation shows one does not have "an evil, unbelieving heart" leading to apostasy. As Fink puts it, "persons worried about apostasy should recognize that conviction of sin in itself is evidence that one has not fallen away."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: In old times canon law, apostasy "a fide", defined as total repudiation of the Christian faith, was considered as different from a theological standpoint from heresy, but subject to the same penalty of death by fire by decretist jurists. The influential 13th century theologian Hostiensis recognized three types of apostasy. The first was conversion to another faith, which was considered traitorous and could bring confiscation of property or even the death penalty. The second and third, which was punishable by expulsion from home and imprisonment, consisted of breaking major commandments and breaking the vows of religious orders, respectively.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: A decretal by Boniface VIII classified apostates together with heretics with respect to the penalties incurred. Although it mentioned only apostate Jews explicitly, it was applied to all apostates, and the Spanish Inquisition used it to persecute both the Marano Jews, who had been converted to Christianity by force, and to the Moriscos who had professed to convert to Christianity from Islam under pressure.


title: Russian grammar

text: Russian has a highly inflectional morphology, particularly in nominals (nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals). Russian literary syntax is a combination of a Church Slavonic heritage, a variety of loaned and adopted constructs, and a standardized vernacular foundation.


title: Russian grammar

text: The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one, with some additional characteristic forms. Russian dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms discarded by the literary language.


title: Russian grammar

text: Various terms are used to describe Russian grammar with the meaning they have in standard Russian discussions of historical grammar, as opposed to the meaning they have in descriptions of the English language; in particular, aorist, imperfect, etc., are considered verbal tenses, rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs. Russian also places the accusative case between the dative and the instrumental, and in the tables below, the accusative case appears between the nominative and genitive cases.


title: Russian grammar

text: Nominal declension involves six casesnominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositionalin two numbers (singular and plural), and absolutely obeying grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks, although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six main cases) – the most recognized additional cases are locative, partitive and vocative. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but it has been lost except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three, and four (e.g. , "two chairs"), where it is now reanalyzed as genitive singular.


title: Russian grammar

text: More often than in many other Indo-European languages, Russian noun cases may supplant the use of prepositions entirely. Furthermore, every preposition is exclusively used with a particular case (or cases). Their usage can be summarised as:


title: Russian grammar

text: Definite and indefinite articles (corresponding to 'the', 'a', 'an' in English) do not exist in the Russian language. The sense conveyed by such articles can be determined in Russian by context. However, Russian also utilizes other means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite:


title: Russian grammar

text: The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative has two possible forms in many paradigms, depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (persons and animals), the accusative form is generally identical to the genitive form. For inanimate referents, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form. This principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the second declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). In the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation 'N or G' in the row corresponding to the accusative case.


title: Russian grammar

text: A group of irregular "different-declension nouns" (), consists of a few neuter nouns ending in (e.g. "time") and one masculine noun "way". However, these nouns and their forms have sufficient similarity with feminine third declension nouns that scholars such as Litnevskaya consider them to be non-feminine forms of this declension.


title: Russian grammar

text: Nouns ending with , , (not to be confused with substantivated adjectives) are written with instead of in prepositional (as this ending is never stressed, there is no difference in pronunciation): – "streaming – in lower streaming of a river". However, if words and represent a compound preposition meaning"while, during the time of"they are written with : "in a time of an hour". For nouns ending in , , or , using in the prepositional (where endings of some of them are stressed) is usually erroneous, but in poetic speech it may be acceptable (as we replace with for metric or rhyming purposes): (Fyodor Tyutchev).


title: Russian grammar

text: Some nouns (such as borrowings from other languages, abbreviations, etc.) are not modified when they change number and case. This occurs especially when the ending appears not to match any declension pattern in the appropriate gender. An example of an indeclinable noun is кофе ("coffee").


