Table of Contents
Is it possible to turn away from God after salvation?
To turn away from God is used on occasions when a believer, worshiper, or child of God stops serving God and turns his attention and devotion to another thing. Between the time a person accepts Christ and the time he will die, a lot of things happen that may be able to cause him to turn away from Christ Jesus. This present world has a lot of attractions, pleasures, and problems that may be able to cause us to switch from the Lord. Therefore, a lot of Christians are turning away from God each day without realizing it.
The world as we know it poses a challenge to our Christian life. The world uses entertainment and pleasure as bait to lure Christians. Some Christians allot much of their time, attention, and commitment to worldly pleasures, leaving their relationship with God to weaken and crumble. Do you still think you are in a healthy relationship with God when you hardly find time to pray, read your Bible, fast, attend church service, etc. yet spend much time at the beach, watching movies, going to concerts, etc.? Turning away from God includes a switch of attention from the things of God to the pleasures of this world.
Sometimes curiosity, depression, frustration, hardship, and the quest for quick solutions, fame, power, easy money, etc. can lead a person, saved or unsaved, into the dark arts which include consulting juju, witches, sorcerers, shamans, occults, etc. Any Christian and saved person who, currently, has dealings with the dark arts has turned away from the Lord Jesus and has forfeited his salvation.
A Christian may not renounce his faith in Christ to serve idols or he may be attending church services as usual, yet he may be just as guilty of turning away from God as the Israelites of old. It was God who called Saul into kingship. King Saul never bowed his knees to idols all his life, but Saul was guilty of turning away from God. Saul’s pride and disobedience made him lose favor with God, and later, driven by jealousy, he stained his hands with many grievous sins to the point where God was no longer with him. His moral decay turned him away from God. (1Sa 28:15; 1Sa 28:6)
For those Christians who still think whichever way a Christian lives his life does not matter to God, we should learn from Saul’s tragic story. A Christian with a defiant heart who has either stopped following the path of holiness or is not willing to live in obedience to God’s word has, nonetheless, turned away from Christ and has forfeited his salvation.
The discussion about whether or not a person can turn away after salvation leads us to the subject of backsliding. Backsliding can be understood in two ways. It is the situation where a Christian convert slips back into his pre-conversion way of life and it is also the situation where a person raised a Christian falls into worldliness. It commonly happens that those who were preached to receive Christ and those who were raised in the church, along the line, slip into all manner of worldliness including alcoholism, drug addiction, materialism, occultism, and the likes. And by so doing forfeit their salvation.
Salvation is strictly received upon continuously believing the truth and the truth is that Jesus died and resurrected and He is Lord, God, and the only Savior of mankind. This truth is a requisite for salvation. However, some individuals, after believing the truth into salvation, get entangled in some false doctrines and weird human philosophies that adversely affect their beliefs and practices and compromise their moral values to the point where they completely lose touch with God, forfeiting their salvation.
In some instances, certain individuals who were raised in Christian homes, attended Sunday school, knew Jesus, and believed in Him from childhood turn away from the faith to pursue another religion, thinking they have stumbled on a better thing than what Christianity has to offer. In the same way, many Christian converts have turned away from the faith to embrace other religions and doctrines that appease their sinful nature.
I have observed that some accept Jesus into salvation. But, later on, they do not find Christianity convenient at all because they realize that to remain as Christians, they have to part with their indulgences and sins such as alcoholism, womanizing, corruption, etc. Such Christians will last in the faith for just a short while – that short while could be some days, months, years, etc., and then they will turn their back on Christ to pursue whatever appeals to their sinful nature.
How does God respond when a Christian turns away?
What does God do if a Christian turns away? Though God makes every attempt not to lose any of his children, if a Christian does not want to walk with God anymore and, eventually, turns away from God, God, and all that pertains to him such as His Holy Spirit and salvation, is no more with such such a person. Then apostasy happens to that Christian and he becomes an apostate. See Numbers 14:43
Any hope for someone who has turned away?
Only the dead have no hope of forgiveness, salvation, or being helped. So far as you are alive, you are free to repent and come to God anytime you realize you have gone astray, backslidden, apostatized, etc. This is because God never stops calling such people to come to him saying:
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:18-19)
Any time you wish to return to him, in humility and repentance, pray to rededicate your life to Christ and confess your sins for his forgiveness. And then, follow Him, making His teachings your rule of life and conduct.