21 Bible Verses about Backsliding

But Jesus said, "No one who puts [his] hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God!"

Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.

because the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there {before you}, and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned [back] from Yahweh, and Yahweh will not be with you."

But regarding those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the evildoers. Peace [be] upon Israel.

Rather, your iniquities have been {barriers} between you and your God, and your sins have hidden [his] face from you, from hearing.

And the runners went with the letter from the hand of the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah according to the command of the king, saying, "O sons of Israel, return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

Turn back to [the one against] whom the sons of Israel have made deep rebellion.

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, apostate Israel,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not cause my {anger} to fall on you. For I [am] loyal,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not be angry {forever}.

"Return, apostate children," {declares} Yahweh. "For {I am your master}, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you [to] Zion.

Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of [devotion] to Christ.

O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed [as] having been crucified? I want only to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh?

You are estranged from Christ, [you] who are attempting to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace.

[Is] Ephraim my dear son, or [the] child of [my] delight? For {as often as} I have earnestly spoken against him, I still remember him. {Therefore} my bowels are turbulent for him, surely I will have compassion on him," {declares} Yahweh.

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, apostate Israel,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not cause my {anger} to fall on you. For I [am] loyal,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not be angry {forever}.

[then if] my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and will pray and will seek my face and will turn from their evil ways, then I myself shall hear from the heavens and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

Perhaps [when] the house of Judah hears all the disasters that I [am] planning to do to them, then they may turn back each one from his evil way, and I will forgive their guilt and their sin."

Ah, sinful nation, a people heavy [with] iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken Yahweh; they have despised the holy one of Israel. They are estranged [and gone] backward.

From his ways, the perverse of heart will be satisfied, and {from his own}, [so shall] a good man.

Although our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you.

My people are bent on backsliding from me. To the Most High they call, he does not raise them at all.

"But they rebelled and were rebellious against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn back to you, and they did great blasphemies.

They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast-image bull calf, and they bowed to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.'"

Then Yahweh said to me, "Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah.

Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.

For our transgressions are numerous before you, and our sins {testify} against us. Indeed, our transgressions [are] with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning {away from following} our God; speaking oppression and falsehood, conceiving and uttering words of deception from [the] heart. And justice is pushed back, and righteousness stands afar; for truth stumbles in the public square, and straightforwardness is unable to enter,

Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' {declares} Yahweh."

Although our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you. [You are] the hope of Israel, its savior in time of distress. Why should you be like an alien in the land, or like a traveler who spreads out [his tent] to spend the night? Why should you be like a confused man, like a warrior [who] is not able to help? Yet you [are] in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called upon us. You must not leave us!

O God, restore us, and cause your face to shine that we may be saved.

Restore us, O God of our salvation, and annul your vexation with us.

Restore us to you, O Yahweh, that we will be restored; renew our days as of old.

I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, because he will speak peace to his people, even his faithful [ones], but let them not return to folly.

Therefore, the one who thinks that he stands must watch out lest he fall.

Happy is the person who fears continuously, but he who is stubborn of heart, will fall into calamity.

You will protect a firm inclination [in] peace, [in] peace because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever, for in Yah, Yahweh [you have] an everlasting rock.

From his ways, the perverse of heart will be satisfied, and {from his own}, [so shall] a good man.

Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

He who misleads the upright onto the way of evil, into his pits he will fall. But as for the blameless, they will inherit good.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him that {a large millstone} be hung on his neck and he be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Brothers, even if a person is caught in some trespass, you [who are] spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of humility, looking out for yourself, lest you also be tempted.

My brothers, if anyone among you should wander away from the truth and someone turns him back, he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save that person's soul from death, and will cover over a great number of sins.

But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul is not well pleased with him."

For if, [after they] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these [things] [and] succumb to [them], the last [state] has become worse for them than the first.

Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away [in] enduring apostasy? They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.

Although our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you.

From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my rules, and have not kept [them]! Return to me and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts, "but you say, 'How shall we return?' Will a human [dare to] rob God? Yet you [are] robbing me! And you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In the tithes and the contributions! You [are] being cursed with curse, for you [are] robbing me, the whole nation [of you]! read more.
Bring the whole tithe to {the storehouse}, so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you {an overflowing blessing}.

Though he fall, he will not be cast headlong, for Yahweh supports [him with] his hand.

For seven [times] the righteous will fall, but he will rise, but the wicked will be overthrown by calamity.

My people are bent on backsliding from me. To the Most High they call, he does not raise them at all.

For seven [times] the righteous will fall, but he will rise, but the wicked will be overthrown by calamity.

Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.

I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely because my anger has turned back from them.

But Jesus said, "No one who puts [his] hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God!"

I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel,

And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors. They twisted like a crooked bow.

God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.

But he denied [it] in the presence of [them] all, saying, "I do not know what you mean!" And [when he] went out to the gateway, another [female slave] saw him and said to those [who were] there, "This man was with Jesus the Nazarene." And again he denied [it] with an oath, "I do not know the man!" read more.
And after a little [while] those who were standing there came up [and] said to Peter, "You really are [one] of them also, because even your accent {reveals who you are}." Then he began to curse and to swear with an oath, "I do not know the man!" And immediately a rooster crowed.

"I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not kept my word." {Samuel became angry}, and he cried out to Yahweh all night.

But I have [this] against you: that you have left your first love.

From his ways, the perverse of heart will be satisfied, and {from his own}, [so shall] a good man.

Before destruction [comes] pride, and before a fall, a haughty spirit.

But I have [this] against you: that you have left your first love.

and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.

But now, [because you] have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh was angry with Solomon, for he had turned his heart from Yahweh, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice.

I will not set before my eyes any wicked thing. I hate the work of those who fall away; it will not cling to me.

{I will return again} to my place until they acknowledge [their] guilt and seek my face; in their distress they will search me.

I will not set before my eyes any wicked thing. I hate the work of those who fall away; it will not cling to me.

for if indeed you turn back and join these remaining nations {among you}, and you intermarry with them, {marrying their women and they yours}, know for certain that Yahweh your God {will not continue to drive out} these nations from before you; they will be for you a snare and a trap, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Yahweh your God has given to you.