Proof of Great Apostasy?

Question

Hey everybody,

I was wondering if somebody could help me out. Most of my Christian life, I have heard about this Great Apostasy that occurred right after the Apostles died and from this Great Apostasy the Catholic church was born. My question is does anybody know of any historical evidence to back up this claim? Thanks and God bless you all.

Curtis

Answer 1

This is a false doctrine usually perpetrated by the so-called restoration churches such as the Church of Christ, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists. Some Baptist groups even claim the same thing in an attempt to gain veracity for their group. There is no historical evidence for such a claim. In fact the evidence points to the opposite occurrence.

The Church has actually lived up to Christs promises that the Church is the "bulwark and ground of the truth" making it the ark for humanity to take refuge from the sins of the world. The Church has endured for two thousand years against the threats of apostasy and evil both from without and within. Christ promised to be with His Church and has ensured it's leadership with apostolic succession protecting the Church and delivering God's grace to His faithful. Christ promised to be with His Church until the end of the age and that the "gates of hell" will not prevail against His Church.

As Christians we know both from faith and the evidence of history that Jesus did not lie as those who claim a great apostasy would indicate but that His promises are as true today as always as His Church stands in testimony to His Word.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 2

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the devil loves confusion and smoke and mirrors. What you have been taught is false, that is why you cannot find evidence for it. The devil is laughing, for now he has convinced so many people of it.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/apostasy

First, lets take a look at what the word "apostasy" actually means. It does NOT meant that the apostles were killed off, but that someone has abandoned the true faith.
It literally means "standing away".

Saying "Great" infront of it means that ALOT of people will be doing this. From my stand point, that seems to be the truth. Every single tenet of belief has come under fire: The perpetual virginity of Our Holy Mother (the first Protestants DID NOT DISPUTE IT), the authority of the hierarchy of the church, baptism, sacrifice, the condition of the Eucharist, the sacraments, even the vestments of the priests and acolytes. There is a great attack on the church in this day and age that has never been so violent, spiteful, and hateful.

However, if you read the article below, it suggests more that there will be a falling away of actual vocations: that is fewer and fewer priests, nuns, and those that remain, abandon their calling. It also explains that it entails the rise of the incidence of atheism.

Answer 3

The Great Apostasy as I understand it comes from all of the apostles being killed off.

Peter was the Chief Apostle and the only person authorized by God to exercise all priesthood keys.

He did not pass this authority on to anyone else.

If you follow Apostolic succession, then okay fine the last Apostle had the keys and he should have restored a quorum of 12 Apostles, but he did not.

The Catholic Church disputes this by claiming that the Bishop of Rome had the keys.

WRONG

There is a distict separation in Priesthood Authority between a Bishop and an Apostle and No man can take that Authority on himself.

Hence once the last Apostle Died, Apostasy ensued.

Sorry but Pontiffication is not an Apostleship. He is the Bishop of Rome and that is all he is. Definately NOT an Apostle.

Answer 4

Well, if that really happened, the bible was structured in a way to obfuscate it nicely, since Jesus made Peter "the rock" of the church, making him the first pope of the catholic church, thus casting into doubt any great apostasy, or abandonment of the original tenets for an allotment of the generation of strikingly different dogmatic architecture. During various conferences, and over time, the face of Christianity was certainly altered, and departures from the scriptural will is almost unquestionable, although not great enough to be called a Great Apostasy. I believe that it's modern propaganda to attack the catholic church, or as justification for the schism, which I believe to be superfluous, because Catholicism is enough of a hierarchal beast in its own right to warrant its abandonment.
So to answer your question, there is no proof, since it's almost certainly propaganda.

Answer 5

The great apostasy is to happen just before the end times. Actually now. The Bible has much to say about the beliefs of people now...

Answer 6

There are far too many biblical references to show here about the great apostasy that was foretold, but you might read the following verses that substantiate this:

Amos 8: 11; Matt 13:25; John 6:66, Acts 20:29; 1 Cor. 11: 18;1 Tim. 1:6; 4; 2 Tim 1: 15; Titus 1: 16; Rev. 2: 2, 3: 16, and 13: 7.

Moreover, the rock that Jesus referred to was not Peter, but the rock of revelation. The Lord mentioned the rock too many times in the New Testament for it to refer to Peter.

