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The Apostasy by André Reis, PhD, standing on a wooden desk before a shelf of old leather-bound books; the cover shows a gothic cathedral under a crimson storm sky

The Apostasy

The Faith Once Delivered and the Church That Left It

André Reis, PhD

Rome names the apostles as the fathers of its doctrines. The Apostasy runs the paternity test.

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The paternity test

“The day of the Lord … will not come unless the apostasy comes first.”

Apostle Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:2–3

The apostles warned that the apostasy, a falling away from the truth, was coming. Rome claims to be their rightful heir, the one true Church of Christ. It names the apostles as the fathers of its doctrines and rests that claim on lineage: an unbroken line of bishops reaching back to Peter.

The Apostasy runs the paternity test. André Reis sets the Marian dogmas, the intercession of the saints, purgatory, the papacy, the Mass, images and relics, and tradition beside the faith the apostles delivered “once for all” (Jude 3). He reads the texts Rome cites in their original languages and traces each doctrine to the century it first appears. Doctrine after doctrine, the DNA does not match: the apostles are not the fathers.

Each departure is tested three ways

  1. I

    The biblical texts Rome cites are read closely in the original languages, with as few assumptions as possible about what a text should mean, and close attention to what it does mean in its own literary and historical setting.

  2. II

    Each doctrine is tested by its history. If Rome defines a doctrine as apostolic, it should appear in the apostolic church. The later a doctrine first appears, the weaker its claim to be apostolic.

  3. III

    Contemporary Catholic apologists are quoted accurately and engaged at their strongest.

The dated record

The apostolic writings contain none of these teachings, and Rome’s own records date their definitions.

Defined as dogma

Where Rome itself records the council or bull that made a teaching binding under anathema.

  1. 1215Transubstantiation (the term, made dogma)Fourth Lateran Council
  2. 1215Auricular confession required annuallyFourth Lateran Council
  3. 1415Cup withheld from the laityCouncil of Constance
  4. 1439and 1563Purgatory affirmed as dogmaCouncils of Florence and Trent
  5. 1439and 1547Seven sacraments fixed and decreedCouncils of Florence and Trent
  6. 1546Tradition declared equal to ScriptureCouncil of Trent
  7. 1546Apocryphal books bound under anathemaCouncil of Trent
  8. 1547Justification by faith alone condemnedCouncil of Trent, Session 6
  9. 1563Mandatory clerical celibacy reaffirmed as lawCouncil of Trent
  10. 1854Immaculate Conception of MaryPius IX, Ineffabilis Deus
  11. 1870Papal infallibilityFirst Vatican Council
  12. 1950Bodily Assumption of MaryPius XII, Munificentissimus Deus

Practices that arose gradually

The earliest traces the book has found.

  1. 2nd c.Prayers for the dead
  2. 2nd–3rd c.Veneration of the martyrs (by the mid-second century), then their invocation (the third)
  3. 3rd c.to c. 1170A purifying fire after deathSpeculated on by Origen in the third century, taught by Gregory the Great around 593; purgatory as a place, around 1170
  4. 4th c.Prayers to Mary (late fourth century)
  5. 5th c.Images in churches
  6. 11th–13th c.The rosary and indulgences
  7. 14th c.The brown scapular devotionLate fourteenth century; its legend dates Simon Stock’s vision to 1251

“On either set of dates, all of them arose after the apostles.”The Apostasy, Catholicism Q&A, Q116

By the measure of its own citations

The book counts the Catechism of the Catholic Church against Scripture. “Of the Catechism’s 9,519 statements, 1,184, spread across 692 of its 2,865 paragraphs, teach what Scripture, read as it has been read in these pages, contradicts.”

Only about 1,260 of those paragraphs, 44 percent, cite Scripture at all.

c. 1,260
paragraphs cite Scripture (44 percent)
c. 770
rest instead on councils, popes, Church Fathers, the liturgy, or canon law
c. 830
cite no source of any kind
The Catechism’s 2,865 numbered paragraphs, as counted in the book’s Conclusion.

What the book contains

Chapters

  1. Introduction1
  2. 1The Story Before the Story4
  3. 2The Silent Years24
  4. 3Messiah46
  5. 4The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints61
  6. 5The Scriptures the Apostles Wrote97
  7. 6The Apostasy119
  8. 7Catholicism and the End-time289
  9. Conclusion: Contending for the Faith Once Delivered to the Saints332
  10. Catholicism Q&A340

Chapter 6, the heart of the book, documents doctrine by doctrine and date by date: the state of the dead, the “soul” in Scripture, the harrowing of Hades, the Marian dogmas, the papacy and the Magisterium, tradition above Scripture, the biblical canon, the intercession of the saints and the veneration of images, the Eucharist, the sacramental system, clerical celibacy, justification by faith and works, and the theory of development.

Catholicism Q&A

More than a hundred common Catholic claims, answered: 116 questions in twelve sections.