title: Russian grammar

text: A Russian adjective () is usually placed before the noun it qualifies, and it agrees with the noun in case, gender, and number. With the exception of a few invariant forms borrowed from other languages, such as ('beige', non-adapted form of ) or ('khaki-colored'), most adjectives follow one of a small number of regular declension patterns (except for some that complicate the ). In modern Russian, the short form appears only in the nominative and is used when the adjective is in a predicative role: are short forms of ('new'). Formerly (as in the bylinas) short adjectives appeared in all other forms and roles, which are not used in the modern language, but are nonetheless understandable to Russian speakers as they are declined exactly like nouns of the corresponding gender.


title: Russian grammar

text: The pattern described below holds true for full forms of most adjectives, except possessive ones. It is also used for substantivized adjectives as ("scientist, scholar" as a noun substitute or "scientific, learned" as a general adjective) and for adjectival participles. Russian differentiates between hard-stem and soft-stem adjectives, shown before and after a slash sign.


title: Russian grammar

text: Comparison forms are usual only for qualitative adjectives and adverbs. Comparative and superlative synthetic forms are not part of the paradigm of original adjective but are different lexical items, since not all qualitative adjectives have them. A few adjectives have irregular forms that are declined as usual adjectives: большо́й 'big' – бо́льший 'bigger', хоро́ший 'good' – лу́чший 'better'. Most synthetically-derived comparative forms are derived by adding the suffix -е́е or -е́й to the adjective stem: кра́сный 'red' – красне́е 'more red'; these forms are difficult to distinguish from adverbs, whose comparative forms often coincide with those of their adjectival counterparts. Superlative synthetic forms are derived by adding the suffix -е́йш- or -а́йш- and additionally sometimes the prefix наи-, or using a special comparative form with the prefix наи-: до́брый 'kind' – добре́йший 'the kindest', большо́й 'big' – наибо́льший 'the biggest'.


title: Russian grammar

text: An alternative is to add an adverb to the positive form of the adjective. The adverbs used for this are бо́лее 'more' / ме́нее 'less' and са́мый 'most' / наибо́лее 'most' / наиме́нее 'least': for example, до́брый 'kind' – бо́лее до́брый 'kinder' – са́мый до́брый 'the kindest'. This way is rarely used if special comparative forms exist.


title: Russian grammar

text: Possessive adjectives are less frequently used in Russian than in most other Slavic languages, but are in use. They respond to the questions чей? чья? чьё? чьи? (whose?) and denote only animate possessors. See section below.


title: Russian grammar

text: Cecil Leigh Wilson, a PhD student of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote that she observed that some non-binary people who speak Russian use both feminine and masculine pronoun forms instead of attempting to create a gender-neutral one. Emma Friedlander, writing in "The Moscow Times", stated that some use both gendered forms while others claimed the gender neutral "Ono".


title: Russian grammar

text: If the preposition "about" is used (usually "о"), for singular demonstrative pronouns (as with any other words starting with a vowel) it is "об": об э́том – about this.


title: Russian grammar

text: Unlike English, Russian uses the same form for a possessive adjective and the corresponding possessive pronoun. In Russian grammar they are called possessive pronouns притяжательные местоимения (compare with possessive adjectives like Peter's = Петин above). The following rules apply:


title: Russian grammar

text: These interrogatives are used by scholars to denote "usual" questions for correspondent grammatical cases (prepositional is used with "о"): (кто?) Ма́ша лю́бит (кого?) Ва́сю – (who?) Masha [N.] loves (whom?) Vasya [G.].


title: Russian grammar

text: Russian has several classes of numerals ([имена] числительные): cardinal, ordinal, collective, and also fractional constructions; also it has other types of words, relative to numbers: collective adverbial forms (вдвоём), multiplicative (двойной) and counting-system (двоичный) adjectives, some numeric-pronominal and indefinite quantity words (сколько, много, несколько). Here are the numerals from 0 to 10:


title: Russian grammar

text: Grammatical conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with periphrastic forms for the future and subjunctive, as well as imperative forms and present/past participles, distinguished by adjectival and adverbial usage (see adjectival participle and adverbial participle). Verbs and participles can be reflexive, i.e. have reflexive suffix -ся/-сь appended after ending.


