Post by Les Brewer on Feb 11, 2012 13:28:27 GMT
Hello and God bless you all! Continuing from yesturday's post about whether or not a born again christian (remember there's only one kind of christian) can backslide. Let's define the term "backslide" The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,p.97,defines backslide as:"To revert to sin,wrongdoing,...and the like,especially in religious practice." Simply put,to return to your old ways after having a conversion experience. There are many in the church world today,millions in fact,who every Sunday morning,make the weekly pilgrimage to their local house of worship to perform their weekly religious duty of attending church.In and of itself,this is not a bad thing,except when it comes to thinking that by doing so,we have somehow pleased and graced the Lord with our presence.They attend church,they leave and go to their respective places of living,but, remain the same person they have always been.Never changed,never seeing the importance of repenting and coming to Christ as their Saviour and Lord.By definition,is this person in a correct relationship with Jesus Christ?No,they are not!Why?They do not see themselves as someone who needs to be saved.They do not see their sins to be any worse than the next person's sins.Or worse yet,they do not see their sins as real sins.Therefore,if someone else were to see these same individuals,for example,in some undesirable behaviour,the first thought that would come to mind would be one of "Hypocrite" or "Backslider","I thought you were saved!" When in reality,they never were saved. The term "Hypocrite" comes from a Greek word which means "to play the part,as an actor in a play" to "act in a particular way,so as to mislead others".One thing is an absolute certainty.You can fool some of the people,some of the time,and all of the people all of the time,but,you can never fool God at anytime!He knows those that are His.This is the first type of "christian".One who is christian in name only. The second type of christian would be one who has had a genuine conversion experience,they've repented and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord.The intent of their heart is to live for the Lord to the best of their ability,but still struggles with the sin nature,due mostly to incorrect teaching on how to live in victory over the sin nature.They love the Lord supremely,hate sin in their lives,all sin,but do not know how to gain the victory.When these precious people commit a sin,they may view themselves as a hypocrite,or worse yet,if someone sees them sin,they are looked at as a hypocrite,when in reality they are not.This would be an example of a large part of Christianity today.Genuinely saved,but not living in victory. Then comes a third type of christian.One who lives for jesus Christ for a period of time,long or short,and then for whatever reason,decides to revert to their old ways again,taking up sin in all of it's ugliness,and live as if never having known the Lord.Was this person ever a christian to begin with?Only the Lord knows,and for us to speculate on the condition of their standing with God,is just that,speculation!Tomorrow I will continue on to the discussion of "Can a christian backslide?"Until then,may God bless you all......Love in Christ,.........JW
