Backsliding

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Abandonment of Christianity

title: "Backsliding" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["apostasy", "christian-soteriology", "christian-terminology", "methodism", "arminianism"] description: "Abandonment of Christianity" topic_path: "society/religion" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backsliding" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Abandonment of Christianity ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Sebald_Beham_Der_verlorene_Sohn_hütet_seine_Schweine.jpg" caption="Engraving of the [[Prodigal Son]] as a [[swineherd]] by [[Hans Sebald Beham]], 1538"] ::

Backsliding, also known as falling away or described as "committing apostasy", 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. To revert to sin or wrongdoing, especially in religious practice, someone lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior. 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." ()

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. This belief is rejected by Reformed Christians endorsing the perseverance of the saints doctrine. 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). Historically, backsliding was considered a trait of the Biblical Israel which would turn from the Abrahamic God to follow idols. 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.

Non-Christian religions

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."

References

References

  1. Ernest Frederick Eilert. (1910). "Luther league review: Volumes 23-34". Luther League of America.
  2. 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.
  3. Rice, John. (1943). "Backslider". Sword of the Lord Publishers.
  4. "Welcome to "3 Excuses of Backsliders"".
  5. (29 July 2014). "Are You Falling Away?: Three Warning Signs". Catholic Education Resource Center.
  6. (19 May 2015). "Sin makes guilt and guilt makes fear, and fear and guilt make more sin". [[National Catholic Reporter]].
  7. [[Loyal Jones]]. (1999). "Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands". [[University of Illinois Press]].
  8. Thomas Langan. (1998). "The Catholic Tradition". [[University of Missouri Press]].
  9. Burton-Edwards, Taylor. (2012). "Do United Methodists believe "once saved, always saved" or can we "lose our salvation"?". [[The United Methodist Church]].
  10. Milton Jacob Firey. (1901). "Infant salvation: or, The passivity of infants, the key to this perplexing subject". [[Funk & Wagnell's]].
  11. (1899). "Record of Christian work, Volume 18". Record of Christian Work Co..
  12. Edwin Davies, [[D.D.]]. (1882). "Holy thoughts on Holy Things". [[Ward, Lock, & Co.]].
  13. (3 February 2017). "Making and Backsliding On Resolutions".

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apostasychristian-soteriologychristian-terminologymethodismarminianism