title: Russian grammar

text: The past tense is made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the participle in an originally periphrastic perfect formed (like the perfect passive tense in Latin) with the present tense of the verb "to be" быть , which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (откуда есть пошла земля русская , "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). The participle nature of past-tense forms is exposed also in that they often have an extra suffix vowel, which is absent in present/future; the same vowel appears in infinitive form, which is considered by few scholars not to be verbal (and in the past it surely used to be a noun), but in which verbs appear in most dictionaries: ходить "to walk" – ходил "(he) walked" – хожу "I walk".


title: Russian grammar

text: Verbal inflection is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient aorist, imperfect, and (periphrastic) pluperfect have been lost, though the aorist sporadically occurs in secular literature as late as the second half of the eighteenth century, and survives as an odd form in direct narration (а он пойди да скажи , etc., "exactly" equivalent to the English colloquial "so he goes and says"), recategorized as a usage of the imperative. The loss of three of the former six tenses has been offset by the development, as in other Slavic languages, of verbal aspect (). Most verbs come in pairs, one with imperfective () or continuous, the other with perfective () or completed aspect, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root. E.g., спать ('to sleep') is imperfective; поспать ('to take a nap') is perfective.


title: Russian grammar

text: The present tense of the verb быть is today normally used only in the third-person singular form, есть, which is often used for all the persons and numbers. As late as the nineteenth century, the full conjugation, which today is extremely archaic, was somewhat more natural: forms occur in the Synodal Bible, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (былины ) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian:


title: Russian grammar

text: The infinitive is the basic form of a verb for most purposes of study. In Russian it has the suffix -ть/-ти (the latter is used after consonants), or ends with -чь (but -чь is not a suffix of a verb). For reflexive verbs -ся/-сь suffix is added in the end. Note that due to phonological effects, both -ться and -тся endings (later is used for present-future tense of a 3rd person reflexive verb; see below) are pronounced as or and often cause misspellings even among native speakers.


title: Russian grammar

text: Two forms are used to conjugate the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs.


title: Russian grammar

text: The Russian past tense is gender specific: –л for masculine singular subjects, –ла for feminine singular subjects, –ло for neuter singular subjects, and –ли for plural subjects. This gender specificity applies to all persons; thus, to say "I slept", a male speaker would say я спал, while a female speaker would say я спалá.


title: Russian grammar

text: Russian verbs can form three moods (наклонения): indicative (изъявительное), conditional (сослагательное) and imperative (повелительное).


title: Russian grammar

text: The imperative mood second-person singular is formed from the future-present base of most verbs by adding -и (stressed ending in present-future, or if base ends on more than one consonant), -ь (unstressed ending, base on one consonant) or -й (unstressed ending, base on vowel). Plural (including polite "на вы") second-person form is made by adding -те to singular one: говорю 'I speak' – говори – говорите, забуду 'I shall forget' – забудь – забудьте, клею 'I glue' – клей – клейте. Some perfective verbs have first-person plural imperative form with -те added to similar simple future or present tense form: пойдёмте 'let us go'. Other forms can express command in Russian; for third person, for example, пусть particle with future can be used: Пусть они замолчат! 'Let them shut up!'.


title: Russian grammar

text: The conditional mood in Russian is formed by adding the particle бы after the word which marks the supposed subject into a sentence formed like in the past tense. Thus, to say "I would (hypothetically) sleep" or "I would like to sleep", a male speaker would say я спал бы (or я бы поспа́л), while a female speaker would say я спалá бы (or я бы поспала́).


title: Russian grammar

text: Verbs of motion are a distinct class of verbs found in several Slavic languages. Due to the extensive semantic information they contain, Russian verbs of motion pose difficulties for non-native learners at all levels of study. Unprefixed verbs of motion, which are all imperfective, divide into pairs based on the direction of the movement (uni- or multidirectional — sometimes referred to as determinate/indeterminate or definite/indefinite). As opposed to a verb-framed language, in which path is encoded in the verb, but manner of motion typically is expressed with complements, Russian is a "satellite" language, meaning that these concepts are encoded in both the root of the verb and the particles associated with it, satellites. Thus, the roots of motion verbs convey the lexical information of manner of movement, e.g. walking, crawling, running, whereas prefixes denote path, e.g. motion in and out of space. The roots also distinguish between means of conveyance, e.g. by transport or by one's own power, and in transitive verbs, the object or person being transported. The information below provides an outline of the formation and basic usage of unprefixed and prefixed verbs of motion.


