Backsliding is an old fashioned word, used little in current discussion. For many persons it belongs to frontier language. The word does not appear in the English New Testament, but the concept is clearly noted. It does appear in the Old Testament. The word refers to falling to a lesser position than was held when the backsliding began. It may be a relatively mild reversion, or it may be to the degree of apostasy. An apostate is one who has lived, seemingly genuinely, in affirmations of Christian faith, but has fallen back toward denial or dilution of faith and practice. That decline may become more zealous in conduct than the faith that had seemed to have been genuine in the developing model life of the person now reverting. Backsliding often accelerates, becoming more and more negative. It tends to give the meaning that the person has developed a negative position, perhaps lesser than the one from which he or she had emerged when alleging faith. What once may have been simply a non-issue emerges into an active resistance to the faith, even if that resistance is muffled. The backslider backs away from God, in word and life, and is represented as holding diluted, false, perhaps damning beliefs. It is the kiss of Judas, one who walked with the Lord as a disciple only to betray Him. Or he may be a Demas, a valiant fellow worker with the Apostle Paul, but about whom ultimately Paul writes, Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world. (2 Timothy 4:10) The most significant illustration of this betrayal in the Bible relates to the variant backslidings of Israel from God, with subsequent recoveries.
Counselors know there are at least two major matters that must be clear if they are to be effective and help those who come to them. One is that the counselee believes he or she can be helped. Some solution is believed to be possible. So we set out to find it. It is usually found through meaningful questions and answers, unless there is some physical/mental imbalance requiring medical attention. The second issue is that the counselee, believing in the counselor, is willing to do something as consequence of the sessions. Many counselees go through sessions so they can claim they tried for solutions. Courts assign defendants to therapy. Often it doesn’t work, proven in that the counselee falls back into his former conduct. It is known that about half or more of prisoners will fall into recividism, which is a type of backsliding. They return to former views and activity, sometimes with enlarged fervor. Reformation falls away. Recividism is so common that some states have a three strikes and you’re out law, so there is no release possible on the third crime conviction. Three of four persons convicted of a third crime will commit a fourth after release. Rebellion for them is that forceful. First failure suggests future, second even more.
The illustration is apt. Many persons say they affirm Christianity, but their lives may become more carnal in action and thought than it was before, as time elapses. They forget, or never knew, that vital to Christianity is a genuine spiritual life, a growing experience, the growth of service, righteousness, and devotion – deepening conduct. These factors become evidence of our faith, or lack of it, to self, family and others with whom we have to do. We have to meet expectations of integrity to be acknowledged as genuine. Christianity affirms the practice of repentance, faith and love, forgiveness and service; and, in their application, they provide some protection against backsliding. I recall that, on Easter Sunday, 1940, I joined the church at seventeen years of age. Several of my buddies did as well. They wandered soon after. They had followed me, not the Lord they said they would follow. As a group we had not been adequately prepared for Christian life. But, I stayed with faith. My friends, like Demas, backed away. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020