What is the definition of Apostate?

In fairness to Marcia's question and to be completely honest Grasshopper you do deny a future second coming and believe He came in AD70. Am I right and if I am not please correct me as to your view.

Bro Tony

 

I am not trying to hide anything, I answered her question honestly. I deny a future coming to us, but not to whom the NT was written. It was still future to them. So I do not deny that the Bible taught a "second coming" future to those to whom the prophecy was given.

I shall quote the great Baptist John Gill:

and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
The Arabic version reads it, "ye shall see", as is expressed by Christ, in Mat_26:64. Where the high priest, chief priests, Scribes, and elders, and the whole sanhedrim of the Jews are spoken to: and as the same persons, namely, the Jews, are meant here as there; so the same coming of the son of man is intended; not his coming at the last day to judgment; though that will be in the clouds of heaven, and with great power and glory; but his coming to bring on, and give the finishing stroke to the destruction of that people, which was a dark and cloudy dispensation to them: and when they felt the power of his arm, might, if not blind and stupid to the last degree, see the glory of his person, that he was more than a mere man, and no other than the Son of God, whom they had despised, rejected, and crucified; and who came to set up his kingdom and glory in a more visible and peculiar manner, among the Gentiles.

John Gill even sees the events of AD70 as a "coming". Where I disagree with Gill is that Jesus taught more than one future coming. Though I am open to the possibility, I just haven't really found scriptural evidence for this view. On this point I agree with the dispies that "coming on the clouds" is/was the second coming.

 

When I was 18 years old I was rescued from the cult of Roman Catholicism - I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior - in my Grandmother's eyes I committed "apostasy" against the Roman Catholic Church. So in a sense, was my salvation indeed sort of an act of apostasy? Even though I went from darkness and into the light, I guess it depends from which point of view you are referring from?

 

Apostasy

Those who fall away however are professors, not posessors! The ones who have truly come to salvation will never fall away! They never fall away bacause the Lord Himself holds them close and protects His own!

 

Regarding apostacy being equated with the rapture:

Many good and godly men interpret II Thessalonians 2:3 as speaking of an apostasy but there is an alternative interpretation also held by men of repute. This verse tells us that before the anti-christ is revealed and therefore before the Tribulation a “falling away” would take place. Paul is here writing and encouraging the believers to have hope that they would not fear the tribulation period. It would make sense that Paul would promise them deliverance via the rapture rather speaking of an apostasy.

Another reason for seeing the rapture in this verse and not an apostasy is because of the language used. The word translated “falling away” is hee apostasia and from it we derive the word apostasy. Taking into account the verb in Greek from which this noun takes its meaning, aphisteemi, we can understand the word to mean to remove, put away or cause to be removed. Of the fifteen occurrences of this word in the New Testament eleven refer to a departure rather than a religious revolt.

Dr. Boreland in “Some Golden Day Break” writes, “Many of the older translators followed this line, translating apostasy ‘departure’. William Tyndale’s version of the New Testament, published in 1526 renders hee apostasia as ‘a departure.’ Coverdale, Cranmer and the Geneva Bible which followed Tyndale’s translation have the same rendering, and Beza, in 1565 translates apostasia ‘departing.’” Therefore it would be fair to say that the rapture must precede the anti-christ and tribulation period. If this were not sufficient proof we find further on in the chapter. Verse 7 of II Thessalonians 2 speaks of a hindrance that at present exists and holds back the anti-christ. But we are told that, “he who letteth (hinders) will let (hinder), until he be taken out of the way (Italics added).”

The “he” that now hinders is commonly agreed to be the Holy Spirit of God. Many are agreed that the “he” is the Holy Spirit active on His own but also within the individual believers as they make up the body of Christ, the church. While this hindrance is present the anti-christ and the tribulation cannot take place. The church cannot exist without the Holy Spirit, as it is by Him that we are all baptised into one body. As the church is eternal and the church cannot exist without the Holy Spirit the church cannot be present during the tribulation! The Holy Spirit is to be removed and we too will be removed through the rapture.

 

How does a skydiver fall away from a plane that he was never on?

 

Apostate means a person who has defected.

Apostasy means an instance of defecting from or abandoning a cause.

I would say that apostate refers to a person who abandons his faith from the Christianity.