Answer 7

The only reason I'm responding is to state that Christ did not give the church to Peter or make him a pope. What Christ said was that Peter knew that Christ was the Son of God by revelation from the Father and upon this rock, the rock or revelation, Christ would build His church. The winds and storms and tempests cannot topple the church built upon the rock or foundation of revelation. That revelation faltered and was lost when the apostles were killed and the quorum of 12 ceased to exist. Thus, the great apostacy took place when the Catholic Church tried to carry on but altered the doctrines to suit their own purposes. Thus the prophecy that there must come a restoration of all things. You can't restore something that has never been lost. It was lost and needed to be restored. Not just reformed, but restored. That began with the appearance of God and Christ to the boy Joseph Smith.

Answer 8

I am not Catholic, though I have heard this term. For starters, the Catholic Church was not greated in 33AD, it was created when Constantine converted to Christianity and made it the new state religion of Rome, thereby taking the old system of priests and acolytes and gave them new jobs as Bishops, Cardinals and the like...that is when Catholicism was born. Bear in mind it has no merit in the Bible to its institutional order and design, though it bears an uncanny resemblence to the system that was in place prior to Constantine's conversion.
The Great Apostasy is a term heard a lot in Catholicism to address the wayward decendance of the original Church, that as being a fallen state of those offshoots. Arguing that these new off shoots are not operating under the principles outlined by Jesus and taught by the 12 Disciples, these off shoots have fallen into apostasy.
The term means a waywardness or abandonment of one's religious beliefs. Being called an Apostate is not a nice thing.

Answer 9

Look at all the churches today and how much they change. None of them have been acting in the authority of God because they don't have it. You can't break off from somebody who never had authority in the first place and claim to have. that is why there has to be a restoration of Christ's church. That is what the Mormon church claims. look into the account and see for yourself. If you want scriptures that talk about the apostasy let me know. Or tell whatever it is specifically you are looking for.

Answer 10

Paul said that this man of lawlessness would develop along with apostasy. In fact, the first clue Paul gave as to the identity of this lawless class is that “the day of Jehovah will not come unless the apostasy comes first.” (2 Thessalonians 2:2, 3) But what is meant by “apostasy”? In this context, it does not mean just a lapse or a falling away due to spiritual weakness. The Greek word here used for “apostasy” meant, among other things, a “defection” or a “revolt.” Several translations render it as “rebellion.” William Barclay’s version states: “That day cannot come until the Great Rebellion has taken place.” The Jerusalem Bible calls it “the Great Revolt.” Therefore, in the context of what Paul is discussing, “apostasy” means a revolt against true worship.
How did this apostasy, this rebellion, develop? At 2 Thessalonians 2:6, Paul wrote, regarding his day, about “the thing that acts as a restraint” on the lawless one. What was that? It was the restraining force of the apostles. Their presence, with their powerful gifts bestowed by holy spirit, prevented apostasy from then becoming an epidemic. (Acts 2:1-4; 1 Corinthians 12:28) But when the apostles had died, by about the end of the first century, the restraining brakes were removed.
The apostasy brought in concepts derived from the Jewish clergy and eventually from pagan Rome’s religious setup. As time went by and the turning away from true faith took place, an unscriptural clergy class developed. A crowned pope began ruling over a college of cardinals, who in turn were drawn from hundreds of bishops and archbishops, who in turn were promoted from seminary-trained priests. Thus, not long after the first century, a mystic clergy class took over in Christendom. This class was not patterned after the first-century Christian elders and ministerial servants but was patterned after pagan religious systems.
As early as the third century C.E., ordinary believers had been relegated to the second-class status of laity. The apostate man of lawlessness gradually assumed the reins of power. This power was solidified during the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine, especially after the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. Then Church and State became welded together. Thus, the man of lawlessness—the clergy of Christendom—became a centuries-long line of apostates in revolt against the true God, Jehovah. The laws and arrangements that they have followed are their own and not God’s.The developing man of lawlessness also borrowed pagan teachings. For example, a mysterious, incomprehensible Trinitarian god was substituted for the One who says: “I am Jehovah. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory.” “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. With the exception of me there is no God.” (Isaiah 42:8; 45:5) This substituting of human, even pagan, concepts for God’s truths was expanded to include a further blasphemy: the veneration of the Bible’s humble Mary as Christendom’s “Mother of God.” Thus, the promoters of such false teachings, the clergy class, became the rankest of “the weeds” sown by Satan to try to choke out the fine seed sown by Christ.