Are apostates false Christians?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Julius_Caesar
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
It just means you give up the faith. What do you mean by “False Christians” I personally think “fallen away” would be a better term for an apostate…because once a Catholic always a Catholic…its why you can only be baptized once.
 
Last edited:
Apostates are those who abandon the faith. False Christians need no defining.
 
An apostate, as I understand the term, is somebody who was a Christian at some time in the past but is no longer a Christian now. The question is, does that apostate claim to be a Christian, or not? If he does, he is making a false claim, since we have already been told that he is no longer a Christian. But if he makes no such claim. then there is no falsehood involved.
 
1ke said:
false Christian” can mean anything— the Church doesn’t call people “false Christians”.
Click to expand...
The Apostle Paul wrote of false teachers. Peter told Simon Magus he had no share in the ministry.

So when you say the Church doesn’t call people false Christians you are being inaccurate.
 
No, that is incorrect. Read your own words again and you will see your mistake.
 
I’ll pull up the relevant passage.

But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.
Acts 8:20‭-‬21 NRSV-CI


Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
1 Timothy 6:3‭-‬5 NRSV-CI
 
Neither of those two passages says anything about apostasy.
 
If you will remember this was in response to “the Church declares no one a false Christian”
 
Hopefully, I’ll make things clearer instead of muddying the waters further:

OP, are you maybe suggesting that those who leave the faith were false Christians because if they left then they never were true Christians in the first place?
 
Last edited:
I wasn’t originally responding to you. I responded to this.
1ke said:
“false Christian” can mean anything— the Church doesn’t call people “false Christians”.
Click to expand...
So do you agree with this?
 
Julius_Caesar said:
No. That’s what I’m asking.
Click to expand...
That’s kind of what I meant by using the word suggesting, but that’s fine.

So just we’re on the same page:
  1. Bob says he’s a Christian.
  2. Later he leaves the faith.
  3. Was Bob a false Christian because he left the faith? In other words, how could someone be a true Christian and leave the faith?
If that’s what’s you’re asking, then I would say that someone can be a true and honest believer in a faith and later leave that faith. This goes for both people who leave Christianity as well as those who leave another faith to become Christians. Bob can be a true Muslim, then later become a Christian. That in no way means he wasn’t a true Muslim.
 
Julius_Caesar said:
If you will remember this was in response to “the Church declares no one a false Christian”
Click to expand...
The issue is that term ‘false Christian’ is not attested within Scripture. One can read of false prophets ψευδοπροφήτης pseudoprohetes, false teachers ψευδοδιδάσκαλος pseudodidaskalos, false brothers ψευδάφελφος, false apostles ψευδαπόστολος pseudapostolos and even false messiahs ψευδόχριστος pseudochristos, but not a false Christian ψευδοχριστίανος pseudochristianos.

Insofar as I know, the earliest attestation of pseudochristianos is in John Damascene’s (spurious) Letter to Theophilus (ca. 7th century):
οἱ ψευδοχριστιανοὶ, οἱ τὴν ἁγίαν καὶ καθαρὰν Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν, τράπεζαν ἠλισγημένην ἀποκαλέσαντες, οἱ μὴ εἰδότες διαφορὰν ἁγίου καὶ βεβήλου, καθαροῦ καὶ ἀκαθάρτου.
Click to expand...
“The false Christians, who [ridicule] the holy and pure Church of Christ, who defile the altar with their disparagements, and who are ignorant of the difference between holiness and profanity, between purity and impurity.”
Click to expand...
St John is really using pseudochristianos as a pejorative to heighten his rhetoric, not necessarily as an strictly defined label that is applied to persons possessing x, y and z characteristics.
 
Last edited:
Julius_Caesar said:
Neither is the term Trinity and yet here we are.
Click to expand...
It would be far better if you could engage more helpfully with your fellow users, many of whom made insightful posts, rather than making brief commentary which, while perhaps seemingly pungent and witty from your perspective, nonetheless appears cryptic and flippant to others.

With that in mind, I’ll be leaving this conversations and wish others better luck.
 
An apostate is not a “false Christian”, an apostate is a former Christian. A Christian is one who is baptized and has faith in Christ. Apostasy by definition is the rejection of a faith in Christ once professed. It causes one to longer be a member (ie one fully incorporated) in the Church, but, as the baptismal mark is indelible, the bond with the Church is not completely destroyed and one can be restored to full communion through the sacrament of penance.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top