Great Apostasy

The Great Apostasy is a belief held by most non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Christian denominations that at some point in history, the original teachings and practices of the primitive or original Christian church were greatly altered. These denominations see themselves individually as a return to original Christianity. They differ as to exactly when the Great Apostasy took place and what the exact errors or changes were.

Lutherans and Calvinists

Most Lutheran and Calvinist groups teach, or used to teach, that the Great Apostasy occurred with the alliance formed between the Christian church and the Roman Empire. This begun around the time of the Emperor Constantine, but deepened over time until the church became corrupt and lost the true faith. The problem was twofold: a degradation in the church's zeal for monotheism, caused by the influx of pagans and accommodations to their traditions; and the increasing political clout and civil authority of the church, which exposed its leaders to temptations never suffered by the church of the apostles. These, at least, were the claims made by the polemicists at the time of the Reformation and the Thirty Years War in Europe.

The Great Apostasy was foretold in the Bible according to this view. First Timothy IV:1-3 states:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (KJV)

According to this view, these verses foretold the rise of the worship of relics, saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, importing polytheism, idolatry, and fetishism into Christianity; these are the "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils."

"Speaking lies in hypocrisy" and "having their conscience seared with a hot iron" were held to refer to the general corruption of the Church as it became heir to the Roman Emperors and claimed to rule an earthly kingdom, and its prelates became authoritarian lords of civil government, achieving a social rank never sought by Jesus himself. (Gospel of John XVIII:36) The "searing of the conscience" may also refer to the Roman Catholic development of casuistry that sought to justify these various acts, and to excuse the sins of the powerful in exchange for gifts of land and money.

The "forbidding to marry" and the "commanding to abstain from meats" (foods) refer to the elaborate code of legalisms involving priestly celibacy, Lent, and similar rules promulgated by the apostate mediæval church.

2 Thessalonians II:3-12 was held also to refer to a coming great apostasy. This text announces that the end times cannot come:

unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

These were held to be prophecies of the Pope's claim to infallibility and to be the Vicar of Christ, sitting in Christ's seat and in Christ's stead. This interpretation is the source of the traditional identification of the Pope as Antichrist, which occurs throughout Protestant literature of the Reformation period and afterwards.

In this view, it would be difficult to set a clear dividing line as to when the Great Apostasy began. It was a gradual process of corruption, as venal and materialistic leaders came into the Church, in love with their own high office and authority; and more and more pagan gods were baptised as alleged saints and offered to the congregation for veneration. It is also important to note that this view of the Great Apostasy does not mean that the Gospel had lost its power to save, or that all Christians during this time were denied Heaven; rather, it is a problem with the church as an institution, and the teaching of that church. God's grace preserved the true teachings and the Bible intact despite the corruption of organised Christianity.

Most mainstream Protestant churches have backed away from, or at least no longer emphasise this teaching, which is now felt to be divisive, and to belong to the more vehement quarrels of another day.

For an extensive, protestant perspective on the Great Apostasy, see the treatment on that subject by the German historian J. L. Mosheim, a Lutheran, whose six volume work in Latin on Ecclesiastical History is often referred to by protestant denominations.

Anabaptists

The Anabaptists of the Protestant Reformation believe that the Church became corrupt when Constantine ended the persecution of Christians with the Edict of Milan, and was not recovered until the Anabaptists came along. Other Reformers set other dates or time periods when the Church became less than the true Church, making it necessary for them to leave the Roman Catholic Church in order to re-establish the true Church and begin again. Several groups, including some Baptists and Mennonites, believe that besides the Great Apostasy there has also always been a "little flock", a "narrow way" which struggled through persecution and remained faithful to the truth. For example, the Mennonites published a book called the Martyrs Mirror in the 18th (17th??) century that attempts to show that exclusive Believers Baptism was practiced in every century, and how those who held that belief were persecuted for it.

Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy

Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church believe that they are still in harmony with the teachings and practices given by Jesus Christ to the Apostles, and that Christ's promise has in fact been fulfilled: "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." And elsewhere, "I will be with you until the end of the age." They point to their apostolic succession as evidence that they are maintaining the church's traditional teachings and practices. They see claims of a complete and general apostasy as a denial that Christ has been with the Church through the centuries, and as a denial that the Church has stood firm as Christ promised it would.

Jacques Ellul

Philosopher Jacques Ellul, in his book "Anarchy and Christianity", mentions a dramatic shift in AD 313, at the Council of Elvira. Christians who held public office were no longer cast out of the church entirely as apostates, but were only cast out for as long as they were holding office. At the Synod of Arles in 314, Christian pacifism was totally reversed; the third canon excommunicated soldiers who refused military service, or who mutinied. The seventh canon of that same council allowed Christians to be state officials, as long as they didn't take part in pagan acts. With this, Ellul sees the end of the original anti-statist, anti-militarist, anarchist Christianity. However, accounts of martyred Christian soldiers from the 200s suggest that the original church may not have been as anti-militarist as Ellul supposes. Ignatius of Antioch's letters from the 100s suggest that it was anything but anarchist.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses consider the Great Apostasy to have begun after the death of the last apostle, but not to have really been complete until the Council of Nicaea, when the Nicene Creed was adopted, enshrining the Trinity doctrine as orthodoxy. Most other Adventist groups in the Millerite tradition also believe in a Great Apostasy, although some retain a belief in the Trinity and don't see the Council of Nicaea as an apostate council.

Latter Day Saints

According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), apostasy in general is infidelity or disobedience to the true principles of the Gospel. The Great Apostasy, so called by LDS, is the period beginning in the old world (Europe, Asia, etc.) late in the first century A.D. and continuing until Joseph Smith?s First Vision in 1820. According to the LDS religion, The Great Apostasy is marked by the martyrdom of the prophets, apostles, disciples, bishops and other leaders and followers of Christ beginning in the first century and continuing up to the 4th century A.D. The various emperors of the Roman Empire set out to violently persecute all Christians who would not compromise the doctrines of Christianity for pagan customs. The succession of persecutions after a couple hundred years was so successful that near the end of the 3rd century under the reign of Diocletian, monuments were erected memorializing the extinction of Christianity-?somewhat of an overstatement. Nevertheless, all Priesthood bearers holding authority to conduct and perpetuate the affairs of the Christian church were either martyred or taken from the earth. What survived the persecutions was not the Church of Jesus Christ but merely a fragment of what Christ had established. Men, some not so well-intentioned, took it upon themselves to speak for God, interpret, amend or add to His doctrines, and carry out His work. Over time without the aid of Priesthood bearers and continuing Revelation, precious doctrines and ordinances were lost and corrupted. LDS point to the doctrine of the Trinity adopted at the Council of Nicaea as an example of how pagan philosophy began to corrupt the teachings of Christ. (LDS religion aligns more closely to the fourth century Arian doctrine that God and His son, Jesus, are not one substance, but distinct personages.) This state of Apostasy continued until the Priesthood and all the primary doctrines and ordinances of Christianity could be restored under circumstances which would allow the Church to continue in perpetuity. The Great Apostasy is considered by LDS to be one of many apostasies that have occurred from the time of Adam to the present. For a treatise on the Great Apostasy from an LDS perspective see James E. Talmage's The Great Apostasy.

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• James E. Talmage; The Great Apostasy; Deseret Book Company; ISBN 0-87579-843-8 (Softcover, February 1994)
• Johann Lorenz Mosheim; Ecclesiastical History from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century (4 vols.), trans. Archibald Maclaine; (1758)
• Johann Lorenz Mosheim; De rebus Christianorum ante Constantinvm Magnvm Commentarii (6 vols.); (1753)
• The Geneva Bible (1599), annotations of "Fr. Junius" to the Book of Revelation, repr. L. L. Brown Publishing, ISBN 0-9629888-0-4 (1990)