What Is The State of a Backslider?

If a person has been a Christian for any length of time, he has probably known someone who has walked away from Christ. What is that person's state? I would like to examine 4 points of view briefly, showing why I believe some them to be untenable. Our criteria for judging these things should be Scripture, not only New Testament Scripture but also Old Testament Scripture. This method can be seen to be sound if you consider that Jude, to quote only one example, uses Cain, Balaam and Korah as examples in warning concerning apostates, and these can only be understood if their Old Testament background is understood.

The first view is what I would call the antinomian view. This view is that in essence no matter what a person does, or even if they later deny the faith they will still go to heaven if they have confessed Christ and only their rewards would be lost. This view is out and out heresy. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The key is in confessing and also as Proverbs 28:13 shows in forsaking them. There is no hint anywhere in Scripture that one merely announcing their sin to God with an unrepentant attitude will receive anything from God. If they receive His notice it would not be to their benefit.

I do wonder how someone from this camp would view the case of King Saul. Is it reasonable that one to whom God would not speak, not by dreams, nor Urim, nor prophet would gather him unto Himself to have fellowship after death, especially after he compounded his sin by enquiring from the devil? Would one who repeatedly disobeyed the Lord and expressed no regret except that the people might know of it be taken into heaven unrepentant? If so would the Lord’s prayer of “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” have any meaning at all? Indeed more could be said on behalf of Judas, the son of perdition, than Saul. He had the greatest of crimes, yet he cast the very silver he had accrued back to try to atone for his guilt. When the guilt still pressed hard on him, he tried the only method of escape he could think of, doubtless thinking that he could not bear the guilt of his sin anymore in his mortal life. However he could not escape, anymore than any of us can. In eternity we will either see in its true light the enormity of our crimes against God to see them also washed away by the blood of Christ and be unable to do anything but praise Him for His great mercy, or we will see the enormity of our crimes against Him without hope of amendment and have unspeakable grief and anguish as well as external torment as we see what we have done finally hearing the voice of conscience which we strove so long to silence forever and ever.

The second view is the view of most Calvinists and some non-Calvinists. It holds that men like King Saul, Balaam and Judas were never truly saved. The problem with this view is that it requires one to turn a blind eye to the evidence. In the case of Balaam, why would God specifically warn a man who as some would say, was only a soothsayer and nothing more (Num. 28:8-12)? While there is a common grace and there are good gifts that God bestows upon all, whether His children or not, the privilege of asking His will and receiving a definite reply is not one of those. Indeed why would God be especially angry that one who was a stranger to Him and a child of wrath anyway should disobey Him and go in spite of the warnings? Clearly Balaam was a believer in some capacity and as such is used as a warning to believers in the New Testament.

In the case of Saul, what was the different heart that God gave him if not a moral work. To interpret it to mean merely fitting him for leadership is a bad case of reading your own conceptions into the text. If leadership of the people of God requires anything it requires a moral work in the heart, anything less is utterly useless for the work at hand (2 Sam. 23:3). Indeed if the work of giving him another heart is interpreted as merely fitting him to rule in order that God’s honor is not impugned, it fails on that count in that other than a few short deeds done in the beginning of his reign, Saul was clearly see to be unfit as a ruler. We will cover a little more on King Saul later.

Judas preached worked miracles and even drove out evil spirits with the rest of the twelve, which makes one ask how is it possible for one who has always been under the devil’s dominion and who has had no true work of grace in his heart to have the anointing of God upon him and to even cast out devils? Giving as much allowance as possible for human nature’s ability to deceive itself and deceive others, yet how far can unregenerate man ape the regeneration of God and how far can natural man pretend and even deceive himself as to the supernatural?

This is a problem that all honest Calvinists must face. A. B. Bruce faces this question in his book The Training of the Twelve without giving an answer other than a sort of plea to mystery. Here is an excerpt dealing with John 15:

The conception of a dead branch, applied to individuals as distinct from churches or the religious world viewed collectively, is not without difficulty. A dead branch on a tree was not always dead: it was produced by the vital force of the tree, and had some of the tree’s life in it. Does the analogy between natural and spiritual branches hold at this point? Not in any sense, as we believe, that would compromise the doctrine of perseverance in grace, nowhere taught more clearly than in the words of our Lord. At the same time, it cannot be denied that there is such a thing as abortive religious experience. There are blossoms on the tree of life which are blasted by spring frosts, green fruits which fall off ere they ripen, branches which become sickly and die. Jonathan Edwards, a high Calvinist, but also a candid, shrewd observer of facts, remarks: “I cannot say that the greater part of supposed converts give reason by their conversation to suppose that they are true converts. The proportion may perhaps be more truly represented by the proportion of the blossoms on a tree which abide and come to mature fruit, to the whole number of blossoms in spring.” The permanency of many spiritual blossoms is here denied, but the very denial implies an admission that they were blossoms.

