We need to understand the proper meaning of apostasy. Apostasy means to be distracted from the right track in following God. Apostasy is worshipping God in a devilish way. Whenever someone uses the worship of God as a cloak to take a devilish way, he has fallen into apostasy. The Roman Catholic Church is a total apostasy. No wonder it is called the apostate church. The Roman Catholic Church worships God, but it worships Him in a devilish way. Although those in Catholicism worship God in name, they are actually worshipping idols. The Roman Catholic Church does exactly the same thing Jeroboam did when he set up the idols and said, "Behold thy gods, O Israel." Jeroboam seemed to be saying, "This is the God you must worship." In reality that was not God; it was a golden calf. Hence, apostasy is worshipping God in a way that is false and devilish.

Today's Christianity is filled with apostasy. Apostasy is universal. Many who claim to be worshipping God are in fact worshipping idols. If you visit a Catholic cathedral, you will see people worshipping the idols that are along the walls and burning candles to the so-called saints. In name they worship God and Jesus; in actuality, they worship idols. According to G. H. Pember, one of the idols in the Roman Catholic Church is Buddha, who was assimilated into Catholicism under the name of St. Josaphat. What apostasy!

The words "for themselves" in Judges 18:30 are very significant. Many who claim to be worshipping God are really doing something for themselves. Apostasy is doing something for the self under the cloak of worshipping God. Jeroboam had no heart for God. Rather, his heart was for his own little empire. In his heart he feared that the kingdom would return to the house of David (1 Kings 12:26). Using the name of God as a cloak, he did everything possible to preserve his empire. This is apostasy. The whole of Christendom today is an apostasy. So many are doing things for themselves under the name of Jesus Christ and under the cloak of the worship of God. This is the reason the Lord needs a recovery. The Lord's recovery will always offend others. As long as the recovery is here, the divisive groups will stand condemned. As long as the temple was in Jerusalem, the golden calf was under condemnation. Was it possible for Dan to love Jerusalem? No, there could be no reconciliation between Dan and Jerusalem. Often others have come to me and said, "Brother Lee, please don't be so bold. Why not be a little nice?" I replied, "To whom should I be nice? To the serpent? To the horned snake? To the graven image? To the golden calf? I hate the golden calf, and I would like to burn the graven image and crush the head of the horned snake." How can we be kind to today's apostasy? There can be no compromise. Do not try to compromise with the serpent, the horned snake. If you are kind to the snake, you will be poisoned by it. If you try to be nice to today's apostasy, you will be damaged. The testimony is the testimony, and apostasy is apostasy. In Jerusalem there was God's temple as His testimony, but in Dan there was apostasy. Both in church history and in our own Christian experience we have seen this very thing. There may have been times when we were distracted from the right way in following God and fell into a type of apostasy. We might have said that we were working for the Lord when we were actually working for something else. This is apostasy.

Dan did not care for the other tribes; he cared only for his own tribe. After he won the victory and gained the expansion, the enlargement, he did something for himself. This was the source of his apostasy. According to the Old Testament, the Lord never forgot Dan's apostasy. In the eyes of God it was the worst sin in His economy. Nothing is more damaging than divisiveness. Nothing is more destructive than division among God's people. Divisive worship centers are often related to idols. Because the Devil lurks behind idols, by setting up an idol Dan became a serpent. Whenever you become divisive, no matter how good your reason may be, there will be something behind you—the serpent, the subtle one. The whole history of the church testifies of this and our experience confirms it. Whenever you do not care for others, but only for your interests, doing something merely for yourself, the serpent is at hand. The best way to be safeguarded from falling into apostasy is taking care of others. Suppose Dan had contacted the other tribes and said, "Brothers, do you agree that I set up another worship center in the city of Dan?" Had he done this, the others would have said, "Brother, don't do this. Deuteronomy 12, 14, 15, and 16 forbid us to have any other center of worship that we may come to the unique center." If Dan had consulted the other tribes, he would have been kept from apostasy. But being individualistic, he set up another worship center and fell into apostasy.

Dan fell into apostasy because he cared only for his own interests. In principle, every divisive center of worship is the same. Those who establish them care only for their interests, their desires, and they neglect all the other saints. They are like Dan, who cared only for his tribe, not for the others.

Dan not only set up a divisive center, but also ordained the hired "priests" (Judg. 18:30; 1 Kings 12:31). To hire the common people to be priests was profane because it destroyed God's holy ordination. In the downfall of the church, many unsaved ones have been hired to do the service of God. This is apostasy. In God's New Testament economy, all true believers are made priests of God (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10). But degraded Christianity has built up a system to ordain some of the believers to do the service of God, making them a clerical hierarchy and leaving the rest of the believers as laymen. This also is a form of apostasy. To have the clergy and the laity is an apostate practice which we must abhor and abandon.