John MacArthur explained, "Apostasy isn’t an unintentional departure or personal struggle with doubt. It is deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching. 'The faith' refers specifically to the body of Christian doctrine, not the act of believing. Some will depart from 'the faith which was once delivered unto the saints' (Jude 3). People who understand and outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God are prime candidates for being seduced by demons away from the faith."
John MacArthur warned of apostasy. He was not talking about Christians who struggle with doubt. To the contrary, apostasy is when a person deliberately rejects the truth of Holy Scripture for false teaching. MacArthur defines apostasy as "seduced by demons away from the faith."
Apostasy happens to people who "outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God." In others words, they have made a public profession of faith, without their hearts being changed by the grace of God. Scripture says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).
MacArthur warned that apostates are "seduced by demons away from the faith." Scripture teaches that demonic spirits motivate false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1). That leads to "deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching." Therefore, according to the Scripture, they are "made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).
