What is an Apostate Church?   We sometimes hear the words but don’t really reflect on the true meaning.  Here is a dictionary definition:

• One who has abandoned one’s religious faith, a political party, one’s principles, or a cause.
• One who is guilty of apostasy; one who has forsaken the church, sect, party, profession, or opinion to which he before adhered (used in reproach); a renegade; a pervert.
• In the Roman Catholic Church, one who, without obtaining a formal dispensation, forsakes a religious order of which he has made profession.

To many an apostate church is a church that walks away from the core scriptural foundations that the church adheres to.  There is a term “solo scriptura” only the Bible.  This term implies that only one criteria is used to assess what is scripturally true.  As Methodist we apply other criteria to help understand the Bible: experience, tradition, and reason.  But to be clear we use these criteria to help us understand the Bible and it complex meanings.  Some things are very very clear.  For example, how many genders are there.  God created man and then women.  I am short cutting the story, but you get my point.  It is difficult to understand how folks in a church could walk away from this core concept.  As Methodist we would say is it tradition the answer is yes.  Does reason support it.  Again yes. And, finally is it within human experience as a truth.  Again yes.   There is not basis in tradition, reason, scripture or experience supporting an argument that there are more than two genders.   Believing such is is heresy, and clearly would be an apostacy.   John Wesley was very concerned that those who would go out into the culture trying to save it.  He feared the culture would corrupt people and the church would be taken over by it.  We are seeing that in our Methodist church culture today.  God we pray that we come back to God’s word.