The State of the Dead11 questions
  1. Q1Ecclesiastes 12:7: Does the spirit return to God at death?
  2. Q2Doesn’t the parable of the rich man and Lazarus prove a conscious afterlife?
  3. Q3Did Jesus promise the criminal Paradise “today” (Luke 23:43)?
  4. Q4Did Christ preach to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19)?
  5. Q5“Absent from the body, present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)?
  6. Q6“To depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23)?
  7. Q7The souls under the altar (Revelation 6:9)?
  8. Q8Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration?
  9. Q9“Not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32)?
  10. Q10“A great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1)?
  11. Q11“The spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23)?
Mary16 questions
  1. Q12Does “full of grace” (Luke 1:28) prove Mary sinless?
  2. Q13Is Mary the Mother of God?
  3. Q14Is Mary the New Eve?
  4. Q15Is a type never greater than its fulfillment?
  5. Q16Does the Bible teach Mary’s perpetual virginity?
  6. Q17Were the “brothers” of Jesus his cousins?
  7. Q18Do the apparitions confirm the Assumption?
  8. Q19Is Mary the New Ark of the Covenant?
  9. Q20Is Mary the woman of Genesis 3:15?
  10. Q21Is Mary the queen mother, the Gebirah?
  11. Q22Does Revelation 12 make Mary Queen of Heaven?
  12. Q23“All generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48)?
  13. Q24Doesn’t the rosary just honor Mary?
  14. Q25“Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26–27)?
  15. Q26Is Mary Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix?
  16. Q27Do the apparitions prove Mary is active among us?
The Pope and the Magisterium10 questions
  1. Q28Was Peter the rock of Matthew 16:18?
  2. Q29Do “the keys” (Matthew 16:19) make Peter pope?
  3. Q30“Feed my sheep” and “strengthen your brothers”: Peter’s primacy?
  4. Q31Is apostolic succession in the Bible?
  5. Q32Has the Catholic Church always had popes?
  6. Q33Does the Council of Jerusalem prove binding conciliar authority?
  7. Q34What about papal infallibility?
  8. Q35Has the papacy been infallible throughout history?
  9. Q36How can you trust your own interpretation of Scripture without the Church?
  10. Q37Don’t “the gates of hell” (Matthew 16:18) guarantee the Church cannot err?
The Eucharist9 questions
  1. Q38Does John 6 prove transubstantiation?
  2. Q39Did Jesus let the disciples leave because he meant it literally?
  3. Q40Must the new Passover Lamb be eaten?
  4. Q41Does anamnēsis make the Mass a re-presentation of Calvary?
  5. Q42Does Melchizedek’s bread and wine prefigure the Mass?
  6. Q43Don’t the early Church Fathers teach the Real Presence?
  7. Q44“Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27)?
  8. Q45Why is the cup withheld from the laity?
  9. Q46Should the consecrated host be adored?
Scripture and the Canon12 questions
  1. Q47Who decided the canon of the Bible?
  2. Q48Did Jesus practice sola Scriptura?
  3. Q49“Hold to the traditions” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)?
  4. Q50Was there an apostolic oral Tradition beside the New Testament?
  5. Q51Was the canon settled at Hippo and Carthage?
  6. Q52Why reject the seven deuterocanonical books?
  7. Q53Did the Septuagint include the deuterocanonical books?
  8. Q54Did the Sadducees accept only the books of Moses?
  9. Q55Does the New Testament allude to the deuterocanonical books?
  10. Q56Is your canon “a fallible collection of infallible books”?
  11. Q57What were the Bereans checking (Acts 17:11)?
  12. Q58“Not to go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6)?
Saints, Images, and Veneration10 questions
  1. Q59Aren’t the saints alive in heaven?
  2. Q60Does the Bible teach that saints intercede for us?
  3. Q61Isn’t asking a saint like asking a friend to pray?
  4. Q62The elders and “the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8)?
  5. Q63Isn’t praying simply asking?
  6. Q64Latria, dulia, and hyperdulia: is idolatry a misunderstanding?
  7. Q65Didn’t God command images of cherubim?
  8. Q66Are images “books for the unlettered”?
  9. Q67Are relics biblical (2 Kings 13:21)?
  10. Q68Are sacramentals harmless aids to devotion?
Purgatory and Indulgences9 questions
  1. Q69Where does the Bible say there is no purgatory?
  2. Q70“Saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15)?
  3. Q71“Nothing unclean will ever enter” (Revelation 21:27)?
  4. Q72Prayers for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12?
  5. Q73Forgiveness “in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32)?
  6. Q74“Until you have paid the last penny” (Matthew 5:26)?
  7. Q75What about indulgences?
  8. Q76“What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24)?
  9. Q77Does temporal punishment survive forgiveness?
The Church, Baptism, and Salvation6 questions
  1. Q78“Outside the Church there is no salvation”?
  2. Q79Do the sacraments work ex opere operato?
  3. Q80Does “baptism saves you” (1 Peter 3:21) teach regeneration?
  4. Q81Infant baptism and circumcision?
  5. Q82“Born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5)?
  6. Q83Does baptism wash away sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16)?
Penance, Confession, and the Priesthood5 questions
  1. Q84Did Jesus institute confession (John 20:23)?
  2. Q85Mortal and venial sin (1 John 5:16–17)?
  3. Q86Is the sacrificing priesthood biblical?
  4. Q87Celibacy and those who “forbid marriage” (1 Timothy 4:3)?
  5. Q88Why not call priests “Father”?
The Self-Refuting Apologetic6 questions
  1. Q89“No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20)?
  2. Q90“The pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15)?
  3. Q91“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant”?
  4. Q92The pattern behind the self-refuting moves?
  5. Q93Where does the Bible say sola Scriptura?
  6. Q94Isn’t sola Scriptura circular?
Justification, Works, and Merit8 questions
  1. Q95Are “works of the law” only ceremonial?
  2. Q96Don’t Catholics teach grace too?
  3. Q97Does justification have three tenses?
  4. Q98“Not by faith alone” (James 2:24)?
  5. Q99“Faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6)?
  6. Q100“Work out your own salvation” (Philippians 2:12)?
  7. Q101Judged “according to our works”?
  8. Q102Does assurance breed presumption?
Tradition, Councils, History, and the Reformation14 questions
  1. Q103Wasn’t the early church called Catholic?
  2. Q104Is “catholic” in Acts 9:31?
  3. Q105Weren’t the Fathers closer to the apostles?
  4. Q106Augustine: “I would not believe the gospel”?
  5. Q107Do ecumenical councils have apostolic authority?
  6. Q108“Maintain the traditions” (1 Corinthians 11:2)?
  7. Q109Doesn’t the Church uphold the Ten Commandments?
  8. Q110“They sit on Moses’ seat” (Matthew 23:2–3)?
  9. Q111Was Luther just a rebel?
  10. Q112Where was your church before Luther?
  11. Q113Did Luther add “alone” to Romans 3:28?
  12. Q114Does Protestant disagreement prove sola Scriptura fails?
  13. Q115Are the dogmas legitimate developments of doctrine?
  14. Q116When did each Catholic teaching enter?

