Was it predicted that the true church established by Christ would be apostatized?
Yes it was.
Who created the divisions which created many denominations? One lie breeds many lies, isn't it?
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THE PROCESS OF APOSTASY
How was the multitude of the disciples was apostatized? Apostle Peter explains this in II Peter 2:1-2:
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.” (II Peter 2:1-2 NIV)
Apostle Peter said, “there will be FALSE TEACHERS AMONG YOU.” The false teachers will not rise from outside of the Church and will deceive many to get them to depart from the Church. The false teachers will rise IN THE MIDST of the disciples. How these false teachers will distort the doctrines of Christ and the apostles written in the Bible? Apostle Peter also said that, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies.”
Thus, apostasy will happen inside the Church.
The Church will remain, the organization will still be there, however, her doctrines did not remained “pure” as what the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles taught and as what are written in the Bible. False teachers will rise among them and will secretly introduce false doctrines. Remember what Apostle Paul said in I Timothy 4:1:
"Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith;
they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.” (New Living Translation)
Who are these false teachers that will secretly introduce to the Church “destructive heresies” or false doctrines? Apostle Paul answered this in Acts 20:30:
“Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30 NIV)
Apostle Paul said, “from your own number men will rise and distort the truth.” Who were Apostle Paul talking to when he said “from your own number men will rise and distort the truth”? In Acts 20:28:
“Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28 ASV)
Thus, among the bishops will rise men that will distort the truth. This is how many were led astray. False teachers will rise among the bishops and will distort the truth. When will this happen? This is Apostle’ Paul's statement in Acts 20:29-30:
“I know that after I leave,
savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30 NIV)
Apostle Paul said, “afer I leave...” He is referring to his death (
cf. Acts 20:29-30, 24-25 and 37-38; I Tim. 4:6-8). The process of apostasy or the turning away from the teachings of God as written in the Bible, was already at work even during the times of the apostles (cf. II Thess. 2:7). Apostle Paul warned the Christians in Galatia that those who teach doctrines different from what the Apostles already taught be accursed (cf. Gal. 1:6-9). But for as long as the Apostles were still alive and in control of Church administration, such forces of iniquity did not succeed in enticing the entire living members of the Church away from what the Apostles taught them (cf. II Thess. 2:7).
Thus, the apostasy will take place after the death of the apostles or after the apostolic period. After the death of the apostles (John, the last of the apostles, died in c. 90-100 AD), among the bishops (those who succeeded the apostles) will rise false teachers that will distort the truth.
THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECY
Christ said that “you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” Indeed, the first century Christians were persecuted and put to death. There’s the Jewish persecution where Stephen was one of the Christians who were put to death. Then came the imperial persecution of the Church started by Roman Emperor Nero in 64 AD:
“Tacitus recorded the rumor that Nero had ordered the fire that destroyed part of the city of Rome. This rumor was so widely accepted by the people that Nero had to find a scapegoat. He diverted feeling against himself to the Christians by accusing them of arson and by engaging in a saturnalia of destruction of the Christians.” (Christianity Through the Centuries, p. 91)
Then, another imperial persecution broke out still in the first century AD, this time by Emperor Domitian:
“Persecution broke out again in 95 during the reign of the despotic Domitian. The Jews had refused to pay a poll tax that had been levied for the support of Capitolinus Jupiter. Because the Christians continued to be associated with the Jews, they also suffered the effects of the emperor’s wrath. It was during this persecution that the apostle John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation.” (Christianity Through the Centuries, p. 91)
Thus, what the Lord Jesus Christ prophesied in Matthew 24:9 was fulfilled. The faithful, including the apostles, were put to death during the imperial persecution. Indeed, many Christians were put to death during these two imperial persecutions of the Church in the first century. Apostle John was exiled in an island called Patmos. He died in c. 90-100 AD. With the death of the apostles, however, something happened to the Church:
“For the years after the record in Acts ends, evidence for the history of the Christian Church becomes more scanty. There began to be passing references to it in pagan writers. These writers make it seem likely that the Roman Emperor Nero blamed the Christians for the burning of the city of Rome in A.D. 64. It is also very likely that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were put to death at Rome about this time… .
“When the original Apostles died, the leadership of the Church was taken over by local pastors known as bishops. Under them were ministers of lower rank, known as presbyters and deacons. The Church organized the area of the Roman Empire into provinces. The bishops at the head of the Christian communities in the large cities such as Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage ranked highest.” (The New Book of Knowledge, vol. 3, pp. 280-281)
Thus, when the Apostles died, not much was recorded on what went on in the Church of Christ but during this period of silence the administration of the Church fell into the hands of the bishops. Apostle Paul describes the bishop as he was in the first century Church of Christ. His qualities are detailed in I Timothy 3:2-7 as:
“…blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?). Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” (King James Version)
Apostle Paul further says that a bishop should be “holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (cf. Titus 1:9). Thus, among other things, a bishop in the first century Church of Christ is a husband of one wife and a teacher of things taught by the Apostles and Christ, things that are written in the Bible.
The bishops that took control of the Church administration in the second century were of a different breed. They were priests who were not allowed to marry and taught things not coming from the Bible. Moreover, the bishops of the first century Church were not monarchical:
“In Acts 20:28, …the fact that there were several bishops in one community excludes the monarchical concept of the term…” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 585)
In spite of this clear evidence from the Bible that the original bishop in the Church of Christ was not monarchical, Catholic Church authorities inject the idea that the monarchical episcopate which prevailed in the second century must have come from oral tradition:
“Therefore, since there is no clear evidence in NT for a monarchical episcopate, this office, which was firmly established by the early decades of the 2d century must have been based on oral apostolic tradition going back ultimately to Christ.” (Ibid.)
A monarchical episcopate is defined as “one single bishop assisted by priests and deacons” (Ibid. p. 589), a thing that did not prevail during the time of the Apostles. In spite of this difference in administration between the first century Church of Christ and that of the second, Catholic authorities reject the first and accept the second:
“The testimony of Ignatius from the first decade of the 2d century, along with the evidence of the writers from the second half of that century and the earliest catalogs of bishops in the principal Churches – all of which trace a line of succession of individual bishops back to the apostolic age – satisfies most Catholic theologians that this form of Church government was the only one ever recognized as normal and regular.” (Ibid.)
Soon after the bishops took over the administration of the Church in the second century, the doctrines of this Church began to be infected with poison:
“At first the history of the Roman Church is identical with the history of the Christian truth. But unhappily there came a time when streams of poison began to flow from the once pure fountain.” (The World’s Great Events, vol. 2, pp 163-164)
This control of the Church administration by the bishops who began to teach different doctrines was the fulfillment of what Apostle Paul prophesied concerning the overseers (bishop):
“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30, KJV)
