Backsliding
Backsliding, also known as falling away[1] or described as "committing apostasy",[2] is a term used within Christianity to describe a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre-conversion habits and/or lapses or falls into sin, when a person turns from God to pursue their own desire.[3] To revert to sin or wrongdoing, especially in religious practice, someone lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior.[4] To be faithful, thus to believe backsliding is a reversion, in principle upholds the Apostle Paul’s condition in salvation: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
In Christianity, within the Roman Catholic Church as well as those denominations which teach Arminianism (such as the Methodist churches), backsliding is a state which any free-willed believer is capable of adopting.[5][6] This belief is rejected by Reformed Christians endorsing the perseverance of the saints doctrine.[7][8] In these denominations, it is taught that the backslidden individual is in danger of eventually going to Hell if he does not repent (see Conditional security).[7][9] Historically, backsliding was considered a trait of the Biblical Israel which would turn from the Abrahamic God to follow idols.[10] In the New Testament church (see Acts of the Apostles and Christianity in the 1st century), the story of the Prodigal Son has become a representation of a backslider who repented.[11][12]
Non-Christian religions
[edit | edit source]Backsliding, or sometimes entropa, is also used by Buddhists and Zen practitioners, there is optimism in making oneself resolved in following a way and in practice; "Making a resolve, even if we fall down, generates its own merit which will bear fruit in our future success if we do not give up."[13]
See also
[edit | edit source]- Antinomianism
- Apostasy in Christianity
- Conditional preservation of the saints
- Lapsi (Christianity)
- Perseverance of the saints
References
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- ^ B. J. Oropeza, In the Footsteps of Judas and Other Defectors: The Gospels, Acts, and Johannine Letters. Apostasy in the New Testament Communities, Volume 1 (Eugene, OR: Cascade Boos, 2011), 1-2.
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External links
[edit | edit source]- A Call to Backsliders (Sermon 86), by the Rev. John Wesley (Methodist)
- How to Avoid Backsliding - Companions of the Cross (Catholic)
