What is a backslider?

A backslider is a person who has known the Lord and has turned back from following him closely. The word comes mainly from the Old Testament prophets, who used several Hebrew terms for Israel's turning away, drawing back and stubbornness.¹²³ The older English Bible renders them backsliding; the Berean Standard Bible often has faithlessness or apostasy.⁴ One verse keeps the word in both: "The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways" (Proverbs 14:14).

The word

John R. Rice gave the shortest definition: "A backslider is a saved person who falls into sin."⁵ He set the bar lower than open scandal: "But when a Christian loses any of his joy, or loses part of his sweet fellowship with God, or falls into sin, then he is a backslider."⁵ God said to Judah, "Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me" (Jeremiah 2:19). Backsliding is a departure from God. It is more than a bad day or a hard temptation.

It begins in the heart

Proverbs speaks of the backslider in heart. The inward turning comes first. Albert M. Ewing said, "Backsliding is, of course, inward first, then outward."⁶ A person may keep every outward duty while the heart has gone cold. Charles Finney drew the picture: "The backslider in heart is often like a dutiful, but unloving wife."⁷ The church at Ephesus worked hard and held sound doctrine, and still heard from Christ, "You have abandoned your first love" (Revelation 2:4).

It comes gradually

Leonard Ravenhill, preaching on Samson, said, "no man backslides by one act."⁸ Prayer becomes hurried, then rare. The Bible is read less, then not at all. Small compromises are excused. Richard Owen Roberts traced the effect of the proverb's words: "As a person becomes more and more filled with his own ways, there will simply be less room for thoughts of eternity."⁹ Hebrews warns believers to "exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Hebrews 3:13).

Filled with his own ways

The root of backsliding is the return of self. The backslider "receives the fill of his own ways" (Proverbs 14:14). E. A. Johnston put it bluntly: "So a backslider is full of himself and full of the world."¹⁰ He does not usually say that he rejects God. He simply goes his own way and expects God to go with him.

Examples in Scripture

Samson played with sin until his strength was gone, and the saddest line of his story is this: "he did not know that the LORD had departed from him" (Judges 16:20). Solomon began in wisdom, but "when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:4). Paul wrote of a fellow worker, "Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me" (2 Timothy 4:10). Peter denied his Lord three times, and when the Lord turned and looked at him, "he went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62). David fell into adultery and murder, and his prayer afterwards has become the prayer of every returning believer: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

What it costs

Sin does not make a believer happy. Johnston said, "The most miserable person in the world is a backslider."¹⁰ David did not ask to be saved again. He asked, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" (Psalm 51:12). The lukewarm church at Laodicea was told, "because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!" (Revelation 3:16).

God also disciplines. Rice wrote, "A Christian who backslides is like a child who disobeys his parents."⁵ Scripture says, "the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives" (Hebrews 12:6). To the same lukewarm church Christ said, "Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent" (Revelation 3:19).

Is a backslider still saved?

Preachers on SermonIndex answer differently. Rice held, "The backslider is still God's child and is still saved."¹¹ The Westminster Confession likewise teaches that those truly called "can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace".¹² Ewing used stronger language: "While backsliding is apostasy, it is by no means a state or condition, from which we cannot or may not recover; but a state in which we are likely to remain."¹³ C. H. Spurgeon held to God's keeping and still refused to make light of the danger: "And so backsliding is quite incurable by any human means, and would be the forerunner of total apostasy were it not for Divine Grace."¹⁴ All of them press the same conclusion: the backslider must not stay where he is.

Neither presumption nor despair

There are two ways to go wrong. One is to presume on mercy and keep sinning. The other is to conclude that God will never take one back. John Wesley thought the second the more common: "although there are many that are destroyed by presumption, there are still more that perish by despair."¹⁵ Andrew Fuller saw the same danger: "If an awakened sinner under his first religious concern be in danger of this species of despondency, a backslider is still more so."¹⁶

God calls backsliders to return

The prophets who exposed Israel's backsliding also carried God's invitation. "Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness" (Jeremiah 3:22). "I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them" (Hosea 14:4). "Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us" (Hosea 6:1). When the prodigal was still far off, "his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).

The way back

Rice described it simply: "Simply turn to God in your heart, confess your sin and backsliding, and He will receive you with open arms and forgive you of all your sins, failures and mistakes."¹⁷ Scripture says, "He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Christ's word to Ephesus gives three steps: "keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first" (Revelation 2:5).

Roberts added that this is not done in one's own strength: "Returning from backsliding requires tremendous grace."⁹ That grace is offered. Johnston preached Psalm 23 as a psalm for the wanderer: "For it is a picture of the restoration of a backslidden sheep restored to the shepherd."¹⁸ "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8).