Table of Contents
Punishment for committing apostasy
Generally, apostasy is to forsake or turn away from the true God. Though the term apostasy is quite recent, the phenomenon is old. In times past before Christianity, the only people of God on this earth were the Israelites. And God required them to be faithful to Him. However, the Israelites disappointed God several times by worshiping idols. Apostasy happens whenever the people of God forsake the Lord to practice idolatry. Apostasy was a serious sin in the eyes of the Lord. So what happened to people who committed apostasy?
Punishment for apostasy in the Old Testament
Apostasy is, most importantly, a sin against God. God, in His own wisdom, passed His verdict on apostasy and the apostate.
6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. Deuteronomy 13:6-11
According to Deuteronomy 13:6-11, God commanded the Israelites that anyone who commits apostasy by going to serve other gods should be stoned to death. Apart from the days of Moses, this command was rarely put into practice. Since the day the Israelites settled on the Promised Land, apostasy – worshipping idols – has been their regular sin, yet hardly was anybody stoned to death for the sin of idolatry for the Bible bears no such record. If this command in Deuteronomy 13:6-11 were put into action, people like Micah and his family, all the kings of Israel, and some of the kings of Judah would have been stoned to death for perpetuating idol worship in Israel. Examples of death sentences for apostasy:
1. Examples of death punishment for apostasy in the days of Moses
God used Prophet Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. However, not long after having led them into freedom, the Israelites proved themselves to be very ungrateful and unfaithful, for while they were on their way to the Promised Land, they turned away from the Lord. Many of these idolaters faced a death sentence.
i. Death sentence for those who worshipped the golden calf at Mt. Sinai.
While Moses was with God on Mt. Sinai, God told him to come down immediately to the people because they had corrupted their ways. When Moses arrived in the camp of the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, he was met with gruesome feasting and amid the feast, there was a golden calf to which the Israelites were worshiping, offering sacrifices to it and bowing down to it.
When Moses saw that the people were out of control, he went to stand at the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the men from the tribe of Levi came to gather around him. Moses commanded them to take their swords and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and kill all those who were partaking in the worship of the golden calf, male or female. And the Levites did according to the word of Moses. And that day about 3000 men of the people of Israel died in the camp. (Exodus 32:26-28)
ii. Death sentence for those who worshipped Baal at Peor
A king called Barak hired Balaam to curse the Israelites, but Balaam failed to curse them because the blessing of God was upon Israel. Since he failed to destroy Israel with a curse, Balaam sought to bring destruction on Israel by another means, that is he advised the Moabite women to lure the Israelites into sin so that the judgment of God would come upon them.
Now while the moving Israelites stopped and camped at Shittim, the men began to have an affair with the Moabite women. The Moabite women went out to the Israelites and then offered the men sexual favors if only they would worship their god, Baal Peor, with them. Many of the men went to join in the worship of Baal. They join in sacrificing to Baal, eating food offered to Baal, and bowing themselves to Baal. And their reward was sex. So they committed apostasy to indulge in fornication with the Moabite women. Such a sin could not go unpunished.
To punish Israel for this gross sin of apostasy, God commanded Moses to take all the heads of the people – the rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, etc. – and hang them in the sun so that His fierce anger might turn away from Israel. Apart from the leaders who were to be killed, Moses did according to the commandment of God in Numbers 25:1-9. He ordered that all those who have committed apostasy by worshipping Baal Peor should be killed. On that day, there was a massacre, leading to the death of 24000 Israelites who had committed apostasy. Reference Numbers 25:1-9
2. Examples of death sentences for apostasy during the era of the kings
After the days of Moses, while the Israelites were on the Promised Land, hardly was anyone put to death for idol worship. This was because:
- Idolatry was perpetuated by the kings; the kings of Israel and some of the kings of Judah.
- Idolatry was so widespread to the extent that if you were to punish the idolaters with death, you would have to kill almost the entire population of Israel.
