25 Marks of a Backslidden Christian

I don’t hear much about the danger of “backsliding” these days. It seems that was something my friends and I were concerned about 20 years ago. We talked about it, prayed against it, and sought to keep Jesus always before us as our greatest hope and satisfaction. It wasn’t like we were about to fall right off the spiritual map by denying Jesus and jumping into scandalous sin, but we knew that we do in fact have hearts that are, as the hymn says, “prone to wander.” And I am no better today.

If there is one consideration more humbling than another to a spiritually-minded believer, it is, after all God has done for him,–after all the rich displays of his grace, the patience and tenderness of his instructions, the repeated discipline of his covenant, the tokens of love received, and the lessons of experience learned, there should still exist in the heart a principle, the tendency which is to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God.
- Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension‘

But even if we acknowledge that we remain sinners and can find ourselves in a dangerous spiritual state, do we know what such a state really looks like? I’m not so sure. Some liken it to big public failure, and this leaves them thinking they are safe when in fact they may be in a very bad way. In the classic Vital Godliness, William Plumer said, “Many are kept from owning their backslidings, because they are mercifully restrained from open sins. Had they publicly fallen into overt iniquity, they would blush, and be ashamed; they would bewail their wickedness before God and men. But as yet all is secret. They are merely backsliders in heart.”

What Does Backsliding Look Like?

In his book, Revival, Richard Owen Robert lays 25 evidences of a backslidden condition. He expounds on each, but I’ll just give you the points here. Consider them seriously.

1. When prayer ceases to be a vital part of a professing Christian’s life, backsliding is present.

2. When the quest for biblical truth ceases and one grows content with the knowledge of eternal things already acquired, there can be no mistaking the presence of backsliding.   Continue at Joe Thorn

A Word to Internet Busybodies and Wiki-leak Christianity

It seems that in recent years, several groups of people have sought to use the Internet and in particular blogs to “expose” or “hold accountable” Christian leaders.  And so often, we are prone to believe what other people say about a brother or sister in Christ, especially if it is critical or some sort of exposé.  We may not be the ones to spread the gossip and slander, but we are not opposed to entertaining it either.  The later I find more subtle and dangerous, because we can justify being uncharitable and unChristian by “a pursuit of the truth.”  In most cases, Christian leaders are judged guilty until proven innocent.

This morning, I read a word from Octavius Winslow’s Morning Thoughts that addresses this sort of behavior directly.  I want to provide the entire devotion for you below.  Now, hear what Winslow is saying and not what he is not saying.  We indeed should care for truth, integrity, godliness, and so on, but the way in which we honor truth must also honor the call to love one another as Christ has loved us.  When it comes to busybodies on the Internet, anonymous bloggers calling out Christian leaders, or the like, it seems very unlikely that the driving principle and motivation of the heart is redemption and reconciliation expressed in genuine Christian love . . .  Keep Reading >>>

“The Unregenerate and the Regenerate Contrasted”

“For those who are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but those who are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” Romans viii. 5.

“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Romans 8:5

Two different classes are here presented to our view, in striking and solemn contrast. With regard to the first, a more accurate, and at the same time a more awful, portrait of the carnal state of man exists not in any language than this. He is described as living after the flesh. And lest it should be supposed, as by some it is, that a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit, or, in other words, that holiness is the natural product of our unrenewed nature, it is added, who “mind the things of the flesh.” But before we go more fully into the unfolding of this subject, we should remark, that the term “flesh” has various significations in God’s word, often decidedly opposite to that which it bears in the passage before us. For example, it is sometimes used to denote a softened disposition of mind: “I will give you a heart of flesh.” Again, it sets forth the tender and close union subsisting between Christ and his Church: “No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church.” A yet deeper and more sublime signification it assumes when used to describe the mysterious incarnation of the Son of God: “The Word was made flesh.” But the sense in which the word is employed in the text under consideration, is totally different to any we have quoted. It designates the fallen and carnal state of the unrenewed man. He is after the flesh, and his whole life is in accordance with the dictates of the flesh. Our Lord thus describes it- “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” That is, it is nothing more than carnal and corrupt. It is originally corrupt, and corrupt it remains until it perishes. “When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” We are thus taken to the very root of all the depravity and crime which afflicts and degrades our common nature. It is not so much the outbreak of sin- the wretchedness and woe which, working upwards, floats upon the surface of society; that presents to a spiritual eye the most afflicting view of man’s fallen condition, as the fact, that the root of all iniquity dwells in his nature; and that, when he hates God, and opposes his government, and violates his laws, and injures his fellow-creatures, it is not an accident of his nature, nor the effect of a surprisal into sin, like that of our first parents, as it is the working out of an original and natural principle; it is the development of an innate and deep corruption, coursing its way upward, as we have said, from the concealed depths of his nature to the surface of his life. And thus, though the ethics of a man be sound, and his life be in harmony with the morality of his creed, yet in the absence of the Spirit’s regeneration, he is still emphatically “after the flesh:” he bears about with him an original principle of evil, whose existence links him to the flesh, the full development of which is only suppressed by the laws of society, a consciousness of right and wrong, a natural regard for his own well-being, and the overruling power of God.    Keep Reading >>>

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Unspeakably Good News! Our Times, His Appointment

”To know that while our feelings fluctuate, and our frames vary, and our experience ebbs and flows as the tide, yet our righteousness varies not, changes not, and that we are not justified one moment more really, more freely, more completely than another, is a mercy unspeakably great.” ~Octavius Winslow 

A Father’s Hand

“My times are in your hand.” Psalm 31:15

Our times of adversity are also in God’s hand. As every sunbeam that brightens, so every cloud that darkens, comes from God. We are subject to great and sudden reverses in our earthly condition. Joy is often succeeded by grief, prosperity by adversity. We are on the pinnacle today, tomorrow at its bottom. Oh! What a change may one event and one moment create! But, beloved, ALL is from the Lord. Continue Reading>>>

BEARING THE CROSS

In light of this powerful article below by Octavius Winslow, first consider these distrubing words between Robert Schuller and Billy Graham (source: Television interview of Billy Graham by Robert Schuller, on May 31, 1997. The following segment is an exact transcript of an excerpt close to the end of the broadcast. Reported by The Christian News, October 20, 1997, page 15.):

SCHULLER: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?

GRAHAM: Well, Christianity and being a true believer -- you know, I think there's the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the Body of Christ ... I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God's purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name. And that's what God is doing today, He's calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ, because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think they are saved, and that they're going to be with us in heaven." Read the rest HERE