January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel

Bent on Backsliding by Daniel Botkin

"My people are bent to backsliding from Me" (Hosea 11:7). God spoke these words in Hosea's day, but the truth of these words is not limited to the people of Hosea's day. The same thing is true of God's people in every generation. We are bent to backsliding. Our natural inclination is away from God rather than toward Him. This means that we must be determined to fight a life-long battle against temptation if we want to avoid backsliding.

Some people backslide with a presumptuous attitude. "I'm just going to have some fun, enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, then get right with the Lord again. He'll forgive me and restore me."

This is a very dangerous attitude. First of all, there's no guarantee that you will live that long. A newsletter from a Messianic ministry in Israel recently reported that one of the twenty young people killed in the terrorist attack at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv was a backslidden Messianic believer. This young lady had been part of a Messianic congregation, but was drawn away by the pleasures of the world. She had quit attending her congregation's Friday night Erev Shabbat service, and she went instead to the disco that Friday night, and died a premature death.

"But don't you believe in the eternal security of the believer?" I prefer to reword it and say that I believe in the security of the eternal believer.

"But I believe that all born-again believers will go to heaven, even if they die in a backslidden state, so I'll take my chances and backslide for a short time. All believers go to heaven, if they're truly born again Christians." Maybe so, but what makes you so sure you are truly born again? If you have that attitude, chances are that you experienced a counterfeit conversion and are included in that category of people that John described as those who "went out from us, but were not of us" (1 John 2:14).

Satan launches a three-pronged attack in an effort to tempt God's people to backslide. John describes this three-pronged attack as "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). This has been Satan's strategy from the very beginning. He said to Eve, "Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Satan appealed to the lust of the flesh with the word "eat"; he appealed to the lust of the eyes with the words "your eyes shall be opened"; he appealed to the pride of life with the words "ye shall be as gods."

In the very next verse the woman yields to this three-fold temptation: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat..." The lust of the flesh is seen in the words "good for food"; the lust of the eyes is seen in the words "pleasant to the eyes"; the pride of life is seen in the words "to make one wise."

Satan used the same three-pronged attack when he tempted the Last Adam, Yeshua. He appealed to the lust of the flesh by suggesting that Yeshua turn stones into bread. He appealed to the lust of the eyes when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. He appealed to the pride of life by suggesting that Yeshua throw Himself off the pinnacle of the Temple and let the angels catch Him.

Satan used this three-pronged attack on Eve, he used it on the Son of God, and he will use it on us. He will try to get us to yield to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The lust of the flesh concerns sins which primarily involve the body: sexual immorality, violence, drunkenness, drugs, gluttony, etc. The lust of the eyes speaks of things that please our eyes. In the days of the Roman Empire, people could go to the Colosseum and feast their eyes on all sorts of spectacles. Nowadays, Satan uses high-tech entertainment and lets people feast their eyes on movies and computers. Are movies and computers sinful? In moderation and with self-discipline, no. In excess and without self-discipline, yes. Why? First, because we are told to "redeem the time." Second, because there is a lot of trash that we should not view. Therefore we need to be discerning, disciplined, and selective about what we see and how much time we spend on such things.

The third prong of Satan's attack, the pride of life, is probably the most dangerous, because it is so subtle. People who backslide by yielding to the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes usually know they are doing something wrong. "I know I shouldn't do this, but..." When people backslide by yielding to Satan's appeal to their pride, they usually do not realize that they are falling into sin. On the contrary, they believe that they are doing something good and right and holy and noble. They believe that they are answering a higher call, and anyone who tries to warn them or discourage them from carrying out their plans is perceived as an agent of the devil.

The war against temptation is a life-long battle, but it is a battle we can win if we follow in the footsteps of our Messiah. Each time we gain victory over temptation, we become stronger and more experienced in spiritual warfare. As time goes on, we can mature into seasoned warriors who can, by the grace of God, handle temptation in the heat of battle.

Reprinted from Gates of Eden, Sept.-Oct. 2001

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January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel