Paul and Apostasy: Eschatology, Perseverance, and Falling Away in the Corinthian Congregation

Trinity Journal, Spring 2004 by Osborne, Grant R

B. J. Oropeza. Paul and Apostasy: Eschatology, Perseverance, and Falling Away in the Corinthian Congregation, WUNT 2/115. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000. 318 pp. $104.50.

Oropeza has produced a worthy counterpart to Judith Gundry Volf's Paul and Perseverance (Mohr Siebeck, 1990), arguing that Paul believes that many in the congregation, though true believers, are in danger of falling away from their faith and incurring the wrath of God. His study is more narrowly focused, centering on 1 Cor 10:1-13 in light of 8:1-11:1. It is also light methodologically, taking a socio-rhetorical approach rather than the topical-exegetical approach (according to him) of Gundry-Volf. The result is an interesting in-depth look at the Corinthian situation as well as at Paul's communication, strategy in addressing that problematic church.

The study begins with a review of the issue in church history, arguing that early works like the Shepherd of Hennas, as well as apologists writing against heresies like the Gnostics and Marcionites, stressed the danger of believers falling away into apostasy. While Augustine believed that the church is made up of the visible and invisible church, with the elect those who persevere to the end, William of Occam and others believed God's gift of perseverance could be rejected. In the post-Reformation period the church divided into Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist camps, and the issue has gone unresolved until the present day. Finally, Oropeza discusses the main works of our day on perseverance, the Calvinist approaches of G. C. Berkouwer (1958), D. A. Carson (1981), and Gundry Volf (1990), and the Arminian approach of I. H. Marshall (1969), finding that they assume too easily that the Bible has a uniform view and that they fail to develop the social-historical and rhetorical dimensions of the texts studied. Too often a system is presupposed and the texts read in the light of that system rather than in their own contexts. He seeks to rectify that error in his own study by choosing a single major passage on the issue, 1 Cor 10:1-13.

Oropeza argues that Paul employs a deliberative rhetoric in 1 Cor 8:1-11:1, as Paul compares the Corinthians with Israel in the wilderness, utilizing a "then" and "now" comparison to say that present idolatry and sexual immorality will have the same effects as the wilderness wanderings, first dividing the church and then destroying the offenders. Oropeza also attempts a socio-anthropological study of the passage by stressing that for Paul the believer comes "inside" via conversion/baptism and goes "outside" the Christian faith via apostasy. In a detailed study of 10:1-13, Oropeza sees Paul equating the church with Israel in terms of baptism (Israel "baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea," v. 2, symbols of baptism). For both groups this resulted in a liminal or marginal state separating Israel from Egypt and the Christians from their former pagan state. This means that the addressees in Corinth have experienced "a genuine conversion-initiation and election" (p. 116).

In 1 Cor 10:5-11 Oropeza argues that Paul sees the divine judgments on "the wilderness generation" as "eschatological prefigurations for the Corinthian community" (p. 117). As God rejected the majority of the Israelites for apostasy (10:5, e.g., Massah and Meribah as a symbol of apostasy in Psalms 77, 95, 106), the Corinthians are warned against setting their lust after evil things like Israel did (10:6). This is expanded by specific sins in w. 7-10, all of them building on parallels between the wilderness wanderers and the Corinthians: the golden calf and meat offered to idols (v. 7), Baal-peor and the porneia cultus (v. 8), the provocation in the wilderness and testing Christ at Corinth (v. 9), and discord and grumbling both in the wilderness and at Corinth (v. 10). All of these bring the judgment of God down upon his people, but it is even more serious at Corinth because "the fulfillment of the ages has come" (v. 11), so as the wilderness sins led to the death of the people in the wilderness, so the sins of the Corinthians will constitute an apostasy that will bring Judgment upon their heads: "apostasy in the current disposition means eschatological death" (p. 191).

The final two verses constitute a warning against apostasy (v. 12) and a word of perseverance (v. 13). Many take "if you think you are standing" in v. 12 to mean the person is not a true believer but only thinks they are, but Oropeza argues that that is to read v. 12 in light of the election theology of Romans (e.g., Gundry Volf, 126-27). Yet in light of the immediate context (10:1-4, 6, 11) and throughout 1 Corinthians (1:1-9, 18, 31; 4:15; 6:6, 11, 19f.; 12:13), Paul considers them to be true believers; and throughout the discourse on idol meats they are treated as genuine "brothers" (8:5-6, 11-12; 9:1-2, 11, 24-25; 10:16-17; pp. 194-95). So "think they stand" means a false sense of security in light of the new eschatological covenant in Christ in spite of their accumulating sins. Paul's encouragement to persevere in v. 13 centers on the faithful God who provides "a way to escape." Yet according to Oropeza this does not entail a belief in the final perseverance of believers, for it is no guarantee against apostasy but rather a promise that God will faithfully help them in the time of temptation (pp. 217-18).