The Wicked Myth of the Great Apostasy
"It is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with the Church in Rome, on account of its preeminent authority." - St. Ireneus, circa 175 AD
Heretical and schismatic sects have to reckon with the fact that Catholic beliefs dominate Christianity from the 100’s until the 1550’s. Some might argue, wrongly, that the Catholic Church started with Emperor Constantine, but that still means that the Church was essentially entirely Catholic from the early 300’s onward. Protestants and other heretical and schismatic groups claim the Holy Spirit failed the Bride of Christ for centuries, and imply St. Patrick, St. Augustine and many others were either foolishly misled or non-Christians. The Mormons believe everyone apostatized almost immediately after the Apostles died, although I recently debated one who insisted the apostasy began in 55 AD, and the Sedevacantists typically believe the Church apostatized in the 1960’s during Vatican II (hilariously accepting a disreputable and outdated Protestant Bible interpretation to justify it, as we will see).
They all point to a mistranslated verse in 2nd Thessalonians 2 to justify their belief that the Church apostatized, because they need some way to get out of the dogma of the indefectibility of the Church. Protestants typically struggle with the idea of Christ failing His bride for centuries, and some even promote a fanfic about how the Anabaptists (initial Baptist group) somehow always existed, and that they weren’t originally a bunch of polygamists and murderers in a weird sex cult. Many Protestants I have debated have even used the wicked Cathars for an example of Catholics persecuting “true Christians.” The Cathars of course banned marriage, promoted fornication, killed people for recovering after “Last Rites” were administered, and practiced and believed a slew of other insanities.
The indefectibility of the Church is an absolute deal killer for any would-be heretic or schismatic, so the Protestants took a page out of Martin Luther’s playbook and simply changed one word in a verse so that it either implied “apostasy” in the modern definition of the word, or something that could be misconstrued as apostasy, when the actual word really means “revolt.” Not only did it justify their religion, but in the future Joseph Smith and others would actually run with their mistranslation to start additional false religions, deceiving additional millions of people. A revolt and an apostasy are two radically different things.
An apostasy implies people leaving the Christian religion altogether. This is what the rebels are seeking to prove. A revolt implies people are rebelling against a lawful authority to begin with. So ironically, 2nd Thessalonians is predicting the appearance of professing Christian groups opposed to the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church. 2nd Thessalonians is talking about the Protestants and other schismatics. It should not surprise us at all that the so-called “reformation” occurred, it was foretold by St. Paul. Let’s look at the full chapter as it is written in the Catholic Douay-Rheims:
And we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of our gathering together unto him: That you be not easily moved from your sense, nor be terrified, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, Who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.
Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders,
And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying: That all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity. But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit, and faith of the truth: Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God and our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope in grace, Exhort your hearts, and confirm you in every good work and word.
The modern Roman Catholic RSV Bible translation uses the word rebellion instead, which is also a good and valid translation - a rebellion also implies a struggle against a lawful authority: Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first…
Here is how verse 3 is rendered in the Protestant KJV: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Protestants like to use the term “falling away” or “apostasy” in the modern sense of the term. To their credit, the Protestant NIV translators couldn’t bring themselves to be unfaithful to the original text, and accepted the traditional Catholic interpretation.
You can see how a translation error opens the door for Protestantism’s excuses, and hence the excuses of the Mormons and Sedevacantists. By the time of the First Vatican Council, enough Protestant sects had tried to use 2nd Thessalonians 2 as a proof-text that the great Cardinal Manning decided to tackle it head on:
We have here [2 Thessalonians 2:3-11] a prophecy … of a [spiritual*] revolt, which shall precede the second coming of our Lord … The authority, then, from which the revolt is to take place is that of the kingdom of God on earth, prophesied by Daniel [cf. Daniel 2] as the kingdom which the God of heaven should set up … in other words, the one and universal Church, founded by our Divine Lord, and spread by His Apostles throughout the world. In this one only kingdom was deposited the true and supernatural pure theism, or knowledge of God, and the true and only faith of God incarnate, with the doctrines and laws of grace. This, then, is the authority from which the revolt is to be made, be that revolt what it may.