title: Russian grammar

text: The addition of the prefix по- to a unidirectional verb of motion makes the verb perfective, denoting the beginning of a movement, i.e. 'setting out'. These perfectives imply that the agent has not yet returned at the moment of speech, e.g.,


title: Russian grammar

text: Three pairs of motion verbs generally refer to 'taking', 'leading' with additional lexical information on manner of motion and object of transport encoded in the verb stem. These are нести/носить, вести/водить, and везти/возить. See below for the specific information on manner and object of transport:


title: Russian grammar

text: Motion verbs combine with prefixes to form new aspectual pairs, which lose the distinction of directionality, but gain spatial or temporal meanings. The unidirectional verb serves as the base for the perfective, and the multidirectional as the base for the imperfective. In addition to the meanings conveyed by the prefix and the simplex motion verb, prepositional phrases also contribute to the expression of path in Russian. Thus, it is important to consider the whole verb phrase when examining verbs of motion.


title: Russian grammar

text: See below for a table the prefixes, their primary meanings, and the prepositions that accompany them, adapted from Muravyova. Several examples are taken directly or modified from Muravyova.


title: Russian grammar

text: The uni- and multidirectional distinction rarely figures into the metaphorical and idiomatic use of motion verbs, because such phrases typically call for one or the other verb. See below for examples:


title: Russian grammar

text: Russian adjectival participles can be active or passive; have perfective or imperfective aspect; imperfective participles can have present or past tense, while perfective ones in classical language can be only past. As adjectives, they are declined by case, number and gender. If adjectival participles are derived from reciprocal verbs, they have suffix -ся appended after the adjectival ending; this suffix in participles "never" takes the short form. Participles are often difficult to distinguish from deverbal adjectives (this is important for some cases of orthography).


title: Russian grammar

text: Лю́ди, живу́щие в э́том го́роде, о́чень до́брые и отве́тственные – The people living in this city are very kind and responsible.


title: Russian grammar

text: In order to form the active present participle, the "т" of the 3rd person plural of the present tense is replaced by "щ" and add a necessary adjective ending:


title: Russian grammar

text: (*) Note: These forms are obsolete in modern Russian and they are not used in the spoken language as forms of the verb 'to be'.


title: Russian grammar

text: In order to form the active past participle the infinitive ending '-ть' is replaced by the suffix '-вш-' and add an adjective ending:


title: Russian grammar

text: In order to form the passive present participle it is necessary to add an adjective ending to the 1st person plural of the present tense:


title: Russian grammar

text: Passive participles are occasional in modern Russian. Often, same meaning is conveyed by reflexive active present participles:


title: Russian grammar

text: The forms ending in -омый are mostly obsolete. Only the forms ведо́мый (from вести́ – to lead) and иско́мый (from иска́ть – to search, to look for) are used in the spoken language as adjectives:


title: Russian grammar

text: Passive past participles are formed by means of the suffixes '-нн-' or '-т-' from the infinitive stem of perfective verbs. Besides that, this kind of participle can have short forms formed by means of the suffixes '-н-' or '-т-':


title: Russian grammar

text: Adverbial participles (деепричастия) express an earlier or simultaneous action providing context for the sentence in which they occur, similar to the English constructions "having done X" or "while doing Y".


title: Russian grammar

text: Like normal adverbs, adverbial participles are not declined. They inherit the aspect of their verb; imperfective ones are usually present, while perfective ones can only be past (since they denote action performed by the subject, the tense corresponds to the time of action denoted by the verb). Almost all Russian adverbial participles are active, but passive constructions may be formed using adverbial participle forms of the verb быть (past бывши "having been", present будучи "being"); these may be combined with either an adjectival participle in the instrumental case (Будучи раненным, боец оставался в строю – Being wounded, the combatant remained in the row), or a short adjective in the nominative (Бывши один раз наказан, он больше так не делал – Having been punished once, he didn't do it any more).