By Rev. Mark H. Creech
June 30, 2003

(AgapePress) - Just before the end of the Spanish Civil War, the rebel General Mola was about to attack Madrid when someone asked him which of his four columns of troops would be the first to enter the city. General Mola's answer was "the fifth."

Since then, the General's answer has become famous. He was saying that his most important column was a band of rebel sympathizers already inside the city. They would be his most critical line of attack. Thus, the term fifth column has been used through the decades to describe the actions of a traitor, one who helps the enemy from within.

Few things are as repugnant as betrayal, but it is very common in history. Even the church of Jesus Christ has had its traitors. In fact, today there is an entire fifth column within the church that attacks the authority of Scripture, denies basic Bible doctrine, and sows division.

A bishop in the United Methodist Church, Joseph Sprague openly rejects Christian teachings such as the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Christ. He delights in sowing discord within his own denomination by gleefully referring to his writing as the "Affirmations of a Dissenter." Episcopalians in New Hampshire just elected an openly homosexual bishop, whose selection is expected to be approved next month. A recent report by Religion News Service notes that the question of whether Jesus is the only way to salvation currently divides Presbyterians. In fact, only 43% of Presbyterian parishioners, 50% of the elders, and 39% of the clergy agree that salvation is exclusively in Christ.

The Bible has a name for this kind of opposition from within the church. It's called apostasy, and those who make up the fifth column, so to speak, are apostates. The Greek word from which we derive the word apostasy simply means "a falling away, a rebellion or revolt." To apostatize in biblical times meant to desert one's station or post. The Greek biographer Plutarch used the word to describe a political revolution.

In apostasy, those who profess to be Christians say to the church and the world at large, "The things that are seemingly clear in the Scriptures are not really as they appear. What seems to be true is not true. Sin is not actually sin. Hell is not a real place where the damned suffer eternally. Hope is not found in only one way. Truth and morality are not absolute." Distortions of the Christian faith are offered as substitutes. These may be similar in some ways to the Christian faith, but invariably they add, overemphasize, or leave something critical out.

The source of apostasy is the mind and heart of Satan. Jesus revealed this fact in the parable of the wheat and tares, referring to the wheat as the true children of God and the tares as apostates who are "children of the wicked one," placed inside the church by the devil himself. On the Day of Judgment, Christ promises that He will separate the two; "gather the wheat" unto himself and "burn the tares."

The Scriptures also show that apostasy has existed from the church's infancy and will continue with its highs and lows through the ages. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul tells the church that Christ will not return until apostasy has reached its climax. The grand apostate will be the Antichrist. "Let no man deceive you by any means," he writes, "for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first [an apostasy], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."

In other words, turning away from the true faith never completely disappears but continues with its ebb and flow throughout history, until it mounts with such intensity it results in the coming of the Antichrist and the establishment of a one-world apostate religion. Then and only then will Christ return and establish His kingdom.

I must confess, recently I've been terribly saddened by what I see as the apostasy of today's church. But I am also greatly encouraged, because I realize as apostasy sweeps on and takes its toll; God is using even this to accomplish His mighty purposes. Apostasy is separating true believers from unbelievers. Resistance to its wiles is strengthening true believers. And the fact of apostasy awakens genuine believers to vigilance and readiness for the Second Coming of Christ.

Something tremendous is about to happen! Either the Church will revive and set the stage for something akin to another Reformation -- or our salvation is at hand and Christ is about to appear on the clouds of glory!

Granted, things may get much worse before they get any better. But for those of us who are on the front lines of Christian activism, there is every reason to be confident. Because whatever the finale, whether revival or redemption, the rise of apostasy indicates there is a very happy ending in the near future of all us who truly believe!