____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER ____________________________________________________ "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ January 16, 2005 ____________________________________________________ The Use of Old Testament Scripture (VI) The Possibility of Apostasy by Billy W. Moore The children of Israel were once the chosen people of God. Unto them God said, "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:5,6). They were the descendants of Abraham who had received the promise of God, "I will make of thee a great nation." Israel was that great nation. The Old Testament is largely the dealings of God with this chosen nation, his law unto them, their history, and the prophets of God among them. As we study the history of that once great nation and God's dealings with them, we should be impressed with the danger of apostasy, for that once mighty nation did fall, and thousands of the Israelites were overthrown, notwithstanding the fact that they were the chosen people of God. One of the proper uses of the Old Testament scripture is to learn the possibility of apostasy. God's chosen people can so sin as to be separated from God and thus lose the benefits that would have been theirs. How well this is illustrated by three examples in the Old Testament. Wilderness Wanderings The Israelites were God's chosen people when they left the land of Egypt and entered into the wilderness beyond the Red Sea. "But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:5-12). During those forty years of wandering, God's chosen people so sinned that they fell in the wilderness instead of inheriting the promised land of Canaan. Because of lust, idolatry, fornication, murmuring and tempting the Lord, they fell. Paul said these things happened unto them as an example, and they are written for our instruction. Let us not miss the lesson: God's people can so sin as to be rejected by the Lord. The Kingdom of Israel After inheriting the promise land, the nation of Israel was under "judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years." Because of his rebellion, Saul was rejected as king and David was king of Israel for forty years. Following the death of David, his son Solomon was king for forty years. Thus, for one hundred and twenty years the people of Israel were under a united kingdom. Upon Solomon's death, his son Rehoboam was to become king; but when he followed the counsel of the young men and proposed to increase the burdens on the people, instead of lessening them as they requested, the people refused to serve under him, and division in Israel resulted. Ten tribes rebelled against Rehoboam and chose another to be their king, Jeroboam. These ten tribes are known as the kingdom of Israel, while the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, are known as the kingdom of Judah. The prophet Ahijah had prophesied this event as he spoke unto Jeroboam (Cf. 1 Kings 11:26-40). Scarcely had the division occurred when Jeroboam perceived that if the Israelites returned to Jerusalem to keep the feasts, according to the law, they would soon return unto Rehoboam and he would be without a people. So he had two calves of gold made and erected them at Dan and Bethel, and said unto Israel: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." He also set different feast days and appointed priests who were not of the tribe of Levi. Because of his sins God sent the prophet Ahijah unto Jeroboam again to tell him that he would be cut off as king, that his house would be cut off, "for the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin" (1 Kings 14:14-16). Jeroboam was the first of nineteen kings to reign over the kingdom of Israel. The last was Hoshea. It was in the ninth year of Hoshea that Shalmaneser king of Assyria "took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria." The kingdom of Israel never existed again. Why did she fall? Here are some statements the Lord made regarding her fall: "The children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God...And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God." But what did they do? "They built them high places in all their cities," "they served idols," "they would not hear" the commands of God, "they rejected his statutes and his covenant," "they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen," "and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God" (2 Kings 17:6-17). In the "ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria...because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them" (2 Kings 18:10-12). Once they were a mighty people, once they were God's chosen, but now they have fallen. Why? Because of sin. Indeed the children of God can so sin as to be lost. The Kingdom of Judah The kingdom of Judah stood for 136 years longer than the kingdom of Israel. There were nineteen kings who ruled over this kingdom, from Rehoboam to Jeconiah. But even of Judah it is said, "Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed...for they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree" (1 Kings 14:22-23). Toward the end of this kingdom, Josiah was king when the book of the law was found in the house of God and read before Josiah. He commanded men to go inquire of the Lord "for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book." His messengers came unto Huldah the prophetess, and communed with her. She said, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read, because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods..." (2 Kings 22:16,17). Josiah was filled with zeal for the Lord and tried to reform the kingdom of Judah. He cleared the temple of all the vessels that were made for Baal, put down the idolatrous priests, brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, brake down the houses of the sodomites, brake in pieces the images and cut down the groves, and commanded the people to serve the Lord. But it was too late. "The Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah" (2 Kings 23:26). In the eighth year of the reign of Jehoiachin, (Jeconiah), Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city of Jerusalem and besieged it. He carried out all the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord, and carried away all Jerusalem. Later he burnt the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, brake down the walls of Jerusalem, and carried Judah away out of their land (2 Kings 24:10-16; 25:9-10,21). The once mighty nation of Judah, God's chosen nation and peculiar people, is now laid waste. The kingdom never existed thereafter, although during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, following the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, many returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple and the wall about the city and inhabited that city once more. Yet, never again did Judah have her king and exist as a nation. Truly, God raised up one to sit on David's throne, but it was not the throne in Jerusalem. But it was Jesus, the Son of David, whom God raised up to sit upon his throne. The kingdom of God is not a material one but a spiritual one. Surely with the example of the falling of thousands in the wilderness, and the fall of the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah, we should be impressed with the possibility of God's people so sinning as to be lost. Truly, there is ever the possibility of apostasy. Heed these warnings. Jesus taught his disciples to pray "...lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..." (Matt. 6:13). But why pray in this manner if it is not possible for a child of God to so sin as to be lost? The Lord also taught, "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved" (Mark 13:13). But what of the child of God who does not endure unto the end? It will not suffice to say, "Oh, but if he were really a child of God he would endure." For we have cited examples of thousands who did not endure. Unto the church of God at Corinth Paul wrote, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Those in the church can defile the temple of God and be destroyed. But only the saved are added to the church (Acts 2:47). Therefore, one can be saved and later so sin as to be destroyed. To those at Thessalonica Paul said, "Let no man deceive you..." (2 Thess. 2:3). But if the people of God cannot be lost, why be concerned about being deceived? There are many other warnings in the New Testament regarding the danger of falling, along with numerous examples of people of God who did fall. But may we remember that the Old Testament may be used to great profit to learn the possibility of apostasy. -- Via Truth Magazine XVII: 6, pp. 6-8, December 7, 1972 ____________________________________________________ MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST 1022 Myrtle Street Denham Springs, LA 70726 (225) 664-8208 Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM Wednesday: 7:00 PM evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520 e-mail: tedwards@onemain.com web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go ____________________________________________________