Appendices

  1. Sleep and Awakening as Metaphors for Death and Resurrection in the Biblep. 448
  2. “Truly I Tell You Today”: The Comma That Delays Paradisep. 456
  3. Decoding the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarusp. 465
  4. When the Fathers Disagree with Romep. 470
  5. Rome vs. the Biblep. 488
  6. Feasts of the Roman Calendar vs. Apostolic Teachingsp. 500
  7. Statements Attributed to Marian Apparitionsp. 503
  8. A Saint for Everythingp. 506

Followed by a bibliography, a Scripture index, and a general index.

Praise for The Apostasy

Rev. Enrique Ramos, PhDBishop, General Lutheran ChurchFormer Roman Catholic

“André Reis has written a bold, substantial, and deeply researched work in The Apostasy: The Faith Once Delivered and the Church That Left It. This is not merely another Protestant critique of Roman Catholicism.

“The scope is impressive. Rather than beginning immediately with disputed doctrines, Reis first takes his readers through the biblical story itself: covenant, Messiah, apostolic proclamation, Scripture, and the faith entrusted to the Church.

“He examines the biblical texts, pays careful attention to their historical and literary settings and original languages, traces the historical emergence of doctrines, and engages Roman Catholic claims and apologists on their own terms. Readers may not agree with every conclusion—and this book certainly does not pretend to occupy neutral theological ground—but they will have difficulty accusing the author of avoiding the hard questions.

“I therefore recommend The Apostasy especially to pastors, seminarians, students of church history … Whether one ultimately agrees with all of André Reis’s conclusions or challenges some of them, this is not a book easily dismissed.”

Cedric Vine, PhDAssociate Professor of New Testament, Andrews University

“André Reis offers a sweeping panorama of biblical salvation history, from Creation and the Fall through the calling of Israel and the mission of Jesus to the witness of His earliest followers after the resurrection. Against this backdrop, he invites readers to consider whether the Roman Catholic Church has remained faithful to the biblical story. His critique is incisive, carefully researched, and gracious in tone—a book I would gladly place in the hands of my Catholic friends.”

The author

André Reis

André Reis holds a PhD in New Testament from Avondale University, and is the author of Echoes of the Most Holy: The Day of Atonement in the Book of Revelation (Wipf and Stock, 2022), as well as peer-reviewed articles on theology and church history in academic journals in the United States and Europe.

“I was born in Brazil, the country with the largest Catholic population in the world. My parents, though not Catholic, sent me to Catholic schools for six years. … By eleven, at a Marist school, I had begun to measure what I heard in class against what I read in Scripture, and the discrepancies troubled me. They still do. Decades of study, pastoral ministry, and a PhD in New Testament gave me the tools to defend what that eleven-year-old only sensed.”

The Apostasy, paperback edition

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Format
Paperback, 6 × 9 in, 570 pages
ISBN
979-8-90417-424-8
Publisher
The Sola Collective, first edition, 2026
Released
October 31, 2026
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