However, occasionally, certain leading members of idolatrous religions were killed in the days of the kings of Israel.
i. Elijah killed the prophets of Baal
During the reign of King Ahab, Jezebel the wife of Ahab perpetuated the worship of Baal in Israel to the extent that the kingdom was lost in idolatry. With time, Elijah challenged 450 priests of Baal at Mt. Carmel to let Israel know whose deity is powerful and worthy of worship. The prophets of Baal lost to Elijah and Baal lost to the living God. Now Elijah made sure that all these 450 prophets of Baal who were also leading members of Baal worship were put to death. And what he did was right in the sight of God, for so the Lord commanded that idol worshippers should be treated. Reference 1 Kings 18:20-40
ii. King Jehu killed all the worshippers of Baal
Also, when King Jehu took the throne, he subtly invited all the prophets of Baal, the priest of Baal, and all the worshippers of Baal to a meeting and made them believe that he was going to revamp the worship of Baal in Israel. When all the worshippers of Baal gathered in full number, he commanded that they should be killed. Hence he passed a death sentence on the prophets, the priests, and the worshippers of Baal as the Lord commanded.
However, he left other forms of idolatry unpunished such as the worship of the golden calves – a religion that was founded by King Jeroboam I. King Jehu himself partook in this religion of idolatry along with the whole kingdom of the Kingdom of Israel. Reference 2 Kings 10:18-28
Punishment for apostasy in the New Testament
In the New Testament, we see two religions, Judaism and Christianity. These religions differ from each other a lot, especially, when it comes to the matter of apostasy. What was done to apostates of each of these two religions?
1. Punishment for apostasy in Judaism
In the days of Jesus, during the time of His ministry, He got on the wrong side of the Jewish religious leaders. The Jews and their religious leaders were offended at Jesus because of His teachings and the claims He made about Himself; for He claimed to be the bread of life, God, the Son of God, the Messiah, and He even said whoever comes to eat His body and drinks His blood would not die, etc.
To the Jews, these claims were blasphemy. Moreover, Jesus openly criticized the wickedness and the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders. So His teachings, His claims, and His criticisms offended the Jewish religious leaders to a high degree. They in their turn counted Him as a liar, demon-possessed, etc. And they publicly forbade the Jews from believing in Him and becoming His disciples.
Now it was more or less an act of apostasy for any Jew to believe in Jesus. Those Jews who dared to believe in Jesus were counted as Jewish apostates. During the time that Jesus Himself preached, the punishment for believing in Jesus was being put out of the synagogue; this meant ex-communication from religious activities in the synagogue. During the days of Jesus, though many of His disciples might have been ex-communicated, the only person whose trial and ex-communication from Judaism was well documented was the man born blind whom Jesus healed (John 9)
After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Jews intensified their animosity towards those who believed in Jesus Christ. Any Jew who dared to believe in Jesus and became his disciple was counted as an apostate worthy of arrest, incarceration, ill-treatment, and even death. Around this time, many Jewish Christians were arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and some were even killed.
During the times when the Jews sought after Christians, one man stood out and took upon himself the task of ensuring that any Jew who converted to Christianity would not go scot-free. He goes by the name Saul. Saul viciously persecuted the faith more than any other person of his time. However, we can deduce from biblical accounts that he was not after every kind of Christian. His role was to sanction those Jews who had converted to become disciples of Jesus, who were also deemed apostates.
So starting from Jerusalem, which was a Jewish settlement, he viciously persecuted the Jewish Christians. The Bible testifies that Paul went from house to house, dragging off men and women who were Christians and committing them to prison. (Acts 8:3)
As if that was not enough, Paul took authorization from the high priest so that he could go to Damascus to arrest Jewish Christians from the synagogues and transport them to Jerusalem for punishment (Acts 9:1-2).
To put it briefly, Jews who believed in Jesus and became His followers were deemed as people who had committed apostasy and who deserved arrest, imprisonment, and death. And so they did to them without mercy.
2. Punishment for apostasy in Christianity
In Christianity, apostasy happens when a Christian renounces his faith in Jesus; or when he abandons Christianity to join another religion. There is no such thing as punishment for apostasy in Christianity. The unbeliever is free to accept Christ to join Christianity. And having become a Christian, he can choose to abandon the faith any time he deems convenient. And No one has the right to punish him for such a decision. This is because Jesus forbade us to punish those who have committed apostasy on Him.
Jesus said, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still (Revelation 22:11).” This teaching of Jesus Christ restrains both the clergy and the laity, the family, and the community from persecuting, punishing, or causing someone to suffer pain for abandoning Christianity. Leave the apostate to God; He shall deal with him. Hence, there is no punishment for apostasy in Christianity.