Christian Living

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Backsliding: A Detour to Hell
Shared by Patricia Backora, author of the book
Tough Love in Christ’s Millennium
Which you can order online from: http://www.publishamerica.com
John 15:6; I Corinthians 5:3-5; Hebrews 10:26-31; verses 38-39; James 5:19-20; I John 5:16

Many well-meaning church denominations and preachers have taught the dangerous doctrine of unconditional eternal security, saying that no matter what a person does or says after conversion, even if he tramples his own salvation underfoot and never repents again, he can never be lost again! Some even claim that a backslider’s salvation is so secure that at the time of the Rapture, he could even be lifted up from a bed of adultery to join Me in the air! What a loathsome heresy! He has been taught that since the Righteousness of Christ has been imputed to his account in heaven, he can do just as he likes without fear of going to hell. Everything will be OK, just as long as he, at some point in his miserable lifetime, has recited the sinner’s prayer! What blasphemous presumption on My goodness! This profane doctrine has been used to broaden the Narrow Way to Life, and pack church buildings.

There are ever-worsening degrees of backsliding. A believer can decide he’s tired of the Life of Faith, and become a backslider. At first, a believer loses interest in prayer and reading My Word. He might become so involved with worldly friends that he begins to perceive his beliefs as unsophisticated and unworthy of his fine intellect. What remains of his relationship with Me is aloof and cold. Little remains of his prayer life, unless he finds himself in a big jam he needs Me to get him out of. Or, if his conscience is nagging him beyond endurance, he’ll usually offer a perfunctory prayer for forgiveness to make himself feel better. Unless he realizes the terrible danger he’s in, his conscience will harden like iron, till nothing bothers him anymore. This usually deals a death blow to his prayer life. Unless there is a way I can penetrate the thick wall he’s built around himself , he’ll only harden in rebellion. A dog can return to its own vomit, and a sow to her wallowing in the mire, as Peter illustrates in II Peter 2:20-22. When that happens and there is not immediate genuine repentance, I, in My Love, discipline My rebellious child in an effort to recover his soul from death. Fellow believers should not finish off that one who has strayed from the truth and is experiencing My chastisement; rather, they should do all they can to help their lost brother or sister make peace with Me before it is everlastingly too late.

No sane person navigating a narrow mountain road would steer himself away from the only safe path, step on the gas and go sailing off the shoulder of the road into a deep ravine. But that’s just what backsliders do; forsake Me for the road to hell! They may have been taught the bedrock truths of My Word; yet they deliberately spurn My warnings, and persist in following the Path to Destruction onto which they have strayed.

In the terminal stage of backsliding, a hardened rebel finally falls headlong off that precipice he’s flirted with for so long. Rather than repenting because he has been chastised, that person develops a bitter, hard attitude toward Me for punishing him. He might decide he’s had enough of Me, and wants nothing except the freedom to go do as he pleases. He discards Christ like a toy he’s grown tired of! Thus he ceases altogether to walk in the Holy Faith, and no longer desires to abide in Christ, the Living Vine. Even as a consecrated Christian will daily declare his dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the hopeless apostate declares his independence from the Lord Who bought him, and tramples underfoot the Holy Blood wherewith he was sanctified! He has even rejected the ministry of Christ, the heavenly High Priest Who presents the profession of My people’s faith to Me, that Merciful One Who sprinkles His own Blood on the Mercy Seat to maintain their souls in salvation!

This is the stage at which My Holy Spirit must cease to deal with that rebel. This is absolutely the most heinous sin which can be committed by a person who once knew Me! It is a sin unto death, even against My Spirit of Love in Christ Jesus! How horrible will be the fate of such an infidel! Do not be deceived, My people! Truly, it would be better for that one if he had never known the Way of Salvation, than to have requited the lovingkindness of his Lord in such an evil way! He might put Me out of his mind by partying all night with his debauched friends and indulging his flesh to the limits of carnal pleasure. But he will meet with fearful judgment after he breathes his last. His end will be a most fearful one, far worse than that of a sinner who has never heard of My Message of Redemption.

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