Based on Deuteronomy 13 (New King James Version)
“‘If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. ‘If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you. ‘If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ ’—which you have not known—then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.”
For many, this passage must seem very harsh, or that the measures are very strict, that there is simply zero tolerance. And yes, you can say that. In the Lord there is really no tolerance for any deviation, there was none before, nor is there today. Now, are we to kill people today as He commanded, to kill even loved ones or entire cities for their apostasy? No. Today we live in what the Word calls the dispensation of God's grace, which means that God now gives the opportunity through the Lord Jesus Christ for everyone to repent of their sins, and for the penalty of death to come when God decides in His full decision, and not as He stipulated in his Word before Christ came. But we must understand this matter of apostasy or deviation from God so that it is not committed, because God will eternally punish a person if they depart from Him to follow other things.
Let's begin to look at this issue of apostasy or deviation so we can understand why it is so serious. The truth is that God does not punish deviation as by virtue of designating something as bad and for that reason it is punished. The truth or reality is that there is life only in one thing, or rather, in one Person, in the Lord, and if a person turns away from the Lord, deviating from the very straight and exact path towards Him, the natural consequence of that deviation is death. There is life, light, and eternity only in one person in the entire universe, in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why He Himself said, proclaiming a reality, not a desire or an illusion of grandeur, but an irrefutable truth: “…‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6. So, turning away from the Lord brings eternal death as a natural consequence, and that is a person's decision, it is not something that neither God forces on someone, nor can the devil and all his hosts force this on a person. This is choice. And that is why there is such a thing as the final judgment before God, even during this time of the dispensation of God's grace. Apostasy continues to have the same consequence as before, eternal death.
Now, you may say: I can understand why God punished apostasy so harshly, because the people turned away to follow other gods. And yes, they would be right to think that. But, let's look even further at what apostasy really is, and this will surprise many people, because apostasy involves much more than foreign and strange gods. There are many times that we associate apostasy with obvious things, but we overlook the not-so-obvious things. Apostasy or deviation is preached and taught throughout society today, and be careful, in the vast majority of our churches as well. And there may be certain congregations that don’t teach apostasy, but just as bad, they live in apostasy. The vast majority today live in apostasy, and if they do not repent, they will die eternally in that apostasy. In order to understand what apostasy is, you have to go to the truth, to the path that leads to God, so then you can be able to see the apostasy, the deviation. The only way to be saved consists of three very fundamental things: complete repentance and conversion from all sins (not just some sins), literally recognizing and accepting Jesus as Lord (and not just as savior, or anything else), and to live that reality, to follow the Lord, to live for that Lord. This is the way to salvation, to eternal life. If there is any deviation in any of these three things, that is where the deviation occurs. So, if a person tells you that you only need to believe in Christ, and do nothing else to be saved, that is apostasy. If they tell you that you don't need to do anything else after accepting Christ, since we are not saved by works, that is apostasy. If a person tells you that God exists to fulfill your desires and help you achieve your goals, that is apostasy. If a person tells you that you do not need to serve the Lord, but that your faith is what saves you, that is apostasy. Anything that goes outside the line of repentance and conversion of sins, of the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of living for that Lord, is simply apostasy, and that deviation will lead the person to eternal perdition if they do not repent in time. This is what the Word says: “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Romans 14:7-9. Looking at things that way, can you see how apostasy is everywhere? So, the path to God the Father is simple and very exact. Therefore, for your own good, you must ask yourself this very simple question: Do I live for the Lord, to do His will, or do I live for myself, to fulfill my will, or for other things or people? Lord bless! John. God bless Israel.