Signing the divorce papers - are you splitting up with God? (Part I)

We Christians have all heard about fellow Christians that started well and dropped off the race close to the end, whose lives can be aptly summarized in the phrase, "Once Saved, Now Lost". No real Christian wants to fall into this category. 

Some Christian sects believe in the 'once saved, always saved' doctrine - that one can never lose their salvation, no matter what they do or what happens, citing Romans 8:38. However, in doing this they fail to consider the warnings of Jesus who made several mentions of the fact that narrow is the way and few would find it (Matthew 7:14); that many would say to him 'Lord Lord' and he'll tell them he didn't know them (Matthew 7:22); that many would want to enter the kingdom of heaven but would end up not making it (Matthew 11:12); that many would start and only few would finish. 

We all know that there are categories of people in this world that are not even interested in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ, talk less of making heaven, so as Christians we must understand that these warnings are more for us than for the world. "Many are called, few are chosen" (Matthew 20:16). 

Simply put, the implication of this statement of our Lord is that many would start and few would finish. So, how do we ensure that we are counted as those that would finish?

2 Thessalonians 2:3 - "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition"

The bible references a time that Christians would fall away from the faith. In fact, it is one of the classic signs of the end times. This phenomenon is known in contemporary Christian lingo as 'backsliding', In the bible the Greek word apostasia, which is the root word of apostasy, is used to describe it. 

Now let's look closely at that word:

G646 apostasia [ap-os-tas-ee'-ah] Feminine of the same as G647; defection from truth (properly the state), (“apostasy”): - falling away, forsake. [Definition from Strong's Greek dictionary]

In the account in Matthew 19:8 where Jesus was explaining the concept of divorce to the Pharisees who asked, the word used for divorce is apostasion whose definition is given below:

G647 ap-os-tas'-ee-on: properly something separative, that is, (specifically) divorce: - (writing of) divorcement. [Definition from Strong's Greek dictionary]

By understanding the root definition of this word, we can deduce that the falling away or backsliding phenomenon can be likened to a divorce situation. 

Now, the question that we should ask ourselves is: what would cause a divorce between me and God? Before we go on let us understand that divorce can be initiated by any or both of the partners involved in the relationship, but God will NEVER initiate the divorce proceedings - He says that over and over and over again in his Word:

Hebrews 13:5b - "...for he hath said, I will NEVER leave thee, nor forsake thee."

John 6:37 - "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will IN NO WISE cast out."

2Timothy 2:13 - "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he CANNOT deny himself."

Romans 8:38-39 - "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "

You might be wondering, why am I quoting the very verse the 'once saved, always saved' adherents build their case on? I'm quoting it to point out a crucial point in that verse that these OSAS people conveniently ignore, which makes them take this verse out of context. 

'Nothing will separate us from the love of God' is VERY different from 'Nothing will separate us from God'. 

We ourselves know from experience in human relationships that it is possible for a man to be separated from the woman he loves when if she, for example, goes off to marry someone else, and still keep on loving her. So it is very possible to be separated from someone and the Person is still in love with you.

So it has been established, God will NEVER divorce us. That means if there is going to be a divorce it is going to be initiated by the other party - man. 

How then does this happen? 

Some people will turn from Jesus because His words offend them (John 6:66); 

some will turn because they loved the approval of men more than that of God (John 12:43), 

but most disturbing of all, people will divorce God because they were not careful of the deception of the enemy, and they SLOWLY turned towards ANOTHER Jesus.

2 Corinthians 11:3 - "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. "

A very important fact that many Christians overlook is that the devil is a DECEIVER. Many of us think he would put on a red suit and horns when he wants to come and trick us, and that's because we are ignorant of his devices. A lot of recent occurrences in the world and in the body of Christ are making it plain that the devil has taken his deception game to the place where it would least be detected by Christians - right in the church. We have to be very watchful. Strange doctrines have crept in, and because we neglected the warnings of the Bible to try EVERY spirit (1 John 4:1 - "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world".) and to prove ALL things (1 Thessalonians 5:21 - "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good"), we may have allowed ourselves to be deceived by the devil.

The second part of this note will talk about the various forms of demonic doctrines that have crept into the church and are slowly causing people to fall away from Christ...