Regardless of whether a change agent of the 1st century or 21st century is under consideration, the inspired writer Jude’s portrait is indelibly etched onto in Scripture in just one verse: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
The methodology of change agents is to be as clandestine as possible–“crept in unawares”.
Few change agents are as brazen as the ones presently afflicting the house of God. The method of most is to try to avoid detection for as long as possible. Like termites which covertly weaken and destroy a structure’s foundation and its supporting pillars, a change agent’s method is to come in by a side door (pareisduno) and stealthily weaken and destroy the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15).
When THE faith is subverted, the salvation it offers is destroyed too.