Lapsed Faith (L)

[Poimen]

Here's an excerpt form my recent blog article, "Lapsed Faith"

"There are different kinds of unbelievers. Among other designations there is the non-believer, the false believer, the lapsed believer, and the apostate believer. The non-believer is the yet unconverted, be he atheist, agnostic, spiritualist, or even a deistic follower of a false god or faith. There’s the false believer, the person who is familiar with the truth in a cerebral fashion, perhaps even a cultural one, but whose knowledge extends only to the mind and not the heart. Then there’s the apostate, once true believers who not only lapsed in faith but repudiated their faith, totally abandoning and rejecting it. Lastly, there’s the lapsed believer; the person whose had a genuine conversion yet for one reason or another has ceased to be active or faithful in their Christian walk. We call them backsliders, prodigals, wayward believers, etc. They started in the way of truth, but somewhere along the path they stopped. Usually they let some sin or doubt overwhelm and impede them, causing them to go astray or cease following."


Read the rest at this link:
http://worldmaybelieve.com/lapsed-believers/

[HogWild]

Chris,

Good job. Nice read. As a ragamuffin and prodigal (reformed but always mindful of the pigpen), I felt like you had a fair grasp of what it's like to lapse in our faith...

There's also the reality that when one steps outside of the covering of Christ through sin, he or she exposes themselves once again to the god of this world who has blinded the eyes of the 'unbeliever' so they would not see the Truth (2 Corinthians 4:4). I believe this makes a return to righteousness all the more difficult. In fact, the 6th chapter of Hebrews seems to indicate this difficulty.

I'm telling you from personal experience that this is true. In the story of the prodigal there are two distinct directions of movement; away from the Father and back toward Him again. When I was headed away, my mind became incredibly cloudy to the concept of truth and righteousness.

Thank God that in His mercy, all I had to do was turn away and head BACK. Then things cleared up again.

It's nice to be back home.

[oletimer]

God bless you and welcome back. I did the same thing and ever so graceful that He took me back.