That some branches should become unfruitful, and even die, while others flourish and bring forth fruit, is a great mystery, whose explanation lies deeper than theologians of the Arminian school are willing to admit. Yet, while this is true, the responsibility of man for his own spiritual character cannot be too earnestly insisted on. Though the Father, as the husbandman, wields the pruning-knife, the process of purging cannot be carried on without our consent and cooperation. For that process means practically the removal of moral hindrances to life and growth-the cares of life, the insidious influence of wealth, the lusts of the flesh, and the passions of the soul-evils which cannot be overcome unless our will and all our moral powers be brought to bear against them. Hence Jesus lays it upon His disciples as a duty to abide in Him, and have Him abiding in them, and resolves the whole matter at last, in plain terms, into keeping His commandments. If they diligently and faithfully do their part, the divine Husbandman, He assures them, will not fail to give them liberally all things needful for the most abundant fruitfulness. “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”


So if we admit that there must be something to backsliders religious life beyond mere human pretension, we are lead to the third point of view. This view is one which holds both to some sort of reality in these experiences and also to unconditional election. Augustine acknowledged and wondered why some received grace and yet did not receive the gift of perseverance. Calvin himself taught an evanescent grace, a grace which appeared genuine for all intents and purposes except it was only transitory (evanescent means vanishing). God’s purpose in giving this evanescent grace which appears identical in the beginning with true grace is to increase the condemnation of those who receive it. What they received did them no good, and could do them no good but it could do them harm.
This view acknowledges that the lives lived by these backsliders did manifest something supernatural that showed something of the grace of God. Thus it is very close to the fourth view, differing from it not in effect, since Scripture shows that backsliders do receive greater condemnation (2 Peter 2:21 as one example). The difference is what is God’s intent. In this lies the difference, between Calvinist and Arminian understanding of the atonement. We both acknowledge it to be limited in application but is it limited in intent? Does God give grace to backsliders only to increase their punishment, or is that the side effect of their rejecting it? Or does He give His grace for their good, but the misuse of it results in their punishment? When God said to Cain, “If you do well would you not be accepted?” was He mocking him, or was He willing to give His grace by which Cain could do well. The biggest problem I have with unconditional election is that where Moses heard the revealed will of God to destroy Israel he heard the secret will of God and saw a greater glory for Him in showing mercy (Num. 14:11-21), they see a greater glory for God in damning men in spite of God’s declaration of good will towards them in Jesus Christ.

The fourth view to which I would ascribe sees election as being based in foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:2; Rom. 8:29). The elect are those who were chosen in Him (in other words chosen with reference to the being in Christ) and predestinated to being conformed to His image. The predestination refers to God laying out an ordered plan for the life of the believer which will fully form Christ in them if obeyed. In His foreknowledge God knows who will be in Christ, and who will remain in Christ. There are many warnings in Scripture that plainly state that we must remain in Christ and have His Word remain in us. “Therefore what you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will abide in both the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). Hebrews 2:3 warns us against neglect of our great salvation. Our salvation is great, and much of its greatness will only be appropriated as we press on. To neglect it is to risk losing it. Saul did not begin by openly rejecting God’s Word. He neglected it first partially and then continued in that way until he was rejected by God. God forseeing that he would be the sort of man he was gave him only 2 of 3 loaves in the opening sign he received with his call (1 Sam. 10:3). God knew that Saul would never receive the fullness of what God could do for him, because he would neglect it. Indeed God had already promised Israel such a king and though perhaps He could have chosen others who would have been more like David in His displeasure He gave them Saul, not forcing him to be something he was not, but in knowing him to be that thing.

Saul consistently showed little desire for the things of God even when he was used of God. Yet, his being used of God shows that there was more to him than a mere unregenerate sinner, hence his greater culpability. He was a backslider to the end, who could find no Israelite who had so little fear of God as to do his bidding in killing the priests, so he had to have a pagan Edomite do it.

David who had a horrible fall into sins almost as heinous as Saul’s came back to God. He was concerned with God’s honor and was willing to endure shame to be put right with God. When his sin was exposed he could only hang his head in shame, until he found Him who was his glory and the lifter of his head. God not only restored David, but before he died, he made it be known that David was not the same man he was before his fall. This is quite likely one reason why 1 Kings 1:1-4 is introduced into the sacred record. It shows us a different wiser David, a changed David, a David ready to meet his God when he dies.

If you are convicted as a backslider, who is neglecting the things of God, or you know someone who is walking away from God. Please consider this. The state of a backslider is not good, they are not saved. They can be restored though. Cry out to God, He can lift those who have fallen up, and restore them. God is a God who delights in mercy! Amen.