Bible Verses About Backsliders

But the answer will be, 'It's because they abandoned ADONAI their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods, worshipping and serving them; this is why ADONAI brought all these calamities on them.'"

he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Y'hudah and Binyamin! ADONAI is with you, as long as you are with him; if you seek him, you will find him; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you!

For a long time Isra'el was without the true God, without a cohen who could teach, and without Torah.

But when, in their distress, they turned to ADONAI the God of Isra'el and sought him, they found him.

He strikes them as if they were common criminals in the open sight of others,

because they turned away from following him and gave no thought to any of his ways,

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

wouldn't God have discovered this, since he knows the secrets of the heart?

"Next, you, human being, say to your people: 'The righteousness of the righteous person will not save him, once he starts committing crimes; and likewise, the wickedness of the wicked person will not cause him to fall, once he turns from his wickedness. No, the righteous person cannot live by virtue of [his former righteousness], once he starts sinning.

So if, after I tell the righteous person that he will surely live, he begins trusting in his own [former] righteousness and starts committing crimes; then none of his [former] righteous actions will be remembered; on the contrary, he will die for the evil deeds he has committed.

My people are hanging in suspense about returning to me; and though they call them upwards, nobody makes a move.

Efrayim, how can I give you up, or surrender you, Isra'el? How could I treat you like Admah or make you like Tzvoyim? My heart recoils at the idea, as compassion warms within me.

Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them.

Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as

soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away.

Others are those sown among thorns -- they hear the message;

but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing.

“When a strong man who is fully equipped for battle guards his own house, his possessions are secure.

But when someone stronger attacks and defeats him, he carries off all the armor and weaponry on which the man was depending, and divides up the spoils.

Those who are not with me are against me, and those who do not gather with me are scattering.

“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry country seeking rest. On finding none, it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’

When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.

Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come and live there — so that in the end the person is worse off than he was before.”

For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea,

and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe,