"Backsliding, Am I Still Saved?"

By Lee A. Bell

Time is short.

Are you a backslidden Christian? This eBook answers your questions and, hopefully, will motivate you to return to God. 

You know the risk you are taking living this kind of lifestyle. 

Purchase now for immediate and ANONYMOUS download, before its too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee A. Bell
• Release date: Jan 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9798590865963

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Backsliding is commonly known as turning away from God. This means that backsliders are people who experienced God’s faithfulness and mercy, and specifically the salvation of the Lord. Backsliding Christians would do well to remember the lives of the ancient Israeli people. These chosen people were not ignorant about the works and wonders of God. All was revealed to them long before they rebelled against Him and subsequently were allowed to be taken to Egypt, the place where they became enslaved. There they remained in bondage for four hundred years. However, they eventually repented and God saved them by His power and they again were powerfully shown the wonders of His grace and mercy. The question is, why did they turn away from God in the first place?

Because they wanted to hold on to other gods, they wanted to worship and serve them (1 Kings 11:9). Backsliding provokes God into anger because of the hardening of the human heart. It is like Solomon chosen by God because his heart was hardened and caused him to turn away from the Lord God of Israel, which appeared unto him twice.

Backsliding is causing others to stumble. (Most of those who backslide only think of the consequences to themselves, not how their lives affect others.) Sometimes our actions and deeds are a stumbling block to others. That is why Jesus said in Matt. 18:6-7, It is better for those who stumbled that a millstone was hanged about his neck and that he will drown in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses (like these). For it must be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come (through).

Backsliding many times acts to offend others and often drags them down instead of being a blessing to them. It also brings great chastening by God. But the question is still the same. If people are aware that backsliding is a great cause of chastening, why do they continue to turn away from Him? Because their minds are corrupted and beguiled by the works of Satan just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (2 Cor. 11:3, Gal. 3:1) Backsliders are foolish like the Galatian Christians, because they obeyed unto the truth even Jesus crucified among them. Therefore, backsliding is a great cause of God’s displeasure to His people (Psalms 78:57-59) and causes them to suffer captivity and death at the hands of their enemies).

As you read this book may your heart be opened and may you realize that God alone is worthy to be praised and to be worshipped. He alone deserves all reverence and fear. He is worthy to be obeyed. All things that He has done for us are for our own good and guidance. May this book help us to change our lives inside and outside. I hope and pray that the readers of this book will be blessed through the grace and mercy of God.

Pastor Jesse Suguipit

Senior Pastor

Loay Fundamental Baptist Church

Loay, Bohol, Philippines

James 4:4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the (desire to be in) friendship of the world is enmity (ill-will, hostility) with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend (partaker) of the world is the enemy of God.

Author’s note to non-believers: Please, please don't be put off by this topic or let it be an obstacle! The fact is the vast majority of people who get saved DO NOT fall back into their old sinful ways! This chapter is a wonderful gift given to you. You have the chance to learn from the mistakes of others. You will take full advantage of this if you are wise. If and when you realize all that God will do for you, trust Him and put away self, and then accept God's free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, the odds are hugely in your favor that you will succeed and not backslide. Enter into your relationship with God full steam ahead; hold back nothing. However, from all the information I've gathered, many Christians backslide at one time or another. This is due in part to the sheer number of Christians. This does not make them horrible people or a terrible Christian. If this is you, it only makes you human. Temptations can completely overwhelm some people because they appeal to their physical, emotional, and mental weaknesses. When initiated by evil, they specifically target those weaknesses.

The human ability to backslide is why it is so important to fully commit to God and His path of life for us, once you reach the conclusion that you are a sinner in need of salvation. If, after reading the material in this book, you accept God's free gift of salvation, go into it prepared to give 100%. It is a relationship and relationships are essentially partnerships: give and take by BOTH parties. God gives you forgiveness and salvation and ETERNAL LIFE and so much more; so what are you prepared to give (or give up) for Him?

The Holy Bible addresses backsliding repeatedly. I wouldn't write about it or even bother to bring it up if it were not Biblical. What would be the point? This book was written specifically for backslidden Christians.

A great many issues divide the church today. Losing one's salvation is just one of them, but none is more important. Scripture can be presented to debate both sides of the once saved, always saved argument persuasively. You would think a subject as important as this one would be written in stone with no division, strife, or difference among us. How sad that is not the case. I guess, ...now we see through a glass darkly, then face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). Personally, I would much rather err on the side of extreme caution and be wrong, than to trust my soul for all eternity to as issue that even Jesus addresses.

When we become Christians, we sign up to separate ourselves from the world and its evil, selfish ways. We are not to be of it (Jn. 15:19). We are to be crucified to it (Gal. 6:14:), and live a Godly life by denying its lusts (Titus 12:2). God desires AND REQUIRES us to be unspotted from the sins and stains of the world (James 1:27) by choosing to escape the corruption and pollution of it (2 Pet. 1:4 and 2:20). We are commanded to overcome the world (1 Jn. 5:4,5). Do these scriptures describe you and the life you live?

1 Jn. 2:4, He that saith, ‘I know Him’ (Jesus), and keepeth not His commandments (commands, instructions, laws, and ways), IS A LIAR, and the truth is not in him.

Jn. 3:19, (Jesus speaking) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

I get the sense that millions of Christians today don't fully realize the enormous scope or seriousness of backsliding. In fact, millions totally deny it can even happen. It seems to be one of those situations we think less of than we should, especially if it happens in our own lives. Backsliding and giving in to temptation and sin are inevitably and unavoidably linked together. In the same vein, backsliding and overcoming temptation and sin can be too. When victory over temptation and sin is achieved, so is victory over backsliding.

When you continue to live a lifestyle of repentance where you never truly stop committing the same sins over and over again, you are lying to yourself. You may lie to yourself saying that you are still on your way to heaven but you are not. Yeah, I said it; there it is!

2 Chr. 24:20, And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoida the priest, which stood above the people and said unto them, ‘Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken you." This was a clear statement to backslidden Israel then and it holds true for backslidden Christians today world-wide, If you forsake the commandments of the Lord:

1. you cannot prosper, and

2. He will forsake you

The Bible tells us in Galatians 3:1 that Christians who backslide are bewitched, that you should not obey the truth... The original Greek word here is EXISTEMI, meaning to drive out of one’s senses, to be amazed beyond measure; to be led astray. My Webster’s Dictionary adds, to captivate. God calls backsliders foolish, (senseless, unwise). They reject logic and reason and the truth of the gospel. The Galatians backslid because of false teachers and peer pressure; by lack of trust in God and by giving in to temptations and sin. Verse 3 asks them, Are you so foolish? having begun in the (Holy) Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Many of them rejected the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and ran back to the works of the law.

ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED