Bible Questions Answered:
“What exactly is what is called back
sliding and how does a person know if they have done it?....”
Ra'naa/ Capetown, South Africa (Western
Cape)
Bible Answer:
Backslide: To slide backward in
morals or religious enthusiasm; become less virtuous, less pious,
etc.
(New World Dictionary)
The risen Lord Jesus Christ, told the
Laodicean church....
Revelation 3:14-22 KJV
14 And unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans write; These things saith The Amen, The Faithful
And True Witness, The Beginning Of The Creation Of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou
art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of
my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of Me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that
thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not
appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and
knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
21 To him that over cometh
will I grant to sit with Me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with My Father in His throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear
what The Spirit saith unto the churches.
Lukewarmness, a sign of the last
days.
Backsliding:
Exodus 32:1,8 NLT
1 When the people saw how long it
was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around
Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead
us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought
us here from the land of Egypt.”
8 How quickly they have turned away
from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and
made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are
saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt.’”
I Samuel 7:3,4
NLT (Israel repents and returns to The Lord.)
3 Then Samuel said to all the people
of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to
The Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth.
Determine to obey only The Lord; then He will rescue you from the
Philistines.”
4 So the Israelites got rid of their
images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only The Lord.
I Kings 11:4 KJV
For it came to pass, when Solomon
was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and
his heart was not perfect with The Lord his God, as was the heart of
David his father.
II Chronicles
25:2,14 NLT
2 Amaziah did what was pleasing in
the Lord’s sight, but not wholeheartedly.
14 When King Amaziah returned from
slaughtering the Edomites, he brought with him idols taken from the
people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down in front
of them, and offered sacrifices to them!
Matthew 24:12
KJV
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax
cold.
Luke 8:11,13 KJV
11 “This is the meaning of the
parable: The seed is God’s word.
13 The seeds on the rocky soil
represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But
since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then
they fall away when they face temptation.
Luke 11:24-26
NLT
24 “When an evil spirit leaves a
person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it
finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’
25 So it returns and finds that its
former home is all swept and in order.
26 Then the spirit finds seven other
spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live
there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
John 6:63,64,66
KJV
63 It is The Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they
are Spirit, and they are Life.
64 But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray Him.
66 From that time many of His
disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.
II Timothy 4:10
NLT (Paul writes to Timothy.)
Demas has deserted me because
he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica.
Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to
Dalmatia.
Hebrew 10:39,39
KJV
38 Now the just shall live by faith:
but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the
soul.
“If I have gone
back on my faith, will the Lord forgive me?”
Yes!
Isaiah 42:3 KJV
A bruised reed shall He not break,
and the smoking flax shall He not quench..."
In our Lord's day,
a reed or flax was used as a wick in a lamp.
When one saw a
smoking flax in a lamp, it meant that the lamp had run out of oil.
Some would no doubt throw away the flax, put in a new one and refill
the lamp with oil.
But our Lord says,
“a bruised reed He shall not break, and the smoking flax He shall
not quench.
Our God, pours in again the oil, and
blows by His Spirit upon the smoking flax (wick) and it again
rekindles, and gives off light. Praise
The Lord!
When someone
stumbles and falls, under grace, our Lord, He doesn't cast them away
but desires that they repent, and be strengthened by His Spirit,
refilled and rekindled, to again shine brightly!
Isaiah 55:7 KJV
Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto The Lord,
and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon.
Hosea 6:1 KJV
Come, and let us return unto The
Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He
will bind us up.
Hosea 14:1 KJV
O...return unto The Lord thy God;
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
II Corinthians
7:10 NLT
For the kind of sorrow God wants us
to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation.
There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow,
which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
Hebrews 12:1-4 NLT
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded
by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip
off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so
easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has
set before us.
2 We do this by keeping our eyes on
Jesus, The Champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of
the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame.
Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
3 Think of all the hostility He
endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give
up.
4 After all, you have not yet given
your lives in your struggle against sin.
II Peter 3:9 KJV
The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance.
