An Apostate has deliberately separated themselves from a religious belief. Synonyms: dissenter, defector, deserter, traitor, backslider, turncoat; nonconformist. Apostasy is also considered abandonment or defiance of what was previously held to be true and practiced and rebellion against those same beliefs and practices.

Those who have intentionally rejected, separated or disassociated themselves from the 2×2 church are Apostates, although the term isn’t used much by 2x2s.

Commonly used terms referring to those who don’t continue (apostates) include: Ex-professors, Ex-2x2s, gone astray, lost out, lost sheep, lost their vision, never had a good understanding/revelation, had a wrong spirit, bitter; were enemies of the truth, blind/blinded, hard-hearted, vain, offended, unwilling, haters, liars, deceivers, lovers of the world, taken in by the world, not willing for the sacrifice, deceived by the Devil, believed false doctrine/lies, drawn away, backsliders, ares among the wheat, outside the fold, going to a lost eternity. They had fallen by the wayside, taken their own way, turned away/aside, wandered from the straight and narrow pathway,left their first love, gone into the World or wanted an easier way.

Sometimes the Apostate goes further than a rejection of beliefs that were once held and involves accepting different beliefs. S/he might renounce the beliefs that were previously held via re-baptism. If one works against the church, s/he is considered an Enemy of the 2×2 Church.

Regardless of whether a former member renounces the 2×2 church, were excommunicated or just walks away, those who have left the 2×2 church have lost out and are believed to be going to a lost eternity (hell).They put the lost out in this category:

1 John 2:19 – They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Worker Quote: We have often said in our meetings that there are two things fundamental to the faith of Jesus: the “homelessness of the preacher and the church in the home and only in the home.” Whenever we depart from these two fundamentals we have departed from the faith, we have become apostate. We must contend to the very end of the chapter for the homelessness of the preacher and the church in the home and only in the home (Jack Carroll, Hayden Lake, ID, 1932)