What a lot of Catholics don’t know is that the Douay-Rheims was also the first English study Bible. It was meant to help English Catholics defend against the heresies of the early Protestants. Here is the commentary from the DR Study Bible text on 2nd Thessalonians 2 (go slow and bear with the old English):
St. Augustine therefore li. 20 de civit. c. 19 and St. Jerome q. 11 ad Algasiam. do think, that this sitting of Antichrist in the temple, doth signify his sitting in the Church of Christ, rather than in Solomon's temple. Not as though he should be a chief member of the Church of Christ, or a special part of his body mystical, and be Antichrist and yet withal continuing within the Church of Christ, as the Heretics feign, to make the Pope Antichrist (whereby they plainly confess and agnise [recognize] that the Pope is a member of the Church, & in ipso sinu Ecclesia, and in the very bosom of the Church, say they:) for that is ridiculous, that all Heretics whom St. John calleth Antichrists as his precursors, should go out of the Church, and the great Antichrist himself should be of the Church, and in the Church, and continue in the same. And yet to them that make the whole Church in revolt from God, this is no absurdity. But the truth is, that this Antichristian revolt here spoken of, is from the Catholic Church: and Antichrist, if he ever were of or in the Church, shall be an Apostate and a renegade out of the Church, and he shall usurp upon it by tyranny, and by challenging worship, religion, and government thereof, so that himself shall be adored in all the Churches of the world which he list to leave standing for his honor. And this is to sit in the temple or against the Temple of God, as some interpret. If any Pope did ever this, or shall do, then let the Adversaries call him Antichrist.
Thus, we can conclude as Catholics that there is no great apostasy in the sense that people will leave Christianity. There is a great revolt against the Catholic Church. So Sedevacantism rests on a Protestant mistranslation of the Bible, as they claim that we are living in a great apostasy. Modern sedevacantism also usually relies largely on a prophesy falsely attributed to Our Lady of La Salette that comes from a book on the Damnatur Opusculum (list of Damned Books, which was affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI as actually still being in effect), but that’s another story.
That takes care of the Sede’s, but what about the Protestants who will not accept the authoritative view approved by the Chair of Peter on this? They may insist that “revolt” should be interpreted as “apostasy.” Well, the trouble is they are going directly against how the early Christians interpreted it. They are joining hands with the Arians and the Cathars who wanted to interpret it that way to justify their heresies. St. Athanasius and others used the doctrine of the Indefectibility of the Church as a prime argument against Arius, showing that Arius could not be true, because the Pope could not apostatize and remain its head, and the doctrine of the Church could never be corrupted. We are largely re-litigating with schismatics in 2024 what St. Athanasius and St. Nicholas, among others, did.
Back in 2018, Dave Armstrong tackled the topic of Church Indefectibility and put together a Magnum Opus of verses that Protestants will be hard-pressed to argue with. I encourage people to go to that link and scroll down to read them all, but here are a few gems:
Jeremiah 32:38-40 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
Daniel 2:44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever;
Daniel 7:14 And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:27 And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.’
Luke 1:32-33 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Matthew 16:15-19 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
There is no way you can accept the Protestant interpretation of a “Great Apostasy” in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 without all of these verses being proven false. The Protestant claim of a Great Apostasy greatly undermines their own doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Even if we use just the Holy Bible, without any of the books the Protestants removed, to argue against the Protestant misinterpretation, the arguments of St. Athanasius against Arius, the authors of the Douay-Rheims study Bible text, and Cardinal Manning easily win out.
Some Protestants will try to claim there was always a “small remnant” of “true believers” in the world. But if that were true, they’re still claiming the Holy Spirit largely failed. They also have zero historical record of such a thing. Their primary fallbacks are William Tyndale and Jan Hus, but they are easily pushed aside and sufficiently heretical in their beliefs that even Protestants will almost always reject them once they find out what they stood for and how they translated the Bible. Tyndale and Hus were also active around the same time period, so it does not account for any evidence of Protestantism in the prior centuries.
The Bible teaches the Church will be visible, not invisible, and so too do the Church Fathers. As St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in 107 AD, “Where the bishop is found, there let the people be, even as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” Did Christ set up an invisible court of appeals? Is the person with the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven itself some unknown, invisible person? Jesus completely ruled out the idea during the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:14-15: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
It’s doubly strange when Protestants will claim the true Church was hidden, but accept the decisions of Catholic Church Councils placing the Sabbath on Sunday and declaring the dates of Easter and Christmas. It is even more bizarre when they do things like honor St. Patrick, a devout Roman Catholic, who was clearly not a part of their separate, hidden church.
The Church is indeed indefectible, visible, and historical. It never became corrupt, because things the Protestant reformers tried to refute such as purgatory and asking for intercession from Saints had been around from the very beginning of the Church. It never apostatized, for apostasy of Christ’s Bride is literally impossible, and such a massive apostasy would have been foretold in Scripture, as what the Protestants claim happened is arguably magnitudes worse than the Roman persecution. But what was indeed foretold was the Protestant revolt. In light of 2nd Thessalonians 2:3, Protestantism should not shock or surprise us at all. God was forewarning us through St. Paul that Protestantism would occur before the end times.
The verse that Protestants, Mormons and Sedevacantists use to explain the “defection” of the Church is actually about themselves. They are collectively part of the rebellion, the protest, against Jesus Christ and His bride. They are opposed to the Seat of Peter as the Sadducees and Essenes were opposed to the Seat of Moses.
